Selections
Here, I will be posting my favorite pieces that I have written week by week. I will discuss why I feel these pieces are my strongest, or how they demonstrate my creative process and growth as a writer.
In Neil Gaiman’s story, Snow, Glass, Apples, expectations within the horror genre are both satisfied and manipulated to highlight the tension between the female main characters and to create an overall disturbing tone. Gaiman’s twisted take on the classic story of Snow White leaves the reader feeling ultimately bothered and shocked, and this is done through manipulating horror genre expectations. I will discuss the various subversions and fulfillments of the horror genre in this story in order to demonstrate the feminine contrast between the queen and Snow White. The queen is the ultimate submissive feminine character, whereas Snow White is the manipulative and authoritative feminine character. There are two major feminine extremes between the main characters, and there truly is no balance between one or the other.
Throughout the story various aspects of horror are satisfied in order to extenuate the feminine contrast between the queen and Snow White. Snow White, even as a child, can be said to have the qualities of Noel Carroll’s art-horror monster and is described thoroughly by the queen to be monstrous. Her pale skin, black eyes, red lips, and sharp yellow teeth are all indications of her physical monstrosity, or what makes her impure. She is also described to be utterly threatening, as she is said to quite literally suck the blood from both the queen and her own father in the most perverted of ways. This expectation of the horror monster within the horror genre is satisfied constantly through the descriptions of the threatening and impure Snow White, and further proves my point that she is the extreme and terrifying feminine character in contrast to the submissive, feminine queen. Another satisfied expectation of the horror genre within the story is the continuous violence, horror, and disturbing nature of the acts committed by Snow White as a monster. These disturbing acts both satisfy a horror genre expectation but also prove my point that although she is monstrous, she is still somewhat feminine in a twisted way. Sucking the blood out of her own father’s “manhood” and allowing men in the forest to pay her for sex and then sucking the blood out of them is utterly terrifying and monstrous, but her sex appeal and overall perverted lust is what allows her to posses feminine characteristics. In contrast to these fulfillments within the horror genre, there are also subversions that shape the tone, tension, and extreme contrasting feminine characters. For example, creating Snow White to be the monster and the queen to be the heroine is contrary to what their roles have been previously assumed to be in this classic story. This was done in part to extenuate the true evil nature within Snow White that is completely unexpected, and to highlight the queen’s true weak nature.. Another subversion from the horror genre is the continuous sexual references and how sexually submissive the queen is. It is normally not common in horror to mention love and lust so often, but it works well as it highlights the extreme feminine characteristics within the queen. Her in depth description of the king as her lover, and constantly being called for sex by her king and even the prince towards the end of the story is a massive contrast to Snow White, who takes charge in every situation and is never not in control. These horror genre subversions and fulfillments have created a narrative that is unexpected and extreme. Snow White as a dominating feminine character and the queen as a feeble feminine character is the ultimate contrast, as both characters are on opposite ends of the feminine spectrum. This creates an ultimately complex and shocking story in order to evoke a sense of questioning from the audience as to whether or not a balance truly exists between weak and commanding females. ----------------------------------------- This piece is extremely important to me because I remember writing it after I wrote the first draft of my RA paper, and looking back at it I wish I had wrote this before hand because it is filled with specific examples and claims that are much stronger than those in my RA first draft. Yes, the first draft was something to be proud of, but in all honesty it was not strong enough to be considered persuasive or even compelling, and it's pieces like this and going back to revise that make me come to these epiphanies. In this response, I effectively use examples from the text and clear, concise claims to support my main argument. This wasn't a "stream of consciousness" type response. I feel that it has some sort of structure and organization, which is something I need to work on in terms of effectiveness of my writing. I also liked the claim I made about the contrast between weak and commanding females, and can say that I am very proud of this piece and it's effectiveness as a rhetorical argument.
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“‘But… but did you see their faces when they…they killed?’ Her smile was thin and withdrawn. ‘Did you ever see your face,’ she asked, ‘when you killed?’ She patted his brow with the cloth. ‘I saw it-remember? It was frightening. And you weren’t even killing then, you were just chasing me.’” (Matheson 157). “She reached up quickly and unbuttoned her blouse. Reaching under her brassiere, she took out a tiny packet and pressed it into his right palm. ‘It’s all I can do, Robert,’ she whispered, ‘to make it easier. I warned you, I told you to go.’ Her voice broke a little….Ruth bent over him and her cool lips pressed on his. ‘You’ll be with her soon,” she murmured hastily. Then she straightened up, her lips pressed together tightly. She buttoned the two top buttons of her blouse.” (Matheson 158). ——————————————-- In this passage from Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, the reader comes to understand through construed genre expectations that Neville as a character is actually the monster or anti hero of the story. These genre expectations that assist in characterizing Neville also assist in creating the cultural context of this situation. This passage can easily be said to be playing upon modern day anxieties and fears with foreign nations. Neville in this case can be said to be the enemy, while Ruth can be observed to be the forgiving and empathetic participant in which Matheson is encouraging everyone to take after during a time in which almost all countries are being extremely hostile and unforgiving, such as the United States with North Korea or even with the middle east. This push for empathy from Matheson is timeless in the way that it was applicable during the 1950’s when the book was published, as WWII had just ended and the cold war had just begun. In an interview with Matheson talking about the context of the novel, he states “I don’t believe that the young woman who provided him with the poison regarded him as a monster, merely as a total anomaly in the new society” (Matheson). This quote from his interview demonstrates how much of a compassionate character Ruth is, contrary to the common assumption that because she is a vampire, she is inherently evil. The action of unbuttoning her blouse and taking the pill out of her bra doesn’t have a sexual connotation, but instead an intimate connotation. Even though Neville has murdered her husband and others like her, she extends this token of forgiveness to him regardless. It’s an action of compassion and empathy; she recognizes how much he is hurting and how he has been outed from his previously familiar world. It’s an attempt by Matheson to encourage us in a tense, nuclear age to practice empathy and kindness towards those that have wronged us, though it may not be our first inclination. Viewing Neville as the “other” and Ruth as the good and pure in this situation is contrary to what we would normally believe their characters to represent. However if you closely examine the text it’s clear that, based off of Noel Carroll’s description of the horror monster, Neville in fact embodies a monster almost to a tee. He is threatening in the way that he murders every vampire without even thinking anymore, even the living ones. He is also an extraordinary character in the now ordinary world in which vampires are the new society and he is truly the “other”; in this way he is also impure. In Matheson’s interview he deliberately notes that Ruth felt bad for Neville, and viewed him as an “anomaly in the new society” (Matheson). His claim not only backs up my argument for the cultural context, in which Ruth represents an empathetic and forgiving country in a time of turmoil, but it also backs up my claim that Neville really is the outcast by the end of the story. Even though Neville is by definition, the monster now, Matheson still wants us to feel for him because he only turned into this monster as a result of his will to survive. In his interview he directly states “He was trying to survive, no more. It was an irony that, in the end, he had become the legend, the feared one” (Matheson). Ruth’s character was ultimately created as a complement to Neville’s to teach us a timeless lesson about empathy in times that seem essentially unforgivable, such as in our current stance right now with countries such as North Korea and the middle east. After examining the evidence, my interpretation of Neville as the monster or anti hero based off of common genre expectations of the horror monster truly could not exist without a connection to some sort of relevant cultural context, in which Ruth embodied. Works Cited "Richard Matheson Interview." Interview by David Brown and John Scoleri. I Am Legend Archive. N.p., 2001. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. Carroll, Noël. "The Nature of Horror." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46.1 (1987): 51-59. Web. Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. N.p.: Gold Medal, 1954. Print. ----------------------------------- Because this was the only thing we wrote on our own this week, it was the only piece that I had to choose from. However, even if I had wrote 100 different pieces, I still would have chosen this as my selection for week 4 for various reasons. This set an awesome foundation for my upcoming RA paper. I have some awesome ideas and a lot to work with from here on out, and if I just work on organization with my ideas and paragraphs, the paper itself should turn out great. I personally am really proud of myself for being able to write on such a complex subject. It was hard for me at first to tie in cultural context and genre, but after a lot of contemplation (and I mean ALOT), it ended up turning out really well. Although this piece can use a lot of work, I chose this because it's a great example of the first steps of my writing process and i'm excited to see what the final product will look like. THESIS:
In Kirstoffer Aaron Morgan’s short film No Way Out, the monster that utterly destroyed the protagonist was, ironically, the protagonist’s own mind, in which it was represented by both threatening creatures and his literal brain to depict how he truly could not escape his own mentality without paying the ultimate price. —————————- TOPIC SENTENCES: -The literal creatures, though simply extensions of the protagonist’s mind, are still considered to represent and be apart of the monster itself based off of Carroll’s definition of the art-horror monster: because of how legitimately threatening and impure they are. -The actions of each of the extensions of the real monster represent the pain and suffering that the protagonist’s mentality truly caused him -The setting in which each series of events took place in stood as a metaphor for the how the protagonist’s mind metaphorically and literally trapped him and pushed him past the breaking point. -The protagonist’s final action of brutally and slowly removing his physical brain from his head is a representation of his separation and ultimate escape from the monster that was his mind, and Morgan utilized this moment to relay a universal message concerning the very real issue of mental health and how it drives so many people utterly mad; to the point where death is the only way to escape. —————————- As stated in my final topic sentence, what I took from this short film was that Morgan was trying to shed light on how not only those with mental health issues feel day by day, but ultimately how the mind can drive essentially anyone to insanity. By physically representing this pain through bloody imagery, repulsive monsters, and a brutal and slow suicide by the protagonist, he successfully demonstrates that the mind is perhaps the most unseen, threatening, and impure monster that could have ever been created, not only in the world of Horror but in the real world as well. ------------------------------------------------- Considering how abstract and complex the short film "No Way Out" really is, I was surprised and proud of myself for being able to create a response as organized as this one. As much as I absolutely hated watching the film, it did have a lot of hidden messages that required me to dig deep and analyze it in a way that I'm not used to. I believe my topic sentences were concise and addressed each area of the film, and my claim about the film was not generic, but it was interesting and able to be investigated. I liked this process of writing a thesis, then all of the topic sentences following. I could definitely see myself writing a paper about this film and believe that this response was a great way to organize my ideas effectively. In Reznor’s performance of the song, Hurt, the themes of rebirth and suffering are most prominently shown through visual imagery in an attempt to demonstrate how suffering is essential for the growth and rebirth of humankind. It’s clear that suffering is one of the main themes, as the song itself is titled Hurt, and lyrics such as “I hurt myself today to see if I still feel” or “full of broken thoughts I cannot repair” correlate with dark, black and white imagery of dead bodies, and more specifically the dead bodies of soldiers and children in poverty. This performance is much more focused on the suffering of others in dire situations more than on the artist himself, which is contrary to what the lyrics suggest. It is the imagery of soldiers and children dying during the performance that give the song and the theme of suffering an entirely new meaning than if he were to just perform the song without such direct and intense visuals. This was done in part to draw the attention away from the artist’s suffering and bring awareness to others around the world who are suffering much more than Reznor, or humankind in general. As the music begins to pick up, the imagery of the snake staring directly into the audience is displayed for a generous amount of time, as if the snake is challenging the audience to begin looking at other’s suffering that is perhaps more important that theirs. The images begin to speed up, and in the midst of explosions, soldiers, and children in poverty, there are instances of rebirth. These include plants dying and coming back to life, as well as a fox, that is decaying at both the beginning and end of the video; yet slowly, towards the end of the song, the fox is assembled back together, making the video come full circle. These instances of rebirth suggest that one must die, or be hurt, to truly live a full life. The performance as a whole is suggesting that suffering is apart of the natural course of life, and those who have experienced suffering to it’s fullest extent, as in war or in poverty, can truly appreciate life for all it is and has to offer once their suffering has ceased.
Johnny Cash’s rendition of Hurt portrays an entirely new meaning to the song in comparison to Reznor’s performance, as Cash’s performance exemplifies the idea that The American Dream is nothing more than that; a dream or a fantasy. Images of Cash in his prime contrast with him in his old age, somberly looking back on his life. The clips of his old museum, now closed down, as well as a shattered gold record of his reiterates the idea that being famous eventually ends, and that nobody can live this life forever. Lyrics such as “What have I become” and “Everyone I know goes away in the end” correlate with images such as Cash sitting at a table full of fine foods and seeming utterly dissatisfied, as well as pictures of loved ones who have more than likely gone from his life during his period of fame, such as his wife and even his mother. However, the two performances do mirror each other in displaying themes of loss and suffering. More specifically in Cash’s performance, he displays these themes through direct visuals of those he has actually lost in his life, and how truly alone he is now in his old age. The idea that the American Dream is really nothing to aspire to was extremely pronounced in Cash’s performance because it was something he experienced personally, just as the ideas in Reznor’s performance were important enough to him to create such strong and direct imagery in order to get his message across to his audience. When comparing the two performances, it’s easy to say that Reznor’s performance was much more emotionally compelling than Cash’s. Reznor’s, being a live performance seemed much more authentic and emotional than Cash’s rehearsed and scripted music video. Reznor’s visuals were also much more intense and I admired them in the way that they called the audience’s attention to issues that are much greater than their own. Cash’s was an extremely surface level performance and had a very basic idea to get across. If Cash’s performance were to be live, it might have been a little more compelling, however Reznor’s live performance still would have beat out Cash’s on the basis of emotional appeal and authenticity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I chose the revised version of my response to Reznor's and Cash's videos because I felt that having another set of eyes look at my response and critique it really helped it improve in a way that I would have never seen. It's easy to get trapped in my own head when I start writing and doing a peer review was a great way for me to get out of my writing bubble and see things from somebody else's perspective. Although it's not exactly where I want it to be, it is definitely much better than my first draft and every time I come back to it I find more things that I can work on. This response in particular was definitely the strongest piece I have written thus far because I feel that I did a good job at being more direct and to the point with my writing. That is something I have always had to work on, and there are still pieces of this that can be more direct, but for the most part I did a much better job with this than with past writings. I feel much more comfortable with rhetorical analysis than I do with creative writing, so that's probably another reason why this piece was much stronger than my others this past week. |
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