For this film, i’ll mostly be talking about the impact of feminism and how class/reputation is represented through the characters. Feminism plays a huge role in the film because the film’s heroine, Elizabeth, is described as being “headstrong” and “independent”. According to one review, they state Elizabeth’s most appealing characteristic is her “self-sufficiency”. She is independent and can make decisions for herself. I can definitely agree with this because Elizabeth is brilliant and she is also good at making decisions and making sure her voice is heard. She also has made mistakes along the way, but she acknowledged them and learned from them proving she is very mature. Another review made a statement about class and reputation, “Austen’s novel criticizes society through the various characters that represent different social classes…”. This is a good point because each character in the film had different beliefs and attitudes according to their social status. For example, Lady Catherine belonged to the wealthy upper class, so she believed she was superior and looked down on everyone, especially Elizabeth. Elizabeth belongs to the middle class and Mr. Darcy belongs to the upper class and this led their reputations to get in the way of love. Eventually when they no longer cared about the reputation, they were able to get their happy ending.
Category: Blog 10/7
“Okie” Culture: Bridging Cultural Innovation and Traditionalism in Folk Communities
Michael Morris’s Dust Bowl Ballads and Okie Culture, while originally intended as a partial fulfilment for a master’s requirement at California State University, Long Beach, speaks resounding truths in regards to the formulation of a culture so dear to songwriters such as Woodie Guthrie. By better understanding the cultural make-up of Southwestern “Okies”, or blue-collar laborers of the Southwest around the time of the Great Depression, we facilitate further insights into Guthrie, himself an “Okie”, and the culture/community that he speaks of.
Unfortunately, while I would normally utilize this space to touch on the life of Woodie Guthrie, scholarship on the famed folklorist is currently limited, contained to a few JSTOR articles and interviews for The Library of Congress with famous ethnomusicologist, Alan Lomax. This lack of information was validated by Richard Reuss in a separate article I read, detailing the life of the impassioned American folk artist. This reason for his omission in scholarly works has yet to be answered, however I can certainly make a few inferences. Given Guthrie’s relative ease in floating between left wing communities and folk circles, traditionally occupied by poor, blue-collar members of society, historic waves of conservatism in American academia might have rendered the songwriter as a threat to Neoliberal ideals, thus omitting him from the realm of scholarship.
Regardless of the reasons for Guthrie’s lack of presence within our academic peripherals, we can still obtain crucial insights into the lyrical ambitions of the folk icon via Morris’s understanding of his native “Okie” culture. Morris points out that “Okie” culture was not a singular entity born out of hardship during the Dust Bowl, but rather the sum-total of present hardship, generic conservatism found in rural America, and the Anglo-Irish folk traditions that western settlers brought with them. However other settlers, generally from the Southeast, brought a mix of Anglo-Irish and Black folk traditions, slightly dispensing race into the conversation. With this in mind, “Okies” were not to innovative nor too embedded in traditional values. In fact, they were a highly adaptable culture, living in an age where American Values had not yet fully developed, and were simply fragmented cultural artifacts from various immigrant traditions.
While this particular insight does not directly touch upon Guthrie as an individual, it certainly seeks to illuminate the folk singer as a member of a culture that derived its traditions from a variety of sources. Furthermore, this insight has allowed me to reframe my upcoming essay from a narrative of white, blue-collar strife, to a more encompassing analysis, that seeks to connect both the past and present struggles of “Okies” through my artifact, Dust Bowl Ballads. I originally believed Guthrie to be writing simply for the present, however, with this insight, I now understand him to be writing both for the present and from the past, thus bridging together instances of hardships in American History via the medium of “Okie” culture.
Review – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
This movie reviewer, Nikki Martyn, speaks upon one of the stronger messages which is emphasized within the story of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Resilience, whether it be the resilience of all the spider-man iterations or the premise itself, the character of Spider-Man is an archetype which continuously proves what it means to face adversity and fight with grit and resilience. Martyn using the impactful line of the first on screen iconic Spider-Man we see, “No matter how many hits I take, I always get back up,” following his conscious of the responsibility which comes with his powers, allowing him to protect people, no matter how many times Peter has gets hit, he fights for others. Martyn also has a background in Early Childhood Studies, using the psychology of how younger kids like Miles navigate through the themes of this story, facing adversity and learning this resilience from the people he looks up to, whether it be his parents or his predecessor who last donned the Spider-Man mask. Miles faces so much adversity and initially runs from it, as it is too much. He learns from his own mistakes of losing his uncle, and from not being able to help Peter Parker, that he can’t keep running, and looks to his role models to face his struggles.
https://theconversation.com/what-into-the-spider-verse-can-teach-us-about-resilience-110752
The Ringer: The Harsh Truth or Just Eminem’s Tantrum?
In 2018 the rapper Eminem released his album called Kamikaze, which includes the song “The Ringer”. In the said song, Eminem covers a very wide spectrum of topics that personally bother him, in a very aggressive manner. The lyric and harmony are formatted in a way that sounds like Eminem is pouring his thoughts out in a very fluid and natural way like he’s venting to someone. In the song is clear that he has been holding back his feelings for a long time, suppressed by critics and the industry, but now is his time to fight back not with his fists, but his lyrics. The main topics he covers are the new rapper generation, critics, and politics ( specifically the Executive power).
In both of the reviews, I’ve seen that the authors were positioned impartially of Eminem’s opinions, mostly unfolding the suttle references he makes throughout the song. Although I agree with the idea that the generation of rappers with uninformative topics that Eminem refers to as “mumblers” is detrimental to the rap industry since it doesn’t stand for any relevant topic and it’s just a way for the industry to earn some easy money using cool beats and catchy empty lyrics. But on the other hand, I feel like he didn’t need to pick names to criticize and others to glorify. In my opinion, the verse”Lil’ Pump, Lil’ Xan imitate Lil’ Wayne
I should aim at everybody in the game, pick a name” is very self-centered and overly aggressive, a little uncalled for.
Regarding his position regarding his critique, I feel like that is simply him not being open to negative feedback. Freedom of the press is a constitutional right, yet demonizes the action, making it seem like the world is against him when is actually how he reacts to the feedback he receives, it is part of being famous. The same way, he does not hold back when it comes to talking about President Donald Trump in a very barbaric way, is that negative feedback now valid just because he said is? At the beginning of the song, he states “I’m sorry, wait, what’s your talent? Oh, critiquin'”, well what happened to your talent now?
That song is very controversial, not because of the topics it covers- they are actually very valid, but the way he approaches it is the problem. Was it really necessary to get the point around? Or is it the point only understood and took seriously because he sounds pissed off about it?
TheFatRat and his part in gaming industry
Within this video documentary from Red Bull, individuals and professionals from the E-sports industry talk about TheFatRat’s works and career. Although it is a video (not an article), it still lays out the composer’s journey to where he is now, exposes the merits of his works and the aspects which makes him unique apart from anyone else.
From this video, it truly shows that he associates himself as a musician with the love of gaming. To prove those, first: gaming. In the video, he showed us many old day gaming consoles he owns (From 2:55-3:10), which shows him owning some of the most elite devices back then such as a Neo-Geo. From another interview, the interviewer stated that he was one of the 3 people to buy a neo-geo. From a musical perspective, he stated in the video that he started music in 2001, going through a decade of hard times and trying to find new things to do. But he states that “I tried to force myself out of it, but it never really worked”(1:34), truly portraying his passion for music. And combining both of his passions together, comes the one who is the ‘most influential artist in the whole industry”(0:23), which is totally true, from my own perspective and everyone else, since if an artist is invited to play in front of 15000 people (7:05), it truly shows he has made an impact.
Spider-Verse
A published review of my artifact was found on the Robert Ebert website, which is an article entitled “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” by Christy Lemire. In her review of the film, Lemire notes that the film’s comic book imagery creates a “wonderfully tippy, dreamlike quality about it”. Reading this portion of the review aligns with what I thought when various comic book elements were incorporated within the film. She also discusses how the filmmakers breathed new life into a comic book movie. This resonates with my belief that this film is a completely new take on super hero films. In making this point, Lemire mentioned that there are handful of Marvel films released every year and that there is no shortage of Spider-Man films. Reading this part of the critique made me think of how the different types of Spider-Man and references of previous films are seen throughout the movie.
In this article, the author also described the film as “dizzying”. When watching the film, I must admit that I did not find it dizzy at all. While it was confusing at times to keep track of what was going on, the entertainment of the film kept me hooked to the screen. An interesting point that stood out to me in this critique was when Lemire wrote, “And we come to care about them because they’re not cogs in a massive machinery where the fate of the entire universe hangs in the balance, as is so often the case in behemoth comic-book blockbusters.” Reading this reminded me why I stopped watching comic book movies in the first place, they are far too predictable, but that is not the case in this film.
Review of Get Out
I chose an article from Vox on the film Get out because it pointed out many key points that were highlighted throughout the film. It elaborates on the white supremacy tied in with African American resistance. The article further explains that the violence displayed was necessary to prove the point of white power of other colored races, and in this case African Americans. Later on throughout the article, it goes on to point out how the white female is typically decided as an innocent person, and thus they are overlooked as clueless people who are disregarded. However, the article goes on to point out how the film portrayed Rose as just a white female who disregarded social standings and only believed in what she wanted as an individual. This greatly advocated for ideas that white supremacy and racism still existed to this day. Control over one’s mind was also a big factor of this film, as Rose’s parents were hypnotists and attempted to take over Chris’s mind as they did with the other slaves in their home. This was greatly emphasized as it depicts how African Americans had very little control over their own lives. Chris also noticed this throughout the film as he picked up on the African American’s behavior, as it was very odd and unlikely. The article went very in depth into, “code switching,” which would be the brainwashing and abducting of the African Americans. Chris noticed this with the odd behaviors at the party and of the slaves as they would not behave like regular humans, but like robots that did whatever they were told to do. This point was thoroughly keyed in on as it depicts how white people controlled every aspect of the African American that they would encounter. The article ends off by stating how minority groups are stuck within the system of racial standings and are unable to,” get out.”
The Social Class analysis of Snow piercer and its deeper political messages
My artifact of choice is the movie Snowpiercer by director Bong Joon-Ho. In a review on Vox.Com titled ” Sci-fi movie Snowpiercer is one of the most political films of the year”, the author of the review illustrates the way that the film exploits the social classes in today’s society. It goes on further to critique the conservative ideologies that create an inequality in the distribution of wealth per se, which is demonstrated by the division in the carts on the trains. As the review states, “the system that governs the giant post-apocalyptic train that is the film’s setting benefits a privileged few at the expense of teeming masses who have a much harder lot in life”. This is a clear critique of the conservative economic policies as they make the “rich richer and the poor poorer”. At the front of the train, the “rich” live lavish lives with sushi, steak, and vast and luxurious living conditions. However, towards the tail end of the train, the poor eat a block of protein that is produced from crushed insects and live in terrible conditions with no space. Personally, I think that the train is a symbolic depiction of society with conservative ideologies and the dangers that this could pose. this goes beyond the previously mentioned message, that the conservative views of economics can cause a huge separation between the upper and lower classes, going on to analyze other hidden messages such as drug use, “worship” of a leader, and ultimately revolt. In the movie, an Asian character who is in jail but was previously part of the lower class, is addicted to a drug called Kronoles. he and his daughter use this drug to hallucinate and take them out of their sorrowful lives. This can be seen as a message by the director symbolizing the danger of a society that opens up doors for drug abuse. the poor people, being in horrible conditions with no money often turn to drug abuse and are depicted almost as “junkies” in the film. Yet, when compared to the use of Kronoles in the rich carts of the train, it is not given much attention as the rich use ut to hallucinate in party settings. this, once again adding another message in the film, exploiting the clear inequalities that are exposed by a division in social classes.
published review of Stan – Eminem
This review does a great job analyzing the song Stan as well as how Eminem brought it to life with his experiences. The author uses a quote from Albert Einstein saying “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”. This quote resonates well with this song and Eminem himself because, like the author says, this song does not depict a simple experience Eminem went through or some deep thought in his mind, this song is from someone who has for their entire life been traumatized with a painful obsession. This song can only be originated from years of persisting through a extraordinarily difficult life. Like the author says, “Art like this comes from somebody who clearly has given his life to his pursuit, and has walked the walk while others talk the talk”. This song is simply genius and like Albert Einstein said, comes 99% from perspiration. The stories that we tell in our lives are not from learning about them but being able to experience them for many years. The author even says how Eminem’s lyrics can even be compared to the great poets of the 19th century. I agree with this statement as Eminem is not only a great rapper but an even greater lyricist. Despite people considering him to be tasteless or vulgar his work has inspired many and you cannot take away from the genius in his lines.
Article Analysis
I chose this specific article because it brought out aspects of my chosen film that related to feminism when I didn’t even realize it. For example, Elle’s admission video to Harvard was a classic “dumb blonde moment” and I thought she chose to do this because she felt it was really important to her. However, the article points out that Elle chose to do this because she knew that people tend to objectify her based solely on her looks, so she twisted the situation and used it to her advantage. The admissions board that consisted of older white males couldn’t catch on that she used their blatant sexualization to help her, rather than hurt her. The article also speaks about Elle’s and Emmett’s relationship and how the movie could’ve turned into a cheesy romantic film, but stayed with the theme of ambitious career women achieving their goals. I personally didn’t realize that the film could’ve changed its entire meaning if the relationship was a bigger focus. Since the film was set in the early 2000’s, it definitely made a larger impact as men were considered to be the sole breadwinners. Yet, Emmett didn’t try to make Elle feel like she was not worthy of being a great lawyer, but supported her instead. The article ends with talking about the feminist movement and privilege, specifically the third wave feminism where women of color, trans women, and disabled women were left out of the picture. The film definitely did not have an inclusive cast which parallels the third wave feminism. Overall, this article corroborates a lot of my pre-existing opinions on the film and also gave me a more thorough analysis.