On Camilla.

Camilla Essay
I haven’t finished reading the essay yet, but I wanted to go ahead and post it before we run out of time.
So far, so good. Becker proposes (so far) that Camilla takes a place of honor toward the end of the Aeneid, “undercutting” Turnus’s character. She commands the reader’s attention by commanding the attention of those surrounding her within the story. Sure.
But then I get confused. The essay talks about Camilla as a character being the embodiment of the general confusion of the Aeneid. Granted, I read a chunk of the Eneas the other night like everyone else, but I can’t say I completely understand that theory– not yet anyway. I suppose I’d have to actually break down and do the reading.

Original post by jordan

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Genre Films

Yesterday’s class discussion brought me to my local Blockbuster. It was interesting to observe the layout of the store, and how the aspect of categories, or genre really does play a big part in the films that people choose to see. The categories for this particular Blockbuster consisted of New Release, Comedy, Drama, Action, Horror, Foreign Films, as well as a Family/Children’s section. I suppose that there are benefits to limiting the amount of categories used, but I couldn’t help but wonder how it might be nice to have a section just for Westerns, or perhaps film noirs. I can understand how that may be difficult considering that so many films contain a plethora of different elements; and it’s probably easier for everyone invoved to say, “well, this one is more likely to make people laugh, so it’s a comedy; or this one has more depressing […]

Original post by ellie

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What Wikipedia taught me about Camilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla_%28mythology%29

Original post by badspellar

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White people + religious tolerance + smallpox – Indians = America

As a designer I am supposed to communicate, visually, a message. Be it to get the general population to buy a certain brand of soap, navigate easily to a news article or bring down the government with a series of well placed, ingenious posters. That’s why I’m in school right now, that’s why I give Belmont University over $20,000 a year and that’s why I am a bootstrapping young man. As far as the institution of education goes anyway…I’m learning to be a better designer, finding different ways to solve problems with the tools I’m given (pen, paper, x-acto knife, photoshop), perhaps by even creating my own device or using the standard tools in an unconventional way. This whole concept didn’t really fly too well with me my first semester at school…I slacked off a lot and had a 2.5 GPA, which really blew. Eventually I realized I was […]

Original post by georgestreet

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Lancelot

I am horrible when it comes to blog, which is evidenced by the fact that this is my first blog but we’re in the second week of classes. The readings had not been the least bit captivating to me up until tonight. While I will be the first to admit that I don’t like the whole fairytale romance hoopla, but this story was a refreshing change from Menocal and Said. I saw a lot of what we talked about in class today, with more liberal and free sexuality, especially on the part of women. The damsel took me a little off guard. I guess I just wasn’t expecting a woman with free-will to openly ask a knight to lie with her without any qualms or reservations. On a somewhat unrelated note, however, is a seneschal a lower servant/knight sort of? Kay doesn’t seem […]

Original post by jendudley

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Lancelot: My Hero

First off, I have to say this was the first reading that I could not put down, ignoring the fact that I read during my night class.
I don’t know if I’m just a sucker for fairy tales or what, but I don’t think I could even begin to doubt Lancelot and the Queen’s love. And while Lancelot continuously sacrifices for his love, I feel like the Queen sacrifices and suffers as well. Even though the story doesn’t end with them together, they are still able to be near in each and continue to hope for a chance at some recognition of love.
The other thing I really liked about this tale is that all of our favorite characters come around. Arthur’s hanging out, Gawain’s the trusty best friend, the usual love interest is there in the Queen, and the evil forces take the shapes of men, dwarfs, and skeezy women. It’s […]

Original post by kaseyd

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FTC Day

So…first ftc day. Did everyone have fun? I know I did, except for the billions of microscopic ants crawling in my bra. Try being bitten by those buggers when you’re attempting to focus on film theory. Quite a difficult task, I’ll tell you.
In between twitching spastically, though, I enjoyed a lot of the points made in the articles we read. Especially I enjoyed the contrast between genre film and the notion of film as high art, and mutual exclusivity that seemed to exist between the two. A genre film, due to the preconceived notions involved in the concept of a genre (both in terms of syntactic and semantic elements), is prohibited by convention from ascending to the realm of high art, due to the fact that a genre film does not possess the originality or depth of a high art film. Disregarding completely the thorny issue of what makes high […]

Original post by anniek

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I go ga-ga for Clint Eastwood

Let’s talk about how suggestive this trailer is…

Original post by cdame2of

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Viewing a movie as art

I hate the snobbery that is associated with the word “art.” Art to many people is supposed to be some unique, never before seen work. But honestly, I don’t get a lot of what people call “art.” At an art museum near my house, someone had sawn a table in half and mounted it on the wall and is probably making a lot of money off of it. I just don’t get it. Why would I want to look at that? I think art should be a little more enjoyable than that. Art should not be this exclusive club that only a handful of people “understand.” I think movies are a form of art. It has meaning, and the audience can enjoy it. The amount of work that goes into every scene in a movie and how deliberate everything is done is just as […]

Original post by khusband

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Sanjuro’s Motive

Sanjuro, the protagonist of Yojimbo, is the quintessential cowboy of classic Westerns. He is a wanderer, drifting into defunct towns to help the helpless and defeat the unjust. His demeanor is stoic, seemingly asexual, pure and noble. Once the dynasty that held him in employment dissolved, he is left to exist on his own, and forge his own meaning. In most Westerns, or Western-esque flicks, the motivation of the main character coming to town and saving the day is clear. For money, for love, for revenge, you name it. So what is Sanjuro’s motive for intervening in the town divided by equal, opposing forces?It first appears that Sanjuro has simply found the perfect situation in which to make the most of his skills as a warrior and make a profit. After all of his playing hard to get, he gives the 30 ryo to the family of the woman held […]

Original post by cdame2of

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