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nomad 2017 nomad 2017 Chaos The Department of Comparative Literature’s Journal of Undergraduate Writing University of Oregon The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. MC0917_092du_E40770 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR Bess R. H. Myers EDITORIAL BOARD Professor Kenneth Calhoon Martha Bannikov Devina Sindhu MENTORS TO THE UNDERGRADUATE WRITERS Maxine Anderson Rachel Branson Dr. Katy Brundan Professor Kenneth Calhoon Dr. Zach Cheney Palita Chunsaengchan Dr. Rachel Eccleston Dr. Andréa Gilroy Dr. Anna Kovalchuk Maya Larson Nadège LeJeune Jason Lester Robin Okumu Justine Parkin Tera Reid-Olds Devina Sindhu Ying Xiong SPECIAL THANKS To Cynthia Stockwell, Laura White, and the Duck Store for their continued support of this program COVER ART Untitled ©2017 Helena Richardson CONTENTS vii Editor’s Comments LAUREN ALLEN 9 Courting Chaos: The Ambivalence of Knowledge in the Relationship Between Frankenstein and his Creature SAM BEEKER 19 Sylvia Plath’s Linguistic “Magic Mirror”: The Chaos of Textual Subject Formation STEVE CHADWICK 31 Clearly Chaos: Perspectives Distorted by Glass in Zamyatin’s We and Francis’ “Part for the Whole” PATRICK DUNHAM 41 Chaotic Realms of Baudrillardian Identity in the Digital Age NICOLE HALL 53 Structures of Control: The Stigmatization of Mental Illness as Represented in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Theorized in Discipline and Punish ALICE HARDING 62 The Necessity of Chaos in the Descent of Inanna ROSS LENCH 71 Comedy, Chaos, and the New “Norm” in a Post-Network Era: The Tale of Norm Macdonald Live ALI LILLEY 81 Humanity at the Hands of Humbert Humbert: An Analysis of the Chaotic Perception of Beauty DUNCAN MACEACHERN 90 The Inevitability and Secret Order of Chaos MALYSSA ROBLES 97 Control in the Face of Chaos STEPHANIE SEYMOUR 107 The Weight of Words, the Shock of Photos LINDSAY SKINNER 115 Chaotic Duality: Unconquerable Natures in Runner-up for the NOMAD Prize for Excellence in Mérimée’s Lokis and the Case of Anna O. Undergraduate Scholarship CLAIRE WILLIAMS 125 Artificial Chaos Fruition: The Winner of the NOMAD Prize for Excellence in Reinvention of Death in Westworld Undergraduate Scholarship QUIN WISE 135 James Joyce’s “Sirens”: A Narrative Advancing Through Literary Chaos ©2017 University of Oregon Department of Comparative Literature All Rights Reserved Journal Design by David Goodman Marketing Communications University of Oregon EDITOR’S COMMENTS This edition of the nomad journal represents a year’s worth of work by our intrepid authors and mentors exploring the mysterious, disorderly theme of “Chaos.” Our students found chaos in a range of media, including literature, film, television, and even podcasts. It is always rewarding when we can invite students from across campus into the COLT family. Our authors come from majors in the social sciences, hard sciences, journalism, and humanities, including from our own discipline, Comparative Litera- ture. Their efforts resulted in an engaging conference in the spring and this impres- sive collection of essays. We are extremely proud of this year’s Nomad participants. I am fortunate that my year serving as editor was not too chaotic, thanks to a dedicated and supportive team of people. Nomad would not be possible without our graduate student and faculty mentors, whose efforts working one-on-one with students serve as the foundation of this program. The Nomad program and the Com- parative Literature department remain strong because of their willingness to share their time and expertise with our students. I give hearty thanks to this year’s Mentorship Coordinators, Martha Bannikov and Devina Sindhu. Your enthusiastic efforts kept the program strong, and it was a joy to work with you. I also extend thanks to our COLT faculty and graduate students who presented at our Nomad Speaker Events. These talks offered our students thought-provoking scholarship and a range of topics and approaches to this year’s theme. Thank you to our faculty speakers Professor Kenneth Calhoon, Dr. Katy Brundan, and Profes- sor Steven Brown, and our graduate student speakers Michelle Crowson, Anna-Lisa Baumeister, and Ying Xiong. The Nomad Program grows stronger each year, and I am honored to have served as editor of this edition of the nomad journal. I look forward to watching the program continue to flourish in the years to come. With gratitude, BESS R. H. MYERS vii nomad 2017 Chaos Lauren Allen majors in com- LAUREN ALLEN parative literature and minors in comic and cartoon studies. She overuses the phrase “liminal space” in her everyday writing and speech. Lauren keeps things funky with her unique humor and style in both her fashion and writing. Mentor: Justine Parkin COURTING CHAOS: THE AmbIVALENCE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETweeN FRANKENSTEIN AND HIS CREATURE MANY CAN RELATE TO ME WHEN I SAY that this paper has been far from easy. I have on countless occasions told my friends that I hate writing this paper. However, with this word “hate” comes a strange ambivalence. Writing is what I love to do. I love being able to be so passionate about something that I can have the paradoxical opinions of love and hate toward the same thing. This constant tug- of-war is an ever-present sensation when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge; the process of acquiring knowledge is inherently chaotic in its duality. In Mary Shel- ley’s Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein fails to recognize this fact of knowledge with which I am well familiar. Victor lacks the understand- ing that the pursuit of knowledge is far from undisturbed. It is a dynamic process, a push and pull. Knowledge is nowhere near orderly—it is chaotic. The dual na- ture of knowledge brings a chaotic dynamism to Victor’s life and the relationship with his product of knowledge: the creature. However, Victor is not able to fully grasp the irregularity and chaotic nature of knowledge and therefore fails himself. He becomes victim to the power of the knowledge he has produced, neglecting to recognize the ways that power both constrains and enables, as Michel Foucault theorized. Through a largely Foucauldian reading, I aim to show how knowledge is a chaotic duality comprised of both positive and negative forces, creation and destruction. I argue that Victor’s fate is ultimately sealed by the disconnect he has nomad 9 LAUREN ALLEN from what knowledge truly is, a disconnect that runs parallel with Victor’s relation- ship with the creature. Victor Frankenstein’s initial pursuit of knowledge is considered taboo by his father. Just as the creature desires, Victor simply wants support from his father, but the lack thereof is the catalyst dictating the chaos that ensues throughout the course of Victor’s scientific pursuits. Early in the novel, in a letter from Walton to Mrs. Saville, Frankenstein illustrates that “In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors” (Shelley 47). However, this heeding of knowledge by Frankenstein’s fa- ther sparks the flirtatious relationship that Frankenstein has with the supernatural. With the impression that knowledge is a taboo, Victor begins to toy with the dual concepts of life and death. Victor’s passion for the taboo of knowledge “afterwards ruled my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys” (32). Victor’s upbringing in this knowledgeable chaos is depicted as a beautiful yet ominous spectacle. The romantic metaphor of knowledge as “the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys” depicts Victor’s personal opinion of his demise. “Tor- rent” emphasizes the aggressive nature of the chaos that Victor is toying with in his academic pursuits. Victor teases himself with this idea of chaos but, as the novel unfolds, it is precisely this experience of chaos that he fails to embrace. Though the etymology of chaos stems from the ancient Greek for “void,” it also took on a theological meaning, “the void at the beginning of creation” in the 1503 English Vulgate version of Genesis (Harper). Because Frankenstein is often associated with the creation myth and the story of the Fall, the theological meaning of chaos is more relevant to my reading of Frankenstein. Chaos lies in this space that encom- passes both the beauty of creation and the darkness of a void. Victor develops an obsession with creation and neglects the space from which creation springs, which is inevitably a void. He thereby fails to recognize that the chaotic duality of knowl- edge envelops both creation and void. Anything that is desired with strong ardor comes with its own consequences. Despite the warning from his father, Victor proceeds with his acquisition of knowl- edge to an extreme. Victor highlights, “That application, which at first had been a matter of duty and resolution, now became so ardent and eager, that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my labora- tory” (45). With sleepless nights and a deprivation-like hunger for knowledge, Vic- 10 nomad Courting Chaos tor courts chaos. Too much of anything comes with its own ramifications, which in Victor’s case stem from his own self-punishment. The addictive component of knowledge eats away at Victor. After two years of excessive work on his creature, it comes to life. Victor remarks that “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (52).