ELS Autoblog

Alright then, so I said I have more to say about The Glass Key. And I do, but, I forgot it. Maybe it’ll come back to me? Probably not, but I’ll leave the possibility open. For now I want to talk about Yojimbo.
I found the movie to be very interesting. I wanted to first talk about the opening shot with the mountains. Before we went back over it in class, I did notice how Sanjuro seemed to be as big, if not bigger, than the mountains during my first viewing. The things that were uncovered with a further look, though, brought so much more meaning to that shot. The same with the town shot, how the buildings were almost looming over him when he entered it. It got me thinking.
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Original post by malbrooks

“All creativity can be understood as taking in the world as a problem.”
I know we already talked this one to death, but I’m feeling the need to explore it further. We explored the nature of the statement, but not really the statement itself. We asked what was meant by “creativity”. What qualifies as creativity? What is the connotation of the word “problem” in this context? Why is it phrased as “taking in” rather than “approaching”? Is it even possible to approach these question in a way that produces answers?
I think the only way I’m going to get anywhere with this–and the only way any of us can, really–is to use whatever interpretation that is meaningful for me personally. When I create art, in whatever form it takes, am I doing it because I’m trying to address a condition that is present in my world and important to me? I […]

Original post by arynna

So as usual, my magnificent blogging ideas have sufficiently dimished since returning home from class because most of them have left my head already (which is sad so because I had such high hopes).

I guess the main points that stood out to me the most from class today, centralized around the concepts of insight, and grock. (My father always said I was coma happy, so do, not, mind, all, of, the comas, I use).  As I mentioned in class, it absolutely astonishes me how Vannevar Bush (p.s. sweet name…hold please I am going to go google the name meaning…rarrh! I can not find a name meaning behind Vannevar which makes me even more curious than my initial curiosity…I suppose I will come back to this later)  Anywayyyy back to where what I was talking about…How in this great vast world that we live on did Vannevar ( I will refer […]

Original post by Peanut!

I had a really cool moment in class today during our discussion of where Dashiell Hammett (if I spelled that wrong, a thousand apologies) fits in on the scale of literary modernism, the two ends being Virginia Woolf’s theory that literature should be a window into the conscious mind and Joseph Conrad’s idea that it should be “something something justice to the visible world.” The consensus was that our present author definitely fits more on the Conradian side of the equation, due to his almost obsessive preoccupation with not letting us into the minds of his characters and even going so far as to create a kind of unreliable narrator situation where we weren’t even sure if the surface information we were getting was right. Talk about confusing. I, of course, loved this. Even though pretty much every English teacher I’ve ever had persists in telling me that authorial intent […]

Original post by anniek

Here are some memes I found online. Enjoy.

Original post by anniek

Yojimbo
 
The movie (free access) available online, for those who missed the movie, missed part of it, or just want to review it.
Select the link under Yojimbo (Stage 6) for the movie!

Original post by Amanda

I am copying the handouts from today’s class below:
Rules of Love
The following set of rules is based on the De Amore of Andreas Capellanus, as adapted in Appendix 1 of Ann S. Haskell’s A Middle English Anthology (Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1985). To find out more about Andreas Capellanus, click here.
1. Marriage should not be a deterrent to love.
2. Love cannot exist in the individual who cannot be jealous.
3. A double love cannot obligate an individual.
4. Love constantly waxes and wanes.
5. That which is not given freely by the object of one’s love loses its savor.
6. It is necessary for a male to reach the age of maturity in order to love.
7. A lover must observe a two-year widowhood after his beloved’s death.
8. Only the most urgent circumstances should deprive one of love.
9. Only the insistence of love can motivate one to love.
10. Love cannot coexist with avarice.
11. […]

Original post by islammedlit

It was a late night last night so I was only able to get through Orientalism and most of that there “The Arabian Nights.” But seeing as how some other intellectual minds have covered “Nights” I’ll just move on to Orientalism.
Overall I thought that Said did a wonderful anthropological analysis of what the “Orient” is with regard to how man perceives it. The west is a geographical area, the Orient is a man-made concept. I didn’t realize before this work that as Americans we have a completely different concept of what the Orient entitles. But for both Europe and the United States the Orient is a way for people to dominate a seemingly harmless and exotic culture without feeling like jerks. It made me think of our reasoning for having slavery back in the day here in the US of A. We decided that Africans LIKED the hard labor. So […]

Original post by badspellar

Original post by ellie

I think it’s very interesting to examine just how much of an impact a simple hairstyle can have on a nation.  From Veronica Lake’s “hair over the eye” technique in the 1940’s, to what was so creatively dubbed “The Rachel” (Jennifer Ansiton’s do on the hit 1990’s sitcom “Friends); these stars have influenced women across the country to tear out their photos from a magazine (or now a days, print it off the internet), rush to their favorite salon, and say “give me this look!”
Here is a list of some other Hollywood starlets who have also made their mark:
~”1931 Jean Harlow starred in the movie “Platinum Blonde.” This hair color then swept the nation.”
~ “In the 1940’s, Rita Hayworth began the hairstyle trend of side-parted finger waves the sexiest style of that time. Veronica Lake and her cascading blonde hair defined glamour.”
~”The 1950’s brought a trend of highlighting and Lucille […]

Original post by ellie