An Embarrassed Baby

This baby is totally outraged.

One more thing about The Tomkins Institute:  they have videos of babies experiencing different emotions.  The one for shame is of a baby having a bath, and it's amazing:  you can tell that the baby is feeling shame.  The video starts with the baby looking sad, and either the mother or the other woman in the room says he looks depressed.  They laugh about that, and then the baby hunches over and looks down.  He stays this way for the rest of the video.  It is kind of funny, but I wished they would stop laughing, because I think the baby thought they were laughing at him and he kept hunching over more as they went on laughing, so much that at one point one of the women becomes a bit concerned that the little boy is going to put his head in the bathwater.  
The baby is rescued by his father, who doesn't laugh.  He talks to the baby in a very sympathetic tone.
This baby has already started using the withdrawal script to deal with shame events.  I'll talk more about what I've found on script theory in another post as soon as possible. 

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Starting my research blog

English: A panorama of a research room taken at the New York Public Library with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L IS. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome to my research blog for my English 102 class.  I’m a first-year student at a community college that I’m not going to name because I just had a lesson in why you shouldn’t name names (more about that later).  I did okay in 101 (I think the prof liked my grammar more than my writing; he went on and on about how he appreciated not having to mark a lot of mistakes.  But he didn’t have much to say about WHAT I wrote.  He did ask on one paper that I try not to use so many parentheticals.  I guess he had a point.).

Anyway, this term I’m going to be writing a research paper, and the materials I got on Blackboard make it sound as though this is a much bigger deal than I expected.  I mean, I’ve done research papers before, and they got good grades. 

I’m already over my 100 words, and I still haven’t said much about myself.  I’ll save that for my next post.  

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It's a Shame about . . .

SHAME (Photo credit: BlueRobot)

I got a phone call from a machine yesterday telling me that all our campuses would be closed today because of the weather (-45 wind chills!), which seemed great at the time, but now I'm kind of sorry I'm at home.  And I'm kind of embarrassed about that.  Snow days are supposed to be fun, aren't they?  Somehow, when you've been stuck at home a lot because of the weather, it loses its appeal. 

Anyway, this week I'm supposed to be writing about my "critical approach," shame theory, and I've actually read the notes on it that the prof put up on Blackboard (we were going to get hard copies today, but that will have to wait for Wednesday, assuming the weather improves).  So far, the most interesting thing about shame, to me, at least, is how shame works as a kind of social control.  If the people around you think that something is shameful (like wanting to be at school, for example), then you try to avoid doing it (in this case, by not expressing your preference for being at school).  It seems like a good explanation for how peer pressure works, and it also covers the entire plot of my film, The Four Feathers.

Now, I'm thinking about how random my example is-- I mean, why should that be shameful?  Is that something the film is saying, too?  Do the characters around Harry Faversham think that what he does is shameful for no good reason?  Does he agree with them?  I guess I've got a lot of questions.  I just hope that means I'll have a lot of material when it comes time to write the research paper. 

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I Don't Wanna . . .

screeches and whines (Photo credit: Lettuce.)

I have the whole week off from school this week (but I still have to work -- especially on Friday.  I hate working retail), and, after a weekend where I accomplished exactly nothing, I'm facing facts.

Fact number 1 (just in the order it occurs to me, not ranked as to importance):  I have 5, yes, 5 projects to finish before the end of next week, and the thought of working on them makes my head hurt.

Fact number 2:  If I don't keep up with my coursework, I'll probably be stuck working retail forever.  (Hey, Dr. Toffee, you'll be pleased to know that I know that this is a slippery slope logical fallacy)

Fact number 3:  Somehow, I have managed to wind up having no money again, just when Christmas is coming and there's a lot of stuff I want to do (movies, parties, etc.) besides buying gifts.

Fact number 4:  Thanksgiving is coming at me like an out-of-control steamroller.  If I could have moved into my own place by now, I could just show up at Mom's on Thursday, eat my turkey, help with the dishes, and go home.  But because I live at Mom's, I'm responsible for a bunch of time-consuming chores that nobody will notice unless I don't do them.  Really, I guess that even though I want to help out, what I want more is not to have to help out.

Conclusion:  I am selfish, self-indulgent, and lazy.

However, as you can see, I am writing this post, so I am working on one of my projects, finally, which means that I have crawled out of my lair and started to face reality.  

But I still don't wanna. 

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The Last Neo-Mythology Characteristics

English: This image outlines the basic path of the monomyth, or "Hero's Journey". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been so busy (and grossed out over the mouse, which is still missing) that I almost forgot to finish my model explanation.  So, the third characteristic is that the story using existing mythology is new:  new plot, new hero(es).  This is sort of self-explanatory, isn't it?  Some films that fit into this category have more new aspects than others, but I'm not going to rule any out on this basis. 
The fourth requirement is that the setting must be at least partly in the current reality.  Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief  has Mt. Olympus at the top of the Empire State Building and the entrance to Hades via the Hollywood sign, both of which are instantly recognizable to most people on the planet, I would guess.  Of course, this definitely rules out Tolkein, but I think that's very reasonable.  Yes, it's a new (20th century) mythology, but as for genre, it's traditional fantasy.
And lastly, number 5 is that it must be a quest.  I'd almost have to say that this would rule out the Twilight movies, since I can't see anything like a hero's journey (I can't even see a hero!) in them, but I don't want to argue about it, so if anybody wants to take it on, they're getting a free pass from me.
And that's that.  

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And Then There's the Gladiator Genre

Gladiator fights at "Brot und Spiele", Germany's biggest Roman festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everytime I think I'm starting to get a handle on things, I come across a new source that forces me to rethink everything I thought I had resolved.  This time, it's my mom.  I was talking to her yesterday about how much work this is turning out to be, and she wanted to know all about it.  When I told her about my neo-mythology idea, she said, "you mean like gladiator movies?"  Aargh!  So, I had to ask what that meant, and I'll just summarize her explanation.

Gladiator movies, according to Mom, were all over the place in the '50s and '60s, especially at drive-ins and on late-night television.  The hero was obviously a bodybuilder and was usually dressed in a way that exposed his chest and most of his legs.  He always won his fights through his superior strength, and you could never remember the storyline afterwards.

This sounds to me like what they call pepla, and I'll have more to say about that next time.

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Sword and Sandal, Neo-Mythology, and Percy Jackson, Part 2

עברית: Biblical Sandal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

continuing from the last post

I know I can't use Wikipedia as a source in my literature review, but it had a really interesting entry on sword and sandal films, not to mention a whole lot of discussion on their Talk page, where the contributors hash out any problems with the entries.  Based on what I read there, it looks like you really can't call Percy Jackson/ Lightning Thief  a sword-and-sandal movie, mostly because it has high production values and isn't Italian.  That sounds crazy, I know, but if you read the Wikipedia entry, it'll make sense.  So, I've decided to go with Neo-mythology, which was mentioned in the entry as having been coined as a term by an Italian film director, Vittorio Cottafavi, who apparently just didn't like "sword and sandal" (I don't blame him, because it does sound kind of low rent).

All this led me to my proposal for the project.  What I'm proposing is to establish neo-mythology as a subgenre of action/adventure, based on PJI.  I need to find scholarly sources on the sword-and-sandal genre so that I can compare and contrast, and my research question is "Is Percy Jackson and the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief a sword-and-sandal film?"  I'm going to argue that while it fits a lot of the criteria for s-and-s, it's something different.

I turned it in on Thursday, and I've got my fingers crossed.

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Sword and Sandal, Neo-Mythology, and Percy Jackson, Part 1

English: The Jules Verne Festival launch in
Los Angeles, October 2006.
L-R: Ray Harryhausen, Harrison Ford,
 Malcolm McDowell, Jane Goodall,
James Cameron, George Lucas.
Front: Jules Verne Festival founders
Jean-Christophe Jeauffre and Frédéric
Dieudonné. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been thinking so much about my project that I completely forgot to post last week, but I should be making up for that in the next few days; in fact, I have to split my entry for today into two posts (it's just too long).  It all started with a talk I had with my dad.  He asked what I was working on, and for a minute, it was like I was back in the third grade -- what he really wanted to know was if I needed help with my homework.  And, just like back in the day, he came through for me.  He reminded me of when he took my sister Rebbie and me to see Jason and the Argonauts at some really weird theater when we were kids.  It was part of some film group's -- I don't know what to call it; not a festival, but like a special program or something.  Anyway, he said that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (from now on, I'm gonna abbreviate that to PJI) made him think of Ray Harryhausen (and I'm not going to get into who he is/was, so if you don't know, follow the link), who is apparently a favorite of his, which is why he took us to see Jason and the Argonauts. 
What I remembered about the movie was the fight with the skeletons and the scene with the harpies-- and I think the harpies are what made Dad see a connection.  In PJI, there is a scene near the beginning where a fury attacks Percy in a museum, kind of like the harpies in JATA.  So, I asked him what genre he thought JATA was, and he said that he thinks it's called "sword and sandal."  Based on that, I started doing some web searching (mainly to get terms to use for searching later in scholarly databases), and that's where I'll leave it for now.   

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New Semester, Same Old Textbook Sticker Shock

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fall term started Monday, and I'm already having anxiety issues.  I've been saving up to try and get out of my parents' house, but my books made a HUGE dent in my bank account.  My English prof says that we can use the old editions of the books for her class, so I just saved $120 right there, and I'm trying to focus on that, because if I think about the others I'll start crying.
So anyway, I've looked over my assignment package for the class, and that's why I'm posting today-- Project 1 is this blog!  We're supposed to have it done by next Thursday, but I have this morning free, and I thought I'd get it out of the way.  According to the assignment, the purpose is "To record and share your thinking as your research project progresses," which sounds easy . . . and makes me suspicious.  Where's the catch? 
 
This first entry is supposed to be me discussing my film and approach choices for my research project.  Since I haven't even had 24 hours to think about it yet, I can't say I'm committed to anything so far, but I do have a few ideas.  One thing I've noticed lately is that there are a lot of what I think of as teenagers-save-the-world-while-adults-do-nothing movies, and, now that I think about that, it's kind of strange.  Some of them are about dystopias (like The Hunger Games) and others are about hidden societies, like in the Harry Potter films.  Looking at the list of films and approaches, I guess I'm thinking of genre criticism, and the movie I'd like to use is Percy Jackson & the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief.  I'll check to see if that's okay.

One down, nineteen to go!

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New Ideas for the Research Project

Bilbo writing There and Back Again in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring; note subtitle "A Hobbit's Tale" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes, I know I've fallen behind, so you can expect to see several entries in the near future.  I've been working on my literature review, mainly focussing on hero archetypes, and I think I've reached the point where it's not going to get any better.  Therefore, I'm moving on to the research paper itself, and I just got some more ideas by watching The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey yesterday.  There's an interesting contrast between its overall story and that of The Fellowship of the Ring when it comes to the makeup of the band of questers in each.  The guys in The Hobbit are NOT all heroes, unlike the fellowship members.

Once I noticed that, I started having some self-discussion (am I inventing that term?) about what the difference means, which led me to some other thoughts about what exactly makes the FOTR guys heroes that The Hobbit's characters lack.  And I'll talk about that next time.

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It's Semester Break: "Dr. Toffee" takes over for a while

Image via WikipediaSummer term has ended, and Rhonda actually managed to get almost everything done.  As you can tell from her postings, she stalled out on her journal.  If you're a teacher, this won't surprise you; if you aren't, it probably seems strange.  The research journal, at least in my classes, is an ungraded assignment.  This means that all that matters is quantity.  The students are free to discuss their projects and problems without worrying about the quality of their writing hurting their grade.  It's worth 10-15% of their course grade, and it is possible to get full credit even if you are a lousy writer:  all you have to do is submit the maximum number of entries.  You'd think that all of them would be sure to max out on this, since it often means the difference between passing and not passing, but the truth is that around a third of each section (class) turns in the minimum or less.  Even more strange is that some of these students are actually very good writers, suggesting that it would be easier for them to keep the journal up to date, but they don't care, I guess, and this often brings them down an entire letter grade for the course.
What a waste!
The flipside of this situation is that those who do max out their journals usually make comments in them near the end about how much having to do the journal helped them keep on track and think through what they were trying to do with their projects.  And this is true for students across the board.

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Woe is me!

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I'm way behind.  Worse yet, Lisa is ahead -- I don't know how she does it, but I do know one thing that helped her.  Unlike most of us in the class, she didn't screw up on the first essay.  I have to have a fresh revision for Monday.  It's almost done.  I still haven't finished my library research strategy exercise (that was supposed to be posted to the course discussion on Wednesday (2/24), but I did go over to the library and pick up my two interlibrary loans, before they got sent back and I got a $5 fine (I'll talk about those books next time, when I've looked them over).

I can't get over how much time this takes-- it's way more work than the first first-year comp class, even though there isn't as much actual writing.  I got a few good comments from the peer review on my research proposal, but I think I'm going to try to make it to Dr. Toffee's office hours before Thursday (it's due on Friday).

I've checked, and all of my journal entries so far are a lot more than the minimum 100-word requirement.  That should count for something, shouldn't it?  Not according to the assignment sheet.