Fluent Essays

I have 7 pages essay.But I want you to include Question below. Need to add I AM LEGEND movie. Question: Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene, asks, “What is it about the idea of a god [the god meme] that gives it its stability and penetrance in the cultural environment” (4)? In your essay, address a similar question: What is it about the zombie meme that gives it stability and penetrance in American culture? Dawkins argues that, for genes and perhaps also for memes, the “qualities of high survival” are “longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity” (5). Define and make use of these key terms as part of an essay in which you employ Dawkins’ discussion of memes to analyze the historical and cultural significance of zonbies/zombies. In your essay, incorporate McAllister’s discussion of zonbies in Haitian colonialism; and Kyle Bishops’ examination of the “zombie renaissance” in American culture. In order to make your argument more concrete, please incorporate a close reading of at least one scene/gameplay vid/part from at least one piece of zombie fiction. So a short sample outline for a rough draft might look something like this: 1. Memes, according to Dawkins, are [fill in the blank]. The idea of the zombie is a meme that is widespread in American culture. Dawkins says that meme spread widely when they are useful to people. McAllister and Bishop both argue that the zombie meme is useful because they do, in McAllisters terms, cultural work. In this essay, were going to analyse [Specific piece of zombie fiction] in order to determine what kind of cultural work it does, in the context of American culture. Briefly, [Specific piece of zombie fiction] comments on American culture by doing [fill in the blank]. This helps audiences by allowing them to [fill in the blank]. 2. According to McAllister, zombies have served as a metaphor for [aspect of American culture that zombies comment on, according to McAllister, that is most relevant to what you think [Specific piece of zombie fiction] is doing]. Insert analysis of scene from [Specific piece of zombie fiction]. 3. According to Bishop, zombies (all movie monsters, really, but specifically zombies) serve to help people think about historical trauma. Insert either a) further analysis of the scene from 2 that connects it to historical events that would have been on peoples minds when the movie was made/book was written/game was made, or b) analysis of a different scene. 4. Connect 2 and 3 in order to say something about what use people get out of [Specific piece of zombie fiction]. Connect this back to why memes survive. zombie_final_draft.docx zombies_as_memes.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview 1 Yoshihiro Wada Prof. Sam Cha CRW282 Essay #2, Draft #1 5/7/2020 Zombies as Memes The overall value of survival of the god meme in the pool of meme would, in most cases, result from the enormous psychological appeal. As a result, the said psychological appeal has a direct bearing on the stability and direct penetrance into the culture and its environment. As such, the mental request provides a plausible answer related to the sought continuously question regarding the idea of existence (Dawkins, 3) Further, it candidly suggests that the mistakes and injustices of this world will ultimately get rectified in the sequential world. In this breadth, the idea of god thus becomes copied quite readily by the brains of individuals and more so the successive generations. The inadequacies of individuals get cushioned against an everlasting arm. The set-out reasons, among others, promotes the copying of the idea of god to successive generations. It also adds to the brains of individuals. As such, the existence of god in the form of a meme leads to the ultimate high survival level. Human culture thus provides an environment that gets also embedded with an infective power, which promotes the high survival levels of the meme. Through natural selection, some memes become more successful in the replication than others. Akin to the genes, not all memes would replicate successfully (Dawkins, 3). The evolution of the memes, therefore, arises the moment self-copying memes appear. It would consequently lead to a faster process evolution of the memes leading to more penetration. 2 Imitation also, in such a broader sense, enhances the replication of the memes. With conducive conditions, a new form of replicator of meme undertakes to make copies of itself. To this end, the zombie meme operates in a similar situation. The American culture provides a conducive environment for replication and penetration as it were. The new replicators begin their sense of evolution taking over from the old. Self-copying memes would necessarily have a faster form of growth as compared to the ancient gene. The zombie meme in the American culture has a symbolic significance and cultural identity. It responds to the nexus of capitalism, religion, and race that Americans got subjected to in the slavery period. In a more specific way, the zombie undertakes to index and remind the Americans of the excess capitalism extremes. Overlap of capitalism and cannibalism would also get pointed out by the zombie meme (Dawkins, 3). More so, the interplay relationship, particularly between capitalism and the race in Americas history, also becomes of significance. These excesses remain embedded in the minds and hearts of the American people. It, in essence, serves as part of their identity and represents their history and cultural identity. Significantly, the zombie meme provides a symbolic significance of not only the identity of history but also the cultural identity. The stability of the zombie hence gets achieved and embraced in the American culture. Consequently, the acceptance of the gene eventually promotes its deep penetration in the culture of the Americas. Zombies also represented slavery vastly that the blacks got mostly subjected. Just as the films represent them to be, slaves in their numbers posed a horrific terror to those who subdued them and subjected them to untold misery and suffering. Consequently, the existence of zombie memes continually reminds of the horrible past and series of torture and exploitation during the slavery period. 3 To this end, this end, the zombie meme continues to remain relevant in the contemporary American world. As highlighted, the historical significance of the meme cannot get hidden nor thrown away all together. The high symbolism that the zombie meme provides ensures and enhances its optimal stability and penetrance in the American culture. Longevity, as employed by Dawkins (3), speaks to the period usually taken by a gene to remain relevant and essential as compared to their copies. In this regard, Dawkins employs the use of tune to symbolize the full meaning of longevity. He asserts that the text of the tune existing in ones brain would only last for an extended period as compared to the copy of the same tune printed in a volume. The latter would relatively last less long as opposed to the identical copies of tune in peoples brains, which would last for centuries to come. The tunes embedded in the papers would thus relatively tend to live longer than the copies printed in volumes. Similarly, memes tend to survive longer when they replicate and make copies. Fecundity becomes quite essential than the longevity of the specific copies. The meme gets compared to the scientific idea whose spread widely depends on the acceptability to the population of the individual scientists. As such, its overall success becomes tied to the number of times it becomes mentioned in the subsequent scientific journals. The popularity of the idea depends on how many times it gets mentioned by the people over the years. Thus, the ability of meme to swim through over the years, and maintain its relevance becomes the fecundity (Dawkins, 3). Some memes may achieve rapid success in spreading but may, however, not last long enough in the meme pool as compared to those with fecundity. Copying-fidelity, as employed by Dawkins, points out to another quality of successful memes replication. The term as used refers to the ability of the memes get passed on in an altered form. They can replicate more with each meme mutating to another differently. The mutation of 4 genes across and the ability to pass on to the other gives it high quality of survival (Dawkins, 3). As such, the meme transmission becomes mostly subjected to both mutation and bleeding, components that made it to continue living. Cultural transmission remains highly analogous to the transfer of genetics, according to Dawkins. Though it remains conservative mainly, it would eventually give rise to an imminent increase in evolution. He asserts that it continues through the species that cultural evolution and what it can do gets to become seen. To this end of idea, the culture of species that includes language plays a pivotal role in the evolution of the species. Zombie memes get tied to this narrative to a great extent. The change remains highly progressive, just as the case of genetic evolution. The memes of zombie similar to the genes are replicators and can live on across the period with the laws of natural selection applying. To a large extent, culture plays an instrumental role in what gets passed on successive generations and what gets omitted. Generally, culture remains a set of life of a particular people. It ranges from their way of dressing, eating, and religious habits, among others. It also encompasses how they organize themselves, art, and architecture. Just like the memes, zombies pass on their features to the subsequent generations over time. Similarly, the striking features of resemblance from the face, talents, and other physical features get passed on to the offsprings. However, the contribution of genes gets halved as generations pass on to others. Just as in the case, zombies too pass their traits to their future generations. The features of survival, such as longevity, takes center stage in passing on of the traits to the subsequent generations. Whereas the zombies maintain their set way of life, the longevity of the characteristics plays a significant role in ensuring it does not get lost. Historically, zombies remain known to stay in a cluster-like form and carry out their activities as such. 5 The longevity of these traits thus lives on to the subsequent generations. It ensures that the habit does not get lost in the process. The zombie, just like the meme, lives on even after its demise. Similar to the belief of the meme living on even after it seized to exist, idea of zombies gets advanced in the same narrative. According to McAlister (6), zombies relate to a reflection of a returned body. This refers to one who gets raised from the grave and subsequently gets turned into a slave worker. Thus, zombies become dead people with a drive and passion for cannibalizing and killing the living. To this end, McAlister asserts that the walking dead, especially in the United States streets, remain in every place with some citizens even dressing in zombie-like clothes to signify this fact. Though used metaphorically, the idea of zombies lingers everywhere as we remain surrounded by the zombies in every place. The fecundity element of the zombies gets advanced across the generations, with the appetite growing more reliable across the subsequent generations. Though there remain many types and kinds of zombies across the world, the underlying feature across the board is their intention to cause havoc. Historically, zombies got tied with the quack sorcerers who remain in the conquest to control the whites, especially women. McAlister (5) further links them mostly to the blacks whose blackness mostly got linked to primitiveness and superstition. In whichever way it gets presented, zombies remain historically associated with causing mayhem and havoc. The cultural and historical perspective of zombies gets passed on successfully to subsequent generations is mostly that of fatalities and misery. In retrospect, though, it serves to point out and index excessive controls of capitalism and its overlap with cannibalism. More still, in America, the interplay between the relationship of race and capitalism history lingers on even in the contemporary world. As such, the zombie narrative gets advanced to symbolize this 6 relationship and its dire effects across the board. McAlister further suggests that zombies would eventually rise to attack their owners with the consumption of their life force serving as payment. Just like the colonial worker in this case represented by a slave, zonbi similarly possessed the overall potential for rebellion. It got linked to the people who sought wealth by buying spirits. Lack of feeding the said spirits bought in favor of wealth, political promotions became fatal as the same minds pounced and fed on them. It essentially because they became unable to provide the food required of them (McAlister, 6). The same case in Haiti applied for the zonbi linked to attacking their former masters and consuming them for payment. According to McAlister, the narrative of zonbi can best get comprehended through philosophical, religious, and also artistic responses to the diverse dynamics of cannibalistic capitalism. Historically, zombie films have become associated with a stylized reaction to the consciousness of the American culture. In more specific ways, it got linked to the social and political injustices meted to the people. As such, there developed a sense of stability to watch zombie movies with a view of fitting the national mood. The young people explicitly renewed the sense of interest in zombies, primarily through video games that remained highly violent. More still, the natural survival aspect of the zombies, whereby the more they killed, the higher chances of survival also found itself in the video games. The players in such games get incorporated as part of the action. Also, zombies featured in graphic novels. Metaphorically, zombies directly manifest their horrors of death and remain in the perpetual active form of decay. However, despite this state of fact, the zombies would not become a threat were they to appear in the contemporary world. State agencies such as the military and the police would, of course, exterminate them without delay. The ultimate breakdown of social order, however, becomes significantly linked to the zombie world. As such, it arouses and stimulates the 7 urge to watch the zombie films curiously. In a nutshell, the existence of zombie films serves as a mirror reflection of the ills in modern society. To a great extent, zombie movies help one prepare for any eventuality that may happen in the community. The zombie cinema genre, in a more profound way, undertakes to gives more cultural value and significance to modern society. 8 Reference 1. Dawkins, Richard. “Memes: The New Replicators”. The Selfish Gene. New York : Oxford University Press, 1976. 2. Minchillo, John. The Associated Press. “Protesters from Occupy Wall Street march through New York’s financial district dressed as ‘corporate zombies.’” Photo. (October 3, 2011) 3. McAlister, Elizabeth. “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-whites: the Race and Religion of zombies.” Anthropological Quarterly. 85.2 (Spring 2012): p457. 4. Bishop, Kyle. “Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance.” Journal of Popular Film and Television. 37.1 (Spring 2009): p16. Zombies as Memes Question for the Portfolio Reading Set (Due on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by 4:00 PM) Question: Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene, asks, “What is it about the idea of a god [the god meme] that gives it its stability and penetrance in the cultural environment” (4)? In your essay, address a similar question: What is it about the zombie meme that gives it stability and penetrance in American culture? Dawkins argues that, for genes and perhaps also for memes, the “qualities of high survival” are “longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity” (5). Define and make use of these key terms as part of an essay in which you employ Dawkins’ discussion of memes to analyze the historical and cultural significance of zonbies/zombies. In your essay, incorporate McAllister’s discussion of zonbies in Haitian colonialism; and Kyle Bishops’ examination of the “zombie renaissance” in American culture. Notes: Signed certificates for the supporting papers you are submitting for the portfolio should be secured as early as possible. We urge you to obtain the required signatures before you write the portfolio essay. Although chairpersons may sign on behalf of a faculty member who is on leave or is no longer at the university if you provide them with the original graded paper, please be advised that department chairs are under no obligation to certify papers simply because you waited too long to seek the instructor’s signature. Think ahead and be considerate; neither course instructors nor department chairs appreciate being pressured at the last minute for signatures; and, any incomplete portfolios will not be read and it will be graded a “void.” Additionally, if you do not have the original graded paper, but you have the original on a hard drive, you can have that paper certified if and only if the professor indicates on the certification form, that they remember the paper to be your original paper. For a list of complete portfolio contents, see the back of portfolio certification forms or visit our website:  http://www.umb.edu/academics/vpass/undergraduate_studies/writing_proficiency/portfo lio_requirements Students must also fill out and submit a Portfolio Submission Form that documents the contents of their portfolio. Incomplete portfolios will not be evaluated. Portfolios must be completed with all the necessary signatures and submitted to the Writing Proficiency Office (CC-1-1313) no later than 4:00 P.M on Tuesday, January 8 2013. Portfolios will not be accepted after that time. January 2013 WPE Portfolio Reading Set i University of Massachusetts at Boston CPCS, CLA, CEHD, CNHS, and CSM Writing Proficiency Evaluation The Portfolio is due no later than 4:00 P.M. in the Writing Proficiency Office, Campus Center 1/1300 on Tuesday, January 8, 2013. Portfolio Reading Set: Zombies as Memes 1. Dawkins, Richard. “Memes: The New Replicators”. The Selfish Gene. New York : Oxford University Press, 1976. 2. Minchillo, John. The Associated Press. “Protesters from Occupy Wall Street march through New York’s financial district dressed as ‘corporate zombies.’” Photo. (October 3, 2011) 3. McAlister, Elizabeth. “Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-whites: the Race and Religion of zombies.” Anthropological Quarterly. 85.2 (Spring 2012): p457. 4. Bishop, Kyle. “Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance.” Journal of Popular Film and Television. 37.1 (Spring 2009): p16. Articles reprinted by permission Notes: It is essential that you include in your essay specific references to the articles in the reading set, and that you attribute any material that you summarize, quote, or paraphrase to its source. Base your essay on the information contained in the set of readings, not on your own experience, on outside readings, or on courses you have taken. Plagiarism in a portfolio, whether it is in the new essay or in one of the supporting essays, will be treated in the manner as outlined in the Code of Conduct. The consequences of violating these policies are serious and may include suspension or expulsion Your portfolio must contain an essay that is at least five full pages (double spaced in 10 or 12 point type) that answers the question above, at least 15 pages of supporting papers each one should be attached to a completed Certification Form and a completed Portfolio Submission Form. The exception to the 15-page supporting-paper requirement only applies to a new transfer student, who will have completed 75 or more credits at the end of his/her first semester at UMB. If, and only if you are a transfer student who has not yet completed your second semester, then you may submit a mid-semester portfolio (March or October) that has either two or three supporting papers totaling 10 full pages. Additionally, you are still required to submit the new essay on the reading set. You must submit it to the Writing Proficiency Office (CC-1-1313) by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 8, 2013. January 2013 WPE Portfolio Reading Set ii “Memes: the New Replicators”1 by Richard Dawkins2 Are there any good reasons for supposing our own species to be unique? I believe the answer is yes. Most of what is unusual about man can be summed up in one word: ‘culture.’ I use the word not in its snobbish sense, but as a scientist uses it. Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic transmission in that, although basically conservative, it can give rise to a form of evolution. …It is our own species that really shows what cultural evolution can do. Language is one example out of many. Fashions in dress and diet, ceremonies and customs, art and architecture, engineering and technology, all evolve in historical time in a way that looks like highly speeded up genetic evolution, but has really nothing to do with genetic evolution. As in genetic evolution though, the change may be progressive. […] What, after all, is so special about genes? The answer is that they are replicators. The laws of physics are supposed to be true all over the accessible universe. Are there any principles of biology that are likely to have similar universal validity? When astronauts voyage to distant planets and look for life, they can expect to find creatures too strange and unearthly for us to imagine. But is there anything that must be true of all life, wherever it is found, and whatever the basis of its chemistry? If forms of life exist whose chemistry is based on silicon rather than carbon, or ammonia rather than water, if creatures are discovered that boil to death at -100 degrees centigrade, if a form of life is found that is not based on chemistry at all but on electronic reverberating circuits, will there still be any general principle that is true of all life? Obviously I do not know but, if I had to bet, I would put my money on one fundamental principle. This is the law that all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities. The gene, the DNA molecule, happens to be the replicating entity that prevails on our planet. There may be others. If there are, provided cert ... Purchase answer to see full attachment