Author Archives: Ana Dilan

EXTRA CREDIT–PANEL ONE: Humans’ Very Real Relationships with Not-So-Real Relationships

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I attended the first panel of Networked Narratives last Friday, March 15th. Presenters Warner Stoddart II and Micah Sakado talked about volunteering abroad with various foreign armies and the parasocial relationships created in V-tubing, respectively. At first, I wondered why these two wildly different presenters would be put together. What does volunteering for an army fighting battles that are not your own and engaging with a live stream of a fictional, motion-captured anime character have in common?

Only after their presentations did it occur to me that the common thread between Warner and Micah’s presentations is parasociality.

Thanks to social media, parasociality and parasocial relationships are regarded as symptom of delusion, a malady of the brain. Having a parasocial relationship with a celebrity or a fictional character can be met with at best, disbelief, and at worst, disdain or disgust. Why are these parasocial relationships met with such negative reactions when everyone in some way, shape, or form engages in these relationships? Sports fans buy their favorite athletes’ jerseys and music lovers attend their favorite artists’ concerts, so why the negativity?

Micah redefined a parasocial relationship as an “asymmetrical relationship with critical distance,” rather than a one-sided illusion of a face-to-face relationship. Defining a parasocial relationship as “asymmetrical” removes power from the “one-sided” aspect of the initial definition, as both parties contribute to the relationship in some way but there is considerably more effort being exerted from one side than the other. Micah noticed that the key to having a healthy parasocial relationship is for the individual to recognize that the relationship only evokes the feeling of having the relationship they desire rather than having the actual relationship. His interviewees said that they got into V-tubing because interacting with their favorite V-tuber was “like having a friend” or “like having a crush on someone”–the key thing to note is that these interviewees differentiated between having a friend in real life and a friend through the screen.

Warren, who presented on volunteering for the YPG Kurdish militia and Ukraine, among many other foreign armies, touched very briefly on the volunteers’ motivations for volunteering. For some of them, their reasons for joining were political, but quite a few said they felt a calling to “chase the dragon of combat.” I wanted to ask if there was also an altruistic approach to volunteering for foreign armies that these volunteers took. Did some volunteers feel like this was the best way to help the civilians affected by the terrorist groups? Did they feel a connection to these civilians, despite not knowing them personally? In a way, I can see some form of parasociality in the decision to volunteer.

Week 10: When is the ocean’s birthday?

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Helen M. Rodzakowski’s Vast Oceans made me think and rethink my perception of so much more than the ocean. It also made me rethink the things considered just as timeless as the ocean–for example, Barbie. Barbie dolls and Barbie movies were a personal childhood staple. There wasn’t a day that went by in the first six or seven years of my life that I didn’t watch Barbie’s “Rapunzel” or sing the songs from Barbie’s “The Princess and the Pauper” or happily receive a new Barbie doll from my aunt. Barbie’s presence in my life was a constant, so it didn’t occur until later in life that Barbie wasn’t always a constant in every kid’s life. We can trace Barbie’s beginnings back to the 50s, down to the name of her creator and why she was named Barbie in the first place. Barbie has history, but in the eyes of time, Barbie is barely a twinkle in it.

One of the quotes that stood out to me in Rodzakowski’s Vast Oceans is: ““…the connections between people and oceans, though ancient, have tightened over time and multiplied with industrialization and globalization. Although we think of it as being starkly different, in this sense the ocean resembles the land. This trajectory runs counter to wide-spread cultural assumptions of the ocean as a place remote from and immune to human activity.” (9) The ocean has seen all of human history, existing long before humans even became humans. If the ocean were a person, it would know more of our history than we know of it. Even though our knowledge of the ocean’s history is limited, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Week 9: The Thing about “The Thing in Itself”

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Our reading for this week references philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “das Ding an sich”–or “the thing in itself.” “The thing in itself” refers to an individual’s difficulty to truly comprehend an object because of the meanings and definitions attached to the object. Those meanings and definitions, which differ from person to person, cloud the “prior truth” attached to the object.

It’s an interesting way of viewing the world as this school of thought asks its student to examine their personal biases, but it’s also an incredibly removed and admittedly-Western way of viewing the world. The text states: “…every object and being is defined by its relationships. It is part of networks and only has meaning in relation to its surroundings. Scientists studying nature had sought to know the “thing in itself” and to isolate an organism in a cage or a glass container. Yet to grasp fully any form of life requires studying it in its habitat, where its existence is defined by relations with others of the same species, and by the plants, animals, insects, and microscopic organisms that share its environment. As the analysis becomes more detailed, it must include more and more about the environment, including the climate, food sources, predators, competitors, procreation, and so on.” (9)

In essence, this means that no object exists in a vacuum and its meaning comes from the things that surround it. A spool of thread and a shirt aren’t just two separate objects that happen to be in proximity; there’s a story that can be created around these two objects. One could say the spool of thread was used to fix a hole in the shirt or that the thread was used to sew together the parts of the shirt. We could even go as far as to say that the spool of thread might be embroidery floss and could be used to embroider a pattern on the shirt. The individual meanings of a shirt as a garment and canvas for creation and a spool of thread as a tool for creativity and creation are only created because of each object’s relation to each other.

This relational existence is what makes the conversation about humans, anthropocentrism, and the environmental humanities’ denouncement of said anthropocentrism so interesting. While we as a species have created a lot of problems for nature by distancing ourselves from it, we have also still made ourselves a part of it through our interference. Have you ever seen what a banana or watermelon looked like before humans came up with GMOs, natural or otherwise? Nature shapes us just as much as we shape nature and human interference, in a way, becomes a part of nature.

Midterm Discovery Assignment

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Ana Dilan 

ECL 305 

Professor Pressman

3 March 2024 

“Poor Things”: Your New Favorite Mermaid Movie 

Satirical black comedy, a Victorian Gothic fairy tale, or a loose and surrealist retelling of Frankenstein–Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Poor Things” (2023), a film adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, is a multifaceted story with an equally multi-faceted protagonist. Played by Emma Stone, Bella Baxter, though blatantly marketed as a Frankenstein’s-monster type of creature, possesses the curiosity and wisdom akin to the mermaids of mermaid folklore. As such, the character herself and the projection of her arc adds the film to the expansive shelf of mermaid folklore and makes “Poor Things” a mermaid movie. 

Like mermaids, Bella is a hybrid creature of sorts. She is a reanimated corpse composed of the body of an adult woman and the brain of an infant. The doctor who reassembles and reanimates her and acts as her father figure tells Bella that he pulled her body from the river, a body of water and what would be a mermaid’s dwelling place. This state of hybridity exposes not just Bella’s multifaceted nature but the nature of the men around her. Bella’s naivete is exploited by a corrupt attorney named Duncan Wedderburn, but this same character detests her curiosity and thirst for knowledge while appreciated by her father and the friends she makes. 

Bella’s appearance has very mermaid-like characteristics. The most obvious characteristic is her long black hair, reminiscent of the portrayal of many mermaids before her. Her fashion and clothing choices also set her apart from the rigid Victorian-era fashions she is surrounded by. Holly Waddington, the film’s costume designer, chose to forego the use of the corset for Bella and instead decided to dress the character in “a constant state of deconstruction,” akin to “a child dressing from a parent’s wardrobe.” (Whistles, 2024) One of the costume pieces Bella wears earlier in the film is called a lobster bustle, a piece which she wears over her clothes instead of under. This undergarment was used to give the wearer the archetypal Victorian silhouette but in this case, makes Bella look off-putting because of the order in which she wears it and because it gives her bottom half the appearance of a sea creature rather than a human’s. 

Bella takes on both a physical and symbolic journey towards self-discovery as she is taken on a cruise ship headed for Athens, a city known for its philosophers, and befriends two passengers who introduce her to philosophy. It is on the sea where she becomes more conscious of herself, the world, and its people around her. She questions societal norms and the roles of individuals in enforcing these norms, seeking to improve society by improving herself through knowledge and sharing said knowledge. Later on in the film, she also decides to follow in her father’s/creator’s footsteps to become a surgeon and even joins a socialist club. Through this, Bella invokes the traits of the Babylonian myth of Oannes and his ability to share his knowledge towards the ancient Babylonians. (Bacchilega, et. al., 3)

Works Cited

Bacchilega, Cristina. Penguin Book of Mermaids. Penguin Publishing Group, 2019. 

“In Conversation with Holly Waddington: Costume Designer of the New Film ‘Poor Things,’ on Working with Yorgos Lanthimos and the Concept behind the Captivating Costumes: Inspiration: Whistles |.” Whistles, 26 Feb. 2024, www.whistles.com/inspiration/interviews/in-conversation-with-holly-waddington-costume-designer-of-the-new-film-poor-things-on-working-with-yorgos-lanthimos-and-exploring-the-concept-behind-the-captivating-costumes.html. 

Week 7: Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid

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I remember being about ten years old when I first read Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Needless to say, I was horrified by how different it was from the lighthearted 1989 Disney adaptation so many kids grew up with. It was more graphic, more painful, and, for lack of a better word, more sad.

Andersen’s mermaid does not have a name, whereas I wished to be named Ariel after my favorite Disney princess. The rules of going to the surface are also less restrictive than in the Disney adaptation, as a merperson’s journey to the surface is seen as a coming-of-age ceremony, and after that point, could go to the surface whenever they want rather than being forbidden from ever going up. Ariel’s tail becomes two legs from flashes of light and swirls of smoke, while Andersen’s mermaid mutilates herself by cutting off her tongue to pay the price for her transformation. The presence of the little mermaid’s grandmother and her sisters is noticeably absent from the Disney adaptation, which, in some ways, enhances the little mermaid’s loneliness rather than detracts from it. It’s also notable that the little mermaid experiences pain with every step she takes on her human legs, while Ariel does not seem to suffer any adverse effects of her transformation other than being unable to use her words. The most notable difference between Andersen’s story and the Disney adaptation is that Andersen’s little mermaid does not get her prince charming in the end; all of her sacrifices are rendered useless and go unappreciated because they are unsaid.

Rereading this story as an adult almost made me cry in my living room, especially knowing what I know now about Hans Christian Andersen and his rocky romantic relationships. Because of that, it’s no wonder that mermaids and many mermaid stories are often read through a queer lens, and no wonder that this story is so full of yearning and suffering.

Week 6: Anthropocentrism in Undine and The Little Mermaid

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Something I noticed within the stories of Undine and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” are how anthropocentric these stories can be, especially when it comes to seemingly-simple concepts like tears and the human soul.

Undine tells Huldbrand that “there is one evil peculiar to [nature spirits]” (103) and this “evil” refers to the fact that nature spirits like her have no soul. Because of this, when they die, they are simple reborn back into the cycle of life on Earth rather than passing over into the afterlife, as human souls do. Undine goes on to say that while it is a satisfactory existence to live through, “all beings aspire to be higher than they are,” (103) which is essentially what drives her father to seek out a human for her to be wed to and thus gain a human soul in order to become a higher being than that of a spirit.

Anthropocentrism refers to the ethical belief that humans alone hold intrinsic value and hold power and importance over everything else in nature. Much of European/Western thinking tends to be very anthropocentric, especially with the ideas of “conquering the land” and seeing nature as something to be tamed rather than worked with. The concept of humans alone possessing souls and animals and nature possessing none is also an idea upheld by the Christian church. By placing the possession of a human soul as being above that of a powerful nature spirit, the character of Undine directly promotes these anthropocentric, Christian ideas.

Week 4: Oannes, Yorgos Lathimos’s “Poor Things,” and My Need for More Not-Mermaid Mermaid Movies

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Last Friday, I decided to head over to the Fashion Valley Mall right after class to catch a movie as a sort of treat to myself. The movie I ended up watching was Yorgos Lathimos’s “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Marc Ruffalo, and Ramy Youssef. The movie was based on a book by the same name, written by Alasdair Gray, which depicts the adventures of a woman named Bella Baxter, who has the brain of an infant but the body of a woman in her 20s-30s, and her coming-of-age journey of self-discovery.

Initially, I was drawn to the Frankenstein-like premise of the movie because, besides all things mermaid, I also love all things Frankenstein. Of course, the movie delivered on that end–Willem Dafoe playing a doctor named Godwin Baxter, altering and reviving the corpse that would become Bella Baxter and the inevitable parental issues that immediately followed.

What I did not expect was how mermaid-y the movie was, despite not being explicitly about mermaids. Bella, played by the brilliant Emma Stone, is your quintessential mermaid-turned-human–a fish out of water, with long hair and a thirst for knowledge, curiosity in spades, and possessing no desire and making no attempt to blend in with polite society and its arbitrary rules and regulations. Marc Ruffalo’s character, Duncan Wedderburn, is your typical human man in a mermaid story. His presence in the movie irked me to no end because of how presumptuous he was to think that he could handle Bella’s quirks and curiosity, but gladdened me to see his attempts to control Bella and quash her thirst for knowledge did not come to no fruition but instead frustrated him to the hilarious level of absolute loser.

It was Bella’s desire to seek more knowledge and her ability to retain that knowledge that clued me in on the mermaid-y qualities of the movie, as it reminded me of the Babylonian water spirit Oannes. According to The Penguin Book of Mermaids, in Babylonian mythology, “hybrid creatures are associated with the sea are holders of knowledge,” especially in the case of Oannes. (Bacchilega, et. al., 3) Oannes gifted humans “insight into letters, and sciences, and every other art” essentially teaching humans “everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize mankind.” (Bacchilega, et. al., 3) Throughout the movie, Bella’s curiosity is seen as a boon to both the viewers and the characters around her, questioning societal norms and actively seeking ways to improve herself through the acquisition of more knowledge and improving others by sharing said knowledge. The best part is that the movie rewards Bella’s curiosity by allowing characters to exist that accept and encourage her desire for more knowledge and even open themselves up to acquiring more knowledge for themselves.

All in all, it was an incredible movie and I hope it comes out on-demand or on streaming platforms soon so I can watch it over and over again and relish in my newfound love and desire for more not-mermaid mermaid movies.

Week 3: The Mer-Wife Plot and How Women Are Perceived

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It was interesting to see the difference between Western European and precolonial societies’ attitudes and beliefs towards women. It was equally interesting to see those attitudes reflected in how they viewed mermaids. The patriarchal ideas held within European Christian doctrine stand stark against the more egalitarian precolonial views of gender, reflected in how European mer-wife plots tended to be tales about female infidelity or served as implicit calls to action for their male audience to control the women in their lives, (Bacchilega, et. al., xix) whereas precolonial societies like precolonial Hawaiian myths of human men and their mer-wives (mo’o) found no need to control their otherworldly spouses. (Bacchilega, et. al., xx) 

In my personal and cultural experience, we also have a mermaid equivalent called the sirena, but the name itself and its associating facts are borrowed from the Spanish. The sirena has a reputation for using their beauty and their enchanting voices to lure sailors to watery deaths, similar to the way Europeans paint mermaids as temptresses. However, in precolonial Philippine myths, sirenas are seen as protectors of the waters, sea life and the gods themselves. In one myth, a sirena stayed loyal to their human lover, who earned the sirena’s trust and loyalty after performing multiple feats, till they died and spent the rest of their immortal life still very much in love with their lover.

Introduction

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Hello, everyone! My name is Ana, I am an English major, and I am a transfer student from Southwestern College. I’m technically in my junior year here at SDSU, but this is my second semester here. I was born in the Philippines but moved to San Diego with my family when I was 10 years old. I live in the South Bay area of San Diego, super close to the city of Imperial Beach, so it’s quite a commute from there to this campus.

Because I’ve never lived in a place where a beach wasn’t too far away, mermaids had (and will always have) my heart since I was a kid (can you guess what my favorite Disney movie was and still is?). Since hearing about this class, I practically jumped at the opportunity to take it. Mermaids and literature? That’s two of my favorite things in the world! Can you tell I’m excited to take this class and see what the semester brings?