1. Which story and film are you writing about?

My comments will address the short story "In the Penal Colony" ⁽¹⁾ and the film Brazil

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

The point of the story is to illustrate how an obsession with technology can be destructive. The officer is so obsessed with the apparatus that he has gone insane. He has begun look for excuses to "sacrifice" prisoners to the machine. It seems that he had such admiration for the old Commandant and his contraption that the only choice he sees in life is to carry on the traditions he knows. He knows no other way of life than one of strict discipline, and when the explorer points out the error of his ways, the officer has no choice (in his mind) but to pronounce himself guilty of injustice and sentence himself to the proscribed punishment. It is ironic that the machine he has such admiration and respect for turns on him and, in the end, dies along with him.

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

The message of the film is that when only the government controls technology, (i.e. Central Services, Information Retrieval, Information Disbursement, etc.) it can become a Police State. If we give up control of our information and all our technology to one body, we cease to exist as a free society. I think an underlying message in the film is that if we allow technology to be controlled by just one entity, there will be no advances in technology. This is evidenced by the fact that even though the film is set in the future (presumably), the technology in it is not even that which was available when the film was made in 1985. Consider the primitive computers and the heat and air conditioning systems depicted. Also central to the film was the obsession everyone had with information, illustrated by the abundance of TV sets, and the "highway" that was literally lined with billboards.

4. Comment on at least one point that you found helpful in Professor Harris's commentary.

The comment made by professor Harris about "In the Penal Colony" that I found most interesting was; "The reader keeps on reading because it is clear that Kafka has a point beyond the sheer horror of the torture inflicted and the officer's lack of moral understanding." I agree wholeheartedly with this assessment. I disagree, however, with her views on Brazil. While I agree that the movie lacks a clear plot and seems to just plod along, I thing there may be underlying themes here, as I mentioned previously.

5. What is one question you have or one clarification you wish to have presented in relation to these works?

I am curious to know if Gilliam purposely used primitive technology, as I pointed out in question 3, or if this was just a low budget film. I would also like to know if DeNiro was cast as Harry Tuttle merely as a drawing card, or if there was some other motive. I think his portrayal of the freelance HVAC man was great, even though it was a relatively small part. I am also curious about the part when Tuttle is "swallowed up" by the papers- exactly what was the significance of that?

⁽¹⁾ Kafka, Franz. "In the Penal Colony." Literacy, Technology, and Society: Confronting the Issues. Ed. Gail Hawisher & Cynthia Selfe. Prentice-Hall. 1997. 557-573.

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