Composer, Medium, and Message

I was in a car with a friend listening to some his favorite old school jazz. He discussed the irony of a happy lilt and melody blended with lyrics about some lovers' suicide pact. The dark side of popular music, he said. I thought about it for a moment and mentioned Death Cab for Cutie's song "I'll Follow You into the Dark." The line, "If heaven and hell decide that the both are satisfied / And illuminate the "no"s on their vacancy signs / If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks / I'll follow you into the dark." It was an interesting remediation of a very human pain - the longing for connection in a big, dark world.

Professor Wexler implied that even speech itself is a form of media, our speech is a method by which a Composer creates a Message to their audience. If we are to reflect Aristole's triangle of argumentation, this assumption is clearly relevant. The Composer is the Media is the Message. An example I suggested was one's use of a personal Twitter feed. Someone may be more honest or less honest, depending on their relationship to their audience. Another student suggested that this relationship forces larger news corporations like CNN to forge those relationships over social media to remain relevant to their audience. The news is no longer in print, it's in pixels.

Discussed also were to concepts of immediacy and hypermediacy. Immediacy purposes to make the viewer forget the medium or form of delivery of the message. A news station might use a high definition photograph of a "disaster area" for a pathos pull on their audience. They might also attach hotlinks to the Red Cross to express urgency and reality. Hypermediacy forces the audience to mark the media of their message. The professor used the example of a Jackson Polluck painting; the message is subliminal to the method and format of the work itself.

This is a news article that uses hypermedia links to emphasize it's point. The use of hypermedia in everyday texts changes the linear methods of communication that written language has been structured on for centuries. It's rocking the boat of academics as far as what to teach students in the classroom. There is emphasis on "back to basics" using books, grammar, and work books further students' learning.

I think its the millennial responsibility to construct the future curriculum that bonds technology and text.

But the questions remain: Perhaps in future classrooms where we are the teachers, how do we work with the ideas immediacy, hypermediacy, and remediation so that each term is understood? How does writing on a blog affect the written text?

Apart from formatting, I don't see much departure from academic writing in blog writing. To effectively communicate one's point of view, it's still necessary to learn the skills of rhetoric and argumentation as well as ensure argumentative credibility with grammatical strength and thorough research. However, there is stronger emphasis on audience because the audience is no longer a single bored teacher reading essays, but the whole of those with access to the internet might take up parts of an argument.

Sacred Places and the Lonely Mountain

Thank you Maya and Sean for being awesome partners in our presentation of "The Mountain of the Lotus and the Fan." The poem itself seems to be a traditional Japanese hymn based on the divinity of Fuji Yama, the never-dying mountain. Mount Fuji is a fount of traditional identity of life and death, which makes it a sacred place, as Maya explained. And Sean concluded that because of the influence the myth has on identity, this creates and shapes Japanese cultural psychology. Great effort, guys. I'm proud of our work!

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For the trickster exercise: I am Scribbles d'Hobbit, the god of craft and contentment. I am willing to sacrifice wealth and power for simplicity and peace. Easily bribed by food and wine.

Myth leaks into the Modern

Queen Elsa and Princess Anna in Frozen

I was preparing an entirely separate post regarding this, but I stumbled upon an idea that tickled my fancy more. In English 495, we were told to find a myth that had hidden itself in modern storytelling, with an emphasis on film and television. My Tumblr dashboard actually brought this modern parallel to my attention: the two sisters in Disney's newest animated film, Frozen, were said to reflect this generation's modern myth, the brothers Thor and Loki in Disney/Marvel's two films based on the comic book franchise. 

Thor and Loki are already myth retold, as myth regenerates for each new audience over time. The original Loki and Thor were part of the Norse pantheon, though they were not siblings like in the Marvel universe. Loki and Thor were often at odds with one another, Loki being the Western epitome of the Trickster figure in mythology.

Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth as Loki and Thor

In the Marvel age (now), Loki is Thor's adopted brother who, at the discovery of the adoption, loses a sense of identity while at the same time discovers his new scope of powers. He is the son of Frost Giants, with blue skin and ability to manipulate ice among other magical abilities. 

This ice ability and identity crisis are similar to the story that Disney Animation Studios decided to tell when they chose to adapt Hans Christian Andersen's beloved fairytale of "The Snow Queen." Like Marvel's Thor, Princess Anna tries multiple times to reconcile a tense relationship with ice-sister Queen Elsa.

In metaphor, it could be said that the ice-sibling represents the isolation of a suppressed identity. 

In Tumblr speak, this parallel calls for a fun costume change!

Art by Brianna Garcia

Revelations

I enjoyed today's Poetry Slam in English 495. I am thoroughly impressed by my classmates' skills with words. We found out that many of us regularly practice the craft of writing poetry, and even those who proclaimed to be amateur showed the most raw talent.

I am glad that the class as a whole took the assignment very seriously and found places within themselves to produce something more than shallow rhyme and rhythm. Jedi Jordan even brought a guitar to sing his lyrical parody poem as a song.

Lauren Bristol's "She Was There" poignantly struck my heart. The poem itself almost reads like a short story, were it not for the breaking off of phrases and the rhythmic meter. In her reading, I felt the most emotion as she read these lines:

          Tick.

          Tock.

          It was almost as if death was tapping his toe, saying

          I

          Am

          Wai-

          Ting.

          If you’re going to be here, hovering over her every breath,

          Don’t be a tool about it.

Maybe it's because this was literally me two months ago in the weeks before my father passed away. Ms. Bristol's choice to break syllables into their own lines to reflect the ticking of a clock was a very strong choice; it emphasizes the helpless battle to stop time, stop Death itself.

And, Lauren, girl, I feel you. Death's a douche.

I made the choice to not give commentary during the reading on the two poems I wrote. I feel like a well-written poem needs no explanation or should leave room enough for the reader to make the poem their own. I really hope that my words spoke for themselves.

I have No Words

I have no words for grief

I have some words for happy:
          Joyous
               Gay
                   Exuberant

But I have no words for...

I have some words for sing:
          Chant
               Trill
                    Croon

But I have no words...

I have some words for hunger
          Starved
               Empty
                     Cavernous

But I have none...
         I have nothing...
                     I am empty without you.

Sea and Shore

The breaker caresses the curve of the sandy shore
He swallows her whole then recedes, only to consume her again
Peaceful, they are together
Two shapes that fit the other
But he wears her away, gutting into her hollows
The oncoming storm

Creative Writing Class Exercise

I. Alliteration and Assonance - 10 words close in sound relation

1. Modest Mouse

2. Cool Cat

3. Dumb Dog

4. Insistent Inquiry

5. Aggravated Assault

6. Quirky work

7. Tacky Jacket

8. Lovely Lace

9. Oncoming Storm

10. Holy Roller

II. Metaphors/similes for life - List of 10 real-life events, but said in a different way
1. Conception - You are the result of the joining of stardust.

2. Birth - The slimy emergence from the dark cave.

3. First word - Her cry for momma was more like a monkey’s screech.

4. First Step - She made her panda’s wobble across the floor.

5. First Day of School - Abandoned for a journey into the big unknown.

6. Driving Lessons - Free as an awkward, fledgling newly kicked from the nest...

7. First Job - indentured servitude

8. Being in Love - head over heels

9. Breaking friendship - I lost my arm or a chunk of my heart.

10. Loss of parent/mentor - I am an empty shell, washed, worn and left on the beach.

III. Lyrics and Musicality - Find a song, a catchy song; re-write the lyrics but stick to the rhythm and meter. Off-topic from the original idea.

Re Write of Ellie Goulding’s “Burn”

“Cake”

When, when I’ve got a sweet tooth craving

I start the oven, and I bring out some sugar for icing

They, they gonna see us from outer space, outer space

Light it up, because we’re going to bake a cake, cake

You get the eggs and the flour and get ready to stir

Milk, salt, and vanilla and some chocolate powder
And it’s easiest with an electric mixer

'Cause we’re baking cake, cake, cake

Yeah we’re baking cake, cake, cake

Don’tcha let it burn, burn, burn, burn

We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn

Don’tcha let it burn, burn, burn, burn

We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn