- Why do you think Coates focuses on what was left out of a movie he evidently enjoys? What makes you think so?
I think that Coates focuses on what was left out of the movie that he enjoys because it means so much to him. Coates and his son both really enjoy this movie but Coates sees a deeper meaning behind it; there’s no black representation. This obviously upset Coates which is why he decides to speak on it. As he mentions, “half the country” watched X-Men: First Class and the movie failed to remind people of the “quintessential mutants of America” who are black (JTC 128). Coates decided to understand the movie on a much deeper level than just a “visually stunning” movie. It reminded him of all the injustice that happened and all the great things that black people did that weren’t represented in this movie which is why he decided to speak on it. The parts that were left out of the movie were parts that would’ve made it a great movie that accurately represents this country’s history.
- Identify a repetition, a strand, a contrast, and an anomaly Parkin identifies in No Man’s Sky, and explain why they matter to his analysis.
Parkin repeats the word “game” in his analysis. While it seems normal to do so, considering it’s a video game, this enriches his analysis. It allows the reader to connect the differences between the real world and the video game. This leads to the comparison between the real world and the game. For example, Parkin says, “Ten million species were discovered in the world’s first twenty-four hours, more than have been found on earth” (JTC 130). This compares the number of species in the game and the species in the real world, which allows the reader to recognize the game as entirely different from the real world to understand why humans “can never be satisfied” (JTC 131). The game seems to offer way more than the real world, which explains how humans are “always drawn to the promise of finding somewhere better” (JTC 131). “It’s most memorable trick is to make the player feel impossibly small, lonely, and lost” (JTC 131). Parkin uses this strand of similar words to analyze how the game doesn’t allow social interaction. Using the words lonely, small, and lost lets the reader feel how the lack of social interaction in the game affects people playing it. The anomaly is when Parkin talks about reality and says that “we enter it when it is already underway, and we hope, for the sake of our children, that we exist before it’s finished” (JTC 129). This is an anomaly because Parking doesn’t make a connection to this point throughout his analysis. This allows the reader to form new connections to reality while reading Parkins’ analysis. Overall, this made Parkins’ analysis stronger because it will enable the reader to create deeper connections between the game and reality. It also makes us question the world we live in, which helps us realize how the game shows that humans are never satisfied with anything.