In Enclosed.
Encyclopedic. Endured: The Mall of America, David Guterson goes through a
great deal to bring to light a critical addiction that is consuming the
population in this modern age. Guterson shares a response from one of his many
quick interviews with Mall of America shoppers, "it's a sickness. It’s
like cocaine or something; it's a drug." (Guterson 163) People of the
modern age are in a constant seeking out their next fix of stimulation, the
next place or activity that allows them to sweep important things under the rug
for just a little while longer. This need for escape is highly indicative
of a dystopian society, we as people are ruled by materialism and constant
stimulation, so turned off by the world we live in that we wish to remain in
the metaphorical Mall of America.
Elaborating on this plunge into dystopia Anthony
Burgess approaches the matter more directly. Is America falling Apart? Is an analyzation of America’s health as
a community and a look into how our future may play out at this current speed.
Burgess makes it clear that America is not in a state of health, and he attests
this to America’s mass obsession with money “being the only example in history
of genuine timocracy.” (Burgess 240) It is here that dystopian characteristics
arise, corrupt government and ruling is a key factor in dystopian society, just
like it is in today’s. Government more concerned with wealth than well-being, a
people whose motivation lies not with the group but in a secluded selfishness, descent
into dystopia has already begun.
As Americans we often grow up not knowing the vast suffering happening often in countries even neighboring our own. The people who grow up to believe the United States as an Dystopian society are correct in one sense, that "Dystopia"-Meaning an Imagines place or state in which everything is bad. This is true because these feeling towards out country are merely imagined. The 'hardships' we go through in this 1st world country are so overshadowed by those suffering around us that it almost seems embarrassing how much we take for granted here. I do agree with the social numbing though, in that here in the US, wether it be coffee, video games, drugs, social media, everyone has a way of blocking out their negative feelings often filtering the good as well in order to forget the repetitious and boring nature of their life. What we don't realize is that some people don't even have the luxury to even go to a Starbucks, let alone have excess to the technology we take for granted every day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that the modern generation is just looking for something to help forget about their stress and responsibilities, and they will do just about anything for that time. An example of this is the young girls the reporter had interviewed at the mall of America and how those girls would still go back to the mall without a care even though a man had fired a gun over something as simple as a jacket and had managed to injure three people (Guterson 166). I also believe that this need to forget about our responsibilities will bring about a dystopian society.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you. In todays society everyone is worried about material things, and forget about all the wars in this world and what not. You can say yes america is is a Dystopia because sooner or later we will take stuff for granted and everything will start to go down hill. In todays society people are brainwashed with all these tv shows, signs , saying things that they need it and all these stuff and they listen. We just have an isolated mind in america that we dont care about all the other countries and the product we get from them. I just feel the america is evolving slowly, into something very bad in the future.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that our society is focused on materialism. Our world is tearing apart because of materialism; people are more worried about buying stuff than actually worrying about what going on around us. There are people dying all over the world because of hunger. And what do we do? We spend our money on stuff we do not need. We try to hide our fear of that happening to us for example in the essay the girls with the braces and the coffee's say "It's like nowheres safe"(Guterson 166). They're even scared about what's going on out there but they're to focused on the idea of shopping so that their fears go away. They don't want to be like one of those poor kids in Africa that have no food or clothes. But instead of helping the poor they spend their money on things they do not need.
ReplyDeleteI agree, sometimes we are so wrapped up in ourselfs and our "hardships" that we don't pay attention to what is going other than our own problems. Which may not even by that big of a problem compared to other thing that are going on in the world. We have all been brought up being materialistic it just happens seeing that there is just so much to have. America is run by money. Everything revolves by it. The main concern is always remaining the wealthiest country and being the best. We are becoming a dystopia when our main concern is what we want and what we think we need. As long is America is doing okay and the wealth is there everything is okay.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your argument that both David Guterson’s Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endures: The Mall of America and Anthony Burgess’s Is America Falling apart? reinforce a nihilistic view. Based off of your argument I can agree with the fact that these authors were trying to reinforce the idea that Americans should start having an ascetic view and should stop depending on superficial and materialistic places or things to help run their lives. As Anthony Burgess so simply explains that. “Freedom is slavery”. (236) Because we as Americans have everything handed to us, we become slaves to these things. To live in such a way is evil because we know nothing about suffering or true struggle. Both authors are trying to show us that Americans, in many ways, should have ascetic views and stop seeing America as a “country more stimulating than depressing.” (240) We should stop seeing it as the drug that Guterson explains.
ReplyDeleteIn the Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured: The Mall of America the author, David Guterson, elaborates on the mall of america being related to a dystopian society. I agree with your view that people need things in their life, like an enormous mall, to distract them from their troubles, hurts, and responsibilities. It is clear that The Mall of America was built for so much more than shopping. Author David Guterson describes this when he says, “In the strict sense the Mall of America is not a marketplace at all- the soul of a community expressed as a place-but rather a tourist attraction”( Guterson 164). The Mall of America prides itself in being the largest shopping mall in the United States drawing people in from all the world such as: Canada and Japan. While David Guterson was interviewing people in the mall he came to realize that people who come to this mall are regulars. These shoppers are addicted to the mall of america and feel sorry for other people who have to go to average shopping malls. These people are sucked into this magical world that distracts them from their own worries and problems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both your assessment of Guterson and Burgess’ essays. I especially agree with your perception of Is America Falling Apart in that America has acquired a sense of “secluded selfishness,” which I happen to think is often confused by many Americans to be individualism. I think that this assertion can also be linked to Guterson’s essay in that the sort of constant need for stimulation and materialism that people have today can directly cause the fall into dystopia that we are beginning to experience. Shopping malls happen to be a good example of this given that they often are places in which people like to go to spend time with others because it has somehow become more stimulating to others than many other places.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the ideas shared in this blog post. America is so centered on materialistic things and focused a=on always having the newest things in life. We think that we are free and living in a very succesful world but in fact we are just living in a dystopian-like society. I agree with the quote "Freeddom is Slavery". (Burgess 236) The freedom that we believe we have is in fact being taken advantage of by companies and we are forgetting about what is really going on in the world. Instead of worrying about material things we should be focusing on helping fix the problems in the world that really matter.
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