chapter 28

Three great myths have come to be well known in our society today. They all have some type of single-minded pursuit of something. Faust is in pursuit of knowledge, Don Juan is in pursuit of women and Don Quixote is in pursuit of chivalric ideal. Robinson Crusoe was a main myth and his story was about the dignity of labor and getting back to nature. Being stranded on an island and relying on yourself to live and profit. These myths give heroes that people recognize and present themes found in our modern world.

chapter 48

Sontag argues that interpretation is "the revenge of intellect upon the world." I found this quote very interesting because to me, interpretation is what gives things life. Without interpretation, a work of art of almost any type could seem trite and simplistic. Of course interpretations cannot always be predicted or may not always be exactly as we intend. However, an interpretation is when people bring something they already have to the table to add to your work to make it mean something to them. Everyone brings something different therefore a work of art can mean something different to everyone. This is amazing to me, that something could affect so many people in so many ways through just one or a few creators and creations.

chapter 47

It interested me that Gowans said Art among other things can only be defined by its function. In previous chapters we discussed that everything can be defined in terms of its opposites or what it is not. Isn't this still true? In addition, what can't be defined by its function? I feel like most if not all things can be defined by their function as well as what they are not (or do not do I suppose).

 So one function of art is to provide an image for something so we can reference it in the future. Art could also be used to vividly tell stories. Art can persuade people too. Lastly, art is beautiful and pleases the eye.

I feel like if we can define what art does we can define what art is. This doesn't seem like much of a Gordian knot after all.

chapter 32

This chapter says the postmodern eye "gazes upon the world as if it were one vast variety show" but there is nothing wrong with that. The world is a variety show composed of many many talents, types of people, experiences and stories. Solomon goes on to say that the post modern eye perceives human events as being nonsensical. To say that the things that I do and accomplish and am currently working toward are nonsensical is not right. Not everything needs to be sorted into a perfectly pre-framed structure. I like a little chaos in my life. It says that narratives are to create meaning in the face of meaningless and to make sense of the senseless. This would be to say that what I'm doing is meaningless and senseless without being put into society's structure. This is completely wrong to me. I find sense and meaning in things in my own way. It goes on to say that in the postmodern eye "life is nothing more than a decentered, narrativeless course waiting for death-or for a nonexistent God who never comes." It's interesting to me that this was the end of Solomon's part of this chapter because that last line was I'm sure intended to gesture toward more modern people having no faith. However, this accusation does not get to me because I am an atheist and do not believe in God or a higher power anyway. So to say that my life is nothing and I'm just waiting to die and become nothing is ridiculous and depressing. I highly disagree because I can make a difference in this world that will matter even after I die.

chapter 31

This is another chapter that I feel took the most negative approach to a theory as well as what I would consider a closed-minded approach. This is not to say that they have something against postmodernism per se, but rather the chapter still manages to condescend and somewhat look down upon postmodern elements such as punk and fragmented style in architecture. Changes in style are good, they help us progress and make good use of our advances in technology. You can't say that people could have always done what we do now because we were never previously capable of most of what we're doing today.

chapter 46

The biggest comparison I see between Aristotle's theory of art as imitation and our current society is comedians' use of impressions. By doing in impersonation- or imitation- of someone, you find humor in something they just do naturally. In addition, there is humor in shared experiences. Something people have in common allows a comedian to replicate- or imitate- a situation where everyone is involved and understands the framework of the joke. Of course commercials do this as well, to get everyone paying attention to something they're all familiar with. It's interesting though, that one would so drastically separate comedy from tragedy. It seems to me that more and more in today's society we have what could almost be considered tragic comedy, and comedic tragedy for that matter. Consider the play Carthage recently did called "Dead Man's Cell Phone." The entire play was tragic and dark but yet I laughed (along with the rest of the audience) the entire way through. They made things like loneliness, death, not feeling loved and even black market sale of organs- FUNNY! And then comedians like Bo Burnham, Katt Williams and many others thrive on basing their comedy off of tragic events such as gay hate crimes, the KKK, the holocaust and in Katt's case- someone being attacked by a tiger. These are all not happily ending comedy events. They're hilarious in their presentation but unlike a comedy movie, they're not exactly happily ever after stories.

chapter 45

Throughout reading this chapter the main thought in my head was of the comedian Bo Burnham. He released a new cd recently and I've been listening to it lately. He is so incredibly witty and is so amazing at using homophones and puns. For example in his one song "Words words words" he says: "A boy, a girl, a middle aged bitch, botox in the third person. I give the perspective a switch and bo talks in the third person." The first time I heard this I was so amused by the play on words or whatever it is between botox and Bo talks. He has constant jokes like this and the more I listen to a song the more I found in it. I love that his music/comedy makes me think in a way that is still fun. It's true that you can't take things comedians say seriously. Almost everything Bo Burnham says (or any of the many comedians I love for that matter) is making fun of a person or group of people. But as he says in the beginning of his first song "the way I see it, if you're gonna make fun of one group of people ya gotta make fun of 'em all."

chapter 37

Smart Mobs are groups of people who organize themselves by technological use for a common purpose. This purpose could be social, educational, political, etc. Whatever the reason, it is our human abilities such as thumbs that make this soon to be phenomenon possible. I find it interesting that this chapter is not directly negative while so many other chapters in this book seem to look down or dislike technology. It also mentions multi-tasking. I define myself by my ability to multi-task, it's what makes me happy. Not necessarily texting while conversing with someone, I find that somewhat rude. Rather, talking to taking yearbook pictures at the movie last night while directing people where to go for the movie (working for CAB as well). This type of multi-tasking makes it possible for both important tasks to get done.

In addition, chapter 37 goes on to talk about the power of a crowd. When in a crowd, people general reasoning can be temporarily suspended while in the "crowd" mentality. A crowd also creates an impressive image as much as it likes being impressed by images. The mass media communication we use today is based on crowd like reactions. Collective behaviors occur in crowds such as clapping at a concert or laughing at a movie.

chapter 35

The future of digital media and technological advancements should of course be something to look forward to. While there may have to be some boundaries set personally and by authorities to keep it from becoming too much, this can always be done with a little responsibility. With things such as cellphones we can feel safer and our kids can feel safer, even our parents and grandparents can be safer. It is of course possible that we could lose valuable things like paperback books, newspapers and yearbooks. However, if we work to keep a balance among these possible digital advances and what we feel is important, we won’t lose them. Things like books and newspapers that are now presented online, may be easier to access and to organize for later. However, if they were to ever be lost in cyberspace we would be happy to have the paper copies.

chapter 34

I think that players play the video games. To say that a game “plays” a person would indicate that the game itself is doing something for amusement. An inanimate object such as a game cannot feel emotions or be amused. While I understand what the book is saying about where the message is and who is the sender and receiver in a game, I don’t actually think this theory applies to video games. There is a message being conveyed of course, but it is through the game to the person and the creator of the game is the sender and the player is the receiver. The messages more come through the advertisements in the game and not the game itself. While we of course get a somewhat message from the violence or competitive nature of these games, this is not a textual message being conveyed. It is true that video games can tell a story and the player can alter this story by how they play the game and thus determine the outcome. However, there is always a path or paths the player will end up following and there are only a certain number of possible general outcomes.

first paragraph of paper

The meaning behind rock music is rooted in its sounds and rhythms and not in the lyrics of the song. This is not to say that the lyrics have no meaning because they have great meaning. What’s important though, is that the emotional response, the cultural effect, and the passion are found in the beat and sound, in the music itself. The lyrics come into play and manifest the deeper meaning in a narrative structure. How what you hear makes you feel is what is important in rock music, not what the words you hear mean. According to Simon Frith “the main reason we listen to rock music is to experience emotions.” For young adults, music can become a new version of fairy tales. It can guide people and help them cope with their own difficulties. It becomes an outlet, a coping mechanism for people who are experiencing these powerful emotions and helps them feel they’re not alone. It is the combination of the power of the human voice and the melody and instruments that create this musical wonder.

chapter 41

To say that television is the most voyeuristic of all media is not something I would agree with after hearing at first. However, when explained that it is the most intimate of the dramatic media, it kind of makes sense. A movie is in a large public setting but you can easily watch tv by yourself or with one or two other people. Even though a movie screen is larger, you’re generally closer to a tv. We also tend to develop “parasocial” relationships with characters on tv. This is very true especially in the sense of sitcoms that play weekly on tv. People get very attached and have to see what happens to “their” characters in the show.

It also interested me when they referred to commercials as micronarratives because this is very true in my opinion. You can get hooked to a character in such a short time even a minute and a half. It's amazing how a company can tell an entire story in near thirty seconds and still leave you remembering so much about the characters of the commercial. 

chapter 40

According to Michel de Certeau, our  society has become a “recited society.” This is to say that we are defined by stories, citations of stories and recitations of stories. The narrations can turn appearances into fabricated realities. This means that a story can turn an everyday occurrence into something with much more depth. Narratives are found in many aspects of media today such as advertising, tv, journalism, etc. It’s true that we make sense of the world by relating to things, like the relevance theory we discussed previously as well as the use of metaphors and metonymy. The term “imprint” deals with narratives providing us with models that we may unconsciously reference in the future. An example of this would be fairy tales giving unconscious moral guidance for children. Narrative stricter is found in most media and we all learn from narratives even if we don’t realize it.

chapter 39

I disagree with Postman's essay in saying that TV is dangerous. Just because we watch TV does not have to mean that we've lost our sense of the world around us and how amazing it is. TV is not entertaining us to death because people do still realize the relief we can get from simply shutting off the TV and talking with our family or friends. Especially on things like holidays, it's nice to enjoy each others' company. However, in addition to this we can see things like football games and parades we otherwise wouldn't be able to see because we can't attend it in person.

chapter 38

I thought the reference to a “collective dream” was interesting because of the recent movie Inception. The idea that we are all experiencing a manifest function of TV and subconsciously taking in the latent function together is quite interesting. However, I do not think TV completely failed by any means. It is true that recent TV is different in its intentions however, we still have channels like Discovery, The History Channel and even just news shows. While the effects of TV may be different on us than that of art or previous famous works, it’s the intentions that are truly different and that may be okay. If TV is purely a form of entertainment not intended for learning or any magical experience then it may be alright. I rarely watch TV and when I do it’s because I’m at the point where I don’t have the energy to do much else but I don’t want to sleep…that’s what TV is to me, it’s time to wind down. I often watch something I’ve seen many times before as well that way I don’t even have the emotional feelings of getting caught up in the story and plotline.  Because I don’t have cable I don’t keep up with things like Jersey Shore and anything I know about it I’ve just heard from friends. This is perfectly fine with me, I mostly use my TV to watch movies or my own past plays, musicals and dances that I have DVD copies of. To say that TV failed may be intended to say that “cable TV” failed. Therefore, there is yet another example of misinterpreted intentions. It is possible to say that TV did not achieve it's full potential as an educational medium. However,  would people even watch it then?