NOT More English Journals!!!
Journal Entry #11 ~ Frankenstein's Monster
Although we all know the main theme of Frankenstein, the stories are very diverse. The comparison of the original 1931 movie version, James Whale's Frankenstein, to Mel Brooks' spoof, Young Frankenstein, is a perfect example of this.
Even Whale's version didn't follow the book precisely. The movie depicts the monster as purely innocent and Dr. Frankenstein as the true monster by his personality. The viewer is appalled as the monster accidentally murders a little girl and is misunderstood and shunned when he tries to seek help for her. We think, oh if only that assistant hadn't tortured him with fire in his developmental stage and Frankenstein had used love instead of fear toward the creature, he might have stayed innocent instead of being chased away by his fear.
The tragedy in the book spurs deeper intellectual confrontation while the movie is more one sided. In the movie, Frankenstein only tries to capture the monster while the angry mob burns him alive in the old tower. However, in the book, the monster is depicted with evil intentions when treated poorly and when they become enemies, the monster drives Frankenstein to his death. .
Mel Brooks created a spoof of this movie by incorporating scenes that resemble the original but with a twist in the plot. For example, in the 30's version, the monster throws a little girl in the lake and accidentally drowns her when she states they had run out of flower boats to throw in. In the spoof, a little girl asks what they will throw in next when they ran out of things to throw down a well. The tension mounts because we all remember the tragedy of the original. However, the scene cuts out with apparently no harm done and the audience laughs in relief at the joke. The story of Frankenstein is such a staple in our culture that it's many versions don't subtract from it's meaning and we can even laugh at a spoof of these.
Journal Entry #12 ~ Electra's Rain
The audience gasped as the auditorium stage started raining and freezing the sopping actors. Why did the water sprinklers try to drown the stage during the final scene of MLP's presentation of Electra? This has to be the most unusual and unexpected prop usage I have ever witnessed.
The audience's first shock reaction was to gasp at the emergency fire sprinklers ruining the show. However, as the actors kept going even as they shivered, the audience began to grasp the idea that it was planned. "But why?" was on everyone's mind.
Sophocles's Electra did not include much staging and only minor props such as an urn. Water sprinklers were not included anywhere in the text or stage directions. This left MLP open for any creativity and the interpretation to back it up.
Possibly this "rain" was part of a weather motif that symbolized revenge. Thunder and lightening were incorporated during scenes that dealt with a time out of joint and revenge was mentioned or plotted. Most importantly, it is as if the heavens opened and it rained on stage right as Electra and Orestes avenged their father's murder.
In conjunction with this, I don't know if possibly Apollo was some sort of weather god but I did notice the thunder and lightening occurred when he was prayed too. If this were true and carried further, maybe he also had something to do with revenge and MLP connected this to the weather motif in their production.
Rachel Sayad discussed the unique costuming of this prodution.
Journal Entry #13 ~ Rose Van Thyn
Rose Van Thyn helped bring the Holocaust to life for Centenary students. Her story wasn't intended to be shocking and it didn't describe any gory details but the point was driven home just the same. War is horrible and the lengths people can go to in the name of hate is unimaginable to all who have not witnessed it.
Even after over half a century and tons of public speeches like this one, Rose couldn't even bring herself to describe some of the worst scenes she encountered. As painful tears filled her eyes, all she could say was after all these years the memory is still imprinted in her brain so horribly she can never talk about it.
Her stage presence showed her strength of character. All Holocaust survivors are true survivors in the largest sense. To survive concentration camps constructed for your death shows extraordinary strength of will. Many Holocaust survivors are like the world war veterans who cannot even speak of the tragedies they witnessed. Rose showed her extraordinary stature by first surviving and then bringing her life into public view.
She made us realize that these are so much more than history stories from a textbook. These people are real with real lives and real struggles. Her dignity on stage was accented by the stage set of a quaint tea table with a glass water pitcher and antique style lamp while she rested comfortably in a plush chair. She could easily have been our grandmother teaching us of her life and the tragedies caused by hate.
Journal Entry #14 ~ Maus in the Meadows
Imagery is the most vivid way of depicting world tragedies. The shock factor is much more intense when the artist's depiction of the horrifying events are viewed. Art Spiegleman uses this technique in his Maus to evoke sympathy for the Holocaust and The Hiroshima Series by Jacob Lawrence commiserates the atomic bomb attack on Japan.
Both Spiegleman and Lawrence's intentions were to portray the horrible effects of racism. Maus denigrated the irony of a Jewish Holocaust survivor being racist toward a black person. Lawrence stated of his attempt to deptic human emotion rather than a race, "My intent was to illustrate a series of events that were taking place at the moment of the dropping of the bomb…August 6, 1945…not the particular people."
Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917 and saw the effects of the World Wars first hand. His Hiroshima Series is a painting series of eight aspects of life that occurred at the time America dropped the atomic bombs on this Japanese city. This 1983 work from the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art can be viewed in Meadows Museum of Art.
The first scene, Playground, is of clearly defined forms of children playing and dancing with toys, but their faces are grotesque bone skulls and their heads are blood red. The horrifying facial expressions and coloring symbolize death and mutilation. The scene is now only a suggestion of what the children were doing.
This use of grotesque red and white skulls is a theme throughout all the paintings. In addition, Street Scene shows the abstract mutilated adult bodies collapsing in the street. In Family the human faces are turned upwards and each family member holds one hand out as if pleading, just as the persecuted Jews do in Maus. Parksuggests adults calmly seated on benches and enjoying the day. However, the face theme suggests otherwise as the empty eye sockets and mouths stare at the viewer as if asking the question, "Why?" Market shows mangled bodies collapsing and shielding their faces with one arm. Even their goods are ruined.
Man With Birds continues the lifeless bird theme that symbolizes death. Boy With Kite is the opposite of this everyday activity as the kite is laying on the ground and all the characters are looking at the sky in fear at the bomb that is about to fall out of it just as the kite did. The father has one protective arm around the boy on one level as if reassuring about the kite and on a deeper level as if protecting him from the bomb. The final scene, Farmers, is most adament in portraying the terror as they cringe and look up at the sky as if mortified. The viewer's sympathy is also evoked for these innocent people like in the children's scene. They are standing in a dirt field with rakes which suggests they were simply cultivating their land to make a living.
Both Lawrence's paintings about Hiroshima and Speigleman's cartoon, Maus, use imagery to vividly portray the emotional reaction to the tragedies of racism.
Journal Entry #15 ~ Hurly Student Recital
Once again, Hurley School of Music hosted its weekly student recital series for an audience of all its music majors and minors and non music majors who take private lessons from the school. On November 29, 2001, eight students performed for their semester recital hour credit.
Karen Dent, a Junior working toward her B.A. in Music, sang Se tu m'ami by Parisotti. Her sweet soprano voice was accompanied by Gay Gross on the piano.
Katie Haston, a Freshman double majoring in Flute Performance and Communications, played Reverie and Petite Valse by Andre Caplet. The movements of this modern piece were true to their name as the 1st was slow and mournful and the 2nd was lively like a dance. It's technical difficulty and her beautiful tone quality captivated the audience. Her accompanist, Allison Beck, did a wonderful job of following her lead in this difficult music.
Jamie Hanhke, a Sophomore in B.M Education, performed Konzer for string bass in E-Dur, Mvt. 1, by Dittersdorf. Linh Vu, her accompanist followed her well through all the technical difficulties.
Katie Fullbright, a Sophomore education major, sang Dein blaues Auge by Brahms. Her mezzo-soprano and Amy Suturdivant's beautiful accompaniment on the piano brought Brahms' lyrical music to life.
Zach Ingram, a Music major, sincerely impressed the audience with his performance of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C'Sharp Minor. This infamous composer is known for his unusually large hand span and incredibly difficult music.
Robert Neumeyer, a Junior in Interdisciplinary Studies in Commercial Music, provided a rather unusual percussion performance. His perfect sense of rhythm during Introduction and Furioso by Jared Spears held the audience's attention. Toccata for the marimba by Karen Ervin Pershing provided a much shorter and lighter ending to this rare performance.
Amy Sturdivant, a Junior double majoring in Music and English, played the most expressive piano solo I have heard on Hurly stage this year. Her insight into the "soul" of music brought the romantic feeling of Brahms' Romanze to the audience's hearts.
Katya Kargina, a Junior Piano Performance major, had the audience at the edges of their seats with A. Scriabin's Etude, Opus 42 No. 5, C# Minor. She ended the program to thunderous applause and an encore as the set fire to the keyboard with F. Listz' Etude, Wilde Jagd, C Minor.
Journal Entry #16 ~ Semester in Review
English 101 FYE stressed the connection of Literature and it's history to the modern world. The FYE events helped link the literary works to modern society and showed how human traits continue throughout the ages.
This is especially true of the light vs. dark motif that symbolizes the questions of truth and good vs. evil. The semester began with the study of The Matrix movie and Plato's The Allegory of the Cave that are centered on these questions. When we studied the Apollonian vs. Dionysian Greek culture in Euripidese' The Bacchae, the FYE events of Dr. Zeltser and the debate helped relate this to good and evil in modern life. We also linked the question of truth to Sophoclese' Electra. Shakespeare's Henry V, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and our study of the Holocaust with Art Speiglman's Maus all involve the question of right and wrong towards humanity, namely, "What is the right of one person to hold power above another," an extension of the light vs. dark motif.
The FYE journal forced each student to think in depth on these topics and show their work online in html format. The most I got from this course was learning html since I was quite computer illiterate. It took me an entire semester but now I can create an entire web page through html alone (well of course copy/pasting and "borrowing" helps a lot….hehe).
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