Sick Lit L210

This is the Tumblr for Professor Vivian Halloran's Fall 2014 ENGL-L210 course Studies on Pop Lit and Mass Media, focusing on the theme of "sick lit".

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You Won't Believe What These Families Have Done to Capture the Perfect Family Portrait

We may see it as creepy today, but during the Victorian Era, post-mortem portraits were actually very common. This was a simple act taken by family members and loved-ones to honor the dead and hold on to one last memory of them forever.

This article/slide show really takes the idea of memento mori seriously and showcases how much our attitudes towards death have changed.

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“28 Weeks Later” is brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying. It is also bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques.

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28 Days Later Movie Review & Film Summary (2003) | Roger Ebert

Activists set lab animals free from their cages—only to learn, too late, that they’re infected with a “rage” virus that turns them into frothing, savage killers. The virus quickly spreads to human beings, and when a man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens in an empty hospital and walks outside, he finds a deserted London. In a series of astonishing shots, he wanders Piccadilly Circus and crosses Westminster Bridge with not another person in sight, learning from old wind-blown newspapers of a virus that turned humanity against itself.

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This is a link to the game Eli was talking about.  anyone who would like to do a multi-media project on videogames and illness is welcome to refer to this game.

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Class comments on 28 Days Later Omnibus questions

Question 1:

Contagion portrays doctors as good, self-sacrificing: 28 Days Later omnibus portray scientists as evil, driven only by the desire to contribute to the creation of a super army. American exceptionalism is the theme of a lot of US made disaster movies, but in 28 Days later doctors are looked at as evil and corrupt due to their participation in the military industrial complex that promotes nationalism; In Contagion, they're depicted as team players, helping the global effort to stop this pandemic.

Graphic novel depicts science as unpredictable.

28 Days Later film depicts scientists as the "bad guys," because their experimentation is the cause of a disease, whereas the scientists in Contagion, the scientists efforts are focused on curing a disease.

Lack of context for the animal experimentation in 28 Days Later the film gives us no explanation for considering the development of the RAGE virus as a positive.  In Contagion, the only context in which we see scientists is working for the greater good, so there's no room to see them as evil.

 Question 2: Journalists

In Contagion the journalist is the antagonist; he's not accepted by the journalists as one of their own.  In 28 Days Later Omnibus, the journalist was not only award-winning (Pulitzer) but also has lots of combat experience reporting from the war zones. The award gives him credibility whereas Jude Law's character in Contagion organizes a hoax (forsythia).

In Contagion, the blogger is only out to help himself; whereas in the Omnibus, the journalist is out there to get the truth out especially since the Army is keeping a barrier of silence surrounding the repopulation of England.In Contagion, the blogger was never close to the action; he's always operating from the margins, whereas the journalist is always near Selena.

Contagion portrays the motivation for the blogger's actions to be personal gain, whereas in the Omnibus, the journalist brushes off the possibility of another prize.

Question 3: Selena's back story

We learn she had to kill her husband, so it reaffirms our notion of her as a strong leader who will do what it takes to survive.  It made her change from being "normal' to become a good fighter. Her return to femininity at the end is irksome--a bit of a betrayal of her change.

Backstory shows she was not necessary a leader in the film, but rather someone acting out of necessity.  She was willing to leave anyone behind.  The graphic novel shows she develops some compassion.

Back story makes her turn into compassion understandable, strengthens her leadership quality.

The back story in the omnibus humanizes Selena as a character, whereas she does not display much emotion in the film version.

Question 4:

In 28 Days Later movie, there are not that many casualties depicted within the plot. It is a journey of survival.  In the Omnibus, death is all around.

Mourning fuels the story more in the Omnibus; Selena goes back in order to mourn her husband. In the 28 Days Later, mourning only factors in at the beginning--there's no time left to weep.

Contagion's illness does not invade home spaces, so as long as people stay in, they're safe.  That also lets them mourn for the dead.  In 28 days  Later, the threat is everywhere.  So, there's no time for mourning.

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Class work on 28 Days Later Omnibus (Halloween)

Today, students will be asked to post comments on this blog post which answer any one of the questions below. We will then structure group conversations based around student responses.

Label your comment w/the number of the question you are answering:

1. Since both texts are premised on the idea that scientific research is the only way to counter the spread of a pandemic, contrast how 28 Days Later Omnibus and Contagion portray the role of the scientist and of scientific advances.

2. Since both Contagion and the 28 Days Later Omnibus focus their story lines around journalists/bloggers, explain some significant way in which their portrayals overlap or diverge.

3. Comment upon how learning more about Selena’s back story in the 28 Days Later Omnibus changed or reaffirmed your initial interpretation of her as a leader.

4. Discuss the role of mourning and bereavement in 28 Days Later the movie vs. 28 Days Later Omnibus. Give concrete examples.

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Why do Zombies Eat Brains?

The film The Return of the Living Dead pioneered the popular idea of zombies eating brains. Prior to this concept, zombies had an appetite for anything human, not just brains. For my new readers, t...

From discussion today.

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The scientist was infected after investigating a virus outbreak at a primate research centre in California, which had killed one-third of the monkey colony.

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One of my tweets about connections between popular culture (children's films) and this class.

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From zombies to Government plots, the Ebola conspiracy theories

Stories of Ebola victims rising from the dead appear to have inspired a flurry of bizarre Zombie conspiracy theories comparing the outbreak to films such as 28 Days Later.

Again, one of your peers sent this link (keep the source--the Daily Mail--in mind) claiming that Ebola conspiracy theories link the virus to zombies.

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Thanks to one of your peers, who sent this message discussing the Simpsons' 1999 episode discussing Ebola.

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'Contagion' Screenwriter Blasts Ebola Panic as 'Stupidity, Fear and Politics' - TheWrap

Scott Z. Burns tells TheWrap the current crisis is "a series of very big mistakes"

This article was submitted to me by one of your peers.  It'll be a helpful review to get ready for the 2nd in-class exam.

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Jonah Goldberg - A Real-Life Contagion?

While disposing of a body in a mass grave, one man in a hazmat suit turns to another and asks, “When did we run out of body bags?” “Two days ago.” Fortunately, the scene is only from the movie Contagion, though it’s probably close enough to what is going on in parts of West Africa right now. #ad#The 2011 hit about a runaway virus that kills millions has probably come to mind to more than a few people of late as we watch governments struggle to contain Ebola and reassure the public. So far, real life is much less scary. In the film, a bat virus finds its way into a pig and then into a promiscuous American played by Gwyneth Paltrow, who quickly dies as “patient zero” of a horrifying global pandemic. Ironically, as America’s Ebola patient zero lay dying in a Dallas hospital last week, Paltrow was playing herself at a $15,000-per-plate fundraiser in her Los Angeles home and lavishing praise on the president. “You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly,” Paltrow gushed. She also said, “It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass.” Even without the aid of a pandemic, Paltrow can deliver a sickening performance. There have been plenty of movies about deadly viruses running amok. But most involve dark conspiracies, or aliens, or at the very least secret agendas and government corruption. The awful 1995 film Outbreak is typical of the genre: Good scientists fight an evil military determined to keep its hands on a biological superweapon at all costs, even if it means killing Americans. (Oh, sorry, spoiler alert.) Contagion broke away from the shackles of the genre. Ross Douthat put it well in an essay for National Review, calling it a “pro-establishment thriller.” Government officials, the scientists, even the military were all competent and determined to do the right thing. It was a fascinating departure from the speak-truth-to-power cinema of the Bush years and even Hollywood’s paranoia in the Clinton years. (In the movie version of The X-Files, FEMA was a villainous cabal.) In Contagion, the only real villain was a blogger, Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law). He refuses to take the government at its word. He disseminates lies for personal gain. He questions the motives of the mainstream media. At one point a federal agent tells Krumwiede, “If I could throw your computer in jail, I would.” Given the timing, I think it’s no accident Hollywood produced Contagion. After all, Obama was going to restore faith in government. The smart and decent people were in charge. Under a different president, Contagion might have been a paranoid delusion, a la Oliver Stone’s JFK, and Krumwiede might have been a left-wing hero like Edward Snowden or an I.F. Stone-style crusader. But under Obama, he had to be more like a cartoonish Matt Drudge. As Obama would tell Ohio State students in 2013, “Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works.” (Fun fact: A few days later the IRS scandal broke.) Again, under Obama, right-thinking people don’t question power like a Krumwiede. They, like a Paltrow, wish the already-powerful “all of the power” they need. We now have our own version of Contagion playing out in real time. The disease is different, of course, and so is the response. Still, I have little doubt that the real-life players at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health are as well-intentioned as their cinematic versions. But they aren’t nearly as reassuring. They keep telling us they know what can’t happen right up until the moment it happens. They put the theory of their expertise ahead of the facts on the ground. A nurse contracts Ebola and the experts immediately blame a “breach of protocol” they cannot identify. Loyal bureaucrats rush to blame the lack of a vaccine on budget cuts. Democrats point at Republicans. Republicans respond that the administration diverted billions to lesser priorities. No one is blaming the bloggers yet. But that might change if the supply of body bags runs low. — Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. You can write to him by e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @JonahNRO. © 2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Ebola Rages in West Africa, Reigniting Humanity’s Oldest Fear: The Plague

The Ebola scare may be new, but panic over the plague—and the cultural fetishization of it—goes back centuries. The Angel of Death had a really good agent.

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