Powerful & Disorienting

Wow, that was a bit different from when I remember watching it when I was younger, but still epic and mind blowing all the same. I definitely get more out of it now, to some extent because I'm older, but mostly from what I've learned in this course. I enjoyed the manipulation of both us as the viewers and Leonard as a victim of short term memory loss. The way the movie is related from the end to the beginning is very disorienting and leaves the viewer vulnerable to the forms of manipulation to come. It also serves as a reminder that if yuo forget the manipulative nature of the world and its many agendas, you may also become someone elses tool. Overall my favorite part has to be the end when Leonard has found out that he has been killing many people, and chooses to alter his reality by letting himself forget about what he has just been told and giving himself a new clue. Even with his disability, Leonard takes full control of his reality and makes his disability an advantage.

Memento was the perfect movie to sum up everything we have been taught this semester. Specifically, I thought it dealt with the issues of truth and manipulation in a way that was very relevant to our class. As Teddy said, “You don’t want the truth. You make up your own truth.” The idea of creating one’s own reality runs throughout the entire movie. Because Leonard cannot make new memories, he becomes the extreme example of something we are all guilty of. He is manipulated, he accept lies as reality and creates his own truth. Whether this is a good or bad thing is something I am still trying to figure out. “So you lie to yourself to be happy.” Teddy tells Leonard, “There’s nothing wrong with that. We all do it.” We may all do it, but what are the implications of lying to yourself?

Memento is an example of how failure to distinguish between truth and lies can allow you to be manipulated. Leonard is manipulated by almost every character in the film (Natalie, Teddy, even the man at the front desk of his hotel), and in Leonard’s case, those manipulating him do not have very good intentions. However, Leonard’s willingness to accept lies also allows him to live his life. Lying to himself is easier than facing the reality that his wife is gone, her killer is dead, and Leonard has nothing else to live for. I found that these two issues, manipulation and the benefit of lying, were key concepts that were found in many of the texts we analyzed this semester.

Memento

As I was watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Leonard and the lonely life he lives. It's pretty much like he's living in an tangible, Earth form of Limbo, can't go anywhere and can't remember anyone. First and foremost, he lost his wife, which would drive anyone crazy however what really drilled the nail into the coffin was that she died, in both sequences, a painful death; in Leonard's sequence she was brutally murdered before him, and in another she could not bear to endure her husband's loss of memory and virtually had him kill her. On top of all that, Leonard lost his job, his house, his money, his friends...the list goes on. What I have to ask is, what was his motivation to live? To realize that it was all for nothing? Perhaps this thought has crossed his mind once or twice before but alas he cannot remember.

Natalie?

Okay so first of all, I LOVED that movie. At first, I didn't understand why the would show a scene then rewind and show the scene before and then rewind and show the scene before. Being artsy was my initial thought. I understand now that if the movie played in chronological order, the mystery would be lost because the answer comes at the beginning rather than at the end. But in this movie the beginning is the end. I think this movie fits into the class so well because for the entire movie we distrust Teddy and sympathize with Lenny. We pity Lenny. We want him to find the killer. But at the end of the movie, we know longer sympathize. He is killing people who weren't his wife's killer (namely because his wife didn't die).
What I'm having trouble with is Natalie. I know she was the girlfriend of Jimmy Grant, the guy that Lenny kills before starting to track Teddy. But I don't understand why Teddy sent him to her or why she pretended to be beaten up by Dodd. What was her motive? What did she want? Anybody have any answers?

Memento. Long post, but worth the debate.

Memento presents an OVERWHELMING amount of mixed morals. Situations that audiences everywhere would handle differently--no two people are exactly the same.
There is a reason our loyalties and emotions are sporadic with the characters. We sympathize and like Leanord when we think he is avenging his wife (yet he is still planning murder, which is usually considered a morally wrong act. Is it acceptable in this case?). Eventually we see that he chooses to live his life constantly "finding the murderer"... that is already dead. A common reaction is for the audience to be appalled that Leanord makes the decision to make himself forget that he has already killed his enemy and to continue murdering in order to give his life meaning. Some may view it as selfish. (so is this to say that no one in the audience has made a selfish decision to improve their life? Or is it different because he is murdering? Is this where the line gets drawn? Is he not entitled to a happy life? After all, Teddy is giving him bad people such as drug dealers to kill. Do the drug dealers still deserve to live even though they have probably murdered others and have sold illegal substances? Why do they deserve to live a content life while Leanord does not?) Teddy also brings in a few questions of ethics. I know that I had mixed feelings about him throughout the movie. Is he a bad person for doing drug deals and helping Leonard kill people--even while being a cop? Or is he a good person for giving this person a reason to live? He seems to have sympathy in his heart.
The movie leaves more thoughts than just, "wow... now I know what he feels like when he doesn't remember things". Yes that is a very interesting idea, but when you dig deeper, you see that it is a clever way to set up all of these questions of ethics. that is the big picture here. Seeing the scenes in reverse toys with the audience's emotions. The director feeds one situation and then piles more variables on top to complicate the emotions--creating mixed feelings. Feelings so mixed that one might feel cheated at the end. It really just comes down to one's priorities.
Don't we all do the same thing, though? We choose what we want to believe. We choose so many things that make us content with our life. We create values based off of what life presents or deals to us. The literature in this class presents us with ideas to interpret. To accept or discard. It's our choice! Janelle has been trying, I think, to show us that not only does this happen in literature and the classroom, but in everyday situations in life. It could even be a situation like Leonard's. So are we really so different from Leonard? It is common to make hypocritical decisions and 'exceptions to the rule' all the time. so where is the line drawn? does that make us bad people? Again, it is your interpretation. What do you think?

Momento

Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the first part of the movie but I caught on pretty quickly. I love the way it kept me thinking and guessing what was coming next (just like this class has all semester). The way it goes back and forth challenges your mind and I love that! I also love when movies have an unexpected ending. Momento's ending may have been disappointing to some but I thought it was perfect! The movie was awesome, I will definitely be looking it up to watch the whole thing. :)

Memento

As I was watching the movie, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already watched in. Only till the far end of the movie did I realize I had seen the movie before. Because it was so complex and intricate, I couldn't put the pieces together although I know I had watched it before. Watching in the second time, after this class made me understand the concept more. I now look at the movie and understand why he does the things he does, because without doing them, he cannot live and be himself.

Memento

I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was really intriguing, and I felt like I was solving the puzzle with him. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was going on in the movie until the last 30 minutes or so. Did his wife die? Is he Stanley? Was his wife the diabetic? Is Teddy really to be trusted? So, basically Lenny has been searching for J. G. continuously, though he already killed him, if that was the real J.G.? And he knows he's lying to himself until he forgets again? I guess the movie does not fully explain everything, and it's left up to our interpretation of the movie, to decide for ourselves how we want to view it. I guess that's a good move for the director because I now want to re-watch the movie and continue to find more clues to really figure out Lenny's life. I think it was really interesting how the movie is shown backwards, and I wasn't too confused by that, it just took a little longer for my brain to process it. Plus, I think that process made us experience the movie like Lenny- with no known information before the events happen because we are watching it in reverse, so it's as if we have no recollection of what had already happened. I think this was a great movie for this class because we can't really trust anything in the movie or anyone- even Lenny, who I ended up disliking at the end unfortunately. I also think that each time I watch this movie, I would probably have a different opinion of Lenny because the movie makes you think differently, and since I know the ending, I could think of the scenarios differently. I'm still thinking about this movie a few days after we watched it, which I love, and that's a sign for me that it's a movie worth watching.

HOLY...

THAT MOVIE. JUST BLEW MY MIND...

Here's the thing. The whole movie, I was trying to determine what was "true" and what was not. So basically, here I am, knowing that someone is giving him the wrong information. I was trying to figure out who.

I knew from the beginning that Teddy wasn't the right guy. So I'm trying to see who told him to write "Don't believe his lies" on his picture. When that girl came into the picture, I decided "Hmm maybe this is his wife, and he doesn't realize it?"I thought if this was the case, there was someone who was just making all of it up to do their own dirty work. And eventually I was like "Or not..."

Then I decided as he was telling the Sammy story that maybe he talks about him because he has the same condition where he was only mentally faking it to block out what he doesn't want to remember. Kind of went with my "His wife is that lady" theory.

I kind of also thought that perhaps he only chose to forget whenever he was in a stressful situation. I thought the "big twist" was when he'd realize that he can actually remember everything. Then they realized his condition wasn't "faking." That was wrong, too.

So then I figured that woman killed his wife. Also wrong.

And then I decided that HE was the killer and he was just creating his own reality...

Basically I guessed different puzzle pieces of the entire picture because I was taught to see clues and not read blindly while also not believing everything that is said. The reason this movie was so awesome is because the ending gives that final puzzle piece. There really is no way to "know

the ending" because of how many different clues they give you. Just like Lenny, we had the scenes jumbled, making it difficult to recall the past events, and we were constantly given different information that could be true or possibly lies.

So until that option is given of Lenny actually creating the false reality to give him something to live for, the viewer is confused of WHAT to believe. Even then when Teddy reveals the "truth," I still kind of thought..."but is THAT really the 'truth'?" We are never actually given the entire story because we are forced to perceive it in our own way. We can believe the words Teddy gives us at the end, or choose to keep searching as Lenny does.

Technically, he could really be his wife's murderer who keeps Lenny searching in order to save his own life. There's so many possibilities that it wraps up this course perfectly: we should never believe something just because it is written down or because someone "proves" it's true. It's all about how you choose to believe and look at things.

this class has Forced me to think"freely"

This class has definitely been a most world shaping&empowering experience. It made me question the world, reality. It made me realize I had the power to see what was truly shaping my reality in order to change my reality. It introduced me to a new way of thinking my way. It made me feel catalytic as well as insignificant. I have learned in this class valuable truths that remain necessary for improving our reality and ultimately our lives. This class has Forced me to think freely.







Alden tht shit Is funny.

nothing to do with the class, but fucking hysterical

http://shitmystudentswrite.tumblr.com/

rants about how awesome this class has been

I agree with everyone has been saying,that this class has taught us a lot more than just literature and how to read it. We have learned about truth and trust and interpretation and assumption and how that applies to our lives. Even going outside the subject matter, I think we have discussed a lot of things that are applicable and usable in our lives. This is one of those classes people tell you about when they try to describe how different college is from high school. We have learned that we can, and should, question authority. We have been encouraged to take charge of our education. Just cause a teacher said it, doesn't make it true. Just because I'm a student, doesn't make my opinion count any less than a guy with a PhD. This is what every class should be like. It's a class with a badass teacher who actually cares what you think and not if you can just regurgitate what she says; with a syllabus and course material that engages and involves the students; discussions that inspire the students to apply what they have learned to more than just their final paper. And I would be saying this, and in fact have, even in Janelle never sees this post. This is that class that you will remember when you are a fully grown adult and someone asks you to think back to college.
Or maybe Janelle has brainwashed us to think like this? But let's be real, if it weren't for her and this class, we never would even consider brainwashing as a possibility.

This class

I wanted to talk about how this class has helped me. I'm the most gullible person in the world, and with the discussions we had in this class, I can finally look at things without trusting that it is "true" in any sort of way. I've learned that it just doesn't matter who says what is true, and the only thing that matters is what I decide to take from a piece. I've definitely changed thanks to this class, and it wouldn't be possible without the ideas and opinions from everyone in the course as well as J who always pushed us to see things in a different way.

Cat's Cradle

Just wanted to say that writing this paper is reminding me how much I love Cat's Cradle and Vonnegut's writing in general. It's such an intricate puzzle. One of my problems with this paper is that I could probably write an analysis of Cat's Cradle longer than the actual novel. and that is before I even touch the other novel I am connecting it to. It really embodies everything that this course is about.

Thoughts on this class

You know.. one of the things I love most about this class is that we actually get something from it beyond the texts we read. I feel as if I don't even get something from the texts in other classes (I won't mention names), and it makes me question why those unfulfilling classes should even be a class in college (or how the teacher bullshitted their way into the position). In my opinion, yes college is about becoming more intelligent, but it's also about finding yourself. and Janelle has tirelessly tried to make us think for ourselves (by paradoxically leading us mindlessly toward thinking for ourselves). It's amazing that we need to be TAUGHT how to think for ourselves. Are we really that conditioned that we just accept what we are reading/experiencing/seeing? I love that the class/Janelle have provided a paper on morals to be taken from the books. It is truly a time to reflect, as well as another opportunity to hone some writing skills! :)

pertaining to memory

While on the blog I noticed that I have chosen the same exact quote as someone else, from the novella Aura.

"You don't look at your watch again, that useless object tediously measuring time in accordance with human vanity, those little hands marking out the long hours that were invented to disguise the real passage of time, which races with a mortal and insolent swiftness no clock could ever measure."

Memeories are everything. They shape us. Locacted within time, Memories contain the very esscence of "life". Smells, sights, events, all your fondest things.Stored in an Organ in your Body? I have been trying to wrap my mind around this transcendental concept for a while now.

At first I was satisfied with the reality that memories were in fact within us. After several years I found this a little hard to swallow, among other theories, I even posed the question....Since memories were not totally of the physical world, Could memories be stored within another dimension surrounding us, accessable by our brains?

This brought me to isolate certain concepts of memory supportive of my question. Thoughts came to me concerning the fragmented nature of memories, manner of their developement, as well as, their illusive....their illusive.....thinking.....illusive what? feeling....notion.....vibe....& it hit me! Aura. Memories all have an Aura. Something, a feeling or notion, that developes within us as we participate in remembering.

After that, I began to see memories and the act of remembering as spiritual; sacred. I began to see the significance of participating in memory.

I began to view memory with great signifigance, as Tradition.

oh ernest.

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Final Paper

I've come to the conclusion that although at the top of my page it says "It's deceptively simple," this final paper is anything but that. I've been staring at my computer screen for a good 30 minutes now just reading over the words "Construct a moral for approaching life." What does that even mean? I guess I'll be thinking for a couple hours.

aura

so did felipe remind anyone else of that ridiculously dumb person in horror movies? you know, the one who doesn't see the totally obvious twist in the plot coming? I mean honestly the minute it's pointed out that aura and consuelo move at the same time, I figured it out. I guess there are a lot of complexities that come with him potentially being the general in some form...but in that case shouldn't he already know where his youth comes from, like aura does?

Aura thoughts (scattered!!)

When it comes to Fuentes using "you", I was never fully convinced that it was myself. I really tried to be sucked into it to have the effect that was supposed to happen, but the fact that he used a name with "you" made the effect different for me. I'm not Felipe, and I'm not male. idk.. Maybe my mind was just too resistant with this book.

And the concept of time absolutely fascinates me in this novella. I'm sure some others have used this quote, but for my paper I used, "You don't look at your watch again, that useless object tediously measuring time in accordance with human vanity, those little hands marking out the long hours that were invented to disguise the real passage of time, which races with a mortal and insolent swiftness no clock could ever measure. A life, a century, fifty years: you can't imagine those lying measurements any longer, you can't hold that bodiless dust within your hands."

It really calls attention to the fact that humans never fully have a grasp on the concept of time. We can try to manage it as much as we like, but isn't it amazing that our busy minds let time seem as if it is going swiftly, and when our unoccupied minds are bored or restless, the seconds drag on as if into eternity?
We can never hold on to one moment. Time is intangible as Fuentes says, yet we put a description on it, a measurement for the distance between the event and when we remember it. Time means nothing to us without memory. We can remember our smooth faces when we grow up to find lines around our mouth and eyes. Our minds recognize the change, and we classify the change as time. Its kinda hard for me to get this out. I can't exactly explain it. Does anyone know what I'm trying to say that can put it more eloquently?

I love that Fuentes makes it possible in his novella to hold a little something of the past. It gives a way to escape or to hope for such a thing to happen to us--to regain that time long ago (a memory), and to relive it again.

Aura

While reading this novela, I kept wondering "what's the point?" Like I said in class, at one point I thought Aura was a cat who could transform into a human (obviously I was wrong.) What I liked about the book is the way it kept me guessing, there were many signs of what was going on but it wasn't until the very last page that I actually got it. Surprisingly, the "you" used in the text didn't bother me, although I was kinda grossed out when I read "you stop kissing those fleshless lips, those toothless gums" (pg. 145). But anyway, I enjoyed reading this book and plan to read it again in Spanish to see if it leads me in a different direction than it did when I read it in English.

Aura

At first I did not enjoy this book very much because it made no sense to me. After discussing it in class and writing the paper on a quote, I have grown an appreciation for the book. I understand where Fuentes was going and the message he wrote into the text. What I gathered from the novel, was that Consuelo needed to exist in order for Aura to come back and Felipe needed to exist in order for General Llorente to come back. Felipe is in love with Aura, and Consuelo is in love with General Llorente so in order for them all to be together, they all need to exist. That seems obvious, but it is the way I think of it. I often have trouble formulating my thoughts into words, so maybe I can explain more of what I mean in the next class discussion.

Manipulation in Aura

Aura was one of my favorite but also least favorite books of the semester. I hated the "you" mostly because I felt as though I was being forced into actions and feelings I was uncomfortable with and didn't agree with. While I hated this I have to say it is the most powerful aspect of the book to the reader because it forces you to be drawn in and is a great manipulation tool, which we discussed in class. While the book is obviously creepy and very confusing the essence of the book is also powerful. This book creates an eerie "aura" around it just as Aura creates around herself. One of the reasons it is my favorite is because of its intense forms of exploitation. While deceiving the reader about what is reality in terms of Aura and Felipe he is also automatically pulling the reader in and manipulating them into being a part of the story, even if you don't want to be. Either way the reader ends up being much more involved in the story while at the same time being completely confused and disoriented. Mostly I enjoyed the technique of the story more than the actual story itself.

Sirens

The biggest thing I carried away from this book (which, because of its punctuality and to-the-point-ness, I liked better than any other book we've read thus far) was a direct correlation between Senora Consuelo and a character I once read about in a Greek myth course, a siren named Lorelei who lured unsuspecting fishermen to their deaths by singing a beautiful song on a rock. At least for me, I found that Consuelo and Lorelei are pretty much one in the same, luring the unsuspecting into their webs like a spider lures a fly. In the end, while Felipe wasn't necessarily killed, he was used as a pawn, sucked in by Consuelo to keep her impending death at bay under the alias of Aura.