Reading from a critical position

With the short story I've read, when thinking about identifying versus relating, it sparked questions I never thought of before. I've always thought of the two words as basically one of the same, at least on the broadest sense of the words. While reading Even the Queen, with the intent on writing this passage about identity, I kept thinking 'yeah, I could say that I identify with the main character.' As time went on and I was able to meditate about it, I do not identify with the lead, instead, I relate. I've always thought about identifying as something that cannot be completely true, due to past experiences being unpredictable and the like.

One thing that struck me odd about the story, was the representation of women. There was only one man in the story, who had a very minor part in the overarching story. Even though the man's part was minor, it was well established that men were the rulers of the land and women had little place in the world. The feeling I got from the story was, even though there were hardly any men, that the men were behind a one way glass, looking in on the action, but never revealing themselves; always in control.

While I cannot say I identify with anyone living under those same restrictions, I can relate. As a person, I feel very few people can identify with those in this story because of the conditions being radicalized to the extremes. I feel this story comes from a place of relate-ability and the author wrote it from a place of heart, but I doubt even the author can identify with the lead 100%.

True Grit: Story verse

Before reading True Grit, I had my preconceived ideas about how the story was laid out, and how the characters interact with each other. With True Grit, and it's two movie adaptations, one could question what the true version is, myself included. The story verse was not altered in either adaptation of the book, but, for some reason, the byproducts were complete opposites. When it comes to story verse, I believe the author can only make the story, at one point they have to hand it off to the community, which is why there are clear differences in the two films. Neither is wrong, and there being such differences only celebrates how Charles Portis crafted a fine story verse which doesn't collapse upon itself when the characters are portrayed in drastically different ways.

Influence

After the class discussion about what influence actually consists of, and discussing how the Grand Budapest Hotel has a great deal of influential power, my view of influence has been changed. Before, I used to view influence as importance, not viewing it something that will happen, instead, it was something that has happened. I'd view films like Tron, Star wars, Pearl Harbor, etc, as the forerunners of technology; they set new goals and prerequisites when looking at current films due to having to best the older films with the latest and greatest. While I still view them as influential, I see it as a different form of influence due to them being long ago. Now, it seems like everyone has their minds aimed at the future, and because of that, everyone is trying to envision what the next hot thing is. Some say it's virtual reality, others, who aren't thinking about technology, and more are thinking about state of mind, are thinking about The Grand Budapest Hotel, in terms of film. When I saw the film, it was marvelous the way it was told, color and composition wise, each shot wasn't a wasted canvas like many other films before it. This film, to me, feels like it'll be cemented in the visual hierarchy of the great bench mark films such as Bladerunner. Sci-Fi films have copied Bladerunner to the point that all Sci-Fi looks the same to a certain degree, but, it's because the source was so great artistically. I feel like The Grand Budapest Hotel might have this same effect on shots and colors, since it was eye candy from start to finish.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel written by Jane Austen and probably one of the most well known books ever written. Based in regency England, it is a love story about Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy coming to the drawn out realization that they love each other while surviving amongst Elizabeth’s family and general society. Some readers might not be fans of this genre or the style of writing from this period, but it is a classic nonetheless because of its successful plotline. Austen creates characters - especially Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth - who draw readers in and don’t let go until the last page because of their chemistry and the long drawn out suspense of whether they'll be together or not. The downfall of Pride and Prejudice is that its themes might only cater to those who enjoy romantic or dramatic novels. Some readers might feel like it takes awhile for plotlines to unravel, impatient people might be frustrated with this type of book because of its point of view. Even though the book is slow, most people will appreciate this story for its plot-line, while Elizabeth and Darcy’s story is drawn out, it comes to be worth it in the end for a happy ending. Readers can also appreciate the historical context, you learn about the customs of the time while unraveling the story. This book has humor, sadness, history and love - which proves to be a good mix for creating what is now a literary classic. I would recommend this book to people mainly because it's one of the classics, especially if they were fans of period pieces or liked love stories.

Origins

My name is Michael Volpa and I come from a small town in south jersey called Newfield. I was raised as the younger of two siblings, the older being a sister. My parents were divorced since I was two years old. My fathers lineage mostly consists of Italian lineage, having his grandfather coming over on the boat. My mothers lineage is full Ukrainian.

My main influences come from video games as well as film. At the age of three my uncle gave me a Super Nintendo which I played nonstop, because of this Mario has influenced me tremdousy and was somewhat of a role model for some time. Getting older and having the knowledge of the men behind Mario and other large companies have allowed me recognize Sakari, the man behind smash brothers, miamoto, the man behind Zelda Mario and other large Nintendo names, and iwata, the now deceased president of Nintendo. From film the largest influence would have to be Miyazaki due to how touching his pieces are, he's taught me through his work to never stop at the surface ands to keep going as to add multiple layers of meaning and story to each piece of work I do.

My ideology on life is that nothing is certain, everything is beautiful, and at every corner an adventure is ready to take off. At one point in my life, i was very fond of science and finding out what things were and how they worked. Because of this, I feel like many things we know, we don't know everything about, like I need to sleep, but why. I used to be very pecismistialy but having gotten into art, and seeing the true nature of things has given me a new look on things, even an abandoned building has a breath to it that one could never recreate no matter now hard they try.