Shekhar Deshpande, Author of "The confident gaze, The National Geographic's misty lens" is focusing his article on the magazines special edition for India's 50th anniversary of independence. Deshpande claims, "It is an emblematic achievement for a magazine, which has taught American's about the rest of the world for centuries". He feels that "It is hard to underestimate the cultural value of the magazine". I would say for the reason being, the magazine is viewed highly by most Americans, due to the fact it brings them into different parts of the world from the comfort of their own living room.
On the cover this edition there is a photograph of the" face of a young boy with red holi colors, with clear, intense dark eyes gripping the lens of the camera and the beholder of the image is striking" as Deshpande describes it.He makes sure to add his description because his point of what the magazine has done with its photo's is very relevant to this article. He goes on to say that "The innocent attractiveness of the photography of National Geographic, Its ambiguous representation of the known and the known as the most natural and the inevitable parts of our world are what have made for the success of the magazine and in fact, it would not be out of place to suggest that National Geographic has made an aesthetic of its own in photography. It is slick, it is technically flawless or even adventurous, and it attempts to sanitize and universalize the uncomfortable as well as different elements of other cultures". In reading Deshpande's article my conclusion is that he feels that there is a certain "Voyeurism" to what National Geographic is doing with its magazine. That he does feel that its informational to a point but it is also taking things such as human suffering in all aspects of the term and sugar coating it for westerners to enjoy. He has stated that "The photographs are rich in their content, but entirely dishonest in their relationship to the environment or the context." He feels that "It is as if that world needs to be posed in the appropriate way to the Western observer, he could not see it in it's bare essentialities". So basically National Geographic has made it a point to explore the world for those who cant and inform Americans in a way that makes us feel so fortunate about where we live and how we live. It makes us feel like we have came such a long way with our march toward "Civilization"
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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