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The Good Life - Coggle Diagram
The Good Life
The Collective
What is Political Progress?
Societal Progress
Civilization
In what ways is the notion of civilization influenced by western-centric viewpoints of progress?
Global economic prosperity
Urras (The Dispossessed)
Centralized power
Large, central cities
"Manila’s glittering skyline" (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 32)
"the Indus River basin, had cities that were laid out on grids and boasted underground sewers" (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 19)
A-Io (The Dispossessed)
The Dispossessed
Colonialism
England (A Small Place)
civilization as masculine/ chaos as feminine
anarchy as feminine
Takver (The Dispossessed)
Is societal progress even possible?
yes
"[Progress} is simply a long line [...] one that reaches into infinity" (A Raisin in the Sun, 134)
A Raisin in the Sun
but we must avoid social hierachies
no
"There is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture in front of us" (A Raisin in the Sun, 133)
Economic Progress
Is economic progress beneficial to progress in general?
yes
"Market fundamentalism"
Market Street (A Small Place)
no
Individual sense of purpose necessary
evolutionary view of progress
What is lost in this evolutionary view of progress?
"flying foxes" (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 31)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Juan Bautista's publishing company (The Reluctant Fundamentalist)
"The economy's an animal" (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 45)
"Even if I really came from who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you" (A Small Place, 37)
A Small Place/Life and Debt
Tom's eugenics rant (The Great Gatsby)
What happens when someone justifies immoral actions through economic gain?
Monsieur Lheureux
Economic inequality
Hierarchy: Above/Below
the basement apartment and the house on the hill (Parasite)
Parasite
"Doctor Shevek" (The Dispossessed)
The Mill Reef Club (A Small Place)
The Valley of Ashes (The Great Gatsby)
excess and consumption
"Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulp-less halves" (The Great Gatsby, 43)
Emma's wedding banquet (Madame Bovary)
Is the political necessary?
yes
but the political system must not infringe on the rights of the individual
Antigone's burial of her brother (Antigone)
Always
"Anarchy—show me a greater crime in all the earth! [...] She, she destroys cities" (Antigone, lines 752-753)
Antigone
"we must defend the men who live by law, never let some woman triumph over us" (Antigone, lines 756-758)
but it must adhere to higher moral laws
"the great unwritten, unshakable traditions" (Antigone, line 505)
no, it is detrimental to the good life
What can we use to replace the political?
Status quo as a form of societal restriction
Anarres (The Dispossessed)
The Individual
Dreams
Is fantasy detrimental to the good life?
yes
"She was irritated by an ill-served dish or by a half-open door; bewailed the velvets she had not, the happiness she had missed, her too exalted dreams, her narrow home" (Madame Bovary, Chap 5, Part II)
Does the absence of fantasy lead to the good life?
Catherine Leroux
Madame Bovary
If it is acted on impulsively
Walter's Dream (A Raisin in the Sun)
no
Mama's Dream (A Raisin in the Sun)
Beneatha's Dream (A Raisin in the Sun)
The American Dream
Is the American Dream fantasy?
for some, focuses on those who achieve it (or are born into it)
Jay Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
Tom Buchanan
for some, focuses on those who do not achieve it
When does the American Dream become not exclusively American?
Globalization
Native American costumes (Parasite)
Mini Cooper (Parasite)