Anti-Bribery Convention and OECD

Anti-Bribery Convention and OECD The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)Â  And the Anti-Bribery Convention The International Initiative The Anti-Bribery Convention was originally conceived in 1989, it has under gone many changes since its conception, to begin with the group was designed to enable the review in to national legislations and the bribery of officials, in 1994 the review was turned into recommendations for actions and this was eventually replaced by a treaty agreement in 1997. The Anti-Bribery conventions main aim is to decrease the amount of corruption in underdeveloped countries, in doing this they can create a fair and level playing field, therefore encouraging sanctions against any form of bribery in International business transactions. Things That Are Right The Anti-Bribery Convention has developed a set of legally binding standards to criminalize bribery. The Anti-Bribery Convention works with all countries to improve the standards of international business transactions. The Anti-bribery convention welcomes all countries to join the convention; no one is singled out or excluded as long as they follow the guidelines and legislation recommendations. Things That Are Wrong The Anti-Bribery convention has no governing authority; the OECD only over sees it. The countries involved in the Anti-Bribery convention have the sole responsibility to implement the legislations so that bribery can be criminalized. According to the Transparency International report (Hardoon, Heinrich, 2013), at least half the countries that are signed to the Anti-Bribery convention have had only a few and in some cases no prosecutions. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Founded in 1961, The OECD’s main headquarters are in Paris, France, To date there are currently 34 member countries, although the OECD do work closely with Russia, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa, but they are yet to agree to join the organization. Whilst the OECD’s main aim is to help improve the social, economic, safety and welfare of people across the globe, they do also maintain relations and work closely with other international organizations like the IMF, World Bank, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Labor Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization in an effort to promote and improve other aspects of peoples well-being globally. The Good Things The OECD uses peer reviews to evaluate its work and implement new changes and ideas, giving a wider perspective on the organization. The OECD has established a unilateral forum to allow governments to share their issues and experiences and work together to resolve the problems. The OECD defies conventional wisdom and works towards a resolution that is beneficial to all. Things That Need To Be Changed OECD has no authority over the Anti-Bribery convention, it purely over sees it. The OECD is not self-executing; it requires the governing country to enforce the legislations and uphold the laws Companies using the OECD guidelines arent bound by them as they arent compulsory. How anti-bribery convention and the OECD affect global politics Example 1 The OECD has established a unilateral forum to allow governments to share their issues and experiences and work together to resolve the problems. This is a great step for achieving success in global policies because it is an airing point for ideas and resolutions, governments can get together and discuss issue past and present and provide information on how they were able to resolve or work around certain common issues. The forum is based on facts and real life experiences and enables governments to proactively take part in the forming of global policies that are beneficial to all. They have the ability to collect data from governments and analyze this for possible trends that could potentially help other countries from avoiding situations like, austerity and unemployment during economic downturns. The Anti-bribery convention has established a set of legally binding standards to criminalize bribery; this implementation will boost the transparency of global politics for the member states that are included in the convention. In creating transparency and ensuring everyone is implementing the recommended standards there will be more cohesive trade agreements that will propagate healthy globalization. The creating and implementation of these legally binding standards has failed to force member states to follow the implementations, this will have an overall effect on globally policies because other member states will see that this type of implementation can be ignored with no real repercussions. The implementations will only work successfully if the Anti-bribery convention attains the legal jurisdiction to implement these standards. Currently they don’t have this and there seems to be no way of getting the jurisdiction so the implementation of legally binding standards is just that, An implementation, There is no law so the member states don’t have to implement the standards. The anti-bribery convention has placed the responsibility for implementing the legislations solely on the governments, this will have a massive impact on global policies because will still be left up to that country to implement the legislations, a majority of corrupt officials are in the government sectors and will not implement such measures if they feel it could impact on their corrupt enterprises. Such implications could unravel the social and economic standings of that country, they could undermine trade agreements and have a devastating effect on all policies globally, there is always going to be an issue of trust and if the governments of the countries don’t implement the legislations that will undermine this trust element globally. The Anti-Bribery Convention has failed to close a massive loophole in the system and is in part facilitating the continuation of bribery amongst public officials. The convention will only truly be successful if they find a way to close this loophole and prevent the continuation of bribery globally. Where it went wrong! The emergence of globalization and the vast complexities of international law and relations have grown hugely, member states have now become globally connected, global threats are now ever increasing and cannot be dealt with without the implementation of the international laws, they help develop and force structure into international relations where the law doesn’t currently apply. The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has decided that member state countries should be responsible for implementing the laws and regulations as set by the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. I believe this has left a loop hole in their quest and goals for supporting member states both socially and economically, it leaves rise to member states dictating what rules, laws and legislations they feel are appropriate, there is no set standard when implementation is decided according to the specific member state, violations will occur and laws and regulations will become confusing across the globe. What I would do! I feel that a resolution to this loophole would be for the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention to secure legal jurisdiction under the existing title of International Legal Personality to enforce member states to adopt their standards as currently the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention only monitors if the implementations have been made. On December 3rd, 1949 the International Court of Justice set a precedent where it agree that International Organizations (IO‘s) could be included under the banner of International legal personalities and therefore be party to the rights and obligations under international law. It was decreed that the case subject (The United Nations) should be seen as an International Legal Personality and was therefore capable of having international rights and duties and it should be able to uphold these rights and make a legal claim against any international member state that violates its policies. How I would do it! If I was involved in the corporate aspects of The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention I would apply for International Legal Personality status , we would be deemed eligible for it because we a permanent association with our member states, we hold legal powers and have the power to act on these in the form of the legally binding standards that we currently implicate, we are able to effectively operate on an international scale and fulfill at the required criteria for International Legal Personality status. If the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention were to be granted International Legal Personality status, then our convention would have the power to enact an international claim for reparation against that member state for violating the standards set, and for negating on its statutory international obligations as set out by the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Citations Hardoon. D, Heinrich. F. (2013). Global corruption barometer 2013. Retrieved from Transparency International website: http://issuu.com/transparencyinternational/docs/2013_globalcorruptionbarometer_en Lunfengzhe (n.d.). National flag ball of OECD members. Retrieved from http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-national-flag-ball-oecd-members-image28867394

Abbey Road and Beatles

The Beatles â€Å"There's nothing you can make that can't be made, No one you can save that can't be saved, nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time – it’s easy†, this quote is taken from the song all you need is love by The Beatles. The Beatle's started out as four normal people and then in the 1960 they all come as the group called the Beatles. The members of The Beatles were Paul Mccartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. The Beatles are one of the most influential rock bands in history.Today we are going to look into the early years of the Beatles, the raising fame of the Beatles career and the end of the Beatles. How did the Beatles become a group? This is details about the early years of the Beatles. How did they become legendary? The Beatles were four normal people who meet each other day after day. It took a long period of time to change their name to the Beatles. The old names were Jonny and the Moondogs, and long john an d the beetles. The Beatles, they genuinely fitted and took over as the most commended rock star appreciated as the Beatles.The Beatles started in 1960 (Ktrek, 2005. ) This was a period where the Beatles comprised mostly their dance and pop music dating from 1963 through 1965 The Beatle’s raising fame. Next came the middle years where the Beatles experimented with sound and music and also developed rock music like never before, rock music beyond just dance music (Ktrek, 2005. ) The Beatles sound grew progressively with each album coming their way; culminating with many believes to be the masterpiece of rock music. They made many albums at this point like Rubber Soul in 1965, Revolver in 1966, and many more albums.The Beatles had their unbelievable end; leaving us with a message Let It Be, a song by the Beatles in 1970. They were on that final long and successful road. The Beatles were running out of ideas. Their song Abby Road is the best song of this period, but songs have th eir dull moment. The songs they did at this period were The White Album, Yellow submarine in 1969, and Hey Jude in 1970. â€Å"Hey Jude don’t make it bad, take a sad song it make it better†, this is quote from the song Hey Jude by the Beatles.The Beatles will never be the same as they were before but they have raising moments and have influence many people in the world. To their song Yesterday, to their song Rubber Soul, to their lasted song Let it be. What was your favorite song by the Beatles? What was your favorite period of music by the Beatles? They changed the sound of rock music leaving it with different sounds, and beats. â€Å"And in the love you take is equal to the love you make† that was a quote from the Beatles when they ended. (Ktrek, 2005)

Heroes and Villains in Postmodernism Essay

Postmodernism is a creative movement that is said to have originated in the 1950s. As the name suggests, it is the successor of modernism, and the development of postmodernism is visible in not only literature, but also other creative disciplines such as architecture, music, fashion, film and painting. Postmodernism was created as a reaction to its predecessor, and its â€Å"rational, scientific, and historical aspects†. This results in postmodernism being self-conscious, ironic, and experimental, concerned with the instability and unreliability of language, and with epistemology, the study of what knowledge is. In saying this, the purpose of postmodernism is not to shock the bourgeoisie world, as the avant-garde movement arguably does, but to challenge it- both by reducing it to its natural state, and by seeing how far it can be stretched beyond its existing ideas. Postmodernism does this by introducing deconstruction and disintegration to question our ideas of certainty, identity and the truth; and by the use of hyperreality, pastiche, bricolage, recurring characters, irony, authorial intrusions, non-linear narrative and self-reflexivity to bring more attention to the world outside of the text as a part of the world inside it. There is a true breakdown of what we know to be true, what we expect, and what we are able to believe, and this is certainly reflected in the depictions of heroes and villains within postmodernist texts. This investigation looks into the role of heroic and villainous characters in postmodernist texts, the aspects of the postmodern world that is portrayed by these characters and how they developed, in relation to the societal and political changes that were gasoline to the flames of postmodernism. The characters that will be used to  investigate this are the superhero Batman, and one of his arch-nemeses The Joker, using the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, both directed by Christopher Nolan, and the graphic novels Joker written by Brian Azzarello, and The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore; Shrek from the film Shrek, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson; Billy Pilgrim from the novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut; and Patrick Bateman from the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. These texts represent the wide-ranging reaches of postmodernism, including both what people may class as â€Å"literature† and â€Å"mass culture† as distinctive examples of postmodernism. However, in studying these texts, it is clear to see the disordered nature of postmodernism by the creation of the antihero- a protagonist who lacks the traditional heroic qualities, who is flawed, who the audience is ultimately able to recognise themselves in. How do the texts themselves reflect postmodernism? The literary label of â€Å"postmodernism† can be applied liberally, and encompasses a large number of texts, with differing postmodern qualities found in each one. However, over the range of texts that is being investigated in this report, there are some aspects that stand out more clearly than others. As this report focuses on heroes and villains within the texts, we will firstly look at the texts that were used to analyse the characters of Batman and the Joker. The texts used to study the Batman include The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Joker, and The Killing Joke. All of these texts are set in the fictional city of Gotham, New York, which is a postmodern setting that makes us aware of facing widespread social meltdown in which it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make a separation between law and anarchy, heroism and terrorism, and sanity and madness. This shifting, sliding, disintegrating world is clearly portrayed in all of Nolan’s, Moore’s and Azzarello’s work. This postmodern setting, an arguably dystopian Gotham, is infested with crime and corruption, and fear and mistrust is abound- the people of the city cannot trust the authorities, nor can they trust any of the social or political institutions that they were brought up to believe in. This reflects the postmodern idea of disintegration- the dissolving of social norms and institutions on which many people based their lives, the removal of the â€Å"absolute†. The issues  that the citizens of Gotham face are not merely about right and wrong, or good and evil, they are vicious moral dilemmas presented by psychopathic and unpredictable villains. Also, the hyperrealistic nature of the violence that is depicted in both the films and the graphic novels is also a postmodern aspect of these texts. For example, in the graphic novel, Joker, when a mob boss who went against the Joker was flayed alive and paraded on to a strip club stage; or when Harvey Dent’s hired detective/thug is shot in the head and hung upside down from a tree on the grounds of Dent’s mansion and Dent finds him in the morning, dripping brain matter over his newspaper. Hyperreality is a deliberate blurring of the boundaries between fantasy and reality, and the portrayal of hyperreal violence in postmodern texts is common, as they distort reality through a trivialization of violence and the effects it has upon human beings. Hyperreal violence is also found in the novel American Psycho, in which Patrick Bateman, a yuppie Wall Street banker by day, and psychotic murderer by night, commits gruesome murders and sexual acts constantly throughout the novel, which are described with chillingly accurate detail. By the end of the novel, the reader is numbed to the graphic descriptions of violence and gore, accepting them as part of his everyday life, just as normal as him going to work and engaging in mindless conversation with his colleagues. However, in American Psycho, the most obvious, and most often seen, characteristic of postmodernism is its constant references to brand names, pop culture and the corporate world that Bateman is a part of. As the novel is written in a stream-of-consciousness style from Bateman’s point of view, the reader sees his thoughts as he passes shallow, superficial judgment on virtually everyone he sees. Bateman’s thoughts as he and his girlfriend Evelyn attend a party are a good indication of the tone of the novel: â€Å"Evelyn and I are by far the best-dressed couple. I’m wearing a lamb’s wool topcoat, a wool jacket with wool flannel trousers, a cotton shirt, a cashmere V-neck sweater and a silk tie, all from Armani. Evelyn’s wearing a cotton blouse by Dolce do Gabbana, suede shoes by Yves Saint Laurent, a stenciled calf skirt by Adrienne Landau with a suede belt by Jill Stuart, Calvin Klein tights, Venetian-glass earrings by Frances Patiky Stein, and  clasped in her hand is a single white rose that I bought at a Korean deli before Carruthers’ limousine picked me up. Carruthers is wearing a lamb’s wool sport coat, a cashmere/vicuà ±a cardigan sweater, cavalry twill trousers, a cotton shirt and a silk tie, all from Hermà ¨s. (â€Å"How tacky,† Evelyn whispered to me; I silently agreed.) Courtney is wearing a triple-layered silk organdy top and a long velvet skirt with a fishtail hem, velvet-ribbon and enamel earrings by Josà © and Maria Barrera, gloves by Portolano and shoes from Gucci.† The constant allusions to brand names, fashion trends and collections, make the novel a part of, and a product of, the world outside of the text, the consumerist society we have today. Unlike the fictional, dystopian city that Batman and the Joker live in, Bateman lives in a world that we are easily able to relate to- our world. We, as the reader, have our attention called to the fact that the world the characters in the novel are experiencing is the same world that we live and take part in. This is unlike most modernist novels, in which the story and its characters are confined to the world created in the novel, and the reader is only able to experience them through the windows of the novel. References to pop culture feature prominently across postmodernist texts, as seen clearly in the film Shrek. Although intended as a children’s film, the films are a perfect example of a postmodern fairytale. The films themselves are extremely intertextual, creating a story with many, many fairytale characters woven into the one story, such as the Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, the Fairy Godmother and the Gingerbread Man, among many others. This intertextuality in itself is a reference to popular culture, citing multiple fairytales, stories, and nursery rhymes for many of the main characters. Other references to the world outside of the text include Robin Hood and his Merry Men dancing to Riverdance; Princess Fiona slowing down in time like Neo in film The Matrix while she is fighting; references to the film The Princess Bride; and mimicking the style of game shows and dating shows, for example when the Mirror on the Wall introduces Princess Fiona in a bachelorette-dating style. The directors also use irony at the start of the film Shrek, as the beginning scene of the film has a narrator telling the story seriously as a fairytale, when Shrek interrupts this and mocks the author when he says, â€Å"Yeah right.† and tears the page out of the book. Not only does the use of irony and humour in this scene make the audience aware  that the ogre we are introduced to is not a stereotypical one, we also see an interaction between the author and character, a barrier which is broken in postmodern texts to highlight that the text is a work of fiction. The audience is also made aware of this as Shrek acknowledges the camera or audience when he turns to the camera and blocks it before kissing Fiona. This shows that the film is self-reflexive, the characters of the film are aware of film-making and its tools. The use of such postmodern techniques embeds the story of Shrek in a world that the audience is aware of, and while it may not fully be the reality we live in, it is one that we have grown up with and are comfortable with. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five uses similar techniques to assert its postmodernism. It references popular culture, mentioning Christmas carols, novels (a character refers to the novel â€Å"The Brothers Karamazov†, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, as â€Å"everything there was to know about life†) and history books about one of the main events of the novel, the fire-bombing of Dresden. However, despite these links to the outside world, the reader gets constant reminders of the fact that this book is fictional. The author, Vonnegut is present as a character in the book, as a soldier, a POW taken to Dresden along with Billy, making occasional comments, and then informing the reader that â€Å"That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.† The intrusion of the author into the narrative is also shown through the recurring phrase â€Å"So it goes†, which follows each mention of death: â€Å"The plane crashed on top of Sugarbush Mountain, in Vermont. Everyone was killed but Billy. So it goes. While Billy was recuperating in a hospital in Vermont, his wife died accidentally of carbon-monoxide poisoning. So it goes.† The use of the non-linear narrative structure is also a postmodern aspect of the text- the main protagonist travels randomly through time, experiencing the events in non-chronological order. For example, his death is merely four sentences in the middle of the novel, described as merely being â€Å"violet light and a hum.† Similar to American Psycho, the usual significance of death is not present in the novel. However, while in American Psycho the reader was slowly desensitized towards death, in Slaughterhouse-Five, death  simply does not matter, which challenges all the readers’ preconceived notions about death, and the sanctity of it. The temporal structure of the novel reflects what the alien Tralfamadorians teach Billy of their beliefs about time, that it is an â€Å"assemblage† of moments rather than a linear progression. This means that they are able to accept death as a perpetually occurring event, hence their use of the phrase â€Å"So it goes†. Another postmodern technique is the use of recurring characters: the character of Kilgore Trout, a science fiction writer, appears in Vonnegut’s other novels; Eliot Rosewater appears in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Howard W. Campbell, the American-turned-Nazi, in Mother Night; and Bertram Copeland Rumfoord is a relative of Winston Niles Rumfoord, who appears in The Sirens of Titan. These characters that appear over a number of books connects the discrete novels as being part of a greater whole; as being part of a world outside its pages. Vonnegut also blurs the lines of genre in the novel in order to deconstruct the idea of a â€Å"war novel†. The novel swings between the genres of science fiction and a biography, and Vonnegut mixes the fantasy of aliens and the planet Tralfamadore with the reality of war, and the author’s presence and experiences of it. The term â€Å"postmodernism† sweeps many different, and seemingly unrelated, texts under its wide reaches, but most such texts use similar postmodern techniques to achieve the ultimate effect- of making the reader aware of the text as a work of fiction, and as an entity that exists as a part of a greater whole, rather than an object existing in a world defined by itself. In what ways are the heroes or villains of these texts postmodern? With the ideological, cultural, and social upheaval that was present during the time of the birth of postmodernism, a new protagonist was born, which redefined our existing notions and stereotypes about the nature of these protagonists- the antihero. Defined as being the main character of a text, who does not possess the qualities of a traditional â€Å"hero†, the character appears in postmodern texts regularly. With the movement of heroes away from the expected â€Å"good†, we are also able to see changes in the villains of texts, and these revolutionary changes in the idea of heroes and villains,  which comes down to the primal, instinctive battle between good and evil, can be seen through postmodern texts. The character of Batman is an incredibly complex one, having heroic qualities yet not conforming to the stereotype of â€Å"superheroes†, the strong, powerful men or women with a heart of gold, using their powers for the good of mankind. Batman is postmodern in that he breaks the mold for a traditional â€Å"superhero†, and rejects the story arc for one. His whole journey started not from a need of his to create good, but a twisted sense of revenge for his parents’ death, and in order to become develop his fighting skills. After his parents’ murderer is killed, Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham and disappears for 7 years, â€Å"exploring the criminal fraternity†, and training with the League of Shadows. He obviously has a different set of morals than what is expected, when asked by Henri Ducard whether he pitied the criminals while he lived with them, he says, â€Å"The first time I stole so I wouldn’t starve, yes, I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong.† The recurring idea throughout the texts containing Batman is that he is not a hero, but he is â€Å"whatever Gotham needs him to be†, he is a symbol for good, a symbol for the hope of a new, functional Gotham. â€Å"As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed, but as a symbol†¦ But as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this way, he is astoundingly similar to Patrick Bateman. Patrick Bateman exists not as a person, but as a reflection of the society that he is a part of. He is an image created to fit the standards and ideologies of the society he lives in. â€Å"†¦there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.† Through the texts, we also see that the Joker is very similar to Batman, and this is what makes their relationship so psychologically complex. They are, in a way, similar to the two sides of a coin. As the Joker says to Batman, â€Å"I complete you.† The relationship between the hero and the villain is subverted and made incredibly ambiguous. Just as the Joker is a villain who does not observe even the basic rules of criminality by which society might identify and punish him, Batman is a hero who does not observe even the  basic rules of heroism so that society might recognise and glorify him. The Killing Joke ends with Batman capturing the Joker, but deciding not to kill him, and offering to help rehabilitate him, because he â€Å"needn’t be out there on the edge anymore. You needn’t be alone†¦ Maybe I’ve been there too. Maybe I can help.† And they laugh together at a joke that the Joker tells him, which only reinforces their similarities, and the fact that they can both understand each other. The Joker, at one point in the Dark Knight, also says to Batman that they are both â€Å"freaks†. And they are, both characters being outcasts of society. But while the Joker is there willingly because of his own calculating inhumanity, Batman is the scapegoat, the reluctant outcast who takes upon himself the violence of society and its corrupted institutions, in order that its illusions of law and order might be preserved, because he rationalizes that he is â€Å"whatever Gotham needs me to be†¦ Because that’s what needs to happen. Because sometimes, truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more; sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.† The story of Batman and the Joker is postmodern in that it subverts most of the expected story arcs of both superheroes, and supervillains. It shows that these two need each other to be effective. The Joker we see simultaneously seduces and repels, fascinates and horrifies, and he provides the inescapable force which Batman’s own persona is dependent upon. The character of the Joker is also very similar to Patrick Bateman, both displaying hyperreal violence in their villainy, and being incredibly unreliable narrators. In the Killing Joke, The Joker says, â€Å"†Something like that happened to me, you know. I†¦ I’m not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another†¦ If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!† Similarly, in American Psycho, we are unable to trust the memories of a psychopath, shown by his blank â€Å"But I don’t remember†¦Ã¢â‚¬  statements when recounting his murders and sexual exploits. Also, when we find that one of Bateman’s victims, a colleague of his named Paul Owen, is actually alive at the end of the book, we find ourselves being sure of the entire story- his character, the plot and definitely his grisly tales of murder and torture. Bateman and the Joker are both psychopaths- and in some ways, they are both forces of anarchy in  their societies, the Joker being an elemental force unconstrained by any glimmer of humanity, fear or vulnerability. As he claims in the Dark Knight, â€Å"The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.† Meanwhile, Bateman has no regard for people as everything in his world is purely material- he does not care when he kills, as all he feels he is killing is an â€Å"Armani pantsuit†. Neither of these characters have an object nor a goal towards which they work, as Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler says, â€Å"Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought or bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men want to watch the world burn.† However, while the Joker is invincible due to his absolute freedom from pain and any other human attachment, Bateman is confined to the expectations of his status and social culture. Bateman heavily refers to popular culture throughout Psycho, keeping up a steady stream of superficial commentary on all aspects of his life. In this way, the character of Shrek is similar to Bateman, as he also lives in a world where advertising, brand names, and social standing play a major part in one’s life. However, looking at the characters, they are clear opposites- while Bateman has embraced the shallow culture of his time, and practices it dutifully, the society of Shrek’s time has turned him into a hardened cynic, one who would rolls his eyes whenever his companions would make a frivolous comment. This is related to the fact that Shrek is an ogre, and the film subverts the stereotype of the ogre as a villain, by molding him as the hero, and the actual Prince Charming as the whiny, cowardly villain of the film. This challenges conventional thinking, since we, the audience, have been conditioned to think of ogres as â€Å"evil† creatures who eat people and have no mercy. Through this film, we see that this is actually not the case; traditional villains can also become valiant heroes, given the right setting and sidekick. Billy Pilgrim, a cowardly, weak, time-travelling optometrist who is the protagonist of the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, is an unlikely war hero. He is weak, unpopular and pathetic to the audience, and becomes a laughable soldier. Even as a time traveler, he is described as a â€Å"spastic in time†. He is postmodern in the development of his character as an â€Å"anti-hero†, an  ordinary, if slightly on the pathetic side of ordinary, man. The story is driven the other the events more than the protagonist, since he is unable to be determined and strong-minded enough to change the world, or even his social world, neither positively nor negatively. He is another unreliable narrator, when he tells the world of his tales about the Tralfamadorians, he is taken to be insane, and not believed. Because he is such a weak character, he does not contradict the fact, but neither does he support it, and so the reader is still unsure at the end of the novel whether his tales of Tralfamadore were true, or whether they were merely an elaborate coping mechanism to help deal with the terrible experiences he suffered during the war. Billy Pilgrim is the ultimate postmodern hero- he is an ordinary person, who is thrust into a difficult situation, and similar to large majority of humanity, does nothing heroic or commendable. Through this, we also come to the realization that for every lauded, decorated war hero, there were hundreds of other â€Å"average† ones, and Billy Pilgrim is a perfect example of one. Through the analysis of these heroes and villains, we are able to see that postmodernism does indeed challenge the traditional notion of a clear cut hero and villain. Just as postmodernism blurs the lines of reality in texts, it also blurs the lines in our mind separating the good and the bad. Postmodernism depicts a much more realistic hero, an increasingly more human one, who makes mistakes, is determined by what society makes it, and sometimes, does nothing heroic at all. He or she is present in postmodern texts generally not to inspire, like a classic hero, but to make the audience realize a truth about their lives, their societies, and the world around them. Villainy is depicted as a result of something, rather than a character trait. Postmodernism claims that villains are created by the expectations of society, and are therefore, an essential part of the heroes they work against. How did the external world influence the rise of postmodernism? The birth of postmodernism has been linked back to the political atmosphere of the time, in the atrocities of Stalinism. This, along with the horrors of  Nazism, and the Holocaust, completely undermined the modernist narrative of progress, and the ability of language to describe such an incomprehensible atrocity. Thus, postmodernism was born, an era which looked not to change the world, but to redefine it, to make people look at truths differently. Postmodernist authors reveal many of the concerns of the world today, by both realistically and symbolically representing our world, our societies, through their texts and characters, and making commentary on them. For example, Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse Five as a response to war- â€Å"It is so short and jumbled and jangled, because there is nothing intelligent to say about as massacre.† The story is very jumbled, written satirically based on Vonnegut’s own experiences in WWII and being a witness to the firebombing of Dresden, which killed 130,000 people. The use of a pathetic protagonist indicates his anti-war stance- the novel was published in 1969, when USA was in the midst of the Vietnam War. During this time, Vonnegut was an outspoken pacifist, and critic of the war. Just like Vonnegut’s novel is social commentary of the issue of his time, Bret Easton Ellis uses American Psycho to explore newer, more disturbing trends in Western culture. He looks at the desensitization of our culture to violence, the increasingly gory films, novels and graphic novels we are exposed to, and how this tendency of the media can find its way back to people who are easily influenced by it, such as Bateman. He also criticizes our obsession with popular culture, image and brand names, by portraying his protagonist, a man with the perfect face, the perfect clothes, and the perfect image, as a psychopath, a man who kills for the fun of it at night. The popular-culture-mania of our time is also explored in Shrek, as it is a children’s movie, and even children when they watch it, recognize the references to other fairytales and brand names. This reflects how we are conditioned to believe and understand popular culture from a very young age. The story of Batman and the Joker, on the other hand, delves a little deeper into the issues of our society. They uncover the crisis of values in which America, and most of the western world, finds itself at the beginning of the 21st century. Cultural theorists portrayed the late 20th century in terms of  Ã¢â‚¬Å"the postmodern condition†: an era in which traditional values, identities and social institutions were disintegrating and being replaced by twisted narratives, conflicting truth claims and multiple identities. Gotham City reflects what our society may be looking forward to, with the increasing fragmentation of our world into splintered groups and subgroups. Where does that leave us? The era of postmodernism is one that is difficult to define, but it still heralded as a time of immense cultural change, which redefined the way people look at the world today. This can be especially seen in its portrayal of heroes and villains. Gone are the days macho superheroes, instead we have flawed, sometimes even pathetic protagonists, the â€Å"anti-hero† which is increasingly similar to the ordinary person. The villains, on the other hand, are unreliable, and cannot always be expected to do the â€Å"evil† thing, they too are human; they too have backstory which elicits sympathy from the audience. By subverting the traditional stereotypes about the world today postmodern authors and directors warn us of the dangers of human nature and culture, and the bleak future we may be looking forward to, if we let the dangerous behaviour of our culture continue. Bibliography Adamson, Andrew and Jenson, Vicky. (2001) Shrek, Dreamworks Pictures Accessed 11/07/12 Adamson, Glen, et al. (2011) Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990. London: V&A Publishing. Accessed on 26/07/12 Azzarello, Brian (writer), Bermejo, Lee (artist), Gray, Mick (illustrator).] (2008) Joker. DC Comics Accessed on 26/07/12 Ellis, Bret Easton. (1991) American Psycho. New York: Vintage Books. Accessed 31/08/12 Moore, Alan (writer), Bolland, Brian (artist). (1988) The Killing Joke, DC Comics. Nolan, Christopher. (2005) Batman Begins, Warner Bros. Pictures Accessed 14/07/12 Nolan, Christopher. (2008) The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. Pictures Accessed 14/07/12 Vonnegut, Kurt. (2003) Slaughterhouse Five. New York: Harper Collins. Accessed 26/7/12 Wilcox, Leonard. Programme Coordinator of American Studies at University of Canterbury, interview on 12/09/12.

Introduction to Cephalopods