Blog O' The Week

John Hughes was the beloved film director who, according to the New York Times, “helped define a generation” in movies such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Sixteen Candles. They may have been sassy and a bit extreme at times, but that’s precisely how a high school student feels about their life. Switching gears to another John—John Tucker, who must die.

John Tucker Must Die is the story in which “three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken.”  In order to sabotage John Tucker, the girls convince him to wear a thong, convince people he has genital herpes, and give him estrogen to undermine his manhood. Now these things are extreme. Not extreme in a five high school kids becoming best friends through detention kind of way, but in a “You’re an idiot. Nobody acts like that.” kind of way.

The films that represent my generation are nothing short of embarrassing. They don’t grasp the thrills, the anxiety, or the awkwardness of being a high school teen. They’re simply created to make us laugh at people that don’t really act like people do, and aren’t very good actors either.

Visions of Teenhood

I wouldn't say I'm angry, brooding, and just on the edge of wreaking havoc on my highschool, but I can seriously identify with a lot of the emotions represented in the teen movies displayed on the Daily News website.

Juno is known as the witty, spunky, pregnant girl. She is going through a teen pregnancy, which, of course, not all of us can identify with. However, she's afraid, anxious, and worried. All fairly obvious emotions in teens. She's pretty confused about what she wants and is worried about her own needs and meeting the desires of others. She feels strong pressure from different sides, and that's an attribute of teen life that seems to be extremely true.

The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman, is one of the last movies that come to my mind when thinking of coming of age movies, but reading the Daily News' aspect, it's a fairly accurate representation. The main character is completely lost in his future, so he takes his confusion and puts it into a relationship with an older woman. Once again, all us teens may not be jumpin into bed with older men/women, but we've certainly been confused to the point that we don't know what our emotions are telling us. I can certainly identify with this character because he's worried about being handed the mediocre life of workign in "plastics." Especially as seniors, we can identify with the worry of our future.

The character in the Breakfast Club is almost something entirely different. He is "angry to the point of violence, with a father who beats him, it's no wonder he tortures his classmates." This character approaches everyone with anger and attitude, but what's important to see underneath all of that is that he's pretty desperate for attention. Maybe we won't all admit it, but we all want our friends, parents, and teachers to notice us. This is his goal in the film. We're certainly not twins or could ever be best friends, but as teenagers we understand the need to be understood or even just seen.

However, modern teenhood is perfectly depicted to me through the film Brick. After your first watching, you'll be frustrated and angry. "Teenagers don't talk like that. They don't solve crimes. They don't use payphones."  There are more than a million arguements against it. But then if you really think about it...no...we don't act like they do in that movie...but that's how teen life feels. We all feel like we're gonna figure it out. We're always concerned about our friends. And we always feel like we're smarter than we are, that we're saying all the right things, and that we're the hugest representation of our clique. We feel desperate and starving for attention, and we want to save everyone. We may not be detectives and star in our own modern film neo noire film, but it's the underlining feelings that get being a teen spot on.

The "Catcher in the Rye" Film That Should Never Be (I missed another day...)

I"m a little film obsessed, so that made me a little curious about a film version of "Catcher in the Rye." I decided to do some research. I came across some very interesting things. The major thing being "NO ONE PLEASE MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE!" According to Film Salon, there are three reasons why:

1) Holden's opinion
2) Salinger's wishes
3) The reader's own idiosyncratic relationship with the novel

In search of background for number one, I found this quote said by Holden: "If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me." And apparently that's all there is to it. Also, the writer, Salinger, had thoughts about this before he died. He declared, "The novel was "unactable" by anyone but himself." The writer had various problems with the film industry, including a bad relationship with a woman who left him for Charlie Chaplin and a bad adaptation he saw. It seems that Salinger forever wanted his book to stay a book! The third reason is the reader's own relationship with the novel. This is something I feel incappable to write about seeing as we have just started the book. However, I can't wait to discover my opinion at the end of the book seeing as I am already hooked on the writing style and main character.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/06/23/catcher_in_the_rye_movie

A self help guide to annotating (I missed a day...)

With a pink highlighter in one hand and a pen in the other, you really can take on the world...or at least College Lit class. Annotating has become an important part of my life and it can take over yours as well. You may feel clueless now, or even after annotating a few stories, but in due time, you won't be able to imagine your life without it.

Step 1) Bracket big ideas!
Almost every paragraph or every few paragraphs has a main idea. Bracket that paragraph! Once you've bracketed it, you can use a few words to describe the main idea. Then, within your brackets you can highlight sentences that identify the main idea. This truly comes in handy when you have three different classes with a lot of reading. You can skim the chapters you have annotated and simply read all of your bracketed big ideas.

Step 2) Your highlighter is your friend...but so is your pen!
If you are truly intrigued by a sentence, or find it exteremely important, sure-- highlight it! But don't forget to write why you did that! Looking back on your annotations, of course you'll be able to see the highlighting, but the highlighting won't speak back to you and tell you the story of why you highlighted it! Only you can write that story, with your pen, when you first read :)

Step 3) Ask questions (to the paper)!
In order to participate in discussion you're going to need questions to ask (my guess is you didn't completely understand the reading.) If you write your questions near the section of the book that pertains to your question, you can not only ask that question in class but then you can recite some of the lines aloud to reference how you got to that question. Then others can turn to the page and help answer your question!

Step 4) Write a brief summary at the end of each section!
Testing, quizzing, and discussing is all really scary if it's not the next day after you just read something. In order to save yourself time from having to go back and re-read, simply write a brief few lines of reaction and reflection fo the section. This will save you loads of time in the future, and help recollect feelings you had when initially reading the passage.

Step 5) Cherish your annotations.
Love and care for your annotations, because they may be gone tomorrow (Like what happened to Kunkle's first book of The Things They Carried.) If you critically read, engage with your text, and indulge in the gift of annotating, the chances are higher that you won't have to look back at your annotations. But in the off chance that you will, since you loved so passionately for them originally, they'll be a nice thing to come back to.

With a pink highlighter in one hand and a pen in the other, and this nifty self help guide to annotating, you really can take on the world-- the world of metaphors, metanaratives, and text in general.

Visions of Childhood

Samantha: As we grow older, it becomes difficult to just believe. It's not that we don't want to, but too much has happened and we can't.

I don't immediately identify childhood with Rugrats or other disney tv shows or films, instead, I think of films such as Now and Then, The Virgin Suicides, or Stand By Me. These are the kind of films that take childhood and make it the most adventerous, secretive, and intense time in one's life. Maybe that isn't exactly what it was like, especially for us McFarlanders, but it's surely what it felt like. However, most of the feelings represented in these three films are feelings that, at least I, came across in our College Lit readings. In the Sutton Pie Safe, the young boy felt almost clueless to the world around him. He couldn't understand the tension between his mom and dad, the woman in the house, and his dad's feelings in general. It would be impossible to make a film about childhood without this uncomfortable feeling that we all go through. In the film Now and Then, a coming of age story for girls, Teeny and Samantha are going through hardships with their parents. Samantha's mom had just gotten a divorce and begins prancing around town in her smallest outfits trying to attract any guy that will give her attention, and Samantha can't figure her out. Teeny's parents simply leave her in the dark, or on the roof actually, so they can go on living their normal lives as if they didn't have a young daugher. Teeny can't simply understand her parent's motives. The character, Chrissy may not be having problems with her family, but she's certainly got the clueless part of childhood down:

Chrissy: It's not very big.
Roberta: It's only big when a guy has a hard on.
Chrissy: What's a hard on?
Samantha: Doesn't your mother tell you anything?

Another major feeling represented in the stories we read was a disconnection from reality. This feeling was perfectly depicted in Every Little Hurricaine. It seems that almost every young kid is a dreamer. They want to wish themselves out of their lives and into a world where things make sense, and they fit. The Virgin Suicides grasps this feeling all too well-- however, rather grotesquely. The young boy in Every Little Hurricaine compared his life to a hurricane because things really fell apart for him and through his dreams and habit of living he tried to escape them. This is preciesly how the Virgin Suicides felt. Their homelife was a mess, so in order to escape they would stage their own suicides. This shows the desperation for love and a longing for a caring figure in childhood.

Tim Weiner: What we have here is a dreamer. Someone completely out of touch with reality.

When I grew up...

At age 15, I was introduced to the program through my dance teacher who thought it would be a great opportunity for me. It started with the audition. I muddled through, hoping for a decent part. This musical, in my mind, wasn’t going to be a fun summer experience, nor would I use it to advance my voice or my skill; to me it was simply another part in another show. This isn’t a coming of age story, but I grew. I grew through the people I met and through an amazing experience.

When rehearsals began, I was surrounded by strangers. We greeted each other, and initially spent hours drowning in awkward conversation. That is, until we began to demonstrate our talents. Each actor, ranging in age from 6 to 18, graced the stage with individual style and approach. And that’s how I began to share a part of myself with these people that I previously hadn’t known was there. I began to create friendships that were unlike anything I’d ever felt. They opened a door to a new world—a world full of faith and bursting at the seams with selfless love. I felt a new support.

Through hour long practices and even more time spent together outside of rehearsal, I felt a slow change in myself. I looked up to these people because of the purity in the way they lived their lives. They treated people with respect, not just their friends. They accepted people, included people, and loved people. By their mere example I grew towards a strong maturity in myself. At the final show, I sat on the stage hand in hand with some of my strongest friends. Not only did they teach me that there was more to me than me, but they helped me grow up and see the world in a completely different way.

Hi, I'm Rachel and I think blogging is better than your mom.

Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I'm just crazy. Or maybe I'm just a girl...that is way too excited to start blogging for College Lit! (Quote from Girl, Interrupted) I'm eager to start jotting down my thoughts and ideas on a blog and glad that it's a fun way to start summer work! The main things that shape and mold me are my family and friends, my interests, and my goals.

We shall start off with the description of my family and friends! I was adopted at birth into a family with my parents, Bety and Ernie, and my brother, Dan. We live in a small blue house with our cats Ginger and Oreo, and enjoy watching Woody Allen comedies together. Days spent with my family are usually good ones. They have most certainly shaped me into the person I am today, but my friends have more so. I have a variety of different friends from different towns, different states, and different cliques. Most of them have different cultures, religions, and opinions than my own, so I'm constantly surprised by the new things I learn. The majority of the activities I partake in with my friends are Jones runs, laser tagging, Flavor of Love marathons, and dirty dancing lifts.

The second most important thing to describing me are my interests! My main passions are dancing, singing, and acting. I adore preforming in school musicals and plays and have also done shows outside of town. Besides my three main "subjects", I also have my side hobbies. I enjoy cup stacking, laser tagging, writing, beatboxing, crumping, eating string cheese and watching films. My faith is something that is also very important to me. My music tastes range from the indie sounds of Ingrid Michelson to the soothing sounds of Hall & Oats. Furthermore, I enjoy reading non fiction books. My favorite writer being Chuck Klosterman, who writes humorous essays on pop culture (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs).

And finally-- my goals. You will find that I constantly have short term goals that I long to achieve. Most recently there was beat boxing, and now I long to learn to play the guitar and to skateboard. While these goals are slightly childish, I do strive for some pretty great things. I dream of going to either Luther College or St. Mary's University. I hope to study compartive religion, english, film, or theater. Clearly this is a very strict goal... I hope to do anything to achieve these goals, especially the skateboarding one.

The final truth is yes-- I have confused a dream with life, I might've stolen something (bowling shoes...), I have indeed been blue, and I always think my train's moving when it's standing still. I might be a little crazy, but mostly I'm just a girl...that is excited to start blogging for College Lit.