Apple. Coca-Cola. Google. Louis Vuitton. BMW.
The power of these brands is not just in the number of people who consume them. It's also a matter of excellent image management and careful attention to semiotics--the study of meaning-making.
This blog provides a public place to write about how mass culture and branding can be explained by examining what it is that they signify. Texts deal with dinosaurs, Cosmopolitan magazine, zombies, pornography and Nazis--among other things.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
• Jack Hitt: “Dinosaur Dreams: Reading the Bones of America’s Psychic Mascot”
Now it could be because it’s past four in the morning and my brain is on the fritz due to lack of sleep, but I think I know what Jack Hitt is driving at with this piece. I think he’s trying to show that our attraction and fascination towards dinosaurs isn’t just due to the “Jim Carreyness” of them. But in fact, we are fascinated by dinosaurs and nearly everything about them because we are much like them, only in different proportions of size. We are biologically like them. We have arms, though not as proportionally small as them, we have pelvises, though not proportionally large as theirs, and so on and so forth. I would also like to mention something that Hitt says, “An interesting pair those two, and it is no coincidence that their erection occurred just before we entered World War I, revealing to the whole world the character of the new global species – the American: A big, dumb rube, until provoked – then berserker rage.” If I am not mistaken, that seems to fit the stereotype of another form of life. But which form of life am I referring to? Obviously the dinosaurs. When we think of dinosaurs, we immediately think, of volatile, carnivorous, and not too bright. Hitt is saying this about Americans. So it would make sense why the dinosaur is “America’s psychic mascot,” because they are like us.
As a skeptic I never really believed dinosaurs were real and by the looks of it neither does the author of this article. His claim about dinosaurs in reference to American culture is bold, however, he does a good job at defending it and providing evidence for it as well. Americans have this image to live up to, although I cannot exactly put it in words, everyone knows that Americans are ‘full of themselves” I just never imagined that would in anyway relate to the “discovery” of dinosaurs. As I read how the author began to bring his thesis together, all I could think of was how did people know what a full blown dinosaur looked like solely on bones. I take anatomy and if I was to discover the bones of the human body for the first time, maybe I could reconstruct it to form the human skeleton but I would not be able to provide it with skin and features the way those discovering the bones of a dinosaur did. They were giving dinosaur false characteristic based on what they assumed they lived like. Honestly, it’s a bunch of baloney to me. There are things that are difficult to find meaning in, but as Americans, we must find and discover, decipher, and give everything meaning in order to give other non-Americans something to admire, the ‘discovery’ of dinosaurs is an example of this.
To me this article by Jack Hitt was all about comparing dinosaurs to American society. Somehow Hitt managed to relate dinosaurs to America in a very detailed way. First we have the mighty Tyrannosaurs Rex. It was perceived as the alpha male, the most dominant species of the dinosaurs. Hitt claimed that the T-rex represented America’s dominance today. Recently it was discovered that the T-rex was a little less powerful than at first perceived. The way their body was shaped, like very tiny arms, and the other traits that we now know of the T-rex, like terrible vision, lead some to believe the T-rex was no hunter. People just believed they were because they wanted them to be ferocious and the king of the dinosaur (strongest nation). The article also says the discovery of dinosaurs went along with the industrialization of America. It would have been very difficult to display the dinosaur finding if it weren’t for industrialization. The same pipes and joints were used to build America’s empire were used to hold up the dinosaurs. Hitt said, “It was certainly as much as a celebration of our new power as well it was of the dinosaurs.” Hitt was very detailed in describing how dinosaurs and the rise of America were very similar.
I read the title and automatically began to interpreted “psychic mascot” as a cognitive imaginary object that is representing something. As I read the article I started understanding that the author is comparing America to Dinosaurs. While dinosaurs may have laid down and died, America has risen has been the predator no known to mankind. With America’s obsession with being perceived as the biggest and most powerful nation, it is often portrayed as the bullies, unintelligent and looked as predators over other countries. Dinosaurs may had been known as the fiercest creature alive, but in actuality the t-rex had short arms that were essentially useless. American’s are able to identify their weaknesses and compensate using other areas such as the wealth, freedom, technology, leading research institutes, which essentially make the country powerful. The dinosaurs dream was to be perceived as strong and not weak while America’s dream is to be the dinosaur of the world. Interesting how we have created a psychic mascot (dinosaur) to represent America instead of a lion, dog, or superhero when all we have is a bag of bones and theories as a guiding force to what we want America to be known as.
The title is interesting to me mainly because I like to learn about dinosaurs or anything fascinating that happened so long ago. Jack Hitt explores how our culture has interacted and reacted to the discovery of dinosaurs and makes it seem that we are always obsessed with them; however, only for period of time, then our interests move onto something new. I believe as a country we are onto things for a brief period, for example, vampires we very popular but then it disappeared from everyone’s interest and moved onto to something else as a whole. It made me realize this trend throughout our culture as something new rises to the surface, sinks back down, and then reappears again. It also made me realize that it all has to do with things that are unexplainable or something that we’re not one hundred percent sure about. Vampires, dinosaurs, werewolves, etc. are examples that we have interest in. The title “Reading the Bones of America’s Psychic Mascot” I believe is revealed when Hitt talks about the T-rex and Jurassic Park where Americans believed that this is how they lived and how they acted. The T-rex being a huge and fierce creature alive during its time may have been quite useless due to the size of their arms. However, because they’re so big we made them the unstoppable creature. I agree with Brandy and Brenda in which where the “psychic mascot,” the T-rex, represents American in which we try to become the most powerful.
This article had an interesting way to look at dinosaurs. I never really thought much about what they meant or the history behind them. The author seeing the dinosaurs as a major part of American society makes sense. Dinosaurs come in and out of popularity as do many other things in our society. I thought it was interesting how America used dinosaurs to show their power. Another thing that was interesting was the by about a T-Rex. I always thought of them as predators. It amazes me to think that what I thought I knew could actually be wrong. Another thing that was somewhat shocking was that people actually broke the dinosaur bones to alter the way the T. rex looked. I guess that was just to make it look like a predator not prey.
This article is constructed in a very interesting way, it seems to secretly attempt to use the Tyrannosaurus Rex as an analogy for Americans. The author describes dinosaurs as distinctly "American", but does not explicitly say the T-Rex is "American." Despite this, it certainly appears that when we describes the T-Rex, he is in fact describing the American culture. To the world, Americans are viewed as arrogant, stubborn and "think-they-everything" type of people. The T-Rex is described as essentially overrated; it is portrayed in the media/TV as a dominant hunting figure but in reality, according to the author, the T-Rex is in fact a slow dinosaur and one that is not as superior as it is portrayed to be. The author is implicitly describing Americans; Americans think of themselves as the most dominant, intelligent and capable society out there, but in reality, Americans are a rather average group of people, far inferior than they like to present themselves as being. Overall a good read, it does also amuse me how the author describes the T-Rex because undoubtedly, just about everybody around us, when asked what the T-Rex is, refers to it as the "King of Dinosaurs" and the most feared dinosaur to ever live, but it is in fact a dinosaur that no better than the next
Now it could be because it’s past four in the morning and my brain is on the fritz due to lack of sleep, but I think I know what Jack Hitt is driving at with this piece. I think he’s trying to show that our attraction and fascination towards dinosaurs isn’t just due to the “Jim Carreyness” of them. But in fact, we are fascinated by dinosaurs and nearly everything about them because we are much like them, only in different proportions of size. We are biologically like them. We have arms, though not as proportionally small as them, we have pelvises, though not proportionally large as theirs, and so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to mention something that Hitt says, “An interesting pair those two, and it is no coincidence that their erection occurred just before we entered World War I, revealing to the whole world the character of the new global species – the American: A big, dumb rube, until provoked – then berserker rage.” If I am not mistaken, that seems to fit the stereotype of another form of life. But which form of life am I referring to? Obviously the dinosaurs. When we think of dinosaurs, we immediately think, of volatile, carnivorous, and not too bright. Hitt is saying this about Americans. So it would make sense why the dinosaur is “America’s psychic mascot,” because they are like us.
As a skeptic I never really believed dinosaurs were real and by the looks of it neither does the author of this article. His claim about dinosaurs in reference to American culture is bold, however, he does a good job at defending it and providing evidence for it as well. Americans have this image to live up to, although I cannot exactly put it in words, everyone knows that Americans are ‘full of themselves” I just never imagined that would in anyway relate to the “discovery” of dinosaurs. As I read how the author began to bring his thesis together, all I could think of was how did people know what a full blown dinosaur looked like solely on bones. I take anatomy and if I was to discover the bones of the human body for the first time, maybe I could reconstruct it to form the human skeleton but I would not be able to provide it with skin and features the way those discovering the bones of a dinosaur did. They were giving dinosaur false characteristic based on what they assumed they lived like. Honestly, it’s a bunch of baloney to me. There are things that are difficult to find meaning in, but as Americans, we must find and discover, decipher, and give everything meaning in order to give other non-Americans something to admire, the ‘discovery’ of dinosaurs is an example of this.
ReplyDeleteTo me this article by Jack Hitt was all about comparing dinosaurs to American society. Somehow Hitt managed to relate dinosaurs to America in a very detailed way. First we have the mighty Tyrannosaurs Rex. It was perceived as the alpha male, the most dominant species of the dinosaurs. Hitt claimed that the T-rex represented America’s dominance today. Recently it was discovered that the T-rex was a little less powerful than at first perceived. The way their body was shaped, like very tiny arms, and the other traits that we now know of the T-rex, like terrible vision, lead some to believe the T-rex was no hunter. People just believed they were because they wanted them to be ferocious and the king of the dinosaur (strongest nation).
ReplyDeleteThe article also says the discovery of dinosaurs went along with the industrialization of America. It would have been very difficult to display the dinosaur finding if it weren’t for industrialization. The same pipes and joints were used to build America’s empire were used to hold up the dinosaurs. Hitt said, “It was certainly as much as a celebration of our new power as well it was of the dinosaurs.” Hitt was very detailed in describing how dinosaurs and the rise of America were very similar.
I read the title and automatically began to interpreted “psychic mascot” as a cognitive imaginary object that is representing something. As I read the article I started understanding that the author is comparing America to Dinosaurs. While dinosaurs may have laid down and died, America has risen has been the predator no known to mankind. With America’s obsession with being perceived as the biggest and most powerful nation, it is often portrayed as the bullies, unintelligent and looked as predators over other countries. Dinosaurs may had been known as the fiercest creature alive, but in actuality the t-rex had short arms that were essentially useless. American’s are able to identify their weaknesses and compensate using other areas such as the wealth, freedom, technology, leading research institutes, which essentially make the country powerful. The dinosaurs dream was to be perceived as strong and not weak while America’s dream is to be the dinosaur of the world.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how we have created a psychic mascot (dinosaur) to represent America instead of a lion, dog, or superhero when all we have is a bag of bones and theories as a guiding force to what we want America to be known as.
The title is interesting to me mainly because I like to learn about dinosaurs or anything fascinating that happened so long ago. Jack Hitt explores how our culture has interacted and reacted to the discovery of dinosaurs and makes it seem that we are always obsessed with them; however, only for period of time, then our interests move onto something new. I believe as a country we are onto things for a brief period, for example, vampires we very popular but then it disappeared from everyone’s interest and moved onto to something else as a whole. It made me realize this trend throughout our culture as something new rises to the surface, sinks back down, and then reappears again. It also made me realize that it all has to do with things that are unexplainable or something that we’re not one hundred percent sure about. Vampires, dinosaurs, werewolves, etc. are examples that we have interest in. The title “Reading the Bones of America’s Psychic Mascot” I believe is revealed when Hitt talks about the T-rex and Jurassic Park where Americans believed that this is how they lived and how they acted. The T-rex being a huge and fierce creature alive during its time may have been quite useless due to the size of their arms. However, because they’re so big we made them the unstoppable creature. I agree with Brandy and Brenda in which where the “psychic mascot,” the T-rex, represents American in which we try to become the most powerful.
ReplyDeleteThis article had an interesting way to look at dinosaurs. I never really thought much about what they meant or the history behind them. The author seeing the dinosaurs as a major part of American society makes sense. Dinosaurs come in and out of popularity as do many other things in our society. I thought it was interesting how America used dinosaurs to show their power. Another thing that was interesting was the by about a T-Rex. I always thought of them as predators. It amazes me to think that what I thought I knew could actually be wrong. Another thing that was somewhat shocking was that people actually broke the dinosaur bones to alter the way the T. rex looked. I guess that was just to make it look like a predator not prey.
ReplyDeleteThis article is constructed in a very interesting way, it seems to secretly attempt to use the Tyrannosaurus Rex as an analogy for Americans. The author describes dinosaurs as distinctly "American", but does not explicitly say the T-Rex is "American." Despite this, it certainly appears that when we describes the T-Rex, he is in fact describing the American culture. To the world, Americans are viewed as arrogant, stubborn and "think-they-everything" type of people. The T-Rex is described as essentially overrated; it is portrayed in the media/TV as a dominant hunting figure but in reality, according to the author, the T-Rex is in fact a slow dinosaur and one that is not as superior as it is portrayed to be. The author is implicitly describing Americans; Americans think of themselves as the most dominant, intelligent and capable society out there, but in reality, Americans are a rather average group of people, far inferior than they like to present themselves as being. Overall a good read, it does also amuse me how the author describes the T-Rex because undoubtedly, just about everybody around us, when asked what the T-Rex is, refers to it as the "King of Dinosaurs" and the most feared dinosaur to ever live, but it is in fact a dinosaur that no better than the next
ReplyDelete