Personal Lit & Media Lesson: Sun and Moon Myths

For this blog post I would like to discuss how people from long ago explained the theories of some unanswered questions through stories and legends of all cultures. Nowadays, most of those questions have been answered and are now common facts thanks to science. Back then, they did not have the science we have now, instead they made interesting stories and myths explaining their theories based on history and or religion of their culture. Some of these questions includes how the world was created, how humans were created, why do seasons change, how does it rain or snow, what are those bright dots in the sky, why does the sun and moon come in different times of the day, etc. Each of these questions has been made into a story or myth in every culture, and each of the cultures has their own unique version to the theory. Many of these stories had been passed on through oral tradition since they were very popular and well known. From one generation to another these stories have been passed on and expressed in a different manner. For example from the concept theory of  'The Origin of Night and Day' I found a variety of interesting versions. Each culture has their own version and reason on how the sun and moon can only appear in certain times of the day and why they cannot be together (not including solar eclipses since I will be referring to night and day, and back then people would assume it was a bad omen because of their rare occurrence). The Japanese version is the legend I personally enjoy the most. In Japanese Shinto belief, everything in nature is represented by deity, and the head of the Shinto pantheon is the sun goddess Amaterasu. The legend describes a banquet where the gods were attending. The two main gods Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, her younger brother the moon god, were also attending. When all the gods arrived at the banquet, Uke Mochi, the goddess of food, came out to serve the meal to everyone by vomiting all the food and ingredients on the table. Tsukuyomi was disgusted by her actions and decided to kill her. Amaterasu got very upset at her brother's behavior for killing Uke Mochi at the banquet that she vowed to never speak and see him ever again. Eventually the two siblings ended up on opposite ends of the Earth resulting on day and night. There are many different versions of this legend, but this is the one I am more familiar with. I like the Japanese version because of the cause of separation between the sun and the moon. The description of the argument between the siblings gave me a big impression to my imagination. I can picture the sun goddess acting like a stubborn girl and using the silent treatment on her brother.

Below is the link to the article with the list of ten different cultural versions of the day and night origin myths. However, the link has the Japanese legend that I mentioned but in an alternate version of the one I know.

http://listverse.com/2013/12/20/10-mythological-origins-of-day-and-night/

Asterios Polyp

I read the graphic novel of Asterios Polyp, and I find it to be strangely interesting. The story is about the life of an architect artist called Asterios Polyp, and follows through his current situations, his past, his experiences, and personal issues. It really interest me how the story follows the life of the protagonist Asterios Polyp, by going back and forth from what he did in the past and his situation in the present. I like how the story varies in art styles depending on the character and their perceptions as well as how each character has a unique dialogue bubble to identify each of them when they are not in the frame. Normally graphic novels use circular dialogue bubbles, however Asterios’ dialogues are always in the form of a square, which I find very interesting. In addition, I find it weird how every characters other than Asterios are drawn in different styles whereas Asterios is drawn in a flat side view. Other characters are portrayed in different angles and perspectives, however Asterios’ head is flat no matter what angle his body is facing. His face is always shown as a flat surface, but his body is portrayed as a cubical model. Sometimes I find it very funny how he responds to people with very witty and snarky remarks, however other times, I find it to be vulgar; for example, his conversation with other people at the faculty meeting party involves a high amount of sexual connotations (page 54). This is not a usual and normal conversation that a professor should be engaged in. Lastly, I really like the way in which the author played with different artistic graphics and styles and the manner he developed ideas and told backstories. For example, when Asterios and Hana’s conversation started, each of them were portrayed in different styles and colors, however as the conversation progressed, the styles and colors of the two characters began to merge. (page 61) Overall, the art styles were simple, but interesting. The story structure is kind of disoriented, but creative enough to get me indulged into the story.

Personal Opinion on Media

 Today, there are many forms of media. I personally prefer the traditional form over the digital because of many reasons. Personally, I enjoy physically holding a book, and being able to flip through the pages, rather than sitting in front of a laptop or holding a device that strains my eyes. When I was in middle school, I used to go to the library during break time to read some books. Since then, I have developed a deep interest for reading books and have always enjoyed going to the libraries and bookstores. Today, the digital media and networks have created new products such as electronic books. This creation has profoundly changed the way of publishing. I have noticed that many books have been turned into electronic books, and are available in digitized form through E-books, Kindle and in apps. This digitization of books had caused many well established bookstores to go out of business. Personally, I have tried to adapt to this new form of media and I think that the electronic books have as much flaws as its benefits. I think that the electronic books facilitated the process for searching books to read; I could zoom in and read the texts more clearly as well as looking up the definition of specific words. However, it is frustrating that the medium used to read the electronic books constantly needs updates, requiring the user to spend more time learning and getting use to the changes. In addition, if anything bad were to happen to the device used for reading the electronic books, it will impede the user from their accessibility to the books, whereas a hard physical copy will always be available to the reader. Also, these devices are powered through battery, therefore it limits the usage of the device to a certain amount of time. As a reader, it is very annoying to be stopped in the middle of a story due to flat battery. Furthermore, the page swiping feature bothers me because sometimes the device is too sensitive to touch or too slow in reacting. Therefore I need to keep swiping the pages back and forth, trying to pick up where I left off. Below is the image that I found online in google. I believe that this image sums up today’s world of media; it puts all of today’s social networking into perspective in a traditional manner. In fact, I like these ideas of “vintage social networking” more. For example, social media is not my main communication channel. I do not have an Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter account. Although I have created a Facebook and Skype account, I never had an interest using them to follow up people’s status, chat or video call. I do not use websites like Pinterest or Reddit. I would say the only exception is YouTube, where I use to watch some videos and hear some music. Overall, I am a more traditional person. I prefer reading hard copy books and communicating through phone calls or text messages.

Wes Anderson's voice

For this week, I watched three of Wes Anderson's films, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had recently watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom before, however, I decided to re-watch them to get a better grasp to compare them.

The three films share many similarities including themes, styles and motifs. They all share an adventurous theme. All the protagonists initially had honorable reasons to embark on the adventure, but later their actions either backfire or cause more problems than they had originally for not thinking through it thoroughly.

Wes Anderson has his own unique style to express humor in the three films. For example, when a character is explaining something, they tend to comment with many witty remarks, quotes, references, and side notes. These are shown in M. Gustave and Mr. Fox’s explanations or speeches. In addition, there is an excessive use of body language and gestures depicted in the actors and characters when interacting with others. For example M. Gustave is an overly welcoming hotel manager in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Mr. Fox's frequently uses a whistle snap as his signature move for attention in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Furthermore, all three films uses a convenient solution to resolve difficult and dangerous situations. For example it is humorous how M. Gustave managed to acquaint his cellmates, asking them to help him escape. Similarly, when Mr. Fox starts explaining a plan for their barrier, only for his Opossum partner to quickly find an easier route. Lastly, I noticed that there is a similarity in the way Wes Anderson ended his films. He used a technique where the scene slowly zooms out to give an indication of how things were resolved in the plot.

All films share a common motif of acceptance into the society. When watching the movies I found that the three main protagonists and some of their closed ones from all three movies tended to be depicted differently from the rest of the characters in society. Even though they were portrayed differently, everyone else eventually accepted them. The second common motif was the paternal bond formed between characters, for example, Zero with Gustave, Sam with the Police Captain Sharp, and Ash with his father Mr. Fox. Another common motif I noticed was the use of thunderstorms and its significance in two of Wes Anderson’s films, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox. In the film Moonrise Kingdom, there was a weather forecast of a storm heading towards the island, that later became a great obstacle for the plot. For Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox's wife had a habit of including thunderstorms in all of her landscape paintings foreshadowing the truth at the ending.

In conclusion, Wes Anderson uses similar ideas for themes, styles and motifs in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. These similarities represent his unique way of trademarking his work.

Screenplay statement

Marketing Star Wars Empire Strikes Back

Writing from the position of a Marketing Director for the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back original screenplay, I would start with thinking about the target audience that would be interested in watching the movie. As a marketing director, I believe that the movie is targeted towards all ages. Therefore, I would strategically advertise the movie in public areas where a general target market can be advertised to and giving the greater insight of the content of the movie. For a younger based audience, between the ages of 13 to 25, advertising would mainly be done through social media including Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. A secondary advertising medium would be through television. This generation is extremely tech-savvy and therefore social media is the easiest to approach them. In addition to social media and television, marketing to this generation can be done in a more interactive and entertaining manner. For example, similar to the Lego Movie and Zootopia’s cutout advertising, Empire strikes back can have a cut out of a space ship where younger generations can physically explore the setting and get a feel for the movie. They can them upload the photographs to any social media website to share and promote the movie to their friends. For the older audience from the age of 26+, my marketing strategy is to mainly advertise through television and newspaper articles. I would also have billboards along main highways, bus stops and populated areas visible for everyone. This generation is not in touch with social media as much as the younger generation. They pursue more outdoor activities therefore outdoor advertising works better to reach this market. As a marketing director, these are the elements I would use to promote Star Wars Empire Strikes.

Feminist critical positions in True Grit

For this blog post I will be referring to Mattie from True Grit, the story of Mattie who is on a quest to avenge her father’s death by her family’s servant. During her journey, she hired a Marshal to help her find the culprit, and along the way she met a Ranger who happened to be looking for the same man for the bounty. On their way, they set out to look for clues on the criminal's whereabouts and found he had joined a gang of bandits.Their adventure continued to unfold as the story progressed.

Mattie is the protagonist and the only female character in the story. In True Grit, Mattie juxtaposes most western stories that portray female characters as a “damsels in distress”; she never gave me the impression of a weak minded damsel even though she became one herself when she got captured by the gang. Mattie is mainly portrayed as a strong-willed woman with a stubborn streak who has a tendency to take matters into her own hands, and see through anything she set out to do. Throughout the story, she never went through a character development, neither in the epilogue of the story. In the book, it mentioned that after the journey she never changed her personality and never got married. This showed that Mattie did not feel obligated to take on the stereotypical role that most western female would have in that era.

The other characters reactions towards her behavior varied. The Marshal portrayed her as a stubborn girl. He treated her like a kid and tried to keep her out of the mission to keep her out of danger. However, because of Mattie’s stubbornness, she was determined to stick to the deal. Unlike the “stereotypical” western woman, Mattie’s bravery and determination separates her from the rest of the women. The Ranger had a different reaction towards Mattie’s behaviour, he found that Mattie had a strong determination and attitude that was not found amongst other women. In the Ranger’s first encounter with Mattie, he flirted with her but got shut down immediately, causing their relationship to become bitter. The Ranger was used to male dominant societies where women did not have the confidence to voice their opinions against men. However, Mattie voiced her discomfort towards the Ranger which angered him. Throughout the story the Ranger became more respectful towards Mattie and her determination. This was an unusual situation as the Ranger was not used to having women voice themselves and show courage towards men.

Influence Between Zweig and Anderson

For this blog post, I will be comparing common elements in Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig and The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. Some common elements of both works include: story form and structure, setting, plot ideas and themes.

STORY FORM AND STRUCTURE

Both the story and the film have a similar story form and structure where both are narrated as a story within a story.

SETTING

The setting of both works take place in a hotel in Europe. In Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, the setting is a small hotel on the French Riveria, similarly in the Grand Budapest Hotel, the setting is a high-class hotel.

PLOT IDEAS

Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman is a short story about a middle aged woman who talked to a stranger for three hours before fleeing with him.

The Grand Budapest Hotel’s plot revolves around the protagonist M Gustave, a wealthy concierge working at a hotel and Zero Moustafa, who works for Gustave as a Lobby boy. One day Gustave was informed about Madame D.’s death and reveals that she left him a valuable Renaissance painting which angered her family.

Both the story and the film share similar plot ideas where it was considered a taboo for women in the time period to interact with a stranger. In the short story, the woman interacts with a stranger and fled with him, and in the film, a similar idea was shown when Madame D. left her valuables to a stranger rather than her family.

THEME

One of the common theme found in both works is obsession. In Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, the idea of obsession is shown by two characters; the young man who is obsessed with gambling and the middle aged widow who finds an obsession with the man. Similarly, in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Dmitri is obsessed with his mother’s painting and belongings.

CONCLUSION

Personally, I believe that the film The Grand Budapest Hotel borrowed its ideas from the story Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman because Anderson was inspired by Zweig stories. When watching the film, I can see the presence of many of Zweig’s styles and common elements including similar story form and structure, setting, plot ideas and themes.