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Creating and Presenting
‘Wag the Dog’ and ‘The Lot: In Words’
Essays to review:
How to Be a Cartoonist
Thou Shalt Be Attractive
Blood and Guts, Violence and Death
Mania Posing as Passion
A Picture of Innocence
Is Your Journey Necessary?
*
His version of reality:
* To be authentic
* To be genuine
* To be true to one’s own sense of life
His way of interpreting the world:
* The world is quirky
* The world is idiosyncratic
* He sets his life and view of life against the mainstream- he defines himself
by opposition to it- stake out his own group
He sees his role to be:
* Contentious
* Around controversy
*
Nature of Leunig’s writing:
* Forceful
* Sometimes intemperate nature
* Needs to defend his highly personal and unusual view of life
He encourages us:
* Look deeply in our hearts and minds to seek out secrets and truths of
which we may be unaware
* Authenticity
* Swimming against the tide
* What the majority sees as sanity may in fact be
madness
* Human beings can often be violent, insensitive and
cruel
* When discussing reality- we need to define terms
* We are diminished if a spiritual dimension does not
form part of our reality
*
* We can often be unaware of the true desires of
our hearts- we allow other people to decide
what we want. Whose reality are we
embracing?
* ‘Thou shall be attractive’ introduces ‘the
dictator’ whose banners line the streets- the
embodiment of the power of advertising- it
encourages us to value the artificial over the
authentic, appearance over reality. False self
masks true self.
*
* admires those who have the courage to risk
offending the mainstream.
* ‘Message of the Mufti’ attack on what he sees
as the present-day Australian attitude that
‘being offensive’ (forthright and controversial)
is ‘a new type of calamity or crime in Australia,
and the problem is that you can commit it
without having any intention of doing so’ (p74).
This essay is an attack on conformity. Leunig
argues we need diversity.
*
* things are often not as they seem
* ‘Mania posing as passion’- children today are
learning that ‘crazy is normal’ (p79). We
cannot distinguish the mad from the sane.
* Is madness a ‘narrow twentieth-century
construct’?
* Could it ever be true that one person’s
madness is another person’s sanity?
*
* ‘Blood and Guts, Violence and Death’ –
preoccupation with the violence of war and its
long-term effects.
* Leunig himself was required by law to register
for conscription in 1965, despite strongly
opposing the war. In conflict with the majority
viewpoint. What to other people was necessity
he thought was madness.
* We need to acknowledge the dark side of life,
as it is an integral part of our human reality.
*
* Words can be problematic and divisive.
* ‘God only knows’ – do you believe in the
existence of God?
*
* the word ‘soul’ is very important to Leunigspirituality
*
* In what ways does Leunig’s understanding of
the world differ from that of the mainstream?
* Do you see Leunig as sometimes unduly hostile
to those who do not share his way of
interpreting life?
* How does Leunig explore what he sees as the
gulf between reality and illusion?
*
* It often takes courage to defend our own view
of the world.
* Our lives are diminished when we take an
unduly materialistic view of life.
* We benefit by opening our minds to ideas
different from our own.
*
* Debate: ‘We too readily avoid unpleasant
realities’.
* Choose a key idea relating to the context and
illustrate how Leunig develops this idea in one
or more of his essays.
* ‘Our memories shape our sense of reality’.
Prepare an oral presentation on this topic,
using Leunig’s essays as well as other relevant
material.
*
Directed by Barry Levinson
1997
*
•Dustin Hoffman as Stanley Motss
•Robert De Niro as Conrad Brean
•Anne Heche as Winifred Ames
•Denis Leary as Fad King
•Willie Nelson as Johnny Dean
•Andrea Martin as Liz Butsky
•Kirsten Dunst as Tracy Lime
•William H. Macy as CIA Agent
Charles Young
•John Michael Higgins as John
Levy
•Suzie Plakson as Grace
•Woody Harrelson as Sgt. William
"the Old Shoe" Schumann
•Michael Belson as the President
•Suzanne Cryer as Amy Cain
•Jason Cottle as A.D.
•David Koechner as the director
•Craig T. Nelson as Senator John
Neal (uncredited)
*
* Media manipulation
* Power
* Seeing is nolonger believing
* The cost of recognition and fame
* Reality is a projection
*
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*Message
*Audience
*Purpose
*Style
*
* What are the key concept words in the prompt?
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(You should look for key terms that need defining, potential
ambiguities in meaning, and all of the potential connotations that
particular words in the prompt may carry.)
State the prompt as a debate topic, beginning your sentence with:
That …
State the prompt as a question.
What ideas and arguments about the theme do I need to consider and
write about in order to respond to the prompt? (Do not refer to the
text - your ideas!)
What examples can I draw upon from the set text The Lot? From Wag
the Dog?
Which stylistic features in The Lot will I adopt? From Wag the Dog?
What examples can I draw upon from supplementary texts?
Which stylistic features from these supplementary texts could I also
consider adopting?
(a) Which style of writing is suitable for me to use for this prompt persuasive, expository, imaginative?
(b) Why?
How will I approach the prompt and present my ideas within my
chosen style of writing? Why?
Who is my intended audience? Why?
What form of writing will I choose (that is not a 'straight' essay or a
'text-response type' essay) that is most suitable for communicating
my ideas to my intended audience? Why?