Body as media.

In some rural towns in Cameroon women's bodies and their physicality of their bodies translate messeges that are unwanted, sexual ones. Much like women across the world, breasts naturally develop with the age of the female. However in Africa some tribes women actually manipulate their bodies by mashing, pounding or massaging their own daughters breasts to make them practically non existent -- or at least delayed. To change the message their body is communicating as media.

According to the cultural dynamics in the tribes, a man most often will rape a woman whom has matured breasts, so it is the hopes of their mothers that delaying the natural breast development, they can protect their daughters a little longer.

For long periods of time, months, if not years, a mother will continually pound their daughters breasts everyday after school with an intensly hot stick, stone, or rod that actually destroys the developing breast tissues and creates scar tissue that further delays growth.

Interestingly enough, due to a lack of police or government to protect their daughters from rape, these women have done the next logical thing: prevent it themselves.

Oryx + Crake

This book was an interesting read. It was like molasses to get started, but eventually it picked up when he went on his journey for the lab. I feel that it mostly had to do with the dry flashbacks and so much backstory. I didn't feel it was needed to practically recap his entire life. I suppose it did parallel the aside that Margaret brought up with righteous men at sea or on epic adventures journaling their entire existence in hopes someone would read how their fate came to be. But none-the-less I felt she could omit a major of the first 3-4 chapters.

She riddles the book with fun and inventive vernacular like Pigoon that keep the read somewhat entertaining rather than abysmal. The tricky dystopian aftermath from Crake's experiement gone wrong is illuminating into Atwood's soul, but doesn't speak much for humanity. It questions the reader to think "Are we really important or can we be extinct as easy as the dino's?" She parlays back and forth with the SARS scare or the Black Plague sort of idea but eventually lands on something hidden and deadly.

I suppose I caught glimpses of the love triangle you had warned us about in class, but I felt that it was more about humanity post humanity. I find it strange that Snowman has the power to retool history to the children of Crake. Teach them basically from scratch what's right and whats wrong, whats going to kill you and what wont. Imagine the world without the internet, are any of us truly better off?

DUN DUN DUN.

Player one

I thought the story was interesting. I loved how he played with visuals, and descriptors. For instance, when Karen is in the airplane her imagination was running wild. When she stared at the skies and imagined how it would look if the stars turned black during the day as if the sky was peppered.

Douglas also seemed to have an underlying theme of time and space and distorting it. Utilizing player one as an interior voice that is not tied to past, present, or future.

Robert altman work in progress

Like its representation in Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), The Player (1992) and Prêt-à-Porter, the world of entertainment is both treasured and condemned for its fascinating and coercive images.

Gosford Park reconstructs classical narrative form in many ways: It ironically interweaves numerous genres – the Agatha Christie murder mystery, the upstairs/downstairs social drama, and the country house comedy of manners. Forty-four speaking parts in the film provide glimpses into the tangled implications of over 25 separate plots and constitute one of the largest cast of characters of all his multifaceted narratives from MASH (1970) to Prêt-à-Porter (1994). In Gosford Park logical causality disappears under the pressure of traumatic engagements that are not only unspoken by the narrative but are repressed by the characters themselves. The classically requisite discovery of the culprit at the end is contravened by the geometric progression of alternative clues and Altman’s insistence that the murder is never resolved. The confusing multiplication of plot lines and the hybrid mixing of murder, manners, maids, and man servants critiques a singular and stereotypical view of crime, justice, and social class by subverting the classic detective story. The film breaks the ideological illusion of harmony between masters and servants valorised in cultural representations like the 1970s British television series Upstairs/Downstairs. It reveals hypocrisy and meanness in the class system where social crimes and misdemeanors multiply and expand beyond the ability or the interests of the mystery story to say ask “who dunnit?”.

Stalking your way to enlightenment.

Through my readings I could not help but cherish the value of learning to let go, Humbert Humbert never learns this lesson in the book and infact he fixates upon Lolita in a very stalkerish way.

My main idea is the idea of letting go, I looked specifically at how he projects annabel onto Lolita and the swimming scene where he is contemplating her mothers murder because she is taking her away from him.

Multiple times throughout the book Nabokov demonstrates this to us with the internal dialogue of Humbert Humbert. The swimming scene where he portrays Humbert Humbert fighting with his internal thoughts of killing Lolita's mother to prevent her from moving Lolita away from him. "I could surely grab her ankle and swim as fast as I can towards the bottom of the ocean, no one would see and I could blame it on an accidental drowning" he describes.

You see, the whole value of letting go has a lot of universality behind it, we as humans, are easily transfixed on certain things, actions, people and it's something we all go through, but it's only through learning to let go, that we can cope with the situation. Most people never let go, but its that faux idea of letting it go that makes it seem all the more worth it. For Instance, most people never get over their first love, but tell them selves they are over it and can continue to love another, but the first is always in their mind at some point.

Nabokov actually uses this idea in the book by allowing Humbert Humbert to manipulate the reader into believing this was his justification of his obsession with Lolita. He loved Annabel first until she died at a very early age and we find out later that this is the "root of all of his problems" and she is being projected onto dolores to fufil some sick fantasy lingering from Annabel. Nabokov is right in assuming a tragic incident like Annabel's death at a young age could impact someone's love life, but perhaps this happens to a lot of people and they get on with their lives, yet Humbert Humbert was trapped in a nasty cycle of never learning to let go.

The author barely dabbles with Humbert Humbert and his realization of his need to learn to let go. Nabokov used the teacher or principle as a catalyst to make humbert humbert open up a bit more and give his girl some life opportunities, which unfortunately bites him in the ass because it enlightens her to see a way out of her situation. But if Humbert Humbert had just learned to let go he would not have felt this heartache at this point of the story and could have been proud of Delores for getting on with her life rather than looking at it as if he destroyed his.

Value Lolita

Write about value , find a quote in the book. Discussion quote and vaue in response.

I felt that there was a shift in character relations where the main guy humber humbert learned the valuable lesson of parenting. His shift upon moving to the new city was surprising to me and the author used the teacher or principle as a catalyst to make him open up a bit more and give his girl some life opportunities that unfortunately bit him in the ass because it enlightened her. "You should really let your daughter be more involved, she seems sexually under developed" said the teacher that made him let her have friends over more often (Although this benefited him too.) Nonetheless he developed that value, it's almost as if this value could be compared with a "learning to let go" value in which he eventually accepts her rejection (even though he was pushed away forcefully) but he is always transfixed with his "Lolita" just not so much Dolores.

the whole value of letting go has a lot of universality behind it, we as humans, are easily transfixed on certain things, actions, people and it's something we all go through, but it's only through learning to let go, is when we can sort of cope with the situation. Most people never let go but its that faux idea of letting it go that makes it seem all the more worth it. For Instance, most people never get over their first love, but tell them selves they are over it and can continue to love another, but the first is always in their mind at some points.

Lolita discussion

Write about value , find a quote in the book. Discussion quote and vaue in response.


Genre: explicit adult, adventure, tragic comedy.

It's like a toddler, it's pesky and difficult for the sake of being difficult.

Reminder of the jailhouse memoir, he's the victim.

Is it a love story? Or a lust story?

Threads :
Lots of references to musical categories. Marilyn Manson.
Cue quilty is humbert humbert's doppleganger.
American Beauty movie.
Smurfs. (pedophilia)
Beauty and the beast (ultimatum)
Pedobear
Baby doll fashion (gothic Lolita)

Unreliable narroator effect how I read?
Had to buy book on tape to help me get through it, he moves from scene to scene and I found my self getting frustrated with him because I would get invested into a scenario and he would change it according to his pace to manipulate me and woo me into his tale. So I had the book on tape to help my mind snap from one scene to the next almost as if I was reading on a treadmill, I even had to make the narrator read at 2x speed to make my mind accept it and move at a quick pace to follow along his manipulation.


I tried to read this book at the park by the marina and had to leave, I felt horrible reading this book with small girls running around, it forces the reader to think certain thoughts, that ought not. It forces you to want to justify your situation within the novel, during discussion we all kept making claims that it was horrible and not okay, to over compensate for our partaking in the novel.

Inception, he tricks us into his manipulation and then we came to the conclusion that might have been how Lolita felt. Accepting at first then slowly started to realized I have been raped.

What do we make of the characters?
Lolita. Pet name, nymphet version
Dolly younger smarter version a bit older tweenager.
Dolores older woman fully cognizant.
Humber humbert,

Notes on deer hunter.

Group: alex Terry and hope long
Screen play : deer hunter
Film adaptation: yes


Russel crow: Nick/Mike
Vince Vaughn : Merle / Nick
Julia Roberts: Linda
James Franco : sal

Changes:

Post apocalyptic north America after 9-11

Hunting deers for survival,

Deer Hunter

Based on our brash choice selection of "Deer Hunter" I expected a very bad screenplay, however this screen play was the exact opposite. In-fact it was intriguing and quite possibly one of the best I've read. I had no clue that it would turn into a war, tragedy, type of screenplay that has a lot of human truth in it. The ending scene was quite possibly one of the most endearing, americana type of scenes ever.

However, after reading the screen play I had to go back and watch the movie with the golden cast of Dinero, Streep, and Walkins to name a few. I can't decide which ending I like more. The movie's was very endearing, but there is something about Nick's toast in the screen play that is fantastic.

It's a shame the movie didn't follow the screen play exact, but then again, the screenplay should have been a novel with how long it was. 3 hour movies are long enough as it is!

I enjoyed them both thoroughly, but I think I prefer the movie to the script, you can see more of the creative freedom the director took. He merged the characters of meryle and nick to form a Mike and left the depression mainly to nick in the movies, it helped separate them out in my mind a bit more and made it more digestible. The director also left things out like the gruesome baby scene. (Thankfully) he probably would have gotten a lot of criticism.

All in all, a good memorable movie and screenplay.

Day of locust

This book resonated with me in a very interesting way.

As a senior on the verge of graduating and looking for a new home to move my turtle shell to, I found the way Nathaniel west described California to be quite appalling and intriguing at the same time. Due to media we are typically looking at California through rose colored lenses, but he juxtaposes this common belief and paints it as a "place where some go to die"

He seems to carry this theme throughout the book, constantly flipping ideals on their heads. For instance, you would expect a young college graduate from Yale to move out there and do quite well for himself, however he seems to find himself (Tod) In these weird scenarios. Traditionally, you would expect him to find the girl of his dreams and get taken on this wild ride, but the girl he adores won't even give him the time of day. Also, the dwarf scenario with Abe is just bizarre.

Tod being a b movie script writer seems ironic while I am reading a book. However, as we discussed in class, it must have been written as a movie or meant to be read as a movie. It would be interesting to read this book with a live music performer like they used to have going as the sooundtrack of the movies.

He confuses the reader with setting twists, character twists, and lyrical dialogue.

List of genres

Western
Romance
Comedy
Classical
Foreign
Documentary
Independent
Futuristic
Epics
Animals
Pixar/Disney
Stop motion
Fairytales
Historical fiction
Silent
War
Cult
Family
Porn
Anime
Soap opera
Adventurous
Thriller
Slasher
Gory
Suspense
Horror
Psychological thrillers
Drug related
Medical/hospital
Aviation
Indie
Americana
Old south Louisiana
Chick flicks
Musical
Expressionistic
Surrealist
Propaganda

Harry Potter

So, this week, I've decided to continue reading Harry Potter.

I'll be the first to admit that this is my first time through the series. Ordinarily this wouldn't be quite as odd, however, one would not think that I had never read the series seeing how I've founded the Quidditch team here on campus my freshman year. I then went on to form an international non-profit that governs Quidditch teams throughout the world.

Perhaps the irony is setting in, yet, I am glad I can use this class as an excuse to finally get through them.

This week I was trying to finish the 4th book, "The Goblet of Fire" and I have become pleasantly surprised how much they left out in the movie. I get a chance to live the tale of Harry with a new look.

Jo did a wonderful job capturing his nervousness leading up to the trials he faces being the schools champion that the movies never captured. Although, based on my experience with the movies, after the 4th movie I started to resent Jo a little bit as an artist. Her path of self discovery is an endearing tale, yet leaves little room for introspection when she spends the first 4 books created a wonderful universe, and then spends the last books destroying it. True, it is just part of the heroes journey, but it also rubbed me the wrong way a bit, as if she was cashing out. Granted, there had to be peace in the books and movies for her to gain an understanding and finally close a chapter in her life and move on, but what if it was a tragedy? Would my/ the worlds perception of the tale change?

Metropolis

To be honest, I had an extremely hard time getting into this movie. It had a story that was lacking and the pure fact that it was a silent film put me right to sleep every time I watched it. This could be due to the fact that I am desensitized by modern movies, however it was lacking in a few things. The set up was drawn out and the conflict between father and son was a bit cliche. The special effects were superb for the time, but all-in-all many scenes could have been cut out to save some time and to make the story more concise.

Hunger Games

This book was had to fall into at first, which could have been completely fashioned to be that way by the author. The whole book, in a sense mimics the narrative created within it. Katniss was hard to fall in love with Peeta much like I was the book. However, once I got into it, it was like I had become love-sick. I couldn't put it down, my heart was racing, it was new and completely unique.

Every successful story has inherent human truths within it (Much like a great advertisement I might add) and this story captured a lot of the emotions within my first love story. At time in the story however, I found my self caught up more in the environment the author created than the characters themselves. The thoughts of force-fields, hovercrafts, and magical flying cameras. Juxtaposed with this Huckle-berry finn vibe that consumed District 12 was baffling. At times I felt myself forcing my mind to resort to the Cowboys V.S. Aliens setting just so I could wrap my mind around it.

However, one of the main questions I came across was, "If they have all of this sweet technology, how is it that their weapons hadn't advanced much past the stone-age?" It perplexed me, why couldn't they be given lazer cannons, tazers, and plasma swords? If the author wanted to keep them as savage as possible, then why give them some sort of advanced night vision moon-glasses?

Once I started to stomach certain variables throughout the book I began to read deeper into the societal segregation, cultural symbols, character archetypes, and over-arching story. I enjoyed the cleverness of placing this within N. America and keeping the world boundaries relatively small, It's almost I could picture it all happening within the size of one state in the Mid-Atlantic region. The hovercrafts reminded me of the jetsons for some reason, the interviews like American Idol stage set-ups in the streets, and the actual event to me was reminiscent of The Most Dangerous Game, or any of these.

I loved the book and look forward to the next one! (The costume descriptions were breath-taking)

Oz

Throughout the wizard of Oz reading I kept feeling a surreal sensation. At one time, I had been read this book to me by my mother as a small child. At the other hand I was reading it again during the brink of my adult life. The varying view points have become very different as I have aged and things I once thought scary or whimsical about this book seem to have faded.

The main point to re-reading the book was to seek deeper meaning throughout the text. Looking for ideologies and seeking the main points in the story seemed sort of futile at the time I was reading it because I could not get over the fact that it was created for the entertainment and moral passing to children. Nonetheless, I was able to see that nearly everything in this book has some sort of symbolism behind it and a majority comes from the era it was written in.

Baum contradicts himself numerous times throughout the book but, in a sense, it makes the story that much more human. For some reason, if a book was written before my time and is heralded to be a major seller and an all around great books, I seem to put them on a pedestal. This could be partially molded by societies influences on my opinions but a lot of it has to due with the texts themselves. I tend to look at the books like "The Lord of The Rings" and "Moby Dick" as these types of illuminated manuscripts that have been blessed by those before me. From a much simpler, less consumeristic culture, that had decided these books were entertainment gold without Oprah's Book club or Amazon's Best Seller's list telling me they were.

It's almost as if the stories them selves drove them to fame rather than the consumer bandwagon. Wizard of Oz is a time-less classic in most homes and has deeply rooted itself in our culture. I can't even count the number of times I've heard someone quote the movies or books on one hand.

I foresee this class giving me a greater insight to the art of story telling and it is my goal to infuse that within my industry. Stories are very powerful tools that are not to be mistreated.

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