ELS Autoblog

It is due to my frustration regarding all things “computerized” that I am just now posting on Dronke. My apologies.
When Dronke goes into the issue of translation, I perk up. In hindsight everything is a phenomenon, and we are able to distance ourselves sufficiently to “study” the past. The warnings that history is doomed to repeat itself if we don’t pay attention the first time around is crap; we’re going to repeat it, it’s just a matter of time before we get cocky enough to think that certain events and practices are simply of the past and that we are now more sophisticated.
Certain tendencies are part of “human nature,” if you’ll excuse the cliché. One of these tendencies is stealing ideas from another group (ahem, culture) due to their exotic appeal, among other things. (I realize I’m being reductionist and that there are a million and one reasons to steal from […]

Original post by jordan

I stole that title from a one-liner I heard on The Blue Collar Comedy tour, but I feel it applies quite well to our readings. The knee-jerk reaction of the husband who discovers that his wife is sleeping with another man – as found in The Arabian Nights – is to kill them both, and with one stroke if possible. As you can probably guess, I’ve been wondering with exceeding wonder about the way adultery is portrayed in The Arabian Nights, and how that contrasts to the way we tend to see it in the west. In a traditional western story, when a wife commits adultery, it’s usually because her husband isn’t satisfying her. So she looks elsewhere – oftentimes to the village priest or some other “unlikely” figure – for gratification, and we all share a laugh over how she was able to get away […]

Original post by ebarn4wv

In class when we talked about the Hays Code, it reminded me of something I learned last year in a theatre class. I thought it was pretty interesting so I figured I’d mention it here!  Hooray!(?)
There was a similar code on Vaudeville performers during the late 19th/early 20th century. Unacceptable content was referred to as “blue material.” (The envelopes given to the actors outlining new regulations or violations were sealed in blue envelopes.) I guess I just kind of found it interesting that similar campaigns for family-friendly entertainment existed in both industries. I actually remembered the website that our theatre class used most as a sort of textbook resource, and I found this example of a warning that was posted backstage in producers Keith and Albee’s theatres:
“Don’t say “slob” or “son of a gun” or “hully gee*” on the stage unless you […]

Original post by malbrooks

A washingtonpost.com article, Giving Voice to Chinese, explains how Chinese environmentalists were able to muster people together to protest the construction of a new factory by communicating with cell phones.
It was a dramatic illustration of the potential of technology — particularly cellphones and the Internet — to challenge the rigorous censorship and political controls…

That is awesome. The Chinese government has earned itself a bad reputation for censorship. For a thorough exampe, read this excerpt from Esse est indicato in Google on the Chinese internet censorship:
Email appears to be filtered at the service provider level, not at the backbone level, and increasingly sophisticated anti-spam filtering software can also be modified for use in political filtering. Blog provides are carefully monitored through keyword filtering, and politically incorrect bloggers are typically removed quickly from the servers. Within China, when one looks for Google, one often reaches alternative search engines such […]

Original post by humanisticmystic

So…when it comes to blogging I am rather like my sister. I’m still pretty new to this whole “write down your thoughts for everyone to see” thing. I’ve got a myspace account which allows me to blog as well, but so far in the last 3 years that I’ve had my account I’ve written probably six blogs. Most of my writing style revolves around being sarcastic, so most of what I have to say is a running commentary of whatever annoys me enough to write.
Class was interesting last night. I was afraid for a while that the course would be lecture based, which boded poorly for me as I am known to stealth nap in such classes. Fortunately, it turned out to be very discussion based….nay, engaging discussion based, so I’m thinking that this will be a better month than I mapped it out to be.
In particular, I liked our […]

Original post by georgestreet

You have to hand it to Shahrazad.  She tells one very compelling story.  And she does this by telling a story within a story within a story.  Think about it.  The main story of The Arabian Nights, is her own.  She reminds us of this with some small word or phrase found within the text.  She then goes on to tell stories to King Shahryar. And in her stories, she had her characters tell stories to each other.  And so the stories and storytellers come full circle.
The stories themselves deal with magic and things that would be outside the experiance of the average Muslim of the time period.  Now they most likely believed in things like magic and jinnis.  This was so that they would have something or someone to blame when the unexpected happened.
One of my favorite stories so far is “The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince.”  Which is told […]

Original post by kathryn

After today’s class, my view  of the book “The Glass Key” has changed completely.  I have never been able to analyze a book the way we did in class today, and it was interesting to break down the true meaning behind every word that Hammett writes.  The scenes came to life, more than a film ever has done.  I feel that the words Hammett uses in the book are so full of imagery, so full of meaning.  The play between red and white in the room where Janet and Ned Beaumont are talking, their play on words, the furniture descriptions, really got to me.
 The fact that Hammett never lets us as readers get into the character’s thoughts is a great way to tell the story, because the story is pretty much based on what everyone is thinking about everyone else.  We are left on the outside, making us characters in the […]

Original post by khusband

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you my Magnum Opus: After Thoughts on the Hays Code.
Now, some readers might be temped to ask: “Wait a minute, didn’t you just add some stupid youtube clip to a post you stole word-for-word from a better blogger? ”  
Well, it’s an honest question, and I’ll try my best to give it an honest answer.  First off, did I mention it’s a clip of the Dramatic Chipmunk?

Note the clip’s Hammett-esque nature… we see the chipmunk’s expression, but do we know what he’s thinking?
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Ok, so after class I thought I’d investigate more into the “Hays” or “Production Code” set by the MPAA back in 1930. Anyway, incase this interests anyone else, I’ll just post the principles and my thoughts on some of them.Principles:
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never […]

Original post by crain2mn

Two days ago, an interesting article caught my eye on BBC News. Reference is made to ethnographer Danah Boyd, PhD, who makes many observations in a non-scholarly blog essay regarding a social schism between Facebook and MySpace. Already, the blog post has received feedback from over 200 people. Essentially, Boyd argues that there is a strongly visible trend for the elite, educated, “hegemonic” teenagers to flock to Facebook while the socially ostracized teenagers swarm to MySpace.
Indeed many experienced social networkers, including myself, have commented on the apparent superiority of Facebook to MySpace. To many Facebookers, there seems to be this upper class prestige that comes with the Facebook network. This probably has to do with its history. Facebook was once restricted only to college students. Then the site gradually opened itself fully to the public, which perturbed a great deal of Facebook veterans who preferred the more intimate environment.
Still, […]

Original post by humanisticmystic

So this is my first time blogging ever, hence the title and Madonna reference. Madonna is appropriate, let’s talk about femme fatales, shall we?I get the appeal, I really do. Sexy, smart, alluring, dangerous, volatile, a smattering of all-American and mysterious. What’s not to get excited about? We love Laura Croft, every other Angelina Jolie role, and we dreamily watched Rebecca Romijn force a bad accent while hypnotizing us with her nudity. I dare any prude to deny the inherent connection between sex/sexuality and danger/violence–basically anything else blood-pumping/primal/base. In the battle of the sexes, Janet is a worthy opponent for bouncing back innuendo and suggestion, and she’s a hell of a lot more attractive than Jeff. And any other woman is not strong enough to carry the title of leading lady. The femme fatale is a much more appealing conquest than the shy, simpering woman. I use woman in italics […]

Original post by cdame2of