THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE

LOOK OUT, THE SAINTS ARE COMING THROUGH

What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I find the story confusing. I feel like I drop in the middle of a story that was be paraphrased. I feel like I was miss key elements, or I was reading a journal that only made sense to the writer. I don't really have a connection to it. I didn't grab me and pull me in and make me want to read more. I didn't get to read the whole thing but I didn't see how the Bob Dylan song fit into the context of the story. 

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect?
I didn't feel a connection to really any of it. I didn't get why the guy beat the crap out of someone because he took his parking spot, and I didn't get why he started using drugs. I did get why that girl loved him, because sometimes you don't know why you love someone you just do, even if their a shit person. 

What changes would you make to adopt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make? 
I think if you took just a couple of important lines from each chapter and created a visual to explain the scene I story might make more sense. I think maybe a series of paintings or graphics with text embedded in the visual. I think it would be better if the story became more vague because the viewer can interpret it in whatever way they chose.   

THE SERIES

Series are an interesting type of storytelling and now more than ever, series are becoming more popular. As a person that grew up with series like, Harry Potter, Goosebumps, The Hungers Games, The Divergent Series, Friends, Seventh Heaven, Secret Life of the American Teenager, and That’s 70s Show it is an important part of young adult novels and movies. Series like this make the view have a connection with the storyline and characters. I think this is one of the reasons my generation likes to binge watch shows, we like to have an emotional attachment and become consumed by a show. I would concerned the series the original binge media consumption but my generation.  

After watching the final Harry Potter and Hunger Games movie, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I spent 12 years growing up with the characters of Harry Potter, I had an emotional attachment to the movies and when that ended in 2012 I felt like my childhood was gone. The same sadness and an empty happens when you finish binge watching show on Netflix. But I don’t think the effect lasts as long, because you just look for your new fix. But ABC Family cured that because 4 times a year they put on a Harry Potter weekend were you can binge watch the entire series in one weekend. And now they are doing the same thing with the Hunger Games movies. Networks like ABC Family make us long for our childhood by playing movies and shows from it, and that's how they get viewers.

But my generation and age group moved from binge watching and reading young adult media to shows like The Office, Parks and Recs, Game of Thrones. We grew up and so did the shows we watched. The programs we watch now are more focused on what's to come in our 20s and 30s and more grown up fantasy series. I think the media and literature that surrounds us is a really important part of how we grew up, and re-watching those shows, movies and books gives us nostalgia for our childhood. But moving on from childhood storylines is a good thing because we can’t relate as much.   

CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY

A game I really enjoy is Cards Against Humanity. I like the creative quality, the humor and the ever changing results of the game. It’s interesting that it’s a game based on the opinions of the judge, to award the most disturbing and hilarious card. I find it interesting that it makes all players social and the way it makes your face hurt after playing. Their slogan is the party game for horrible people, which I think speaks to me and my friends.

The game could be considered literature because it’s construction sentences and thoughts, and it starts conversations. And sometimes players have to justify and convince the judge that they have the best card combination. It also starts a dialog between players, it makes you think about shity things that happen in the world, issues we face, but also it brings humor to dark subjects. I think literature is meant to make a person think, give them a new point of view, and change what they already know. And I think Cards Against Humanity does that, but the players become the writers. The different authors makes a mix of different points of views, which makes players think of issues and ideas in new ways. Cards Against Humanity creates an atmosphere where you can let your freak flag fly, weird and funny thoughts are encouraged and rewarded. I think an atmosphere like that is important for creative people because it gets the brain working and processing new ideas. Without a new flow of ideas and subject matter a designer or artist mind becomes overworked and searches for new ideas.   

Not only are the players the authors but also the creators of the game, because they come of the phases and the fill in the blank cards. They give the players the words to create crazy thoughts and sentences. Creating the game is a very collaborative process, and the subjects and literature is ever changing.

Of course Cards Against Humanity isn’t considered a classic form of literature but I think it has the same qualities and ideas of classic literature.     

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY

I read Thirteen Reasons Why in high school so I was excited about seeing how a different medium would approach the story. The book was about a teenage girl who killed herself and leaves thirteen tapes with thirteen reasons why she killed herself behind to give to people who were involved in those reasons. Netflix put out a mini series, were each hour long episode was one of the tapes. Hannah Baker (the girl who killed herself) narrating the story through the tape and looked back at the reasons why. Then the story looked at the present and a boy named Clay who has the tapes, people that have already listened to the tapes, and Hannah’s parents. I found it very hard to stop watching the series, I started it Friday night and couldn’t stop watching till I forced myself to go to sleep and two thirty. I then finished the rest of the series in the labs Saturday. Even though I remembered what happened because I read the book I still couldn’t stop watching it. Netflix beefed up some of the events to make them more dramatic. The story had a thrilling effect that made me want to watch one after the other. I wanted to know what happened and why even though I knew how it ended. I became invested in the story and characters, I experienced angry and hate for both of them. Because the story deals with real issues that can break a person’s spirit. I think a lot of girls and women can relate to the modern day misogyny females experience in high school and beyond. After finishing the mini series I had this feeling, of now what? I’ve had the same feel after finishing shows, movie series, and books. You invest a lot of time into watching and getting attached to characters and storyline then it’s over. The show consumes your thought and you need to know how it ends. When watching Thirteen Reasons Why, it brought me back to how high school sometimes is and how end of the world everything feels. I hope that teenagers watch that learn that what they do affects the people around them.        

ASTERIOS POLYP

The text of each character has a different style to show the different voices and personalities of the characters. I noticed that the choreography and Asterios have similar text style, it’s all uppercase and very strong lettering. Which is interesting because they both have big egos. The text Hana’s has is delicate and lowercase showing that she has a different personality. The language used to describe art is very formal and makes the reader a little outside their element, which is important in understand Asterios.  

The illustrator made it very easy to understand how the conversation flows, If Asterios starts to talk over Hana the text bubbles start to overlap. It helps the reader understand the character more and the relationship between Asterios and Hana. During arguments Hana and Asterios are drawn very differently. Hana is drawn in a very loose hand and is colored pink, which I think shows her angry because when they argue it’s because of something Asterios says. But Asterios is drawn in blue and very structured and geometric because I don’t think he understand what he says wrong and he’s not very flexible when it comes to changing his opinion.    

The storytelling in this graphic novel has three different layers it jumps between, the past, present, and dreams. I think it’s an interest way to show Asterios growth as a character, but as the reader moves back and forth between past and present some of the aspects of his character are the same. We get a true sense of what Asterios character is like through the way he speaks and how he’s inner thoughts are illustrated.The illustrations are like a storyboard that goes along with screenplay. The graphic novel seems like the step before a movie. There is no descriptive language about direction or setting. Everything is dialogue like a screenplay, all the action the scene set up is part of the graphics. The way the chapter were laid out was interesting because they were quick scenes of the past that helped support the story in the present.       

I thought comics were only about superheros and the graphic novels were not basics in fantasy. I think the format of graphic novels is more loosely structured and doesn’t have to follow a strict sequencing format.

SOFIA COPPOLA

I watched three of Sofia Coppola’s, Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides, and The Bling Ring.

In all three movies music was an important part of the work and set the tone from a lot of scenes. It helped communicate the moods and feelings of characters without using dialog. Like in The Virgin Suicides when the girls are stuck in there room and the boys call them and they play records back and forth to have a conversation without saying anything. She also uses a lot of extended silences that last a little too long and that make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The silences make the movies and characters feel realistic. We see they have inner thought but we don’t know what it is. A good example of that is in the The Bling Ring when Rebecca and Marc rob one of the houses and it’s a wide shot of the house and it’s silent for about a minute as you watch the house get robbed. It seem like you are watching a security tape. She also cuts to these dream like, unrealistic scenes that are not part of the story line, like in The Virgin Suicides When the sisters are in a field and the shots are hazy and are noticeably different from the rest of the movie. She also cast the same age range in all three movies the characters are in their teens. It seem like all of them don’t really know who they are and they are trying to figure it out, and get stucked into a bad place. Both Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides Two look to the past makes that makes the viewer feel nostalgic. Marie Antoinette is a period piece of royalty, so the set, costumes and food is extravagant and makes the viewer wish they were part of that time. The Virgin Suicides was set in the 60s or 70s and the set and costumes in that movie make the viewer nostalgic too. The attitude of both Marie Antoinette and The Bling Ring are very similar, they are surrounded by partying and the characters are submerged in this extravagant high social living. It’s also about money, fashion, drinking and having a good time.

GOOSE FATHER BY KRYS LEE

Short Story Turned Into Visual Scenes

Who: Gilhou and Wuseong

Where: outskirts of Seoul, South Korea

When: 1990

·      Scene of inside condominium located in Seoul, South Korea; urban area

·      New tenant, Wuseong, sitting on doormat with suitcases and goose

·      Close up shot of goose with a birthmark on the cheek

·      Gilhou; main character, welcomes new tenant inside the space

·      Visuals of family pictures everywhere

·      Goose is kept on the balcony with the garden

·      Next morning, tenant cooks traditional Korean breakfast

·      Scene talking about poetry

MONTH PASSES

·      Scenes of the two getting to know each other; talking, reading, cooking

·      Intimate conversation about the goose being Wuseong’s mom

·      Gilhou gets frustrated at Wuseong’s silliness

     TWO MONTHS PASS

·      The two visit the song room

·      Scene of Wuseong singing romantic song to Gilhou

·      Scene of Gilhou getting close to Wuseong then slaps him

·      Wuseong runs out of the song room and goes missing

·      Gilhou returns to the condo; thinks Wuseong’s in his room sleeping

·      Gilhou goes to sleep

NEXT MORNING

·      Gilhou notices Wuseong’s missing along with the goose

·      Madly scavenges through his room

·      Roams downtown looking for him frantically

·      Eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner alone for the next couple days

COUPLE DAYS LATER

·      Gilhou ends up going out with friends to a bar

·      Brings drunk friend home

·      Wuseong shows up with goose

·      Gilhou confronts Wuseong about where he’s been

·      Drunk friend tries to pluck goose

·      House quiets down, everyone goes to sleep

·      Gilhou wakes up in the middle of the night, there’s a full moon

·      Goes out to the balcony where Wuseong is accompanied by a woman

·      The woman has the same birthmark on her cheek as the goose did

·      The goose has transformed into Wuseong’s mom

·      Gilhou feels guilty for not believing Wuseong

·      Gilhou realizes his love for Wuseong

·      Leans in for a kiss

SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPES

Set Design

Therapist Office

The office is simple and bright, it has a single Eames lounge chair where the therapist sits. The Eames chair by the far left corner of the office. The left wall of the office is a large window that has a view of the city. The back wall of the office is an entire wall of opening shelving with books and other decorative objects. The wall to the right has a large painting resembling a post impressionist work with thick brush strokes and bright colors of a calming nature scene. Under the large painting a square black leather sofa sits with a glass coffee table in front of it.        

John and Ann House

There house is a large craftsman in the suburbs outside the city of Seattle. The inside of the house is spotless everything is organized and has a designated place. Near the front door a you are greeted with a seating room. The room has built-in shelving on either side of the fireplace original to the house. Two large flower arrangements sit on top of the built-ins. Two identical lounge chairs sit in front of the built-ins, across from them is a sofa with the same fabric. Behind the sofa is a console table with three smaller flower arrangements evenly spaced on the table. In front of the sofa a glass coffee table that matches the console table. Behind the sitting area a dining room with original chair rail that covers three fourths of the walls. A medium sized wood  dining table is in the center of the room, above it is a silver chandelier. Towards the back of the house is a kitchen that looks out to the backyard. The whole house is flooded with natural light.         

John’s Office

His office is wood paneled. His desk faces the door, behind him is a large window with views of the city in front of the window is a wood shelf the spans the whole wall. The shelf is filled with paperwork organized into neat piles. The chair behind the desk is a large leather one, the ones in front of the desk are smaller and look less unmovable.     

Cynthia’s Apartment

The apartment is a studio has an eclectic taste, it has a mix of objects from different places and not one piece of furniture matches the other. It’s messy there are clothes and leftover food sitting out on the kitchen table. The bed is unmade, and a open clothing rack sits in between two windows.

 

Graham's Apartment

The apartment is practically empty. The front door and the kitchen are separated by a small wall. The kitchen opens up to the rest of the apartment. A four person table sits in between the kitchen and the living room. Where a simple sofa and a tv are sitting on opposite sides of the room. The whole apartment has wood flooring, there are no area rugs and only a couple floor lamps light the space.

 

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Both the movie and the book had call to nostalgia. In the beginning of the book the Stefan talks about Austria in a very glorified way that paints a perfect picture that was full of nostalgia and wanting for a simpler time. Wes Anderson’s movies does the same, he creates this perfect scene that look like still shots. Because everything is controlled and beautifully balanced, Wes also paints aggrandised vision of the past making the viewer long for it. I think Wes borrowed the idea very authentic nostalgia that transports the viewer. But both Stefan and Wes create a different world where they’re strange character can live and not be compared or run into the world we live in. The characters deal with real issues but they do in a straight way without showing a lot of emotion.

The overall mood of Wes movies are melancholy a specially in The Grand Budapest Hotel there is a lot of death but also a lot of funny moments which evens out the mood to melancholy and not sad. I think Wes pulls that melancholy tone from Stefan's books, like in The Journey to the Past. There is an overall sadness and dislike for from the author's life and a yearning for the past. I think because someone is telling the story of the past and looking back in the beginning of The Grand Budapest Hotel the same yearning is happening.   

I think what sets Stefan and Wes apart is the way they capture a setting. The set design for Wes Anderson films are something of great beauty, everything places carefully and nothing is left in chance. The unique monochromatic color scheme of pastel color and the use of symmetry and asymmetry throughout the film makes his films feel very two dimensional. When reading Stefan books that same carefully contested set design of Wes Anderson does not transfer over.

DEWBREAKER

And how are we the viewer or reader or player connected to the world?In the first story in Dewbreaker, The Book of The Dead, the reader is just dropped into the middle of a serious conversation that immediately makes us ask questions about the context of the story. Because the reader is dropped into the story they have an instant connection to the story line and the viewpoint of Ka. The reader sees the world through Ka eyes, and start to mimics the emotions of Ka, all the fears and anger.

If you think about it this isn’t Ka usually world either. She’s in a different state, away from her home. She’s from a lower middle class family, living in an apartment in Brooklyn, were both her parents work blue collar jobs. And now she stuck in a crappy hotel room and the one person that is from her world is nowhere to be found.   

Because the story is told in the perceptive of Ka the reader is submerged in the world of the story. The way the text is laid out the thoughts of the narrator and the conversations stand out more and are easier to digest and process. It also slows the past, which in turn makes the short story’s world more realistic, and builds anxiety in the reader. The way the story is set up the reader and Ka wait for the answer to what happen to Ka’s dad together. The world of the story feels like it’s happening in real time, the reader is watching the events unfold. There is no context about what year this story takes place that's what makes it feel timeless. When I was reading I imagined it taking place in the 70’s, but I could also imagine it happening in the present too.  

Like Ka at the end of the first short story we have a lot more questions about her father, who she thought she know well. Everything is new to both Ka and reader, the setting and the new emotions/information about her father. Her world his completely changed before the reader's eyes.

LUST

Lust

How are male and female roles defined?

In Lust it’s written in the author's perceptive of how interaction between her and different guys have gone. Each paragraph there is a little taste of each guy’s and what the writer thinks about them and time she spend with them. But we don’t really get to know her. Both the males and the writer seem to have the same role, both are mystery and only small parts show a glimpse of who they are. Even though this short story is about the writer, she seem to viewing it in an out of body way. Or she’s looking back on some of these memories and trying to figure out why.   

Even from the women’s perspective of tell the story, her role still feel secondary. At the end, the writer seem unsure about the relationships she’s had with these men and unsure of who she is as a person. All of the boys in the story don’t really have personality they seem like props that want to have sex then leave after, or are an asshole or the writer stops talking about them. The writer doesn’t give us the opinion of the men in this situation. The writer doesn’t really have a hard opinion on men. She just shares her experiences with different ones and leaves the decision of what to think of men to the reader.

Some of the paragraphs the writer see what men do to her like when she writes “I could do some things well. Some things I was good at, like math or painting or even sports, but the second a boy put his arm around me, I forgot about wanting to do anything else, which felt like a relief at first until it became like sinking into a muck”. I think it brings up the point of losing one's self in a relationship, in cases of both men and women you as a person become secondary. I think what says trying to she is that her role as a female and her self interests change when a man is in her life, how every short a period it is.    

WONDER WOMAN

Lotus

Lotus doesn’t hide behind a disguise or alter ego, she lives among monks in the mountains of Nepal. Where is practices finding inner peace and perfecting her Kung Fu training. She is a wise, intelligent, funny character, who can read other people's minds and move things with her own. She’s passionate about equality for all and saving humanity from their destructive ways.

Lotus doesn’t hide from the world because she knows who she is and she embraces her differences. But she lives a humble life and doesn’t like the attention of the public life. That’s why she lives with monks in Nepal because she can live in peace. She believes she is a civil servant and her gifts are used for the good of the public. But she doesn’t work for a government agency, she is an independent servant that helps people across the world. Because she tries to remain unbiased and uses her wisdom and own moral compass to try a resolve problems without resorting to violence first.     

She practices meditation because it helps her clear her head and blocks out the voices of the people's thoughts. Her practice of finding inner peace also helps with strengthening the able to move things with her mind. The reason she can read minds is so no one can lie to her, she can see all people for their true selves. Make her an excellent judge of character which lets her decide who she is going to help.

To make her more of a badass she is fluent in Kung Fu. So when she isn’t kicking ass with her mind she can mess you up with her sweet moves. This combination makes Lotus both physically and mentally strong. Which makes her in balance with her the mind, body, and spirit.   

Because she lives a life of simple means and is often burdened with difficult decisions and emotions and worries of others so she keeps it light with humor. She is very funny but most people don’t get her humor, but she makes herself laugh.

She helps people all around the world with terrorism, natural disasters, war, and unsafe living conditions. She cares about all humanity and she goes up against people who don’t. People who are driven by greed and money.      

TRUE GRIT

The values of the book and movie from 2010 are very similar. It focus on this idea of strength and what it takes to survive this idea of the Wild West. The American mythology about the Wild West is that it is so untameable and unpredictable. You either get killed by men or the wilderness. This world of the Wild West only real has one type of person, there is no room for weakness (only in women). He is American Adam who is smart, strong, and brave. It’s very bad when man don’t do manly things, that make them brave and tough. They can’t be embarrassed or seen as a joke; which makes everything a pissing contest to show all the other men that you’re American Adam too. A good example of this the scene when LaBeouf gets mad a Rooster for making him look stupid in front of Mattie, which then turns into a shooting contest with cornbread. But this book is also about revenge. If you piss off the wrong people, revenge is inevitable because the West is about justice in the eye of the beholder. But If you're the opposite of the American Adam you’re an Eve or someone that deserve to be taken advantage of. I think the mainstream population of a Western culture is about perception of toughness and heroics. Which gives some of the characters like LaBeouf a fakeness which rubs people the wrong way, he tries to be the American Adam. I think both Mattie and Rooster cut through that idea of mainstream. Mattie is shown as mentally strong and smart busnesswomen at only 14. She is not the typical female role of a western. She's not put in a box of a gender role which goes against the mainstream. She's just has characteristics not specific to a gender. She is a child savior but also the American hero. She’s the one with the grit she seeks for her revenge for her father's murder.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

I’ve always admired the strength of Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice. She is her own person who is honest,witty, and intelligence. She goes against the grain in a society and time when woman who had these qualities were considered wild. But to be true to one's characteristics and still hope for love is something to be noted even in today's society.        

There's a lack of authenticity in people today and the time period of the novel. In relationships today people act a certain way that forms them into this ideal person for someone they are interested in. It’s the idea of fake it till you make it, once the chase is over and the prize of love or sex or a relationship is achieved a person's true personality shows through for better or worse. In Pride & Prejudice this lack of authenticity is seen in a sometimes painful over politeness of characters, in the careful choice of words, and the gossiping behind people's backs abouts a person's character. But there is the same lack of authenticity in both Wickham and Collins characters. Collins spends a great deal of time giving compliments that seem practiced and excessive, that makes you think they aren’t genuine and said just to make him seem agreeable. Wickham on the other hand seems very agreeable and genuine upon first impression. But then his true personality is realized when the correct story of what happened between Wickham and Darcy is revealed, and when he and Lydia eloped almost ruining Lydia and her family’s reputation. And the only way he’ll marry her is if he receives an income from Mr. Bennet.

I think the idea of marriage in that time period was about status and money and was rarely about love. Today those ideas have flipped; marriage is now about love and less about status and money. This time period also used dancing in a courtship as a means of affection and physical contact before marriage. This idea of affection has changed a great deal in modern relationships. Many couples or people just dating have physical contact without a slightest  inclination of marriage in the future. Sex is now used as a test to see if two people are compatible and not so much as a confirmation of two people's love and union in marriage.  

The idea of wanting someone you can’t have, is still very prevalent in modern time as it was back then. It’s all about the thrill of the chase; there's something desirable about being challenged and putting in work to win someone's heart. And I think that idea is still popular today. A lot of people now would still see it as being romantic, the act of winning a girl’s heart because it shows that you care a great deal about them. In the novel we see both Collins and Darcy proceed in this chase. When Mr. Collins ask for Elizabeth's hand she says no and he goes on to say “it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept”, so he asks again and gets rejected a second time. Darcy also pines for Elizabeth and struggles with an internal and external battle with his feelings for Elizabeth. He is also rejected by Elizabeth, but his love for her and the obsession to be with her despite the opinions of everyone else including her. Pushes him to right some of the wrongs he’s done in the hopes of winning Elizabeth’s heart.