THANK YOU ASHLEY SHELDAN!!

First off I want to thank Guest Speaker, Ashley Sheldan for taking the time to explain Lacan and the psychoanalysis theory. The first theory that grabbed my attention was the mirror stage. The mirror stage is when an infant begins to identify themselves as an individual being and detaching themselves from their mother. Mantissa immediately came to mind. When Miles Green comes out of his coma he begins to identify himself as an “it”. This is the first stage of the mirror stage. Imaginary is when an infant identify themselves with their mother. They do not consider themselves as an individual. Ashley Sheldan states, “the mirror stage does not provide the infant with an identity, or with coherence, but rather invites the infant to anticipate a future in which it will have an identity”. When he comes out of the coma he considers himself an “it” because to him he does not have an identity. This is exactly how an infant feels when they are just born. That is the way I see the mirror stage relates to Mantissa.
Another point that Ashley Sheldan made that reminded me of Mantissa was the concept of the death drive. This concept is when the sexual identity is illogical. The death drive aims for sexual satisfaction. This reminded me about what we discussed last class about how in Mantissa, Miles Green sexual fantasies of the threesome with the nurses. This sexual fantasy expresses his desires. Hopefully I explained these concepts and connected correctly with Mantissa. Thanks for reading my post :-D

OBAMA 08

EXCITED THAT THIS DAY HAS FINALLY COME. NOVEMBER 4, 2008 HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE....and CHANGE IS FINALLY COMING TO AMERICA :-D

MANTISSA

I have read a little bit of Mantissa and to be quite honest I was a bit confused while reading it. It seems like a quick read but one that a person must really pay close attention to in order to grasp the concept of the novel. I had to read it a couple of times. Hopefully I grasped the information properly.
However…although I was a bit confused, the part that grabbed my attention was when, the main character lost his memory and the fact that he believed that all reality is shown only on TV. The memory lost targeted my mind to the movie we are watching in class, Matrix. To have a memory loss and have to gain all the previous or new information into your mind reminded me of what they are doing with Neo in the Matrix. In the Matrix they are filling Neo’s mind with information that he needs to know about the world outside of the Matrix. He is reborn in the film and is gradually building up his knowledge with the information they imbed into his mind. I believe that when one is going through memory loss the process is very similar. You have to start over and learn previous and/or new information all over again.
The fact that Miles Green believes that the only things that are considered reality are shown on television is kind of funny to me. However it is a character in a book so I guess anything is possible. Anyways this reminded me of the Bauillraud’s ideas of simulation and hyperreal and through these ideas the concept of real comes into play. What is reality? Is whatever we see through hyperreal (our lenses) considered reality or is there another way that a person can actually defined the true concept of what reality is? In my opinion in the Matrix this seems to be the question that drives all of the characters.