musiclove12

So I told you what you might want to know about writing for college, but maybe after a year (or 2…) of college-level English you might want to have learned a few more things.

You should realize that things are not always what you expect. I expected to write a lot more formal papers, but it turns out that you’re more often expected to do things you haven’t done before. Instead of coming into a class believing that all you’ll do is formal analysis papers, keep an open mind and maybe you’ll be more ready for all the new types of media and projects that’ll come your way.

I also hope that you’ll take advantage of every opportunity. College is no fun (both classes, and college life in general) if you don’t put your full effort into everything. You might miss out on something that could be very enjoyable, or you might just waste your time doing an assignment that you only spend 20 minutes on and don’t get anything out of.

I guess what I’m saying is, even if everything is not as you expect, make the most out of it!

What I expect from a movie poster:

I expect that a poster will be visually interesting to look at, which will ultimately show me something about the movie, or a reason I should go see it. I think it should be persuasive through the graphics that it utilizes, instead of by using language to persuade me. I think a movie poster should jump out at me, either with bright colors, an exciting picture, or with some sort of a cohesive theme that is visually appealing. I guess I don’t expect much out of a poster except that it will be interesting to view and persuasive in some way.

What might work as an image for the play I’m promoting:

I think the image that I would choose for Team 3′s play would have to convey some sort of drama, but also a sense of hope. Even though the girl was bullied, she ended up in a positive situation, so the graphic would have to be at least a little bit positive. I would like to include some visual of money, or of material things as well, considering that it played a role in the play, but I need to figure out how to do this in a creative way. The colors will need to be mostly subdued so that it doesn’t get too comedy-like, but I want to use a shade of yellow (as I discussed in a previous post) so that I can convey money and caution.

If there was a color that fit best with team 3′s play (about the snobby rich girls, and plain Sarah Smith who knew how to spend money wisely), I feel that it would be yellow.

The obvious reason: the play was partly about money and how children can be judged based on wealth, which can affect them later in life. Yellow is a very money-ish color; it reminds me of gold. It’s shiny and bright.

Perhaps a less obvious but still valuable reason that I would pick a shade of yellow is that it symbolizes caution (or slow, maybe, if referring to a traffic light). In the end of their play, the rich girls were working in lower-level jobs, and were poor because they wasted their money in frivolous ways. The previously poor girl was now wealthy because she lived her life, and spent her money, intelligently. The yellow could serve as a caution color, as in, be cautious with how you live your life and how you judge others.

I also felt that it was an interesting story and a fun play to watch, and yellow is typically a more exciting color.

I could use this color in my project by incorporating it into my poster in some way. I might also find an image to post into the custom header box which includes the color yellow in an interesting way.

“Life takes VISA”

explicit metaphor: Life is a store.

tenor: life

vehicle: store

associative realm: malls, boutiques, shopping centers/districts

vehicle associations: expensive, fancy, frivolous, fun, material possesions, materialistic, shopping sprees, lots of people, sales people, money

highlighted meanings:

• Life is all about money. 
• In life, you have to spend money.
• VISA makes spending money easier.

masked meanings:

• People in our society are so frivolous and materialistic that they need credit cards to keep up with all of their spending. 

Dangers:

• People are then pressured to use credit cards and to spend money more freely which could lead to spending unwisely. If “life takes VISA,” why would you ever use another form of money?
• VISA may not have the best rates or the best plan for everyone and this implies that VISA is the only card that you can use in most places.

Explicit metaphor: You’re special like a falling star.

Tenor: a woman and her unique qualities (if looking only at this metaphor the subject could also be male, I’m just basing this off the rest of the song)

Vehicle: a falling star                                                  

Associative Realms: sky/atmosphere

Vehicle Associations: rare, shiny, beautiful, special, once-in-a-lifetime, valuable, unique, incredible, shocking, hopeful

Meanings highlighted:

                You’re rare and unique.

                You’re incredibly special.

                You’re very beautiful.

                You give me hope.

                You’re a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity/relationship.

Meanings masked:

                Although some people/relationships are common and nothing very special, sometimes someone can come along who is more right for you. A falling star is something incredibly unique, rare and beautiful, and by calling someone a falling star, it implies that they are the right one for you.

1.       Consider the significance of the associations

The associations are powerful because (other than shocking maybe), they are all adjectives a woman would want to her herself described as. It is significant for this song because it drives home the singer’s point that this woman is everything to him.

2.       Consider how effective it is—is there a better metaphor?

I can’t honestly think of a better metaphor. I believe that this metaphor may be simple, but it is powerful for reasons listed above. I would not change it if the goal is to keep it simple. Personally, I believe it is very effective as a metaphor for a woman. It gives her great qualities as well as describing a deepness of feeling for her.

Both of these metaphors are from the song “Everything” by Michael Buble. The entire song is basically a string of metaphors, but I’ll just pick two from the first verse. Here are the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaelbuble/everything.html

In the first verse, he lists out things that his girlfriend/wife/whoever is to him, but they are each metaphors. The person is not literally a falling star, a getaway car, or a swimming pool on an August day, but those things represent qualities that she possesses to him. These are not examples of how metaphors are usually used in songs and poems, where the artist/author will use more of an extended style, making one comparison and sticking to it. This is more of a listing style in order to demonstrate more than one quality in this person.

• fluffy
• soft
• delicate
• large
• wispy
• white, gray, black
• swirling
• moist, wet
• ominous
• happy
• shapeless
• far away
• fleeting
• floating
• dreamy
• stormy
• scary
• hopeful
• heavenly

While each team that we have seen so far has performed incredibly well, I would like to write this review about Team 3. I feel that they had a great end product. Their plot and issue was well thought out and it was executed with a lot of style. I especially liked this group’s play because they took the time to not only write an interesting story, but also to use props and practice enough to understand each character. One thing that made this group stand out from the others was the acting. While I am not a theater/drama expert by any stretch of the imagination, I think we all appreciated the obvious extra effort to “get into character” and truly act out the play in a believable way. I especially enjoyed the rich bully girls and their conversations. The conversations written for them brought out their characters in a way that showed us what they were like instead of telling us of their frivolous ideas of money. I also felt that the topic was one that is very relevant to all of us both in our childhood and as adults. Especially at Miami University, I feel that we all come into contact with this issue of how much money means to our lives and the ideas about spending money wisely when we see the students of different economic backgrounds around us. Overall, I would say that this group stands out to me because of how well they did!

I really like the ideas that we talked about in class on Monday. We discussed the idea of a child who is either in an ethnic or religious minority and who faces difficulties with their peers in school and with the rest of society. I love the idea that they would then try to join an activity or participate in something that they think would make them more “normal” in other childrens’ eyes.

More specifically, I think it would be great if we could try to find a scenario that is different enough from the two texts we have just finished reading. I think the story should be less about her peers teasing him/her and more about the inner battles he/she faces.  Maybe we could have a story of maybe a middle school or high school age girl who comes from Mexico or another South American country. She has just moved into a predominantly white upper middle class community that does not have much diversity. I feel that there are a lot of stereotypes about latino people (especially Mexicans) that could be explored. I guess she would have to know English (for purposes of acting out the play), but would have to still deal with the cultural barriers she faces. She could try to fit in with her peers by auditioning to be a cheerleader or to be on some sort of sports team (something that would seem “popular”), but would face difficulties with the white girls on the team as well as with their parents. The girl’s parents/family would not be supportive of her and instead encourage her to spend more time at home helping around the house or to just focus on her studies.

I think it might also be interesting to explore a religion scenario, maybe a religion that isn’t so well-known, or one not discussed at great length. On that topic, a character who has a common view such as Christianity or Atheism could be featured if the play was set in a community of the opposite nature (i.e. an atheist who moves to a very religious school district, and needs to show the other students that they still deserve respect nomatter their views). The problem with a scenario like this would be finding a way to act it out and a way to portray it without being too controversial.

….I think I like the first scenario better….

One topic that has had me thinking while reading both The Elephant Man and Autobiography of a Face is the subject of coping mechanisms. It’s really interesting to me that both of the protagonists in these real-life stories have developed interesting ways of dealing with their unusual situations.

John Merrick was constantly dreaming and analyzing the world around him. I immediately thought that his deep insights on Romeo and Julietand his appreciation for life in general were astonishing. I suppose that intelligence isn’t really a mechanism but his way of using it could be seen as something he has developed in order to deal with his harsh life. Lucy Grealy also had ways of dealing with her troubles. Her love for horses and her decision in chapter 8 to become as great of a person as possible were interesting ways of overcoming. I was intrigued by how she so calmly decided that it was her purpose to find beauty and love in the world around her since she felt she would never find romantic love.

I feel that because of these great examples and the interest I have in them, it could be a great possible play topic. We could explore a different kind of coping mechanism, maybe one that’s a little bit more unique. This could go in plenty of directions depending on which way the play’s protagonist would choose to deal with a difficult situation. It would also change depending on what sort of obstacle the character has to overcome as well.  

Another topic might include exploring how our conceptions of ourselves are shaped by what we perceive by other people. In a sociology class I took last year, we discussed this topic and how people act when they are more self-aware, or self-conscious. It’s the idea that we develop the way we think to see how we are through other people’s eyes, and we then adjust our personalities based on what we believe others see. I feel that the topic of who we really are vs. who we see ourselves as could be one to explore. I feel that if I find these topics interesting, maybe a play based on them would be interesting to others.