Author Archives: olivia.caban
Posts: 5 (archived below)
Comments: 2
My video is a bit on the avant-garde side. The overall thesis of my paper was acknowledging how Anne Waldman uses a significant chant-like, mystical tone in her poetry in order to convey her appreciation for the diversity of the female demographic. I attempted to represent my thesis by displaying both video clips and images of what seems like typical female behavior, yet with the combination of digital effects and the audio I chose, I tried to add a mystical twist. It was really difficult for me to try and accurately represent my thoughts through the video in a way that my audience would understand. However, I thorougly enjoyed attacking the task and using my creativity in a intellectually challenging way. I’m genuinely pleased with the overall outcome of my work and hope that even if my audience doesn’t necessarily see my vision, they can learn to appreciate it — as is the case with most works of art.
Digital Paper
I’m actually kind of weary about this final paper assignment. I have no experience with video making/editing, and although Prof Kaufman says it’ll be a breeze I can’t help but think that it’s going to be a bit more difficult than she makes it out to be.
Although I am weary I can’t help but be a bit excited because there are already thoughts going through my head as to how I want my video to look, the only downside is that I know my thoughts — considering the eccentricity of them — won’ t be so easily depicted in front of a camera. Maybe after this assignment I’ll be inspired to become more technologically savvy in regards to camera, picture and film.
I haven’t really decided which poem I want to choose for my paper yet, although I’m still considering Anabel Lee. Anabel Lee has been my favorite poem since my AP Literature class in high school, there’s something about the way my teacher read it to us that just captivated me…
Alymer vs Robert
I chose to compare and contrast Alymer from “The Birth-mark” and Robert, the blind man from “Cathedral,” because I believe that they are significantly different and have drastically different definitions and interpretations of “happiness.” Keeping this in mind, I thought it would be an interesting task to juxtapose their contrasting theories of happiness and see if they at any point overlap.
From the beginning of “The birth-mark,” Alymer urges his bride, Georgianna, to get rid of the red hand-shaped birth-mark that he believes deprives her from being genuinely beautiful. It seems that Alymer believes that by ridding them both(I say both not because the mark stains them both, but rather because he considers it a burden of his own as well as Georgianna’s) of the birth-mark that they will finally be able to live live happily, and Georgianna will finally be “flawlessly beautiful.” Interestingly enough, it doesn’t seem as if Georgianna ever considered having the birth-mark removed, after seeing just how much it bothered her husband, after seeing how unhappy it made him, she was quick to try and appease him. Her happiness was in seeing her husband happy.
Now Robert, the blind man in “Cathedral,” seems to find happiness in less superficial things. Whether it be because he’s blind, therefore he’s learned not to take the small things for granted, or whether or not this was his natural personality, is unknown to the reader. However, it is extremely undeniable that in comparison to Alymer, Robert is accustomed to accepting things as they come to him. For example, when the husband attempted to describe the structure of a cathedral to the blind man, although his explanation was choppy and clearly impossible for a blind man to picture, Robert didn’t get discouraged or even angry; he calmly helped the husband into participating in a description method that the blind man could understand. By doing this, not only was the blind man able to better understand the structure of cathedrals, but he was able to see the husband find joy out of participating in this drawing method and that also seemed to make Robert happy; he found happiness in the husband’s happiness.
Alymer, a man who believed in superficial happiness, and Robert, a man who found happiness in more simplistic things, both showed signs of finding happiness in another’s joy. However different their ideas of happiness are, this one fact is undeniable. Why do you think Robert found it much easier than Alymer to embrace the happiness found in simple happenings?
OPTION 2:
“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.” – Susan Sontag
I believe that by saying this, Sontag is elaborating on the contemporary style of reading – a style that we developed due to the analytical methods we are encouraged to use in both high school and college when we are exposed to both dated and modern literature. Ever since I began in depth anotated readings (back in high school when I was taking AP Composition and AP Literature courses, my teachers greatly emphasized the benefits of annotating while I read, of reading and re-reading, of picking apart the significant elements within a work and try and muster up an underlying understanding of what the author could have (or couldn’t have) meant. I don’t disagree with what she is saying, and I thoroughly understand where she’s coming from but I don’t necessarily agree 100% with this statement. The one aspect of this statement I disagree with is when she says that by embarking in this type of reading we will find, what she considered, the “true” sub-text. Who is to say that our own interpretation is the true one? Who is to say that there is in fact one interpretation that can be evolved. I believe that the reactions to a work, whether prose or not, is completely subjective and there is never on right or wrong answer.
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
Initially, when I read “Hills Like White Elephants” I had just briefly skimmed the introduction providing a biography of Hemingway and a list of his works, therefore I was unaware of what the “operation” that the man in the story was encouraging the girl to get was an abortion. I actually thought he wanted her to get her tubes tied. However, even without knowing the nature of the operation, I was still uncomfortable with the relationship between this girl and the man because it seemed as if she was too eager to please him; I believed her to be a young girl, because this is what they depict her as, and it just doesn’t seem right to me for a young girl to be so eager to appease a man simply so he could react to her in the way that he did previously. Their relationship immediately reminded me of a book that I read last year, Lolita, in which a middle-aged man takes a strong liking to a young eleven year old girl, and they end up traveling from motel to motel, fugitives, living with an unacceptable love. The only difference that is in Lolita, the love is unrequited; Lolita does not love the older man. However, in this story it seems like this girl has deep feelings for this man, feelings that will allow her to consider getting an abortion to appease him. I could be mistaken about the age difference, but if they were close in age why would Hemingway refer to her as a “girl” and him as the “American.”
After reading, I youtubed the title and found a short film that gave me a different vision of the couple in the story. Does watching this video change the way you interpret it?
Response 2
Response Option: In Chapter 2 of Freud’s text, he carefully investigates “children’s play,” specifically a game of “disappearance and return” which becomes known as “fort da.” Why do you think this game is so important to Freud’s theories, and how does this relate to your own childhood experiences?
Freud’s basic premise of Beyond the Pleasure Principle was that the pleasure principle is what drives all humans; we live, essentially, to only satisfy this need.
However, in the first two chapters Freud addresses the fact that there are unpleasant experiences, but that regardless of the unpleasant experiences an individual can experience in life the “pleasure principle” is always dominant. The pleasure principle is the “concept describing people seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering (pain) in order to satisfy their biological and psychological needs.”
Freud talks about how there may be instances in which there are issues, or rather obstacles in the way of the pleasure principle – situations that the pleasure principle may have some difficulty dealing with. This is where childhood play and “fort da” comes into play.
“Fort da” is a term Freud uses to describe a game played by a child, “fort” meaning “gone” and “da” meaning “there.” The child seemed to get pleasure from “hiding” an object such as A reel of string and then making it appear again. This intrigued Freud because he couldn’t Understand how a child was getting pleasure out of repeating things that would naturally cause unpleasant reactions(the disappearance of object would normally cause unpleasant reactions from an individual).
This is curious to me, however, I don’t necessarily find it as intriguing as Freud because i don’t necessarily believe that the actions of babies can be so easily generalized into a theory that is more concisely applied to that of an adult.
Are there not other instances in which babies, or even toddlers, indulge in activities that are pleasurable to themselves, but may not be so pleasurable to an average individual?
