tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post5957987321024244625..comments2024-03-01T10:16:11.283-08:00Comments on AmericanStudies: July 17, 2014: American Beaches: On the BeachAmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-68901279362317201302014-07-17T11:50:25.190-07:002014-07-17T11:50:25.190-07:00Really interesting to hear about those student res...Really interesting to hear about those student responses, AnneMarie. Given how much more possible/seemingly imminent the apocalypse was in the late 1950s than it is in our current moment, it's fair to say that we have pretty different cultural takes on such an event.AmericanStudierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-31930187211643840132014-07-17T11:47:18.031-07:002014-07-17T11:47:18.031-07:00I taught _On The Beach_ this past school year for ...I taught _On The Beach_ this past school year for the first time. The students didn't really like it because it's a very un-American post-apocalyptic story. There are no zombies, there are no riots or hoarding (well a little on gas but that never leads to violence) and there's no intense last gasp of breath at the end. In a way it's a great deal like _The Road_ but no where near as stark.<br />After getting through the book, which I loved, I asked the students why they really hated it so much. They found it entirely unrealistic. And so I asked them to write about it. The answers I got back were amazing and really upsetting. According to my students that while facing death people will resort to their worst, basest, selves. That we will devolve into a group of blood-thirsty flesh-eating rapists who travel in packs devouring each other. That we, as a species, would never face the end with dignity or peace. I think there's an age gap when reading this book. I'm old, they are young. I think Red Dawn is fun and silly, and each summer I watch it in my backyard and have great time enjoying it in an ironic sense. They honestly believe that North Korea invading is a potentiality, even after the countless documentaries that I try to use to education that NK couldn't invade a tacobell in Rhode Island. (I actually only watch the original... I'm old!)<br />I like the idea that when death comes we face it with quiet dignity and respect. That we go out doing the things we love. Dwight and his men choose to die aboard their ship with the intention of getting as close to US as possible; Peter decides to die with his wife and baby even though he was in a stage of false-recovery; Moira dies waiting for Dwight; Osborne, failing to die in a smash-up commits suicide in his race car. My students, youth, couldn't get past the "there's no point in fighting" mentality. I might be morbid but the book was actually very comforting in it's approach to death. I don't have to run and hide; there are no zombies or cannibals. I can just commune with the people I care about and focus on building better relationships, and in Obsorne's case, commit to doing something that I've wanted to.<br />I hope when I it's my time I'm sitting on the back porch drinking my own brewed hard cider, watching LOTR and watching my cat chase birds. And if not... AVENGE ME!!!<br /><br />Because, get it, that's the line that dad said from Red Dawn... yeah I'm old.englishteacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04295473633173919203noreply@blogger.com