The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a Parasite

You really didn't think Tony chose to show the Fantastic Mr. Fox to class just because he loves the movie, right? Sure, that might be the reason why he chose it over other movies that well could have been viable options. Or maybe I'm just paranoid with any decisions Tony makes regarding all content of the course. I've learned not to underestimate the potential for ulterior motives.

Regardless, Mr. Fox is not only a parasite, but he has been infect by some rather nasty ones.

On a basic level, and here I refer to my readings with Serres' Parasites, Mr. Fox is a parasite. The whole movie is about his ability to steal from and feed off of the human farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Beans.

We want him to win because he's cute and witty and fun whereas they're cold and mean, but like Serres relays, Mr. Fox is the rat at the tax-collector's table, "a guest at an interrupted banquet."

The noise that sends the fox away is the rather extreme of his tree home being bulldozed into oblivion.

http://www.plurk.com/p/3lakp1

Look at the second image @vladislavxodasevic posted on this plurk. Now, tell me, how does that compare to this image of Mr. Fox:

Mr. Fox is infected with us, our thoughts, our anthropomorphic ideals. Like our good friend The Tomcat Murr, he is become human and this sets him and his furry compatriots apart from the rest of the world.

It repeatedly comes up in the dialogue of the movie that Mr. Fox has what he calls a phobia of wolves. They terrify him for reasons that are never completely spoken. However, when we see the wolf at the end of the movie, Mr. Fox does not react with what we would imagine to be phobic fear, but rather a kind of logical interest.

He greets it in English, Latin and French and receives no answers. As foils, Mr. Fox and the Wolf represent opposites of the animal spectrum. Where Mr. Fox is completely anthropomorphized and infected with human thought, the Wolf is wild. Mr. Fox wears clothes and walks upright. The Wolf runs on all fours.

It could be said then that Mr. Fox has a phobia not of wolves, but of the wild nature that the wolves represent. He is the epitome of the anthropomorphized, he is essentially human and the wolf then is everything he is not in that sense.

Some notes on blogging

I've been a casual blogger for going on three years now, and I feel like I've learned a few things. For example: the people you want to read your posts will read them regardless of length; however, if you only post text, you limit the medium of blogging.

I've p-lurked around a few of the Parasites blogs (a more or less full list can be seen here: http://nanotexts.blogspot.com/), and I'm liking what I'm seeing. Ideas are flowing. There isn't quite as much feedback as any of us would like, but I think that's a continual problem in a class like this. But I wanted to share something with the parasites.

Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g


Blogging as a way of disseminating information opens possibilities because you are not limited in the way that a hard copy paper is limited, which is one reason I really enjoy that Tony utilizes it as a main format for writing.

Hyperlinks, embedded videos and pictures all offer the possibility of a greater, and here I mean that in the sense of greater as larger, experience for the reader. I'm not saying it's necessary to include these things, but I think it would be foolish to neglect them as available tools to work with. You wouldn't use the heel of your shoe on a nail if you have a hammer within reach, would you?

So post, play and explore the possibilities of this medium known as blogging. Especially if you're feeling stuck on what to say next.

Thursday is just not my day.

Had to stay through my entire class, so i missed the 2:13 bus. Running late for my youth 4 REAL mentoring where, oh, i'm supposed to lead the opening activity. Nobody is answering their phones. Homework. Crew. Everyone else seems to be having bad days.
AAAAHHHH!!! *takes a few deep breathes* okay, i'm doing great. Everything will be fine.
Good news though, i found out i got an RA interview. Assuming i can find the time to fit that in.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Asks a question: a poem

What becomes of the blog untouched?
The final update, months if not years old,
it corrodes in the neverending
cached and saved on the servers of our Search overlords
zombies still standing
perhaps to come back and bite us when we least expect it
content builds character
context puts us in our place
But relevance forever holds them irrational
What becomes of the blog untouched?
Nothing.

So I'm reading this book, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.

And it's made me think.

Love is a parasite.

That interrupts your thoughts.

"'Oh, Chiara - my Chiara!' he cried out in the most painful grief. " Abraham is infected as he debates with Madame Benzon, and his love cries out, interrupting his statements against the frailty of the woman's heart.

We find examples of this same kind of interruption as we explore more of the happenings surrounding Julia and Princess Hedwiga, even our dear Tomcat Murr as each is interrupted by thoughts of Kreisler or Herr Hector or Kitty respectively.

Like the earworms I discussed in an earlier blog post, this love wriggles its way in and replicates itself, replacing what thoughts you would otherwise have. It is virus. It is an infective agent.

In parallels to the blood parasite of Shivers, it overrides rational thought.

So I now wonder, what is the parasite we're dealing with in Tomcat Murr? Why would Tony choose this as a text? Merely to bring up Toxoplasma Gondii seems a great deal of work for a rather small reference.


I can't shake the thought that there is a parasite hiding in this text that I'm missing. Something bigger among the ideas and tropes presented. Perhaps I'm infected with it already.