This collection of essays seeks to examine, and comment on, the relationships in our lives: to ourselves, to family, to strangers, to the natural world around us. These essays interrogate, however inadequately, how we relate and what that relation means within the larger context of history and where it mixes with myth. Many of the pieces in this thesis fail in their goal to simplify the issues they examine, instead further conflating already complex events.
While each essay depicts actual events, I have given myself creative license to manipulate them with facts as a way to dig deeper into the meaning of our social interactions. The main text is structured into four sections that correlate to the collection’s title and the themes mentioned above.
","abstract_html":"<p>This collection of essays seeks to examine, and comment on, the relationships in our lives: to ourselves, to family, to strangers, to the natural world around us. These essays interrogate, however inadequately, how we relate and what that relation means within the larger context of history and where it mixes with myth. Many of the pieces in this thesis fail in their goal to simplify the issues they examine, instead further conflating already complex events.</p> <p>While each essay depicts actual events, I have given myself creative license to manipulate them with facts as a way to dig deeper into the meaning of our social interactions. The main text is structured into four sections that correlate to the collection’s title and the themes mentioned above.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kauffman, Ryan Wesley"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Matthew Gavin Frank"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z","subjects":["Leviathan","Names","NASA","Appoggiatura","Torture","Morality","Nonfiction"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/94","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Matthew Gavin Frank"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kauffman, Ryan Wesley"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2999-12-31T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Leviathan","Names","NASA","Appoggiatura","Torture","Morality","Nonfiction"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/94"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This collection of essays seeks to examine, and comment on, the relationships in our lives: to ourselves, to family, to strangers, to the natural world around us. These essays interrogate, however inadequately, how we relate and what that relation means within the larger context of history and where it mixes with myth. Many of the pieces in this thesis fail in their goal to simplify the issues they examine, instead further conflating already complex events.
While each essay depicts actual events, I have given myself creative license to manipulate them with facts as a way to dig deeper into the meaning of our social interactions. The main text is structured into four sections that correlate to the collection’s title and the themes mentioned above.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["WHALES AND OTHER MAMMALS: ESSAYS"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Matthew Gavin Frank"],"dc:creator":["Kauffman, Ryan Wesley"],"dc:date.available":["2999-12-31T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This collection of essays seeks to examine, and comment on, the relationships in our lives: to ourselves, to family, to strangers, to the natural world around us. These essays interrogate, however inadequately, how we relate and what that relation means within the larger context of history and where it mixes with myth. Many of the pieces in this thesis fail in their goal to simplify the issues they examine, instead further conflating already complex events.
While each essay depicts actual events, I have given myself creative license to manipulate them with facts as a way to dig deeper into the meaning of our social interactions. The main text is structured into four sections that correlate to the collection’s title and the themes mentioned above.
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