Toni Morrison

Im using my get out of jail free card for this annotation!

Four Modes

Movie: 8 Mile 

1. The struggle of a man coming from nothing but persevering to eventually make his mark on music reflect (symbolically) the birth of pop music in a culture which once had nothing, but financially and in terms of a music "scene". Also the dichotomy of succeeding in a genre, which culturally is not the main characters own, illustrates the tension in Nepali pop music between welcoming global pop genres, while maintaining cultural distinction in popular music. The literal plot line of Eminem developing a new rap sound also correlates with new hip hop sounds in Nepal.

2. The desire to succeed without losing personal identity. 

3. Audience: Movie goers, Eminem listeners, hip hop fans 

4. Rhetorical Appeals

Ethos: Based loosely on the true story of rapper Eminem's rise to stardom despite starting as an outsider in black hip hop culture. The household name (Eminem) makes the story relevant and intriguing.

Pathos: Shows the hardships (money, drugs, violence) of the lower (impoverished) class in Detroit. Reflects the developing nation status of Nepal in my research.

Logos: Like ethos, the biographical nature of the movie yields authenticity. 

5. The film makes a powerful statement by telling a (mostly) true story, and casting the person on whose life the movie was based to play himself. The movie does not glamorize the lower class lifestyle, but portrays it very honestly. All three appeals work well together to illustrate the concept of being immersed in a culture foreign to your own, but adapting to make it your own.

6. The movie 8 Mile can be used to teach people about staying true to ones own culture and identity while inviting a different culture to influence the art or music which you create. This is a major theme in my research about the emerging pop music scene in Nepal. Eminem's character overcomes adversity when combining his love for rap music with the fact that he himself does not belong to the black culture. As a result he creates a style of music which is unique, as opposed to either giving up on rap or attempting to imitate a sound which he (culturally) doesn't own. The same parallels are found amongst Nepali musicians and pop music fans. They want to modernize their styles of music and enjoy popular western genres, however they have yet to gain a complete understanding of imported music/ They also don't want to lose their national identity by allowing western music to fully infiltrate their country thereby losing traditional Nepali music.  8 Mile illustrates this concept of music causing an identity crisis in Nepal through the true story of one individual in American dealing with the same internal conflict now faced by an entire generation in Nepal. 8 Mile makes this theme easier to understand for an audience which may (probably) know little about Nepal, but can relate to the theme if they see it scaled down to a personal level and brought to life by a popular American rapper (ethos).

Book: Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost

1. Troost enters a culture drastically different from his own. He doesn't know what to except but assumes he will enter a very isolated society off the islands of Indonesia. The villages are in fact rather remote, but is is surprised to find a great deal of culture in urban areas which he didn't even expect the island to have.

2. Finding globalization, development and western mentalities in urbanized areas of even the most remote nations. In this day and age people are separated by social class, economic status and levels of education more so than tradition, ethnicity or nationality.

3. Anthropologists, fans of ethnography and travel writing 

4. Rhetorical Appeals

Ethos: Troost uses humor throughout his writing which makes him likable and appealing. He candidly describes his journey and his experiences are all first hand.

Pathos: Troost gives vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells he encounters. He also gets personal in his writing describing his emotions, highs, lows and even the birth of his first child, which occurred while on the island.

Logos: The book is non-fiction. On top of being a very fun, engaging read, it could be classified as an ethnography of Fiji Islanders or even a descriptive guidebook.

5. Since Troost is the author of only two books, and has little name recognition, pathos and logos are the most effective of the rhetorical appeals used in his writing. His style of writing is very charismatic , and at times comically self deprecating making the book inviting to read. His personal touch makes the book more of a narrative than a study. At the same time logos also appears when Troost goes into great detail about the history, customs, politics etc of the culture in which he finds himself.

6. This book can help convey a message of urbanization, as it appears in my research, to an audience which correlates developing nations with rural isolation. Many people don't realize that urbanization occurs in every country. Regardless of size or financial status, even the most remote countries have an urban center to one extent or another, especially in a time of rapid globalization. My research deals mostly with the "urban" population in Nepal, which some people have a hard time understanding, since the country is stereotyped to be made up of remote mountain villages. Troost's experiences in Fiji, another very remote location, help illustrate the point that cities are not such a foreign concept in third world countries, and that the urban population is actually very westernized, even if the rural areas are still undeveloped and rooted in tradition. Troost also has pathos appeal as a writer; he is not pretentious, and is honest about his own initial ignorance of foreign countries, making him accessible to readers. He also uses logos when describing real events, places, lifestyles etc. given his first hand experience. Since he is so easy to read, his journey might be a good tool to convince just about any audience of the existence of modern development in unexpected places.

Song: One of a Kind by Atmosphere

1. The song talks about being different (as a musician) from everyone else on the music scene. This reflects the Nepali pop movement of Lok pop, which differentiates itself from the newly emerging "westernized" popular music, and celebrates traditional Nepali culture and sounds-- going against the grain of most popular musical movements

2. The desire to distinguish oneself from the masses, retain identity and pride

3. Idie rap audiences

4. Rhetorical Appeals

Ethos: A song about the music industry by a musician himself

Pathos: The performer uses loud vocals and aggressive, accusatory language to illustrate a body of "followers" on the rap scene. This catches the listeners attention.

Logos: Atmosphere provides specific examples throughout the song of the similarities between all the other rappers.

5. There are few, if any, proven facts in the song to strengthen the argument. However, the performer is clearly part of the industry about which he raps on the track; he sounds authoritative and keeps his rhymes and beats catchy. His honesty without arrogance, on top of a contagious, high energy sound leads the listener to believe that he truly is different creating-- all of these factors are attributes of the ethos appeal. Meanwhile Atmosphere uses pathos--lyrics which characterize other rappers as talentless and unoriginal-- to strengthen his message of being unique.

6. Atmosphere is an American born rapper from the Midwest. This particular song exemplifies the emphasis American culture puts on "being yourself", "being unique" and the importance of individuality in general. The message in the song urges to be "one of a kind", which parallels the national pride felt by Nepali urban youth, who are proud of their culture. They are faced with the challenge of having to fight for their identity and individuality as Nepali people, despite rapid infiltration and popularity of western culture. My research talks in depth about the desire to retain national and ethnic identity in Nepal, so this song could help American audiences relate by using the common American theme of individuality (as illustrated through song by a popular artist) and more fully understand the importance of cultural identity in other countries, just as individual identity is important here. 

Visual: http://lukechueh.com/paintings/self-portrait-2.html

1. The painting is of a bear with a banana for a head. The term "banana" has been used for very assimilated Asians in the US who are yellow on the outside but white on the inside. This reflects the struggle to maintain national and cultural identity by urban Nepali youth who are bombarded by western influences.

2. Loss of ethnicity

3. Luke Chueh has a wide following of people who enjoy bizarre, disturbing yet poignant and thought provoking art.

4. Rhetorical Appeals

Ethos: Luke Chueh is a professional, critically acclaimed artist known for his social commentary through paintings.

Pathos: The feel of the painting is conveyed as somber, almost tragic through the expression on the bears face and the dark colors. The emotion conveyed is one of pain or confusion due to the loss of identity.

Logos: The visual, as it appears in the website gallery, provides a description of the cultural meaning behind the banana, so as to explain its significance to the audience.

5. Pathos is the strongest appeal in this piece. The drab, washed out colors along with the the bears sad expression upon removing the mask to reveal his true identity evoke powerful emotions. Also ethos comes into play, since the painting represents Asian American identity, and Chueh himself is an Asian American artist, so the feeling conveyed by the painting is genuine.

6. This painting represents the dark side of globalization. Its dark, melancholy mood represents how Asian Americans feel when belonging to one culture on the inside but physically representing a different race on the outside. This yields a strong pathos appeal to American audiences who might not understand why certain cultures strive to protect their cultural identity, and resist American influences. In particular the idea behind the painting helps to explain the section on Lok Pop in my research, and why, despite a boom of modern pop music, Nepali youth feel nostalgic for a more traditional sound.

Four Modes

Film: Tibet in Song

Film:

Song: Enter Sandman- Metallica

Visual Piece:

Simpsons critique

"The Simpsons as a critique of consumer culture" is pretty accurate, albeit primitive critique of the social significance of The Simpsons. The author gives some background information on the development of the show, and then argues that The Simpsons is a itself a critique on middle class American values and norms. He states that the characters themselves don't represent actual individuals, but instead stand for broader ideas--Lisa represents rationale, Marge- the indifference towards middle class women, Bart- the poor quality of public education, Mr. Burns- capitalism, and so forth. Meanwhile, the plot line of each episode makes a statement about American society outside of the narrative itself, argues the writer. The article claims that the dominant theme and intent of the show is to poke fun at capitalist values, consumer culture, public education, gender roles and so on. The article also seems to focus on the idea of a martyr mentality within the middle class, which dictates that one must give up on their dreams and labor within the capitalist system in order to provide for their family and live out the American dream of consumption. The author extracts these claims through examples from several Simpsons episodes. 

With so many scholarly critiques of The Simpsons over the years, this particular one  didn't strike me as particularly revealing. In fact, most of the critical claims made by the author strike me as common knowledge, or statements which the show blatantly makes, rather than a very deep reading of its underlying or embedded messages. For instance, its obvious that The Simpsons is a satire, rather than a situational narrative, and that its purpose is to expose and even criticize aspects of American culture. I also felt that while at some points the writer points out the obvious, at other times he reads too much into certain aspects of the show, such as claiming that The Simpsons challenges male sexuality. While I agree that the show does indeed propose a liberal view of sexuality, the examples (from the show) used in this particular article don't succeed in proving that point.

However, one astute observation on Tingleff's part was claiming that the characters on the show actually have very underdeveloped personalities as "people", which allows them to embody more general values. 

Overall, this article reminded me of the narrative critiques we had to write as communication majors in senior comps class last year. It reminds me of the assignment both in the style and structure of the article, and also in the sense that the author wrote it because he was forced to critique something, rather than a genuine analytical epiphany he wished to share.

1.http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.45visigoth.com/img/freud.JPG&imgrefurl=http://cruxandflux.wordpress.com/category/commentary/page/2/&usg=__MciWwjLwK9TnB5t2Tp5O65tMxeg=&h=562&w=501&sz=36&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=S5rlBq4KcGlx_M:&tbnh=133&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFreud%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DfyF%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

2.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250797/
3.

Vogler (p 143-173)

The first part of the reading discusses the Approach to the Inmost Cave. This is the point in storytelling where the hero prepares for his most significant challenge during the journey. Vogler uses The Wizard of Oz to illustrate the various aspects of the approach. The central idea in this chapter is on preparation. While previous sections explained how the hero prepares himself (or is educated/coerced by others) to accept the task and enter the new world, the approach to the inmost cave deals with his preparation for the specific task which lies before him. Vogler compares this section of the narrative to base camp before "the final assault on the highest peak". At this point, the hero deducts who his true allies are and the audience recognizes the type of approach (whether a bold, apprehensive, or fool hearty) the hero will be using. During this phase the hero encounters further obstacles; he may enter a series of different worlds within his new environment where the rules change again, encounter new thresholds and complications, face an impossible test, or yet again, have to deal with a thresh hold guardian. At this point in the narrative the stakes might be raised and his objectives reorganized. Vogler also emphasizes the emergence of a "message" with every step of the approach. The approach is complete once the hero has made a "breakthrough"-- a bold step towards completion of the task, which leaves him no exit or escape from the confrontation. 

Though Vogler addresses many different components of "approach" element of a narrative, this chapter was entirely too specific to just one story--The Wizard of Oz. It almost seems as though Vogler extracted his postulates about "The Approach" entirely from The Wizard of Oz, which makes it unfair for him to claim them as rules or standard elements applicable to narratives in general. It becomes very clear that Vogler is under the very strong influence of writing films-- a style which puts the audience first-- and under an even stronger influence of the "Disney" school of story telling.  I am also starting to notice his overuse of the Threshold guardian in almost every chapter, while he neglects to illustrate the presence and significance of other archetypes. 

 Several of Vogler's claims in this chapter do ring true. I agree with his conclusion, in which he states that the approach is complete after a breakthrough of sorts, which leads to the hero having "no exit", and inevitably raises the stakes within the story. This structure is important in order to maintain the elements of suspense and identification throughout a story, and avoiding the loss of pace. However, the most significant point raised in this section is that of a developing message or messages. Each phase of the approach sends a message to the audience about what the hero is learning during the journey. One example, which Vogler uses from The Wizard of Oz is the message of not being tempted by illusions. This message not only reveals what Dorothy has come to realize about her new world, but also serves as an underlying moral in the narrative to be extracted by the audience. This technique of embedding messages gives a story a greater sense of purpose on top of just presenting the hero's journey. 

The second section of this weeks reading was the chapter describing Stage Eight: The Ordeal. Here, Vogler writes about the hero's need to die in order to be reborn. The "death" of the hero may be literal or symbolic. This section of a narrative is the result of a central crisis and results in a prominent change in the hero. Vogler uses two diagrams of an uphill journey to illustrate a crisis or a delayed crisis as they may appear in a story. He also explains many ways in which a crisis may manifest-- creating tension and evoking emotion. According to Vogler, death is a prevalent factor in the order. Death may be caused and or witnessed by the hero, while the hero's seeming death may be witnessed by someone else in the form of self sacrifice.  During the ordeal the hero is also likely to confront the "shadow"or villain. Their encounter results in either the death of one of the two, or the narrow escape of death by either party. Vogler claims that during The Ordeal, the hero faces his greatest fear, and gives examples of traditional confrontations between lovers, parents or the eternal conflict of youth versus age. 

This was an interesting section to read, as it dealt with a great amount of narrative theory. I also found this to be Vogler's strongest analysis of a portion of the hero's journey thus far. He returns to using classic examples of story telling and providing a psychological orientation of each element. What particularly caught my attention was Vogler's reminder that "villains are heroes of their own stories", and suggests the exercise of walking through the story in the Shadow's skin at least once. I appreciated his inclusion of this concept, because the idea has definitely crossed my mind. In modern story telling, especially in film, this is often a given-- even if the hero is clearly defined, the entire cast of characters is usually morally ambiguous to begin with, making it easier to understand the position of the alleged "villain". However, even during Disney movies, for instance, where the bad guy is made blatantly obvious, I wonder if they see themselves or their agenda as "evil". As Vogler recommends doing, I have often desired to view a story through the villains point of view.

Questions:

1) If a story was to be told with the shadow as the hero, would the audience still pick up on his immoral nature, or identify with him as we are conditioned to do with protagonists?

2) Not all narratives deal with a literal demise of the hero or shadow. What are some examples of death in the symbolic sense? 

3) The conflict of youth versus age: Is there an unfair tendency to stigmatize age and glorify youth in storytelling?

Vogler (p 127-141)

This section of the reading begins with Vogler describing the "Crossing of the first threshold", a narrative component which appears at the end of Act Two. The first threshold is the first challenge the hero is met with in the new world. The first threshold is important because if fully commits the hero to continuing his journey, because often it leaves him with no other options. Threshold guardians remain prevalent in this section, and manifest themselves in various ways. Some guardians must simply be acknowledged as having authority, while others take more effort on the hero's part to bypass. Vogler also describes two elements pertaining to the crossing of the first threshold--the leap of faith and the rough landing. The leap of faith is taken by the hero once he sees no other options, and is too committed to turn back. The leap of faith is often an irrational act, and may result in a "rough landing", as the hero is still not entirely comfortable with his mission and surroundings.

In the next section of the reading, Vogler describes the tests, allies and enemies the hero encounters in Stage Six, and how they help to mold the story. Vogler states that by this point, the hero is fully immersed in the "new world". Here the contrast between the old and new worlds becomes most evident, either literally (geographically), or through a set of drastically different conditions. The hero begins undergoing a series of tests in preparation for the more dire challenges to come later. These tests are often passed with the aid of allies that the hero meets in the new world. Of these allies, one or two may stick with the hero for the duration of his journey, becoming his sidekicks, or a group of allies with different strengths may become a team assembled by the hero. During "Act Two" the hero will also encounter various types of enemies in the shadow, trickster, threshold guardian and sometimes the herald. The hero also begins to familiarize himself with a new set of rules pertaining to the new world, and finds "watering holes", which according to Vogler typically take the form of bars, where both violence and romance can breed. 

I found Vogler's interpretations of the end of Act One, and beginning of Act Two to be rather helpful. I was impressed with his ability to create a formulaic description of fantasy driven narrative elements, which can and do manifest themselves in drastically different ways from story to story. The example from Thelma and Louise was great at illustrating a classic "no way out" scenerio, which forces the heroes to cross the first threshold that sets their story in motion. As a theatre scholar, I also liked his comparison of the first threshold, as it appears at the end of Act Two to be followed by a "fade out" or closing of the curtain, before reopening to show the hero fully committed to the journey and navigating the new world. Even more formulaic was the corporate analogy used at Disney, which compares the first threshold to a plane as it is just taking off from the runway-- gaining speed and eventually becoming airborne. 

I also appreciated Vogler's mentioning of the contrast between worlds, as portrayed after the first threshold. He says that the differences between the two are highlighted in this section, but adds that they don't neccessarily have to be physical changes in location; instead an emphasis can be placed on a new set of conditions and challenges. I think this is important to keep in mind, since many modern narratives or films don't change location, yet still fulfill the narrative component of creating contrast. I was surprised however, by how little time Vogler devoted to the "enemies" section of the reading. While he determined the archetypes through which they can appear, he never mentioned the possibility and frequently used narrative strategy, of characters shapeshifting from seeming allies to enemies. I liked the mentioning of the "rival" enemy, but thought Volger used poor examples to illustrate it. The Rival is a very common type of enemy it seems, especially in romance driven stories, and many comedic films. Lastly, I was unsure of the significance of the watering hole, and if it really is a key element to the new world, especially since Vogler only have the example of a bar setting, which seemed a bit two specific. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that the "watering hole" is in fact, frequently found in storytelling, and the most common, if not obvious example is indeed a bar/saloon type establishment.

Questions for discussion:

1) Other than bars, what are other ways in which the watering hole appears in stories?

What is the main function of including a watering hole in a narrative?

2)Can a hero jump directly into his/her mission without undergoing the "pop quizzes" as they present themselves in section 6? Would they be less prepared?

3) What is the most common form that the "enemy" takes (archetypes)? What do you make of the Rival enemy?

3)