Opinion on Hamlet

It was super cool! 

I thought it was very interesting the cinematography and the approach they did to recreate Hamlet.
I was a little worried that it was going to be too over exaggerated, since the play is written in a old-classic language. But in the videos, they are doing it just fine, they talk with passion but it is not over sell.

 

The cinematography and the way they did the sets was a success too. They had a very dark-desaturated set in most of the scenes, trying to portray mystery/elegance and drama. One of my favorite scenes was this one, where you could see the character, thanks to a blue-spotlight and the fog that was light blue/white. It gave a very mysterious feel and by using the lighting the way they did it, they made the textures of the armature pop out, which makes it very beautiful.   

The acting was very well deliver, I thought it was very interesting to see in some scenes they broke the fourth wall and they made the characters face the audience and deliver the lines like if they were having a conversation with them. All the actors were very into their characters and that made it believable for the audience. The choice of outfits was very interesting too because they didn't stick with one era's outfit but they explored and pushed it a little bit. 

Questions in Class

A Good Man is Hard to Findby Flannery O'Conno

What features of the story I read?

They are in a car, on they way to Florida. The spacial features of this story is the road they are driving through and how they are stopping in different towns to rest or eat.

What is the world Ethos?

Well they care about themselves they do not care about other people. They are usually annoyed by the grandmother and they take risks. It feels pretty empty and cruel to me. 

Strategies to convey the story to the reader.
He tries to be descriptive in the situation and how the characters interact with each other. He uses a place that exists like Florida and he makes fun of the fact that there are weird and funny news titles in the different cities in Florida. 

How the characters are connected in the story?
They are all family members. 
Except the murderer who is from Florida. 

Opinion, Critics, Points of Views = Respect?

Everyone has their own point of views depending on the way we were raised and the culture we lived in; and in a society that has been impacted by social media it is hard not to find an opinion.

We find many books, novels and newspaper columns where writers and people express what they think about a certain event or topic, and that is great! everyone is entitle to an opinion. The problem is when the opinion and the points of view of a person is not respected.
And this is a very sensitive topic, because I have read many post in Facebook or News about wishing to get freedom of points of view and opinions while attacking the oposite view.

We are all living in the same world and in order to live with each other without that many problems like we have right now, I think it is important that everyone respect other's opinions and points of views without attacking them. There is a way to dialogue and compare and contrast the different points of views, which means that the two parties should be willing to talk but also listen to the other person without interrupting them or trying to force their point of views.

We can't force someone to think the way we do, and we can force someone to change their opinion.... But there are ways to dialogue and learn from one an other.

Literary Influences

We talked today about influences and how we are what we read. We also had a discussion about  who influences in the media. 

One thing that I have been thinking about is that literary influences, are very noticeable world wide, but that they can change from country to country or language. In Latin America, schools makes us read novels from Spanish writers. Ive had some conversations with some American friends about books that we read when we were in High School, and some titles match but others are different.

This is understandable, because of the different culture and language. It is interesting to see that some classics like Pride and Prejudice can be found in both cultures but maybe some titles like "Los Arboles mueren de pie" from Alejandro Casona is usually found in Latin American schools. 

It is interesting to see that there are some books that are know internationally but others vary from country to country.  Media allows writers to distribute their work in many languages and countries. This is amazing because now it is very easy to find a writer or a book on the internet and download the content to read it. Media and Internet is allowing people to grow on knowledge and it is giving the opportunity to learn about other countries and cultures and views. 

It is also important to remember that no one can force someone to grasp a view or a point. Ive seen many people trying to force someone to read a certain book or to accept certain philosophy and they are not successful. We can recommend books by talking about the reviews and our personal opinion. But its up to the other person to decide whether they want to read it and accept it or not. Its also very common that you read a book and never finish it because you don't accept the content or the author's point. and it is okay. We need to remember we can't force someone into reading, we can invite them to discover the wonderful mysteries and joy that reading a GOOD book brings. 

True Grit and Western Novels

Last week we read Pride and prejudice, a love story and this week it is a completely different topic!! True Grit is a very good story, that touches very deep and serious topics such as honor, determination, revenge and strength.

Another main difference is the way the story is narrated, in this novel Mattie Ross is the one narrating what is happening, it feels very personal in the story because  she narrates what happened to her when she was 14 years old. We see since the beginning that her character is very independent and strong minded. she has a mission and it is not a delicate one....her mission is to avenge her father's death. Since this we see that she had to grow up really fast and didn't have a very sweet and happy childhood.


Last week we read Pride and prejudice, a love story and this week it is a completely different topic!! True Grit is a very good story, that touches very deep and serious topics such as honor, determination, revenge and strength.

Another main difference is the way the story is narrated, in this novel Mattie Ross is the one narrating what is happening, it feels very personal in the story because  she narrates what happened to her when she was 14 years old. We see since the beginning that her character is very independent and strong minded. she has a mission and it is not a delicate one....her mission is to avenge her father's death. Since this we see that she had to grow up really fast and didn't have a very sweet and happy childhood.

The genre of this novel is Western. A genre is "a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter".
Some of the characteristics that the western novels are:

• The villains are usually the indians. 
• There is usually a scene with a shooting involve, between "cowboys" and :indians" or other cowboys.
• It takes place in a Western location, such as a ranches or old towns.
• The cowboys hat are an iconic part of the main character. 
• The characters usually have guns as weapons. 
• The western movies romanticize the ideas of loyalty and virtue. 

Personally, I don't really see too much Western movies or read them. The closes experience I have with this genre is Little House on the Prairie, and the Zorro.  

Movies: Bride and Prejudice/Pride and Prejudice

                                   

I want to recommend these two movies! I have watch both of them and even though they have the same story, they are completely different because one takes place in India and the other one in Europe.
The first one I saw was Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley  and it was a very romantic movie, but it has a slow pase in some shots. Everything is classic and it is more about the cinematography and the story is more true to the book.

Bride and Prejudice, has the same story, but it is in India! and it is a musical. It is a more cheerful story, it is fast paced and it is more colorful than pride and prejudice.
I think it is very interesting to watch both movies because even though they are based on the same book, each one has its own point of view and they each are original!

I recommend both of the movies I am sure you will love them both :)

-Ximena.

Women in the Book: Pride and Prejudice

There is a clear difference between how women behave in the present day with the way the women are portrayed in the book: Pride and Prejudice.

Now women are allowed to work, and think and own their own business and choose who they want to marry or not. Back in the day, that was a dream for a woman, they were supposed to learn one artistic skill and they were seen lower than the men.

Jane Austin shows us a family that lived that way, but one of the daughters, Elizabeth is different than the rest because she is willing to fight for what she believes in and she doesn’t want to have her future planned out for her. Elizabeth learns from her dad, she is outspoken like he is and she is the complete opposite from her mother. Through the book, the author leads me to really like Elizabeth’s character and personally annoyed me with the sisters and mother’s one.

Why? Because they were only thinking about looking good for a man and that if they don’t marry they will die.

I think the mentality of the Mom and the sisters is just flat, because they are not trying to be the best version of themselves by learning or making their own decisions and letting someone to love them because of who they are and not because of the money. 

Elizabeth is different, she makes mistakes and recognize it, it takes for her a while to admit it but at the end she does, and she allowed herself to grow and to choose what she wanted in life.

Because it is a classic book it is hard to understand the words and you have to be paying good attention to the reading, because how they talked back then is not how we talk now.

So a good advice would be to have a dictionary next to you in order to look for a word that you don't know what it means. I thought that it was hard for me because English is not my first language so I tried it in Spanish, but it was the same thing. There were words that I had never heard before or that they are not used in literature that often any more.

Anyway Pride and Prejudice is a good book that tells us a different love story and that everyone that reads it probably would end up cheering for Elizabeth and in love with Mr. Darcy. 

-Ximena