POST 14: Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

1) What struck you most in the film?

I realy liked so much the images and the way the movie is filmed.
2) What also impressed you?

What most impressed me in the movie was the scene where the two killers recieve the guns that they will use to kill all the students next day.
3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?

To my mind, I found that the director took the history maybe to far, and I found it was irrespectfull the way he treats this delicate topic.
4) What did you find very disturbing?

I think that the director treats the fact that they were two students planning to kill their collegues as if it was something normal could be disturbing for some.
5) What was most shocking?

The way the other students were portrated: joks, the girls who throught up at school after lunch, the nerds... It was too caricatural in my opinion.
6) What does the film  suggest about the two school shooters?

That they were normal people and that it was something with no importance,
7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?

That they were homosexual.
8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?

Gus Van Sant represented the shool shooting in a very heroic and super dramatic way and not as if it was cruel and stupid.
9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film?

In my opinion, this artistic treatment he uses downplays the topic and the barbarian act they comited.
10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers?

They are percieved as if it wasn't really very serious and they could be even forgiven.

BRADY CAMPAIN:

The Brady Campaign was founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH). From 1980 through 2000 it operated under the name Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI). In 2001, it was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and its sister project, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, was renamed the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Steve SACK, on www.startribune.com,

Gun Lobby and Congress (2010)

The first cartoon was created by Steve Sack in 2010, it is named Gun Loby and Congress. In the foreground we can notice two caracters wich are 'black-tie' dressed and both have a briefcase: in the one on the left we can reed 'GUN LOBY' and in the right one we can reed 'CONGRESS'. The on representing the 'GUNLOBY' seems to give monney in order to preasure the 'CONGRESS' to eliminate gun control. In the background we can notice that it is represented the Capitol with a flag a half-mast and a trial of blood. The blood and the flag are representing the american citicens that where murdered because of the non-control with guns in the USA. 

We could maybe interpret from this caricature that there is a denouce to the massive lobbying some enterprises do in order to still can earn monney in the armament industry.

Dave GRANDLUND, on www.davegranlund.com, 

Second Amendment and NRA (2013)

As an introduction I would like to explain two notions:

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organisation which advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975. It is also the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States.

The Founding Fathers of the United States are the individuals of the Thirteen British Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the authority of the British Crown and established the United States of America. The term is also used more narrowly, referring specifically to those who either signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or who were delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and took part in drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States. A further subset includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation. During much of the 19th century, they were referred to as either the "Founders" or the "Fathers".

In this second document we can see that are represented two statues: on the left, the statue is grey and represents an american man who probably was when the founding fathers founded the USA. Near by him there is a soldier of the army who seems more modern than the other one. Both are above something to be taller. 

This cartoon is saying that today the United States of Amercia is defending his land but not in a good way as the Founding Fathers wanted for their nation.

POST 7; THE IDEA OF PROGRESS: QUANTITY vs. QUALITY

"Things you own end up owning you" -  Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

First of all, when we think about quantity is when there is a forward movement, as a toward goal, or growth.
And then, speaking about quality, it is when there is a gradual betterment, or a progressive improuvment of society.

So we are going to see two documents. The first one is a cartoon by a cartoonist called Polyp which publishes his cartoons without any copyright on his webpage: http://www.polyp.org.uk/index.html

So we can see that the cartoon is divided in four images. There are rats that seem anxious or even stressed or scared. There is in the middle of the four cartoons some words like: "work harder" or "keep going".

In this cartoon, life is compared to a race for owning and consuming more than the others, and humans are compared to rats, because we all do the same and we just follow the society with worring about what we want, we just worry about quantity.

The second document we are going to study is a graph about life expentancy through the second half of the 20th century.

Thanks to this cartoon we learn that life expentancy has grown since 1960 to 2010. So that we can conclude that our life quality has improuved with consumer society.

As a conclusion, we can say that even if the quality of our standard of living has improuved, we seem to be too worried about what we own and we are always looking for having more quantity, instead of having less but still a life with quality.

POST 6: An Art Exhibition Review

The exhibition that we are going to review today is called Pop Art Myths. This exhibition will be in the Thyssen Bornemisza ( Paseo del Prado, 8, 29043 Madrid) from july the 10 until september the 14, 2014.Their website is also very complete, here you will find many information, such as ticket prices or opening times: http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/exposiciones/2014/mitos-del-pop/index_en.html#ancla
In this exhibition you will find some of the most famous artists and their artworks, for example from Roy Lichtenstein to Andy Warhol. You will be able to enjoy the exhibition for almost ten weeks! Mainly the creator was the Curator of the museum: Paloma Alarcó, head of the modern painting, Thyssen Museum. This group show is an historical and original exhibition.

In this exhibition you will be able to find an overwhelming universe of colors tastefully combined to convey the feeling of the era this mouvement was created and developped, thanks to the idea of pop artists to be inspired in the media and cinema industry that was being developped. Also there are various forms of representation, such as movie posters, sculptures, close-ups, etc... 

The good point in this mouvement is that there are some pieces that are very simple to be reconigzed and even to be interpretated so that the viewer is able to be transported to pop art universe. 
This exhibition really has an impact on the viewer because we see some famous pieces that everyone knows from our childhood or even because we have seen the on TV. In my opinion the hole exhibition really whort it because there are no pieces that aren't dismissed. This exhibition shows the concept of the hero all along and thanks to this mouvement. The art piece we are going to see today is one of my favorites, by mimmo Rotella, called Cleopatra, painted in 1963. What it's really interesting about theis piece is that we can see that the artist wanted to emphasize on the woman in the middle of the image, also a thign that really makes the difference with this piece is that we can reconize the original material the artist used, a poster of a film.

Mimmo Rotella, Cleopatra, 1963. 

POST 4: My own choice of a a film, series, song or book (novel, play, essay, comic, graphic novel) dealing with the 'MYTHS & HEROES' notion.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

This novel first appeared in 2005 and was written by Rick Riordan. This novel's a mix of mythological greec culture and a dystopia happening in the present. Bassically it tells the story of a teenager called Percy and his friend Grover Underwood, that ends being a satyr. Percy is Poseidon's son, sea god. The two friends end up discovering that the greec myths exisit and that the Olympus stills existing, in the top of the Epire State Building. As a "half blood" he is persecuted by some other Gods and he is in danger, so Grover decides to take him to a camp where all the sons of the Gods are safe. In there they discover that someone has stollen the thief of Zeus so they decide to get it back.

The story doesn't en up there, there are more 5 books that continue with the story.

I thing this novel is releated with the notion Myths and Heros because ir represents a hero with traditional values but with today's caracteristics. Also, we see that there are greek mythology all along this saga, but releated to the present.

POST 2: Chris/Alexander & the myth of the noble/good savage in Sean Penn's Into the Wild movie

This is the traditional representation of the myth of the 'noble savage'.

This is Alexander Supertramp in the movie 'Into the Wild'.

This concept of noble savage started in the 17th century and developed in the 18th century. This concept represents an idealised indigene who thanks to not being in civilisation he has not been corrupted and he embodies the idea of the innate goodness. Also thanks to nature he stays true to his roots and stays essentially good.
It was a popular concept in the Renaissance humanism and many authors of that period decided to talk about it. One of them was the essayist Richard Steele who basically said ta the human was corrupted by the idea as he said of false education.
Then apeared in the occidental civilisation the cult to 'Primitivism', the 'noble savage' was a human outside the civilisation that was more authentical. That concept apeared then in the novel 'The Conquest od Granada' writen in 1672 by Dryden who wrote about the idealized picture of nature's gentelman.

What Alex seems to believe about the wild/nature as oposed to society/civilisation is that the hapiness and the genuine and best of it you can only find it among nature and alone. Since he has that feeling he embodies the concept of the 'noble savage' because he is not corrupted by civilisation or education. Also, he has showned through the movie that he has an innate goodness that makes him to be very close with people in a short instant.

When Alex decides to go to Alaska to live into the wild he hopes find a extreme form of beauty and hapiness thanks to nature. He is longing for finding that expression of beauty and lefting behind civilisation.

When he decided to live in Nature, he has a complete different idea about what it vas going to be. In fact he found really beautiful landscapes, wich was one of his biggest dreams. But however, he also discovered that the idea of being alone gives you hapiness was false and eventually it was just a waist of time and energy resulting that he unfortunately passed the way.

We could say that in the movie called Into the Wild the main character named Alexander is mora representative to the myth of the romantic that to the noble savage. Because he is more emphathising through the movie that he is a very individualist person and that he preffers the past nature instead of the contact with other humans. In order to show it the director inserted at the begining of the movie he inserted a poem wich says: " I love man the less, but Nature more", this prase was written by a poet that belongs to the romantic movement.

In my opinion we see that you can't really return to the roots and decide to leave everithing behind. We have been rased since our childhood with some values that would completly counter this idea of linving as our past generations. This is a true fact that is noticable in the movie when he finds the "magic bus", because even if he had the idea of linving with nothing but some stuff that he will find out in nature he is still using tools that belongs to the modern world. Also he has remorse and longing because he left people that are important to him at home or along his journey.

POST 1.2: THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

1. Read the definitions and fill in the gaps with suitable words.
PROGRESS
1. Forward movement, as toward a goal . Advance . Development . increase = 

=======>> quantity

2. Gradual betterment . Steady / Progressive improvement of society / civilization / humankind.

=======>> quality




2. Brainstorming: Here is a list of questions you must ask yourself about the notion. Complete the blanks.
What type of progress?
technological / scientific / social / economic / moral / educational / historic 



Who are the people concerned?
individuals / companies / governments / researchers / armies/ teachers/ women / children



Which period of time is concerned?

the past / the present / the future/ nowadays / tomorrow / all the ages

What is at stake?

medical issues / physical performances / technical advances / innovations / dehumanization / domination / environmental issues / animal rights / place of woman in society / race relations / social inequalities / economic opportunities / globalization / the whole humanity / future generations / medicine / democracy 

What are the advantages and disadvantages (= drawbacks) / the pros and cons / the upside and downside?

The main advantage in this case is that we can improve our way of life, but this is also complicated to know because we can't anticipate if this is going to be good or not for us.

Is it profitable (= positive / advantageous) or is it potentially dangerous ( negative / disadvantageous)
for human beings? Why?

I think that in this case the two options are right. On the one hand we could imagine that the progress could cause negative results such as war for the power. On the other hand we may think that it could cause positive results such as medical progress to cure some diseases.

Is the impact positive or negative? For whom?

The impact is not the same for all the actors in a situation.
Can we afford to reject progress or can’t we do without it (nowadays & in future)?
I think that we have to progress, but always keeping in our minds where we come from.

Can’t we improve on the idea of progress commonly accepted in our modern world and consumer society? If so, how? 

Of course we can progress. I think that we should keep in mind that the human canot accomplish some things that are impossible.

　3. Build up your vocabulary
Complete the grid during the school-year with words and phrases suitable for the notion

UPSIDE / THE PROS	TYPES OF PROGRESS	DOWNSIDE / THE CONS
Enable people to work more efficiently / improve our living standard / ...	Technological progress	Cut people off from the real world / lose touch with nature / ...
Increase the knowledge of the world / discover new materials / ...	Scientific progress	Raise ethical issues / create new inequalities / ...
Upgrade education / reduce gender and racial discrimination / ...	Social progress	Lose traditional values / disrupt conservative lifestyles / ...