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Afterthoughts On my Reader's Response
In hindsight, I feel like my analysis of my poem, "Jung One: Please Don't Cry" and the short story, "Patriot", was somewhat lacking. I would've liked to
include this blog entry into the analysis, but the scramble to compile a cohesive vision and project from the ruins of my unrealistic project ambitions forced this aspect of analysis to the background (at least in my fairly perfectionist opinion).
For much of the poem, the narrator focuses on mostly the external world (the concept of people taking advantage of one another, the naive being deceived), even suggesting that the narrator knows these things due to experience of these conflicts), and how he tries to explain to his "Son" how the world works currently. Eventually, the poem shifts from trying to teach his son, to the narrator revealing that his "Son" is not actually real and suggest he's unborn, and that his mother is dead, and that the narrator moves from a an external
conflict to a greatly internal conflict.
As for form, stanza, etc., I didn't pay much attention to such. I'm sure when analyzed, you could easily find a pattern, but the only thing intention was probably a type of parallel rhyming with the ending song to the game itself (Starsailor - Way To Fall, pretty good song). Though it was instinct to just let the poem flow, and not follow a particular form or outline, when I went back to revise certain parts, I wasn't tempted at all to change this. As I re-read the poem a few times, it became apparent to me that it wasn't really rhyming like a typical poem, but it felt like the poem was comprised of slightly rhymed dialouge. I thought this was effective, since for the most part, the narrator is talking to his son, and the rhyme add's a kind of emotional extension of his words.
I thought the short story was a bit of a creative freedom from what I originally said I would do my response on, and is not that similar to the other options provided, but I am somehow proud of how it turned out, mainly because of the challenge of brining insight into characters that do not exist in a traditional medium, in this case, they exist in a video game and not an actual poem, an actual story on paper or playwright in a book, but a medium that is much more interactive. The challenge with this is to try and bring true emotion to characters that you really have to interact with, in which for the most part, reading a short story is very linear, and you essentially just watch the story unfold. Albeit, a play would've been more effective at simulating interactivity, since the dialouge is a driving force, and requires quick a mental workout from the reader to discern the importance of certain phrases, how the dialouge is said. In a play, the author may or may not indicate the person is being sarcastic, I find in a short story or a story format, it is either easier to identify this, or it is specified in the text itself.
On top on converting to a different medium, and trying to emulate the former mediums ability of interactivity, there was also something I've noticed as the issue of compression on different types of writing. The poem, when I first started out, was the most compressed portion of the project, whereas the short story, "Patriot" was much less compressed and was harder to write as I went along. When I attempted to take a piece of the ending of another story, and modify the character's slightly in a way that is more like a different interpretation, I found it more challenging. I guess what I'm saying is that it all came back to the most compressed level, the poem, for the project to really come together. The short story, the blending of the game's ending and characters used, and the poem didn't happen until I went back to the poem and reinterpreted it. I found that the poem was the basis for everything else I did in the project, and came to an interesting conclusion that all of this may have made it much easier (along with more time) to actually go the extra mile with my more ambitious plans. My more ambitious plans involved going up a media level
that was much more on par with the interactive video game: re-editing footage of the actual ending. Interestingly, this re-editing of footage into a video file would've basically been a high-end version of the short story, so when I found I didn't have the ability to make the higher level medium, I went down to the lower equivalent.
This process gave me an intimate look at a creative process I hadn't really consciously realized before. I saw that a poem could indeed have the potential to evolve into a high end, interactive, video-game experience, and the exact reverse could happen. But in each level, in each type of format, the interpretations are all unique and fresh, because certain formats of medium (be it poetry, short story, novel, playwright, screenplay, or even radio show) have interesting effects on the imagination of the person reading and/or experiencing the alloted format. To counter a previous post in my blog, I believe this may the one huge idea and/or lesson I learn from this class. Of course, other than the fact that if your a writer, and the more your write, the better you get at it.
posted by Nitroadict at 8:04 AM
1 Comments:
1. Summarize what goes on in the play
3. What is being satirized in the play? identify targets, point out comic teccniques.
5. what steroetypes of Mexican Americans are used in the story? At the end of the play,
what image of mexican americans is depicted? How does it compare with the stereotypes?
3. Targets:
The [brash and humrously blunt] mention of governor Reagan also shows a target being
Reagen's policies and idealology.
The common view of latinos and/or mexicans being hardworking, exemplified yb Johnny
acting pretty much like a robot upon Sanco's orders and to the Secretary's viewing pleasure
(almost slave like is somewhat implied, but not so much slavery in traditional terms of a
person owning another person, more so slavery in terms of economical classes dominating each
other, in this case. Secretary being higher of Sancho an
d Johnny, therefore her attidude towards them, and how Johnny and Sancho react to her.)
how johnny comments "he learned it in your school", how the secretary is offended by the use
of curse by the johnny model, yet it was the very school system the secretary and the rest
of the heads of the country are repsonsible for [this is a bit stretched and a dilluted
connection, but if you conenct enough dots it makes sense].
the concept of latinos/mexiacans [i would go so far as saying minorities, as this easily
applies to all minorities] being scapegoats of popular, political issues, or even scapgoats
for poltical focus during troubling times [for example, the well known and obvious facadeo f
president bush crusading against gay marriage in his upcoming possible re-election in 2004]
Techniques:
Fruedian Slip ish - Secretary accidentaly loses composure and comments on how fast the
worker is in her Spanish.
The often blunt dialouge that acknowledges stereotypes and such, but in a way that it almost
seems commonplace and nothing wrong with saying it at all [For example: How Sancho, even
Sancho's name, demeanor is too the Secretary, as well as the Secretary';s underlying
condensending attidude due to her economic status]
Sanchi essentially selling johnny parallel to a car's salesmen would, which further shows
the type of treatment that johnny and others like as being treated as products almost.
Utilizing the secretary's ignorance and making light of it [when sancho says "that senorita,
is the Chicano shuffle"], in which sancho seemingly returns her condensending attidue [of
course, this depends if the way the new model entered is ridiculous].
when the new model johnny pulls out a knife and swipes at the secretary, whom screams [the
imagery is quite effective lol]
how the johnny model knows english, but abrubtly shows his english skills by saying "fuck
you" to the secretary lol. [this and the one before shows an underlying sense of turning
the tables against the sectrtary, and a sense of justice by ulitizing sterotypes in a
humrous way to fight against another sterotype, in this case, the uppity, higher class being
being offended by what some would consider a more real character of the real world, albiet
exageratted.
tyhe intersting thign about thie play is that the author utilizes one race [latino/mexicano]
to make a metaphor of the types of sterotypes and racial profiling and such present in
america. For exmaple, if it were a white person buying johnny, it would be wrong and
offensive and not funny, however, by utlizng somethign similar, a person of the same race
but in a higher economical status [which is a common conception of white people], the author
is able to easily make light of situations that would normally be offensive, and in doing
so, provides a very effective reality check [in the guise of realzing how absurd the
sterotyping really is] to those situations. This is partially [i would go as far as to say
primarily] why this play succeeds, and why dave chappel's show, in which i often went back
to in my head while reading this play, was also successful.
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