John Savage

155 Pages·2016·11.25 MB·English

by  John Klyczek

Eastern Illinois University
The Keep
Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications
2011
John Savage
John Klyczek
Eastern Illinois University
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Recommended Citation
Klyczek, John, "John Savage" (2011).Masters Theses. 288.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/288
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1 of 1 5/9/2011 13:58
John Savage
(TITLE)
BY
John Klyczek
THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF

Masters of Arts in English
IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS
2011
YEAR
I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING

THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE

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Copyright 2011 by John K1yczek
To Melissa Anne Ruthenbeck, who taught me to Love. To my
Mother, Susan Klyczek, who Loved more than anyone I've ever
known; and to my Step-Father, Gary Smith, who Loved her and
cared for her through her final hours. To my Father, John Alan
Klyczek, whose Love is like Promethean Fire that consumes or
forges; and to my Step-Mother, Angela Klyczek, whose Love is
strong enough to kindle that fire. To Sol Ennis, the Love of my
Life. To L'Trevenei'r "Ari" Arijont Phillips, my Brother in
Love Forever. To The Denvits, especially Doris, who Love me
like Family and gave me a Home when I had nowhere to go. To
David Simon-Toledo and Kenny White, who taught me to fight
for Love. And to God, who is Love Eternal and Infinite.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments v
Critical Preface vii
Chapter 1: John Savage
Chapter 2: Mind/Body Split 20
Chapter 3: Of Love and Budo: How to Break a Promise 43
Chapter 4: Ashok and Eye 51
Chapter 5: Of Trash and Treasure 64
Chapter 6: Never-Never Land: I Still Love You 84
Chapter 7: Let Go 102
Chapter 8: Mending Is Better Than Ending III
Works Cited 123
Works Consulted 129
v
Acknowledgements
In my brief twenty-seven years on this blue and green speck of cosmic space dust, I have seen
things and done things and experienced things I never dreamt of as a boy. To enumerate all those journeys
would require more pages than is appropriate for an acknowledgments prelude-to say nothing of the
egotism it would require. So suffice it to say here that I have changed, and that I can only take but partial
credit for those changes; as such I would like to give credit where the rest of that credit is due:
To my sister. Raelene Stamm, and her children, Bradley Stamm, Casey Stamm-my
goddaughter-, and Lucy Stamm, who carry my Mother's Love and my Hope for a better tomorrow.
To Josh Willett, who was found with me in that Lost Forest.
To Chris Brown, who taught me to be Free.
To Justin Johnson, who taught me to find Truth within.
To Mandi Johnson, who taught me to find magick in Nature.
To my cousin, Jordan Massey, who taught me the skills to write, record, and produce my
independent hip-hop album John the Baptist.
To Dan Krupa, who lifted me up to The Humanities.
To Joe Compratt, who led me to Christ and the martial arts.
To Mike Parker, who Baptized me in Christ.
To Matthew Thomas and his wife Sarah, who walk with me in Christ-thank you for your
financial support with my medical bills, and God Bless little Willow; may she be Light to this world of
darkness.
To the Eastern Illinois University Christian Campus House and everyone there who has Loved me
in Christ as members of His Body.
To Andrew "Ski" Szczecinski, my Brother in Christ, and the best, most open-minded training
partner I've ever had in my eleven years in the martial arts.
To Tony Chauncey, for his friendship and all of his wisdom as a musician, lyricist, producer, and
sociopolitical activist.
To Ashok Bhusal, my Brother in Brahman, who taught me to eat healthy and nourish my mind,
body, and atman together as one.
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vi
To Colin Scholl, whose libertarian arguments helped to convert me from devout Marxism.
To Dr. Michael Loudon, Dr. Jyoti Panjwani, and Dr. Danny Otto, who have always found the time
to spend countless hours with me in their offices discussing history, philosophy, politics, religion, and
literature.
To W. Brett Anderson, Instructor of Geography at EIU, whose friendship and guidance as faculty
supervisor of my independent study in cultural geography and social theory helped lay the launch pad from
which I came to discover the connections between Malthusian eugenics, geopolitics, and the co-opted
environmentalist movement.
To my thesis committee, Dr. Letitia Moffitt, Dr. Daiva Markelis, and Dr. John Martone, for all of
their help with John Savage and all of my creative fiction, non-fiction, and poetry throughout my study at
EIU.
To all of my peers in ENG 4763: Fiction Writing; and ENG 5020: Graduate Workshop in Creative
Writing (Fiction), whose critiques and workshop contributions have helped to improve my craft as a
novelist and author of fiction.
To all of the English Department faculty at EIU, for all of the time and resources they have
invested in me as a scholar-especially Dr. Tim Taylor, Dr. Fern Kory, Dr. Ruth Hoberman, Dr. Julie
Campbell, Dr. Christopher Hanlon, Dr. Christopher Wixson, and Dr. Tim Engles.
And to Alex Jones, all the Infowarriors, and everyone everywhere who exercises the courage to be
ridiculed, ostracized, and even persecuted for speaking the Truth in defense of Love, Goodness, and
Humanity's God-given right to Freedom.
God Bless you all.
VI
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Critical Preface
My Masters Thesis, John Savage, is a retelling of Brave New World from the
perspective of John "the Savage" -a loose retelling, much in the same way as Oh
Brother Where Art Thou is a loose retelling of Homer's Odyssey-in which the historical
and contemporary sociopolitical-economic derivations of the leitmotifs composing John
Savage are fore grounded in contrast with Aldous Huxley's sublimation of those very
same historical, sociopolitical-economic policies and events from which he derived the
leitmotifs composing Brave New World.
Responding to Huxley's misanthropic characterization of John "the Savage," my
Masters Thesis, John Savage, is a denunciation of the implicit misanthropy in Brave New
World and a revolt against it somewhat in the same way that Brave New World is a
parody of "the horror of the Wellsian Utopia and a revolt against it" (qtd. in Baker 23).
In particular, John Savage is a revolt against the eugenicist notion of genetic inferiority as
insinuated through Huxley's portrayal of John "the Savage" as a cerebrally-challenged,
superstitious, sexually-repressed, sadomasochistic primitive; likewise, the novella is also
a revolt against the eugenicist belief in biological determinism through genetic
inheritance.
John Savage expresses its refutations of those eugenicist, biological determinist
dogmas through the protagonist's-John Savage's-struggle to escape the sins of his
father and break his family's generational cycle of abuse. Raised in an abusive home in
which he witnessed his father regularly beat his mother, the protagonist grows up violent
and self-destructive, cultivating aggressive sexual fantasies until he falls in love with a
girl and cannot bring himself to make her the object of those fantasies. He comes to
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