Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp. It took me quite awhile to get into and understand this novel. I recently finished it after reading the majority of it about thee fourths through a few weeks earlier. The ending is still fresh in my mind: an asteroid hurling directly towards Hanna and Asterios as they reconcile. Why this was interesting to me is in Concept class, we are told to put our first drawing and last drawing next to each other. There needs to be a significant difference. In Asterios Polyp it begins with him having to leave his apartment due to a lightning strike. It ends with a similar disaster, but this time he isn’t alone.

The entire arc of the storyline is his journey of reconciliation with his ex-wife if it is looked at in this way. But the journey is also an important part. Throughout the book he is trying to understand how different people perceive the world. People see the world differently, and there will be things certain people notice a lot and others not at all. David Mazzucchelli demonstrates this by drawing different characters in different styles. I found this to  be very clever, easy to understand, and interesting to look at. The book is his journey of overcoming the fact that not everyone sees things the exact same way – and that’s okay.

This is  the moral story of the book in my opinion. Not everyone is going to have the same opinion as you,  or think that politics or what not as are important as you do. It isn’t wrong for them to think that way, it’s just how they think. Asterios was more logical, and Hana was more artsy. They divorced because Asterios couldn’t understand the way she perceived the world. In the end, they reconciled and all was okay. Although not with a last joke about perception on whether it was an asteroid or a shooting star.

Newsworld

      1. Are there any prominent symbols in the story that you read? If so, what are they and how are they used?

The largest and most obvious symbol within Newsworld is the symbol of the San Francisco Earthquake attraction as a smaller Twin Towers in New York. This is the reason they want to see it, to try to better understand what happened. Their world scope is expanding beyond their city and they’re trying to cope with it. Another symbol is the idea of the park itself. The park is a symbol of their childhood. They have memories of being young and carefree, running around and having fun. But now in the dark, the trees that were once amazing and magical now looked like ordinary trees, not park trees. “We were disappointed at how easily our childhood could be turned off, everything shut down and emptied.” They’re coming to the realization that childhood isn’t forever.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of he work with which you were able to connect.

It was difficult for me to connect with anything in the story. The one thing I did connect with was the idea that once you realize how great childhood is it’s gone. I have always been rather connected to my emotions and knew how to express them. And I don’t understand the idea of having never left a single place. As a military child I have moved every two to three years all over the country. I have visited nearly every large city and multiple countries. For the boys in this story, 9-11 is what triggered their transition from blissful ignorance to trying to understand the world around them. For me, it was much smaller. It was learning Santa wasn’t real. When my mother told my sister and I, I was devastated. It’s funny because my sister was just like “I knew it!” and she’s the younger one.  

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I would want to adapt this into virtual reality. In virtual reality you take on the experience of a person, you play as them.  First I would change the subject matter from we – to a single person. The short film would focus on the group but there had to be one person within the said group to be the main character. You would play as the said person. You’d go through the class. To get the emotion of the setting, there would be a narrator setting the tone for specific scenes. Such as in the beginning in the classroom scene, the narrator would say. “Our emotions were mysterious to us, the fine divisions between melancholy and depression, yearning and desire.”  The narrator would say important things such as that. Descriptions of their childhood would play in cut scene flashbacks. When it was time to break in, cut scenes of what the park was like when they were kids would play intermittently in stark contrast to the dead park the player was exploring. There would be much less telling and much more showing.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist

To download and play the game:

Through Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/409160/      

         

Through the developer’s website: https://crowscrowscrows.itch.io/dr-langeskov-the-tiger-and-the-terribly-cursed-emerald-a-whirlwind-heist

Video Playthrough (Don’t recommend, it’s much more interesting if you play yourself. But just in case.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t40qlbndFho

For this assignment I chose Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist. It’s a videogame. It’s free to play, available on mac and PC, and all that is needed is a free program called Steam to play. Its duration is only about twenty minutes. The inspiration for choosing this game was the topic of storytelling within videogames. This is a video game about video games. It is important to me because it comes from a creator who takes more of an abstract approach to video games. This particular one was created by William Hugh, a co-creator of the critically acclaimed Stanley Parable. My first choice for this assignment was going to be The Beginners Guide created by Davey Wreden, the brains behind Stanley Parable. It is about someone struggling with something they don’t understand. But it costs money and is much longer at 2 hours.

The Beginners Guide and Dr. Langeskov are reactions to the Stanley Parable and its unexpected success. Critics say that it isn’t a video game at all. Now, if you don’t know the Stanley Parable, you play the role of an office worker. A British narrator-god voices your life, saying what Stanley will do next. But you can choose to do what he says, or make a different choice. Every choice is commented on by the narrator. The only thing is that there is no real progression. You wander around an office building dying with a narrator criticizing your decisions. Much like Dr. Langeskov it’s a game you have to play. While critics say it isn’t a video game because there isn’t linear progression, The Stanley Parable is a video game about video games. It’s idea came about when Wreden thought about how most video games confined a player to its rules, and what would happen if that wasn’t the case.

Dr. Langeskov is a satire about video games. It’s a response to the idea that the Stanley Parable wasn’t a game, a joke aimed at the internet’s presumptions of how games are made. I can’t say much more. All I can help you with is background, now you have to play it. These developers make games which are so dependent on surprise and discovering things yourself, which is why I chose it. All I can say is that you should play it, and wait until everyone has, and then discussion can take place.

If you enjoy it, I highly recommend you play the Stanley Parable, then The Beginners Guide, then Dr. Langeskov for a second time and it will reveal a much larger message about video games in general.

Kids Screenplay

I chose to read Kids, a screenplay by Harmony Korine. It is a screenplay about sex. It’s about the pleasures, risks, and drama that are all tied to one intimate act. For this I debated taking on the role of Director of Photography. Because how can you get a movie released about sex without showing all of the sex? Well apparently you can’t. The movie was met with accusations of pornography, exploitation, and child endangerment, and was given an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. So instead I chose to write from the point of a Set Designer.

There are some very interesting contrasts within the set of Kids. And as set designer I would want to highlight these contrasts. It opens in a girl’s room. The walls are pink, there’s a dollhouse in the corner and band posters on the wall. On the bed sit two teenagers. She’s dressed in bright colors and he is dressed in dark – the only dark thing in the room. This is so you can tell he’s out of place. He’s invading her world, and lying to get what he wants.

One thing I have learned in class that if you compare the first and last frame of a movie, something has had to change. It shows progression, and the biggest contrast is shown by comparing the first and last.

So for the last scene, it’s a living room. The furniture is cheap and stained, people are strewn about passed out wherever there was an open spot. The walls have chipped paint. The lamps give off an eerie glow because the air is full of dust and smoke.  There are empty bottles everywhere, remnants of drugs on the living room table.

So overall the set design would go from happy to bleak with no hope for Jennie. For Telly’s shots and scenes it would all be happy and bright, a continuing contrast against Jennie’s growing despair as we cut between the two. As the film progresses the audience would catch onto this and their dislike of Telly would slowly progress as they grow to understand how Telly takes what he wants then simply moves on to the next one with no concern of what happens to his previous partner.

One point in the screenplay I think is also worth mentioning is when Jennie is leaving Paul’s apartment while looking for Telly. A little girl approaches her with a ripped doll and sticks her doll out so Jennie can hold it. This is an eerie scene. The little girl is happy with her doll. The apartments are old and in disrepair. That girl is exactly as Jennie was in the beginning of the film, although of course not that young. It’s a scene of comparison of where she was then and where she is now. 

Adolf Trumpler

Adolf Trump, Donald Trumpler, all words I've heard used to refer to Trump. This image compares a man running for president to debatably the most hated figure in the world, Adolf Hitler.  Both support mass deportation. Hitler was anti-Jew and Trump is anti-Muslim. Hitler's goal was to make Germany great again. That's why so many people supported him. Trump wants to make America Great Again. It's not our fault that America is apparently "not great anymore" it's all the fault of the immigrants! Just like it was the Jews fault! Deal with it is written on the front. Deal with the fact that he is famous. Deal with the fact that he is a joke. Deal with the fact that he gets on the front of Time Magazine, a spot that is only reserved for people that make a real difference in this world. Deal with the fact that he has made a laughing stock out of the presidential election. Sorry, may be getting a little biased. It is difficult for me to look at this objectively.  His photograph looks like any other politician, squinted eyes and no smile. His expression declares he's not someone to be pushed around. Deal with the fact that he is a serious candidate.

The Medium is the Massage

Escape from the IOI

Virtual reality as a medium is very broad so I want to define what I think of when I think of it as a medium. I don’t quite consider it as the games in the novel – the viewer is not playing a part of any character. You’re not there at all. You have no physical presence but can look all around you, kind of like you’re the main character’s trusty companion or sidekick that can’t talk or a balloon that the main character is carrying. The sequence I chose to adapt was the escape from the IOI. (The tech help sequence was tempting to choose but I can’t say it’s essential. Sorry Mr.HotCock007)

The camera is set at the entrance of Wade’s small hab-unit. The camera is locked so the viewer can’t look around, conveying the cramped, restrictive feel of the environment. His feet are in the foreground. His ear clamp falls on the top left rule of thirds point, and then his ankle bracelet unlocks on the right bottom rule of thirds. 

The camera pushes in a little further so you can see what Wade is doing as he prepares his escape, getting his things together, pulling off his visor and gloves. The camera stays here, only showing his torso as he changes. His fake ID badge is held in front of the screen long enough for the viewer to see it.

Wade

"I need to use the bathroom,"

There is a hiss as the door of the hab-unit opens and the camera pulls back far enough to see him stick his anklet in the pocket of his uniform. The camera continues back and out the unit and eye-level from the ground. The viewer is free to look around now, seeing the hab-units and deserted hallway. Wade climbs from the  hab-unit down the ladder.

The camera follows behind Wade as he walks towards the elevator although the viewer is free to look in any direction they wish. In the elevator the camera is positioned at a high angle next to wade as if the viewer is like a security camera in the elevator. The viewer is free to look around as they wish, although there is nothing in it other than Wade. It is positioned like this rather than over the shoulder so the viewer can see his nervousness as he waits for his identity/authority to be cleared.

Elevator

"Good morning, Mr. Tuttle, Floor please?"

Wade

“Lobby”

The camera stays in place until the elevator dings that it had reached the lobby, the camera shifts to be over Wade’s shoulder. Lost in a sea of people, the viewer can see exactly what he sees and feel the same confrontation as the woman greets him in the lobby to tell him his ear is bleeding.

When he finally gets outside, the camera goes upwards to provide a wider shot of his freedom as he casually walks towards the trashcan. When he throws the anklet monitor into the trashcan the camera shoots forward into the trashcan as well, effectively cutting to black to open on the next scene.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. From the very beginning we know what the ending is going to be. Most movies and stories hide that from readers and movie until they reach it, throwing the audience through various loops along the way. But not Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. We know they are going to die. It's in the very title of the play. The fun part is the comedic story in between. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are secondary characters in Hamlet. They aren’t entirely important and that’s what I feel the hidden message in this story is.

Making important choices can be really hard. But not making them and just passively going along can have dire results. From the very beginning they are answering to other people. They are on the way to the king whom had summoned them and they can barely remember whom they are or where they are going. They are summoned; they do what they are told basically spying on Hamlet when they are supposed to be his best childhood friends. They simply follow the word of the most powerful person around them at the time, which happens in this case to be the king. They briefly question if going to England is the right thing to do for themselves but off they go anyways.  

The primary example of this is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern open the letter they are to give the king of England and read it. The letter calls for Hamlet’s death, the death of their friend. But instead of doing a wide array of things such as maybe getting rid of the letter, telling Hamlet, or forging a new one, they just reseal it and go along with it. This fatal mistake of letting fate take it’s course is what got them killed for Hamlet had overheard and changed the letter to call for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s deaths.

This play is about being a secondary character. We can’t be secondary characters in our own lives. If we just ride along in our lives letting people push us around letting them tell us what to do, we won’t get anywhere.

Features of the world of Hitting Budapest

In Hitting Budapest, there was an obvious divide between two seemingly completely different worlds side by side. The ironically named Paradise seemed to be the slums of Hungary, referred to as the shanty The children probably have no idea what the word Paradise is supposed to mean. It’s a place where ten year olds such as Chico get impregnated by their grandfathers. It’s a place where you have to go to the brush to go to the bathroom and you don’t go after dark because no one will go with you. When they find a dead body they take the shoes to sell and it isn’t even mentioned if they alert the authorities or not. It’s the normal for them. When they cross the road into Budapest, it’s an entire separate world.

It’s described as a place “where people not like us live.” It’s a place with fenced homes and clean streets. Where people stay to themselves indoors and throw food out without even finishing it. Where people don’t eat fruit off of trees because “nobody around here seems to know what fruit is for.” And the people that live in these homes don’t seem too concerned about it. The children seem to use a regular pattern, going street to street. If anyone truly cared it wouldn’t be that difficult to stop the children from stealing them.

One of the similarities between both worlds seems to be ignorance and/or lack of education. The children are clueless what the word paradise means, and they have wishful thinking to eventually live in Budapest but they have no idea what it would probably take to live there. The woman is ignorant of the real hardships these children face. To her they seem to be more animals, things to take pictures of rather than to be helped or fed. Instead of offering the children food, she throws away what she is eating before she even finishes it. What is this nice city doing to help those that live in the shanty? They probably pretend it isn’t there. The only person that does take notice is a woman visiting from the United States.

Even the Queen

Even the Queen was the most interesting piece of writing I believe I have read in class up to this point so I would like to focus on it in particular for this post. In the story I found myself relating to the main character Perdita. Not entirely with what she is going through but with the structure of her family. Much like her I cannot learn without experience. She defies her parents to go off and join the cyclists who well, want to have all natural menstrual cycles even though there is a drug to prevent it. In the end she goes back to her mother and exclaimed that the mother didn’t tell her that it would hurt. I cannot learn from someone simply telling me that something is a bad idea. I have to try it for myself.

What I found most interesting in the story was the power relationships between the men and women. There was only one man in the story who had a very minor role. For the most part in Even the Queen it was almost like men were this otherworldly force who’s only goal is to repress and control women’s reproduction. Yet, the men are not seen at all repressing anyone. The family wants Perdita to go back on Ammenerol, a drug that makes it so women have no periods. But Perdita believes there are bad side effects and that it represses their womanhood. The older women in the family are trying to convince Perdita back into conforming to their beliefs. There are no men running around shoving these pills down women’s throats.  In the end, Perdita realizes that Ammenerol isn’t perhaps such a bad thing. This can be seen as either her agreeing to conform, or the realization that men aren’t this huge repressive force. The older women in the family state that “There are some things worth giving up anything for, even your freedom, are worth giving up your freedom for, and getting rid of your period would definitely be one of them.”

So in the end does Perdita fall into just conformity and become brainwashed by the male patriarchy by not agreeing to join the cyclists? Or was she wrong in believing that it was the agenda of men to control women’s reproduction rights to begin with? After all, women had to fight for the “liberation” and their right to not have periods. It’s up to the reader to decide.