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October 31, 2005

Photograph: Cheryl Haworth

The postcard I received is “Cheryl Haworth” and was taken in New York City by Annie Lebiovitz.

Studium (Denotation)

My postcard shows a very tall, full-figured, muscular woman against a stark dark gray background. Her skin is very pale, almost white, and her hair is pulled back tightly, away from her face. Her lips are pursed firmly and her eyebrows are furrowed. She is wearing a black singlet (similar to a leotard). Around each wrist she has tied a thick white strip of fabric. She has on plain white socks and simple black and white patterned sneakers. She is leaning down, lifting a very long barbell with a large red weight on one side. (We cannot see the other side of the barbell.) The muscles in her arms and legs are tensed and incredibly defined.

Punctum (Connotation)

It seems as if this woman is a competitive weight-lifter because her body appears suited to this sport. She certainly has large muscles and a full-figure, but it is difficult to say that she is fat. Instead, she appears to fit the profile I have in my mind (from prior knowledge) of weight-lifters. From her appearance it is also clear that she is straining very hard to lift this large barbell. First, simply by the fact that the barbell is so large, it makes us suspect that it may be difficult for her to lift it. Also, her lips are pursed and her eyebrows are furrowed, signifying that she is concentrating and straining to lift this weight. Third, her muscles are defined, suggesting that they are working hard. Her appearance also gives off a no-nonsense attitude, as if she is putting all of her energy into her work. Her hair is pulled back simply and she only wears the necessary apparel. For example, she wears simple socks and sneakers, so clearly she is not interested in showing off.

Posted by lciscotis at 09:33 PM | Comments (1)

Eliza

Eliza is weird, and doesn't ever make sense. When I asked something or said something she always just took words that I used and put them in some form of phrase or another question.

I realized that she doesn't want to talk about herself and that she will not answer my questions but rather just says "well why do you want to know?" or something like that. I got really frustrated with Eliza!!

Posted by lcisnelson at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

Louise Bourgois

My postcard is of Louise Bourgois, taken by Annie Leibovitz in New York City. It's actually interesting in mentions that it was taken there, as it is only a photo of the upper half of a woman, no background, landscape or anything at all besides her. Well, I suppose the wall behind her is textured, but that really could be anywhere!

Studium: This black and white photo is of a very elderly woman looking at her hand. It is her profile, and there is a lot of emphasis on the wrinkles of her skin. Her hand is brought up in front of her face and her fingers are spread apart. She looks as if she might be Native American, and has long, straight, combed-back black hair with gray strands. Her ear is very visible and she is wearing a hoop earing. She is wearing a colared longsleeved shirt, which is a bit blurry towards the front of the photograph, as if out of focus being closer to the camera lens. The old woman's eyes seem to be squinting, and she does not have a clear emotion on her face.

Punctum: I think a big point of the photo is its emphasis on the woman being old and worn, yet by examining her hand out in front of her, it suggests that she is still curious about the world and the things out there to learn, and about life. Her wrinkles are very well defined and in the center of the photograph, serving as a focus point. I think the profile view is more powerful in this instance than a straight on traditional portrait view would be because it accentuates the woman's features, and the fact that she is looking at her hand. She appears as if she could be Native American, and the way she brings her hand up to her face gives me the feeling she could be thinking over a deeper meaning in the ways of her tribe. Although she is clearly very old, she is still beautiful in her own right. Her hair is kept long and combed back and she is wearing earrings, showing that she takes pride in her appearance and continues to live life to the fullest despite her age.

Posted by lcisthur at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

Behind the Scenes of Eliza

Eliza just seems like a frustrating robotic therapist once you get past the "coolness" when you first try her out.
All the same, she is rather impressive. I think there must be certain keywords that she searches for and certain sentence rules and formations.
I think it is hard for Eliza to work one hundred percent properly because she doesnt always have enough context to respond in the best way. She does not seem to have a lot of words that she understands the semantic meaning of. All in all, it's interesting to see, and experience a computer program I can somewhat understand the workings (or lack there of). I'll take Smarterchild in the meantime and get word definitions while I'm at it!

Posted by lcisthur at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

Eliza is funny to talk to; I wonder how anyone would have taken her seriously! I think she "chooses" the content words out of what I type, and throws out the function words to create her response. Example:

(In this excerpt, Eliza speaks first)

So, as you can see, Eliza chose to repeat the content words, like when I said "happy as a clam" she repeated the whole phrase to me, and then took the word "thank" and put it in a context that doesn't make sense. But she did know that it was important to the meaning so she repeated it in the form of a question. She also picks up on pronouns. If I'd ask her a question using "you" she'd tell me that we were supposed to be talking about me, not her.

Posted by lcishagan at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)

Alice Waters, Roctown Apple Orchard, New Jersey photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Studium: A black and white photograph of a woman, Alice Waters, dressed all in black, sitting at a solid wood table in an orchard. There is a glass of wine sitting on the table. The woman is slouched back into her chair with her left arm propped up on the chair while her right rests on the table. She is not looking into the camera but rather to a point in the bottom lefthand corner of the picture. She is sitting specifically underneath an apple tree that is in full bloom. Besides this tree, the other trees in the background are blurred and out of focus. The clothes Alice Waters is wearing are simple and she wears a black old-fashioned looking hat.

Punctum: The woman looks to me to be very non-chalant and relaxed. She is enjoying beautiful spring evening. I say evening because usually people do not have a glass of wine in the morning. Alice is a woman confident with the way life is going for her and she is self-assured and self-satisfied. An amused and knowing smile is upon her face and this further illustrates her "womanly" confidence. The glass of wine is a sort of toast to her accomplishments. In this photograph, she reminds me very much of my friend Clare, or how she will be when she is older, because she is a romantic at heart and enjoys doing these sort of idealized and romanticized activities.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:47 PM | Comments (1)

Making or Wasting a Memory?

I enjoyed reading the New York Times article on how the act of photo-taking can be invasive. The points it made were actually very realistic -and I totally could relate to what she was saying. I am known to be an extreme shutterbug on vacations, and it made me think about how much of a good thing that is... Well, I still am glad I have all those photos. They represent a moment lost, but also one we cannot return to. I went out last night, and brought my camera with me. But with every picture I felt like taking, I actually noticed myself hesitating. And when it came to reviewing my photos this morning, I noticed there were not nearly as many as I normally take!

Posted by lcisthur at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

Anna Deavare Smith

I picked out a photo of Anna Deavare Smith taken in New York City by Annie Leibovitz.

Denotaion (Studium): This photo was taken in black and white. The photographer framed upper body of a woman wearing a black shirt. The top botton is unbottoned and the viewer can see her neck and a little part of her upper left chest area and a shoulder. In the photo her right hand is raised half way through and her palm is facing out towards the camera. Anna's index and middle fingers are straight and pointing out. The other three fingers are bent down. Anna has black curly hair which is tied back and some shorter hair left out and not tied back. She has her mouth wide open that you can see some of her bottom teeth over her lips, eyebrows raised and eyes closed. Her head is leaning down to the left side of her body. There are some fine wrinkles on her forehead and neck. She is not wearing any accessories. The background of the photo is plain gray.
Connotation (Punctum): Anna's facial expressions suggest that she may have been singing when the photo was taken. The way her hands are posed could mean that she was waving (gesturing) while she was singing. She is very open and free to express herself because her hair is not fixed and she is who she is in the photo. Anna is a middle-aged woman because there are wrinkles on her forehead. She cares about her looks because she has a make up on her eyes. As a viewer I get the feeling that she is independent and strong since she is not afraid to show her hand and "reach" out, not hiding it behind her body.

Posted by lcisbold at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

Please don't look at them now...

I like to take pictures on my digital camera. For a while, I had an obsession of taking pictures of anything I see and going back to see how it came out after I bought my first digital camera. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that I was letting go of every moment that passed away while I was checking to see whether the pictures were acceptable or not. When I looked at the pictures, I was looking at the moment that had just passed, the moment that would never come back to me. Since I read the article "Making Memories in Real Time" by Amy Harmon, I try not to "waste" my time looking at pictures on my camera, instead of enjoying the time. Last time when I went out with my friends I caught my friends taking pictures and "sneaking a peek" on the camera. It was funny how I remembered the article right at that moment and suggested my friends to live the moment. Don't look at them now.

Posted by lcisbold at 04:54 PM | Comments (1)

Eliza

In speaking with Eliza, I noticed many things. First of all, whenever I mentioned any form of the word "you", Eliza would always respond with "we were discussing you, not me." There are also other key words and phrases that seem to prompt Eliza with other programmed responses. With more complex sentences, it seems that Eliza will respond with part of your sentence in the form of a question, or she will say "tell me more."

When Eliza came out in the 1960's, I can see how people believed that they were actually talking to a computer. It is hard to imagine though, as I have witnessed that technology is very advanced and always outdoing itself. However, it must have been quite the experience to "talk" to Eliza when the program first came out!

As others have mentioned, there are similar programs today on Instant Messenger, like SmarterChild. I have also discovered one for SantaClaus. I think this is a very interesting concept. Through "talking" with him, you can create a wish list, play games and create a shopping list. I wonder how kids react to "talking" to Santa Claus; it must be quite the experience.

-Jessica F.

Posted by lcisfaria at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

Eliza is a far cry from the United Star Ship Enterprise's intelligent computer which, of course, is purely fictional.

Eliza is obviously enacting the very word and sentence structure processes we've been discussing in class. And she shows us how much we take forgranted when it comes to our own storage, retrieval and use of langugage - our average command of language is far more dynamic and advanced than hers.

Eliza has obviously been programmed to break sentences down into components - words and phrases. She then prioritizes these, recognizes certain key words and formulates a response to them. I'm not au fait with my parts of speech and so am unsure which Eliza is recognizing although she obviously recognizes more than one sentence type with different key words and yet is flummoxed by others, showing there is a limit to her knowledge.

Both her ability to recognize and form sentences is limited and rather undynamic. It is reminiscent of the wolves who only had a set number of responses they could give when recognizing certain stimuli. Eliza cannot make truly independent decisions, this is obvious in this version of an intelligent program because her recognition programming and responses are very limited.

She is also rather amusing because her responses are also stereotypically therapist-like, showing concern but in a distanced and controlled fashion.

~ Nanette

Posted by lcissavides at 01:51 PM | Comments (1)

Eliza and Irregular Verbs

Eliza isn't that bad at having a normal conversation. Most of the conversation consisted of me telling her information about myself, and never vice versa. Whenever I would ask her a question she would respond with another question, but other than that she seemed like a normal person to me.

The one thing that gave her away though was her use of irregular verbs. You can tell that she was programmed to repeat what you say by replacing the "I" with "you," and this would normally work. For example, if I were to say "I love snow," she would respond with "you love snow." However, when I used the verb "to be," she responded with "you am from Hanover." Eliza cannot conjugate irregular verbs like we can because that would involve programming each individual form of the verb. It is amazing that our brains are able to do this programming, having the capacity to store so much information.

After talking to Eliza, I talked to SmarterChild to see if he had the same problem with irregular verbs. SmarterChild was able to correctly conjugate the verb "to be" so that he could respond to me with "you are..." Perhaps SmarterChild has all of the irregular verbs programmed into him, or perhaps he just has a few commonly used ones, such as "to be." Either way, his ability to use this verb correctly shows a higher level of linguistic knowledge that has been acheived by computers.

Posted by lcissullivan at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

American Splendor / Harvey Pekar

Seeing the words to The Harvey Pekar Name Story was enlightening and somewhat surprising. I'd never imagined that it would actually be filled with so much action and so many different characters.

My perception of the pictures has since changed in that Harvey Pekar is no longer blank and receptive to my imagined narrative. However, I don't think it's ironic that our "words" group came up with a character whose tone and frame of reference are so similar to that of Harvey Pekar's Harvey Pekar.

When I saw the words and pictures together, I imagine a lot of what the "picture" group provided in their rendition - the action and characters that Harvey tell us about. I also imagine Harvey's voice and the feel of him - smell, the way he stands, shuffles his feet - all the things I was not given and could not see in the comic.

Seeing the movie further limited the extent to which I conjured up substantiating material to make the comic "live." I no longer had to imagine the sound of Harvey's voice, I could also see him transitioning in and out of moments and this provided me with information about his attitude, tone and state of being.

I saw the actual real Harvey Pekar for a short time on film and the thing that struck me forcebly was the principle of amplification by simiplification. In both the comic and film versions of Harvey Pekar his inner life and inner voice had been brought to the fore - his whole person was distilled into each narrative about a particular thought, topic, moment - and thus amplified, making him seem larger than life. When I saw the real Harvey Pekar I realized that we ourselves couldn't plug into this inner voice when we met/saw him on the street or in the filing department of the Hospital. I see his sharing the inner voice and life as being the most powerful thing about his comic.

~ Nanette

Posted by lcissavides at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

Making Memories

I love to take pictures with my digital camera, so I could really relate to this article by Amy Harmon. Having the technology to be able to see the pictures we have just taken is really amazing and I love to be able to do that, but like Amy Harmon said, I think that it sometimes does take away from having an experience. When you are at a party or on vacation it is very nice to be able to take pictures to document what happened, but it is so tempting to continuously go back and look at those pictures you have just taken. This can really get in the way of the actual experience and fun you should be having. I don't want to go on vacation and spend the whole time looking at pictures from the day, hour, or even minute before. That is what the time after the vacation is for, not the time while you are actually there. However, I admit it, I always want to look at the pictures I have just taken because I know that they are there and that I can see them if I want so if they did not come out perfrectly, I can take them again.

Posted by lcismardin at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

Frances McDormand

The photgraph that I chose to analyze is called "Frances McDormand" and it was taken in New York City by Annie Leibovitz.

This photograph is a black and white photograph and it shows a middle-aged woman with short, dark hair walking alone through a path in a park. The background of the trees and the path and the lightposts along the path are not quite in focus. We can tell that it is fall because the branches of the trees are bare and the leaves have all fallen on the ground around the trees. The weather must be cold because the woman is wearing a long coat with fur around the neck and six big buttons on it. She is also wearing gloves on her hands. In contrast to the background, the woman can be seen very clearly and is in perfect focus. However, this woman does not look happpy, but instead seems to be quite distressed about something.

I think this woman looks like she does not want her photograph to be taken. She looks a little bit angry and she is looking right at the camera, giving the photographer a look that says to me, "what are you doing?". The woman is walking alone in this photograph so she seems to like to be by herself sometimes to allow her some time to think without interruption. Because she is walking alone is the park, I get the sense that this is a very independent woman who likes to do things for herself. She does not want men to do things for her. She is a very strong and capable woman, and she seems like she would be just as satisfied without a man as most women would be with a man.

Posted by lcismardin at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2005

Alan Magee

The very realistic paintings that looked like photos reminded me of an exhibit that was at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine a few years ago. I didn't see anything in class because I couldn't remember the artist's name. His name is Alan Magee so check out his paintings. They're amazing. I like the one of the paints at the bottom of the page:

www.alanmagee.com/paintings/newPnt2.html

--Ariel

Posted by lcishagan at 06:34 PM | Comments (1)

Karen Finley

The postcard I analyzed is titled "Karen Finley" and was taken in Nyack, New York. The photograph was taken by Annie Leibovitz.

Studium (Denotation):

The focus of my postcard is of a body, sprawled onto a loveseat. The person is lying down on the loveseat, face turned away from the audience. Also, the loveseat is a forrest green color and is covered with a coarse, tweed type of fabric. Although the person's face cannot be seen, the body is obviously a woman. Its obvious with the woman's flowing hair, and womanly curves. If you look close enough, you can see that there is nailpolish on the nails of the woman. Her hands are clenched onto her head and neck, a seemingly unnatural position. The only thing the woman is wearing are teal/sea foam green long socks. Her bright red bathrobe is unraveled, under her body, polarizing the woman's ivory skin. To the left of the woman is a white, ratty looking radiator. The carpet is a ugly shade of brown, the shade that was popular in the seventies. To the right of the woman are piles of books stacked on a wooden coffee table which is also home to a lamp. On the table is a striped drinking glass with nothing in it. There is a window situated behind the loveseat but is covered by off white blinds.

Punctum (Connotation):

It seems like the woman is home alone during the night. The blinds are closed, showing that she is separating herself from the world. The lamp that is probably on the coffee table is on, and the rest of the room looks dark, indicating that night has fallen. Her clothes also show that she is not expecting anyone. The teal/sea foam green socks are the kind you wear when you think nobody is watching. Also, she is naked and turned away from the camera lens as if she's planning on being by herself all night. I think she seems to be thinking, by the way her hands are placed on her head. She is at ease with herself and has no problem being in the nude. The shadows that run though the room seem to portrahy that she is contemplating something troubling.

Posted by lcissearls at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)

An Extremely Frightening Individual

My photograph is titled “Kerie Campbell” or at maybe the person’s name in the photograph is “Kerie Campbell”. The photograph was taken in San Francisco, California by Annie Leibovitz.

Studium (Denotation): When I first glanced at my postcard, I was shocked and almost terrified. In the center of a white postcard is a figure which possesses arms, long hair, face, body position and body, shoulders, muscles, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and hands. This figure is a human. At first, it is difficult to distinguish this human’s sex. This human is covered by paint, but underneath the colors of paint, one can see breasts and a shapely form shown by rounded hips and thighs, indicating that this person is a woman. She is standing erect and her palms are up. The woman’s hair is a red-orange and most of the paint on her skin is that same hue. There are visible paint strokes on her shoulders and large zigzagged white strips of color outlined in black on her chest, legs, and arms. Her face is white, except for black paint covering her eyes, a black triangle on her forehead, black stripes on her face and neck, and blue drops near her eyes. The middle of her chest is colored black, and her stomach possesses shades of yellow with ovals outlined in green and stripes contained inside the yellow. Even though hard to distinguish, she is wearing a bathing suit bottom that is barely visible because the paint pattern on her body extends to her garment.

Punctum (Connotation): Upon analyzing this picture, I noticed the distinct colors which could indicate that this person possesses a very vibrant personality. She could be outgoing and exciting though it appears that she contains some darkness because her chest is black, almost near her heart, and black consumes part of her face. This darkness could represent a certain unknown or mysterious background or history of this one woman. Maybe her heart is covered partly by the black because she is in some way mourning or suffering a loss of a person, a possession, etc. The paint that covers her body could be a symbol of her trying to conceal her own identity, her own being; yet, her hands are exposed and open. She may be calling out for help or in need of a friend to hold her. On some parts of her body, white stripes are painted. The white can be a symbol of goodness, kindness, holiness, innocence, or purity, but even though this woman could possess all these traits, I notice that all of these white lines/shapes are bounded by black. This could indicate that her goodness, innocence, purity, holiness, and kindness are limited. She is not completely untainted. In addition, the yellow section on her stomach is striking. The yellow highlights her stomach from the rest of her body, indicating some importance. Maybe she has a sickness in her stomach or is pregnant. The green ovals contained within the yellow could represent cells that are dying in her body, offspring, or possibly even evil spirits. These little ovals have faces that seem to just stare out into space. Lastly, her face is uniquely colored. The blue drops near her eyes are most likely tear drops. They could represent tears of joy or tears of sadness, but it seems as though they represent sadness because her eyes are so dark, almost like she has been sobbing. Also, her teeth are depicted in an extremely odd manner. They are simplified into just eight white blocks with a black frame. This could connotate that she cannot speak or that she possibly has hurt someone or something with her teeth. Lastly, her hair is free and flowing, showing that she may be a free spirit; she may not be contained within or restricted to the walls of her body.

Overall, I believe that this woman is in some tribe. The painting on her body is indicative of tribal art. Maybe she is being highlighted for a specific crime that she has committed or someone else has committed against her because she is obviously not happy from the photograph. No humor or joy can be seen in her body or expression. Overall, this woman is an extremely different and frightening individual.

-Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 04:02 PM | Comments (3)

"Delta Debutante Club" Postcard Photograph

The postcard that I chose in class was titled "Delta Debutante Club" and was taken in Greenville, Mississippi. At first when I looked at the photograph I noticed the white gloves that all of the women had on and the flowers that they were holding in their hands. This characteristic of the photograph gave a sense of uniformity among the women. The flowers were held by the women in different positions, with some being more upright then others. The women also had different hairstyles showing that the younger women had their hair pulled half up and let half down and the older women had their hair worn down. Also the style of the dresses varies in this photo. The women on the right of the photograph have white dresses, one which is short sleeved and the other three with thick straps. The women on the left have on light colored dresses one with thick straps and the others with thin straps.

What can be connotated from this photograph is that these women are in a type of pageant and are somewhat wealthy, because of the dresses that they are wearing. The background of the photo shows a lot of trees and an open grassy area, which shows that these women are in the country. All of the facial expressions of the women are different. Some have serious faces, meaning that maybe they are not very excited about the debutante and don't really care. Two of the other women have a semi-smile, basically put on just to take the picture and get it over with. One woman is the only one who is actually smiling, and seems like she is happy to be there. The women all seem like they are not really friends, but are just placed in order to take a picture. A sort of dark fabric is laid out on the floor in front of the women with the light colored dresses on to show that they are of more importance. This means that these women were the ones who had a winning place in the debutante.

This photograph by Annie Leibovitz captures the personalities of the women that she photographed. They basically show the outcome of debutantes, like how some of the women are excited and some just put on a show for the camera. A happy vs. complacent tone can be connoted from this photograph, just from the facial expressions of the women. They dominate the photo so that the background doesn't have as much importance. The imporant aspect that I gathered from this photo was that the women are important, because of being a part of the debutante and the fact that they have a photograph taken of them.

--Yasmin

Posted by lcisperez at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

I thought alot about how Eliza might work. I think that Eliza works by taking familiar phrases and words from questions and reworking them into statements or questions. In addition, I think that Eliza is programmed to give a certain response to a question. For example, if I said the same thing over and over again, Eliza would give hte same response time after time.

Alot of us talked about Smarter Child and other Instant Messenger Robots, but while doing some research on Eliza I noticed that she is also similar to search engines such as Ask Jeeves. Jeeves is able to pull pertinent/key words out of a question that an individual asks and respond with useful information. For example, I asked, "How tall is an elephant?". Jeeves responded with alot of websites that answered this question, but also included other available "lists" of websites that answered questions about elephants, such as "How much does an elephant weigh?". Also, there were lists of other "similar" questions, such as "How fast does a cheetah run?". Although I am sure that Ask Jeeves runs differently from Eliza, the two are similar in that both are able to choose the key words from a question.

--Brenna D.

Posted by lciscotis at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Citation Resource

I wanted to pass on the resource below to everyone and anyone. If you have any questions about citations (in-text or bibliographical) in any academic field this website should answer most if not all of your questions. I suggest that everyone save this site to their browser favorites; it will be useful throughout your entire college career!

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/index.html

Posted by lcisamy at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

I found Eliza to be very frustrating to talk to. She never answered any of the questions I asked her and she kept repeating, "are you sure?" and "we were discussing you not me". I think that everytime I typed a sentence with the word "you in it", she would respond with the same thing except she substituted the word "me" for you, or she said, "we were discussing you not me". Eliza was only able to respond to what I typed by taking key words that I had already said and turning those words into a question, I never got a real response from Eliza, I got mostly questions. Another thing I noticed was that whenever I typed the word "no", she would respond with, "you are quite negative", because she "saw" the word no. I was SO frustrated while trying to talk to this program!

Posted by lcismardin at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

Class today

I thought the photos that we viewed in class today, that were actually paintings were so amazing. How one can create something like that blows me away. I wish I could. Also, the photos that were actually made up of different, small things, like the one with the abstract pieces, were quite interesting as well. It's so weird how we can be so far away from something and see a representation of a person or whatever is being pictured, but yet when we are close up to the picture we see the individual colors, or pieces that make up this whole thing. Just a random side thought, but I thought those pictures/photos/paintings were different and quite amazing, I've never really seen anything like them before.

Posted by lcisnelson at 02:14 PM | Comments (3)

Java Jive Jokes Around!

I liked how this brief article really gets at what is not usually talked about or addressed. It does not really intend to fix anything or suggest solutions to problems, but it points out humorous random points about things we all do wonder and think about, but never bring up. It knows people know Starbucks, it knows people wonder about a semicolon... The fact that people get all so wrapped up in a whole different language of a coffee shop shows just how easily influenced we all are, and that we need to take a step back and look around at ourselves, and our grande lowfat triple shot maple carmel macchiattos. I've noticed these things too, but they never really were anything more than just things I wondered about; not anything I read about.

Posted by lcisthur at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)

October 27, 2005

Technological Determinism

This idea is very interesting, but as Practices of Looking states, it isn't a believable idea. I think that POL has a more realistic and scientifically-based explanation of technology's progress, that the changes in technology are triggered by "collective cultural and social desires". This is exactly my opinion of technological determinism, and it couldn't have been stated more clearly. Items like records leading to cassetes, eventually leading to CD's did not come about without a desire from the population to have a variety of music readily available and accessable. The trends of a society and the growing desire for more advanced systems to add either more entertainment, or to make life easier are what guide the direction of technological changes.

Posted by lcishagan at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

In our glory

In our glory was a fascinating piece in many aspects. Firstly, I was compelled by the facts of black history. Though I am familiar with our nation's history, I never recieved it from an african-american perspective.

The author started by touching on how cameras take photos that can be interpreted differently depending on actual positions in the family and beleived positions in a family, especially a large family. She then moved on to say that black folks used images because of their unfair position in society. Contradictarily, these images were used to be concrete facts to unwind the lies white people told or believed of black people. I thought the strongest part of the article was when she talked about photography "empowering themselves through representation." They "resisted misinterpretation through photos" and even used them as "political instruments." These images were their voices in a time when their voices couldnt be heard.

Two other things the author touched on were how families (in her case black famililes, but I know white families, such as my own, also did this) took pictures of those in caskets. Furthermore off that subject, they built shrines to those lost or absent that were loved. When these people were finally gone, pictoral geneaologies were created to keep the past. This reminds me of my grandmother because as she is getting older, she is pushing to have a "Yeich Family Photo" in order for the rest of her family to remember the older ones as they pass away. Pictures are a way to make certain that we remain alive, in a way, to family forever.

Posted by lcisyeich at 11:08 PM | Comments (1)

Review of Percepholis Comic Review!

I thought that this was a very effective form of writing (/drawing) a review of a book. It's a good story in the first place, and gets attention, and this way of looking over Percepholis totally fits. However, if it is just supposed to serve as a book "review", it then reveals a bit too much of and undermines the plot. There is a heavy amount of text for a comic, which makes it less leisurely to read. It does go beyond just the content of the book though, and touches upon the artist's style, effects, and background. It might have been difficult, or at least more so, to read if it wasn't in comic form. However, the characters are not anything special, as they are in Percepholis. This makes Percepholis just seem that much better in comparison... but then again, maybe that's the whole point of the review! I liked how it ended stating that Percepholis is more than a "great story" with "cool drawings", but that it also has a complex meaning, many points, and is very unique -like this review!

Posted by lcisthur at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

Bell Hooks and the Photo of her Father

I really liked this essay and I thought it was very interesting how each sister had a different perspective on the same photo. Bell's sister V. had a close relationship with her father and because of this Bell could look at a photo she had of him and see signs of their closeness in his pre-fatherhood, carefree smile. It was interesting that her little sister G. was so disconnected from this side of her father that when she got the picture for Christmas she declared it a "horrible photograph." Bell's curiosity of this hidden side of her father drove her to interpret each visual aspect of this photo as a signifier representing a look into a secret world only V. had access to. Bell Hooks believes that photos connect us to memories, and depending on who you are and what experiences you have had with the subject matter, you will interpret a unique understanding from the photo and focus on specific visual signifiers that you relate to most. Emmy

Posted by lcisowens at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

Memories by Harmon

Harmon's article enticed me in the way that it presented the question of "what is vacation?" For me, I always buy a disposable camera hoping to find great pictures to take...especially this past summer because I was leaving to a place six hours away. Then I get to the vacation, and I become a child again, not caring about the pictures and wanting quality times with the ones I love. It seemed as if in the beginning of her vacation also, Harmon wanted this quality time. She wanted to do all these new things and also spend time with her "Scott." It seemed their whole vacation consisted of "seeing" new things and then looking back at them and never really taking in the whole view of things. He was so focused on the these sights that he couldnt experience the new or even think about how he felt about them because he was always looking back. This picture-taking became part of "vacationing" for them. He waited for the right moments to take pictures and wanted so much to reflect the "perfect." On looking back at these pictures in the future, they would never remember by pictures that Harmon was agitated at picture taking.

The best quote of the article was "But the digital camera doesnt just warp time, it takes up more of it, too." Though this new camera was faster, it seemed as if it couldnt go fast enough so they could go on and take a new picture.

Later in the article, Harmon herself started to keep looking back on pictures and not taking advantage of the sights, like the "stunning red-rock view." Scott, at the end of the vacation, wanted to appreciate his last moments and not take up time with pictures (something he should have realized earlier) and the situation was reversed for the woman.

It seems like in this case, pictures provided them with power in the way that they could capture an "unlimited" amount of pictures and not have to pay. It was a "digital photo fever" and was hard not to give in.

Posted by lcisyeich at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)

Confusion...please answer

Could someone please tell me what page the Barthes article is on...I dont know which, and its making no sense.

Jess

Posted by lcisyeich at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)

Technological Determinism

I'm not quite sure whether or not I have a really good grasp on what technological determinism means, but from the reading I take it to mean that advancements in technology allow us change socially. For example, we were only able embrace photographic images and have them make up such a huge part of our culture because the chemical and mechanical elements need to produce photographs were present.

An argument against technological determinism is that it is society that determines which technological advancements come along, therefore society is indirectly responsible for social change, and technology is simply the middle man between the two.

Evidence to support this argument is that the technique of perspective existed before its first use, but society at the time chose not to employ this technique because of social standards. For example, the Egyptians were more interested in representing objects according to their importance (more important objects are bigger).

I think that technological determinism is too much of a simplification of how the world works. It only examines how social change comes about, but neglects to examine how technological advancements come about.

Posted by lcissullivan at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

"Making Memories in Real Time"

This article directly relates to the question that Ellen asked us last Friday "Would you rather experience something with just your own two eyes, or would you rather be equipped with a camera to capture that experience in a photograph?"

The gist of my free write was that if I were in the presence of something incredible, I would rather see it with my own two eyes and take in as much of it as I possibly could, than distance myself from it for even a few seconds by viewing it from behind a camera lens. A camera will never be able to capture images in a photograph as well as our eyes capture images and our brain stores them.

Amy Harmon's article is important because it addresses a trend occurring in our society. It seems like people are sometimes so preoccupied with trying to take a picture of something, that they miss out on the first hand experience of that thing. Harmon shows just how powerful the tendency to do this is in admitting that by the end of her trip she herself had become obsessed with taking digital pictures.

This article made me think that our world is moving way too fast. We can experience something, capture it in a digital photograph, and moments later have that photograph saved on a computer, and ready to be modified or sent out to others. Harmon points out that back in the day when we had to wait for photos to be developed and we had that "comfortable gap between experience and reflection" it forced us to solely rely on our memories of an experience for a while, rather than an image of it. If we lose this gap, and no longer need to rely on our memories, then we will most likely forget the experience sooner, and become totally dependent on images to remind us of the experience. What would become of us if something ever happened to those images? What if the computer they were stored on crashes and they are all lost? Our pasts would be lost. It makes you wonder if we rely so much on technology to the point where it has become dangerous.

Posted by lcissullivan at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Bell Hooks's Take on Photography

One thing that struck me about Bell Hooks's essay is in the first page she describes how a mere picture of her father meant so much more to her. The picture represented his past, something that none of his children knew too much about. It represented his closeness with Bell's sister, V. It represented jealousy and competition between the two sisters even at a grown age.

I don't even realize how much baggage is attached to each one of my photos until I really stop to think about it. I too have photos which represent my close relationship with another person. I have photos of people who are no longer in my life...these photos represent my past. I also have some photos that I'm sure my sister wishes she as, just as she has some photos that I wish I had. Upon first reading this page, I thought it rare that such a meaningful photograph could exist, until I realized that all photographs mean more than merely the image they contain.

I understand why Hooks links the art of taking photographs to the pyche of African Americans. Photography was a way to produce truth in a world where blacks were depicted in such dishonest manners. However, I found the essay overall hard to understand, and I don't feel like I took eight pages worth of information away from it.

Posted by lcissullivan at 08:29 PM | Comments (1)

Java Jive

Java Jive was a fun article to read because the aurthor, Dave Barry, presented some absurd items that should be brought to the attention of the public. Overall, the article was too sarcastic to make a point. In fact, it made too many indirect points. The article was sloppy, unfocused, confused and a little bit of everything. The article, which I thought was on "java lingo" turned into questions from ficticious people about random questions, even grammar and then turned again into grammar or structure mistakes. The article was funny because we can all relate to these mistakes or notice them at times. The author's talk on java lingo was absurd also. OK, so there are some overly ridiculous names for coffee sizes, but the customers have to use them in order to order things. Employees are used to calling sizes by their madeup company names and customers must conform to their familiarity to them. Overall, it was a great article, but not one to publish in a formal magazine.

Jess

Posted by lcisyeich at 07:49 PM | Comments (1)

more photography

I found the article by Amy Harmon quite amusing and a testament of the technological advances in photography. "Making Memories in Real Time" quickly reminded me of my parents. My parents, although they are photographers, refuse to advance technologically. The two of them refuse to buy digital cameras or be involved with "any of that." They believe that digital images detract from the actual from the actual art of taking pictures. Specifically, they think that digital cameras defeat the purpose of taking pictures.

Futhermore, after every roll of film, there is always the excitement of seeing how the pictures came out. If the process of developing pictures is in a darkroom, there is always a sort of magical feeling about seeing the pictures develop right before your very eyes. Like the article said, with digital images, there is no separation between experience and reflection.

Posted by lcissearls at 03:34 PM | Comments (2)

October 26, 2005

Harvey Pekar

I was intrigued by today's class. It was amazing to see the difference in interpretation from my group-the girls looking at the words and creating pictures-from the other group-the girls analyzing the pictures and generating a words to accompany it. In the word-analyzing group, I was able to form a picture of what each sentence meant and how to depict this sentence or word on paper. Something I never thought about was that, while my group was completing our project, many ideas to represent words or phrases were thrown out on the table. Each person possessed a certain scene in their head of Pekar loving his name, for example. We learned, through this activity, to compromise our ideas and form pictures that were uniquely ours.

Personally, I was completely surprised by the actual pictures of the comic, and I was more than impressed by the way the other group formulated a storyline that truly adhered to the pictures. It was so believable! There were such small differences in each panel, and it seems that the other group dissected each picture.

This activity truly showed the ambiguity between words and pictures. There is a certain element of unknown for each.

Great job to both groups! -Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 03:55 PM | Comments (5)

October 25, 2005

Eliza

Eliza is a computer program designed to make responses from specific key words. Eliza has a variety of responses backed up and keywords trigger this. For instance, if I were to say, "how are you?" Eliza would have programmed replies. Since Eliza knows the context surrounding the term, it is able to respond accordingly. Although some of the replies are not what we would usually say, they make sense. This is basically how Eliza is able to function and act almost like a person.

Posted by lcissearls at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

Technological Determinism

After re-reading the part of Practices of Looking that talked about technological determinism, I have to agree with the views of the text book. Cartwright and Sturken say, "...we look at technologies (specifically visual technologies) as the product of specific social and historical contexts. They emerge from collective cultural and social desires. In other words, it can be argued that that technologies have important and influential effects on society, but they are also themselves the products of their societies and times and the ideologies that exist within them," (116).

I completely agree with this statement. I think that technologies grow from society, specifically from a desire for them. For example, the Internet grew from society's desire to communicate with the world around them more easily. At the same time though, the Internet has inspired so much more in our culture. The Internet is a huge part of our daily lives and although it is cliche, the world truly is at our fingertips. The same is true of photography. Photograpy sprang from a need to record our memories, to chronicle our lives. Yet, it turned into much more than this, and now is the basis for much of our daily living.

--Brenna DeCotis

Posted by lciscotis at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

Social Context as Determined by Photography

After re-reading part of chapter 4 of Practices of Looking I came to the conclusion that our social context is indeed determined by our sense of Photography. I think that this has a lot to do with media influences that are pretty much enforced upon our society in a somewhat discreet manner. Magazines are definitely a source of strong media influence and pictures are able to easily influence people, which in term social context.

Social context is really just ideas and perceptions that individuals have about appearances, actions, and practices. Basically pictures can represent all of these ideas in one. This can be especially expressed in terms of advertisements. Advertisment display life as people think that it should be. Like people having perfect bodies and figures, and also clothing. This creates people who think that they have to resemble this image, which is a part of a superimposed social context. Our social context is determined by pictures, because just like the phrase "monkey see, monkey do", people usually to tend to do what they see, especially if it is promoted on a mass scale.

Our social context is determined by mimicking ideas or perceptions. This is why people change their style of hair, dress, and the usual places where they hang out. Pictures determine most of these aspects, because they show what is fashionable and what should not be done. Where people should live and where people have no business being. Without pictures most of the ideas that we have today would not be as well known, except for the fact that technology has advanced so that we not only have photographs about what's going on around the world and locally, but that we have moving images that we can see live and understand what social context our world is becoming a part of. Today this is definitely shown through the more liberal ideals that American society represents.

--Yasmin

Posted by lcisperez at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

ELIZA's Purpose and Function

Eliza is a complex program that somehow looks at strings (words) and identifies them in terms of where they are placed in a sentence, the amount of strings that come before and after that particular string and possibly punctuation marks as well. Eliza, from what the programmer writes, seems to break sentences up through the importance of words. Maybe Eliza has a specific set of words that it refers to, that people most commonly use and are of some importance. Maybe each common word actually corresponds to a certain number that the computer can recognize. Eliza also breaks these sentences down into structural word trees and analyzes the sentences based on their subjects. It seems as though the Eliza has a special way that allows her to find subjects like "you" or "I" and make these subjects the focus of her next question. She also gives part of the sentence a number or letter, indicating that this part of the sentence could be anything, any combination of letters and words. In general, Eliza is definitely sentence structured oriented and dissecting the sentences inputed is the only way she can truly function. Then Eliza takes these words or takes these number combinations (from sentences) and stores them, so that she can then generate a new response. I can imagine this process and code for this program is extremely in depth. In being an amateur programmer, I can understand that working with words and strings are incredibly difficult.

-Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

Java Jive

I don't go to Starbucks. During my three years in the States probably I was there only for three times. However, last weekend I went to explore the Prudential area with a friend and we went into Barnes and Nobles and decided to get a coffee while looking through magazines. When I approached the counter there was no one around except the cashier. I asked for a small coffee. She mumbles to herself. I again asked for the small coffee. She looked at me in an annoyance and said, "We don't serve small coffees, we only have tall ones" I looked at the chart and assumed that the cheapest one would be the smallest, so I went for the "tall" coffee. I think the Starbucks managers chose to promote to have "tall" coffee and abuse the meaning of the word "tall" instead of small is that the many consumers in this country choose "extra large" s over the regular sizes. Now who would like a tall coffee?

Posted by lcisbold at 12:11 AM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2005

Bell Hooks' Intensity and Passion

I was struck by many aspects of Bell Hook's essay. Most notably was when she began to write about her father's image that her sister cherished above all else. She writes, "Standing before snapshot, I came closer to the cold, distant, dark man who is my father, closer than I can ever come in real life" and "although my sisters and I look at this snapshot and see the same man, we do not see him in the same way." I began to reflect on these two lines after Ellen's class last week where we were forced to ponder on the photography and if photography actually helps us to remember certain people or certain places, or if it hinders our memory. I said, in class, that many times, pictures give us this false sense of reality and of the truth, which is definitely addressed in Bell Hook's essay. She writes that the man in the picture is completely different from her own image of him; his personality, demeanor, and way of life. I analyzed the picture of her father and determined that this man was joyous and elated. He seems as though he is carefree and "suave". Bell Hooks has this same feeling, yet she knows the truth. And yet, even though her sisters know the truth as well, they all have differing views of him. Their experiences with this man have formed their own ideas about their father. I just found this intriguing that we had just been discussing this topic in class, and automatically, Bell Hooks describes it perfectly.

I was also amazed at how Bell Hooks describes her early disatisfaction with cameras. She voices her frustration in such a unique way. "I hated it. I hated posing. I hated cameras. I hated the images that cameras produced. When I stopped living at home, I refused to be captured by anyone's camera. I did not wish to document my life, the changes, the presence of different places, people, and so on. I wanted to leave no trace. I wanted there to be no walls in my life that would, like gigantic maps, chart my journey. I wanted to stand outside history." How powerful and ironic! Here, she discusses her hatred for photography, and then again, she writes this entire essay based around one photograph. It is absolutely fascinating to me that this intense dislike for photography (because of one person) developped into a career and a passion. -Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)

JUST A REMINDER

To everyone who is in the Picture-Making part of the Comic Analysis Group...Remember that we are all getting together tomorrow, Tuesday at 3:30 pm in Simmons Hall 1st floor lounge to complete the assignment!!

-Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

Talking to Eliza

Talking to Eliza was kind of like talking to someone who listens to you, but really doesn't give you much advice on what to do about a situation. I talked to Eliza about stress. When I said that I was kind of stressing out, she asked me why I was stressing out, and I responded by saying that I am a college student. Then she asked me if it is normal to be a college student. I just thought that this was a particularly odd question at the time, when I was really trying to talk about stress.

Basically Eliza is useful when someone needs to get their thoughts out to someone and is not really concerned with receiving accurate advice. I also thought that Eliza was pretty repetitive, because she kept asking if I was even sure about the questions that I was asking her, so it kind of defeated the purpose of actually asking her questions that I would get an answer to. Even though Eliza wasn't really helpful, it was interesting trying to type in a respose so that she could say something interesting back to you.

--Yasmin

Posted by lcisperez at 09:53 PM | Comments (1)

In Our Glory

I really, really enjoyed this piece by bell hooks. It comments on so many parts of photography, and, subsequently, black culture. First off, I thought it was really interesting that all of this discussion stemmed from hooks looking at the photograph of her father. I think it is interesting that she was able to derive all of this meaning from a seemingly simple picture. I (all of us, actually) often have assignments like this when we are asked to view a photograph or read an essay and then respond to it. This is a perfect example of how an author can see one thing and then run with it.

There were a few things I found particularly notable in hooks' essay:

  1. Her comment that each of her sisters saw something different in the photograph because they each had a different experience with their father. I think this says alot about photography in general and what we take away from it. For example, when each of my friends looks at the numerous pictures we took at graduation, we all see different things, even though our experience was very much the same. The exchange student I stayed with from Turkey sees the end of her time here, my best friend sees how miserable she was when she broke up with her boyfriend, etc. Our experience plays a huge role in what we get out of photographs.

  2. Another thing that struck me about hooks' essay was her comment on photographs as tools of self representation. Especially with digital cameras and picture editing, we can basically show ourselves however we want. I always photograph horribly, but having a digital camera has allowed me to improve it at least a little bit. Similarily, we can represent others the way we want them to be seen. Of course, this is much of what we discussed in class, that even though we photograph something, it may not be a true representation of our experience. (For example, if I have a picture of my little brother crying in London, it does not necessaily mean that our trip to London was a bad one.)

  3. I also wanted to comment on one of my own thoughts about photographs, which is the decreasing importance of photographs as the amount of time since they were taken increases. For example, when I graduated from middle school I took dozens of photographs of end-of the year events: dances, field trips, parties, and graduation. For a year or so following this, I used to pore over the pictures and recreate, in my mind, my middle school experience. Now, however, these photographs hold little importance for me since I have new photographs from high school which I pore over weekly. This is not to say that old photographs hold no importance or significance for us because they certainly do. It is just something I've often questioned...

--Brenna DeCotis

Posted by lciscotis at 09:18 PM | Comments (1)

Rachel

Eliza reminds me, as many of you, of the Smarter Child on AOL also. I think it is so weird how people can come up with these things to respond to humans about certain things. Although, I thought that this Eliza was pretty dumb, it is still quite interesting. I used smarter child when i was younger and it amazed me. I would make up stupid things and ask them and just laugh at the responses I'd get. Another one that I loved using is Santa Claus. I do this every Christmas...haha I actually still do, and I make sure I'm on the good list and not the bad. It is just so interesting how stupid these things are, but they are so entertaining (well some of them).

Posted by lcisnelson at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

Java Jive

I really enjoyed "Java Jive" by Dave Barry. I especially enjoyed the part at the end, where he gave examples of horiffic language errors that readers had submitted to him. I wanted to add another that I heard between classes the other day: "I might, probably will, most definetely come see you tonight." The funniest part about this is that she said all of this in one breath, it was not like she was trying to decide whether or not to come see her friend tonight.

I also wanted to comment on Starbuck's use of language. I think that their size names are a huge indication of our supersized culture. One would expect "tall" to be a large, yet in our society "tall" us a "small". Things are always getting bigger and bigger!! (Just a random thought!)

Posted by lciscotis at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

Here is a sample of the conversation I had with Eliza:

She was not very fun to talk to and will not talk about herself. Who honestly says "That is quite interesting" to "tell me something nice"??? It is completely irrelevent! And she answers questions with questions, which indicates she does not have any personality like a human being does. Basically her purpose is for people to continue talking about themselves and she throws in the "That's interesting" or "Tell me more". She doens't have intelligence because her remarks do not reveal a personality or a thought process.

Eliza reminds me very much of Smarter Child on AOL Instant Messanger. I assume they are the same type of program. I remember how when I first discovered Smarter Child I was very excited and thought it was pretty cool to talk to a "robot." My sister and I spent a lot of time thinking up weird and obscene things to say to it. Eventually, if I said too many obscenities it would refuse to talk to me unless I apologized. There must have been a certain number of obsecenties or insults written into the program that once surpassed an apology would have to be sad. Smarter Child was very frustrating too because if he/it didn't understand a statement or question you said, he/it would respond with your statement in question form or repeat your question. This demonstrates Smarter Child, like Eliza, is truly dumb though it has the illusion of human qualities.

Posted by lcisfreya at 08:34 AM | Comments (1)

Chapter 5 Meanings of Language

After reading this chapter, aptly titled, "Meanings of Language", I continue to learn that language has more and more and more meanings as I read on... more than I ever thought about, or would have ever thought even existed. I think it is very interesting, and complex, that there are so many different groups to classify certain words, and types of words, and phrases too, that are all different, yet can all overlap. Each category has its main point however, and understnding each one and their similarities and differences serves to provide further insight into language. We all use language all the time, subconciously, and as we learn more about it, we are made more aware of how amazing a thing it really is.

Posted by lcisthur at 12:51 AM | Comments (2)

October 23, 2005

Eliza and I

You: how does stock market work Eliza: Does that question interest you? You: yes Eliza: You are sure? You: absolutely Eliza: Please go on. You: Why don't you say anything else? Eliza: Perhaps I will say anything else in good time.

Eliza is an interesting programm. I made the same conversation with several different types of Elizas and they were responding in different ways. It is as if they had different personalities. It is quiete interesting to see that these computers actually generate reasonable responses to what we are typing to them. However, I noticed that their responses get repetetive after a while. It seems to be fun program if you just want to type about random matters. I almost got into a fight with one of the Elizas just for the fun of it (shown above). Have fun everyone,

Posted by lcisbold at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza turns your computer into a chatterbox! :)

I just tried out Eliza... and was amused, at least for a little while. I have actually seen something like this before, as an America Online screename of "SmarterChild." A few years ago when someone told me to instant message him, I couldn't believe it! I never heard anything about a "robot" like that before, and it was so... smart! However, it's been a while since I had the urge to message him again and see how he's doing, despite the fact he is always online. If any of you are interested, or if you haven't already heard about his one, just enter the AIM screenname SmarterChild! No offense to Eliza, but I'd say he's a bit more developed! And on top of that, you can play games with him, get the news, homework help, weather report, language translations! Probably the most useful friend on your buddy list!

Posted by lcisthur at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

WA Reminder

This is another reminder that I (your friendly WA) am available to read any and all drafts/papers that you might have. I know that at least one major paper is coming up so if you’d like me to review your draft PLEASE get in contact with me. Not sure how to contact me? Just e-mail me with your paper included as an attachment and a note indicating when you need the paper returned by. If you already know your schedule please include the times you are available to meet for the next several dates (if you mail me on Friday send me your availability for the next week). I’m glad to help everyone who asks but please don’t send me a paper you need returned in less than 48 hours without first making arrangements with me.

I hope to hear from you all, Amy

E-mail: amy.tureen@simmons.edu

Posted by lcisamy at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)

Eliza

I just tried Eliza and I thought it was pretty amazing!! I had a similar experience a few days ago. My best friend's boyfriend made an Instant Messenger Robot named "ilovekerribot". Anyways, the robot is awesome because you can talk to it just like a normal person and it will respond. Her boyfriend made it by using a website and filling out a form with generic things, then the computer took it from there. My friends and I had the best time because we would ask the same questions and see if we got the same answer, and we would ask weird questions like, "What's your favorite kind of chicken?". Anyways, it always had an answer and also some unique phrases that it would use over and over. Anyways, I am sure that everyone has used this kind of thing, "SmarterChild" is probably the most popular, but I just wanted to remark upon the similarity of "SmarterChild" and other Instant Messenger Robots to Eliza.

Brenna DeCotis

Posted by lciscotis at 03:27 PM | Comments (1)

POL Ch. 4

It is amazing how much the invention and popularity of photography changed visual art. Painting and sculpting have been around for centuries, much longer than photography, but photography seems to have had a bigger impact on art than most social movements and other importnant events. When people realized that we could take pictures of things and have an exact replication of what we saw, art started to become much more about realism. Nobody wanted to be left behind, or feel stuck in the "old way" of doing things, people wanted art to be "real". We don't see as many impressionist paintings anymore, most of the art that came about during the invention of photography seems to be very realistic, almost like an actual photograph. I am glad, however, that things did not stay this way and that we now have new kinds of art such as abstract art and dadaism.

Posted by lcismardin at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

Getting personal..

In Our Glory: Photographs and Black Life was a very powerful piece. I never really thought of photography as being a mode of identifying a specific race, gender or class. I always percieved it as something that everyone could share. I have a new view of what photography shows for specific cultures and in particular, the visual politics that characterize photography overall.

It was interesting to read about how one photograph led to different reactions among Hook's siblings. The picture of her father in earlier years appealed to some of the siblings, and not to others. Art and photography rely heavily on the view of the person analyzing the piece. And photographs are visually appealing when people have a relationship with what they are observing. But for me, the picture seemed powerful, giving me a clear picture of who Hook's father really was. There is boldness and courage in the picture. Also, the white of his shirt brings the focus right to him and his facial expressions.

Also, over the summer my mother and I organized and re-chronicled our family photographs, some of which were quite old. It was interesting to see how photographs started out as very stiff, serious and distant family moments. But now the pictures we take have become more momentary, spontaneous and show the emotion we are feeling at the particular moment. In photographs you can note the techonological advancements. The oldest pictures we had were a very muted and mossy look. As we progressed on othe pictures became clearer and glossier. Furthermore, there used to be only black and white, then when color became availiable to use, the pictures were dyed certain colors, but weren't very bold and there was a limited number of colors. Now we have the ability to take both black and white pictures.

And one last thing...it is very interesting to see pictures of your parents from their teen and college years- if you ever get the chance, I would definitely capitalize on that.

Posted by lcissearls at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)

October 21, 2005

Persepolis Review

I think it is interesting how the opinions in the review are really Jennifer Camper's yet they are expressed as if they are other people's. She shows how the different people (genders, religions) perceive it but all the views illustrated are really hers. I also think it's cool she gives a little bit of background on the novel; that Marjane Satrapi worked with French cartoonists and the ponderations of the characters on whether Marjane uses a pen or a brush. Camper puts the review in context of conversation. The characters of the review discuss aspects of the book "for" Camper. I really don't think a straight up, conventional book review would have been appropriate for Persepolis 2 because Persepolis is certainly not a conventional book. It would seem flat and not have given Marjane Satrapi as much justice as a review written in the same format as her book. Of course I say this after I have read the review already but I know if I was given the two to compare, a review in comics style is much more appropriate for Persepolis than a written review.

Posted by lcisfreya at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

Persepolis 2

I like Jennifer Camper's review because I think it's very creative of her to conceive the idea of doing it through the same style as Persepolis. At the end, she pointed out that graphic novels, especially this one, can appeal to people at all different levels of thinking. For instance, the ladies were discussing the semiotics and complexities of Persepolis, while the daughter liked it simply because the "drawings are cool".

Although I haven't read Persepolis 2, I felt like Camper gave away too much of the story. I like to be surprised when I read something, rather than to be informed ahead of time. But, since I probably will not find the time to read it, it's good to know what happens to Marji. I think it's fantastic that Satrapi decided to write these novels because it educates western society about things we might not otherwise be aware of, from someone who experienced it firsthand. Camper points this out, and I think that was one of the most important ideas to include in her review.

Posted by lcishagan at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

Review of Persepolis

 I think that the review on Persepolis 2 was very well done for many reasons.  I was really impressed by the way that Camper used the graphic-novel format to both describe what the book focused on and to give an actual example of Marjane Satrapi's writing/comic style.  She conveyed that this is a book that can interest many different audiences by showing different cultures and ages discussing many different things about the book that they found interesting.  I'm really interested in reading Persepolis 2 now, not only because I felt like Persepolis' ending was rather sudden, but also because I really liked the information given on Persepolis 2 by Jennifer Camper.

Emmy

Posted by lcisowens at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)

Review of Persepolis

I think that the review on Persepolis 2 was very well done for many reasons. I was really impressed by the way that Camper used the graphic-novel format to both describe what the book focused on and to give an actual example of Marjane Satrapi's writing/comic style. She conveyed that this is a book that can interest many different audiences by showing different cultures and ages discussing many different things about the book that they found interesting. I'm really interested in reading Persepolis 2 now, not only because I felt like Persepolis' ending was rather sudden, but also because I really liked the information given on Persepolis 2 by Jennifer Camper.

Emmy

PS- Sorry about the previous two entries. I don't know what happened.

Posted by lcisowens at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)

Ballet

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure and privledge to attend the Boston Ballet's performance of Cinderella. It was intriguing experience because I have never been to one, or actually, any organized dance in general. I have attended musicals, plays, and concerts, so this ballet was completely different than what I had expected. For some reason, I thought that some words would have been spoken, but no voices were heard, and yet, I was mesmerized by the intensity of all their gestures and movements. After discussing gestures in Nanette's class, I was able to notice every little twitch that the step-sister's made, and every facial expression. It was extraordinary. Instead of vocalizing their emotions, the characters represented them through their dance and face. I realized that when I attended musicals or plays, I was too busy paying attention to the script, that I failed to truly look at every motion. In the ballet, my eyes were concentrated on every flick of the wrist and bat of the eye. Now, I know that I will view plays and musicals in a different light. Not only will I focus on the lines, but also the distinct gestures that help to portray the scenes. Everyone needs to see Cinderella! It is so powerful! -Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 09:37 PM | Comments (1)

Susan Sontag-On Photography

I found a lot of what Susan Sontag wrote about in this essay to be true in my own life. Sontag wrote about how when people are on vacation (especially Germans, Japanese, and Americans) they make a "friendly imitation of work" by bringing their cameras with them everywhere and take pictures of every single thing that they like or that seems different to them. This gives you a lot of memories to remember your trip by, but it takes some of the fun out of actually experiencing what you are seeing (unless you live for photography). Taking pcitures can almost be like a chore when you feel like you have to take pictures of every single thing that you see and I think sometimes it makes vacations less fun, even though they will be more fun to remember afterwards. I know I am guilty of this though, because everytime I go somewhere I feel like I have to take pictures of everything I see. I wish that when I went on vacation, I could just take someone with me who could take all the pictures so that I could have the full experience while I was there, but then also have the memories when I came home.

Posted by lcismardin at 09:29 PM | Comments (1)

Review of Persepolis 2

I thought this review of Perepolis 2 by Jennifer Camper was really great. After I finished reading Persepolis, I already knew that I wanted to read the second book because the first one leaves you hanging and with a lot of question. This review just wants to make me read Persepolis 2 even more. I never thought that I would enjoy reading a graphic novel, especially one about Iran, which before now I didn't know much about, but reading Persepolis was so interesting and actually fun that I would definitely be open to reading more graphic novels.

This review of Persepolis 2 gives us some information about what happened to Marji after the end of the first book, but it doesn't give everything away. I liked how the two women were shown talking about the style that Marjane Satrapi used while writing Persepolis because I was thinking the some of the same things while I was reading the first book. I really liked Persepolis and this review made me even more excited to read Persepolis 2!

Posted by lcismardin at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

Pooch Cafe Analysis

The comic I have chosen to analyze is entitled “Pooch Café” by Paul Gilligan from Sunday, October 9th. In this comic series, the dogs can communicate with humans as well as other dogs, and from what I have seen, it seems that each comic displays and makes a joke out of something that is associated with dogs. In this particular comic, it is making fun of the concept that dogs fetch the newspaper for their owners. The main dog in the comic developed a device with a conveyor belt that brings the newspaper from the window of the house to the kitchen table in front of the human. Then once the paper arrives, the owner says “Somehow it’s not quite the same as you fetching it for me” and the dog replies, “You got yer paper, didn’t ya?” I thought this was very clever and I enjoyed it.

This comic is quite simple in its concept with very little wording. It uses mainly representation in its drawings with a little bit of symbolism, but no abstraction. The symbols include an arrow on a sign showing the paperboy where to put the paper, and also lines that indicate the newspaper moving along the conveyor belt. All the other elements in this comic display representation. For example representation is displayed with the house, window, conveyor belt, newspaper, kitchen table, coffee mugs as well as many other things.

Paul Gilligan uses the whole comic strip, I think, as metonymy for the concept of dogs fetching the paper for their owners. The first panel to the second is action to action as the paperboy sees where he is supposed to put the newspaper and the next panel shows the paper after he throws it. Each other panel transition is moment to moment as you see the newspaper moving along the conveyor belt until it reaches it final destiniation. In the first panel, the words are part of the image as they are on a sign. Most of the comic is picture specific as there are no text bubbles until the last panel. The last panel is interdependent though because the joke is in the wording. Although you probably could infer the meaning from the comic without the words, except it is much more powerful with the words. I also don’t think this comic has a deeper meaning; I think it is just commenting on the life of dogs and its purpose is just to make the reader laugh.

-Jessica F.

Posted by lcisfaria at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

Persepolis Review

Overall, I think the Persepolis II review was more interesting than a regular review because it was comic style, which helped me remember what the reviewer said. My favorite part was the characters taling about how Persepolis II is about identity contradictions because readers who read the first one could guess what the second was about in meaning.

The review dealt with the difference between men and women who write about the Iranian conflicts. The women characters (Iranians) said they thought they were ignored not only by men writers but also by Americans.

The reviewer goes on to say that Americans neglect to recognize or care about Iranians and the difficulties they have (which is true considering I didnt know anything about Iran until I read Persepolis). She says that Americans need to see the information but the way Americans are closed in thought prevents it. The review emphasized the fact that every other continent has book stores with graphic novel sections but we don't. America is supposed to be open to modern thought and we can't even put sections in our stores dedicated to graphic novels. We have sections for everything else, including books that I am sure collect dust, so why not graphic novels? She "justifies" this American way by saying that we think graphic novels are just comics that "dumb down" culture.

As for the author's style, it is highly recommended by the reviewer. She says that everyone is interested (women, teens, and men are all shown). It not only combines a story with pictures that kids like but also, it includes the emotion to allow the reader to relate or put themselves in the character's shoes. Lastly, it has a good "rhythm" and its a "coming of age narrative in semiotic analysis of female woman child in Iran" that is smartly combined with a comic book style.

Proof of this taste by all groups (men, women and children) is shown by the following: After reading this book I called my mom and dad and explained the book. They soon got the book and loved it. My brother is now reading it (which is a miracle, especially since he doesn't read much as a 15 year old boy) and I couldn't be happier. By the way, I am going out and buying the next one.

Posted by lcisyeich at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)

Comic Analysis

The comic is I chose is straightforward in both text and picture and uses little amount of symbol and abstraction because she is making fun of everyday life

The artist uses the woman in the green shirt as a metonymy for America. The woman says sarcastically that she might want to footnote the picture she has of an explosion from some sort of bomb that is to represent an RPG explosion on a humvee. The green shirted lady portrays America in that we are starting to question where information comes from or how it was produced. The other woman portrays someone that generally thinks she can put anything out as a project (etc.) and it can be believed and exaggerated and it still is not considered lying.

The first two panels are moment to moment because not only is the speaker in the first panel continuing on in the second, but also she is in the same spot, only the view is different. Also from panel to panel, aspect-to-aspect is used because the woman develops her idea in each frame. Action to action is used from the second to the third frame because at first she is obviously reading and then she is obviously flipping the page at her easel. There is almost a subject-to-subject relation because at first we find out about the woman’s father and then we find out that she is using faulty evidence.

This comic is interdependent in the way that the pictures relate to the text. Without the words, the comic just seems to be a woman giving a presentation on some sort of explosion and without the pictures we don’t know what she “actually got off the web,” so we don’t understand why its funny that the other woman tells her to footnote the picture.

This comic works on several levels and makes the joke funny for those that understand the situation in Iraq and those who understand the nature of people to exaggerate and misinform others. Lately, there has been a trend to take a bad situation and make it seem entirely worse to the point where it is different. This trend has been seen more now with the war in Iraq. Americans are taking situations that happen everyday in Iraq (even before our invasion) and exaggerating it to the public. As a public, we seem to soak in the lies and not question what is going on. Throughout this cartoon, we see a change in that trend. The blonde woman’s audience stares in disbelief at her in other panels from other day’s papers. The people are suddenly realizing that this information is so unbelievable that she (the speaker) just looks ridiculous. For those that don’t understand the war, a similar meaning comes from the comic. The woman giving the speech continues throughout many days’ comics to believe her information and thinks nothing wrong of having misinformation (or pictures that have nothing to do with Fallujah).

Posted by lcisyeich at 05:59 PM | Comments (0)

My thoughts on the review of Persepolis 2

I thought these reviews were both amazing. Using a comic as a way to review a graphic novel was so clever. I know if I saw this review, I would be drawn in to read it just because it is a comic. I think that reviewing Satrapi's book as a comic is also praising her and her work. I also enjoyed how Jennifer Camper reviewed Persepolis from a view different standpoints. First, from two Muslim women who are at first hesitant but then they realize that it is actually from an Iranian woman, and are quite pleased by that. She also shows two other women disucssing the book and remembering what happened. She also presents two teenagers talking about the graphical aspect of the book, which is also highly important. Camper also comments a few times on the lack of graphic novels in the United States as opposed to other countries. Many feel that graphic novels are just simple old comic strips that don't address anything of importance. However that is untrue, and Persepolis is a prime example of that.

Overall I thought that Jennifer Camper does a very good job of reviewing the book and presents it in a very good way. After reading a little bit about Persepolis 2 through the review, it makes me want to read it, and I think I will when I have some time to sit down and do so.

-Jessica F.

Posted by lcisfaria at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

Persepolis part 2

I really liked the comic about the book Persepoils by Jennifer Camper. I agree with her and thought that how she described the book was pretty accurate. One particular part that I liked was when one character commented about there not being enough women making comics and the other character responded saying that women don't have what it takes to be cartoonists because they don't have wives to support them. I thought that was funny..hah just a random side note. But anyways, I thought that when Camper points out that she, the author of Persepolis, "really captures the way kids figure out the grown-up world slowly and clumsily and with humor and pain" is true. Marjane is a child growing up during a time where things kept changing and she did not fully understand right away, and the book reveals that but not in a boring way. When I first picked up the book to begin reading I was like oh man, I do not want to read this. But I really enjoyed it and like Christina said in class, you did not need to know the backround of Iran and what happened to understand the book. It really was a good read!

Posted by lcisnelson at 04:17 PM | Comments (1)

Sontag's On Photography

I really enjoyed this essay "On Photography" by Susan Sontag. It was pretty straightforward and thus an easy, enjoyable read. While reading I knew that I believed in a lot of the things that Sontag said. For example, she talks about the use of photography to create memories. This is an obvious use of photographs, but we often underestimate how strong this use. Photographs are part of our every day lives, whether it be looking at a friends photo album, taking pictures of an experience, or gazing at photographs of our family and friends.

I truly support all of Sontag's beliefs, but could never articulate them as well as she did.

--Brenna DeCotis

Posted by lciscotis at 03:08 PM | Comments (1)

Camper's Persepolis Review

I thought it fitting stylistically, that Jennifer Camper used comic strips to review Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel. With it’s multiple characters, the review allowed Camper to voice varying opinions on graphic novels, Iran, Muslim women and Satrapi’s books, presenting counter arguments that stated her point by contradiction.

Her review became a meta-comic as she touched on the credibility struggle graphic novels are faced with in different parts of the world.

Camper shows, through her comic review, how through comics an author-artist is able to entertain subject matter simultaneously on multiple levels and because of it’s medium it is accessible to a broad cross section of people.

The review points to how Satrapi, through the telling of a very personal story, has been able, with an authentic voice, to educate readers and shed light that benefits both the reader and those the story concerns.

~ Nanette

Posted by lcissavides at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

God and Marjane

In Persepolis there are are many signs and symbols that all have a certain meaning. I thought that one of the most apparent symbols in this book was that of God. God was drawn as being a white man with long white hair and a long white beard. God symbolized comfort for Marjane in her time of need, which was whenever she needed understanding about something. The fact that God is used as a symbol in this book shows that Marjane valued her religious beliefs and turned to God whenever she had a problem. God was like Marjane's best friend and when she couldn't talk to her parents she could talk to him. God also symbolized protection from the harm of the Revolution for Marjane. He allowed her to feel safe when she thought that she was in danger. This symbol is important in the book, because it shows the need for wanting to be protected and being able to have someone to turn to.

--Yasmin

Posted by lcisperez at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

"On Photography"

Susan Sontag's peice "On Photography" was more straightforward than the other peices we have read in class. Upon reading the first paragraph, I realized that this would be an informational essay instead of a complex, metaphorical story. I enjoyed realizing some of the reasons why we take photos. We can all relate and understand her reasonings because it is true with everyone. What I really liked about her writing was that she took a psychological perspective.

For example, she explains that we tend to take pictures to replace things. Our handicaps might prevent us from acting on what we see, so we take pictures to "participate" or even act on what we see later if our handicap goes away. We take pictures to replace the space of children when they grow up. We take pictures to replace work on vacations in work driven societies. We replace non-existent pasts with pictures from now to make up for it. More, we replace our anxieties over being somewhere new with photos (the photos allow us to "take possession" over these strange areas). Moreover, we replace our lack of friends or colleagues on trips with photos. Meaning, because the ones we talk to daily are usually not there on vacation with us, we must take pictures to prove a point or "certify" that we were there. Lastly, we replace our hopes with pictures. For example, we take pictures of big houses if we want big houses. This could be that we want to make it seem like we have the homes or just to let us keep wishing.

The last and best point of the article was that we take pictures to "encourage whatever is going on to keep on happening." We take pictures of vacations to keep the memory and even to be able to look at it and transfer ourselves to that time.

Overall, I thought the informational essay was indeed informative. Not that I learned new things, but I realize it in the foreground of my mind, versus the background. We all know why we take pictures, but most of the time, we aren't able to say it.

Posted by lcisyeich at 10:13 AM | Comments (2)

Persepolis Review!

I thought that this "review" of Persepolis and Persepolis 2 was very interesting and innovative on the part of Jennifer Camper. What struck me the most was the way she was able to talk about so many different themes in so little space.

First off, she is able to explore the book's appeal to many different audiences. As mentioned by other bloggers, the book appeals to alot of people: Iranian woman, teenagers, children, modern day women, and many more. For each of these audiences it brings something different, whether it be entertainment, truth, historical information, or any number of possible interests.

She also describes the theme of feminism by highlighting the fact that this book is written by a woman and is also about a woman. The most interesting thing that I read in relation to this was when someone said "Ha! Just once I want a man's comic described as being 'from a male perspective'". This statement is very true because, even for our society, which I believe is rather attentive to feminism, a comic written by a man is the norm.

Another theme is that of the lack of graphic novels in the United States. This coincides with the belief of a couple of characters that comics are watered-down books, that they do not have the same intellectual capacity as Dickens or Shakespeare. For many people this is true (I even had some of these feelings if you read my blog from a few days ago). However, I think that the United States is slowly beginning to change. My library at home is building a graphic novel section which has grown relatively large and is very popular. Similiarily, the Simmons Library had a graphic novel display a month or so ago. So, I think that American society is slowly changing to allow us access to different kinds of literature.

A final theme in the comic is brought up by the two Iranian woman in the beginning of the comic who say that literature about certain cultures only appears when they are in the news, for example she alludes to the September 11th terrorist attacks. This is certainly true because an attack like this makes other cultures first on everyone's mind. However, it should not be so. We should be respectful, aware, and appreciative of other cultures no matter if they are in the news or not.

--Brenna DeCotis

Posted by lciscotis at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

On Photography

I was definitely able to relate to this essay and I loved Susan Sontag's views on photography in general. I feel that Sontag did a great job talking about the aspects of photography and the role of the photographer. Also, there were many good references and quotes in this piece and I feel they sum up the ideas that Sontag addressed...

"A family's photograph album is generally about the extended family and, often, is all that remains of it."

"The photographer stays behind his or her camera, creating a tiny element of another world: the image-world that bids to outlast us all."

"Comes from the awareness of how plausible it has become, in situations where the photographer has the choice between a photograph and a life, to choose the photograph."

"After the event has ended, the picture will still exist, conferring on the event a kind of immortality."

Posted by lcissearls at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

Persepolis Review

Jennifer Camper approaches reviewing Persepolis in a very creative way, by using a comic to analyze a comic novel. By doing this she is able to use words to show the opinions that several different people have of the book, whether they are positive or negative. She is also able to incorporate people's thoughts with their facial expressions and gestures. This allows the reader of her critique to connect with the person who is sharing the opinion, because of their posture, clothing, and physical features.

Through the words in her comic critique. Camper emphasizes the difficulty of growing up in two seperate worlds, and the effects of progressivism and modernism. She also not only focuses on the perspective of women of the graphic novel, but she also mentions the opinions of men as well. For example, she shows in her comic that some men think that a cartoon-style book being published is almost an insult that says that information is being simplified too much to make people look dumb. Even the opinion of women not being able to be good cartoonists is shown. By placing these opinions in the comic Camper is able to address some of the issues raised in the book itself why analyzing it simultaneously.

This is such an effective to analyze a book, because both words and pictures can be observed.

--Yasmin

Posted by lcisperez at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

Bits and Pieces

I found the comic review of Persepolis 2 very interesting. The comic was taken from The Women's Review of Books, and I found that it reflected much of the ideas about women that Jennifer Camper was revealing in her comic critique. Jennifer Camper seemed to be stating how it was significant that women are now defining women. Of course it is better to have one of our own to talk about what it is to be a woman. Women obviously are much better at explaining themselves than are men (about women). Additionally, it explored a wide range of ages and ethnicities of women talking about how graphic novels have impacted them.

On a side note, it was interesting how this review showed men unable to relate to women and comics in general. In one of the panels, a man stated "Just another example of the dumbing-down of our culture.." Another panel showed a father telling his son that he couldn't get the comic book because it was "pop junk." Needless to say, women are usually much more accepting and open to new ideas and claims than are men.

Posted by lcissearls at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

East Coast Crash

While getting coffee yesterday I noted that a version of Crash set in the Northeast could have a scene in a Dunkin Donuts store.

Food or coffee rather for thought!

~ Nanette

Posted by lcissavides at 09:37 PM | Comments (3)

Persepolis 2

Jennifer Camper critiques Persepolis 2 in such a unique way. She utilizes a comic in order to analyze another comic, which is incredibly powerful. By illustrating her thoughts through a comic, she is able to get her point cross with few words and many informative pictures. I believe that people take great interest in new and different ways of representation, and her review will and probably has been viewed by a great percentage of people because of its format. Paragraphs and paragraphs of long sentences tend to bore Americans, specifically, so being short, to the point, and artistic is alluring to the eye and engaging for the mind. Personally, I believe that one of the strongest points in Camper's comic is that she appeals to all people (most specifically, all ages). She incorporates two Iranian women, two modern day women, a teenage boy and girl, men and women (probably 20 and up), teenagers, and children who all freely give their comments on the book. Also, by changing the setting of each couple of panels, it appeared as though Persepolis 2 is being talked about everywhere. Overall, this review is extremely effective in its purpose to interest society in learning about Iran and Marjane Satrapi. -Christina

Posted by lcisgancarz at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)

Jennifer Camper's Graphic Review

Jennifer Camper's graphic review of Persepolis 2 presents the differing opinions that people living in America have of the novel. Camper's central point, however, is that the novel has a different appeal to different people based on their interests and background.

For example, Camper begins her critique by having the starting panels depict two Iranian women in the bookstore. They are excited to see American interest in their culture, which is apparent by the display of Middle East and Islam related books, but at the same time they are frustrated that Americans only seem to be interested in these topics because of the attacks on September 11. The two women return home with a copy of Persepolis 2 and have a discussion concerning Iran in the 1970's. The topic hits close to home for these women, as they remember what it was like to live in Iran during that time. For them, the appeal of the novel is that it is a personal trip down memory lane.

The subsequent panels show two artists viewing the novel. To them, the appeal of it lies in the artistic techniques Satrapi used to create the images.

Next, two young girls in a comic book store are attracted to the novel because they find it impressive that a female would dare to enter the male-dominated world of cartoons. This bold act by Satrapi is in accordance with these girls' feminist attitudes, thus they are interested in the novel.

Camper then portrays two young people who seemingly immigrated to the U.S. at a young age. For them, the appeal to Persepolis 2 is in the way it exposes the difficulty associated with the immigration process...something that I'm sure is universal no matter where one immigrates to or from.

Camper acknowledges that in the opinions of older Americans, Persepolis 2 seems like a meaningless and "dumb-downed" novel. This shows the resistance that some older Americans have towards the breaking of older and generally accepted conventions, whereas she depicts the youth of America as open and excited about the idea of a graphic novel.

Camper shows the impact of the novel on three Muslim women who are sick of being misrepresented by documentaries on Islam and the Middle East. For these women, the appeal of Satrapi's novel is the truth with which she wrote about Muslim women.

Camper ends her graphic review by showing educated women having a sophisticated discussion on the novel. The appeal of Satrapi's work to them is that it seems to be full of signs that can be semiotically analyzed.

All of the different scenarios that Camper puts forth in her review of Persepolis 2 serve to show us that the novel is popular for many different reasons and whether or not it will appeal to you depends upon your personal interests and tastes.

Posted by lcissullivan at 03:54 PM | Comments (3)

Blogging on Comics on Blogging

Check it out!

Posted by lcisEllen at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

Group 1

Group 1: Information about Iran just before 1979 (during the rule of theShah, pre-revolution). Concentrate on the effects inside Iran.

Persian History Before 1979

In the second millennia B.C., Aryans invaded the Iranian plateau and divided into tribes that distinguished from each other by different dialects. The two most famous of tribes were the Persians and the Medes. The Persians settled in the province of Fars and in the Bakhtiari Mountains and achieved unity under the leadership of Achaemenes, whose descendant, Cyrus II, brought the Achaemenian Empire onto the center stage of world history. Cyrus overthrew the Median empire and seized Ecbatana (Place of Assembly), which became his capital. Because he spared the defeated ruler, respected all religions, and brought nobles and civilian officials, both Median and Persian, into the government of his kingdom, he continued to expand his empire over all the kingdoms of the Near and Middle East through peace.

The Mongol conquest of the Persian world brought with it terrible destruction and large-scale massacres. The east of Iran fell in 1380 and north-western Iran went through a different historical development. The Safavids were successful in bringing the whole of the Iranian plateau under unified control. They made Iran a "national state" in the modern sense of the word and traded with Europe, transforming the new capital, Isfahan, into one of the greatest cities of Persia. The presence at the Safavid court of foreign envoys and the growing number of merchants and travellers in Iran was later to have a great influence on the arts and literature in Europe. The cultural growth was accompanied by considerable development in all forms of art.

Afghan rule in eastern Iran lasted only a short period of time (1722-1729); the second ruler was overthrown by Nader Khan of the Safavid Dynasty. In 1795 the Qajar leader Agha Muhammed Khan, won and established the new Qajar dynasty bringing the whole country under his authority and was crowned "Shah" (king) in Tehran in 1796. Dissatisfied with the incompetence and corruption of the government revolts formed by various secret societies and religious groups.

Protests

In Iran from 1963-1967, there was economic growth in the country and opposition towards Mohammed Reza (Shah). The Shah was also opposed by religious figures and urban middle class people as well. He had gained power 1941, and he used his secret police as a method of controlling people within Iran. Only the wealthy were able to benefit from the Shah’s power.

With his power, the Shah imprisoned hundreds of political activist’s, he enforced strict censorship laws, killed and arrested protestors, and also attacked theology students who were attempting to stop a liquor store from opening. In 1978 there were lots of protests due to a libelous story about Khomeini. Overall there had been millions of protests in Tehran. Shah also had conflicts with muslims regarding such things as alcohol, sex and gambling. There was also lots of poverty in the country of Iran and very poor living conditions, where most of the poor lived in slums or rural areas outside of the large cities. The price of oil also continued to climb and about $300 million was spent on the celebration of the 2500 year anniversary of the Persian Empire in Persepolis.

In 1977 Jimmy Carter said he's cut arms shipments because of human rights issues inside Iran, therefore 300 prisoners were released and laws became more lenient, going against the beliefs of the Muslims. Protests began then for these reasons, and for the concept of freedom of thought. Early protests were led by Mehdi Bazargan and the "Freedom Movement", with support from the people of Iran and abroad. Al Shari'ati, an orthodox Shia, was also a radical leader whose murder added to the tension. Khomeini's son died of unknown causes, but the Shah's forces were blamed and this escalated hostile feelings towards the Shah.

In 1978 many protests were triggered by a libel printed about Khomeini in the official press, and because of the libelous story, there were many protests, one being where some student protesters were killed by members of the army. On this day, there was a memorial service for these martyrs. The army became even more violent and killed hundreds of the people at the memorial services. Many protests around the nation and images of the Shah were destroyed. There was also lots of unemployment because of the unrest in Iran. On Dececmber 12, 2 million protesters crammed into Azadi Square in Tehran. To protest against the Shah. Members of the army began to switch sides and protest as well, although other members of the army were very violent towards the protesters. Shah was finally forced to flee the country January of 1979.

Poverty and the Division of Social Class in Iran

Poverty in Iran resulted was obvious by the lack of access to essential services and goods, like hea