e Clackamas Print
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Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012
ulture
English instructor
discusses apocalypse
By Isaac Soper
Arts & Culture Editor
Social networks cause
antisocial behavior
By Isaac Soper
Arts & Culture Editor
I have no friends,
I retract th a t statem ent;
I have no “F rien d s” on
F acebook th a t are n o t
actual friends, fam ily or
colleagues. I make great
effort to never offend any
one,, b u t if you p u t any
th in g on m y “w all” th at
is offensive or rude, I will
delete it. Please refrain
from using psuedo-w ords
like “ch ats ta b b in g ” o r
“chatversatio n
Facebook is going p u b
lic soon and they w ill be
selling stock in tn eir com
pany for an undisclosed
a m o u n t o f m oney. T h e
New York T im es claim s
th a t the com pany may be
w orth up to 1 100 billion;
m aybe they’ll give us som e
free shares if we have m ore
“F rie n d s” th a n anyone
else.
I t’s really sad to m e to
see people that- u p d ate
th e ir “sta tu s” all or th e
tim e. As a cultu re, have
we becom e so broken and
-alone th at we need co n
sta n t approval from o th
ers, including those w ho
we d o n ’t even know , to
know th a t w e’re okay?
T h a t’s an easy answer: Yes.
H ave we changed the defi
n itio n o f “Friend?” Are the
people we call “F rien d ”
on Facebook any d ifferent
from a childhood im agi
nary friend?
I rem em ber b ein g a
kid and having an im agi
nary friend, his nam e was
C ow boy Jim .
In m y m ind, social n e t
w orking has its roots in
A O L ch atro o m s, w hich
spread to instant-m essag
ing and creating “your own
w ebsite” th ro u g h a m yriad
o f free w ebsite creators like
A ngelflre. T h is spread to
th e M yspace page, w hich
quickly becam e th e heavi
ly-custom ized, m usic-blar
in g ,
h e'ad ach e-in d u cin g
M yspace page. Hey, th ere’s
so m e th in g g o o d ab o u t
Facebook, no cu sto m iza
tio n ; way to ,go guy from
“T h e Social N e tw o rk .”
Sorry preteens,
I use m y F acebook
account for three things:
u p lo a d in g p h o to s from
recent hikes th a t I’ve been
o n , u n iq u e th in g s t h a t .
I’ve d o n e w ith my jo b and
“p o k in g ” one o f my good
friends w ho I haven’t seen
in a few years, o th er th an
th a t, my page goes rela
tively unused?
I used to go on Facebook
once per week w hen I sta rt
ed th e account. T h a t dw in
dled to every o th er week
an d th en every m o n th or
so. D ue to th e “private
groups” fu n ctio n , m y job
uses Facebook and I ’m on
it nearly every day now.
So I w ould like to ask
F aceb o o k users, please
d o n ’t p o st an ything stupid.
Ail o f th e in fo rm a tio n ,
ph o to s and video posted
on [insert social netw ork
here]
becom e
“p u b lic
in f o rm a tio n ,”
m e a n in g
anyone can use it for any
pu rp o se. U n d er 21 and
drinking? You m ay w ant to
save those p h o to s for your
scrapbook instead o f your
Facebook.
I f I rem ove so m e
one from m y “F rien d s,”
does Facebook say, “Isaac
Soper no longer w ants to
be friends w ith you and
w ould like you to keep
your distance?”
Som eone to ld me th at
M yspace is m ain ly used
for m usicians now, w hich
m akes me happy; using a
social netw ork for som e
th in g o th er th a n m aking
p re te n d frien d s, w hat a
novel idea.
I d o n ’t mean to sound
like
I ’m
c o m p la in in g ;*
F aceb o o k
an d
T w itter
have th eir purpose. Even
YouTube can be used for
good,
T h o u g h I may n o t have
enough “Friends” to w in
any contests or any plans to
invest in w hat may be th e
w o rld ’s largest In te rn e t-
based an ti-so cial social
netw ork, I, along w ith th e
rest o f m odern society, am
a Facebook user.
The world has been deci
mated by nuclear .war. In the
wake o f this tragic disaster,
only few survive; those who
are , still alive are in a constant
battle for survival and main
taining their meager existence.
Dystopia is Usually referred
to as the polar-opposite o f uto
pia; it is the state that the world
is in on the brink o f collapse.
Dystopic visions o f the
world have made their ytay
into many forms of mass-
media since Mary Shelley’s,
“Frankenstein/5 In, June of
last year, Daniel H. Wilson,
a Portland resident who has
his Ph.D. in robotics, wrote
a dystopic novel entitled
“Robopocalypse.” The book
takes place in the near future, j
in which human civilization
faces7 extinction due to a sen- 1
tient robotic uprising.
/ Starting tomorrow, Feb. 9 at
7 p.m., the Oregon City Public
Library (which is located at
the Carnegie Center; Fifth and
Jefferson, in Oregon City) is j
hosting a string or stents, lead
ing up to an appearance and
community . read by Wilson
himself.
“We made the decision
that we would do the title
‘Robopocalypse’ for a commu
nity-wide read this year. I read
it, one o f my staff, gave me
the idea, and I loved it,” said
Maureen Cole, the Director
o f the Oregon City Public
Library. “Other libraries that
have community-wide reads
often do things where they
have related events but we’ve .
never really dofte that.”
The event tomorrow night
entitled, “Where is Dystopia?” (
will be- hosted by Clackamas
Community College English
Instructor Trevor Dodge. It will
be, according to Cole, a more
“adult-focused” exploration
and discussion o f dystopic lit
erature, including books, films,
comics and video games.
“The Carnegie building is
a great place to hold an event:
it’s cozy, artsy and scholarly and
the community who attend
these events are really engaged
in the conversation. Trevor’s
topic sounds fascinating,” said
CCC English Instructor Trista
Cornelius, who introduced
Portland author D aniel H . Wilson w ill be discussing his novel,
“Robopocalypse” a t the Oregon City Public Library on Feb. 23.
Cote to Dodge.
“Where is Dystopia?* is
going to be an attempt to give
context for the book, focusing
on the broader idea o f dystopia
and what the term entails,
“The talk is going to chart
those ideas through literature
at one level and then I want
to problematize what I mean
by literature. W hen [people]
hear that word, they think of
things on a bookshelf. I quibble
with that definition; literature
is simply a grouping o f some
thing, said Dodge.
In the classes that he teaches,
such as “Games & Literature”
and “Comics & Literature,”
Dodge has been known to push
the envelope on what is com
monly considered “literature.”
“A dystopic literature doesn’t
have to be just about novels,
and doesn’t have to be about
filmic représentations o f those
ideas either. W hat I want to do
is chase dystopia through other
popular mass-media forms.
Novels and films and I want
to talk about them in comics;
I want to talk about them in
‘Robopocalypse” Events
Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.
W h ere is D ystopia?
Hosted by Trevor Dodge
LEGO Robotics
Friday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m.
Hosted by
Redland Elementary
“Robopocalypse”
Author Visit
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
Hosted by Daniel H . Wilson
video games,” said Dodge.
He mentioned -discuss
ing such titles as Cormac
McCarthy’s “The Road,” along
with popular post-apocalyptic
video game “Fallout 3.”
“There’s lots of avenues to
talk about, lots o f times we see
dystopic work as the funnel-
ing effect of technology and
having too much too soon; we
can trace that all the way back
to ‘Frankenstein,’” said Dodge.
The same themes may be
connected to the present time,
with the success of the human
genome project. W hat happens
when we create something
that we are unprepared for,
perhaps our own version of
Frankenstein’s monster?
“Largely, what I want to
do is to have the conversation
about how do we project our
selves into [dystopia] and why
do we go to it,” said Dodge.
After “Where is Dystopia?”,
the next event discussing robot
ics will take place on Feb. 17
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., which
will be a LEGO robotics dem
onstration and the first annual
LEGO League competition,
hosted by Redland Elementary
School.
Wilson will be visiting the
Oregon City Public Library on
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.
He will be there to talk about
robots, robotic uprisings and
answer questions regarding the
subject, along with his new
book.
Wilson has been praised
by critics and authors alike,
currently he is working with
Steven Spielberg, who is doing
a film adaptation o f the book,
which will be released on July
3, 2013.