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.

True Grit: A Coming-Of-Age Western

When I first heard we were going to read True Grit, all I knew was that it was a Western Movie. My father is a fan of westerns and as a kid I simply found them boring. But I was entertained with True Grit from beginning to end. It wasn’t just another John Wayne movie. The protagonist, a young female immediately had my attention and I related to her. She reminded me almost of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. Both strong female leads that go against the grain so to speak. Mattie, a fourteen year old girl sets out to avenge her father’s death.

It defied the traditional western in many ways. The biggest being the blurry line between good and evil. In most Westerns there are the good guys, and the bad guys, who is who is obvious, and the good guys win. But what is considered justice is blurred in True Grit. When it comes to Chaney, the only justice for Mattie is to see him killed in her hometown. For Rooster it isn’t about justice as much as the money which brings into question his moral code, which is also questioned earlier in the courts. For LeBoeuf it’s about his honor as a Texas Ranger. He’s a dedicated lawman. That, and the money.

The other thing that caught my attention about this movie used the western backdrop to create a coming-of-age story. There were less scenes of fighting the bad guys than there were the development of Mattie. It’s about her setting out on her own to avenge her father’s death and doing everything in her power to make it happen despite how the adults looked down upon her. She was growing up, becoming independent. She wouldn’t take no for an answer when Rooster and LeBoeuf tried to leave without her. During the long rides we learned of her struggles and how she refused to complain. In the end, what I found to be the climax was Mattie falling into the snake-pit and her struggle to survive. And when she did at the end of the adventure she was an adult. The climax wasn’t about catching the bad guy, but that was rather a way to help move the story of Mattie.

This is why I believe I enjoyed the book so much, because it was a coming-of-age story disguised as a western.