Week 10: Anime

To be honest this class had a lot more potential with this topic. Anime is such a huge part of my life and is so detrimental to the shaping of who I am as a person that when I sat down and watched those shows, which weren't bad by the way I felt like anime was undersold to the rest of the class especially to people who aren't well versed in it. The discussion got turned into yet another platform for talking about sexual inequalities and inappropriate behavior. Anime to me is much more than that, just like any other form of art it has it’s moral issues. We never discussed how we as a generation of artists are heavily influenced by it and how it influences modern animation and media in the present. The western world is completely saturated with heavy eastern influences and it’s crazy that we never discussed the immense scope of anime. We never discussed Tezuka, Toriyama, Otomo, the influence Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon had on every littlee boy or girl growing up, late night Toonami, Shonen Jump Comics, Pokemon or even the evolution of western animation with shows like Avatar. I could go on and on about this I was just a bit disappointed and hope that the next time it’s given proper treatment. 

Week 8: Disney

Growing up Disney was always a big part of my life…I know,everyone at this school probably says that but hear me out here. I knew what an animator was from a very early childhood because my uncle was an animator at Walt Disney and so my family was completely overwhelmed with Disney and I of course too wanted to work for Disney…naturally. I loved the movies as a child and so did my sisters but as I grew older I found myself losing interest in Disney. My uncle was let go in the early two thousands along with many others 2D animators from Disney and went through some hard times because of it. After that the company deteriorated in quality for me and left a bad taste in my mouth. I still have my favorites: Aladdin, Lion King, Robin Hood, Lilo and Stitch. But if I had to pick a favorite I would have to chose Fantasia. Why Fantasia? I think it’s the most beautiful and straightforward piece of american animation I have ever watched and it still holds up, it’s animated beautifully and imaginatively. It holds an energy no other Disney film has for me.

Weeks 6 and 7: Hipster

The term hipster can be described very specifically, a quick google search might give you a definition like this one: 

“The hipster subculture typically consists of white millennials living in urban areas.The subculture has been described as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior" and is broadly associated with indie and alternative music, a varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility (including vintage and thrift store-bought clothes), generally progressive political views, organic and artisanal foods, and alternative lifestyles. Hipsters are typically described as affluent or middle class young Bohemians who reside in gentrifying neighborhoods.”

For as much as people want to argue that “hipster” is a solely millennial counter culture if you look a little harder you can actually find that groups of people with the same alternative views within their modern society can actually be dated back to a lot of groups of creative people in the 1940’s. The term “hipster” (regardless of it’s similarities to its predecessors in definition) is used quite liberally in our vocabulary and that’s what makes it unique. I find that very interesting because in a world of easy access to most knowledge with the click of a button or a swipe of a screen and an exposure to almost everything in pop culture it’s becoming harder to pinpoint a counter culture, to be able to define it because almost everyone is part of that “counter culture” by default, everyones in the loop. It’s funny that hipster is often used as an insult because…it really doesn’t make sense, how can you make fun of someone for liking something else? Your labeling someone as the opposite of you because you don't share the same interests but in turn it makes you their own negative hipster. Quite funny.

Week 5: Thoughts on Palo Alto

I read most of Palo Alto by James Franco and watched the Gia Coppola film and…it was …interesting. Flawed? yes. Poorly written? Yes, at times but for the most part I related to the stories. Growing up right here in Sarasota, Fl especially through high school I’ve met more than a couple of equivalent people that are written about in Franco’s book. Yes for as much as you don't want to believe it these people exist. Drunk, pill popping, cigarette smoking, privileged white children that hate their parents exist. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a plethora of them so to me what was more interesting than reading the book and watching the movie was hearing my classmates response to the content. Not on the quality of the book…yes it was bad…we know, but the debate on weather the characters in the book were believable or not. Yes they are real.

Week 3: Writing New Mythologies

Like I’ve said before I’m very wary with Fantasy novels and prefer to read fiction primarily the ones that end within one book. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin actually surprised me though although a bit complicated with all its characters…who all have ridiculously long and “foreign” names it managed to keep me interested. The beginning was great but after a while I started losing interest, let me tell you why:

There was a lot of talking in this book, which makes sense it’s in first person after all and for the most part Jemisin wrote beautifully. She did a great job at describing her character and immense world and did a great job at selling the realism of her world but saturated the narrative with dialogue... that's basically all there was. For a book whose title suggests a vast and epic scope, the entire narrative for the most part takes place within a single area. We are constantly told how decadent and twisted the inhabitants of the castle Sky are, but we see very little evidence of that. We are also told constantly how powerful and alien the gods are compared to the “humans,” but in the actuality they don't really differ much, maybe its a harken back to Greek and Roman mythology but I don’t know that kind of upset me a bit. I did enjoy the main character Yeine, she was not your typical heroine. This all seems very critical, but I did really enjoy the first couple of chapters in the book I just tired of it after a while.

Week 2: The Road to Oz

I unfortunately was a bit late to class on this day and missed out on the writing assignment so in stead I am choosing to talk about the world building within the land of Oz.

I’ve always known who Dorothy Gale was, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, I understood the “ignore the man behind the curtain!” reference yet I’ve never read a single Oz book nor have I completed the film. The Wonder Wizard of Oz has become a big part of modern day pop culture and for a good reason, Baum gave us a world not to hard to grasp but allowed millions of children to expand their imagination, he created a simple, fun and believable world. To me, when a story becomes that ubiquitous, it moves out of the realm of being a “really great kids’ book” and moves into the realm of folklore, myth, and legend. I think this is exactly what Baum had hoped would happen.

Week 1: Veronica Roth's Divergent

Let me start of by letting you know that I am not a fan of the book and will definitely not waste my time watching the movie if it is anything near what the novel was. I’m usually very iffy about reading through most fantasy novels of this kind simply because at best they are a shell of a novel, I had the same issue with the Hunger Games series I personally think that these books are meant to be read by someone with a low reading level, way over hyped especially if a movie is in the works and when read by me lack the proper amount of depth to keep me interested. 

Beatrice our main character lives in a fictional Chicago where everyone is divided up into six groups or factions. These groups all have their own predictable attributes: The Abnegation (selfless people), Dauntless (brave people), Erudite (intelligent people), Amity (friendly people), Candor (honest people), and the Factionless. When a child reaches sixteen, they must take a test that will tell them what faction they belong to, but still get to pick the faction they prefer. Pretty simple and straight forward right? Ugh. 

On top of having one of the most predictable and basic narrative structure I’ve ever read in a book…ever, Roth insults me by failing to properly build her own world. One would assume Roth would give us the basics, what is the economy like in this world? Roth doesn't bother telling us that. So what event led to the formation of the factions in this world? Roth tells us they were formed by different people who believed those were the most important traits, but never why…come on. No weather disasters or even a description of the present one at that. No nuclear war. Not even civil war. Famine. Genocide. Nothing. Why is Lake Michigan a marsh? Not only that, but based on its location why aren't other surrounding cities a factor, how? Maybe I'm over thinking a bit but it proves my point. Divergent is totally void of any proper world building. I've seen more world building on the side of a cereal box. This is no dystopia, you cant just tell me a world is “post-apocalyptic” with no conflict or oppression and just expect me to believe it. On top of the lack of information about the factions, some of the weakest and blandest protagonists I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting I the reader am told almost nothing about this “society” Roth has created for me…yeah no thanks.