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Mike on 90 Day Jane

Page history last edited by michael.petrakis@richmond.edu 14 years, 6 months ago

Mike Petrakis

Dr. Essid

English 103

September 8th, 2009

 

                                                            90 Day Jane

 

            90 Day Jane is truly a work of art. It is a perfect example of the effect and the power of the Internet, let alone the effect a single person can have on a mass of people by posting one’s thoughts. Art lacks a true definition; it is anything created or imagined that can be demonstrated through objects, environments, or experiences. 90 Day Jane is demonstrated through the power of the internet and shows people the awful effect suicide can have on people. 90 Day Jane is not a cruel hoax because it is the audience who puts themselves into the trap of reading the journal entries; they are blaming the author for wasting their time and being tricked, even though it was their own fault. It was not a grab for celebrity because she was not getting paid and was doing it for herself - not craving attention from an audience. However, she also made the blog because she wanted to deliver a message to her audience; to prove that it is easier to offer help to people than it is to ask for help on such a self-destructing problem.  Depression is such a major problem that on average nine million Americans suffer from it and 340 million people worldwide. It is so devastating that in orientation when a guest speaker asked the audience to stand if they know someone who has committed suicide from depression, most of the students in the room stood up. Since depression has such a devastating effect on such a mass of people, I believe it is like cancer. 90 Day Jane is a work of art because it is so persuasive that it makes the audience realize how serious and life threatening this cancer is to people all around us today. 

            There are many reasons why 90 Day Jane is a work of art. To start simply, Jane put something on the Internet that people have looked at and critiqued. She did this to send a message - art usually sends a message to its audience by appealing to people’s emotions and senses. The work was delivered in such a way that it seemed very believable and undoubtedly persuasive that she was going to commit suicide. Webster Dictionary defines art as “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance”. Her entries in ways are beautiful, very interesting, and very unique. Jane had to make her blog posts seem real – so that she would get the results and feedback that she had hoped for. The way she wrote her posts seemed so practical and nonchalant – i.e. the post about “Finding a dress for the big day”. Also, the article about what to do with all her possessions once she died was very moving because it showed that she didn’t really have anyone close to her. The journal entries needed to be this way so that people would understand the harsh and horrible pain of depression. It seemed that her biggest point was to express the feeling of being isolated and lonely; like no one cares about you and there is no reason to live. She wanted to sympathize with the rage and isolation of Christine Chubbuck, a news reporter who made her depression very obvious to the people around her, yet no one made an effort to help. Because of this, Christine shot herself in the head live on air.

            There are many people like Christine that you don’t hear about who have killed themselves after feeling isolated and never getting any help. This being so, Jane wanted to help these people who are experiencing similar pains that she wrote about. By posting these entries about the countdown to her suicide, the people who are depressed may feel better about their own problems because 90 Day Jane seemed so serious and committed it may have made people think “Oh, well at least I am not to that point.” Then, by letting them contact her and tell her that there are people out there having similar thoughts, it probably let those people who suffer depression feel better because they talked about it. On the other hand, however, research shows that when a suicide occurs by a young adult or teenager in a community it can actually lead to other suicide attempts if it leaks to local newspaper or media. 90 Day Jane actually increases the risk of suicide by others because it is the suicide contagion effect - seeing one person do it does not make it seem as bad to the next. 

            Jane also brings up another issue – she is disappointed in her society and that is part of the reason she wants to leave it. She is disgusted with how people only pay attention to pop culture and what is going on with celebrities rather than what is going on with themselves. I believe she is a modern day enlightenment being, in that she wants people to do things for themselves – create their own happiness and find their true passion, rather than just watching their idols on television. She suggests that she is sick of society because it is overrun by people who do nothing with their lives. This being so, she would rather die than be in a world of people who don’t create anything for themselves in life. By implying that she is sick of this society, she makes her audience question the people who they are, and perhaps even make them realize that they need to get out and enjoy life so they don’t end up like 90 Day Jane. This is a work of art, because it portrays a dysfunctional society and encourages people to get out and enlighten themselves.  

            Jane created her work of art without expecting what kind of reaction she would receive. She had no idea what to expect, and when she found feedback, she noted, “the internet is both the best and worst example of human interaction”. She said there was an abundant amount of people who felt the same way Jane did in some of her emails, sending her messages that were “more real and heartfelt than I thought was possible.” For the people who showed heartfelt responses, she showed much gratitude – proving that her work of art touched many people.  90 Day Jane is a work of art simply because it touched people by showing the reader that depression is one of the worst things that can possibly happen to a human being. The journal is persuasive, eerie at moments, and draws the reader right into each entry post. She did it to show the devastating effects of what depression can do to people, such as Christine Chubbuck. Her awful and devastating posts ironically put a hand out to her readers, because she found that they could talk to her about their similar problems. Her thoughts of society suggest that people should not get caught up in popular culture, but instead their own interests and passion. She got many responses to her work of art, showing that she touched many people from what she did. 90 Day Jane is a work of art that expresses the pains and troubles of depression; moreover it shows the awful cancer-like effect it has on our modern day society. 90 Day Jane is a masterpiece.

 

http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html 

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/02/12/90-day-jane-and-suicide/ 

Comments (2)

Joe Essid said

at 12:43 pm on Sep 16, 2009

Mike,

By starting with "90 Day Jane is truly a work of art. It is a perfect example of the effect and the power of the Internet, let alone the effect a single person can have on a mass of people by posting one’s thoughts." I have a clear sense of your bias, which is what my assignment asked. As the reader, now that I see that, I expect "okay, where will Mike go for more data to help him produce something an academic reader will accept?"

Let's see how you did...

1) The statistics on depression made me pause. First, they are large numbers. Second, where did you get them? As a writer, you'd want to add in the text how you'd go about finding support for that claim. How could you begin to find this out?

2) Back off from the dictionary. It's an overused tactic in student writing. While you need to support nearly every claim you make with some sort of credible evidence, how about posing a question here (this is not a finished draft) instead of answering it? Where could you go to find out about the definition of "art" under the law?

Joe Essid said

at 12:43 pm on Sep 16, 2009

part two:

Overall, the prose works very well, moving from point to point fluently and using the Christine Chubbuck parallel very effectively. I'm pleased to learn that no one had taped the newscaster's suicide; that's a You Tube thankfully lost forever.

My concern about this diagnostic is linked to the assignment. You've made a claim and, using 1-on-10 reasoning, you defend and support it. Simply put: it's too soon. The assignment asked you to consider what else you'd need to know to write academically about this. I'd suggest considering the legal discussion of art (the Supreme Court has ruled on art v. pornography issues a few times), the counterargument that Jane may have inspired (or stopped) other suicides, and so forth. Where could you find good evidence about the rates for suicides among those who first threaten it? Those are a few areas of concern.

That's really the only problem here I see, beyond what I noted. I want to know, were you writing about Jane, where you'd go to find out more to make the best possible case for a governing claim.

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