In The Cask of Amontillado, Allan Poe creates a character, Mostresor, using the narrator’s first-person point of view to shape the whole thriller. This is a story happening in a gloomy and clammy vault. The narrator designs a perfect and delicate murder with using the weakness of his friend, Fortunato, to revenge him. We could only enter the narrator’s psychological world, following his trick step by step and being trapped.
It began in a carnival season, people wearing amusing dresses and masks. However, beneath them, something evil has been planned. Fortunatos’ characteristic is shaped by the motely, innocent and straightforward. Such dress style is contrary to vindictive mind of Montresor’s own. The hilarious carnival season is opposite to the damp and eerie vault. There is and excellent point saying that the reader can interpret the coats of arms (human foot crushing serpent whose fangs are in heel) in different ways. He and his noble family are like the foot crushing a serpent that has bitten them, or on the other hand is he and family are actually like the serpent. Even though Allan Poe uses the narrator’s viewpoint to describe and judge the scenes he sees, in fact Allan Poe indicates the Montresor’s twisted mental, moral and emotional character in an indirect manner by his narration. It is clever that the writer actually stands behind the narrater’s words to judge the narrator secretly.
Besides, what makes me impressive is that even if we read Montresor’s mental world with his own point of view and perhaps the scenes we see cannot be trusted, we can still hear a series of sound effects vividly. There are only the sound effects in The Cask of Amontillado making readers believe it is objective from reality. I think in Allan Poe’s works, he is fond of murdering people by burying people. For instance, in The Black Cat, the narrator buries his wife’s body and one of black cats which is alive. Obviously, he really enjoyed it.
2010/6/20
Journal
When I read the author’s name, Amy Tan, in the bookstore, I felt so familiar but I could not remember where I had heard about this name. After reading the short biography of her before the story Two Kinds, I finally recalled the title, the “Joy Luck Club.” I was surprised that the movie is based on Two Kinds. Therefore, I could hardly wait for reading it.
The narrator, in the first line of the first paragraph, directly points out the American dream in her mother’s mind, like most of people’s in the world. Besides, she quotes what her mother said to her in Pidgin English. We can determine that the narrator actually is influenced by her mother all the time. She could not banish her mother’s sayings from her thoughts; thus, she was almost controlled by her mother in the childhood. Not only manners and behaviors, but her own ideas were conducted as well. However, the thought she, of course, could do her best, she just did not want to be dominated by parents. The more her mother pushed her, the more she refused. Perhaps the narrator is a prodigy, and yet her mother always used the wrong way to demand her. We can perceive it from the narration in the story that her mother was so offensive, sudden, overbearing to make the narrator learn the good things. It is pathetic that even though these demands, without a doubt, were good for her, because of such rude way, her mother made them extremely unworthy; moreover, she made those good intentions become a serious malice between them. I think the problem is attributed to the narrator’s mother. First of all, it is quite obvious that her mother did not just want her to be what she should be innately; on the contrary, her mother wanted her to be what her mother had wanted to be when young but in vain. We always think what our parents look forward to is make their children become their own dreams which did never come true when they were young. So we usually feel we live in our parents’ dreams, or concretely, under their shadows. They never ask if we would like to be like this, and they just create, form, shape a blueprint of dream to demand us to accept it, follow it, fulfill it. It is interesting that perhaps our grandparents wanted them to make the dream come true and they refused it when young, but now they feel regretful so that they ask us to atone. Or perhaps our parents had wanted to do something which our grandparents didn’t allow, so that their dream could not come true. And now they demand us to help them to complete their dreams and refuse what we want to do. Both conditions are endless vicious circles from generation to generation. If people are always selfish to their parents and children, we will never find a good way to get along well with each other. There will be hostility and unforgiveness between parents and children. After our parents dying, some day we finally realize it is just a misunderstanding and we will hate ourselves, feel remorse, but it will be too late to compensate such poor relationship. We always complain that nobody understands us, including our own parents, but do we really understand ourselves? Or probably we just want to escape the pressure from them. We barely even know what we will do in the future, how it is important to learn some skills in our childhood. In fact, the most significant thing is that parents should know how to make their kids interested in learning skills. They have to use the clever method to communicate with kids to make them understand the meanings when training them instead of using the tough tone of voice or imposing them.
The narrator describes the relationship between her mother and her with first-person point of view, so that we can spy on the world in her mind. She uses the humorous tone to describe such relationship in the first half of story. We can see she is naughty, childish, determined and rebellious. The narrator takes everything as if she is reading fairy tales. But after she finds her mother gives up the hope when the conflict happens, she gets so startled and sensitive. The fact is that we keep escaping the pressure that we know it is worthy, and after shaking off the stress, we will suddenly feel empty, guilty and no one cares about us. We finally realize we are given up, feeling awful. I think the story is full of dualities, such as American culture and Chinese spirit, the mother and the daughter, the demonstration and rebellion, love and indifference, feelings and behaviors and so forth. Especially, when I read the part of the mirror scene, I believe the narrator wants to present the contrary between the surface and her mind. She perhaps doesn’t really want to rebel in her mind, but what she does is very extreme. She has a conflict, which is the dilemma between piety and resistance, in her mind. Nevertheless, after growing up, she finally realizes that the two sides of opposition can be in harmony as “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented,” which are two halves of the same music she play when young and innocent.
The narrator, in the first line of the first paragraph, directly points out the American dream in her mother’s mind, like most of people’s in the world. Besides, she quotes what her mother said to her in Pidgin English. We can determine that the narrator actually is influenced by her mother all the time. She could not banish her mother’s sayings from her thoughts; thus, she was almost controlled by her mother in the childhood. Not only manners and behaviors, but her own ideas were conducted as well. However, the thought she, of course, could do her best, she just did not want to be dominated by parents. The more her mother pushed her, the more she refused. Perhaps the narrator is a prodigy, and yet her mother always used the wrong way to demand her. We can perceive it from the narration in the story that her mother was so offensive, sudden, overbearing to make the narrator learn the good things. It is pathetic that even though these demands, without a doubt, were good for her, because of such rude way, her mother made them extremely unworthy; moreover, she made those good intentions become a serious malice between them. I think the problem is attributed to the narrator’s mother. First of all, it is quite obvious that her mother did not just want her to be what she should be innately; on the contrary, her mother wanted her to be what her mother had wanted to be when young but in vain. We always think what our parents look forward to is make their children become their own dreams which did never come true when they were young. So we usually feel we live in our parents’ dreams, or concretely, under their shadows. They never ask if we would like to be like this, and they just create, form, shape a blueprint of dream to demand us to accept it, follow it, fulfill it. It is interesting that perhaps our grandparents wanted them to make the dream come true and they refused it when young, but now they feel regretful so that they ask us to atone. Or perhaps our parents had wanted to do something which our grandparents didn’t allow, so that their dream could not come true. And now they demand us to help them to complete their dreams and refuse what we want to do. Both conditions are endless vicious circles from generation to generation. If people are always selfish to their parents and children, we will never find a good way to get along well with each other. There will be hostility and unforgiveness between parents and children. After our parents dying, some day we finally realize it is just a misunderstanding and we will hate ourselves, feel remorse, but it will be too late to compensate such poor relationship. We always complain that nobody understands us, including our own parents, but do we really understand ourselves? Or probably we just want to escape the pressure from them. We barely even know what we will do in the future, how it is important to learn some skills in our childhood. In fact, the most significant thing is that parents should know how to make their kids interested in learning skills. They have to use the clever method to communicate with kids to make them understand the meanings when training them instead of using the tough tone of voice or imposing them.
The narrator describes the relationship between her mother and her with first-person point of view, so that we can spy on the world in her mind. She uses the humorous tone to describe such relationship in the first half of story. We can see she is naughty, childish, determined and rebellious. The narrator takes everything as if she is reading fairy tales. But after she finds her mother gives up the hope when the conflict happens, she gets so startled and sensitive. The fact is that we keep escaping the pressure that we know it is worthy, and after shaking off the stress, we will suddenly feel empty, guilty and no one cares about us. We finally realize we are given up, feeling awful. I think the story is full of dualities, such as American culture and Chinese spirit, the mother and the daughter, the demonstration and rebellion, love and indifference, feelings and behaviors and so forth. Especially, when I read the part of the mirror scene, I believe the narrator wants to present the contrary between the surface and her mind. She perhaps doesn’t really want to rebel in her mind, but what she does is very extreme. She has a conflict, which is the dilemma between piety and resistance, in her mind. Nevertheless, after growing up, she finally realizes that the two sides of opposition can be in harmony as “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented,” which are two halves of the same music she play when young and innocent.
Journal
This week I read a short novel called The Story of an Hour. The narrator reveals that Mrs. Mallard, the leading character in it, was afflicted with a heart trouble, so that the narrator has already hinted the orientation of this story cautiously. In the first paragraph, the narrator pointed out the fact of Mr. Mallard’s death. And then in the second paragraph, the narrator introduces the other main characters, Josephine and Richards, to make their identities and the reasons why they come on stage clear. After these two paragraphs, the narrator concentrates only upon Louise Mallard deliberately.
The narrator describes that Mrs. Mallard did not hear the story as many women have heard the same. On the contrary, she has an intense response, weeping at once, with sudden, wild abandonment. It seems that she has been strangled to death, and now someone’s hands loosen the neck to make her breathe fluently. She feels so relieved and delighted that she breaks into tears. However, Josephine and Richards in front of her don’t know what she is thinking; rather, they believe Mrs. Mallard is too grieved to put herself together. Mrs. Mallard, perhaps, wants to enjoy this rare moment alone, in secrete, so that she goes away to her room. Then, she begins to face her own consciousness. This part is the major idea of the story which the narrator tells. The narrator uses plenty of symbols to correspond with her feelings. For instance, the trees before the house were aquiver with the new spring life. The symbolic technique the narrator expressed Mrs. Mallard’s feelings with is brilliant, mordacious and felicitous. In this story, I think “air” and “window” are the motifs. Mrs. Mallard has had a suffocative life. She could not breathe the scent of freedom when living with her husband. Mrs. Mallard needs the air! She longs for the delicious breath of rain in the air as she was the leaf in the spring. She finally gets through the tedious and dreary winter. Before that she thought she was living in a confining chamber, like a jail without a window. But now, even though she becomes a widow, she gets a window to make her breathe and see the outside world. Mrs. Mallard, like a newborn baby, cannot wait for looking forward to the future filled with surprises and joys. Such vicissitude probably is her dream she has been waiting for her whole life to meet. She couldn’t keep pretending she is sorrowful anymore; thus, she unintentionally shows the bittersweet feelings on her face. Unfortunately, the happiness is like a zephyr. She cannot believe it’s a downright fraud that Mr. Mallard is totally safe and sound. The entire incident, obviously, is too much to her. Mrs. Mallard cannot stand it. It’s just like there are so many airs of joy and freedom coming to her, and suddenly all of them are brutally drawn off. If God takes the happiness, hope and blessing away from us, how can we live still? Such prank betrays Mrs. Mallard to her death.
The story is narrated by omniscient point of view, so the readers interpret Mrs. Mallard’s death is because of the attack of Mr. Mallard’s coming back to ruin her dream. But other characters in the story think that she is too joyful about her husband’s coming back to face the fact. It is tricky that the doctors said the joy that kill her. We know the fact is that her husband stops her joy so that she dies. And those characters believe that Mr. Mallard brings the joy to her but she couldn’t take it from previous miserable moment so that she dies. The author is wise to make the end ambiguous.
I like such sudden, unexpected and neat way to bring to a closure. It makes me recall the films in French New Wave. The filmmakers in that period preferred greater uses of symbolism and abstraction and dealt with themes of social alienation, psychology and sexual love. They loved to make a sudden climax and end the story, and they would leave an open ending to the audience to make them define it, continue it, or conclude it. Therefore, if Mrs. Mallard should live and tell her husband the truth, or she should live, keeping pretending she is fine like she did before. In my opinion, nothing is cleverer than the original one. If the author changed the end and kept writing the story, it would create an absurd anticlimax. It would ruin the whole story the author designs elaborately. Such French writing style could make readers taste again and again.If there would be anyone in Hollywood being considered for the role of Mrs. Louise Mallard. I think, based on Mrs. Mallard’s characteristics. Elizabeth Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind” could be considered for this dramatic queen. If so, that would be fabulous!
The narrator describes that Mrs. Mallard did not hear the story as many women have heard the same. On the contrary, she has an intense response, weeping at once, with sudden, wild abandonment. It seems that she has been strangled to death, and now someone’s hands loosen the neck to make her breathe fluently. She feels so relieved and delighted that she breaks into tears. However, Josephine and Richards in front of her don’t know what she is thinking; rather, they believe Mrs. Mallard is too grieved to put herself together. Mrs. Mallard, perhaps, wants to enjoy this rare moment alone, in secrete, so that she goes away to her room. Then, she begins to face her own consciousness. This part is the major idea of the story which the narrator tells. The narrator uses plenty of symbols to correspond with her feelings. For instance, the trees before the house were aquiver with the new spring life. The symbolic technique the narrator expressed Mrs. Mallard’s feelings with is brilliant, mordacious and felicitous. In this story, I think “air” and “window” are the motifs. Mrs. Mallard has had a suffocative life. She could not breathe the scent of freedom when living with her husband. Mrs. Mallard needs the air! She longs for the delicious breath of rain in the air as she was the leaf in the spring. She finally gets through the tedious and dreary winter. Before that she thought she was living in a confining chamber, like a jail without a window. But now, even though she becomes a widow, she gets a window to make her breathe and see the outside world. Mrs. Mallard, like a newborn baby, cannot wait for looking forward to the future filled with surprises and joys. Such vicissitude probably is her dream she has been waiting for her whole life to meet. She couldn’t keep pretending she is sorrowful anymore; thus, she unintentionally shows the bittersweet feelings on her face. Unfortunately, the happiness is like a zephyr. She cannot believe it’s a downright fraud that Mr. Mallard is totally safe and sound. The entire incident, obviously, is too much to her. Mrs. Mallard cannot stand it. It’s just like there are so many airs of joy and freedom coming to her, and suddenly all of them are brutally drawn off. If God takes the happiness, hope and blessing away from us, how can we live still? Such prank betrays Mrs. Mallard to her death.
The story is narrated by omniscient point of view, so the readers interpret Mrs. Mallard’s death is because of the attack of Mr. Mallard’s coming back to ruin her dream. But other characters in the story think that she is too joyful about her husband’s coming back to face the fact. It is tricky that the doctors said the joy that kill her. We know the fact is that her husband stops her joy so that she dies. And those characters believe that Mr. Mallard brings the joy to her but she couldn’t take it from previous miserable moment so that she dies. The author is wise to make the end ambiguous.
I like such sudden, unexpected and neat way to bring to a closure. It makes me recall the films in French New Wave. The filmmakers in that period preferred greater uses of symbolism and abstraction and dealt with themes of social alienation, psychology and sexual love. They loved to make a sudden climax and end the story, and they would leave an open ending to the audience to make them define it, continue it, or conclude it. Therefore, if Mrs. Mallard should live and tell her husband the truth, or she should live, keeping pretending she is fine like she did before. In my opinion, nothing is cleverer than the original one. If the author changed the end and kept writing the story, it would create an absurd anticlimax. It would ruin the whole story the author designs elaborately. Such French writing style could make readers taste again and again.If there would be anyone in Hollywood being considered for the role of Mrs. Louise Mallard. I think, based on Mrs. Mallard’s characteristics. Elizabeth Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind” could be considered for this dramatic queen. If so, that would be fabulous!
Journal
Entering a café near my house, I found a seat in front of the counter, which could make me observe people, including clerks and the customers. I ordered a cup of Tazo, spending my whole afternoon on completing the people watching assignment.
There were 5 customers when I came here. Two of them seemed a couple, sitting in an interior recess of this café, under the romantic light, holding each other’s hands beneath the coffee table. The young guy kept talking to his girl, and the girl listened, nodding with an attractive smile.
Beside my right hand, there was a very charming female talking to her fancy red cell phone; however, she didn’t look delighted. She seemed to be complaining something, rolling her straight long hair with her fingers. One minute she shrugged her shoulders; the next minute she shook the head to emphasize her disagreement and anger.
Before this fancy lady, a young and handsome foreigner typed his laptop, drinking a glass of Frappuccino coffee. His brown hair under the soft light turned blond, and the rows of eyelashes were dense and long like a pretty doll’s, and they almost covered his blue eyeballs when he looked down on the screen. His tall and straight nose made a triangular shadow by the low-key light on his left cheek. The two fleshy lips pat lightly with each other when he murmuring the contents on the screen. He looked afar, thinking about something, and then he kept typing again. Suddenly, he raised the head, glaring at the fancy lady, who was talking loudly to her cell phone in front of him. The lady’s behavior obviously interrupted this young foreigner’s train of thought; then he stood up, walking toward her table and bent the body to express himself. The young foreigner put his right forefinger on lips gently and made his left palm downward to gesture the meaning of low voice. The lady immediately shrank her shoulders and bowed the head down, feeling embarrassed. She waved her palm lightly to show the motion that she apologized. Then, the foreigner went back to his table, drawing Frappuccino a little bit, sitting down and continued his work; unforeseeably, he stared here. I was stunned so that I diverted my attention, pretending I was focusing on the outside behind him; he, however, was still staring. I stole a glance and found that he was smiling at me. I felt awkward, giving him an ambiguous smile as a feedback, and then we both scratched our head at the same time, smiling again.
The wind bells hung on the glass door ringing, an old man wearing a dirty yellow shirt and a sordid pair of slippers entered, carrying a huge backpack and taking amount of plastic sacks in hands. He seemed like a homeless man. He hobbled toward a counterman and saying something I couldn’t hear. The counterman politely pointed his finger at me. After that, the old man walked haltingly. I astounded the destination he tempted to go to, because he was on the way to me. The young foreigner saw my odd countenance so that he turned his head to find out what was going on. He at once stood up a little, starring at the old man with wide eyes. Wondering what if this old man would say something to me, I took off my headphone, standing up as well with panic, and I holding my breath in order to his stink. In a moment, he passed by my right side and went into the bathroom behind me. I felt uncomfortable so that I got out of the café right away.
There were 5 customers when I came here. Two of them seemed a couple, sitting in an interior recess of this café, under the romantic light, holding each other’s hands beneath the coffee table. The young guy kept talking to his girl, and the girl listened, nodding with an attractive smile.
Beside my right hand, there was a very charming female talking to her fancy red cell phone; however, she didn’t look delighted. She seemed to be complaining something, rolling her straight long hair with her fingers. One minute she shrugged her shoulders; the next minute she shook the head to emphasize her disagreement and anger.
Before this fancy lady, a young and handsome foreigner typed his laptop, drinking a glass of Frappuccino coffee. His brown hair under the soft light turned blond, and the rows of eyelashes were dense and long like a pretty doll’s, and they almost covered his blue eyeballs when he looked down on the screen. His tall and straight nose made a triangular shadow by the low-key light on his left cheek. The two fleshy lips pat lightly with each other when he murmuring the contents on the screen. He looked afar, thinking about something, and then he kept typing again. Suddenly, he raised the head, glaring at the fancy lady, who was talking loudly to her cell phone in front of him. The lady’s behavior obviously interrupted this young foreigner’s train of thought; then he stood up, walking toward her table and bent the body to express himself. The young foreigner put his right forefinger on lips gently and made his left palm downward to gesture the meaning of low voice. The lady immediately shrank her shoulders and bowed the head down, feeling embarrassed. She waved her palm lightly to show the motion that she apologized. Then, the foreigner went back to his table, drawing Frappuccino a little bit, sitting down and continued his work; unforeseeably, he stared here. I was stunned so that I diverted my attention, pretending I was focusing on the outside behind him; he, however, was still staring. I stole a glance and found that he was smiling at me. I felt awkward, giving him an ambiguous smile as a feedback, and then we both scratched our head at the same time, smiling again.
The wind bells hung on the glass door ringing, an old man wearing a dirty yellow shirt and a sordid pair of slippers entered, carrying a huge backpack and taking amount of plastic sacks in hands. He seemed like a homeless man. He hobbled toward a counterman and saying something I couldn’t hear. The counterman politely pointed his finger at me. After that, the old man walked haltingly. I astounded the destination he tempted to go to, because he was on the way to me. The young foreigner saw my odd countenance so that he turned his head to find out what was going on. He at once stood up a little, starring at the old man with wide eyes. Wondering what if this old man would say something to me, I took off my headphone, standing up as well with panic, and I holding my breath in order to his stink. In a moment, he passed by my right side and went into the bathroom behind me. I felt uncomfortable so that I got out of the café right away.
Journal
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.” the poem which is composed by the greatest English poet—William Shakespeare is pretty easy to literally understand. Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more,Men were deceivers ever,One foot in sea and one on shore,To one thing constant never.Then sigh not so, but let them go,And be you blithe and bonny,Converting all your sounds of woeInto hey nonny, nonny, nonny.Sing no more ditties, sing no moreOf dumps so dull and heavy,The fraud of men was ever so,Since summer first was leafy.Then sigh not so, but let them go,And be you blithe and bonny,Converting all your sounds of woeInto hey nonny, nonny, nonny.Then sigh not so, but let them go,And be you blithe and bonny,Converting all your sounds of woeInto hey nonny, nonny, nonny.
At first, after reading, I thought the poem was quite adorable and naughty, but I was sure I took it as a simple work. It’s not just as superficial as I thought at all. I was afraid that I barely even understand it. I have to realize the master’s work or I would never read it well. Even though the poem seems easy literally, I don’t know what kind of situation it was when dear Shakespeare composed it. I thought it is important that I need to know the background, the story behind this poem back or the moment of making it; thus, I may entirely appreciate it. It is just like when we appreciate a painting or some work of art, if we know the life experiences or trivia of the author, and we will understand his work better. Otherwise, it will be just a personal, subjective and narrow statement. This way might make people have different kinds of thoughts. What we do is not appreciate. What we do is but makes a wild guess, talk about our own feelings or misconstrue the work. Because we don’t know the fact behind the master’s work, we always judge it by its one-sided cover. It is a little bit shallow to me. On the other hand, people say we can appreciate the art to make it show the different reflections of various viewers, because art itself is like a mirror. People have plenty of types of life experiences, personal feelings and tastes so that the work of art is an object. Like some filmmakers and directors say that there is no determined and conclusive idea in one good cinema, it is always in the audiences’ minds. Therefore, I think I should do the both ways, knowing the background of the poem and presenting our feelings and thoughts cautiously. Appreciating a poem takes time. Perhaps we can express ourselves right away after reading it at first time, but I think it will be too hasty and risky. It is like when we taste a glass of wine, a cup of coffee or a drop of perfume, we need some time to feel them. And probably we will have completely different thoughts of them in the next morning, in the next year or in the last period of our life. I think there is an ironic tone in Sigh No More. I like the smell and the style in Shakespeare’s works. I don’t know if I twist his works. Because I think Shakespeare likes to write the plays and compose the poems with females’ standpoint. He always reproaches the males in his plays to stand out in contrast the females’ elegance, wisdom and charisma. I usually feel Shakespeare might think females are qualified as men to lead the society. He is fond of extolling women in his works. Moreover, he loves to make his women in his plays pretend to be males. Even, those women, who pretend to be males, could allure and attract other men and women. They are the beautiful young boys. I, sometimes, think William Shakespeare had at least bisexual orientation after reading his plays, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and so on. He often puts some plots about cross-dressing or sex disorder in plays, or maybe I think too much after seeing the movie called “Shakespeare in Love.” No matter which one is true, I believe his works are avant-garde in that period. Perhaps, he just wanted to please the ladies whom he had loved. That’s all.
At first, after reading, I thought the poem was quite adorable and naughty, but I was sure I took it as a simple work. It’s not just as superficial as I thought at all. I was afraid that I barely even understand it. I have to realize the master’s work or I would never read it well. Even though the poem seems easy literally, I don’t know what kind of situation it was when dear Shakespeare composed it. I thought it is important that I need to know the background, the story behind this poem back or the moment of making it; thus, I may entirely appreciate it. It is just like when we appreciate a painting or some work of art, if we know the life experiences or trivia of the author, and we will understand his work better. Otherwise, it will be just a personal, subjective and narrow statement. This way might make people have different kinds of thoughts. What we do is not appreciate. What we do is but makes a wild guess, talk about our own feelings or misconstrue the work. Because we don’t know the fact behind the master’s work, we always judge it by its one-sided cover. It is a little bit shallow to me. On the other hand, people say we can appreciate the art to make it show the different reflections of various viewers, because art itself is like a mirror. People have plenty of types of life experiences, personal feelings and tastes so that the work of art is an object. Like some filmmakers and directors say that there is no determined and conclusive idea in one good cinema, it is always in the audiences’ minds. Therefore, I think I should do the both ways, knowing the background of the poem and presenting our feelings and thoughts cautiously. Appreciating a poem takes time. Perhaps we can express ourselves right away after reading it at first time, but I think it will be too hasty and risky. It is like when we taste a glass of wine, a cup of coffee or a drop of perfume, we need some time to feel them. And probably we will have completely different thoughts of them in the next morning, in the next year or in the last period of our life. I think there is an ironic tone in Sigh No More. I like the smell and the style in Shakespeare’s works. I don’t know if I twist his works. Because I think Shakespeare likes to write the plays and compose the poems with females’ standpoint. He always reproaches the males in his plays to stand out in contrast the females’ elegance, wisdom and charisma. I usually feel Shakespeare might think females are qualified as men to lead the society. He is fond of extolling women in his works. Moreover, he loves to make his women in his plays pretend to be males. Even, those women, who pretend to be males, could allure and attract other men and women. They are the beautiful young boys. I, sometimes, think William Shakespeare had at least bisexual orientation after reading his plays, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cymbeline, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and so on. He often puts some plots about cross-dressing or sex disorder in plays, or maybe I think too much after seeing the movie called “Shakespeare in Love.” No matter which one is true, I believe his works are avant-garde in that period. Perhaps, he just wanted to please the ladies whom he had loved. That’s all.
2010/6/14
Journal
I couldn't be absorbed in listening test this morning, being nonstop distracted by music of Carrie, Child's Play, Paper House, the Bride of Frankenstein, Baxter, and Nosferatu, stuck into my brain one after another. I closed eyes, trying to pull myself together, avoiding getting carried away, and then in coma... darn, I shouldn't spend 2 hours on music while waiting for the test to start. Thus, I think I blew it.
2010/6/10
Journal
In In House, there was another dapper waiter called 小鈞, Gloria's fave. He was the most civil and diligent server there. Funnily, he gave us the check and said "不好意思," but when he saw we were checking the original book I just bought, he sunnily said "sorry" with an impressive accent right away. After we made the whole table cloth become our own graffiti board, a slim, tall waitress showed us the counter. When she stretched her right arm to point at it, sweeping off a wine glass held in another waitress' hand. Everyone could hear the sharp and loud smash beside our toes. Obviously, we indirectly created a completely unnecessary chaos in In House last night...
Journal
For alcohol's sake, I went to In House again... with my friend, Gloria. And now, I have to tell those who fancy the waiter, described so fancily by my another friend, Amy Lin, on her Facebook, the fact. She didn't keep her eye on him precisely at first sight. Last time we saw him wearing a long face so that he seemed neat, seductive to Amy. Yet, this time Gloria and I found that if you guys see him wearing a drama queen's smile, I believe you'd change your mind ASAP even though he's wearing indelible Kenzo cologne(90% sure) when passing by. Still, I unwittingly drew a rough sketch of his right face on the table cloth when chatting with Gloria and he noticed that.
2010/5/31
RIP Dennis Hopper
No way... Another '50s Hollywood star I love fell.
Dennis Hopper died Saturday in Venice, California of prostate cancer..."He appeared in two of James Dean's three films; as one of the goons, troubling Dean's Jim Stark in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, then as Jordan Benedict III in Giant. Hopper became friends with Dean..., who died in a car accident in September of 1955, as his star was on the rise..." (IMDb) May you rest in peace, Dennis Hopper(1936 -2010). I'll always miss you, and Jimmy, and Sal, and Monty, and Paul, and Brando, and those making the golden age of Hollywood of the '50s and '60s flaming and splendid... farewell.
Dennis Hopper died Saturday in Venice, California of prostate cancer..."He appeared in two of James Dean's three films; as one of the goons, troubling Dean's Jim Stark in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, then as Jordan Benedict III in Giant. Hopper became friends with Dean..., who died in a car accident in September of 1955, as his star was on the rise..." (IMDb) May you rest in peace, Dennis Hopper(1936 -2010). I'll always miss you, and Jimmy, and Sal, and Monty, and Paul, and Brando, and those making the golden age of Hollywood of the '50s and '60s flaming and splendid... farewell.
2010/5/24
Journal
When I was still hesitating about if I should really buy the original film theory book in 信義誠品, turning around and found that there was a god damn familiar young man behind me. No way~ he's my heroic Taiwanese director—林書宇!!! I couldn't believe what I saw and went to ask him, "請問你是林書宇嗎?" Because I was too nervous to say his name correctly, I said 林宇書 (due to 吳宇舒 again...) at first time when asking. Like meeting 戴立忍 in front of the male toilet in National Theatre Hall and 馮翊綱 in front of 台一湯圓 in 公館, I saw their responses were literally the same after asking them if they were 戴立忍/馮翊綱/林書宇. They might pause for almost 5 seconds and then admitted. I wanna tell 林書宇 how much I love his 九降風. Yet suddenly I couldn't specifically explain the reason why I love it so much. My expressing function was totally shut down. What I could say was "I love it! I love it! I really I did! There are seldom Taiwanese films I can enjoy, and one is yours..." like I was losing my mind. Thus, What he put the words before his autograph were "謝謝你這麼愛九降風..." I knew he would never get HOW MUCH I love it if I didn't tell him. I said thoughtlessly that I loved the impressive and puzzling edit technique in 九降風. Yet, I noticed there was a tiny twitch between his brows, and I thought damn... I must say something very wrong. As what I expected, the edit technique is not 林書宇's main charge, it's 陳曉東's… I flattered the wrong guy. I think I should say "海角七號 is full of shit" to make him feel better even if he was extremely polite, nice and gave us his business card. After that, he was going to buy Sight & Sound magazine, waiting for his wife I guessed... alas~ too late to butter him up again.
2010/4/25
Journal
At last, I got to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, walking toward the Performing Arts Library. Woefully, it was not open this morning so that I had no choice but having my breakfast first. Because I had to wait until the library opened at twelve o’clock, I decided to eat at the MOS Hamburger for brunch. This MOS beside the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall was an outside restaurant; thus, there were always a crowd of birds flying back and forth. Sitting outsides, I enjoyed my delicate hamburger, full of plenty of jade-green lettuces, a piece of think and juicy beef with a spoon of dense sauce. Gradually, the gloom and doom in my heart dispersed. I could feel my heart beating. I raised my head and saw the sun come out of the overcast clouds. The dazzling sunshine enlivened the greens. The oily-smooth leaves on the tops of branches turned into gorgeous decorative lights. The grizzled butterflies strewing around the air were like white flakes.
When I was enjoying the fresh moment, there were several sparrows coming down and gathered beside my table. I was delighted, peeling a slice of hamburger, and threw to them. One of these sparrows vied to be first, skipping to hold the slice of bread in mouth, and fluttered to the sky. Others tried to pursue him. Less than one minute later, a large flock flied swiftly downward. I was stunned. I was personally on the amazing scene in The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Every pair of sharp eyes covetously stared at the hamburger in my hand. I attempted to bait them, pretending I was peeling another slice and throwing toward them. At once, the whole flock moved fast as a dark tornado, malicious and brutal. They all swooped down and found that there was nothing on the ground. They started to be disturbed. Some were still seeking. Some were gazing at me with offensive eyes. I felt victorious when seeing such a hilarious scene.
At the same time, I believed this was the way God tricked with human beings, just like how the gods on the top of Mount Olympus treated the mortal men in the Greek mythology. Suddenly, I recalled the dog I met in front of my house early that morning—did we look on God as the dog begged me? The sun, gradually, was not delighted to me any longer. The daylight near noon began to burn my eyes and skins. Having a whirling sensation and a tendency to fall, I felt weary so that I waved my both hands, trying to drive the annoying feeling away. These sparrows, as pulsating dried leaves spreading all over, were alarmed and sweeping with a dust storm. The sands and dirt spun and I barely even breathed. Seeing a blur, I moved fast to leave my table and food. I walked toward the Performing Arts Library in the parking lot in the basement, shading the light like a dagger.
Before the library opening, I was waiting in the basement. In a little while, I felt I was in the cave from Plato’s allegory. I was not as grand as Socrates, released from the chains, coming out from a cavernous chamber underground and faced directly to reality under the sun, the Goodness. I was like the other prisoners, too dazzled to make out the objects whose shadows they had been used to see in the underground, turning back to the things which they could see distinctly. I was forced to look at the fire-light itself, the cruel world, making my eyes ache, so that I might try to escape. Now, like in the damp and sultry vault, there was an administrator at long last arriving to open the entry to the library. Getting inside, I was lost in thought.
When I was enjoying the fresh moment, there were several sparrows coming down and gathered beside my table. I was delighted, peeling a slice of hamburger, and threw to them. One of these sparrows vied to be first, skipping to hold the slice of bread in mouth, and fluttered to the sky. Others tried to pursue him. Less than one minute later, a large flock flied swiftly downward. I was stunned. I was personally on the amazing scene in The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Every pair of sharp eyes covetously stared at the hamburger in my hand. I attempted to bait them, pretending I was peeling another slice and throwing toward them. At once, the whole flock moved fast as a dark tornado, malicious and brutal. They all swooped down and found that there was nothing on the ground. They started to be disturbed. Some were still seeking. Some were gazing at me with offensive eyes. I felt victorious when seeing such a hilarious scene.
At the same time, I believed this was the way God tricked with human beings, just like how the gods on the top of Mount Olympus treated the mortal men in the Greek mythology. Suddenly, I recalled the dog I met in front of my house early that morning—did we look on God as the dog begged me? The sun, gradually, was not delighted to me any longer. The daylight near noon began to burn my eyes and skins. Having a whirling sensation and a tendency to fall, I felt weary so that I waved my both hands, trying to drive the annoying feeling away. These sparrows, as pulsating dried leaves spreading all over, were alarmed and sweeping with a dust storm. The sands and dirt spun and I barely even breathed. Seeing a blur, I moved fast to leave my table and food. I walked toward the Performing Arts Library in the parking lot in the basement, shading the light like a dagger.
Before the library opening, I was waiting in the basement. In a little while, I felt I was in the cave from Plato’s allegory. I was not as grand as Socrates, released from the chains, coming out from a cavernous chamber underground and faced directly to reality under the sun, the Goodness. I was like the other prisoners, too dazzled to make out the objects whose shadows they had been used to see in the underground, turning back to the things which they could see distinctly. I was forced to look at the fire-light itself, the cruel world, making my eyes ache, so that I might try to escape. Now, like in the damp and sultry vault, there was an administrator at long last arriving to open the entry to the library. Getting inside, I was lost in thought.
2010/4/14
Journal 1
“Ring…” It’s the alarm clock I set last night. I stretched out my arm, trying to stop it ringing again. It’s Sunday and I plan to go to the Performing Arts Library of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to borrow some musical DVDs. I got up in a hurry, and brushed my teeth, washed my face and dressed quietly. Before going out of the house, I spied on my parents out of their bedroom to make sure if I had woken them up rudely. Then, I walked on tiptoe with a grinding sound from the wooden floor, wearing shoes and closed the door carefully. I stepped out of my house, picking up the headphones and selecting the film soundtracks in my MP3.
The music I was listening to was the soundtracks of Notes on a Scandal with minimal with the extreme simplification of rhythms by Philip Glass, who composed the soundtracks of The Hours. The gloomy melody started to shape my suppressed feeling. Listening to this music was like wearing a pair of blue lenses to see the world today. The street in front of my house was almost empty. There were still some puddles on the ground. It seemed to have rained last midnight, no wonder why it was so dim and faint. There was a dog with his dispirited tail trying to lick the little rainwater. After drinking a bit, he raised his head, staring at me with his flattering tail. From his tragic eyes, I could tell he was begging for food. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t had my breakfast either.” muttered I. I kept walking, trying to escape his poor figure.
On the MRT, I found a seat which could make me see the view from the overhead railroad. There were some people on the street; however, only could I see their tops of heads. In the meantime, there was a bizarre thought through my brain: “Was it the way that the omniscient God could see? Did God watch people coming back and forth every single day with such bird-eye view? Could he see through people?” Even though I could never read their minds from here, I already thought human beings were all pathetic when seeing them in a rush and in a muddle. I, sometimes, observe such hilarious scene with a cold eye. Unfortunately, I was a part in it.
As a result, I could not endure the view any more. I turned round my head and saw a family with two kids getting on the train. Obviously, their destination was the Taipei City Zoo. The lovely kids whose faces were filled with exultation, and immediately, they attracted the passengers’ attentions. Some kind ladies stood up, motioning to give seats to them. The parents showed the gratefulness to thank the ladies’ goodwill. The grantors and grantees made the scene in the carriage warm and fragrant. After the train arriving at the next station, a senior hunchback came in. All of a sudden, there was a strong offensive stink assailing my nostrils. The countenances of others were distorted, and some of them dodging and leaved him. The spaces around the old man were soon expanded. The situation put him to shame directly. “What a nasty smell, Mom!” whined one of the angelical children. It was so loud that I could hear it even when I wore the headphones. The other beautiful child grimaced to humiliate him, pinching his nose absurdly. The elegant woman at once tried to stop her children’s noticeable behaviors with a hypocritical smile. Other passengers gave both of them some tender glances. The old hunchback, like a poor outcast, got off the strain, bowing the head. I did not think this was the station he wanted to arrive at, but he, without a doubt, fled from the cruel world. Subsequently, some passengers began to whisper. Some moved back, sitting on their previous seats. The tense atmosphere started to relieve. Until the door of the train opened again, the first thing everyone did was to breathe deeply, or to get off right away.
The music I was listening to was the soundtracks of Notes on a Scandal with minimal with the extreme simplification of rhythms by Philip Glass, who composed the soundtracks of The Hours. The gloomy melody started to shape my suppressed feeling. Listening to this music was like wearing a pair of blue lenses to see the world today. The street in front of my house was almost empty. There were still some puddles on the ground. It seemed to have rained last midnight, no wonder why it was so dim and faint. There was a dog with his dispirited tail trying to lick the little rainwater. After drinking a bit, he raised his head, staring at me with his flattering tail. From his tragic eyes, I could tell he was begging for food. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t had my breakfast either.” muttered I. I kept walking, trying to escape his poor figure.
On the MRT, I found a seat which could make me see the view from the overhead railroad. There were some people on the street; however, only could I see their tops of heads. In the meantime, there was a bizarre thought through my brain: “Was it the way that the omniscient God could see? Did God watch people coming back and forth every single day with such bird-eye view? Could he see through people?” Even though I could never read their minds from here, I already thought human beings were all pathetic when seeing them in a rush and in a muddle. I, sometimes, observe such hilarious scene with a cold eye. Unfortunately, I was a part in it.
As a result, I could not endure the view any more. I turned round my head and saw a family with two kids getting on the train. Obviously, their destination was the Taipei City Zoo. The lovely kids whose faces were filled with exultation, and immediately, they attracted the passengers’ attentions. Some kind ladies stood up, motioning to give seats to them. The parents showed the gratefulness to thank the ladies’ goodwill. The grantors and grantees made the scene in the carriage warm and fragrant. After the train arriving at the next station, a senior hunchback came in. All of a sudden, there was a strong offensive stink assailing my nostrils. The countenances of others were distorted, and some of them dodging and leaved him. The spaces around the old man were soon expanded. The situation put him to shame directly. “What a nasty smell, Mom!” whined one of the angelical children. It was so loud that I could hear it even when I wore the headphones. The other beautiful child grimaced to humiliate him, pinching his nose absurdly. The elegant woman at once tried to stop her children’s noticeable behaviors with a hypocritical smile. Other passengers gave both of them some tender glances. The old hunchback, like a poor outcast, got off the strain, bowing the head. I did not think this was the station he wanted to arrive at, but he, without a doubt, fled from the cruel world. Subsequently, some passengers began to whisper. Some moved back, sitting on their previous seats. The tense atmosphere started to relieve. Until the door of the train opened again, the first thing everyone did was to breathe deeply, or to get off right away.
2010/1/19
The Reflection of What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath (2000) is a psychological thriller which is about a middle-age couple. It portrays that a couple who seem so happy together but, because of a sequence of unknown and weird things, the horrible truth is revealed.
Robert Zemeckis, the director, is good at film techniques, using the characteristics of the heroine from Rosemary's Baby and the classic plots from Rear Window, Psycho, and The Shining in What Lies Beneath. He tries to display such thriller genre with the elements in the time period of Alfred Hitchcock to the present audience. By a simple story he builds a mild, slow tempo at the first time, making it into an inflammable, drastic situation with Hitchcockian music composed by Alan Silvestri. He makes the cliché story, by tremendously stylistic camera movements, suspended.
Than saying Zemeckis mimics Hitchcock's gimmicks, I would rather say Hitchcock's tricks are exalted by him. In recent years, plenty of thrillers appeared, especially young American kinds; those are with incomplete composition, shallow characters, sanguinary scenes, and the intentional twist in the end, which have already became the common labels and the audience have got tired of them. Instead, What Lies Beneath used a few special effects and the ghost scenes to start a panic which can easily make audience heart attack.
Even though, in What Lies Beneath, the director still frightens his audience by using sudden sounds and formulaic scare in some parts, those are sturdy and basic equipments to maintain the pace in the film, like the presentation of the ghost in the beginning to make the audience awake when the movie portraying and foreshadowing the plot at first. With the slow progress, some branches of the story confusing the audience are gradually closured; then, the whole movie abruptly drives the plot towards the climax, raising the audience's curiosity on the road to the top tier. The last thirty minutes of the movie, which is the extreme climax, is brilliant, making me too flustered to barely even breathe until the satisfied ending.
What Lies Beneath is a successful entertaining work with high quality; from it, we can see the complete plot of a play, deep characterization, actress' hearty acting, the perfect harmony between shooting/composition and editing/pace, and the considerable and creative mirror scenes as the ways in Psycho. The director not merely arranges various kinds of brilliant film techniques in it to achieve the blockbuster but pay Hitchcock homage as well.
Robert Zemeckis, the director, is good at film techniques, using the characteristics of the heroine from Rosemary's Baby and the classic plots from Rear Window, Psycho, and The Shining in What Lies Beneath. He tries to display such thriller genre with the elements in the time period of Alfred Hitchcock to the present audience. By a simple story he builds a mild, slow tempo at the first time, making it into an inflammable, drastic situation with Hitchcockian music composed by Alan Silvestri. He makes the cliché story, by tremendously stylistic camera movements, suspended.
Than saying Zemeckis mimics Hitchcock's gimmicks, I would rather say Hitchcock's tricks are exalted by him. In recent years, plenty of thrillers appeared, especially young American kinds; those are with incomplete composition, shallow characters, sanguinary scenes, and the intentional twist in the end, which have already became the common labels and the audience have got tired of them. Instead, What Lies Beneath used a few special effects and the ghost scenes to start a panic which can easily make audience heart attack.
Even though, in What Lies Beneath, the director still frightens his audience by using sudden sounds and formulaic scare in some parts, those are sturdy and basic equipments to maintain the pace in the film, like the presentation of the ghost in the beginning to make the audience awake when the movie portraying and foreshadowing the plot at first. With the slow progress, some branches of the story confusing the audience are gradually closured; then, the whole movie abruptly drives the plot towards the climax, raising the audience's curiosity on the road to the top tier. The last thirty minutes of the movie, which is the extreme climax, is brilliant, making me too flustered to barely even breathe until the satisfied ending.
What Lies Beneath is a successful entertaining work with high quality; from it, we can see the complete plot of a play, deep characterization, actress' hearty acting, the perfect harmony between shooting/composition and editing/pace, and the considerable and creative mirror scenes as the ways in Psycho. The director not merely arranges various kinds of brilliant film techniques in it to achieve the blockbuster but pay Hitchcock homage as well.
The Reflection of The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight gets high opinions from the press to the reviewers, so no one can deny that it is the most outstanding film of American hero in recent years, excluding me.
TDK is surely an ambitious and meaningful cinema. Like other Batman movies, such as Batman (1989), which shows homage to Godfather, and Batman Returns (1992), which nods to Citizen Kane, TDK is filled with struggles between sinister gangs, the villain bulling around on the street, the sinister gangs kill the justice against them. It is almost a kind of early gangster film genre like The Untouchables and L.A. Confidential. The plot of the collusion between both sides of the law to cause such situation like there is no one can trust makes me recall Cop Land and Street Kings. And the plot that the Joker forces Batman to make a choice to save Harvey Dent or Bruce Wayne's girlfriend is also like the designs in Superman and Spiderman.
I think the director, Christopher Nolan, uses the formalistic subject to present the realistic style. Unlike other Batman movies in the past, especially Tim Burton's and Joel Schumacher's, the shot, the light, the set, the composition, and the music tend to low key. To me, as a crazy buff of Batman movies, dislike it at all. I fancy Tim Burton's versions, because he uses expressionist style to show the feature of Gotham city. I believe it is the best way to represent the Batman genre. After all, Nolan said that he wants to avoid his Batman to be like the way in Burton’s, because he knows no matter how he tries, he would never be better that Burton.
Besides, in TDK the shooting script seems a little negligent, because there are jump-cuts in some sequences, especially the mise en scéne of action parts; after the premiere of TDK, Nolan admitted he was not good at it.
I think the sequence of murdering the sheriff and the justice in TDK mimics the most classic parallel editing in Godfather, and the sequence of saving Harvey Dent and Batman's girlfriend by using the technique of the crossing-montage is definitely from the idea of “Griffith's last-minute rescue” in The Birth of a Nation (1915).
However, Heath Ledger's Joker lacks the Joker's archetype in comics, which is savage, bantering, elegant, perverse, dominating, sophisticated and shrewd, like Jack Nicholson’s version in Batman (1989). Moreover, in Burton's Batman, it is interesting that Batman and the Joker have a relationship which is “Jake Napier makes Bruce Wayne become Batman, and Batman turns Jake Napier into the Joker;” yet, in TDK, there is no such subtle kinship between them. It is a pity! Also, the murder by the Joker using a pen to kill in TDK, unlike the way of the murder in Batman by using a quill to kill, is not brilliant enough. And the dialogues in Batman are more classic and cleverer than in TDK.The interesting thing in it is when I see Christian Bale as Batman living between Bruce Wayne, the multimillionaire, and Batman, the dark knight, makes me review Patrick Bateman in the Slasher American Psycho (2000), who is charming, well educated and intelligent, working by day on Wall Street, but at night he descends into madness, being soulless and insane. Another interesting thing makes me curious is when Bruce Wayne asks Lucius Fox that whether the new Batman suit could protect him from dogs or not, Fox said “We talking Rottweilers or Chihuahuas? Should do fine against cats.” Is it on purpose that Nolan want to hint there will be Catwoman in his Batman part three? After all, there won't be Batman’s girlfriend in part three, because she died in the end in TDK; thus, the writers of the screenplay are going to create a new heroine. The flameless representation of Catwoman in my mind is Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, and I hope Nolan won't let Angelina Jolie play it, because she would ruin this prominent role in Batman series.
TDK is surely an ambitious and meaningful cinema. Like other Batman movies, such as Batman (1989), which shows homage to Godfather, and Batman Returns (1992), which nods to Citizen Kane, TDK is filled with struggles between sinister gangs, the villain bulling around on the street, the sinister gangs kill the justice against them. It is almost a kind of early gangster film genre like The Untouchables and L.A. Confidential. The plot of the collusion between both sides of the law to cause such situation like there is no one can trust makes me recall Cop Land and Street Kings. And the plot that the Joker forces Batman to make a choice to save Harvey Dent or Bruce Wayne's girlfriend is also like the designs in Superman and Spiderman.
I think the director, Christopher Nolan, uses the formalistic subject to present the realistic style. Unlike other Batman movies in the past, especially Tim Burton's and Joel Schumacher's, the shot, the light, the set, the composition, and the music tend to low key. To me, as a crazy buff of Batman movies, dislike it at all. I fancy Tim Burton's versions, because he uses expressionist style to show the feature of Gotham city. I believe it is the best way to represent the Batman genre. After all, Nolan said that he wants to avoid his Batman to be like the way in Burton’s, because he knows no matter how he tries, he would never be better that Burton.
Besides, in TDK the shooting script seems a little negligent, because there are jump-cuts in some sequences, especially the mise en scéne of action parts; after the premiere of TDK, Nolan admitted he was not good at it.
I think the sequence of murdering the sheriff and the justice in TDK mimics the most classic parallel editing in Godfather, and the sequence of saving Harvey Dent and Batman's girlfriend by using the technique of the crossing-montage is definitely from the idea of “Griffith's last-minute rescue” in The Birth of a Nation (1915).
However, Heath Ledger's Joker lacks the Joker's archetype in comics, which is savage, bantering, elegant, perverse, dominating, sophisticated and shrewd, like Jack Nicholson’s version in Batman (1989). Moreover, in Burton's Batman, it is interesting that Batman and the Joker have a relationship which is “Jake Napier makes Bruce Wayne become Batman, and Batman turns Jake Napier into the Joker;” yet, in TDK, there is no such subtle kinship between them. It is a pity! Also, the murder by the Joker using a pen to kill in TDK, unlike the way of the murder in Batman by using a quill to kill, is not brilliant enough. And the dialogues in Batman are more classic and cleverer than in TDK.The interesting thing in it is when I see Christian Bale as Batman living between Bruce Wayne, the multimillionaire, and Batman, the dark knight, makes me review Patrick Bateman in the Slasher American Psycho (2000), who is charming, well educated and intelligent, working by day on Wall Street, but at night he descends into madness, being soulless and insane. Another interesting thing makes me curious is when Bruce Wayne asks Lucius Fox that whether the new Batman suit could protect him from dogs or not, Fox said “We talking Rottweilers or Chihuahuas? Should do fine against cats.” Is it on purpose that Nolan want to hint there will be Catwoman in his Batman part three? After all, there won't be Batman’s girlfriend in part three, because she died in the end in TDK; thus, the writers of the screenplay are going to create a new heroine. The flameless representation of Catwoman in my mind is Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, and I hope Nolan won't let Angelina Jolie play it, because she would ruin this prominent role in Batman series.
The Reflection of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Even though The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in Chinese title is named “the fantastic journey of Benjamin Button,” the life of the hero is not fantastic at all. The only difference in his life from other people is he ages backwards with bizarre consequences. However, no matter what kind of life it is, aging forward or backward, the destinations of life are the same, dying. “You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.” It is captain Mike’s dying words when he holding Benjamin Button’s hand on the ship. This quote could conclude everything in the film; it means striving hard when we live and without regret, and until the last time of our life, we have to take a brave heart to face death.
David Fincher, the director, always teaches his audience the meaning the life in his films, such as Se7en, the Game, Fight Club, and Zodiac. Those works talk about the same motif, which is “seize the day.”
This movie makes me recall Forest Gump. They are similar in the stories, which are the heroes pass by the every landmark in American history; however, the different part is Forest Gump uses his own point of view to see the world, but in CCBB, there are a number of people interpreting the meaning of life.
Even though from reviewer to the press have said CCBB is a masterpiece, I don’t like it at all. The story uses the sequences of the landmarks in the history to string every point in Benjamin Button’s life. It makes not merely the story to widen the field of the sight in CCBB intentionally but strengthen the color of Benjamin Button’s incredible legend as well; yet, Fincher, who is used to film music videos, makes the hero’s characteristics too simple, impersonal and tame but makes the story full of introspective and inspiring mottos. I cannot see those sayings have any relation to Benjamin Button in the movie, because he never changes his personality or thought after learning them from others. It seems that there is a huge gap between the mottos and Benjamin Button’s living style. Moreover, the fast tempo in CCBB causes Fincher cannot manage well the profound and meaningful plots the movie tries to present, and thus I only can see it remains a routine and day-to-day diary to read.
Additionally, the sequence of introducing the rest home by Brad Pitt’s voice-over makes me recall the sequence of introducing the support groups in Fight Club by Edward Norton’s voice-over. At last, I think David Fincher forsakes the sharp tone, the rebellious stroke, and the elaborate and pretentious long takes which are his favorite to present in past works, using the soft focus effect, filter and backlighting to film such tedious, old fashioned mystery.
David Fincher, the director, always teaches his audience the meaning the life in his films, such as Se7en, the Game, Fight Club, and Zodiac. Those works talk about the same motif, which is “seize the day.”
This movie makes me recall Forest Gump. They are similar in the stories, which are the heroes pass by the every landmark in American history; however, the different part is Forest Gump uses his own point of view to see the world, but in CCBB, there are a number of people interpreting the meaning of life.
Even though from reviewer to the press have said CCBB is a masterpiece, I don’t like it at all. The story uses the sequences of the landmarks in the history to string every point in Benjamin Button’s life. It makes not merely the story to widen the field of the sight in CCBB intentionally but strengthen the color of Benjamin Button’s incredible legend as well; yet, Fincher, who is used to film music videos, makes the hero’s characteristics too simple, impersonal and tame but makes the story full of introspective and inspiring mottos. I cannot see those sayings have any relation to Benjamin Button in the movie, because he never changes his personality or thought after learning them from others. It seems that there is a huge gap between the mottos and Benjamin Button’s living style. Moreover, the fast tempo in CCBB causes Fincher cannot manage well the profound and meaningful plots the movie tries to present, and thus I only can see it remains a routine and day-to-day diary to read.
Additionally, the sequence of introducing the rest home by Brad Pitt’s voice-over makes me recall the sequence of introducing the support groups in Fight Club by Edward Norton’s voice-over. At last, I think David Fincher forsakes the sharp tone, the rebellious stroke, and the elaborate and pretentious long takes which are his favorite to present in past works, using the soft focus effect, filter and backlighting to film such tedious, old fashioned mystery.
2010/1/18
The Reflection of Turtles Can Fly
The director of Turtles Can Fly is very good at presenting underclass characters in struggles and dangerous situations by using various meanings of camera shots. His characteristics in shooting and montage are simple, strong and somber.
In the first scene, the girl Agrin goes to the edge of high cliff, looking down, and then turning her head and the destination she looks back is the frame of the left; the next shot is there is an upside-down reflection in the lake that a person wearing a dark rob or a black cloak, looking like Death, walking from the frame of the right to the left, then throwing a stone to the right side. According to the Soviet montage theory, through the juxtaposition of two shots, new meanings can be created. The two successive different images are based on the reasonable and logical display. After seeing this movie, we may finally realize the meaning of the first scene, and maybe we can say the girl retrospects and recalls the behavior that she makes the baby drowned. Yet, remember the scene that what she tries to hold is a rock, not a stone. So that maybe it is not correct to say the upside-down reflection in the lake is the review in her mind. We should analyze the scene that because of the girl's experiences, which are she being raped and murdering her son, she feels deeply blameworthy. She thinks she is filthy after being raped, and is guilty because of murdering her own son. If we use the religious view of point, such female who has committed murder and sexual abuse should be thrown by stone to death by all the people. Therefore, she is going to kill herself to atone her sins. According to Mannerism, in a landscape painting the near the top of the frame can suggest ideas dealing with power and authority. On the contrary, the areas near the bottom of the frame tend to subservience, weakness, and powerless. Objects and figures placed in the bottom seem to be in danger and be dominated by those above. A landscape is seldom divided horizontally at the midpoint of a composition; otherwise, the sky would appear to oppress the earth. And the director of this movie creates the disturbing effects by letting the sky dominate heavily over the bottom. So in the scene by the high-angle shot, the unknown and mysterious view of sky like a cloak veils the little girl and the faded trees near the bottom, making everything repressed, bleak and helpless, foreshadowing the story will be about some desperate destiny. Such meaning by using high-angle shot in this movie presents at least 25 times. And when the girl jumping from the high cliff, the director uses the slow motion and fade-out to present the insecure shot, and then displaying everything from the beginning. The scene Agrin jumping is a strong main motif of this film. Every plot almost circles it around until the motif is finally revealed. After blacking the scene the movie title is shown. It is also an undertone that the title presented just after the jumping shot. We can also analyze it that the girl is like a turtle full of burdens and tries to find freedom, which means suicide and absolving. Moreover, I think the turtle mean the land mines. Not only does the mine looks like a turtle from the appearance, but also the image that even though those mines are hurtful to children, children might still take them as trading products. Mines are lethal burdens like heavy shells to children in daily lives, and yet mines are also things to keep them earning money and living safely like giving them wings to fly. So poetic and ironic!
The director likes to use the telephoto lens to get Agrin's close-up from extreme distance, producing the atmospheric effect that is used for symbolic meaning. The objects placed before and beyond that distance blur, go out of the focus formalistically. Therefore, we can clearly and only pay attention to her struggle observed form her facial appearance.
The director follows the way that the Italian directors after WWII liked to use the nonprofessional performers to prove the reality of the local society. But we have to distinct the difference between realism and reality. Realism is a particular style, and the physical reality is the source of all the raw materials of film, both realistic and formalistic. Therefore, as we can see from at least 25 high-contrast-angle shots and frequent Agrin's close-up, the director of Turtles Can Fly shapes and manipulates the reality to make the movie formalistic. In 4 sections which are Satellite takes plenty of radios to exchange a satellite, going to the cartridge ground, buying weapons in the market, and the panic first-person point of view of the armless boy searching for his sister, the director still wants to show the documentary way by hand-held shots based on realism. And sometimes, using bird's-eye shots at the moment of destiny's greatest impact in Turtles Can Fly make us to hover above a scene like all-powerful God. The refugees photographed seem ant-like and insignificant. Besides, in order to highlight the status of Satellite in crowd, the director uses the obvious low-angle shot in every scene. And when the American armies invade their country, the camera shoots the tanks by extreme low-angle shot. Except using the high-contrast angle shots, in most time the scenes in the movie are always filmed by child's eye-level shots, making audience to use their innocent perspectives to observe their brutal world.
Also, the director presents the two triangles in the composition which are the one Satellite and his two charming followers and the other the armless boy, Agrin and her baby. Using triangular designs visually, the film deals with the two sets of trio of characters whose relationships are shifty and interrelated. Moreover, isolated figures and objects, like the armless boy and Agrin, tend to be heavier than others in a group in images. The armless boy and his sister move away from the camera very frequently. Such movement away from the camera tends to mean being weak, fearful, suspicious, and remote from others in the movie and from audience. So such movement arouses other characters and audience's curiosity to find out their backgrounds, making the armless boy's family become a main motif in this movie.In this movie, the scenes the characters move from right to left mean they are active, energetic, and hopeful, like the beginning Satellite talking to the elder on the hill, Satellite pursuing Agrin on the road, and so on. On the other hand, the scenes the characters move from left to right intend to they are desperate, frustrated, and hopeless, such as the scene that in the first shot Agrin going to jump from the cliff, and the final shot that Satellite is disappointed to everything, moving away from the camera. And there is a scene in the beginning that an elder whining that their lives are in misery. The elder moves out of the depth of the scene in an uninterrupted long take, making us feel slow, tedious, hopeless and restless as the elder feels.
Therefore, the director not merely wants to present a realistic misery in the story, but using strong and formalistic style to display the visual techniques intensify the meanings of the story as well.
In the first scene, the girl Agrin goes to the edge of high cliff, looking down, and then turning her head and the destination she looks back is the frame of the left; the next shot is there is an upside-down reflection in the lake that a person wearing a dark rob or a black cloak, looking like Death, walking from the frame of the right to the left, then throwing a stone to the right side. According to the Soviet montage theory, through the juxtaposition of two shots, new meanings can be created. The two successive different images are based on the reasonable and logical display. After seeing this movie, we may finally realize the meaning of the first scene, and maybe we can say the girl retrospects and recalls the behavior that she makes the baby drowned. Yet, remember the scene that what she tries to hold is a rock, not a stone. So that maybe it is not correct to say the upside-down reflection in the lake is the review in her mind. We should analyze the scene that because of the girl's experiences, which are she being raped and murdering her son, she feels deeply blameworthy. She thinks she is filthy after being raped, and is guilty because of murdering her own son. If we use the religious view of point, such female who has committed murder and sexual abuse should be thrown by stone to death by all the people. Therefore, she is going to kill herself to atone her sins. According to Mannerism, in a landscape painting the near the top of the frame can suggest ideas dealing with power and authority. On the contrary, the areas near the bottom of the frame tend to subservience, weakness, and powerless. Objects and figures placed in the bottom seem to be in danger and be dominated by those above. A landscape is seldom divided horizontally at the midpoint of a composition; otherwise, the sky would appear to oppress the earth. And the director of this movie creates the disturbing effects by letting the sky dominate heavily over the bottom. So in the scene by the high-angle shot, the unknown and mysterious view of sky like a cloak veils the little girl and the faded trees near the bottom, making everything repressed, bleak and helpless, foreshadowing the story will be about some desperate destiny. Such meaning by using high-angle shot in this movie presents at least 25 times. And when the girl jumping from the high cliff, the director uses the slow motion and fade-out to present the insecure shot, and then displaying everything from the beginning. The scene Agrin jumping is a strong main motif of this film. Every plot almost circles it around until the motif is finally revealed. After blacking the scene the movie title is shown. It is also an undertone that the title presented just after the jumping shot. We can also analyze it that the girl is like a turtle full of burdens and tries to find freedom, which means suicide and absolving. Moreover, I think the turtle mean the land mines. Not only does the mine looks like a turtle from the appearance, but also the image that even though those mines are hurtful to children, children might still take them as trading products. Mines are lethal burdens like heavy shells to children in daily lives, and yet mines are also things to keep them earning money and living safely like giving them wings to fly. So poetic and ironic!
The director likes to use the telephoto lens to get Agrin's close-up from extreme distance, producing the atmospheric effect that is used for symbolic meaning. The objects placed before and beyond that distance blur, go out of the focus formalistically. Therefore, we can clearly and only pay attention to her struggle observed form her facial appearance.
The director follows the way that the Italian directors after WWII liked to use the nonprofessional performers to prove the reality of the local society. But we have to distinct the difference between realism and reality. Realism is a particular style, and the physical reality is the source of all the raw materials of film, both realistic and formalistic. Therefore, as we can see from at least 25 high-contrast-angle shots and frequent Agrin's close-up, the director of Turtles Can Fly shapes and manipulates the reality to make the movie formalistic. In 4 sections which are Satellite takes plenty of radios to exchange a satellite, going to the cartridge ground, buying weapons in the market, and the panic first-person point of view of the armless boy searching for his sister, the director still wants to show the documentary way by hand-held shots based on realism. And sometimes, using bird's-eye shots at the moment of destiny's greatest impact in Turtles Can Fly make us to hover above a scene like all-powerful God. The refugees photographed seem ant-like and insignificant. Besides, in order to highlight the status of Satellite in crowd, the director uses the obvious low-angle shot in every scene. And when the American armies invade their country, the camera shoots the tanks by extreme low-angle shot. Except using the high-contrast angle shots, in most time the scenes in the movie are always filmed by child's eye-level shots, making audience to use their innocent perspectives to observe their brutal world.
Also, the director presents the two triangles in the composition which are the one Satellite and his two charming followers and the other the armless boy, Agrin and her baby. Using triangular designs visually, the film deals with the two sets of trio of characters whose relationships are shifty and interrelated. Moreover, isolated figures and objects, like the armless boy and Agrin, tend to be heavier than others in a group in images. The armless boy and his sister move away from the camera very frequently. Such movement away from the camera tends to mean being weak, fearful, suspicious, and remote from others in the movie and from audience. So such movement arouses other characters and audience's curiosity to find out their backgrounds, making the armless boy's family become a main motif in this movie.In this movie, the scenes the characters move from right to left mean they are active, energetic, and hopeful, like the beginning Satellite talking to the elder on the hill, Satellite pursuing Agrin on the road, and so on. On the other hand, the scenes the characters move from left to right intend to they are desperate, frustrated, and hopeless, such as the scene that in the first shot Agrin going to jump from the cliff, and the final shot that Satellite is disappointed to everything, moving away from the camera. And there is a scene in the beginning that an elder whining that their lives are in misery. The elder moves out of the depth of the scene in an uninterrupted long take, making us feel slow, tedious, hopeless and restless as the elder feels.
Therefore, the director not merely wants to present a realistic misery in the story, but using strong and formalistic style to display the visual techniques intensify the meanings of the story as well.
2010/1/6
The Reflection of Misery
Misery (1990) tells a story that a famous writer is rescued by a crazy big female fan after a serious car accident; she takes him home, comforting him, and she won't let him go, asking him to rewrite the work which can make her touching; otherwise, he would never be free. It is based on one of the best novels of Stephen King. Unlike other King's works, full of ghosts, aliens, monsters or supernatural things, the frighten parts may happen in the real world, so it would be more easily to make ourselves indulge in the story, experiencing the same tortures on the body and mental pressures. Sharing with the same identity of the character with huge numbers of book fans, King puts his most panic nightmare into the story.
Rob Reiner, the director, has shot a well-known teenager adventure movie called Stand by Me (1986), based on King's another novel, The Body; he becomes one of the rare directors who are able to control King's stories. Misery is a grave thriller, so Reiner changes his narrative style, presenting the bleak and panic atmosphere like the novel does, instead of the warm and filling with surprises in Stand by Me.
Because of the plot the female character keeps the writer in captivity in her house, most of the scenes happen indoor in Misery, most of time the story focusing on the interaction between both. The simple scenes won't make the audience tedious, because the relationship between them is unpredictable; we may think the way to escape the psycho's house with the male character. With the fugitive personality of the sick woman, the nervous feelings would drive us insane. It is like a cat catches a mouse, no matter how clever the ways to escape he thinks, she will always know how to catch him back.
The brilliant interaction between the characters is thanks to not merely the good play to portray the heroes deeply but the splendid acting of Kathy Bates. She is the rare actress winning the Oscar in a leading role by such notorious character, smiling like an innocent child and outraged as a lion. So, mostly, it is she to make Misery as a stunning work.
The Final Task
Q1. How do you like the weekly writing prompts? Are they interesting or boring? Inspirational or weird? Are they related to your life? Can you suggest anything better and give some examples?
A1. At first, I really felt that such tasks dear Doris asked are extremely tedious and burdensome. I couldn't understand why I had to complete these assignments even though we had been told to write weekly journals. After I knew these tasks could be counted as parts in journals, I finally accepted them. And when I started to write the comments on these unwillingly, I found that these articles and questions were truly entertaining and informative indeed. I little bit regretted that how come I didn't start to write them early and make my comments meaningful and proper in my ample time. The fact is that I pretty like to write my feelings and outlooks in English; yet, I would always be laidback before beginning to write. Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple. But while beginning writing something I have plenty of views to say, I can hardly to stop, especially in a good mood. These articles and questions on tasks could arouse the reflections on my own experiences. They might not merely motivate me to writing down my feelings in English but make me introspect myself and rethink the events happening in my life as well. Thus the tasks really meant something to me.
Q2. Do you like the two-way online discussion with your keypal? Or do you think we should have more people (like 3~4 students) form a group blog to exchange ideas? Why or why not?
A2. I like the two-way online discussion with my own key pal, because we can try to understand each others more from the comments we leaved. Sometimes we could share our feelings and reflect our lives. However, I think if such task were formed in a group, it could be like an argument to me because there would be too many viewpoints online and they might make me repellent.
Q3. Have you encountered any difficulties during the semester when using blogs to discuss with your keypal, e.g., computer problems or anything?
A3. In fact, one of the reasons why I didn't post my comments on blog is that the task is online work. I am not a technical guy at all. I always reject working with computer, and such work makes me lazy. Therefore I wrote down my comments on previous five tasks in my notebooks, and trying to type them at a time. Here I have to apologize again that I let James wait for a too long time and made him respond to himself. How irresponsible I was...
Q4. How do you like the project website? Are they friendly enough? Have we left out any important content? How do you like the layout/design?
A4. The website is designed delicately, showing how hard-working our teaching assistance(s) is(are). I am grateful to all of these.
Q5. What have you gained from this blog activity?
A5. I could learn how to express my feelings and viewpoints in English from the tasks, comparing and sharing them with my key pal.
Q6. If you had an opportunity to start over, would you have done anything differently? If so, how?
A6. I might start to leave my comments early or be on time on James' blog, trying to avoid making James respond to himself all the time. Sorry, James.
A1. At first, I really felt that such tasks dear Doris asked are extremely tedious and burdensome. I couldn't understand why I had to complete these assignments even though we had been told to write weekly journals. After I knew these tasks could be counted as parts in journals, I finally accepted them. And when I started to write the comments on these unwillingly, I found that these articles and questions were truly entertaining and informative indeed. I little bit regretted that how come I didn't start to write them early and make my comments meaningful and proper in my ample time. The fact is that I pretty like to write my feelings and outlooks in English; yet, I would always be laidback before beginning to write. Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple. But while beginning writing something I have plenty of views to say, I can hardly to stop, especially in a good mood. These articles and questions on tasks could arouse the reflections on my own experiences. They might not merely motivate me to writing down my feelings in English but make me introspect myself and rethink the events happening in my life as well. Thus the tasks really meant something to me.
Q2. Do you like the two-way online discussion with your keypal? Or do you think we should have more people (like 3~4 students) form a group blog to exchange ideas? Why or why not?
A2. I like the two-way online discussion with my own key pal, because we can try to understand each others more from the comments we leaved. Sometimes we could share our feelings and reflect our lives. However, I think if such task were formed in a group, it could be like an argument to me because there would be too many viewpoints online and they might make me repellent.
Q3. Have you encountered any difficulties during the semester when using blogs to discuss with your keypal, e.g., computer problems or anything?
A3. In fact, one of the reasons why I didn't post my comments on blog is that the task is online work. I am not a technical guy at all. I always reject working with computer, and such work makes me lazy. Therefore I wrote down my comments on previous five tasks in my notebooks, and trying to type them at a time. Here I have to apologize again that I let James wait for a too long time and made him respond to himself. How irresponsible I was...
Q4. How do you like the project website? Are they friendly enough? Have we left out any important content? How do you like the layout/design?
A4. The website is designed delicately, showing how hard-working our teaching assistance(s) is(are). I am grateful to all of these.
Q5. What have you gained from this blog activity?
A5. I could learn how to express my feelings and viewpoints in English from the tasks, comparing and sharing them with my key pal.
Q6. If you had an opportunity to start over, would you have done anything differently? If so, how?
A6. I might start to leave my comments early or be on time on James' blog, trying to avoid making James respond to himself all the time. Sorry, James.
2010/1/3
Task 10
1. I think this activity we commenting on the articles and responding questions on blogs is mainly for fun in various fascinating issues and topics; yet not to forget the value that these meaningful tasks make us get used to weekly English writing. This is a brilliant vehicle for presenting our own opinions and perspectives on many issues. Therefore, I don't think we should think too highly of the grammatical or spelling stuff on comments if the structures and vocabulary are not too horrible because it would turn to be meaningless for free and easy writing; instead, the points of view are much more significant to notice. However, everyone has his or her original outlooks which are hard to judge as good, bad, right or wrong because they are all subjective and personal standpoints from his or her individual experiences of course, and I believe it is the main point of this activity. Thus, the criteria should be like, if one student has done all of the tasks, then s/he could get the grade s/he basically deserves. And the bonus grades should be in the teacher's charge.
2. I am supposed to get six or less if I could score myself, again, it is a hypothetical question, meaning that it's probably not going to happen. The main reason why I deserve so few is that I let Doris and my dear partner waiting for a long time and I feel shame.
3. James is a fabulous partner since he is always so decent and sincere on comments, and don't forget his virtue of punctuality at every task. It could really draw a clear line between James and me, and I should apologize for my regular procrastination. As a result, James deserves total ten points without doubt.
2. I am supposed to get six or less if I could score myself, again, it is a hypothetical question, meaning that it's probably not going to happen. The main reason why I deserve so few is that I let Doris and my dear partner waiting for a long time and I feel shame.
3. James is a fabulous partner since he is always so decent and sincere on comments, and don't forget his virtue of punctuality at every task. It could really draw a clear line between James and me, and I should apologize for my regular procrastination. As a result, James deserves total ten points without doubt.
Task 9
1. The type of course that I love the most is watching some movies related to teacher’s lectures, because I could not only pay my whole attention on it but absorb knowledge the teacher wants to explain quickly as well. On the other hand, the course style I like the least is through student groups’ presentations to display the class subjects, especially the topic I am not interested in. Well, yet sometimes it depends.
2. In my freshman year, there was an interesting class in philosophy department of FJU and it was called philosophy discussion. In this class we had an elder school sister leading this course, helping us to clarify the ideas and concepts of philosophy theory when we were discuss one subject, even arguing. She was not the authority of this course but a midwife, like the role Socrates played in Greek period, to provide some viewpoints or suggestions to motivate us as we were in struggles. This course could really make us agitate with plenty of knowledge and perspectives from other philosophy courses we had taken.
3. If I encounter some kind of difficult knowledge that tough to figure out, then I will try to study it several times or ask my teacher to help me to realize. And if I counter some kind of difficult knowledge that hard to memorize, I will find out some methods to aid me to remember; for instance, I might associate some abstract knowledge with a concrete image or an object.
4. It is pretty hard to answer because I merely even sure about this even if I could respond the questions above. It really depends on what kind of subjects you ask me to learn and study. The reason is a good learner has to possess various ways of learning strategies for different kinds of subjects, so we should not be labeled as a certain kind when facing every study.
Task 8
I might grade myself maybe 6 or less if I could really make the decision in my charge; namely I think it is just a hypothetical question. First of all, I have made nice Doris, my CC teacher, and dear James, my key pal, waiting for almost a half semester for my comments on tasks on blogs, so that I should be blamed without question. In addition, it is really a pity that I only got few chances to talk with James on MSN and on E-mail, not to mention in the phone or face to face, because we both are too busy to know each other closely. I believe that we have something in common somehow and I have a lot to ask him and to share with him. I hope we can have another opportunity to get along in the future.
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