Wednesday, February 10, 2010

In addition to Response Paper

When we had our class this morning we had to exchange our paper with a fellow student to get feed back. I would like to add to my earlier post to clear up any confusion and add new material to support my earlier post.
One of the questions was what role do women fill for Tom?
I believe that because Tom was raised in a family with parents who were still married he held this in a high regard, an achievement. Tom is living a life of mediocrity when it comes to his job and personal achievements. I believe that Tom put all his effort into finding his soul mate because it seemed more attainable then trying to achieve higher than being a greeting card writer.
A confusing section of the paper seemed to be when I was discussing Freud's dream-work concept. I used the definition "dream-work is a tissue of thoughts usually a very complicated one,which has built up during the night to retain the quota of energy-the 'interest'-claimed by it, and threatens to disturb sleep. (Freud 199) I am trying to compare how the film (500) days of Summer uses this concept is threw the many dream sequences used in the film to show Tom's disillusion thoughts about Summer. How these thoughts are affecting his subconscious and how he is not dealing with his wants and has created these dream sequences to express his feelings and what he truly desires.
Also, to support the claim that Woody Allen's Characters are searching for more of a intellectual connection; in his book The Insanity Defense he writes a short story titled The Whore of Mensa. This short story centers on a man who goes to intellectual prostitutes to fulfill the intellectual needs that his wife is not meeting. The man goes to a private investigator for help because the lead intellectual prostitute is black mailing him. It is an extremely clever story and the juxtaposition was very ironic.
In conclusion I also wrote that Tom Hansen came from a family that was still together when in fact his parents are divorced.
I think that exchanging papers was a great idea it's always good to get an honest opinion on your work. Especially from another student who is trying to write about the same subject.

Response Paper

Carrie Stula
2/8/10
English 312
Response Paper: Two-page analysis of a non-Woody Allen comedic film using for your critical lens *only* the texts discussed thus far in class, e.g., Freud, Kaufman, Perelman, Roth, Ravits, and/or Gilman.

The film I have chosen for this response paper is (500) days of Summer. The film was made in 2009 it was written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber and was directed by Marc Webb. It was praised at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the grand jury selection prize. This film has been called the Annie Hall of our generation which is why I chose to write about this film. I absolutely loved (500) days of Summer and am not a fan of Annie Hall. The story is offbeat and comical with how the lead character Tom Hansen handles his break up with Summer Finn. Tom becomes obsessive and begins to lose touch with reality after the break-up with Summer.
In the film the Tom Hansen is an average looking greeting card writer. He went to school for architecture but only does doodles of the Los Angeles landscape. The girl whom Tom falls in love with is a bohemian artistic girl named Summer Finn. She has always been severely independent and does not believe in the concept of true love or marriage; this doesn’t stop Tom’s pursuit he fell in love with Summer the moment he met her. The film is not in chronological order, the time period shifts from different days of their relationship (500 days). The film starts with when Summer begins working at the greeting card company and jumps around from there. We see them dating, their first sexual encounter, their break-up, their make-up and then their permanent break up.
Tom is a less neurotic version of many of Woody Allen’s Character’s (in his films). They do share the obsession/fear of death. They are also similar in how blind they are of the demise of their relationships and seeing where it went wrong, as if there were no signs. The difference between Allen’s lead Characters and Tom Hansen is that Tom believes in love at first sight, fate, and destiny whereas Allen’s characters don’t believe in love in the same context. The characters that Allen creates are dependent on the woman as a comfort level, to fulfill an intellectual need or a sexual desire. Tom and Allen both build up the idea of Summer (or Annie) because they believe that they can’t do any better than them and they miss what these woman really are; no good for them.
In Freud’s Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious it discusses the concept of dream-work. That a tissue of thoughts, usually a very complicated one, which has built up during the day has not been completely dealt with-‘a day’s residue’-continues during the night to retain the quota of energy-the ‘interest’-claimed by it, and threatens to disturb sleep. (Freud 199) How (500) days of Summer uses this idea is throughout the films numerous dream sequences. There is a black and white French parody film of Tom’s and Summer’s romance; the day after Tom and Summer first have sex (there is a musical number and animated birds) and also there is an exceptionally unique use of split screen to show reality/fantasy when Tom agrees to go to a party at Summer’s apartment. In his mind he is hoping that they will rekindle their flame but in reality she has moved on and is now engaged.
These dream sequences reinforce the idea that because Tom has not truly dealt with his feelings his mind is running away in fantasy. The book continues to state that the dream-work takes the step from the optative to the present indicative; it replaces ‘Oh! If only…’by ‘It is’ is then given a hallucinatory representation. (Freud 201) Tom has been playing out his relationship with Summer in his mind, it was a wonderful relationship in his mind. If he really goes back and looks into their relationship he will see that the signs were there, she didn’t love him and really wasn’t his soul mate.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Response Paper

Tomorrow we have our first paper due. The topic is to do an analysis of a non-Woody Allen comedic film using for your critical lens *only* the texts discussed thus far in class, e.g., Freud, Kaufman, Perelman, Roth, Ravits, and/or Gilman. So I'm still working on it because it's still a little choppy but here is the film that I'm going to be analyzing: (500) days of Summer.





Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Jewish Mother

I have been reading an article titled The Jewish Mother: Comedy and Controversy in American Popular Culture written by Martha A. Ravits who is a professor at the University of Oregon. This article deconstructs the stereotype of the "Jewish mother" the overbearing, controlling, and manipulative mother that has been the source of many films, stories and plays. This article sites many excerpts from the novel our class is reading right now Portnoy's Complaint written by Philip Roth. His novel depicts his mother in this stereotypical fashion. The mother of Alex Portnoy is quoted as being "aggressive, parochial, ignorant, smothering, crass, selfish but also self-martyring." (8, Ravits The Jewish Mother: Comedy and Controversy in American Popular Culture) The character Alex accuses her of "Filling the patriarchal vacuum!" (Portnoy 45). The stereotype is used throughout the novel. The novel itself has been deemed perverse and pornographic than as a work of literature. I believe that some people forget that most if not all authors write for themselves and not others. I don't believe that Philip Roth wrote this book thinking that it become a text that would be studied. I believe he wrote it to work out his demons and issues. The article continues to show how the stereotype of the Jewish mother is more acceptable than of the Jewish father. It is okay to laugh and poke fun of the mother but the father's role isn't the butt of so many jokes. An example of this would be Kyle's mom from the cartoon South Park, I will have to say that they do depict the father in a negative light as well but Kyle's mom received a musical number: It is very explicit!!!!!