Written vs. Spoken Manipulation

After watching Memento for the second time, I noticed many details that I had glanced over before. During class, I kept watching for manipulation throughout this film (it’s kind of hard to miss). My goal was to count how many times I saw manipulation, but after about 17 I lost count. Then, I observed something very peculiar. Leonard does not like to speak to people without seeing them, as if the spoken word is more tainted than the written word. Even though technically there is manipulation in writing as well (Janelle’s contract, for example), the characters in the film swindle Leonard through the entire movie: the host at the motel makes him pay for staying in multiple rooms, Natalie tricks him into getting rid of Dodd, and Teddy deceives Leonard by getting him to kill multiple people with the name John G. I then realized that there is manipulation of the written word as well within the movie. For example, Leonard trusts his tattoos as if they are unbiased, however, the truth us that some (if not all) of his tattoos are false. He taints his tattoos by convincing himself to kill Teddy, even though he is not the person who raped and killed his wife. He thinks that the written word represents the truth, or reality.  I think this message applies to life in general because no matter if it is written or spoken, manipulation is involved with many of our everyday activities. There really is no escape from the inevitable onslaught, but, there is a minor solution. In order to deceive manipulation, we need to be aware of the duplicity. By doing so, we can effectively spot (maybe not completely evade) the manipulation and make our decisions based on what we can discern as manipulation.

Why am I Writing This?

Another blog post in after the deadline. Typical. While we were walking back down to Bundy, Sydney brought up the class blog, to which I responded, "Oh no! I totally forgot!" I wish this wasn't normal, but for some reason I always remember to write my blog post, forget, and then realize it's late. After writing my self-grade paper this past week and reading through all my pasts posts, it's clear when I was feeling inspired and when I was just posting for the purpose of posting. Sometimes I just don't have anything to say! Yet we have to post weekly because it's part of our syllabus, and we all know how our lives our dictated by our syllabi.

Now that I'm done venting, I think it's important to note how we're manipulated to post and comment on this blog. We have no other motivation to write here except that our grade is dependent on it, and again, we all know how our lives are dictated by our grades. I am up later than usual this evening because I was working on a paper for another class, which is highly personal and very thought-provoking to work on. In the midst of challenging myself through writing that paper, I completely forgot about posting on the blog. I then dug deep within the tired folds of my brain to find something to post about. During my struggle for a topic I realized how pressured I felt to write about something compelling and pertinent to the class, which happens to fit nicely with our theme. This post is a representation of my compliance to follow directions, however manipulative they may be, and never question.

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Show!

Sydney mentioned a choose your own adventure movie in the making. While we wait for that, there is supposed to be a preview for a choose your own adventure show in the barn if anyone is interested! Here is the description that can be found on facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/events/767061629992854/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&source=1 ):

Come to the Barn Monday May 5 and Tuesday May 6 at 8 pm for a preview of The Gamut- a choose-own-adventure show! Written and directed by Sarah "Dewi" Caswell in partial fulfillment of a senior thesis in Performance Studies

Featuring:
Tommy Moriarty
Claire Barton
Kiki Sosa
Carrie Solomon
Ryan Cassidy
Ian Carradine
Andrew Gibeley
Shea Crockett
and more...

Living as Leonard

Through Memento, we experience Leonard's struggle with memory and are brought to question our own perception of memory. Leonard's story is gradually unveiled backwards. As such, much like Leonard, we have to scramble to connect dots. When he sees a note telling him to not believe Teddy and to kill him, we, like Leonard, can only trust that he's come to the correct conclusion. His note under Natalie's picture gives us very little information about her, and so we have to get to know her, as Leonard has to do every time. The movie connects its scenes by repeating portions of previous scenes. It inherently relies on our memory to connect the dots. Leonard similarly connects the dots with his notes, which give offer partial connections to his discoveries and memories from previous days. "Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car" he says. His body is covered with "facts," yet these facts offer very incomplete images. Natalie's picture, as mentioned, tells us very little about her. Seemingly less susceptible to subjectivity, Leonard is very much a victim of it. We, as viewers experience his struggle and can only watch helplessly as he attempts to piece together parts of his life.

Choose Your Own Adventure movie

I was on the Internet the other day and came across an article about a Choose Your Own Adventure movie. Apparently a deal is in the works to adapt the Choose Your Own Adventure book line into a movie.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, the writers of Fox’s Night at the Museum are negotiating to write the script. Also supposedly Rawson Marshall Thurber, the director of Dodgeball, has already signed the deal to direct the movie.

            This interested me for a couple reasons. First, obviously this relates to our class as we just finished reading House of Danger. Secondly, I’m very interested to see how (and if) they decide to turn this line of books into a movie. In class we discussed how the pretext says the adventure is completely your choice, but that really isn’t true. It is important to note thought that there is at least some decision-making that occurs when reading the book. If they make a movie, I can’t imagine how they could manage to include any aspect of choice. This means that the title “Choose Your Own Adventure” would apply even less to the movie than it did to the books. However if the movie does come out, I’m sure there will be people that enjoy it and completely buy into the idea. If you want to read more information see the links below.  

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/choose-your-own-adventure-movie-673904

http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/56776612/what-to-expect-from-a-choose-your-own-adventure-movie

Does Memento mimic our own lives?

            There was one quote in Memento that really stuck out to me. Someone was talking to Leonard and confronted him about his method of taking photos to remember past events. Leonard defended himself, and questioned whether his methods were really any less accurate than those of most humans. Basically, is recalling information based on a photograph really different from recalling information from past memories?

            In high school philosophy, we talked about “rosy retrospection,” the human tendency to recall events with more fondness than they had at the time. I think this is just one way in which we as humans manipulate ourselves through our own past memories. We have already discussed the powers of manipulation that photographs hold extensively in class. I think that there are many parallels in the way that Leonard recalls memories and the way that we all do.

            To me, this indicates that the writers of Memento may be showing us as humans the ways in which we are manipulated by our own memories through the point of view of Leonard. His tangible photographs provide us with an easy way to see Leonard’s past memories, and the ways in which they manipulate him.

Hooked

Memento has me hooked. Yes, the idea is cool, the main character is fairly attractive, and the plot is mysterious and action-packed. However, what caught my attention most is the suspense laid carefully into the organization of scenes, music, and contextual clues in the film. Just as we believe we know what's happening, the scene quickly changes and we are thrown into a new setting. While I supposed the abrupt scene changes are part of a play on the main characters short-term-memory loss, most of the techniques seem to be characteristics of all movies. They want to pull you in, blind you with manipulation, and then pull the rug out from under your feet.

The movie now has me thinking about all of the television shows and movies that also have me "hooked." The thing that keeps me, and I'm sure many other viewers coming back for more and more, is the suspense. The notion that I have no idea what's coming next. Even if I do have an idea and correctly predict what will happen, my heart still races and my breathing increases during the climax of the episode. We, as viewers, are constructed to expect this, and when we don't experience it, we are bored or let down. I just finished watching the season finale of The Following and was quite disappointed by the ending. It didn't reach the high level or suspense and thrill I was hoping for. Thus,  I think how incredibly hard it must be to be a director. Their job revolves around manipulating actors, costumes, settings, scripts, music, lighting, filming, special effects etc. I can't imagine trying to keep up with, let alone out-do, the never ending cycle of manipulation that characterizes all movies and TV shows.

"Fed Up"

"Fed Up" (I put the link to the trailer below) is a movie coming out in a few days that caught my attention because it's all about the industrial manipulation of the food culture of the United States.  It baffles me how, for profit, the food industry will (and is allowed to) manipulate consumers into buying products that are causing obesity and diabetes epidemics in the US.  Yes, manipulation is how the advertising industry works, but the junk food industry is so powerful and so malign.  Whether through labeling, insanely low pricing, food fillers/imitators, the addictive nature of the composition of the food, etc... this industry has an insane amount of power that a lot of Americans are not aware of - because of their greedy manipulations, this coming generation is the first, in America, that is predicted to live shorter lives than their parents.

"Fed Up" Movie Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7A2RylUTiw

Article about the addictiveness of junk foods: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?_r=0

Article about diet sodas:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html

Balance

As much as we initially fear manipulation, manipulative objects are primarily the things we love. The most influential artifacts all heavily affect our lives in both positive and negative ways. Electronic media, for example, likely the most common manipulative concept of the modern era, is loved throughout western culture and those it’s the people who love it the most that feel its strongest hold. Clocks, as I mentioned in class, though dreaded for waking us up, are undoubtedly one of the most useful objects in many peoples’ lives. As emphasis on our time love affair, our phones, computers, and other electronic accessories boldly project the time of the day even when locked.

It seems that objects that make life easier inevitably end up manipulating us in one form or another. Advertisements, though ever controversial, are fundamentally designed to make our decisions easier. While they may not project a logical, reasoned argument for the product they represent, the fast pace of modern life renders full, drawn out arguments unreasonable and improbable. Just imagine choosing as something as innocent as a book, even an academic collection of essays, without some sort of advertisement. The cover, the inside summary, and the reviews on the back all simplify our choice and allow us to make a more informed choice without reading an entire novel. I guess it’s a trade off. The popularity of highly manipulative but useful objects is dependent on how much reward we receive for the amount of control the object will take from our lives.

Taken for Granted

            Memento immediately plays with the idea of how we take memory reconstruction and experiences for granted. The way that the film has been directed is in such a way that we as an audience are put in a similar position to that of Leonard. The ending of the story is introduced to us in the beginning and leads up what we have already been introduced to. This film conveys the idea of amnesia to the audience by attempting to gradually recreate a situation. We see the film how Leonard sees his life: out of order and in bits and pieces.

            Janelle proposed a question to us to keep in mind while watching: “Why are we watching this film in this class?” Similarly to the past works we studied, this has an unreliable narrator. All information we’re given is from a man who can hardly remember anything that happened 15 minutes ago. Memory can be distorted and is merely interpretation. His lack of short-term memory makes it impossible for us to have a realistic representation of what has really happened to him. Furthermore, Leonard’s memory is nothing more than constructs of what he makes for himself. He is constantly reminding himself about the story of Sammy Jankis in order to reconstruct his thoughts. Leonard has put together photographs with captions in an attempt to remember, but how much of an accurate representation do these serve as? This film truly makes you sit back and realize how easily we overlook the importance of memory and certainty in our day-to-day lives.