Blog #7 (another late one, sorry :/)

Well for last weeks class meeting we were suppose to read Romantic Comedy Chapter 4 and also read from the Cultural Studies book. I wasn't able to show up for class on tuesday due to the two finals i was having on that day, so I had to study for them and unfortunately miss English. These were difficult finals but due to the sacrifice of the english class, I believe I was able to pass. I read the chapter from Romantic Comedy that would be dealt in the class discussion of that day, but i will talk about it here in a little bit. I would also like to explain my sudden disappearance from class on thursday. It all started in the morning when I was getting ready to go to school, when I went to take my daily pee I realized I had the curse! So I knew my day would be ruined. I made it through my lab class at 8:00 am but when I came to English class, I could feel the familiar monthly pains seeping through that just make me want to kill myself already (It really sucks to be a girl!) It was already almost 11:30 and I was sweating like a tortured pig, my head was about to burst and with all the power I could muster held in the churning vomit that was about to mess up the professors floor. The pain was unbearable, the pain in my abdomen area. I dislike leaving class in the middle of a lecture but my bladder couldn't hold it any longer so I went to relieve myself but I was still in unbearable pain I just couldn't hold in so I went back to class and left early, and for that I apologize. I appreciate that the professor isn't too difficult with piles of homework and assignments, so my absence from two class lectures is hopefully not a drastic hit on my grade.

Now for the Romantic Comedy! Chapter 4 was about the Neo-traditional Romantic Comedy genre, which adopt more conservative and traditional ending, where the couple in the end somehow reconcile just in time before the films end kind of like in the movie the Wedding Singer, where the girl is on a plane leaving with her fiancé to get married in Las Vegas but the guy goes to the airport and buys a plane ticket to Las Vegas in hopes of stopping the wedding, but what he doesn't know is that the girl is on the plane so he sings a song to her through the speakers and then walks in front of the girl and finishes the song for her. Her bad fiancé is locked into the toiletry and the two true lovers make up and end up together in the last scene of the movie. That's very lucky it would seem, and very unrealistic, but that's part of the Neo-traditional appeal. This genre gets it's references from romantic dramas, not the good old screwball or sex comedies of the past. The neo-traditional romantic comedy genre is the current dominant form of romantic comedy. The definition of the neo-traditional romcom is "it reasserts the old boy meets, loses, regains girl structure, emphasizing the couple will be heterosexual, will form a lasting relationship, and that their story will end as soon as they do so. Examples of the neo-traditional romcoms are Kate and Leopold, You've Got Mail, How to Lose a Guy in Ten days, and many more. Some characteristics of the neo-traditional romcoms are: a backlash against the ideologies of the radical film alongside a maintenance of it's visual surfaces, a mood of imprecise nostalgia, a more vague self-referentialism, and a de-emphasizing of sex. The setting of most of these neo-traditional romcoms are in the city, usually new york city to be exact. These popular films of modern times are not a advancement in the romantic comedy genre, but more of a step back, re-iterating the past views on love. But people like it so for now, this current form of Romantic comedy genre will retain its domination.

The Response paper

Katherine Alvarez
Eng 313 Tu, Thu. 11:00am
Professor Wexler
10/14/10

Response Paper

If love wasn’t complicated already, what would it be like with time traveling thrown in the mix? If you haven’t guessed it already, I will be reflecting on a novel I enjoyed very much due to it’s original story line and it’s take on the subject of love; it’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. What is more radical than having a husband that time travels and trying to keep a stable relationship with a man that literally vanishes from your life in unpredictable patterns and comes back randomly? This is definately not your typical love story. What ever happened to the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back storyline observable in almost every traditional Romantic movie out there? That is exactly what makes this novel radically exhilarating, with an unconventional twist.

The book focuses mostly on themes dealing with love, loss, marriage, and time of course. It is a victory of love over time. As impossible as that may sound, through all the hardships and pains the two protagonists of the story endure, they still have the deepest emotional attachments to one another, something rarely accomplished in real life. The divorce rate in America is higher than 50% (marriage101.org) , which is astoundingly high, making you wonder, “where did the love go?”. Are people less in love in contemporary America, or are they forgetting what love is? How can Henry and Clare keep their marriage going for so long even with Henry’s genetic disorder to time travel, and how can their love stay strong and endure that type of distance away from each other? They are not like most couples. What keeps them united is the fact that they have known each other most of their lives, almost like childhood friends. They are connected through the past, present, and future and know absolutely everything about each other. When modern couples meet or date, they are meeting for the first time, its hard to see what that person is truly like, so they make opinions based on first impressions, while their flaws are inconspicuous in the beginning. Henry tells Clare “That’s what I love you for: your inability to perceive my hideous flaws.” In his perspective he believes Clare is blind to his flaws, but perhaps it’s that she loves him regardless of those flaws. This is an unconventional love with an unconventional ending even though they do end up staying together like most Sex comedy movie genres that end with a happy ending(McDonald, “Romantic Comedy and Genre” Chp. 3). But The Time Traveler’s Wife explores life after marriage unlike the Sex comedies of the mid century. They have problems conceiving a child, and and Clare has to live with a disabled husband after he suffers hypothermia and both his feet are amputated. The radical part of the story is that regardless of everything they go through, they stay together, when any other modern couple would probably end up in divorce, and even after Henry’s death Clare never finds another partner because she knows she will never find another Henry. He’s the only man she ever loved.

The book does not deal with any political, racial, class or even gender issues so it’s difficult to try and connect it to other readings or movies. The main theme of the book is love and time, a love incomparable to most works of literature. It may not be as radical as Romeo and Juliet killing themselves for love, but the love that Henry and Clare share is timeless, even after death. Clare tells her friend Gomez “I can reach into [Henry] and touch time...he loves me.” Due to Henry's tangible love for Clare she finds time to be just as tangible to her, like she’s living the past and future in the present with the man she loves. Time and waiting are always an issue in the book, “Its hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay. it’s hard to be the one who stays.” There is a strong motif dealing with the hardship of distance and waiting for the one you love to come back. In the movie “Dear John” waiting is also an issue, she has to wait for John for years to come back while he’s at war, but the difference is the female love interest leaves John for another man. She couldn’t deal with the pain of waiting, watching time pass every day, every hour, every minute. It was too painful for her to stay and to endure the anxiety of waiting. Clare had the will to endure, through better or for worse she endured. If that isn’t radical I don’t know what is! That is true, passionate love! Unlike most Romantic movies in the past and present. That is what makes this novel exceptional. The theme of love, and human emotion is portrayed in a deep, passionate and emotional level.

The novel is radical because they don’t have a preconceived happily ever after type of ending most people expect, but the test of their love in real life with real and unconventional problems and hardships never diminished the love they felt for one another. Their love stood the test of time, through good and bad, something rarely accomplished nowadays. Their love feels real and true. They were never perfect and could never be perfect, but the love they had was the only sure thing in their lives.

Works Cited

"Divorce Rates in America." Marriage 101. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. .

Niffenegger, Audrey. The Time Traveler’s Wife. San Francisco, CA: McAdam/Cage, 2003.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Naperville, IL: Source MediaFusion, 2005. Print.

McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. "Chp. 3 Sex Comedy." Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. London: Wallflower, 2007. Print.

Dear John. Dir. Lassee Hallstrom. Perf. Channing Tatum Amanda Seyfried. Warner Bros., 2010. DVD.

blog #6

Well last week wasn't the best of weeks for me, (sighing while typing on the blog) I had written some mighty fine notes that I truly regret not directing, because I even had philosophical questions!! (okay okay, only one was philosophical) but it was a thought provoking question i thought even the teacher would enjoy...Since I didn't get the chance to say anything i wanted to say in front of the class i will type up my potential presentation here so the professor will see how it was suppose to come out:

----When Sula is alive her presence in the community of the Bottom makes all the residents live harmoniously with one another.

===>Ex. Wives with their husbands

===> Mothers with children (ex. Teapots mom treats him better due to her hate for Sula)

===> How families treat their old people

-----------The harmony of the town quickly dies out after Sula's death

Question 1: How does the community define Sula after her return to the Bottom? What is ironic about their attitude toward her?

---------The community defines her as the personification of evil. As their animosity and hatred toward her grow, they impose meaning on random occurrences. They need to do so in order to solidify their definition of her as an evil person. Their hatred of Sula reflects their sexism. A man like Ajax can sleep with whomever he chooses without being condemned. Their horror at Sula's consensual affairs with white men reflects the extent to which racial segregation defines their lives and psychology. Ironically, the community's labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Although the community regards her as an evil person, her return to the Bottom is actually a blessing in disguise.

Question 2: Why do you think that everyone in the community have a strong sense of animosity/hate for Sula Peace but not for her mother Hannah or her grandmother Eva when they all lived unconventional lives?

-----------Sula breaks social convention by putting Eva in a nursing home, having an affair with her best friend's husband, having multiple affairs with other women's husbands, and even her consensual affairs with white men made the animosity of the town grow to the point of seeing her as an evil being without morality.her unpredictable behavior frightened the already suspicious community of the Bottom. In order to understand their fear, they labeled Sula as "evil". Like Eva, they impose order on her influence by retroactively imposing connections on seemingly unrelated events (ex. the "plague of robins" becomes an evil omen of her return) Eva and Hannah were not considered to be serious threats to the social fabric (same as Shadrack) whereas the entire community, including Eva considered Sula a threat.

Question 3:What have been some instances or events in society that people have been viewed as relatively negative or bad but have had some implicitly good consequences like with Sula on the Community of Bottom? (I wont answer this question)

Question 4: Without having bad people or bad things happen in our society, how will people be able to define what is good? How do people define themselves as "good" if there was no "evil"?

Not too bad right?? I really wish things had come out differently, I'm a disappointment onto myself who might not make it in life due to this fear of public speaking, my hands shake, my face turns red like a tomato, my body is nervous, my words come out choppy, and I stutter and say "UMMM" a lot(which I hate about myself). Sometimes I wish i could just kill my self for being such an embarrassment to society. I just don't fit in, no matter how much I would like to, it's hard, it's just so damn hard...but still when things are looking down on me, when I feel like a failure I can't give up either, I need to stay in this game of Chess, I need to keep going no matter how easy it would be to just quit. Life isn't easy, I know that, but I have to stick in there for as long as I can muster. The professor is cool and has taught me to see aspects of life a little more different, and there sure is more to learn! I won't give up! :')

Group Write up

Well everyone in the group did an excellent job! They all had great ideas and presented their parts so well! Everyone e-mailed each other and their binary partners to make sure we all had the cat in the bag, everyone spoke well about their own individual parts, except for myself who still isn't the best of public speakers to exist but I still hope that won't ruin my grade in the class. I would have preferred writing a paper instead since I'm capable of expressing my ideas better in writing than through speech. As an overall group I believe we were all more than adequate, I just hope my own part doesn't mess up the grade of all the others. They were all engaged and highly interested in all the themes in the book, which made the presentation a lot more interesting.

blog #5 (a little late but still here)

well lets see here, last week of class we were learning more about the RomCom genre of movies, and the professor showed us some scenes from "The graduate" and another movie called "10" . The Graduate is considered to be a radical romantic comedy, not the story line entirely but the very last scene of the movie when the two lovers have a look of unease, it's not your typical "happy ending" you'd expect from the average sappy chick flick. That very look in the end of the movie breaks all barriers of RomCom norms! I found it exhilarating! finally a movie that seems more like real life! Not those fantasy love stories that are just as mythical as the theory of Evolution! The story is nice and interesting, but without an ounce of realistic endeavor! Just that look at the end changed the course of Romantic comedies forever! (If u haven't seen the movie, i would recommend watching that last scene ;p) What will we do now? Where will we live? How will we survive? YES! Not typical at all from other lovey dovey movies! There was no fairy tale ending, with a "they lived happily ever after" moment.

For the movie "10" the story is very different from The Graduate, the main character George Webber becomes obsessed with this beautiful woman he only sees once where she is obviously going to her own wedding, but Webber through fixation follows her to the wedding, and ends up following her to her honeymoon where he saves her husbands life and while Webber is making love to her, her husband calls her and when they are on the phone she tells him she is with George, but the husband has no concern or any sign of jealousy. She explains their open relationship and mutual honesty which Webber finds appalling and due to his initial thought of their rendezvous being of "forbidden pleasure" his obsession fizzles out just as quickly as it came. This is another great example of a radical type of romance. here's a fan-made clip i found on youtube if you'de like to see a little of their story and meeting:

Out of topic, but this week I will be presenting with my group on the novel Sula on Thursday, I'm very bad at presentations, so wish me luck! :o

blog #4

in class we had to read the book Romantic Comedy: boy meets girl meets genre. it was quite an interesting read, and let me see those types of movies in a different light that I would not have thought of before. I actually have never been the biggest fan of romantic comedy movies, they are not very exciting for me, even though i'm a girl and should be into those types of movies. The "chick flick" is just not for me. In movies almost anything is possible like rising from rags to riches, thats the work ethic portrayed in movies sometimes, like when the poor woman or man end up getting the rich woman or man in the end. Traditional romantic comedies have the same or similar type of narrative: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Those types of movies have always been very unrealistic, they portray a false soul mate phenomena where if you do certain things like buy things (many things) to try and make yourself appealing in order to find love. Traditional romantic comedies focus much subtle attention to advertising, commodities, consumption, selling products, etc. In every movie, the man and woman dress their best when they go on dates, spend a lot to go out, their homes or apartments are generously luxurious with so much glamor and high tech gadgets surrounding the place, with the best phones, laptops, I-pods, stereo surround sound, dimming lights, etc. Movies are always advertising consumption, and they always try and tell you that buying this or having certain types of goods will get you closer to achieving love. even marriage is an industry, almost everything is hung by corporate strings, even love. Have you ever heard of an inexpensive wedding? probably not, right? There's the wedding cost or reception, flowers, food, rings, clothes like the dress and tuxedo. Everything. In order for the capitalist society to work or take hold it relies on monogamy, or heterosexual marriage. That is how they make a lot of money. Corporations use Romantic comedies to advertise what they want the masses to purchase. The way that romantic comedies show a couple that just met and about to go on a date, they must do so much to look their best like buy a new dress, tuxedo, shoes, accessories, make-up, hair gel/ shampoo/ hairspray, perfume, etc. But that's not even it! Going on the date is even more! Paying for a fancy dinner, entertainment and anything else that's going to be done on the date.

For our thursday class we were suppose to read chapter 3 of the Romantic comedy, but let me talk about chapter 2 first. In chapter 2 they focus on the screwball comedy that does not follow the traditional boy meets girl format. The screwball comedy was popular during the 30's where the couple in the movies we're already each others adversaries or equals, where they make fun, hit each other, scheme, and fight with each other, but they always have an intimate relationship, unlike the sex comedies of the 50's that do not focus on that, but more the woman's abstinence or willingness to withhold sex before marriage. Screwball comedies usually start with a "meet cute" where the couple meet in a cute way like they're about to reach out for the same merchandise at the same time. Screwball comedies also do a lot of mistaken identity and cross-dressing. The couple is very hostile with each other but they usually end up together in the end. The Sex comedy came about due to three events in time, (1) Playboy magazine introduced the urbane purchasing persona for men, like the "bachelor pad" or "lair", (2) the movie The Moon is Blue in challenging the PCA's strict movie making codes by freely discussing sexual topics in films more frankly, and (3) Alfred Kinsey's report on the Sexual Behavior in the Human Female which announced, much to the publics surprise, that women actually had sexual desires and impulses just like men. These three reasons led to the creation of the Sex comedy genre. I read the chapter about sex comedy but I didn't attend class that day so I wasn't able to watch any movie clips that day and won't be able to discuss them in my blog, but i will be attending class this coming tuesday September 28. I'm actually a little bit nervous because I will be presenting on the book Sula the next week on October 7, Thursday; I have never been good at presentations, so this one will not be an exception. I will take diligent notes this coming week and blog about the results or what I've learned next weekend. Thank you for reading!

Ethnography

Ethnography
Eng 313, 11:00am
9/21/10

Well just through observation there is a clear distinction between every human being, always something physically that makes them different than another. When it comes to different races, people always believe them to look like one another, like “all Asians look alike” but that’s not necessarily true. They may have similar characteristics in basic features but there’s always something that distinguishes one from the other. The observation spot that i chose was at the Glendale Galleria food court, where many people go. In my opinion the area where the most people gather at the mall is the food court. It’s always full. Food seems to be a significant way for humans to interact with one another. No wonder there are so many holidays that focus more on the sharing and making of food than anything else. There are several families, sometimes lacking a mother or father figure to make a complete pack (perhaps due to work or un-involvement or disinterest). There are several teenagers all around usually with friends, never alone. Going to the mall is never fun when alone, so attachment to peers is common and reasonable. No one seems to be alone at the food court today, it’s not like there frequently is that type of phenomena. It’s a basic fact that no one in this planet like to be alone, unless that certain individual lacks social interaction, or is mentally ill somehow. But most people with sense clearly do not like being alone. I have seen a few couples pass by, not as many as I might have thought to roam around the mall, but some are holding hands but there are also those serious indifferent looking couples that don’t even seem to like each other, but are merely together just so they won’t be alone in this world. I have seen several of those types of couples. Perhaps they were in a fight or they haven’t been having the best of days, I cannot be too sure of that. I can personally put myself in that position because I have also been “that” serious couple that isn’t talking to my significant other, just walking looking ahead with apathy in my face. I can never tell what another human being is thinking, but maybe they are happy but just don’t show it. Humans are extremely emotional beings but somehow our society makes it difficult to convey that aspect of our deep down selves.

There were various ethnically different people at the Glendale food court from Asians, whites, a particularly high percentage of Hispanics, very few African Americans, and the rare Indian person. There are several branches of every ethnicity but it’s cumbersome and very difficult to actually know what specific ethnicity someone belongs to, so large groups of various people are categorized and stereotyped into easy to remember titles. Most people seem to express usually a couple of emotions and expressions like being happy, nonchalant, young teens with parents always look bored with their parents, while in contrast older teenagers look happy with freedom when around their own friends, probably because they have more in common with their peers than their parents. Most of the people at the mall seem to be middle class people. All or most are in appropriate going out garments, not many eccentric people, everyone looks fairly normal from their outer exteriors. But you never know what is under the hidden interior, just like in the film American psycho where Patrick had a disturbing way of thinking that he did not portray in his exterior.

Like I said before, everyone at the mall do not seem particularly fond of being alone. No one likes to be a loner, and I know too well what loneliness feels like, and it is definitely not a walk in the park. Like it says in the book “Cultural Studies by Chris Barker, we are people that live with an ideology of consumption. People seem to define themselves best by how they present themselves physically, by what they wear, or what brands they must have in order to fit into the society they belong to. One common brand of clothing I observed people wear were Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, Aeropostale, Gap, American eagle, and so on. I can tell what brands they wear by the company logos they advertise on their clothing. People nowadays love to look good, they like spending money to have new clothes, perfume, cosmetics, shoes, hair care and accessories. Consumption or capitalism is part of the American identity or more its ideology, because when the media and government try to influence the masses and throw advertising at them at every corner in every place they go its difficult to actually say no, especially when everyone else is jumping the bridge. The modern people, regardless of race or gender, have a common ideology of consumerism.

Why are people so keen on pleasing society? The rules that it has set on the masses? My opinion is (like I have mentioned before) is the fear of human loneliness. That fear of being alone makes people want to please others, to fit in, and not be seen as “others” or different somehow, or unacceptable. It is a lot more challenging for colored people to have a slice of acceptance from society so it is usually those people that must assimilate to the standards of a white supremacist land in order to “fit in”. The white powerful leaders are the ones who have dictated every aspect of our society and the rules and regulations that people must follow. Marxists always believed that whoever has power has control over society, the rich and powerful are the ones who decide what kinds of products are produced, imported, what important events in history get published in History books, what speech or words the masses use to communicate have certain meanings or value. All of us like in a pre-existing world with no say in what rules would be established in our society, so in the book Cultural Studies, what Barker says is that people do not have a true self identity, no matter how much we believe we do or know ourselves, our “identities” are always adapting to our current situations, environments, people interactions, it is never set or absolute. We are all layered selves, no true self. We are all mere products of capitalism.

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