Truth, Lies in Literature

As I was thinking about what to write for, what I think is, our last blog post, I found myself reflecting back on the class as a whole. I remember realizing on the first day of class that this was not going to be what I expected. I'm sure many people agree that this class is like no other; I don't know if anyone has encountered a class where we have had so much freedom. There are assigned readings and papers, and we have to get a final grade, but we have a lot of control as well. That threw me, and I think a lot of other people, for a loop because we weren't used to that kind of freedom, and responsibility. This is definitely one of my favorite classes, which is surprising because I do not like English classes, but it is not comparable to any other English class I have taken.

This class has also really made me think about manipulation and the outside forces that influence us in our day to day lives. It isn't like every minute I notice the manipulation around me, but I think this class has definitely made me think more. For example, when I wrote my blog post about the social manipulation to go to college, that really made me think about the years preceding college and my decision to go to college. It also inspired my mediated artifact. I realized societal manipulation is really intriguing, and I really enjoyed discussing this in class. So, I think this class has definitely made me more aware.

Finals Suck

As the last few weeks start wrapping up the school year, I find myself aware of all the ways in which I manipulate myself everyday. Similarly to Meredyth, it often involves attitude, but it's also in the little things I do to stay on top of things. It's as if I have to babysit myself in order to do all the things I'm supposed to do. (…supposed to do… that sounds like a questionable motive) For example, I have been writing myself lists every day, but these lists often consist of pleasant things that I was likely to do anyway so that I feel accomplished when crossing them off. If I write something like "eat an orange" or "call your mother back" next to things like "read chapter 7" and "prepare your presentation", I feel a greater satisfaction at having checked off three of these four things, even if one of them was to get my vitamin C. I also use particular language when writing these lists, like "start your final paper" instead of "final paper". That way, if I have written at least a thesis, I can cross it off! This sounds like a counterproductive way of doing things, but I find that I accomplish way more when I don't look at a list that screams "YOU LITERALLY HAVE SO MUCH WORK WHAT ARE YOU DOING". I also use reward mechanisms like allowing myself to eat a piece of chocolate or work on the crossword for each increment of homework. I am aware that that's pretty sad, but I really do like crossword puzzles. In any case, I've found that manipulation is not all external, much of it is within each of our own minds.

A Change in Attitude

I can't believe the year is almost over.  I am truly amazed.  Especially because there have been so many parts of this school-year that have gone excruciatingly slow.  However, all of a sudden, I feel the time is flying by.  I think it all comes down to attitude and perspective.  

I keep learning and then forgetting that I can choose to look at a situation in any way I want.  I can look at an assignment, a class, or an experience and find all of its faults.  I can gripe and moan about how hard something is going to be or how unfortunate it is that I have to deal with it.  Or, I take a deep breath and embrace the challenge.  I can recognize that there is always something I can learn from even the worst situations, and that if I didn't have any setbacks now, I would never be able to learn and grow.  

In Psychology, I learned that you can feel happier just by smiling, because you trick your mind into believing you have something to smile about.  I also learned from a recent TedTalk that striking a "power pose", like putting your hands on your hips, can give you more confidence.  These are just two examples of ways that we can trick or manipulate ourselves into feeling better, no matter our actual mood. 

 It has been a tough past few weeks, and more are on the horizon.  However, I am going to challenge myself to look at them with a different perspective, and to recognize that having setbacks and obstacles that test my character are times where I can grow as a person.  And, they make life a hell of a lot more interesting, if nothing else.  

Grizzly Man and Memento

Like Grizzly Man, Memento was manipulative in the way the film was shot. Grizzly Man is a documentary and Werner Herzog puts his own beliefs about Timothy Treadwell into the movie. We are manipulated by Herzog’s words about Treadwell because he questions Treadwell’s sanity and does not objectively portray him in the film. While Memento incorporates many levels of manipulation in the film, the movie works backwards and as the story unfolds, we learn more and more about the characters and following scenes explain their actions from the previous scenes. However, we are manipulated into believing that some characters are bad and some are good because of the way the story unfolds. At the end of the movie, (the beginning of the story) we realize that our beliefs are wrong and we suspected the wrong characters all along. This method of storytelling is effective because we are manipulated to feel like Leonard, since we do not know why something is happening, the way he does not remember why certain things are happening. While it is effective in manipulating the viewer to feel like Leonard with short-term memory loss, I had trouble switching my views of the characters at the end of the movie. I still picture Teddy as the bad guy even though he is good in the end (or the beginning). I wonder whether this was Nolan's intention or not.

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.