4 Replies to “The Future Totalitarian State (Erin Rome)”
Erin,
Excellent job! I really enjoyed how you set up your slidecast with a summary of a Twilight Zone episode and related it to real life examples of totalitarian states. I thought that all of your points were presented well. Also, I never thought of the relationships between dystopian societies portrayed in TV shows and books such as the Twilight Zone or 1984 and totalitarian societies such as Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. Your second portion of your slidecast on the atomic bombs dropped in Japan and themes of fear in advertisements and books was also well done representing one of the main characteristics of a totalitarian state. Your final explanation on the relationship between the totalitarian state and the extermination of religion was well done and could also be explained as a loss of hope within society. Overall, I thought that dissecting an episode of the Twilight Zone to explain the future totalitarian state was unique and clever. I learned a lot about the key characteristics about totalitarian states and how they were utilized in American media.
I liked that you went for a dystopian prediction, I feel like these predictions reflect the time period more, since its more connected to human fears and emotions, rather than some guy just drawing up something he’d think would be cool– that’s just me though. I liked the music that played through some of it, maybe you could have continued it through the whole thing, it was a nice touch. I appreciated the subtle religious reference to the class’ broad hypotheses, I see you.
There was one singular instance when the background music overpowered your narration, something to keep an eye out for. Lastly, and this might just be a me problem, but the slide where you had us read a quote while you were talking was difficult to accomplish, I ended up pausing and replaying the slide. Maybe next time just make it part of your narration.
Overall, I think it was really good and interesting, nice work.
I enjoy how you used the background music for dramatic effect! I also like how you focused on a specific time period in your slidecast and went in depth in discussing the historical context surrounding the future vision of a totalitarian state. Your description of propaganda is particularly effective, and I like how you added captions to your images throughout the slidecast in order to clarify what you were discussing. I also think returning to the discussion of the Twilight Zone throughout the slidecast was a good idea. Setting up the slidecast with a description of the episode then moving into the context and then applying the episode to the historical context throughout the slidecast was effective in getting your point across. I would have maybe added some more information about other TV shows, movies, or books, besides The Twilight Zone episode, and 1984 that also describe a future totalitarian state. Adding more examples might have helped further emphasize your point. However, I thought you did an overall awesome job with this slidecast.
I really enjoyed your slidecast. I liked how you went through and explained the Twilight Zone episode rather than telling viewers its main point and moved on. Furthermore, I liked how you used a chronological approach to show the progression of the totalitarian state over this time span. When you mentioned concentration camps it reminded me of our class discussion on how factories themselves are a technology themselves, and I made the same connection with the camps – this was a real sticking point for me. I wish you would have done more to show how the contexts of the periods you discussed projected predictions of the future. Additionally, there were some slides where you addressed what was being viewed and others where you did not really mention the graphic and how it tied into your argument. Other than that, I thought you did a great job! It was entertaining and kept me interested the entire time.
Erin,
Excellent job! I really enjoyed how you set up your slidecast with a summary of a Twilight Zone episode and related it to real life examples of totalitarian states. I thought that all of your points were presented well. Also, I never thought of the relationships between dystopian societies portrayed in TV shows and books such as the Twilight Zone or 1984 and totalitarian societies such as Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. Your second portion of your slidecast on the atomic bombs dropped in Japan and themes of fear in advertisements and books was also well done representing one of the main characteristics of a totalitarian state. Your final explanation on the relationship between the totalitarian state and the extermination of religion was well done and could also be explained as a loss of hope within society. Overall, I thought that dissecting an episode of the Twilight Zone to explain the future totalitarian state was unique and clever. I learned a lot about the key characteristics about totalitarian states and how they were utilized in American media.
I liked that you went for a dystopian prediction, I feel like these predictions reflect the time period more, since its more connected to human fears and emotions, rather than some guy just drawing up something he’d think would be cool– that’s just me though. I liked the music that played through some of it, maybe you could have continued it through the whole thing, it was a nice touch. I appreciated the subtle religious reference to the class’ broad hypotheses, I see you.
There was one singular instance when the background music overpowered your narration, something to keep an eye out for. Lastly, and this might just be a me problem, but the slide where you had us read a quote while you were talking was difficult to accomplish, I ended up pausing and replaying the slide. Maybe next time just make it part of your narration.
Overall, I think it was really good and interesting, nice work.
I enjoy how you used the background music for dramatic effect! I also like how you focused on a specific time period in your slidecast and went in depth in discussing the historical context surrounding the future vision of a totalitarian state. Your description of propaganda is particularly effective, and I like how you added captions to your images throughout the slidecast in order to clarify what you were discussing. I also think returning to the discussion of the Twilight Zone throughout the slidecast was a good idea. Setting up the slidecast with a description of the episode then moving into the context and then applying the episode to the historical context throughout the slidecast was effective in getting your point across. I would have maybe added some more information about other TV shows, movies, or books, besides The Twilight Zone episode, and 1984 that also describe a future totalitarian state. Adding more examples might have helped further emphasize your point. However, I thought you did an overall awesome job with this slidecast.
Erin,
I really enjoyed your slidecast. I liked how you went through and explained the Twilight Zone episode rather than telling viewers its main point and moved on. Furthermore, I liked how you used a chronological approach to show the progression of the totalitarian state over this time span. When you mentioned concentration camps it reminded me of our class discussion on how factories themselves are a technology themselves, and I made the same connection with the camps – this was a real sticking point for me. I wish you would have done more to show how the contexts of the periods you discussed projected predictions of the future. Additionally, there were some slides where you addressed what was being viewed and others where you did not really mention the graphic and how it tied into your argument. Other than that, I thought you did a great job! It was entertaining and kept me interested the entire time.