The Power Of The Past

In the SiFi Indie film Upstream Color, there are strong themes of slavery. The film starts with main character Kris being kidnapped and drugged with a strange capsule. The kidnapper then plays with her altered mind by making her do tedious things such as make a paper chain and drink glasses of water. She becomes a literal slave to this man, but also a slave to what this pill has done to her mentally. Fast forward to when the effects of the capsule wearing off, we find Kris waking up with everything taken from her. She also has a type of parasite growing inside of her. Although she is no longer enslaved, she is left alone and completely unsure of where to go from here. Its at this point in the film we see that there are permanent effects from her drugging.

She hears sounds and begins to follow them. They lead her to another ambiguous man, there to continue experimenting on her. He removes the worm from her body and inserts it in that of a pig. She is now connected with this pig in a non-physical way. This specifically reminded me of Sethes situation. Sethe was taken away from everything she had and put into slavery, starting a black slate kind of life Kris. Sethe is also mentally enslaved to her past, with a baby that died representing that. Kris and Sethe have both been treated cruelly in their past, and now cannot escape the ‘haunting’ that follows.

Through her struggles of starting over, Kris meets a man named Jeff. Shane Carruth, the Directer of the film was interviewed for a more in depth view of the film here http://io9.com/how-shane-carruths-upstream-color-explains-your-dysfun-465799671 described their relationship as:

 "Okay, look, I’ve got these two characters, they are being attracted and repulsed, based on things that are happening with the creatures that they're connected to, out there in the pig trough."

They share a fascinating love and friendship, but it becomes difficult when the strange pain and events happen due to the connection. It is interesting how in both stories, these women have a man who somehow can relate to their situation but still face confusion and frustration over it. The Director of the film described him:

“Jeff, I always thought, is actually a lot more screwed up than Kris — because Kris, at least, seems to be aware that something’s off, and seems to be curious about investigating it. Whereas Jeff is … he’s found to have stolen money, and decides to adopt that personality.”

Jeff is in a way a slave to his past mistakes that won’t seem to go away. Sethes lover Paul D also experienced a troubled past which has left him constantly unsettled and damaged. The theme of ghosts is prevalent in these men as a source of discomfort. Paul D cannot help but feel a sexual attraction to ghostly figure Beloved, and is disloyal because of it. While trying to grow closer to Kris, Jeff is frustrated by her lack of memory and irrational behavior that appears when the pig she is connected to starts to act up.

Kris and Jeff end up sensing where their source of pain is coming from. They actually go to where the man behind all of this lives and shoots him. They will continue to live connected to the animals, but no longer tortured. This conclusion once again tied back to the theme of slavery. They now must live knowing they were a test some insane science experiment, and it shaped their current lives. I feel this is what happened in 124 to Sethe, Denver and Paul D. Beloved came into their homes and change how they all felt about each other. They cannot continue living the same way, and are once again psychologically enslaved by these strange occurrences.

Sethe was taken as a worker and escaped her dark future. Kris was taken and became a target of hypnotics and mental cruelty. Although superficially their situations are very different, Beloved and Upstream Color both are both stories of people who have lost control of their mental state because of slavery.

Forgive Me, Father

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Good Morning Billy Pilgrim!

        Although I've seen an array of war movies, I somehow felt drawn to one that is somewhat  'goofy' and 'lighthearted', rather rare for this genre. Good Morning Vietnam is about a comedian sent to entertain soldiers in Vietnam with a radio show, but he ends up putting his life in danger and falling in love while there. Overall, I'd say most people would get more laughs out of this film then anything else. Though this may not rein true for Slaughterhouse Five, I still found it has a lot of comedic elements. But, they affected me in totally different ways. 
        In these two stories, the main character captivates us. Adrian in Good Morning Vietnam is what I would catorgrise as the shining apple in a pile of rotting ones, a pretty common character type in stories. In this dior situation, everything seems a little better because he is there. While having visible faults, he's extremely likable and charming to almost everyone he meets, and is not afraid to be himself. An ideal character, right? His interactions are bound to be interesting because he is, in this case, extremely funny. I know I would love to know someone like him. Good Morning Vietnam is not necessarily a comical story, especially considering it's setting is dead in the middle of a dangerous and uncontrollable war. The comedy is this story are the things Adrian says. Billy Pilgram is the main character of Slaughterhouse 5 and.....is not quite the shining apple. Billy, so far in my reading could be described as disoriented, fatalistic, introverted, and at times crazy. Yet, he is still not a fascinating soldier to others in the novel. He is pretty much overlooked by everyone in this story, and often looked down upon. It is clearly a more laughing "at" kind of story. Billy is such an uncomfortably real and unglamorized character that you can't help but find his circumstances funny. This man, this undeniably unequipped mans stages of life manage to captivate readers with the mindset of, will he ever change? Therefore, these protagonists extreme differences become irrelevant because they are both strong and interesting in their own way. 
     Furthermore, these stories have another undeniable similarity; Their settings in gruesome and active wars. This is a huge element of what makes these stories more interesting then others, they do not have a simple, adaptable setting. In Good Morning Vietnam, one of Adrians main struggles is trusting anyone he meets and developing friendships while forgetting they can work for the enemy. In the midst of his radio show and romance, he also forgets the severity of war, both from the enemy and his own american side and it hits him dramatically. Billy is placed in a position where he is unable to relate with the men fighting along side him. Billy also indubitably suffers by being a prisoner of war. Both stories reach points where comedy is almost completely removed and you are forced to think about the real darkness of their situations, which I think is really......cool. And the main ingredient for the depth of the stories.This can definitely be considered ironic, and almost a form of satire. 
      While on a surface level extremely different, Good Morning Vietnam and Slaughterhouse Five tell war stories incredibly through strong protagonists, use of humor, and flooring dark situations. 

Based on this poster, this war movie looks to be a snickering comedy.

Shall I compare thee to a winters night?

     I can say that the transition of seasons has always been present in my life. Of course, everyone feels this to some extent, controlling their ability to wear shorts or go skiing. I found I classify different feelings with each season, hold different memories and acquire different moods. Almost everyone has a favorite season for whatever reason, but I find them a great example of positive change. Their diversity is good for not only me, but the world. Each season calls for new adaption, the plants and animals that had been hiding away all winter are able to blossom and reproduce in the next seasons. The thing I love about seasons is how they are constant. If it's been a rough winter, at least you know spring will come and eventually summer. Rainy days can't last forever (well debatable if you live in Oregon). Its one of these prebuilt schedules, like day and night. Weather, something people consider one of the most unpredictable things, is a major part in seasons that are completely predictable.

      With seasons being one of these super prominent things in our lives, its no doubtfully one of the most resourced things in creativity. I urge you to try listening to the top 40 radio for an hour this time of year and not hearing a single lyric about 'endless sun summer party all night long'. Even turn it to the classical station and a powerful and beautiful melody that was composed to remind you of summer by Vivadis Four Seasons concerto. Kind of like them, we cannot hide from the inspiring, referring and personifying of seasons everywhere.
      My favorite literary example of this is the classic Great Gatsby. Even with the last time I read this book being freshmen year, found the changing of seasons extremely relevant. Maybe this is partially because of the widely spread time lapse of the book, but it definitely was done with a purpose. The story starts at the beginning of Summer. I think this was done to show a fresh new start, just like the newly bloomed flowers. The summer is like how Gatsby is feeling, new and hopeful for his relation with Daisy. As the few months of summer ellaspse, so does their relationship. The peak of summer would be his dreams of being with Daisy coming true. They both feel this summer has brought them brand new feelings for each other and feels like some kind of fantasy. But as summer comes to an end, a sense of reality comes back and results in a kind of downfall. Gatsbys relation with Daisy begins to fall apart and the story continues. For Gatsby, Summer played the part of "the fall". The only thing on his mind was fulfilling his love interest, all of his darkness and secrets seemed to simply not exist and wouldn't cause a problem then. This is a theme that's been explored before, a time obsolete to the rest of the year where the possibilities seem new and endless. Summer is a time of peace and comfort, contrasting to harsher weathers of other seasons. In chapter 20 Thomas C. Foster often nods to Shakespeare's constant use of seasons. The one that comes to my mind is sonnet 18 his famous personification, "Shall I compare thee to a summers day?" Sounds lovely, doesn't it? I'm sure she was flattered.

                                                      summer lovin, happened so fast! 

"Check Please!" And Other Delicious Table Talk

Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion is the chapter I have chosen to explore. In this chapter of How To Read Like A Professor, Foster examines the idea of what a meal is all about. Not the silverware, specialty dishes or drinks of the meals, but rather the underlying themes that come with them in novels. He has many different ways of processing this. Most prominent of which is that whatever, wherever or however people are having a meal together, its a communion. Weather positive or negative, Foster says the choice of sharing meals is a way of communicating “I’m with you, I like you, we form a community together.”  Amazing, how such a broad subject such as eating with others can be defined in this small statement. This made me think about how we view the world with emotions, and how everything around us is then controlled by them. Say if you are in love with someone and go out to dinner with them, it makes the dinner act and feel different then, say, a dinner with another person that you have un-fond memories of. I'd say thats one of the most amazing things about human nature, the ability to create our own tint of the worlds sunglasses based on what is inside only us. Of course the things that happen around us can effect and control our emotions, but they aren't feeling them for us. Only we can do that!  

Nighthawks, a painting by Edward Hopper 

Perhaps its because of another main point made in this chapter.  Foster states that sometimes a meal is just a meal and eating with others is simply eating with others. But more often than not, though, it’s not. This immediately reminded me of a novel I read not but about four months ago. It was Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. If you have read the book you will probably know why it came to my mind with this chapter. Nearly the entire half of the novel that is said by Frannys point of view, is about the meal. Lane and Franny attend a lunch specifically at a restaurant that is known to have students dine there who are very intellectual. This small detail already gives a nod to Fosters Freud like point and gives the meal a moreover meaning then before. Franny is unhappy with the connotations that come with this restaurant because they stand against how she would ideally like Lane to be. Lane treats being at this setting like ego booster and image creator. Their reasons for being together in this place at this moment are already different. Their contrasting outlooks cause a kind of roof over the story that is otherwise, at this point, just two people going out for lunch. Yet it all boils down to the fact that a meal situation was chosen in this novel to demonstrate necessary intimacy. They are falling out of love because they are in a place where the only person they are communicating with are each other. 

Weather the significance in in the nervous fiddling of a napkin or the fatal poison that lie in an unknowings cup, eating together stands as a strong form of symbolism in a novel.