TV Drama

TV Drama: does it compare with literature and plays? I think I will disagree on this one, for when I was watching "Modern Family," and I have a few favorite shows of my own that I like to watch weekly, I did not see the artistry that usually comes with literature. I feel it takes a different kind of language to write good literature, and it doesn't transfer well over television. Sure there have been movies made from books such as Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice that have been great films, and follow closely to the book. However, to write a television script and go backwards to call it literature, then that is a long shot. For instance, Modern Family is a good show full of drama, comedy, and a good story line; however, I wouldn't call that literature. To be literature I fill the theme needs to be complex and thought out in depth, but Modern Family barely skims the surface of complexity. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the show and the story line was enjoyable to watch, but when digging deep and trying to translate the theme of the show, I found it lacking in-depth and the characters to be oddly predictable.  So, maybe the next class will change my mine, but we will see.

Thoughts on The Glass Menagerie

After concluding "The Glass Menagerie" I have decided on a few key points from my own personal opinion. AMANDA- I generally love anything to do with the South and Southern culture, but she is a disgrace to all Southern Debutants. She reminds me a lot of Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, for she is trying to pawn her daughter off to the highest bidder or any bidder at all, and is simply annoying. She is trying way to hard to impress Jim, and is putting a great demand on her son, Tom, to be the main supplier of the family. TOM - I have mixed emotions regarding Tom, for he is a dreamer and just wishes to live his own adventure and life. However, he does seem unmotivated, and lacks the drive to make something of himself at home. Instead he abandons Laura and his mom and goes off traveling. JIM - I liked Jim a lot even thought he for didn't not tell the family he was married at first. He did a big favor to Laura by bring her out of her shell and giving her a real confidence boost. He took a shy grown woman, and actually made her live a little. I think he would be my favorite character from the story, and he does seem the most realistic. Laura - I feel Laura has grown a lot after meeting Jim again and talking to him. I am hoping she will now know that she can be social and have normal conversations with people, then go out and actually live a real life outside of their fire trap of a home. Jim really gave her a chance to be normal and live a full live after that conversation.

Genocide...not exactly a happy topic for a Monday!

The holocaust has always interested me, for some reason it blows my mind how one man can take a country by storm, and convince actual humans that a certain group of people are not worthy of living. In the case of World War II, my opinion is simply that any person taking part in the genocide of the Jewish population should be held accountable and suffer the same consequences. Hitler, the Nazi party, as well as groups such as the gestapo should be held accountable as any other murderer would be, for even if they did not shoot one person, they were still apart of a group that killed more than 4 million innocent people. This week in class we read "The Table" by Ida Fink and she made the observation and asked the question should there be an alternative code for trying people that were involved with Genocide, instead of trying them by the same code we use for trivial crimes. After a writing exercise and a class discussion my view hasn't really changed.  To try a case such as genocide is in a totally different ballpark then trying a petty crime such as rubbery or a low grade misdemeanor. The nazi party killed millions of people, and that should not go without blame. I understand that these trials are hard to deal with for it was a long time ago, and the few survivors left have had their memories faded by the test of time, but we all know that their is something wrong with what they did. In "The Table," the prosecutor is finding fault, for even though all four stories are similar they have no concrete detail to go on in the crime, so for them to truly prosecute Kiper in the trial for this murder, they would need more evidence that they don't have. Therefore, a new code for trying genocide is needed to prove this man is guilty, and even though it may be tough to try someone on a new system--it would simply make the victims of WWII a little more at peace and have justice.

Plays, Drama, and Shakespeare?

     Well we are now beginning the final unit of our Literature journey and ending with non other than DRAMA. I have mixed emotions when it comes to drama, because I love broadway plays and musicals, but when it comes to reading things such as Shakespeare I literally get "lost in translation." I was rather fond of Romeo and Juliet and I enjoyed watching the Leonardo Decaprio movie, but I find the language very outdated, and just cannot understand the rhythm at which Shakespeare was writing it in. We have chosen as a group to read a few plays that the class will read, and one I am rather interesting in has to deal with Southern Belle in the title, and I am game for anything that is southern.  I like to read things that I find an interest in and can understand easily, for I find it easier to get in to the story and it reads much smoother that way.  I have seen RENT and went and saw CHICAGO on broadway and I found those plot lines to be funny and humorous and they kept my attention very easily; however, that might have been because they were musicals. Plays are not exactly my forte in English, but I am looking forward to see what chosen student reading has in store, and we shall go from there. Also, I am brainstorming ideas for my final paper, and I might even try my hand at poetry, but we shall see how that turns out, but I am always up for a challenge.

The Young Lieutenant

While reading Guests of the Nation, there was an interesting debate that came up. Should the Young Lieutenant feel guilty? Should soldiers feel remorse? Should anyone feel guilty if they were committing their active 'duty?' Of course they should they are human, and if you not the least bit of sadness for taking another's life then I would be worried you had no soul. I feel that in a time of war it makes the situation tough, and I am not saying you should not fulfill your duties for the betterment of the nation; however, I do believe you should feel something for you actions. The murder you perform causes a lot more damage, and emotional conflict with the victim's family, friends, and country as well. Therefore, I think they should take in consideration that they are not just killing an enemy, but they are killing perhaps a father, son, friend, or husband and that impacts people. A duty is a duty, in a militia standpoint you do need to perform it if told to do, but you have options. You could rebel and say no, alter the actions in someway, or you can perform them. The choice is yours, but when faced with the action of taking another person's life in my hands, I would feel a lot of remorse and feel guilty. You are playing a key factor in that person's fate, and they will no longer have a chance to live a full life. That is a lot to take in when it comes to a decision, and that would be a life altering one at that.

Freedom and Confinement

I'd like to start of this week's blog with a couple of lines out of "Guests of the Nation." "Nobel says he saw everything ten times the size, as though there were nothing in the whole world but that little patch of bog with the two Englishmen stiffening into it, but with me it was as if the patch of bog where the Englishmen were was a million miles away, and even Nobel and the old woman, mumbling behind me, and the birds and the bloody stars were all far away, and I was somehow very small and very lost and lonely like a child astray in the snow.  And anything that happened to me afterwards. I never felt the same about again," states the narrator.  This ending somehow struck out to me, and just made me think how deep words can go when spoken with that much emotion. "And anything that happened to me afterwords.  I never felt the same about again," is such a passionate, complex line, for the story changes him in such away that it takes a bit of his soul with it.  He will never be the same after what he has witnessed tonight, and that just shows the intensity of the situation. It has to be a dramatic, impacting even for something to change you in such a way that you know in your mind you can never fully recover to your old self.  Therefore, O'Connor has put together a good story, but what really caught my eye was the last 2 sentences!

A Touch of English During Spring Break. . .

It is a beautiful Sunday for Spring Break, and not too bad of a day to write my post for the week. However, I will say the story I want to write about may put a damper on your day. "The Penal Colony," was a very interesting story, for it goes back in time to a colony that has no standards when it comes to punishment.  The colonial of the story is so obsessed and mesmerized by this 'apparatus,' he is always concerned with how it works, and is in love with explaining how it works to the explorer. The old commandant of the colony was the mastermind behind this machine and his method of punishment was a hierarchy of power. He had the colonial handle his dirty work with the execution and he is in charge to processed with the prosecution. It is an unusual method, for they don't even have a trial for the prisoner in the story, but they just accuse him and send him to die.  The famous 'apparatus,' basically engraves or tattoos the crime you committed onto your body, but you don't die instantly.  The process takes about 6-12 hours to take its effect, and then the machine just throws you into a large pit to bury.  In the end of explaining this to the explorer, the colonial partially asks him what he thinks and he sort of believes it is cruel and unusual.  His opinion is what triggers an odd reaction for the colonial, for that was the answer I guess he was dreading to face. The new commandant had been trying to get rid of the apparatus, but the colonial must have just needed to hear it from someone else. The colonial then gave his life to the machine he loved, and died with the machine not operating correctly.