Humbug! Hoaxes in Literature and Culture.

I found my secondary source through Project Muse, one of the links that were provided in the database that was created for our research paper. I was able to access a book called “Identity Theft and Fraud: Evaluating and Managing Risk” by Norm Archer after searching “Catch Me If You Can” and “Abagnale” in the advanced search option. I was overly pleased to have found this book online because not only are the chapters split into separate pdf files, but online I can quickly read and draw information from the brief overview of each chapter. This was I can search the exact information that I am looking for to answer the questions I seek to address in my paper. This book is perfect because it has a great scope of various topics that pertain to identity theft and fraud that could answer any questions that may come to mind while writing my paper. Finding this book has steered me toward the path of narrowing my paper to the break down of criminal psychology and criminal justice that could be analyzed through the film’s character portrayal.

Norm Archer. and Susan Sproule. and Yufei Yuan. and Ken Guo. and Junlian Xiang. Identity Theft and Fraud: Evaluating and Managing Risk. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2012. Project MUSE. Web. 4 Nov. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

The secondary source that I have chosen is The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi, from The New York Times Magazine. Initially I was looking at JSTORE and trying to connect my research question to The Amazing Randi, however this source addresses more themes and questions that will tie to my research paper. This source is about James Randi, a brief synopsis of his life before and after fame and a look into his rise to fame and how he made a name for himself as a debunker. The article also shows his ‘rivalry’ with Geller and hence gives a little bit of an insight into how small the entertainment industry is.

This source has made me think of a variety of ways to approach my paper and has provided some important aspects to look at while regarding entertainment and deception. The article speaks of James Randi first becoming a magician and how he tried to tell people that he was fooling them, yet they insisted on him being a psychic, he later states in an interview “…They need it because they’re weak…” This addresses one of my questions of people willing and wanting to be duped. It is interesting as it comes from the perspective of a magician, the person deliberately deceiving people, stating that he believes that people need authority in their lives. Another interesting aspect to this source is when it addresses the money and funds involved in the entertainment industry. The movie I will be reviewing deals with bank robberies, however this article shows the large amount of legitimate funds involved in a life of entertainment, in this case the money offered just to debunk a fellow magician deceiving the audience.

Higginbotham, Adam. “The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Nov. 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.

When searching for my secondary source, I used the terms “Balloon Hoax” and I found an excerpt from a book on JSTOR. This excerpt was a chapter titled “Poe’s “Balloon Hoax”” from a book called American Literature. It contained a well written analysis and comparison of the real Monck Mason’s account of his balloon trip to Poe’s hoax. I chose it because it was so specific to my primary source and it had a thorough analysis comparing the two works, highlighting specific portions where there are almost identical passages. Furthermore, this work shows how Poe melds the truth facts with the false ones since the Monck Mason’s account was entirely accurate. This source changed the way I was going to approach my topic because I originally intended on focusing on how society and the cultural beliefs of the audience influenced Poe’s work but instead I was inspired by this source to analyze how Poe feigned truths by mimicking many stylistic elements and facts from a true discovery.

Scudder, Harold H. “Poe’s “Balloon Hoax”” American Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. 21.         Durham: Duke UP, 1949. 179-90. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.

Milgram, Stanley. “Behavioral Study of Obedience”. Albany: Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67.4 (1963): 371-378. Psychological Experiments Online. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

I decided to use Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on authority as my secondary source. I found this source by searching through Emory Library database. After I entered “Obedience to Authority” into the search bar a link to “Psychological Experiments Online” appeared. The link led me to a series of primary sources and letters by Stanley Milgram in the early 1960’s. In Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can portraying Frank Abagnale Jr.’s life, a recurring theme of getting away with fraud through an authoritative figure in society is present. Frank Abagnale Jr. was a check forger in the 1970’s who pretended to be authoritative figures in society: a lawyer, doctor, and an airline pilot to embezzle millions from banks. From these positions of power he manipulated and utilized women to his advantage. Milgram’s experiment shows how people react to authority and obedience. I would also use other sources regarding how gender played a role in the 1970’s.

Jay Noren, David Kindig, and Audrey Sprenger. “Challenges to Native American Health Care.” Public Health Reports 113.1 (1998): 22-33. Jstor. Web. 4 November 2015.

I used Jstor and the key words “Native American healthcare funding” to find my source. I chose this source because it is an article from a peer reviewed journal, Public Health Reports, of the U.S. Public Health Service. My source describes specific forces challenging Native American health care, and it includes responses and surveys from staff members of 39 Native American health programs in ten states, making it a credible source of information and data. This source will somewhat change how I will approach my topic by concentrating more on the specific challenges facing Native American healthcare rather than just problems with inadequate funding. Some of the challenges mentioned include the inadequate funding of Native American funding, the problem with retaining professional staff, and keeping positive relationships with the IHS administration. IHS services are essentially free of charge to eligible recipients, and unlike programs like Medicare and Medicaid, IHS is not an entitlement program and their funds are obtained through annual appropriations. Even if additional funds for a given year are needed, they are rarely available.  The main reason, however, for inadequate funding is due to the increasing population of Native Americans served with in proportionate increases in appropriations. Another problem with the IHS services is the challenge in recruiting and retaining staff. Usually clinical staff who work for a specific amount of time are promoted to administrative positions, leading to inexperienced leadership and loss of clinical services.  Funding is both the greatest benefit and greatest concern to tribes. It provides funding for consultations, data and public health guidelines but also does not appropriate sufficient funding to improve and update these methods.

The source I found is called Wizard of Oz: Bringing Drama to Virtual Reality. I found it using the JSTOR website. The terms I searched were Wizard of Oz AND Director. I chose this source because it talks about the technology behind the making of the Wizard of Oz. It sheds light on the engineering behind making the world of the Wizard of Oz and the effects it has on the audience. The virtual world moves the audience in a way that makes them want to go on the journey with Dorothy and experience the good as well as the bad that she endures during this adventure. This changes my original approach to my research question because it talks about the engineers as opposed to the director. Instead of only talking about the intentions of the director, I can also include how creating this virtual reality disrupts hoax tropes to influence the audience.

Peterson, Ivars. “Wizard of Oz”. Science News 142.25/26 (1992): 440–441. Web…

My secondary source: Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: the Female Trickster in American Culture, was found using DiscoverE. I tried a bunch of search terms, with “feminism and con artists”, “feminism and 1970’s”, “power and women”, etc. I finally found this secondary source by using the search terms “conning and women”. I choose this article because it focuses on American culture, con artist, and women, which gives context to American Hustle and allows me to explore gender theory in regards to key elements of the movie. This source connected all the different information I was searching for seemlessly.

Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women is the first study to explore the cultural work performed by female tricksters in the “new country” of American mass consumer culture. The book explores up to the twentieth-century fiction, film, radio, and television, Lori Landay looks at how popular heroines use craft and deceit to circumvent the limitations of femininity. Landay explores the connections between these texts and advertisements selling products that encourage female deception and trickery. This source gives me a new perspective about females in the media and will allow me to explore the film as part of this mass consumer culture in and of itself, as well as the plot and how the characters personify female societal structures of the 1970’s .

Landay, Lori. Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 1998. Print.

I found my source on JSTOR, and did an advanced search “Von Kempelen” and “hoax”; which limited my search results down to 37. I selected this source over the others because it was one of the first few search results and while I skimmed through the first 5 search results it had the most relevant information for my paper. The source discussed Poe’s hoax in pages 31-36, and in those pages began by giving a general idea of what the hoax is about, and then it went on to bring in the letter Poe sent to the editor of the paper in which his hoax was published stating that his article in the paper was just a hoax. The source then went on and discussed Poe’s possible reasoning behind the hoax, his intentions, and then phrases in the hoax that Poe intended his audience to realize what they were reading was a hoax. This source gave me an insight on the significance of the gold rush and it gave me the idea of analyzing the hoax more and points to search for in order to find puns in the hoax that Poe inserted to show what he was writing was a hoax. It showed me the possibility of approaching the hoax to show different intentions Poe might have had when writing this.

McGann, Jerome J.. “Shall These Bones Live?”. Text 1 (1981): 21–40. Web. 4 Nov. 2015

Must, Jelle. “New Directions in Hybrid Popular Television: a Reassessment of Television  Mock-Documentary.” Media, Culture & Society 31.2 (2009): 232-243. ProQuest. Web. 4 November 2015.

The secondary source that I find most compelling is entitled “New Directions in Hybrid Popular Television: A Reassessment of Television Mock-Documentary.” Though I found and plan to use many sources that directly allude to the Blair Witch film, this source stuck out to me because it was less obvious. I found this article through ProQuest on the library website. For a while I was just searching obvious terms such as “Blair Witch,” “documentary,” “movie review.” Soon I realized that I could be more specific and conceptual. I searched for reality as one parameter and documentary as the other and found the perfect article for my research paper. The article I found discusses the recent trend of the mock- documentary or “mockumentary.” It delves into the ideologies and concepts of how audience is influenced by this new genre. Though I knew I wanted to talk about the nuances of reality versus perception I didn’t know how I was going to argue the idea. This article not only reaffirmed my concept but also helped me grasp it better. The author, Jelle Mast explores the psychological theories of mockumentaries where the line is blurred between perception and non-fiction. In the article Mast theorizes that by “drawing on the expectations of a ‘knowing’ audience (that is familiar with these codes and their truth claims), the programme-makers attempt to enhance the reality credentials of the series [or film]”(Mast, 240).