Web Paper or Special Event

P1: Intro

              Thesis: By personifying the issues highlighted in the work and creating tangible heroes and villains in 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, this graphic novel is accessible and evokes sentiment from readers. This, ultimately, makes it more successful at relaying the dangers of global warming to those who read it than the essay “The Collapse of Western Civilization,” which fails to do these things.

P2: Personification of issues/tangible subjects (characters) evoking sentiment in 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial

              -Hero: Bunnista

              -Victims: Polar bears, animals in testing center

Many people in the United States have been raised with the importance of recycling. By separating your plastics from paper will truly help save the Earth. Many people have also been told that by using fluorescent light bulbs or taking shorter showers will help save the planet. But is that really true? Eyes and minds are opened when reading “The Collapse of Western Civilization” a science fiction novel telling the story of humanity’s future in which leads to mass migration due to a drastic change in climate. And when reading “As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things you can do to Stay in Denial”, the reader learns that humanity’s small steps towards saving the planet simply is not enough. Society must come together to stop ecocide.

   As global warming has been becoming a greater issue, it raises the question what can we do to stop it? In order to stop something, we need to figure out what is the root cause of the problem.  In the science-fiction The Collapse of Western Civilization, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway create an image of what the future will be like if western civilization doesn’t change their habits that hurt the environment. Moreover, Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillian’s graphic novel, As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, uses satire to depicts human’s unwillingness to effectively stop climate change.

The stigma of the graphic novel is one that is still alive and well. Considered “comic books,” by many, they are often read in the sense that they provide a form of entertainment that is fun and easy to swallow. As the World Burns, however, turns that stereotype on its head. Through its use of powerful images and harsh language, this graphic novel conveys a powerful, and important, message: The corporations and big businesses are the ones actually responsible for ecocide, and it is up to us to stop them. In The Collapse of Western Civilization, the same topic, climate change, is discussed, but in much more scholastic terms.

The Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway:

• A short yet sophisticated novel

• Considered satire

  • Although it was intended to be satirical when it was published in 2014, it has become almost prophetic to the point where it no longer has any humorous notes

• Describes the collapse in retrospect

• Who is the audience?

  • Because it is a novel it is not as appealing to younger readers as a graphic novel

• As the World Burns has visuals that help to simplify the ideas and makes it easier for the reader to understand.  The humor engages some readers.  Personally, the humor turns me off from the book because I don’t want to associate these horrible things that are happening to the world with something funny.  I’m worried that some people would not be able to identity the humor and just agree that nothing can be done to improve the state of the world.
• The Collapse of Western Civilization is a book that is more appropriate for more educated people because it is harder to understand.  It is very straight forward; therefore you must be more interested in the matter to get a good grasp on the ideas.  Children would not understand it.
• I don’t like how As the World Burns makes

As the World Burns vs. Collapse of Western Civilization

-graphic novel is more effective towards the younger generation because it shows through the visuals what is really happening.

-The collapse of Western Civilization may appeal as more of a novel for adults but i think the graphic novel really hits the center of the problem and shows what is really happening

As the World Burns:

-graphic novel and the use of visuals 

   -powerful representation of what is really happening to the world

Constructions of Masculinity: you can’t train yr daughter like you train yr horse

Reading Segregation Signs in Getting Mother’s Body by Suzann-Lori Parks

            The segregation sign is a pillar of racism in the post-civil rights- United States. The segregation sign is an object of desire and social scorn. People look for these signs in museums and public exhibits, asking to be reassured that Jim Crow is indeed dead, yet wonder if these venues can adequately portray and describe the lived experiences of enforced race segregation. This essay will examine the cultural waste and debris left over from Jim Crow and its afterlife. The salience of race returns in the segregation sign. The contests over the meaning of segregation signs must be understood as part of the continuing struggle against racism and inequality.

As the World Collapses