Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream

I found the story enjoyable. However, it was only mildly enjoyable to me. While I quite enjoyed the interplay between the faeries and the way Puck was portrayed in this story, the plot was too vague for me. The story lost a lot of its potential because the deal between Will and Shaper was never truly explained. The character of Shaper, which I was waiting to understand and connect with, also remained vague and unexplained.
The faeries get the opportunity to watch an imitation of themselves in the play. Peaseblossom is offended by his character. Puck seems to enjoy the character, but feels he is a better player of himself. He changes from the roll of observer to observed when he decides to play himself in the second act.
In the story the two worlds, real and fantasy, are separated. The fantasy invades the real when Wendel opens a rift in between the two. The faeries step into the real world and make (or try to make) some interesting changes to it. Titania wishes to take Hamnet with them, and Puck actually stays to create mischief and havoc for the humans.
In this adaptation, Shakespeare's genius plays are contributed to being taken from his own real life experiences. This offers a fine explanation of how he could come up with such fascinating works. However, I find it very difficult to believe that one man could have so many things interesting things happen to them in one lifetime.

In class writing 4/6

Most revere Shakespeare's works as marvelous and great pieces of literature. Many of these believe that the works should be left alone and not tampered with. They gawk at the ways people have taken the plays and changed, adapted, and spun off. They claim that this wonderful literature should not be marred by such foolishness as these adaptations. What these people fail to realize is that many have difficulty understanding the original Shakespearean language. The adaptations allow Shakespeare's works to reach into places it would not have been able to penetrate before. Also, the fact that Shakespeare's works have been adapted this much is a sign of how great they are. The adaptations are the medals around the necks of his works, showing off his achievement.

Part 2:
In Macbeth Manga, the panels showing Lady Macbeth when she is going insane portray the scene well. As she is walking to wash the "blood" off of her hands, she has a sallow, crazed look about her. This image gives life to the words and gives a very good impression of what she must be feeling and look like. The look on her face as she examines her hands is perfect for showing her fear and guilt over the murder.

Part 3:
The relationship between Puck and Oberon is quite dynamic. Oberon is Puck's master. Puck his servant, messenger, but also his jester. Puck finds a merry jest in others' misfortunes, and often he uses these to entertain his master and the rest of his master's company. However, Oberon is not always amused by Puck's jests. When Puck screws up and drips the flower into Lysander's eyes instead of Demetrius' eyes, Puck finds the interaction between the lovers funny, while Oberon is upset with Puck. Puck is always very faithful to Oberon and never purposefully crosses him. Oberon, though occasionally upset with Puck's actions, still never seems very angry with Puck himself.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Adaptations

I couldn't find a video of this, but Disney made a short adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Language in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

One of the aspects of Shakespearean language that makes it unique and can often causes confusion for modern readers is the rearrangement of words. Instead of the normal: subject-verb-direct object progression, Shakespeare rearranged the words some times to fit his rhythm or rhyme scheme. In Helena's soliloquy after talking to Hermia and Lysander, she uses this rearranged grammar, "And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." The typical sentence would have the 'is' placed after Cupid.
The words Shakespeare uses are also very different from those used today. In some cases he uses a word that we still use, but the word is used in a different way.
In this section the rhyme scheme follows an: a , a , b , b , c , c , etc. The way Shakespeare used rhyme in his works is one of the things that makes reading them the most enjoyable to me. The other is the way he takes words and plays with them using alternate meanings and the sounds of words.

Manga Shakespeare

The Manga A Midsummer Night's Dream starts off with with introducing the characters with a picture, his/her name, and a quote to help show the personality and help identify the character in the story. The place is introduced as "Athens--where modern technology meet ancient tradition. These help set up the story making it easy to follow from the beginning, instead of trying to find one's bearing in the flow of the story. The clothes that the characters wear are an interesting combination of modern dress and ancient garb. Demetrius wears a white collared shirt and tie covered by a toga.
Pages 14 and 15 demonstrate the hybridization of the times very well. On page 14 ancient weapons such as swords and spears are shown on the wall, as well as flowers for the wedding. However, on page 15, televisions, which are used for communication in the story, are set into the wall as well. This stark contrast gives the book an interesting feel.

War is Kind

I found the whole poem to be very powerful. I had trouble picking just one line. The line I chose though is, "In a field where a thousand corpses lie." The line conjures up mental images of a battlefield after a conflict. The battlefield strewn with bodies of dead and dying soldiers. This image in conjunction with the line "War is kind," outlines the sarcasm in the title line. It makes the poem so much more powerful.

Maus II

The fifth panel on page 250 offers a very telling glimpse into Vladek's mentality. He is excited about getting six dollars of groceries for one dollar by returning the mostly eaten boxes of cereal he had re-glued. It is amazing for me to think of being excited about saving five dollars on groceries. I would never try to return cereal that was mostly consumed and had no true defects. The extreme conservative nature of Vladek is assumed to be the result of his experiences during WWII. His nature that helped him survive the war though, feels very out of place in a peaceful society. His son is very embaressed by this behavior, because in the current culture it is considered odd.

Maus

The idea that pushed me through the text was the theme of the Spiegelmans' struggle. The way that they struggled to find a safe place to stay, to simply live. The panels on page 157 are a good example of this struggle. Looking closely at the panels shows how the author helps use this theme to drive the story forward.
The narrator, Vladek, is a Jew and narrates the story in a broken English. The word order is not what most Americans are used to hearing. This helps make the story feel more real. The drawing are not very vivid. The lines are wide and the faces simple. This could represent the not so perfect memories that Vladek is retelling. Memories which have all the major points but lack the details that the present has. Panels are also dark. Making the story feel gloomier and examplifying what Vladek felt at the time. All of these details help give the story the necissary feel.

Preliminary Research Thoughts

The theme of conflict is the most intriguing to me thus far. I have not read Maus or Night yet, thus I am not certain which one if either I want to focus on. If they capture me, like I hope they will, then I will use one of them as my main text. I will most likely use a traditional research paper to explore this topic. I do not feel very comfortable creating a multigenre research project. However, if the sources I find lend themselves, I might attempt a multigenre project.

Blankets

In Blankets on page 61, the last two panels use the visual potion very effectively to convey the message held in the words. The words are describing hell and how it is an awful place. The teacher is completely surrounded by darkness. This, combined with the heavy mostly vertical lines used to shade her face, gives her a very ominous and foreboding feel. Her eyes are not drawn in behind the glasses, instead the glasses are partly shaded, giving her a very impersonal look increasing the ominous feel. The heavy lines used on the father's arm show strength, and the quick, thin lines showing movement of the hand move this strength from the arm itself into the motion of yanking the son. The expression, the large eyes with dilated pupils and wide open mouth, and words used convey the horror and fear in the boy. This connects to the previous panel as a more real representation of what the foreboding figure of the teacher is describing.

An Orange Piece

Jeanette has an interesting experience on page 108. She is thinking about demons and how supposedly everyone has them "like fleas". Then "her demon" appears. He tries to convince her that, contrary to what she was taught, demons are good and natural. This conversation is Jeanette's way of arguing with herself. She wants to hold onto this feeling that she has found though everyone around her tells her it is wrong. Through this conversation she convinces herself that her new feeling is not wrong, that it is a part of her.
The demon appears later. He tells her, "[Y]ou've made your choice now, there's no going back." He tosses her a small, brown stone to remind her of her choice. The stone is used later to tie together stories and thoughts about making a choice that cannot be taken back.

Oranges

"What do I believe?" is a very broad question, but I can sum it up easily. I believe what the Bible says. What the Lord has revealed to me in his word is what I believe. Initially, those that had the most influence on me were my parents. Now, I critically analyze the world myself, with little influence from those around me. Whenever I am challenged, I look to the Bible.
Jeanette, from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, takes all of her beliefs from her mother and the church to which her mother takes her. The first time she questions one of these sources is on page 60. She says, "[I]t was at this moment that I began to develop my first theological disagreement." The author then presents a short story to convey what she believes is true perfection, not the absence of flaws, but the balance of all things.
The most obvious form of foreshadowing in the book is the oranges. Her mother says, "Oranges are the only fruit." The title of the book itself acts as a tool used to foreshadow Jeanette's break with her mother's beliefs.

Thoughts on The Bluest Eye

I find the consistent main themes of the texts we have read so far to be about people not being comfortable with who they are and desiring to change that reality. In Pecola's case, "If she looked different, beautiful, maybeCholly would be different...Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes." The individual who is not comfortable with who they are or does not know who they are supposed to be ends up lost ,confused, and searching for meaning in what the world around them tells them they should be.
The most disturbing thing for me to see and read and difficult to believe is the idea, which is presented in both The Bluest Eye and the Black Doll, White Doll video, that white people are still preferred over black. I don't know how black people view themselves compared to white people because I do not have enough experience around them to make that judgment. However, what I was troubled by, was the fact that, in the video, only black children are chosen to participate. I do not believe that white people have the same bias against black people that was evident in the past.

American Born Chinese Close Read

In the panels on pages 146-150, Wong Lai-Tsao speaks to the monkey king. In these panels the monkey king realizes that his only way of escape is to swallow his pride and become what Tze-Yo-Tzuh wants him to be. The facial expressions of the monkey king really help portray this transformation of mind.

American Born Chinese Response

When I began reading American Born Chinese, I saw a very common theme in the threads of the story. Each of the main characters is looking for his identity in some way. What was different about this book was the way that the story moved along. Because of its use of comics to relate the story, more was able to be communicated in a shorter time.

In the two scenes where Jin and Wei-Chan are being introduced to the class, we see a very similar experience. These scene are not only extremely similar to each other (by purpose), but they closely resemble situations that most people face at some time in life. The times when we are introduced by someone else who keeps screwing up information about us. The lack of facial features on Jin and Wei-Chan in the panel when they are up front of the class allows the reader to place himself into the situation and feel like the person who is in front of the class. The interjected corrections by the boys are heard as muttered because of the facial expression, mouth shape, and word bubbles that are used. The blank expressions on the classes faces is also very typical of a class like this.

Issues of Race, Gender, and Class

It is impossible for one to read any text without reading his/her worldview into it somewhat. Even something that is written from a different perspective than the individual's worldview. The person must know something about the subject being presented by the text. The way that the individual considers the subject is still servant to the original bias that the reader has. People are bias. That is the way it is. No matter how much they may say they are unbiased, everyone will still have a slant, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant.

I believe that almost all of Peggy McIntosh's list of the "privileges of white people" can apply to any race. Both blacks and whites tend to congregate in groups of similar individuals. That is just the way things are and people tend to be. Also, things that in individual does, in most cases, reflect on only the individual, not the race as a whole.

Multimodality, Multisemiotics, and Multiliteracies

Multiliteracy is defined as the ability to absorb, understand, and interpret multiple types of media, such as images and motions. Multimodality is everywhere. Everything we encounter is a combination of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. McCloud uses multimodality in his work Understanding Comics. The words he writes are linguistic and somewhat audio when combined with the pictures. The pictoral portion of the comics offer the visual portion of the entire multimodal experience. The pictures also depict motion or gestures and offer a sense of space sometimes as well.

American Gothic

In the painting American Gothic, everything is slightly stretched upwards. Everything seems a little taller. This adds some degree of interest to what would be an otherwise boring piece due to the facial expressions (or lack thereof). The contrast of the people with the objects and scenery is interesting. The people are almost the only rounded objects. This gives them a more realistic feel, while the scenery remains distant and slightly foreboding due to the pointed shapes used.
What I find to be most interesting is that the pitchfork is in the center of the picture. Its long pointed shape in combination with its central position add tension to the picture. This tension may perhaps be used in combination with the direction the eyes are looking to direct the tension to the relationship between the two people.

Thoughts on First Half of Understanding Comics

Real literature is writing that speaks to people. Real literature can take many forms. Scott McCloud puts forward the idea that comics should be placed in the category of literature with other forms typically placed in that group.
I find comics very interesting. I think I might have a difficult time accepting a deep, serious idea from one, but for entertainment I quite enjoy them. I may have to discount my previous statement. I have read comics that offer small deep thoughts, which I will ponder, but for in depth I see comics as ineffective. I find they are also very useful for getting a simple point, concept, or skill across in an interesting, painless way. Because comics are often visually stimulating, they are more likely to be read.
Because McCloud uses comics as his medium for getting his point across, I found the book very easy to read. It was interesting and because his subject matter was not too deep the medium was very effective, especially since he could often demonstrate his points better through the pictures.

ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference


Robert Frost

What is an American?

An American is anyone who is a citizen of the United States and devoted to his/her country. I would consider anyone who was born as a citizen of another country but became a citizen of the US as an American. Often times they are more devoted to their country than a naturally born citizen.
There also exists those who may be citizens but are not devoted to their country. I would have to question if they are really Americans. An American should be proud of his/her country.

Literary Theories

Deconstruction- This is a very interesting literary theory and method of thinking. By its very nature, it takes what is commonly believed to be true and through a series of steps tears apart the idea making it seem absurd. Even seemingly simple things such as walking from one place to another. (For example, to move to another spot by a straight line [the shortest distance between two points], one must first reach the halfway point. To reach this halfway point, one must first reach the halfway point of that. This continues on to infinity, preventing the idea that movement is possible.) So, deconstruction, when taken to its extreme, removes all possibility of anything.

New Criticism- This theory attempts to look at only the text. It removes the idea of an author's original intent and the response of the reader. It only considers the actual words on the page. This seems an incomplete way of looking at a text because it removes the author's original intent, which is very important to a text. Without an original intent, the text would never have been written, and it seems foolish to remove the authority of the very author of a text.
The reader's response is also important. The feelings and thoughts that are stirred up in a reader are the result of a text and are thus important to it. Without the response, a text is dead. Just ink on paper. Equivalent to a spot of ink leaked from a pen onto the paper.