"China's Chernobyl": COVID-19 Narratives of Collapse and Global Domination

In COVID-19's first months, US politicians and media forecast that a contrast between Chinese deception and incapability and Western success against the pandemic might fatally sink internal confidence in China's party-state. They also predicted that it would diminish China externally, as it came to be seen as endangering the world by spreading biological pollution. A "China's Chernobyl" prediction became the latest "China collapse" wish-fulfillment. This speculation rests on two contradictory yet co-existing Yellow Peril tropes: "deceit and incompetence" and "world domination." However, no empirical basis exists for either notion: China prevailed against the pandemic and lacks the capacity for global hegemony. "China's Chernobyl" is most relevant then as a wish that creates a belief, that China should and could collapse. That in turn bolsters the US-led mobilization to counter China as a "strong competitor" and frames China as the common enemy, thereby promoting Western transnational and US internal cohesion.

Water logged Mona Lisa: who is Mary Sue, and why do we need her?

Theorists suggest that participatory readers create mainstream-based texts - fan crafts - in order to address the ways they are 'hailed' by the themes and subject positions offered by a text by becoming textual re-writers (Jenkins, 1992,2003 ; Busse & Hellekson, 2007; Chander & Sunder, 2007; Willis, 2007). Re-writers force their personal position or opinions into the centre by creating fanworks based in and on established media texts. The 'Mary Sue' is a self-gratifying fan-crafting trope centered on an idealistic authorrepresentative character, a wish-fulfillment device for the re-writer that bridges the re-writer's reality and that of her favoured fiction. This paper is a comprehensive summarizing of the 'Mary Sue' and its precedents. It asks how they can be deployed as Meta Sues to actively investigate the self or marginalized subjects in media texts. It is accompanied

Water logged Mona Lisa: who is Mary Sue, and why do we need her?

Theorists suggest that participatory readers create mainstream-based texts - fan crafts - in order to address the ways they are 'hailed' by the themes and subject positions offered by a text by becoming textual re-writers (Jenkins, 1992,2003 ; Busse & Hellekson, 2007; Chander & Sunder, 2007; Willis, 2007). Re-writers force their personal position or opinions into the centre by creating fanworks based in and on established media texts. The 'Mary Sue' is a self-gratifying fan-crafting trope centered on an idealistic authorrepresentative character, a wish-fulfillment device for the re-writer that bridges the re-writer's reality and that of her favoured fiction. This paper is a comprehensive summarizing of the 'Mary Sue' and its precedents. It asks how they can be deployed as Meta Sues to actively investigate the self or marginalized subjects in media texts. It is accompanied

Beauty

Literary beauty was once understood as intertwining sensations and ideas, and thus as providing subjective and objective reasons for literary appreciation. However, as theory and philosophy developed, the inevitable claims and counterclaims led to the view that subjective experience was not a reliable guide to literary merit. Literary theory then replaced aesthetics as did philosophy’s focus on literary truth. Along with the demise of the relevance of sensations, literary form also took a back seat. This suggested to some that either literature communicated truth like any other literal form of communication or it was a mere diversion: a springboard to harmless reverie or daydreaming. Neither response satisfactorily captured what was distinctive about literature: the love readers can have for literary texts and the edification or insight claimed of works within each culture’s respective catalogue of classics. However, a concept of literary beauty has again become viable due to developments in theories of pleasure and imagination. If the defining aspect of literature is the imaginative engagement it occasions, and if this imagining is constrained by plausibility and endorsed as effective relative to our goals, ideals, and interests, then literature is not reduced to either mere fact or wish fulfillment. An account of literary beauty is available which defines literature accordingly and explains how subjective and objective reasons for appreciation intertwine to evoke pleasure and insight.

ANALISIS FAKTOR – FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KEPUTUSAN BERKUNJUNG PADA MAKAM SYECH QURO KARAWANG

Penelitian ini membahas faktor apa saja yang mempengaruhi keputusan berkunjungpada makam Syech Quro Karawang dan faktor apa yang dominan mempengaruhi keputusanberkunjung pada makam Syech Quro Karawang. Sampel penelitian ini adalah 307 orangpengunjung makam Syech Quro Karawang. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa faktor-faktoryang mempengaruhi keputusan berkunjung pada makam Syech Quro Karawang adalah faktorkeinginan untuk menambah pengetahuan baru, faktor melepaskan diri dari rutinitas pekerjaan,faktor menjalin silahturami dan faktor ingin menikmati aktivitas yang menyenangkan, dan faktordominan yang mempengaruhi keputusan berkunjung pada makam Syech Quro Karawang adalahfaktor keinginan untuk menambah pengetahuan baru.Kata Kunci : Keputusan Berkunjung, Melepaskan Diri, Relaksasi, Bermain, Mempererat IkatanKeluarga, Gengsi, Interaksi Sosial, Romantis, Peluang Pendidikan, Pemenuhan Diri, dan HarapanTerpenuhiAbstract : This study discusses what factors influence the decision to visit the tomb of Syech QuroKarawang and what factors predominantly influence the decision to visit the tomb of Syech QuroKarawang. The sample of this study was 307 visitors to the tomb of Syech Quro Karawang. Theresults of this study indicate that the factors that influence the decision to visit the tomb of SyechQuro Karawang are the factors of wanting to add new knowledge, the factor of breaking awayfrom work routines, the factor of strengthening family bonds and the factor of wanting to enjoypleasant activities, and the dominant factor influencing the decision of visiting the tomb of SyechQuro Karawang is a factor in wanting to add new knowledge.Keywords: Visiting Decision, Exscape , Relaxation, Play, Strengthening Family bonds , Prestige,Social Interaction, Romance, Educational Opportunities, Self-Fulfillment, and Wish Fulfillment.

Self-mythology Through Trauma Studies in Paul Auster’s Invention of Solitude

Auster’s first novel The Invention of Solitude was significant, in that it not only catalogued his own experiences, but also provided one of the earliest examples of the psychological processes involved in trauma and memory storage. It demonstrates the self’s psychological use of the Ego, in a classical sense, to negotiate between emotional response and reality, in order to create meaning around a set of events. More specifically, the death of Auster’s father operates as a catalyst for the author’s journey of self-discovery, which is richly tied to the psychoanalytical principles of Freud and Lacan, and which ultimately allows him to fully appreciate his experience of loss, by supporting the wish fulfillment related to his relationship with his father, and his need to understand the rejection he perceives suffering as a child. This highlights the difference between the inner child’s ego-centric or narcissistic perception, and the adult’s ability to rationalize, especially as it relates to memory and unfulfilled need.