On a First Name Basis
This Alpha's last name was inspired by German philospher Karl Marx.
Who is Bernard?
"O brave new world that has such people in't!"
Who is Miranda?
The shared values, traditions, norms, customs, symbols, art, history, folklore, ways of living and institutions of a group of people; the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time.
In Brave New World, God is replaced by this man, a Model (T) of efficiency.
Who is Ford?
The main character in the 1989 Disney classic that takes place under the sea was named after this "spirited" character in The Tempest.
Who is Ariel?
In Persepolis, the protagonist is referred to as this name throughout the book, the author's real nickname.
What is Marji?
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
Who is John the Savage?
A single frame or box in a graphic novel that generally contains one sequence or segment of action.
What is a panel?
In The Tempest, this character resists colonial power by claiming the island was stolen from him.
Who is Caliban?
The Smashing Pumpkins and The Strokes both released songs with the same one-word title, inspired by this substance from Brave New World.
What is "Soma"?
In the original 1623 Shakespeare First Folio, this character is referred to as "a jester" in the cast of characters.
Who is Trinculo?
"My father, they have killed me!"
Who is Ikemefuna?
A poetic line that consists of five metrical feet, each containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
What is iambic pentameter?
In Brave New World, this character represents the states oppressive logic when he argues that stability is more important than truth.
Who is Mustapha Mond?
The song "King Kunta" on his album To Pimp a Butterfly alludes to Things Fall Apart, particularly the lines:
"When you got the yams (What’s the yams?)
The yam is the power that be
You can smell it when I’m walking down the street."
Who is Kendrick Lamar?
In Things Fall Apart, the protagonist Okonkwo had three wives. Name two of them.
Who are "first wife/Nwoye's mother", Ekewfi, and/or Ojiugo?
"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."
Who is Lenina Crowne?
Pictorial elements that radiate from a character, symbolizing something about that character, such as a sweat drop for anxiety, a question mark for confusion, or heat rays from the sun.
What are emanata?
In Persepolis, the main character witness her mother being threatened for not wearing this, a symbol of state control.
What is a veil (or hijab)?
While pretending to fall in love as Vincent and Irene in the 1997 film Gattaca, these two actors fell in love in real life, marrying in 1998 and divorcing in 2005.
Who are Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman?
We read four books this year by Achebe, Huxley, Satrapi, and Shakespeare. But on a first name basis they would be referred to by these four names.
Who are Chinua, Aldous, Marjane, and William?
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
Who is Prospero?
To use your own culture as the baseline for "normal" and to judge other cultures based on it; to assume that one's own culture is superior when comparing to other cultures.
What is ethnocentrism?
In Things Fall Apart, control in Umuofia is maintained through this group of masked individuals who represent the ancestral spirits of a village or clan.
Who are the egwugwu?
The headline of his New York Times obituary, published in February 2021, reads: "Actor, From Shakespeare to 'The Sound of Music,' Dies at 91."
Who is Christopher Plummer?