All Good Things Come to an End...

For the final project of the semester, we worked within the rhetorical studies of food.  After watching several various films on the matter as well as reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, we were told to create an artistic representation of a certain claim we are trying to make about food and its rhetoric and proceed to show it off at AHS's last All School Exhibition.  

I created a poster depicting my claim of how people in their teenage years seem to eat a lot of unhealthy foods and seem to make overall bad choices to their health and for the most part do not see immediate body mass changes or fluxes, so assume that it's okay, when in all honesty it's not.  These choices that people make on what and how to fuel their body with with no repercussions tends to build up what it considered "inner fats." After peoples' metabolisms slow down and become less active, these dangerous fat build-ups that may not have been obvious before,  move into "outer fats" which are the better-known fat build-ups that lay on top of muscles and are more noticeable than the inner fat storages.  My main take-away for this project was that people should try to be mindful of what they put into their bodies during their adolescent years since these choices have a way of catching up to people.  

My personal takeaways of this project primarily consisted of the personal dilemma of Organic choices.  I have grown up eating Organic and Natural foods that I no longer feel are necessarily all that they are built up to be.  Natural in a sense is an un-patented word that companies have the freedom to put onto their goods, regardless of how it was produced or harvested.  Organic is essentially the same process as un-organic foods, but without the use of pesticides.  A lot of organic companies even use GMO's...  I still believe that eating organic is a better choice as far as spraying, it just isn't the wisest choice if you are trying to be eco-friendly.  These companies ship just as much as other non-organic companies do.   I think that the best decision a person could make is eating locally and sustainably.  My family utilizes a lot of what this city has to offer as far as produce, meat and cheese.  There are a lot of people who can not afford to eat organic as it does cost a considerable amount more than the leading brand.  However, I do stress that people look into eating locally and sustainably when ever it is found to be possible.   

Below is my poster that I exhibited.   (His decisions are catching up to him... clever, eh?)

Artist Statement:

They’re Catching Up To Me.

As people tend to lean towards fast food as ”comfort food,” obesity can soon become a

problem.  One of the reasons that I consider fast food, especially McDonalds, to be a comfort food franchise, is due to the fact that the food is satisfying, cheap, accessible, and almost anywhere you go you will be able to find a location; promoting the feeling of ease and comfort.  Needless to say, fast food is not a healthy decision for any meal, let alone eating it multiple times a week, or even everyday day.   So why do people continue eating at these fast food chains, knowing how bad it can be for your health?  I have found that there is not a black and white answer to this question, but that the problem seems to be growing… literally.

America is now recognized as the most obese country in the world with an obese population of over 30%.  This obesity epidemic not solely due to these fast food franchises, yet it is found to be the leading factor affecting this nation’s health.  The cost of this food is so enticing that a lot of people fall for what is conveyed greatly through media, as to what they should eat on a daily basis.  People are faced with such conflicting ads in media that many people fail to recognize.  On one hand, people are shown the images of “healthy”, happy, fit Americans that sometimes have an unachievable level of body mass.  One the other hand, Americans are tempted with these cheap, satisfying, meals that can make you extremely unhealthy and detrimentally obese.  When trying to navigate around these walking paradoxes, some Americans succumb to the temptation and divulge in these fast foods, which essentially can deteriorate your health within a matter of times consuming these foods. 

The aspect of the fast food nation that I am focusing on is the portion of fast food eaters that do not see a direct or immediate health concern or change in body mass.  When inside of a fast food restaurant, there are people with different body types ranging from the extremely obese to the rail-skinny people. 

In my poster, I represented the most “successful” fast food franchises with iconic figures morphed to give out more of an eerie vibe.  Along with these corporations I included basic unhealthy foods that can be malign to health such as donuts, bacon and Twinkies.  The man running from these foods is considered a “standard” weight for most men, yet he represents these people who have made bad decisions for their health, which has now started to catch up to him later in life. 

These people who are not obese, yet are essentially just as unhealthy as the most obese fast food consumers, live a very risky lifestyle.  If people eat unhealthy food without repercussion, why not keep eating it? You can’t tell from the outside body image, but these foods are killing people on the inside.  These so-called “inner” fats are different from outer fats since people get smaller build-ups of fat versus the more common “outer fats” that lay on top of most muscles, making these build-ups much more obvious.  Later in life when peoples’ metabolisms slow down, and these foods and bad lifestyle choices catch up to them it is clear what these foods have the potential to do to them.  It’s important for society to know what these foods are capable of doing to their bodies and lifestyles, so my main point is: know that these unhealthy choices can catch up to you later in life, so start making better decisions early in life related to what you fuel your body with.  After all, as “they” say, “You are what you eat.”

Food for thought.  

The Hunger Games of Life Seminar Post-Write

Post-seminar writing:

1.  Reflection/Self-Assess 

      This seminar I feel started out kind of slow but seemed to pick itself up after a while of conducted conversation.  After being asked specific questions about "Supersize Me," The Hatchet, and The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, I got the feeling that this project is going to be very interesting because everyone has their own opinions and philosophies in a way toward our food culture.  The Food Revolution, occurring around 10,000 years ago, has of course impacted our past with trade, cultures and accessibility, but is impacting our current society much more radically than it has in its past.  From fare trade of food, to fare distribution of our food surpluses on this planet, this food epidemic is very much affecting our society. (Every 1 in 7 people is starving on this planet).  There are the "fat cats" as people refer to them so often, of the rick stock-brokers of Wall Street that in a lot of ways are living a life of ease with what they receive in terms of food.  There are also so many people who feel that eating at a fast food restaurant, as bad as it may be for you, is their only option with food costing what it does.  From seeing Supersize Me 4 times since its debut in 2004, I am familiar with what this food is capable of doing to the human body, but it is also important to know where this food even comes from.  Yeah this food is fast, its easy, its somewhat tasty, but the thing that really turns me off of going to these fast food restaurants is the common knowledge of where their meat, vegetables, and other ingredients come from.  The meat industry is one of those things that I can't get enough information about once I start researching it, but it also never fails to give me a sour taste in my mouth towards society and animal cruelty.  I think that in this seminar I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place because there were several moments that I did join in in the conversation and seminar, but I am also surprised that I did not speak up more, let alone dominate the conversation because I am so personally invested in this topic.  I think I talked an appropriate amount and because I feel that a lot of seminar-ing is based on listening and absorbing the thoughts and claims of others I feel that I completed this seminar with something around an A or and A-.   My peers seemed to have very sporadic thoughts, and I don't know if it was the day, time of day, group or what, but the seminar seemed very guided.   Meaning we did not really dominate the conversation and take off with sporadic ideas and thoughts, but in a lot of ways I thought that the seminar was slow moving and Jessica had to steer the seminar in every-which-way.  There was nothing completely outstanding about what people said in my seminar, but overall it was interesting to hear that a lot of people would choose to live as hunter-gathereres versus on the McDiet.  I feel that because so many people do like the ease of fast-food in our class and eat at McDonald's semi-frequently I was surprised by the fact that they would rather live like Brian than Morgan.  I agreed with this of course, but I also have such a distaste for fast-food that it makes me somewhat bias in a way.  I think that this changed my thinking about the text in the way that something about how Brian's situation was portrayed in the book was something that a lot of people became fond of, enough to want to do it themselves.  I love eating, cooking and living in the wilderness- I have ever since I hiked the Colorado Trail, but I also feel that a lot of what the book suggested about Brian's situation was untrue or slightly fictional.

Cat's Cradle Seminar Post-Write and Synthesis

1- Reflection
Looking back on the seminar, I think that first of all, Cat's Cradle is probably my favorite book that we have read this semester.  We have read multiple books, all of which were different yet enjoyable, I still found myself looking at Cat's Cradle like a book that I would enjoy reading out of class as well.  I think that coming out of the seminar it seems like a lot of students feel this way as well.  I think that everyone had a different feeling about this book or claim that they were trying to defend, yet for the most part the themes in this book were easy enough to grasp for us to have an in-depth conversation about and still mostly agree.  I think that I brought a lot of good points to the fishbowl without overtaking it.  I also felt that I did not take over the conversations when there were times that I could have.  I did come in late and due to that I missed being in my original group which could have impacted the conversation a little bit but at the same time I enjoyed the group I was in.  The group itself I also feel did a really good job of clarifying points and bringing new claims to the discussion.  Overall I think that I deserve an A on this seminar based on the rubric.
One thing that in particular struck me as surprising, which I'm sure is true for everyone is a comment that towards the end of the conversation Elliott made about Africa.  Not that I even view this as a reoccurring theme our discussion encountered, but it was still very surprising that he would say that he "looses respect for people in Africa who are suffering from AIDS, starvation and thirst, as well as people who make an effort to help these people." WHAT? To me this was extremely weird and almost ignorant thing to say, especially in Humanities class.  This, hopefully, was not what he was implying to say, but at the same time definitely made the conversation more interesting and... louder for the time being.  Other than that comment I think the conversation in our seminar was really self-guided and a positive seminar.

2- Synthesis
One claim that I want to make about the text is that I believe Felix Hoenikker was a coward.  The reason I think this is because I made the assumption that he commit suicide at the beach house.  He was, as we discussed, a fairly selfish person who made discoveries and invented things based upon curiosity without thinking about what his discoveries could potentially do to others, even life itself.  When the Hoenikker children were recounting the events that happened on the day that Felix Hoenikker died it gave me the impression that the way he died was entirely different.  This is what really happened.  Felix Hoenikker brought his children to the beach house with him to give him an excuse to let them go off and play while he could play with his latest toy in private.  While they were out running errands and playing on the beach, he began to look into the ice-nine and what it could in fact do.  Whilst playing with it, he realized just how risky and potentially life-ending it could be and began to do some serious reflection.  He saw how simple and instantaneous it was for the ice-nine to transform surrounding water and that it could happen to any form and body of water, including people.  Realizing that he did not want to be held resposible for the end of life itself and seeing the human population all die, himself included, he ended his life early.  By sitting comfortably down and watching the ocean around him, knowing that he would never see it again, he got comfortable, and touched his lips.  The end.  By doing this he still ended humanity, and left his already neglected children to fend for themselves for the rest of their lives.  This is why I now think of Felix Hoenikker a cowardly and selfish man.