Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Research Paper Example Zombies therefore are quite effective and efficacious tools for communicating subtle and intractable realities, simply because of their versatility; zombies are neither living nor dead, they gravitate between life and death. Consequently, zombies are able to be employed in a wide range of arena to communicate powerfully to people, especially because of their appeal to people’s emotions and their ability to capture subtle realities that other figures of speech are unable to capture well. This paper explores the phenomenon of zombies as effective tools of communication. To achieve that end, a critical review of McCarthy Gallery exhibit, â€Å"You cannot kill what is Already Dead’’, is done. After the review of the article, a focus is made on three individual pieces of art from the exhibit. At the end of the paper, a conclusion is made based on the findings in the paper and in line with the thesis of the paper which is, zombies are effective and efficacious tools o f communication. A critical Review of McCarthy Gallery Exhibit According to Suzanne Carte, Zombies illustrate problems about consciousness and its relation to the physical world. Carte goes to argue that zombies are ‘’never just one thing, but a stand-in for an assumed lack of agency.’’, (McCarthy, p.6). ... ies therefore are imageries that stand-in for realities that do not actually exist in the real world; zombies make up for realities that are not in the physical world, but they are in our consciousness. Zombies therefore are undead realities, i.e. that which is both dead and alive simultaneously. Due to their rather fluid and hazy position between life and death, zombies constitute a powerful metaphoric device of critiquing various aspects of our lives including our economic structures, politics and various forms of corruption. Carte goes on to argue that zombies are untimely projections of our fears, dark desires, and imperfections. She goes on to argue that due to their fluid and luminal position, zombies allow for a wide variety of interpretations. A critical look at this account of the nature of zombies by Carte shows that the main purpose of zombies is to powerfully express realities within our consciousness, which are not quite expressible using imageries of things that actuall y exist in the physical world. By claiming that zombies are projections of ourselves, our fears, desires, and imperfections, Carte in other words is saying that zombies as metaphoric tools allows us to kind of transcend the physical realities in that they enable us to express and to communicate what is not expressible through the medium of physical realities. Carte goes on to show how zombies as tools of communication provokes us to think more deeply and to get deeper meaning of realities that we are going through in our lives. She argues that what the zombie wants is to eat human brain. In other words, what zombie wants is what it does not have, i.e., the ability to be human again. As such, a zombie is a pure drive and that is why it is represented as having an insatiable desire to devour

PETA ( People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Research Paper

PETA ( People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) - Research Paper Example PETA is often criticized for its radical and sometimes controversial approach towards social protest. Still even some of the avid detractors of PETA respect the validity and nobleness of its cause (Stevens, 2010). Introduction to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, popularly known as PETA, was founded in 1980, by the efforts and collaboration of two much experienced and dedicated animal rights activists, Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco. PETA is a not for profit organization with 300 salaried employees, backed by a committed pool of two million members and supporters, which includes some of the really famous celebrities and personalities (Stevens, 2010). PETA claims to be the biggest animal rights organization in the world. The motto of PETA is â€Å"animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment, on or use for entertainment (PETA: Online). The core issues regarding the cruelty towards animals that PETA focuses on are, fighti ng against the exploitation of animals for entertainment (circuses, fishing, buying animals as pets from pet stores or companies, dog fighting, cock fighting, bull fighting, etc), using animals for carrying out scientific experiments and tests, fur farming and organized factory farming (Stevens, 2010, p. 6). Framing of the Animal Rights Issue by PETA The animal rights groups that existed before PETA were predominantly conservative, whose approach towards the issue was at the best, mild and reconciliatory. In 1981, just a couple of months after its conception, PETA brought the issue of animal rights to the forefront of American socio-political platform, by creating a controversy around the issue of cruelty inflicted on a group of macaque monkeys by the researchers at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading to the first ever police raid on an animal laboratory in America, followed by an amendment in the Animal Welfare Act in 1985 (Macionis, 2010: Steve ns, 2010). PETA, right from the start was well aware of the fact that the issue of cruelty towards animals was considered something not so important as to attract public attention, unless it is presented and highlighted with ample glitz, media coverage, drama and attention grabbing and disturbing visual content projecting cruelty on animals (Pace, 2005, p. 37). Considering the deluge of human problems facing the society, animal rights were not something that commanded a top priority on the public and political agenda. Thus, any approach towards challenging the existing status quo must need to have a SHOCK appeal. Therefore, every activity of PETA be it political lobbying, protests, media campaigns, undercover investigations, has this quintessential X factor that is unexceptionally always successful in grabbing public attention and jolting the mass conscience. This accompanied by a parallel strategy aimed at reaching out to and educating the people, pursuing a hot and cold approach t owards the targeted corporations and pressurizing the corporate managements by becoming a stockholder (Tkac, 2006, p. 6). PETA is an animal rights group that has been both famous as well as notorious for its innovative, wacky, controversial, disturbing and nerdy approach towards framing, campaigning and protest. One big success of