Final Portfolio

Posts: (Cb5769’s Blog)

Week One: “The Curse ‘Fuku’.” September 9, 2009

Week Two: “Abducted or Not?” September 15, 2009

Week Three: “Zodiac’s Mind Games.” September 22, 2009

Week Four: “Lost Cult Like Scenarios.” October 6, 2009

Week Five: “Twisting Good versus Evil.” October13, 2009

Week Six: “Confused and totally lost.” October 20, 2009

Week Seven: “Exploratory Draft.” October 27, 2009

Week Eight: “Alcohol, Narcotics and Obsession.” November 3, 2009

Week Nine: “What Next?” November 11, 2009

Week Ten: “Fractured Novel.” November 18, 2009

Final Paper: “Mary Veal’s Enchanting, Crafty, and Concocting Enigma’s in Heidi

Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment.” December 18, 2009

List of Students that I made comments on their blogs (bd7596):

Comment One: The Brief Wondrous World of Oscar Wao
Michael- September 10, 2009-at 2:42 pm-“Fuku.”- (Illwizardofmars-Michael’s Blog)
Sean- September 11, 2009-at 1:59 pm- “Oscar Wao.”- (Fun with teeth-Sean’s Blog)

Comment Two: The Uses of Enchantment
Paula- September 16, 2009- at 1:58 pm- “Complicating Complexity.”- (Paula’s page-Paula’s Blog)
Randy- September 17, 2009- at 1:49 am- “The Uses of Monotony.” (The New Baltimoron-Randy’s Blog)
Christine- September 17, 2009- at 7:38 am- “Enchanting? Not so much . . .”- (Little Bit of My World-Christine’s Blog)

Comment Three: Zodiac
Danielle- September 22, 2009- at 11:11 pm- “Tragedy Written in Blood.”- (sp rockets-Danielle’s Blog)
Caitlin- September 23, 2009- at 3:59 pm-“Will the real Zodiac killer please stand up?”- (Composing Cait, One Idea at a Time-Caitlin’s Blog)

Comment Four: Lost
Jen – October 7, 2009 at 12:26 pm- “Don’t tell me what I can’t do?”- (This is where I want to be- Jen’s Blog)
Sean- October 7, 2009 at 6:09 pm- “Lost.”- (Fun with teeth-Sean’s Blog)

Comment Five: Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
Michael- October 14, 2009-at 1:29 am- “Internet ‘TV.’”- (Illwizardofmars-Michael’s Blog)
Ryan- October 14, 2009-at 9:10 am- “Captain Hammer threw a car at my head.”- (The plastic tips at end of shoelaces are called aglets-Ryan’s Blog)

Comment Six: Infinite Jest
Ryan- October 20, 2009-at 10:37 pm- “You lost me.”- (The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets-Ryan’s Blog)
Paula- October 20, 2009- at 10:54 pm- “Infinite Torture. . . So Far.” (Paula’s page-Paula’s Blog)

Comment Seven: Exploratory Draft
Jen- October 28, 2009- at 9:51 pm- “Exploratory Draft.” (This is where I want to be-Jen’s Blog)
Christine- October 28, 2009 at 10:24 pm- “Paper topic-Desperate Housewives.” (Little Bit of My World-Christine’s Blog)

Comment Eight: Infinite Jest
Sean- November 4, 2009-at 10:10 am- “Infinite Jest # 2.” (Fun with teeth-Sean’s Blog)
Paula- November 4, 2009- at 11:40 am- “Growing On Me.” (Paula’s Page-Paula’s Blog)

Comment Nine: Infinite Jest
Caitlin-November 10, 2009-at 10:27 pm-“So I’ve got some demon issues. . . no biggie right?” (Composing Cait, One Big Idea at a Time-Caitlin’s Blog)
Ryan-November 11, 2009-at 10:34 am-“Tennis Anyone?” (The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets-Ryan’s Blog)

Comment Ten: Infinite Jest
Ryan-November 18, 2009-at 2:47 pm- “Really?”- (The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets-Ryan’s Blog)
Paula-November 18, 2009 at 3:17 pm- “The End Is Near.”- (Paula’s Page-Paula’s Blog)

Fractured Novel

It is interesting how all the mediums that we read and viewed this semester were trying to connect and sum up all the scenarios and storylines endings. Even though these authors strived to make the endings coherent and cohesive, there is still the factor many of these mediums remain unresolved and open-ended because of their complexity. In David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, in the ending section Wallace is trying to connect all the scenarios and storylines. He is trying to draw the reader deeper into these highly wrought addiction scenarios and make them supposedly interconnected and rational. However, they are anything but rational they are illogical and problematic. In the last section that we read, it appears that Don Gately has gone off the wagon and back to drinking and doing hard-core drugs. This section just kept rambling on. It just appears that Gately relapsed and he is conversing about not be able to attain the AA meetings or be the one that the other members of the White Flaggers confide to or relied on. Don Gatley‘s ghost refection, “The wraith says Just to give Gatley an idea, he the wraith, in order to appear as visible and interface with him, Gatley, he, the wraith has been sitting, still as a root, in the chair by Gately’s beside for the wraith-requivalent of three weeks, which, Gately can’t even imagine. It occurs to Gatley that none of the people that’ve dropped by to tell him their troubles has bothered to say how many days he’s even been in the Trauma wing now, or what day it’s going to be when the sun comes u, and so Gately has no idea how long he’s gone now without an AA meeting” (Wallace 836). Gatley has been drawn into back into the place were the dark demons of drugs and alcohol has taken over his life again. In this section, there are portions, which detailed Gatley’s childhood and what he had to endure and contend with growing up, and how Gatley’s father as well was addicted to drugs and alcohol. The reader observes how the dark spirits have taken over Gatley’s life.

The ending of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is gruesome. I keep on having visions and nightmares of eyes being stitched shut. This portion is revolting and disgusting. What is Wallace trying to do with this ending because it is apparent that Don Gately and some of the White Flaggers are only interesting in partying on hard-core drugs? Wallace even adds the dimension of two transversals. What is up with that? What is Wallace doing? As a reader I really was turned off by the description of the eyes being sown shut and the way that some of the White Flaggers held down Gatley and others an injected them with the “Sunshine drug,” (Wallace 979). Wallace states, “The last rotating sight was the chinks coming back through the door, holding big shiny squares of the room. As the floor wafted up and C’s grip finally gave, the last thing Gatley saw was an Oriental bearing down with the held square and he looked into the square and saw clearly a reflection of his own big square pale head with its eyes closing as the floor finally pounced” (981). I am not taken in by the ending. I am trying to make sense of what is happening. I do not observe any cohesiveness just broken down addicted characters. I agree with M B’s wiki in Infinite Summer. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is definitely fractured and structureless. It is apparent that none of the characters in David Forster Wallace’s cannot recover from their addictions.

Wallace does not tie up any loose ends and it definitely gave my brain a work-out to try to comprehend what happen. There is no cohesiveness and Wallace’s novel to me is just a long-winded scenario that is just plain wordy and frustrating. It is a tough and upsetting book to read. Wallace’s novel definitely sickens me, left me annoyed, and pissed me off.

What Next?

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest has left me once again more perplexed and annoyed trying to unravel the many layers of his novel.  I am trying to get a grasp of some of the storylines that Foster is devising here in this section that we were assigned to read.  As a reader, I just keep on wondering when the characters are going to communicate their problems to each other.  I just keep wondering when this novel is going to make sense and not keep on jumping from story to story.  In the sections we had to read there are references again to Hal and Mario Incandenza and the White Flaggers.  Don Gately is mention again and there is the character Lenz that goes to the Ennet House for meetings.  There are meetings of the AA/NA groups and the White Flaggers, which also has meetings.  As far as Lenz, he appears to have deep-seeded problems.  David Wallace Foster states, “Pus it agitates Lenz that he has the feelings that it really big deal to Green that much one way or the other, and Lenz feels like he’s spending all this stress tensely worrying about his side of the something that Green would barely think about for more than a couple seconds, and it enrages Lenz that he can know in his head that the tense worry about how the diplomatize Green into leaving him alone is unnecessary and a waste of time and tension and yet still not able to stop worrying about it, which all only increases the sense of Powerlessness that Lenz is impotent to resolve with his Browning and meatloaf as long as Green continues to walk home with him” (547).  Lenz has gotten high on organic cocaine and has a problem with his temper because he does not have the power to stop doing the cocaine the two or three times as a day, that he does it.

 

Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment has layers of storylines so does David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, but Julavits’s novel does not have as many characters and storylines to follow as does Wallace’s narrative.  Infinite Jest is somewhat like how Wallace describes drug rehabilitation in the book, when one walks into an A.A. meeting it is immediately disliked and uncomfortable. The more the addict keeps coming, however, the more it transforms from being the worst thing to the best thing in his life; which is the exact opposite of the drug they are trying to kick.  The drug is immediately loved and easy, but progressively becomes the worst thing in the addict’s life.  Lenz, Green, and Gatley are addicted to narcotics and they are trying to kick this troubling and terrible addiction, but because they are so consumed by these narcotics, they cannot stop

 

In the foreword of David Foster Wallace’s, Infinite Jest, by David Eggers he mentioned many details about Wallace’s novel.  Eggers states, “And thus I spent a month of my young life.  I did little else.  And I can’t say it was always a barrel of monkeys.  It was occasionally trying.  It demands your full attention.  It can’t be read ay a crowded café, or with a child on one’s lap . . . There were times, reading a very exhaustive account of a tennis match, say, when I thought, well, okay.  I like tennis as much as the next guy, but enough already” (xiv).  I agree with David Eggers synopsis about how you have to concentrate so thoroughly on Wallace’s novel that it can be mentally draining.  As far as the reading the exhausting accounts of the tennis matches I totally agree that they are lengthy and one wonders when the descriptions are going to end.  Wallace’s continuous long scenarios of other events are so wordy at times; I have to re-read them to remember what he is describing.  I can only hope that things start making sense and come together real soon.  I can only imagine what awaits for me in the last part of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

 

Alcohol, Nacrotics, and Obsession

David Wallace Foster’s Infinite Jest is still confusing and in the next sections we had to read for class.  Just when we thought that there were not going to be any more new characters there are more characters that are introduced to us in these sections.  There were also references to tennis tournaments and the constant references to the film cartridges.  What a trip these next sections were to read. There were so wordy that at times I got so lost and confused because I was not sure what characters and places were being described.   I was hoping that there would be some rationality by now but I am still trying to figure out the different layers of the narratives that Foster is interweaving.   There is more about the characters Hal and Orin Incandenza, the two brothers.  There is also the mention of diseases, which reference alcoholism and having to go to AA meetings.  The section about the Boston AA support group just keeps on ranting on.  Even when Don Gatley is narrating about the specifics of the White Flag part of the AA, at times he goes in such detail that the sentences run on endlessly.  Gately is being so meticulous in describing the “Disease” that had taken over his life and how much he is trying to stay sober and not let the “disease” of alcoholism take over his life again.  He does not want to wind up in a drunken stupor where his work, family and life was controlled by the “Disease of Alcoholism.”

David Foster Wallace states, “[Don] Gately biggest asset as an Ennent House live in Staffer— besides the size thing, which is not to be discounted when order has to be maintained in a place where guys come in fresh from detox still in Withdrawal with their eyes rolling like palsied cattle and an earring in their eyelid and a tattoo that says BORN TO BE UNPLEASANT—besides the fact that his upper arms are the size of cuts beef you rarely see off the hooks, his big plus is he has this ability his own experience about at first hating AA to new House residents who hate AA and resent being forced to go and sit up in nose-pore-range and listen to such limply improbable clichéd drivel night after night” (352).  Readers get such precise and finite details about the character, Don Gatley but at times it becomes a tedious task and effort to read such lengthy details.  Even though readers to learn intrigue information about the Boston Chapter of AA, readers can become lost and overwhelmed by these precise finite descriptions of the White Flag-Boston Chapter of AA.

It is apparent that even though we learn a lot of information about the “Disease” of Alcoholisms and how hard it is to keep one’s sobriety, there are references to NA, which is Narcotics Anonymous; therefore we have to wonder if this White Flag-Boston Chapter is for Narcotic problems, as well as Alcohol problems.  There is shifting back and forth to these two “diseases,” therefore is this White Flag Support group in Boston for both of these conditions?  Then again there are so many acronyms through these sections and of course there are descriptions of the tennis matches at the Enfield Tennis Academy and Hal Incandenza’s obsession with the Oxford English Dictionary and how he acquires the New Discursive Oxford English Dictionary where learn about ants and other various species.  David Wallace Foster’s text has sexual innuendoes.  There are so many storylines and plots that run through pages one hundred ninety eight through five hundred and eight.  This array of characters, storylines, and themes in these pages makes me wonder what David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest array of next pages has in store for us.  I can only hope that things will start coming together or maybe I am being too optimistic.

Exploratory Draft

When I started thinking about what topics, that I might want to write on or research I considered looking into the characters composition in either Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment or Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.  The characters in Julavits’s novel and Whedon’s original web show makeup are definitely atypical.  There is a lot of fantasy and drama in both of these mediums.  The Uses of Enchantment and Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog uses devices that are unexpected and somewhat chilling, this makes the readers, and viewers want to delve into the minds of these characters.  The more I thought about looking at the composition frameworks of Julavits’s characters and Whedon’s characters I wonder if I should be researching the characters themselves.  The reason being is that both these authors use different techniques to personify their characters’ flaws, dysfunctions, dreamlike situations, and dialogue methods.  There are unquestionably different methods and structures that Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment and Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog uses to convey the characters in their mediums.  When I started thinking about what topics, that I might want to write on or research I considered looking into the characters composition in either Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment or Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.  The characters in Julavits’s novel and Wheldon’s original web show makeup are definitely atypical.  There is a lot of fantasy and drama in both of these mediums.  The Uses of Enchantment and Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog uses devices that are unexpected and somewhat chilling, this makes the readers, and viewers want to delve into the minds of these characters.

The more I thought about looking at the composition frameworks of Julavits’s characters and Whedon’s characters I wonder if I should be researching the characters themselves.  The reason being is that both these authors use different techniques to personify their characters’ flaws, dysfunctions, dreamlike situations, and dialogue methods.  There are unquestionably different methods and structures that Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment and Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog uses to convey the characters’ in their mediums.  We are constantly observing the characters and their character composition.  We have analyzed what makes them tick.  In David Fincher’s Zodiac we dealt with the characters Robert Graysmith, who is a cartoonist that works for the San Francisco Chronicle. His quirky ways irritate the character, Paul Avery who is

a reporter whose drinking gets in the way of doing his job. We have studied certain characters idiosyncrasy, like Dr. Horrible who wants to freeze-ray the world that is filled with filth and ignorant people.  We also looked at characters that lie, fake being abducted, and use drugs or hallucinating agents.  We have studied many characteristics traits of the different characters that we have read and viewed so far.  We also are trying to unravel the complexities of the inner structure of the characters.  For my research paper, I will probably explore and research the many tactics that either Heidi Julavits or Joss Whedon use in mediums to personify the characters composition or structure.  I will also look at how Julavits or Wheldon used different devices to create their characters’ persona, which definitely goes outside the box of the norm. I want to delve into the inner workings of the minds of the characters in either Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment or Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible Sing Along Blog.  I do not know what I going to find out, but I am up to the challenge.

Confused and totally lost

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest has so far completely baffled me.  There are so many narrative layers that Wallace interweaves into his novel.  There is definitely complexity in the first one hundred ninety-eight pages.  Wallace’s narrative has thus far been confusing and hard for me to follow.  The footnotes are long in length and hard to comprehend.  As far as the characters, there are so many of them to keep track of at times I found myself re-reading certain segments to see which character is talking or being described. True there is an astonishing range of cultural references, but I find most of the content of what I read so far morbid. Wallace’s Infinite Jest is similar to Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Heidi Julavits’s novel, The Uses of Enchantment because of its many layers and there is so much dialogue to digest that it becomes tedious and overwhelming to read.  There is definitely no time period given through the first one hundred ninety-eight pages. I am not even sure there is a storyline that I can follow.  There are so many narration changes through these one hundred ninety eight pages.  There are parts that are not written in English with reference starting on page 128 and told by yrstrruly, and there are sections written in broken English and capitalized letters and this becomes confusing to follow.

 

Wallace’s constant use of initials is problematic because at times he does not explains the meaning or exact words for the initials.  For example, on page 9 of Wallace’s text, the initials “N. A. A. U. P. and O. N. A. N. C. A. A.” are just initials and there is no explanation for what the initials stand for or mean.  Then there are the long and problematic names and titles for each segment. Sometimes they do not make sense and even while reading the segment the language and dialect to me does not coordinate with the name or title of that particular segments.  Wallace’s narrative is confusing and long-winded so far.  The long descriptions about the tennis matches and Enfield Tennis Academy become exhausting and tedious to read.  Even the section about the Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery is wordy because it describes every notch and cranny about all the floors.  For example, “Unit # 7 is on the west side of the street’s end, sunk in hill-shadow and teetering right on the edge of the eroding ravine that leads down to the Avenue.  #7 is in bad shape boarded up and unmaintained and deeply slumped at the red roof’s middle as if shrugging its shoulders at some pointless indignity”(Wallace 197).  The description of this unit and the other units are long-drawn out.

 

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest writing sometimes is pretentious. The footnotes get to be a little much because you constantly have to turn to the back of the book and this makes the reader loss track of where they left off in Wallace’s narrative.  There are some many major and minor characters that they are hard to keep track of who is doing what and what is happening to them.  One of Wallace’s flaws is that his characters’ dialogue – particularly that of his youthful protagonist and tennis prodigy, Hal Incandenza does not sound genuine. It sounds like Wallace talking through 17-year-olds, not 17-year-olds who have been transcribed. What I observed thus far about David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is it a book about a tennis academy, addiction, entertainment cartridges, and the Incandenza family, and a  cast of assorted characters.  My only hope about Wallace’s text is that it will eventually have some kind of storyline to follow, but I cannot see that happening.  Therefore, I can only guess that Wallace’s Infinite Jest will probably be to complex and I will not understand it.

Twisting Good versus Evil

Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is definitely quite different from J. J. Abrams’s Lost and David Fincher’s Zodiac.  It did have a timeline, but there are three acts in it and its structure is more musically orientated.    It appears more like a short operatic in style and form even though it is a musical tragic-comedy. Unquestionably, it is much funnier and not as problematic to follow.  I am wondering how it fits into the complex narrative genre.  Its structure appeared to have a plotline that went in sequences.  Bill (Patrick Harris), known, as the infamous Dr. Horrible is undeniably a budding supervillain.  He constantly schemes and plans to flatten the world with his invention of his freeze-way gun.  Dr. Horrible has two goals: one is being accepted into the become a member of Bad Horse’s Evil League of Evil.  His other goal is working up the guts to speak to his laundromat crush Penny (Felicia Day), whose dedication is to getting the homeless off the streets. The one thing that stands in Dr. Horrible’s way is Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), his superhero archenemies.  The only way that Billy could be accepted into the Evil League of Evil and earn the respect and the romantic connection he wants with Penny is with one big score.

 

The infamous Dr. Horrible, who has a PhD., in horribleness, figures if the “world is filled with filth and ignorant people” why not obliterate and demolish it with his invention “Freeze-ray.”  In Act one of  Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, “The following day, Horrible prepares to steal a case of wonderflonium for his time-stopping Freeze Ray by remotely commandeering the courier van. Penny happens to be on the same street (“Caring Hands”), and appears asking him to sign a petition to turn a city building into a homeless shelter. However, the remote requires his attention, and he appears uninterested in her and her cause” (Dr. Horrible’s  Sing Along Blog- Act One).   Penny is a do gooder, idealist and the love interest of Dr. Horrible (Billy).  They are the constant busting into songs that either are harmonies or serenaded by the characters..  Dr. Hammer is this self-centered superhero who is the arch- nemesis of Dr. Horrible.  When  Dr. Horrible steals a case of “wonderflonium for his time-stopping Freeze-ray from the van the remote control he is using is smashed by Captain Horrible.  This makes the van go out of control and almost smashes right into Penny.  Just as Dr. Horrible regains control of the van and stops it, making it appear as though Captain Hammer had stopped the van with his bare hands” (Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog- Act One).  Captain Hammer becomes the hero and rescuer in Penny’s eyes.

 

Captain Hammer wants to be perceived as a crusader for the homeless in the eyes of Penny.  He gets the mayor to sign over a building to house the homeless. “Captain Hammer begins a speech praising the homeless but it degenerates into selfish, condescending praise of his own excellence and relationship with Penny” (Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog- Act Three).  Captain Hammer is so self-centered and selfish.  Penny becomes so embarrassed that she tries to leave the stage quietly.  Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a complete hoot for people who enjoy musicals with quirky humor. Whedon does an amazing job of weaving together fine acting, extremely catchy and well-written songs, and witty, yet thought-provoking dialogue in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

 

Narrative Complexity in Television

Eng 576: Complexity in Contemporary Narrative

 

 “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television.”  Jason Mittell (2006) 29-40

 

 Jason Mittell states, “Television Narrative complexity is predicated on specific facets of storytelling that seem uniquely suited to the series structure that sets television apart from film and distinguish it from conventional modes of episodic and serial form” (29). 

In other words, it is important to separate the conventional forms of storytelling from the complex in changing viewers and critics perceptions of television’s legitmacy as a medium and its appeal to creators and writers.

 

Examples of Distinction:

• Long-term story telling vs. stand alone episodes
• Rejects the need for plot closure within every episode
• Interweaving story lines that often collide and coincide
• References to media or life outside of TV world
• Voice-over narration, often breaking the fourth wall  
• Retelling same story from multiple perspectives (“Rashomon effect”)
• Writers must offer something that is unique to television

 

TV Complexity’s Effects on Viewers:

• Using the new technologies of home recording like DVR and DVD, viewers have taken an active role in consuming narratively complex TV and helping it thrive.
• Audiences tend to embrace the complexity in much more passionate and committed terms than most conventional TV.
• le.  The profilication of channels have routinize repeats, so that viewers can catch up on a program in chronologically aired reruns or view missed premiun cable shows multiple times throughout the week.  They are also allowed to watch programs when they want and can rewatch it sort out complex moments.
• Steve Johnson’s “Cognitive workout” that encourages audiences to become more actively engaged, increasing problem-solving and observational skills.
• Media references encourages audience to be aware of what is happening in the world.
• Videogames, blogs, and fan websites have offered realms that enable viewers to participate beyond the one-flow of traditional TV.
• Sconce’s “Metareflexive” idea where audiences watch complex program to marvel and appreciate how they can push the boundaries of complexity through specific themes or patterns that can distinguish itself from the rest.
• Viewers build up their comprehension skills through long-term, active engagement despite being temporarily confused.
• le.  Video games are predicated on our ability to learn how to understand and interact with a range of storyworlds and interfaces.

 

Examples of Narrative Complex TV:

• Six Feet Under- Operates on the unique theme of showing a different death at the beginning of every episode.
• X-Files- Balances between episodic and serial modes.
• Heroes & Lost- Interweaves story lines between different characters (Flashback to the airport in Lost) as well as do not give the viewers closure at the end of every episode (“To be Continued” in Heroes)
• Dexter- Voice over narration
• Seinfeld- Doesn’t require serial knowledge of past shows, but is complex because of its unresolved moments and interweaving story lines.

What are some non-serial/complex narrative television shows?

 

Why is this important?

• Many viewers don’t want to watch simple shows anymore.  They want to watch something that will actively engage them and keep them hanging off the edge of their seat.
• There is more of a variety in what someone can watch on TV.
• TV can now be looked at as more of a legit form of literacy.
• Storytelling is becoming much more advanced and realistic as opposed to shows that always have a happy ending or closure.
• It is a more honest depiction of human behavior and interactions as well as every single human in this world has his own story that often interweaves and connects to others’ stories.

Lost Cult Like Scenairos

Blog Four

 

I have never watched the series Lost, therefore I did not know what to expect.  After watching the assigned episodes of J. J. Abrams’s Lost, I thought that these episodes were perplexing and were often slow moving in certain segments.  Lost has so many scenarios and storylines that are hard to follow.  I could not see myself getting involved in this series like some of the viewers that are addicted to this program and have to follow each installment.  I found it quite interesting that they are some similarities in Abrams’s Lost and Fincher’s Zodiac.  Both Lost and Zodiac have fading in and out scenes that leave the audience wondering what is going to happen next.  They use dramatic music to set-up dramatic scenes and scenarios that have either deadly consequences or flare-ups that draws and grabs the audience attention to keep them intrigued and wanting more. Zodiac and Lost also have timelines and visual effects, and sound effects.  They both as well have unresolved questions and endings that leave audiences and viewers stunned and mystified.

 

The difference between David Fincher’s Zodiac and J. J. Abrams’s Lost is that Zodiac is a movie and not a television series.  There is also the aspect that Lost is a weekly segment that employs and uses different devices and elements throughout each episode.  Each episode is set on this topical island with a series of flashbacks to the each survivor past life and history.  At times, I was lost and disinterested in some segments. The constant use of the flashback scenes got me confused in each character’s history and life.  Then there the fact that one does learn the character’s name for a while therefore it is hard at times to follow the storyline of this series.  In Lost the character, Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) is deemed as the leader that gives directions to the survivors of the ill-fated flight 815 that crashed the creepy island that they now call home.  There are elements of mythology throughout each of the segments.  There are the “boars,” that the character, Locke (Terry O’Quinn) chases for food, the mysterious black smoke, the references the “Black Rock,” a British slaving ship, and the “mention of the others” that also inhabitant this creepy island.  Locke is a character that was once paralysis and mocked constantly by his boss, but once upon the island he becomes the hunter, fearless, and gains the ability to walk again.  Locke feels that there is a reason why these particular people are predestined to be on this island.  He believes in fate and that this island has some kind of power that will alter the lives of all that survived the plane crash.  Locke tries to convince Jack that there is a reason why they round-up on this creepy island.  He believes that it is some kind of reason and fate that brought them together to this particular place.

 

 Wikipedia,details Lost’s conception.   Wikipedia states, “The series began development in January 2004, when Lloyd Braun, head of ABC at the time, ordered an initial script from Spelling Television based on his concept of a cross between the novel Lord of the Flies, the movie Cast Away, the television series Gilligan’s Island, and the popular reality show Survivor” (1).  In J. J. Abrams Lost, there are the concepts of lying, truth, and mind-games that are interwoven throughout each of the segments.  The constant use of the visual effects and dramatic music, and fading in and out of scene are important characteristics and elements that draw in the viewing audience.  I find this series complex and confusing.  True even though there are many mysteries, unresolved question, and mind-games in Lost, I cannot see myself watching such a series.

 

Work Cited

 

 “Wikipedia.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(TV_series) .

Zodiac’s Mind-Games

I just finished watching David Fincher’s Zodiac.  I found watching a DVD rather different from reading a book.  There are visual effects, sound effects and cinematography implemented into the film, while a book does not has these characteristics.  In the DVD of Zodiac, you get to experience and see the actual action and drama.    Zodiac is quite different from our first two narratives, Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment.  First of all, it is a true event.  The film is a reenactment of the Zodiac killings that terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s and the early 1970s.   Zodiac not only killed people, he also cultivated a Jack the Ripper aura by sending taunting letters to the newspapers, that the readers to solve coded messages. However, the film does not focus on the Zodiac killer; it surveys the investigation into the killings.  The letters that the Zodiac killer sent to the press included four cryptograms (or ciphers), three of which have yet to be solved. The first Zodiac letters began in 1969 and he did not identify himself in these three letters.  In the film, you hear his voice when calls up the police and the newspapers to tell that he is going on a killing spree.  The film follows the investigators and reporters that are obsessed with the case.  The character, Robert Graysmith, (Jake Gyllenhaal)  is a cartoonist who works for the San Francisco Chronicle. His quirky ways irritate the character  Paul Avery,(Robert Downey, Jr.), a reporter whose drinking gets in the way of doing his job.  They both become friends because of their shared interest in the Zodiac Killer.  Graysmith some how formulates a way to cipher and break Zodiac’s cryptic messages.  He as well becomes so obsessed with the case that he wants to write a book about the Zodiac killings.  Meanwhile Avery life spirals out of control because of his obsessive drinking  Graysmith’s amateur sleuthing puts him on the path of David Toschi,( Mark Ruffall), a police inspector, who so far failed to capture the Zodiac Killer.  There is a handwriting analyses and expert that is trying to prove if Arthur Leigh Allen is the behind the Zodiac letters and killings.  There appears  to be a timeline of dates that are noted when a new scene begins.  These dates are hard to read unless you are up-close to the film.

 

In David Fincher’s Zodiac, as Graysmith starts realizing that the killer’s ciphers are just a small part of the clues needed to solve the case, he dives head first into a whirlwind of lost leads and unturned stones.   Inspector David Toschi, who along with Graysmith ends up down a path of broken chances and burnout that will change both men lives forever because they are trying to capture the zodiac killer. David Fincher’s Zodiac is filled with mind-games and definitely many unanswered questions.  It is apparent that Graysmith gets so fixated with the zodiac killings that his wife leaves him because she fears that the killer will find them.  It is almost eerie that an arrest was never made, and yet the coincidental matches do not come down to one possible suspect, but seems to create an array of probable ones. The major complaints I have about the film are the fact it is a bit long and I did not understand the ending because it left me wondering what happened at the end.  David Fincher’s Zodiac definitely uses mind-games to get the viewer involved and intrigue with the storyline.  The Zodiac killer taunts the police and reporters with his cryptic codes, letters and telephones.  These reporters and investigators take the bait and become obsessed in trying to find and capture this malicious and seedy Zodiac Killer.