Author Archives: Maria Rodriguez
Posts: 6 (archived below)
Comments: 1
Makeup On Empty Space
Hey Guys,
So the poem I interpreted was called “Makeup on Empty Space” by Anne Waldman and what I tried to show in my video was the literal and then figurative meaning behind my interpretation of the poem. I felt that Waldman was trying to point out that we have to stand up and make a change to better our society. Hopefully you can understand my message. Keep a close eye for a cameo of my friend’s puppy Mia!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQSiPy_PYrc
Music: “When I’m Small” by Phantogram
Video Essay Technical Difficulties
Hey Guys
I’m having trouble trying to do a special effect on my video. Does anybody know how to do a “color splash” but instead of on an image on a moving video? I want to use this really badly. Thanks in advanced for your help. ^_^
^something like this but in video form.
Better late than never?
So I COMPLETELY forgot we had to come up with an idea of what to write our third essay on but I think I made up my mind. I was browsing through all the poems and the one that stuck with me the most was “Makeup on Empty Space” by Anne Waldman. I liked her short little phrases and i feel that in a video, I could work around the things she mentions. Also it appealed to me because I could create such a vivid image about the objects she mentioned.
Response Paper #4, Option 1
Raymond Carver says, “I think a little menace is fine to have in a story.”. Based on his short story “Cathedral”, I think he firmly believes this. For one thing the main character (the narrator), plays a sort of antagonistic role at the beginning of the piece. He voices the thoughts that several people are afraid to say about the blind. His reaction to Robert coming to stay at his home is what some people think but would never say aloud. So i think the menace is definitely the narrator.
Carver also says “There has to be tension, a sense that something is imminent, that certain things are in relentless motion, or else, most often, there simply won’t be a story.” I completely agree with this statement. A story is not a great one if there is no climax of events occurring. In “Cathedral”, the moment of tension is when Robert makes the husband draw the cathedral while having his hand over the husband’s hand while he’s drawing. This very moment is the turning point. It’s the time when the husband stops being so closed-minded and actually steps outside his element to experience a sensation he has never felt before.
Is Happiness Overrated?
So today after class I went to work and my manager had a huge newspaper article posted on our board. It’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that he found very interesting. I’d like to share it with you guys since it is related to our “happiness” theme. Enjoy! :]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200471545379388.html
Response Paper #3
I decided to do option #2 and write about my interpretation of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”.
Susan Sontag once said “the modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one.” I think she means that when we read, we already have an image that our mind subconsciously goes to when we see phrases that we have already experienced before. For example, if we read about a girl who is accident prone we may sometimes imagine a person we know in actual life that’s the same way, or a character in a movie that is accident prone as well. Our minds always have some sort of preselected setting. When we first read literature we don’t necessarily see the main points, we see the things that stick out the most to each individual person. We read and interpret the literature in our own ways until we find something suitable.
When I first started reading the story “Hills Like White Elephants”, I could tell that the girl, who I think is called Jig, and the American were travelling together, because they were waiting for the train. As I kept reading on, the American started describing an operation that Jig should go so that they both could live happy lives. He kept saying that Jig would only need some air and after that they would be able to live normal together like so many people they knew. As I kept reading a few images popped into my head like if Jig was blind, or maybe deaf. There was one instance where the waitress comes out from the curtains and says “The train comes in five minutes.” and Jig asks the American what the woman had said. When I read this section, I thought immediately that Jig might be going deaf. Also the title itself “Hills Like White Elephants”, Jig says this to her beau at the very beginning and it seems to worry him, to me this seemed like if Jig could not see properly hence I thought she was going blind.
The very end confused me, I still could not get the story. I couldn’t predict what was wrong with her. I could only tell that he loved her and she loved him enough to only get the operation to make him happy.
