“Synthesis Paper: World Literature”

During the course of one entire semester, in our subject World Literature, I can say that the things that
I’ve learned are not that much, but they’re sure are very important, they’re the kind of learnings that I
will definitely use in my everyday living. First and foremost, World Literature itself, I was able to identify
that not all that is written is considered a literature, and not all literature is considered a World
Literature. I’ve learned that what sets internationally renowned literatures apart from local written
pieces is that the world must be able to connect and relate to these writings in order for them to be
internationally acclaimed. Also, any written works can be considered as literature as long as it possesses
superior or lasting artistic merit and essence, that means for example a “Fire Exit” signage isn’t
considered a literature because it doesn’t possess artistic and deep meaning. Though it is a written
work, it can’t still be considered a literature. I’ve learned that the writing system was just recently
established and created that the stories before, in order to survive from generations to generations are
orally expressed in order preserve the history and culture. The best example for this is the Greek myths
especially the Iliad and Odyssey I really thought that Homer created the famous Greek story but it turns
out, no one really knows who created the story, it’s just that homer must memorize that complete story
in order to pass it to the next generation, because of that, everyone taught that he was the original
author of the famous Greek story. Also, I’ve learned what really happen in the industrial revolution.
Since people have been working too much in that time, one of their primary manner of leisure is to read
books and novels. It’s also very helpful that our dear professor required as to read wonderful poems
such as The Conversion and Spaces. Because of these masterpieces, I was able to learn how to read
between the lines, hot to deeply scrutinize and understand the message that the authors wanted to
imply. I’ve learned that poems require such enthusiastic way of reading for the reader to be able to
connect to the author. Next, I’ve learned the science of film making and its history. The post-apocalyptic
type of movies and the dystopian type of movies. Post-apocalyptic movies weren’t very effective in
scaring the hipsters back in the day when US and USSR had a great discord. These hipsters are doing
what they want to do already, like living the life like there’s no tomorrow, because of continues threat of
USSR towards the US. They’re not scared anymore, they kept in mind that tomorrow might be the end
of their lives do just fuck it. They don’t believe in post-apocalyptic movies also because they believe that
there’s no tomorrow, there’s no hope, anytime they can just vanished and get bombarded. Also, South
Koreans are the best in terms of Horror genre, because they’re horror is real, it’s not completely just for
the sake of acting, their horror has a source. And that’s due to the fact that anytime, whenever they
want to, North Korea will launch a nuclear missiles and bombs towards them. Also, whenever they’re
making a horror movie, they make it as compressed and as contained as possible, unlike USA. Whenever
USA is making a horror movie, they always want the whole world to die, to be affected, and to include in
the scene and end up Americans always surviving the catastrophe, whilst in South Korea, they just
contain their movies in their country or sometimes, just is a small percentage of their country example
for this is the movie Train to Busan. Our professor also asked as to watch the movie Children of Men,
and after that, my outlook in life was never the same. Truly, too much and too few is never a good thing.
Our professor asked us to write a reaction paper about the movie, but still, allow me to give you the
surface of the story and my brief reaction and experience to it. It was set a bit forward from the present,
the people live ordinary lives, there still buildings, cabs, houses, etc. but the eerie part of living in this
generation is that all of the people cannot reproduce anymore, threatening the survival of the human
race. Well let’s make it “most of the people.” The successfully born child and also the youngest human
in that time was murdered caused by an explosion. Making the whole world jump into a state of serious
panic. There’s war, refugees, protests, and killings. Theo, the main protagonist, stumble upon this lady,
who happens to be a black person. He was asked to bring this lady along with her company that time
which is a middle age lady to an organization, I forgot the name of the organization and their function,
perhaps they keep refugees safe from the war. As they’re traveling, kee (Black Lady) confessed to theo
that she is in fact pregnant, and she really wants to protect her child from this war and from this goons
that can harm them. So Theo, seeing a glimpse of hope through her womb, swore to protect them and
bring them to the organization. They travel a lot, got chased, a lot, and their friends died during the
journey, at some point of the movie, Theo and Kee with her newly born child were trapped at the center
of a raging war, then as the people discovered that Kee was a holding a newly born baby, everyone in
the classroom have witnessed a miracle. The war stopped momentarily, the people saw hope passed in
front of them, the army, stopped and somewhat worshipped was is in front of them, the people were
crying. They were able to successfully pass through the war. But as Theo and Kee were rowing the boat
towards the organization, Kee realized that Theo was hurt from the war, shortly after that Theo died and
Kee was able to reach the organization. Perhaps the most interesting facet of the movie was how the
camera was moving the entire time. You can completely notice at the war scene. The camera was
moving as if the audience are in the scene. Next, our professor asked us to watch a movie called What
Happened to Monday? The movie happened in a dystopian time of time and place, Unlike Children of
Men that their running out of people, What Happened to Monday? Is about a society that is severely
over-populated. Due to this, One Child Policy was created, meaning, it is illegal to have more than one
child, and for those existing siblings even before the policy was imposed, they have to processed and
send into the Cryobank, meaning, they will be frozen and contained until the population drops. But not
everyone is agreeing to this. Including Mr. Settman who has 7 Identical children, all girls. The 7 identical
siblings grew up in an isolation, hidden from the eyes of the society, living as if, their one. Unfortunately,
due to her eagerness to live as an only child, and to live a normal life, having a family, and without
hiding, Monday (one of the seven siblings) sold her sisters out to the Child Allocation Bureau. The CAB,
then hunted the siblings and killed them, refusing to send them into the Cryobank. Tuesday and
Thursday, being the only two siblings who survived among the Settman siblings, Exposed the Founder of
the CAB about their so-called “Processing” they discovered that they don’t actually froze the siblings and
sent them to the Cryobank, they killed them by Burning them alive with a superheated combustion
coffin. Thursday took a video of the said processing, and while Cayman (head of the bureau) is giving her
speech. Tuesday managed to interrupt the live feed with the Video, crushing Cayman’s career and
putting her in a death sentence. The movie was very good and created with attention to detail in my
opinion, but some of my classmates find it very predictable. After that Our professor taught us abou the
fathers of linguistics, Saussure, Barthes, and Derrida. They taught us the beauty of linguistics, that the
language isn’t only expressed through writing and verbally but also through actions, signs, etc. I’ve
learned the concept of Thought Image which has this signifier and signified. For example, if someone
hears a rose, that person will not picture out the word “rose” on his mind instead he will imagine a
flower. And Lastly, I’ve learned about historical fiction, that there’s so much fun distorting and agitating
the history, it means that you are putting a twist in the history, the history is still present but your
putting something that rather odd or impossible never really happen during that period of time. Like for
example, the movie “Lincoln: The Vampire Hunter” Former US President Abraham Lincoln was just an
ordinary resident that time, usually crowned as the best president of the United States but rather than
that, he never possessed beyond ordinary capabilities. But in the movie, before he was the US president,
Sir Lincoln became a vampire hunter.