Boy Meets World. Boy Meets Freud.

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The video posted above is a lighthearted and quirky television show from the 90’s harboring all the aspects of Sigmund Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams.” Tragedy strikes a tight knit group of friends when life long sweethearts, Cory and Topanga, decide to go their separate ways. Cory’s best friend, Shawn, does not support their break up and does not take his friends’ separation very well. The disentanglement of Cory’s relationship effects Shawn so much that he starts to act out in class (more than usual) and earns everyone involved detention. He falls asleep in detention and dreams that there is a killer on the loose, murdering everyone but Cory, Topanga, and himself. He unmasks the killer only to discover that he was the murderer all along. As Shawn wakes up he realizes that he has been blaming himself for his friends’ misfortune and accepts that he is not responsible for it.

Sigmund Freud argued that human beings do not have access to their unconscious. It is a part of the self that will remain hidden in the dark corners of our minds as it intervenes in our everyday lives (Freud 809). His psychoanalytical study of dreams will help us breakdown this episode of Boy Meets World, produced almost a century after “The Interpretation of Dreams” was published. I cannot prove that the shows writers took note of Freud’s work as they composed this script but I can suggest that they possibly stumbled upon it at some point in their lives, as the episode truly displays a Freudian sense of thought.

Freud argues that a dream has two basic parts that interpreters’ usually confuse. It is important that this confusion does not arise, as it will guide the interpreter to error (Freud 818). Each dream consists of a manifest content (dream-content) and a latent content (dream-thoughts). The characters, objects, and setting Shawn sees in his dream are the manifest content or what is visible. He sees many of his friends die but does not know the reason for the cause of these brutal deaths. The latent content (dream -thoughts) of the dream allows us to figure out what is not so obvious. It urges us to find the meaning behind the murders and discover the killer’s identity. Freud suggests that, “the dream-thoughts and the dream content are presented to us like two versions of the same subject-matter in two different languages,” (Freud 819).

Freud also stresses the importance of viewing a dream as a rebus puzzle (Freud 819). We can find meaning behind the murders if we look at the dream piece by piece and analyze who is murdered and who is not. This will also help us understand why Shawn was the murderer and what might be emerging from his unconscious. He unconsciously blamed himself for his friends’ separation and did not know why he was acting out until his dream clarified things for him. The reason for his conscious misbehavior was because he felt helpless and guilty.

Dream condensation and dream displacement are also two factors of a dream that should not be ignored. While comparing dream content and dream-thoughts, it is proven that dream condensation has occurred at some point (Freud 819). The dream content can be very brief and meager, as dream-thoughts can be very long and in depth. (Freud 819). In Shawn’s case he may have compressed some of the dream content seen above and was not able to remember the dream in its entirety. There may be certain events in the dream that he does not remember or has compressed two events into one, swaying his interpretation of the dream.

Dream displacement urges the differences between dream content and dream thought (Freud 820). Shawn disguises his guilt and sense of responsibility in the form of a killer. His dream could have easily consisted of himself and Cory having a conversation about why he feels responsible for Cory’s heartache. Instead displacement comes into action as his guilt is expressed in a more brutal way.

Works Cited:

Freud. Sigmund. “From The Interpretation of Dreams.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.:New York, 2001. 814-824. Print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7LQkVaP_gY

The Clock Tells Time.

Narrative:

In this world time has come and gone. People have lived here and died here, and now their traces have diminished. As the worlds of fantasy and reality mesh, the aspect of time is lost somewhere in between. Here lies the conception of time and space the way one human being chooses to view it. There are no rules. No exceptions. It seems as though his fantasy world is taking over the real world. He might just be losing all sense of real time and space. Until he finds out that reality is slowly seeping into his fantasy. The world around him is about to become raw and uncensored. With time he will discover his truth and must accept his life as it is and not as he wished it to be many years ago. On this earth time has always held the power over all human beings and will always find a way to catch up to them. Our friend, whose mind we are exploring, is no different than millions of other people who are just unveiling the same concept. One day, he too will wake up and accept the unsteady and mysterious thing we call life and try to understand it through time.

Analysis:

The main object that stands out in this painting is the exploding clock. Artist Salvador Dali does not only choose to destroy the concept of time, but also throws it in the ocean as if to get rid of it once and for all. What can be concluded from this painting then? Is it that time does not matter? Or is time passing by faster than we think and we must act upon this with caution? The answer truly lies in the hands of the viewer. Viewing it in the likes of structuralism and Ferdinand de Saussure I will attempt to put the pieces of the broken clock together. Structuralism allows us to understand the world around us through the structure of signs and urges us to then interpret the meaning of words. In Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, readers are presented with the study of signs otherwise known as semiotics. In his lectures Saussure reveals that within semiotics the signifier plus the signified equals a sign (Signifier + Signified= Sign). Saussure suggests that the signifier is what one sees or hears and the signified is the concept that derives from that sound or image (Saussure 857). When I first saw the clock in this painting I automatically thought of time as in hours of the day. Here the signifier is the clock and the signified is time. Hence, I relate the sign of a clock to the idea of time. Saussure also mentions that it is important to realize that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is completely arbitrary. Therefore when I see the clock and think of time the sign is not fixated, however at the moment that is my personal absolute meaning of the sign. It is also important to mention that by understanding the structure of signs then we are able to understand the meaning of words. Basically signs allow us to give meaning to words both spoken and written down, and help us connect with the world around us.

Works Cited:

Saussure, Ferdinand. "Course in General Linguistics" Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second

Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://digitalculture-ed.net/arthurh/files/2010/01/Exploding_Clock_Dali_Salvador1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://digitalculture-ed.net/arthurh/&usg=__bbpg2YS-K0kWkUD3zh2cugPt5o8=&h=350&w=452&sz=40&hl=en&start=1&sig2=7oqFMYVWgVKhDJpOpl2_TA&tbnid=FcDTk46BCj1D7M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=127&ei=I7hHTJDTJZCisQPw1r2OCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddali%2Bexploding%2Bclock%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1105%26bih%3D704%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1

Gorgias, Plato, and The Sophists.

The song posted above can be interpreted in many ways. Since “For what it’s worth,” was written in 1966 many people believe that it was an ode to urge young people to protest against the Vietnam War. However, the song came about as a tribute to urge Los Angeles inhabitants to protest the closing of a nightclub (Vietnamwarmusic.com). Now with all great art, it is truly up to the listener to take what he or she gains from the product. One aspect that many people will agree upon is that the song influences listeners’ to stand up for what they believe in and protest against what they do not.

Whether it was meant to fall under the grasp of rhetoric or not, the song in its innate nature, is a rhetorical speech on the closing of the club. As a teacher of rhetoric, Gorgias would approve the piece and deem it successful as it draws the audience in with its persuasive yet subtle appeal. The artists are asking their listeners to complete a simple yet powerful task by protesting against “the man”, while using the exact same concept to persuade their listeners. Gorgias believes that rhetoric is capable of persuading any course of action, therefore this two minute song can be one of the most powerful and dangerous products to emerge in the world (class notes). Its aim is towards young people, whose minds can still be shaped and swayed due to the lack of life experience.

Sophists also believed that through rhetoric success would be achieved. Here, Buffalo Soldier uses their celebrity and the power of rhetoric to benefit themselves along with others in the community fighting for the same cause. In terms of Gorgias and the Sophists, the song would be a great way to get young people of the 1960’s involved in helping their communities flourish and captivate.

On the other hand, Plato would argue that due to the songs rhetorical roots and poetic urgency, it should be taken off the air and revoked from the internet. Not only is the song driven by rhetoric but its poetic verses and rhyme scheme make it that much more unreliable and phony. Buffalo Springfield is a band composed of artists who are skilled to play their instruments and therefore that is what they should do. That is where their specialty is useful. They should leave teaching people about ethics and morality to the philosophers.

Plato’s concern of poetry causing uncontrollable pleasure to its seekers would also be a possible problem. Since “For what its worth,” proves to be a poetic work of art it should not be used to persuade others to solve serious problems. It should only used for the sake of virtue and that is all. Plato would also bring forth the concept of mimesis within poetry. The song and the artists would be seen as a mere imitation of a form of work that already exists. What they have created would not be the original form, as they are acting as something they cease to be.

Works Cited

Cain, Finke, Johnson, Leitch, McGowan, Sharpley-Witing, Williams, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.

http://vietnamwarmusicguide.com/for-what-its-worth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZKB-ZQTkO8&feature=related

I guess I am now connected...throughout the world.

Welcome to my blog. Thought some music would be a good way to start things off. Enjoy the melodic beats of Daft Punk :)