ALEX.FERGUSON

12/5: What is a short story? Class wrap up

In my eyes there are many things that can make a short story here is a short (obvious) list:

• minimal character development
• shorter than a novel 
• use of anecdotes as character development (portraying characters as fairy tale characters so the reader already has an idea about their behavior and personality) 
• minimal description of the setting
• small easy to understand plot

Short stories can be appealing to many but a turn off to many readers at the same time. Throughout the semester we read a number of collections in which the stories would end very abruptly and as a reader you would hope that there would be a continuation of the story when you turned the page. At the same time these are the characteristics that make short stories so great! Short stories allow the reader to use their imagination and think of what could happen next in the story, some people even use this an outlet to create and continue these stories. 

11/19: The Myth of Thanksgiving

The myth of Thanksgiving is the controversy of every United States schoolchild being taught that Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate the survival of the puritans in Plymoth. However the real story of Thanksgiving is one of vast murder of the indigenous people of Massachusetts, and the rest of the United States for that matter. 

Every elementary student learns that the Pilgrims invited their indian friends to a huge feast to give thanks to God for their survival of the European invasion. They planned to give thanks because God had protected them and championed them to survive the horrible invasion. They thought to invite their indian friends because they had been so helpful during their first year in New England. 

The real story of Thanksgiving involves the Pilgrims and the residents of the Plymoth colony killing in a mass murder fashion all of the native americans that had helped them over the last year. 

Many people question why the American public still celebrates this holiday because there is so much literature and fact backing up the fact that the pilgrims killed all of the indians. 

11/9: Being Elmo - Documentary vs. Feature Film

This documentary is one of my favorite documentaries of all time. Before transferring to URI I was a film major, so there are very few documentaries that I have not seen at this point. I guess I should also mention that I am a huge Elmo fan. I have every Tickle Me Elmo that has ever been made, I have a 6 foot tall Elmo stuffed animal that chills in my room, I have a Holiday Elmo that says my name… you name it I have it. Kevin Clash truly has an amazing story, talk about coming from nothing and making it huge. A kid with a dream and that came true. 

There are many ways to document somebodies story, whether it is through text, song, movie, or documentary you are always telling a story. I prefer documentary style films when telling stories of people’s lives and success. In a documentary you are able to hear first person accounts about whomever the documentary is following. It is unscripted and there is something fabulous to be said for that, you as a viewer are able to feel the emotions of the individuals on camera, as opposed to scripted feelings in feature films. 

In Being Elmo the makers of the documentary were able to interview a number of different celebrities and important people in Kevin’s life. These individuals were simply talking about how great Kevin is and how they changed his life. There are some moments that cannot be scripted and documentaries always capture those moments. In Being Elmo there are some really raw moments when as a viewer you almost begin to cry, when Kevin works with children from the Make A Wish foundation, I found myself tearing up. Something so significant like a TV puppet can be a child’s dying wish, and this documentary was able to capture that moment, unscripted, unplanned, just pure raw human emotion. With documentary style films it is much easier to move the story along because you are able to pick and choose which clips to use and which to discard. When making a feature film you need to follow the script or else you lose chunks of the story. 

I enjoyed watching this documentary again. Kevin’s story is truly special. Elmo has really changed the world, the muppet that is so special to so many different groups of people across the globe. I love Elmo and I love this film. 

The End of the Straight and Narrow

Throughout the stories in The End of the Straight and Narrow the reader is overwhelmed with the amount of religion in the stories. You also see a lot of examples of hardship and families overcoming those hardships. 

In the first story: Moonland on Fire a family is separated by divorce, the children in the family are forced to choose parental sides. The father Gary remarries, Ronda, who is extremely religious, and they move to California. Gary’s son, Nolan, comes to the live with them for the summer. Ronda claims that Nolan reminds her of her deceased husband. Gary’s daughters despise Ronda and do not wish to spend the summer with her and their father because they feel as though that Ronda is trying to force religion on them. The daughters despise her constant need for prayer, but in the end of the story Ronda’s prayers saved their whole family from a devastating forest fire. 

I personally found these stories very hard to get through because of the amount of religion and prayer used throughout the stories. These stories were not favorite. 

Landslide

My whole world was taken away in a few short days, one weekend, that is all it takes for your life to be taken away from you, the earth simply moved in a certain way that caused my life to be washed away.

It was Daniel’s birthday weekend and we had made plans to drive up the coast and visit the vineyards, something we had always wanted to do together. I took the weekend off from the campaign trail to devote all my time to Daniel. Friday afternoon after the press conference we hoped in our SUV and headed north for our weekend together.

Daniel made a mix tape of his favorite songs that reminded him of when we were still dating in college. Thinking about those years now seems like it was just yesterday. The four hour drive gave me plenty of time to reflect on the years that we have spent together, our beautiful wedding, and what a great husband he has become by supporting me fully in my political endeavors.

Halfway through our drive on of my favorite Counting Crows came blaring through our new car speakers. “A long December and there’s reason to believe that maybe this year will better than the last…” All I could think at this point was soon the campaign will be over and I can go back to my daily Chief of Staff duties and the senator will be back in Washington. I will finally have my husband back instead of crappy coffee and dull sandwiches on the campaign trail.

When we arrived at the vineyard we were shown to our gorgeous suite, apparently Daniel had gone behind my back and upgraded our room, it’s the little things that make me love him even more.

Daniel and I decided to take a walk that afternoon around the vineyard. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous, rolling hills and a continuous ocean breeze from the pacific. I hadn’t felt that happy in a very long time. After our adventure we walked back down the hill to the vineyard for dinner. When we walked into the restaurant at the vineyard I was surprised by my entire family, Daniels family as well.

Daniel hugs me harder than ever before and says “Surprise!!!! Babe, you have had a very long couple of months and I knew how much you missed your family.”

“But Daniel, this is your birthday weekend, this party should be for you, not for me to see my family…” he cut me off like he always does “Gracie, this weekend, this moment, is about the love of my life, age is so insignificant, as long as you are happy, I am happy.”

It was great to see my family and spend time with them. Of course like all Italians do we dragged dinner on for a good 4 hours, bottle of wine after bottle of wine. Before we knew it, it was 2am. Daniel scooped me up and carried me to our suite, just like he did on our honeymoon.

The next morning I woke up with a headache that reminisced the ones I would get the morning after a frat party in college. Daniel was still sleeping and I did not want to wake him, so as quietly as I could I put on my work out clothes and headed outside to catch from fresh air. I left Daniel a note “Daniel, my love, you looked so peaceful sleeping I did not want to wake the birthday boy, I am going for a run, I should be back in about an hour, I will meet everyone on the beach for breakfast. Love You xoxo.”

The morning fresh air was the perfect cure for my college style headache. When I finally reached the top of the hills, I found a nice patch of grass and laid down and put on Daniels mixtape on my iPod, laying there for a while just listening to these songs that brought me right back to why I love my husband.

After about an hour I stood up and in the distance I could see little figures of people down a ways on the beach. I wish they could see me, this happy, and what seemed to be on top of the world.

All of a sudden I see the lines of grapes begin to look distorted. I started saying to myself “I must be going crazy, there is no way the grapes are moving.” Before I knew it the houses that lined that lined the vineyard began to move as well. They were all heading in the direction of the cliff, which lead right down to the beach.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” I began to scream, no one of course could hear me.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, DANIEL! MOM! DAD! EVERYONE FIND SHELTER” I contemplated running down the hills but by the time I got down to the cliffs it would be to late.

I paced back and forth trying to figure out a plan. “WHY DIDN’T I BRING MY CELL PHONE” I began to scream at the top of my lungs.

Within minutes the grapes were toppling over the cliffs and down onto the beach. I laid down on top of the hills and replayed Daniel’s playlist for hours.

“A long December and there’s reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last. I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.” 

10/24: Jody Lisberger visit

I think it was a great opportunity to have Jody come and speak to our class. I was thrilled when she said that she was gonna speak to us at first and then take questions. It is always a little hard to get our class talking and Jody did a great job of warming us up for the Q and A section of her visit. 

It was very interesting how Jody described the process of writing stories to the class. I enjoyed the exercise where she asked us to write down what is important to use right in the moment. She explained to the class that this is how she would come up with small aspects of a story that would carry the story from beginning to end. These small moments that are important to us can also be a great way to start writing an excellent story. 

Jody explained to the class how so many people ask her if the stories in Remember Love are stories from her own life, she began to tell us a bunch of different stories of how she got the ideas to write the stories. Come to find out none of them were directly about her life. All of the stories were fiction and about characters that Jody had made up. 

The visit allowed me to enjoy the stories from Remember Love a lot more after hearing Jody describe the stories in different ways than we had discussed in class. 

Jody did an excellent job at responding to the classes questions. When I asked her why she felt it necessary to use the c-word in the story Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down; she responded promptly and said that she felt it extremely necessary to use the word because she views it as the worst word in the english language to describe a women. 

I very much enjoyed the visit from Jody and I look forward to the visits from the other authors. 

Suspense

Suspense is essential to any story, wether the story is a comedy piece, thriller, or romantic drama. Suspense moves the story along and pulls the reader in and allows the reader to get more involved in the story. Since the definition of a story is a hard one to nail down here are some examples of different kinds of stories in which you would see suspense. 

______________________________________________________________________________________

Suspense in Movies: There are a number of ways that movie directors, producers, and actors have created suspense in film over the years. Some of the more popular choices obviously include a music score that starts off subtle but the beat builds as the characters get more engaged in the scene. As the tension builds so does the music. The rise in volume, introduction of more instruments, increase in beat all gives a sense of suspense to the viewer. 

Another common way that suspense is built in film is threw the use of different camera and lighting techniques. When the light dims on the actors and the camera pans in different directions the viewer has a change of perspective and suspense is naturally created. By changing these small aspects the view knows that something is changing and it helps to move the story along.

In this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjyB2MpxBU) from the Godfather. It is the scene where Michael goes to kill his enemies McClusky and Sollozzo. Suspense is built in this scene by Michael getting searched by the two men when he firsts walks into the restaurant and then when Michael walks into the bathroom it is completely silent, no music or added noise. The viewer can hear every movement that Michael makes, which makes the view curious as to what will happen next. Michael gets the gun from the bathroom and walks back out to the table where he sits down and gazes into space. The gentlemen at the table are speaking in Italian and then all you can hear is a loud train going by. As the noise from the train grows louder and louder Michael becomes more and more irritated and at the loudest point of the train Michael stands up and shoots the Sollozzo who is directly across from him and then Police Captain McClusky who is to his left. 

The makers of the Godfather do an excellent job at building suspense in this scene because the viewers know that when Michael goes to the restaurant he plans to kill these two men but the viewers are left uneasy about how it will happen and if he will get away with it. The deep silence and the introduction of the loud train bring the view in and out of concentration and ultimately build a great sense of suspense. 

______________________________________________________________________________________

Suspense in Literature and Writing: As a previous film major and movie buff it is much easier for me to pick out ways that suspense is created in film however I can still point out a few ways in which it is created in writing. 

In writing suspense can be built by using short dialoge between two characters. By using dialoge the writer can make the conversation short and choppy which allows the reader to read quickly. When I find myself reading a story quicker because of the dialoge I get more excited because I know that something exciting will be happening the quicker I get to the end. 

I think the best example of a suspenseful story that I read recently is the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. These stories captivate and you never want to put the book down. With the end of every sentence you wonder what is going to happen next. I cant really pin point the exact writing methods of conveying this kind of suspense. Maybe it is because the 50 Shades books are super erotic, passionate, and drama filled, and just that moves the story along and creates suspense. 

10/12: Maus & The Fun Home

The images in this story, Maus, created a relaxed mood to the story. I personally did not enjoy this story because I found it very hard to read. I think that when discussing World War Two it should be taken more seriously and not put into cartoon versions and almost mocked. I find it hard to sense emotion through these photos. In the scene where he is coming home from the war to surprise his family you can really only sense the emotion through the text and you really should be able to see it in the photos but you cannot. In the Fun House the pictures were more detailed which made the story move a long a little bit better. However, I still find the text extremely hard to read.

10/10: Frida Kahlo & Louise Bourgeois

Frida Kahlo: The majority of her work is self portraits and realistic still-lifes. I think she is trying to tell the story of struggle while also expressing her personality in her self portraits. 

In this self portrait it looks like she is trying to show how she binded by these leaves and she is trying to escape. Her hair gives the observer a feeling that she is trapped by some kind of demon. 

In this still life of watermelons there is an inscription of one of the watermellons “VIVA LA VIDA” which in Portugese means LIVE LIFE.  I don’t know exactly what she was trying to say by showing watermellons with this saying but potentially that there is so much life and originality in a watermellon and her observers could learn something from it. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Louise Bourgeois: work was very modern and contemporary for her time period. I think her work was trying to tell stories of the future and alternative lifestyles. 

This drawing by Louise is absolutely mesmerizing and extraordinary. I think that she is trying to tell stories that have never been told before, she wants her observers to think outside the box and be abstract. 

This is a photograph of Louise’s 30ft Spider Sculpture. This sculpture is fascinating. I think she is trying to show how something we take for granted like a small spider, that you can easily step on and kill, is actually something that is a magnificent creature and should be admired. 

10/1: Midnight In Paris

I found the movie Midnight in Paris very interesting because it finally connected all of the artists, authors, and visionaries from the 1920’s that we have been discussing in class for weeks now.

I did not necessarily care for the story line of the movie I feel like it was poorly written, but it was enjoyable to learn about all of the different characters and see the beautiful Parisian sights. I think that Owen Wilson was the wrong lead character because he has a comedic stigma to him and the film needed a more serious and literary type lead. I think that someone like Adam Brody would have been a more appropriate lead. I would have liked to see Gill take his soon to be wife into the midnight with him so she could experience it as well.

I was terribly confused in the end when his translator friend was reading him the story that was clearly about him and it was from the 1920’s. It was really poorly demonstrated and explained. There was a lot left unsaid and a lot of blanks that needed to filled throughout the movie.

I look forward to discussing this film in class and hearing what my fellow classmates have to say about the movie.