Week 15

Books that I would like to read in the near future...
(in no particular order)

1.  Art and Fear by David Bayles
2. Art Inc. by Lisa Congdon
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien (I've been meaning to read this one for years)
4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
5.  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
9. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (yup, still haven't read it.)

Week 14

When I do go on Facebook, I am able to scroll through the News Feed timeline, and see what others have posted about the latest trends and current event. I’ll scroll until something catches my eye, then I’ll click the link to read more about it. I usually ignore most of the posts if it’s something I have no interest in hearing about. That’s the problem. How easy it is to ignore important current events, and to watch a cute cat video instead. That’s part of the reason why Facebook can be so addicting. We are able to see what we want to see, and ignore the rest.

Week 13

http://i.giphy.com/xTk9ZMvytLICEWw9bi.gif

During the school semester, I am rarely on social media. When I do go on, let’s say Facebook, I usually ignore most of the posts. I scroll for a bit then go back to whatever I was doing. I usually ignore most of the posts about Trump. It’s usually a video of him protesting/yelling obnoxiously. I was aware who Trump was way before people started making funny memes of him. I have lived all my life 15 minutes outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since I am a resident of the area, I have heard a lot of crap about Trump and his casino.

Although I usually ignore Facebook posts about Trump, I still hear some about the latest unbelievable thing he has done. This past week, Trump mocked a reporter with a disability. Trump made fun of the reporter’s condition by jerking his arms in front of his body. This 3 second action was turned into a meme/gif. Now, it is not a meme in a traditional sense, but it is still an edited photo/video making fun of Trump. People have called his actions “low” and “despicable.” I believe the meme I have chosen has correctly shown the way some people feel about Trump, with his recent action.  

The meme is in the link below.

http://i.giphy.com/xTk9ZMvytLICEWw9bi.gif

Week 12, In-Class

My Voice

           For as long as I can remember, my voice as an artist has been cartoony. I've been drawing cartoon characters since I first started drawing at the age of three. My sketchbook from my childhood contains many drawings of animated characters. The sketchbook begins at age 6, with a drawings of characters from the Dreamworks animated film, Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. From there, there are numerous other drawings of horses and other animated characters like Snoopy, Angelina the Ballerina, Donkey from Shrek, Mickey Mouse, and many others. And I guess you could say that still applies to me this day, as I study computer animation. I have always loved lively characters, and the stories of the characters. I love fairy tales, and dreamy/cheesy romantic love stories, or stories with strong leading female characters or anything really girly and pink. I believe that my overall voice is "happy." What can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Week 12

This week I’ve chosen French director, Jacques Tati. I began watching Trafic (1971) and Playtime (1967), by the director. Though Tati only directed six films in his career as a director, his films are famous for being comedic and for Tati to be in his own film. In many of his films, including Trafic and Playtime, Tati plays the lead character, Monsieur Hulot, a socially inept man with a raincoat, umbrella and pipe.

The character M. Hulot brings a similar voice to each of his films. Since Tati has created a character that people can see in his multiple films, he has created an archetype from this character. The character is an new archetype of its own. He is a man who struggles and makes impractical decisions, but it is funny to the viewers.  
His films, Playtime and Trafic, both share the common element of automobiles. It is a theme in his movies, of technology, society, and materialism. Playtime contains the same beloved character of M.Hulot, but the film’s appearance is more cold. The film takes place in a “futuristic and modern” (for its time, 1967) suburb of Paris. I feel as though Playtime, is a bit different from his usual films, but that he tried something different.

Trafic is Tati’s last film with his character, M.Hulot. In this film, Hulot is a bumbling automobile inventor who is trying to get to Amsterdam in a vehicle that has a few issues along the way. The film gets its title because there is a lot of traffic on the road. The voice of the film is quiet and subtle. All of the gags in the film are visual gags of people acting silly. One of my favorite scenes of the traffic is this one minute sequence of the people in traffic subtly picking their nose. Each shot is a different French person sitting in their car, and their finger slowly goes up to their nose, and they look around to make sure no one is watching. Trafic is full of this very subtle, old-fashioned French humor, which leads me to believe that Tati's voice in many of his films are subtly humorous.

In-Class Writing Assessment

1. Are there any prominent symbols in the story? What are they, and how are they used?

There are prominent symbols in the story, Professor Incognito Apologizes, but they are not as obvious. I would say that Doctor Kagen is the most prominent symbol, because he is their couples therapist. He is mentioned many times because the main character’s relationship troubles he speaks of in the writing. Also, good and evil are symbols. In the world in which they exist in, the main character speaks of his evil side which he has kept hidden from her, as well as the heros who have been after him. In their world, good and evil are prominent and existing. He actually sees himself as evil.

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

I was able to connect with the story from the relationship aspect. In the short story, the character discusses how some people have multiple sides to them, and how they don’t show their other side, that they hide it from others. Three years ago I was in a relationship with a comic book artist. His father worked for DC comics, so much of his life was about comics. Comics tend to have the common theme of “good vs. evil.” The short story almost feels like it has a comic book narrative- a woman is actually dating a villain. Similar to Spiderman and Mary Jane/Gwen. Another aspect I connected to while reading this story was that the artist who I dated didn’t show me that “other side” of him. He never told me anything personal, every conversation was full of jokes and meaningless banter. Maybe he was secretly a villain? I’m kidding of course...

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

This story would make a great graphic novel. The story is almost a “villain speech,” the speech villains make before they carry out their evil plan. But this story is also an apology, and it’s very visual. In a graphic novel version of this story I would cut between Suzanne in the lab listening to his apology speech, and the moments he is apologizing for, such as, dinner with the parents, and other moments of his relationship with Suzanne. It would be interesting to visually see the moments he is referring to, especially ones like how he left her hints so that she would discover his secret lab. I could enjoy seeing him and Suzanne happy, because it’s his better, soft side. I think this would translate into a graphic novel well. 
  

Week 11

With it being the middle of the semester, I’m exhausted and I really needed to read something light-hearted and fun. I finished my reading that I started in class of the comic, Bone, Out from Boneville, by Jeff Smith. Surprisingly enough, though my elementary school had a Scholastic book fair every year, I never read one of these comics! Though, I have a very faint memory of seeing this character way back then.

The voice- or personality of an author is shown through their work. Bone is very cartoony and fun. It makes sense that Bone is the way it is because in the “about the author” paragraph in the end of this book, it says that Smith’s major influences were comics, comic books, and animated cartoons. I would describe the voice of the author to be very bouncy, and fit for cartoons. Especially in the beginning, it has many exclamation marks and words written in all capitals because of words being exclaimed loudly or with great enthusiasm. I feel as though cartoons tend to have that ‘silly’ humor where everything said is really dramatised. Also, the writing is very wordy because there is a lot of dialogue. This is also what makes it feel cartoony. In cartoons, especially in this comic, the dialogue is very literal. Examples of this are, “Hey look! I have a dollar!” or, “Say, there’s the map!” The dialogue isn’t realistic at all. It’s very simple and clear, much like the voice of a classic cartoon. 
I enjoyed reading Bone, and I like the author's voice. Bone is a fun story!