English Language section: Gates vs. Gutenberg

How would a dialogue between someone like Bill Gates and Johannes Gutenberg look like, both considered as some of the greatest inventors in human history? The American author John Updike tried to answer exactly this question by writing a possible dialogue at a fictitious meeting at the book fair in Frankfurt.At the end of the dialogue Gates points out the advantages of the digital age over books while holding a CD. He points out that this invention contains thousands of pages and therefore an abundance of information while remaining light and providing a fast and easy access. Moreover he states that this development also benefits the nature because it does not need trees to be cut for the production of books. In his opinion the era of the books is over.Gutenberg answers hesitatingly by saying that despite the new digitalized world some people will keep on reading books. After that he points out the archievements of printing and compares it with the digital technology.By making books cheaper information could reach a wide range of people who needed it but in today's information overloaded age the worth of information decreases. Furthermore it nowadays depends on technology that can read, create or send it. Since we live in a fast moving era the lifetime of a specific technology is quite short compared to a book. The digital revolution therefore lost the contact with life and human beings respectively. He ends with the statement that the human being remains the standard by which all things are measured despite the occurence of the Internet.Gates angrily responds that every mistake will be solved eventually.

Meeting a Land Artist

Together with Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long is one of the most popular land artists. In 2008 the german magazine „art“ interviewed him concerning his work.Considering his art he prefers simplicity and clarity as it should be a reaction to our today's chaotic and complex world overflooded by pictures. Long states that simple things are specifically characterized by a cosmic variety which makes his work a quite personal one. For his art he uses driftwood and mud which come from the riverbank of the Severn. He mentions that simply with a little bit of mud and plenty of water there can be made huge pictures. His interest in practical things and the place where he lives and goes hiking seems to be the reason for his special choice of materials.Furthermore, another part of his work is the English tradition of a public right of way. This is the reason why he does not want to work in America where you can be shot only for entering a certain location.When it comes to his life the art-magizine alludes to the fact that he was thrown out of the West England College of the Arts as a young student. Contrary to that these days Long is a member of the Royal West England Academy of the Arts. He personally sums up his life as travelling to various places and after that returning to the same spot as a different person.

Notes

- televangelist, televangelism- High Culture vs. Popular Culture

Bread and Games in TV Prison

Describe the author's attitude towards reality-TV. What stylistic devices does she employ to convince the reader?

register: zapping (l. 1), telly (l. 2) irony, sarcasm: obligatory (l. 2), thanks (l. 9), celebrating their voyeristic streaks

(l. 26), finest form of voyeurism (l. 32), happy mix of twenty somethings (l. 51) alliteration: (l. 5), wide and willing (l. 19), finest form (l. 32), more and more (l.

33), play a part (l. 45), constant camera surveillance (l. 52) accumulation: (l. 5), (l. 22) repetition: (l. 5), metonymy: whole world, Al Quaeda (l. 8), the early ninetees (l. 15 f), European

Television (l. 19 f) metaphor: Tsunami rolled right through our living rooms (l. 10), roots (l. 11),

birth of the genre (l. 18), hunger for (l. 31), evergreen of this genre and queen of all reality-TV shows (l. 48), happy mix of twenty somethings (l. 51)

rhetorical question: (l. 11), (l. 30 f) allusion: where else (l. 11), (l. 54), (l. 88 f) personification: TV show startet to enjoy (l. 12 ff), reality-TV (l. 23, 27), genre

borrows (l. 29), TV (l. 31) hyperbole: triumphant march (l. 16) antithesis: male or female, young or old (l. 44 f) synecdoche: container prison (l. 60) litotes: didn't go down quite so well (l. 64) repetition: reality-TV (l. 72)

Outlining the author's attitude towards reality-TV, it is quite useful to read between the lines and to take a look at the stylistic devices he uses.At first sight the caption of the text catches one's eye: "Bread and Games in TV Prison". It reminds of the fights of the gladiators of ancient Rome. The main thing which has changed is that nowadays you turn on reality-TV instead of going to the Colosseum to watch the spectacle. The allusion implies the message that the audience of such a show is quite primitive or even barbaric.The text begins in an ironic, partly sarcastic tone which lasts until the end. The "thanks“ to the Southeast Asia tourists in line 9 for footage of the Tsunami is obviously not real as in the opinion of the author it is just another form of reality-TV. Therefore it only serves the audience's voyeuristic tendencies. What shines through is a harsh criticism of reality-TV which is even more obvious when sarcastically described as the "finest form of voyeurism“ (l. 32). By using an alliteration the attention of the reader is called and makes the negative message implied even clearer. Another alliteration can be found when the concept of The Real World is explained in which the participants are under "constant camera surveillance" (l. 52). It also grabs the reader's attention and possibly also tries to make him think about this very curious fact.Moreover, some metonymys like the "whole world" (l. 8) which was watching the attack of "Al Quaeda" (l. 8) and metaphors like the "Tsunami roll[ing] right through our living rooms" (l. 10) support the point the author wants to make.To put it in simple words, he sees reality-TV as something quite strange and critical or even perverse since you watch other people suffer or actually die.

Though his personal view is quite negative, he also accepts that there's nearly no way around reality-TV if you watch television.

Norms & Values - Mediation

Amy Chua, a professor at the famous Yale University whose parents immigrated from China to the USA, lately wrote a book about the upbringing of children and the educational philosphies that come along with it.In the book she describes how she has raised her daughters: She was extremely strict and in this way tried to make them successful considering school or playing a music instrument. In detail, she only accepted perfect marks, prohibited television and school theatre, rejected presents which were not perfect, threatened them with the destruction of their toys and forced them to practice their music instruments for hours.When it comes to the success of Chua's educational methods both daughters have to be regarded. On the one hand, the older one even played the piano at the famous Carnegie Hall only at the age of 14. On the other hand, the younger daughter hatefully refused obedience at the age of 13 and now she is one of the most disrespectful, violent and uncontrollable children according to her mother. Moreover, her daughter abused and publicly humiliated her. She even threw dishes after Chua.The reason why the female professor became as famous with her proposals is that they triggered a public scandal. They caused hot discussions about the extremely strict Chinese and the rather gentle western education. The question is if Chuas style is the recept for success which many people are searching for. The picture that a Chinese child could be better than the own less ambitious kid or the kid with the less ambitious parents is quite humiliating for the German middle class. But there are misunderstandings in the public discurse about Chua's views. The reader expects fundamental dogmatics about forced obedience and drills. But it is more like an dazzling article about the private life of the family of quite a special person, a professor at the well-respected Yale University. Furthermore, it is the chance of taking a look into the life of a well integrated family with Chines roots living in a western country.Finally Chua's book is just the insight into a different approach considering the upbringing of children and shouldn't be seen as a recept for success.