From Yoshimi Z:


1. I watched the film, Brazil, and read Kafka's, "In the Penal
Colony."
2. From the story, I understand the message is that we need technology
in our lives such as telephone, television, computer; machines referred
to as the "apparatus" in the book. The computers are changing our
social time and communication with people.
3. What I understood to be the message of the film is we should not
trust the technology too much. In the film, there were many uses of
technology that seemed to simplify your life, but almost every
"apparatus" malfunctioned. When you have an "apparatus" in you life,
you may not be able to live without technology in your social life,
because you're so used to it.
4. I was glad to see that professor Harris had the same idea about the
repetitive nature of the movie as I did. I often asked myself where
this movie is going. The "hero", is timid and I often wished he would
just get on with it.
5. One thing I did not understand was how the TVs played a role in the
film. Why were the people not allowed to watch TV? I found no real
connection at the end of the movie.

Yoshimi Zaitsu <yzaitsu@hotmail.com> hum10577su98
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From Jeff S:

1.My comments are on "In the Penal Colony" and _Brazil_.

2. What do you understand to be the point/message/theme of the story?

In Franz Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony" the dominant theme seems

to be the supremacy of technology that works effectively over the value of

human life. The theme centered around technology that carried out its task

precisely on human candidates that had, to some degree, failed to carry out

their tasks completely. Another theme that appears is the irony involved in

the utilization of technology for the administration of "justice", which is

really not just at all, even upon its final victim and greatest proponent.

Irony plays a role in that the officer ends up subjecting himself to the

apparatus as its final victim and the machine, instead of carrying out its

gruesome inscription "BE JUST", breaks and brutally murders him. Irony is

also the dominant theme when the explorer felt he may be overstepping his

grounds as an observer when voicing his concerns about the legitimacy of the

justice system and the method of capital punishment, however, as a result of

the loquacious manner of the paranoid officer, these concerns were calmed.

In the words of the Kafka defining the explorer's thoughts, "so easy, then,

was the task he had felt to be so difficult."

3. What do you understand to be the point/message/theme of the film?

The film _Brazil_ painted a grim picture of what a world obsessed with

technology and information would be like. It portrays a dark, bureaucratic

and impersonal world where technology has replaced human emotion and the

value of human life.

4. Comment on at least one point that you found helpful in Professor

Harris's commentary.

Professor Harris's description on the character attributes in both the short

story and the movie are right on the mark. I would also agree with Professor

Harris's summation of the movies main character. I would submit, however,

that in my opinion, perhaps Professor Harris missed the dominant theme of

both the movie and the story. Technology, in both of these pieces, replaced

the value of human life. In the story the officer used the apparatus on

people not because of their vile act of crime but rather because he was

deeply fascinated (to the point of being mentally ill) with how the machine

carried out its gruesome task. This is why he was willing to submit to it

rather than see its demise and the hands of the new commandant. Throughout

the movie it is clearly apparent that technology and its use, regardless of

how effective or ineffective it works, is of greater worth than the people

who are forced to use it. Technology and information become the masters and

mankind becomes the willing slave.

5. What is one question you have or one clarification you wish to have

presented in relation to these works?

I don't think I fully grasp the ending of the short story. The story came to

an abrupt halt yet went to great lengths to mention seemingly unrelated or,

at best, loosely related information such as the explorer going to see the

gravesite of the old commandant and then heading straight for the docks and

preventing the soldier and the pardoned criminal from joining him aboard the

boat. I didn't really understand the point of this.

Jeff Sage <la00502@visi.net> hum10577su98

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