taylormc's blog

Final Portfolio

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

This class has been my favorite class I have ever taken, not just at UNC but in my entire academic career! I don't know where to begin in explaining how much I have learned and grown during this semester. Before this course I had never really had to interpret Literature in any way other than analyzing works of literature in papers. Writing about what I read was the only means of interpretation I had ever been introduced to. Of course while reading a novel or poem I would be reminded of other sources of media such as music or film or other literary works, but I had never had to use any of those to analyze or interpret a work before this course.

Before this class I had no idea how to create a link in a blog, I had never used any sort of photoshop program, I had never used Imovie before, even though it is a program on my laptop! But after all of the projects where we not only learned how to use these programs, but created things with them I feel confident that I will be able to utilize them for other classes and projects in the future.

For me, the best thing about this class was that we were able to choose our own topics for each project. When you are able to base an assignment on a work of literature that you actually enjoyed, it makes the entire process of creating something much more fun. Music is such a huge part of my life that it was SO much fun for me to be able to create a playlist based on one of my favorite novels. And creating the soundtrack to my video project was one of the most fun things I have ever done! I have always said what a cool job it would be to create the soundtracks to films or television shows, and I finally got my chance to actually (sort of) do it!

Finally, having a professor that was so accessible and helpful and interactive as professor Anderson is such a rare and wonderful find! Being able to work on each project in class, and having someone available to answer questions even if they are repeatedly asked until the project is finished is some thing I have never experienced in a classroom setting before. I wish that I could take this class every semester!

The play list was the first assignment of the semester and was my favorite project up until the end of the semester. I chose Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk as my inspiration for the play list. This off the wall novel has so many twists and turns and outrageous characters that it was so much fun finding songs to represent aspects of the novel and characters. In my first play list I did not give a lot of explanation of what or why or how the songs I chose related to the novel or specific characters so for my revision I tried much harder to give more thorough explanations. I also used more lyrics, music videos and excerpts from the novel in an attempt to better explain my choices of songs.

ORIGINAL PLAY LIST
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19/revisions/198/view

REVISED PLAY LIST
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19

For my character collage I once again used the novel Invisible Monsters as my inspiration. I chose the main character and narrator Shannon McFarland as my main inspiration for the collage. I used Shannon's veiled face as the focal point of the collage. For the background I used a burning house to represent Evie Cottrell's mansion burning down on her wedding day; set fire by Shannon of course. And off to the sides of the collage a shotgun and camera, aspects of Shannon's former life; she shot her lower jaw off with a shotgun because she was tired of being beautiful, and a camera because she was a model before the shotgun incident.

For the revisions on my character collage I changed the floating camera to a camera on a tripod, and I made the shotgun more visible by editing the color.

ORIGINAL CHARACTER COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/73

REVISED CHARACTER COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/132

I used a poem by Khalil Gibran for my poem collage.

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

For my collage I used the last three lines as inspiration. I love the philosophy on love and relationships this poem offers that two people should not completely depend on one another, and that they should have seperate interests. That is my interpretation anyway!

For my revisions I changed the photograph of pillars to one where the pillars stood farther a part and I also edited the masks of the sky and the trees. I also added lines of the poem as text on top of the sky.

ORIGINAL POEM COLLAGE-
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/74

REVISED POEM COLLAGE-
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/130

POD CAST- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/music2.mp3

This began as a rather daunting assignment given my horrible fear of public speaking; and for this project not only were we going to have to speak in front of the entire class but we were going to be recorded! For our podcast Alex and I chose to discuss music as a literary form. To emphasize this we each chose a song to analyze and discuss the literary aspects that each contained. I chose Lover You Should Have Come Over, by Jeff Buckley, and he chose a song by the Police. Talking about music as a literary form was rather easy considering we had used it earlier in the semester as a way of interpreting literature with our Play Lists.

VIDEO PROJECT- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/149

The Video Project was by far my favorite assignment of the semester. As I stated earlier I have always thought the most fun, perfect job in the world would be creating soundtracks for films or television shows. Although that was not the entire project, having music as an aspect of this class has been so very enjoyable for me! I have had the application IMovie on my computer since the day I bought it, and other than a silly photo collage of my boyfriend and I, I never knew how to utilize the program. With this project I learned how to adjust transitions, create affects, add videos, and create a soundtrack by adding multiple songs and fading them in and out in specific places. Finding relevant songs and images to interpret one of my favorite novels was the most exciting way of interpreting literature I think I will ever experience.

Betwixt and Bewildered

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

Betwixt and Bewildered, was very interesting to me because I have a lot of friends in their mid twenties who feel as Abby Wilner put it "overwhelmed helpless and clueless, indecision and apprehension." I can also attest to the fact that many young adults do feel paralyzed and turn to antidepressents. I have a handful of friends in and already out of college that turned to medications to help them deal with the stresses of our "quarter life age crisis?"

Advice to My Son

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

In Advice to My Son, it seems as though the advice being given is coming from someone who has experienced war, "live your days as if each one may be your last (for they go fast, and young men lose their lives in strange and unimaginable ways) but at the same time, plan long range. It seems the advice he is giving is to plan for a long life, relish and enjoy your life but be aware that the end can come at any time and you must plan for that as well.

Rites of Passage

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

Rites of Passage, was actually rather sad to me. It confuses and sort of infuriates me that from such a young age young boys are taught that their self worth is how strongly they can defend themselves or hurt another. "I could beat you up." "We could easily kill a two year old,". Statements made so light hearted and yet so serious is sort of what brain washes young boys, making them beileve war and the murder that coencides with war is not only ok but essential to some survival. I think that In Rites of Passage and Advice to my Sons, there are underlying messages about the military. Rites concludes with "We could easily kill a two year old, he says in his clear voice. The other men agree, they relax and get down to playing war, celebrating my son's life." Playing war as a way of celebrating life, kind of an oxymoron.

The Distant Moon

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

I thought this poem was made all the more interesting knowing that it was written by an actual physician, and was based on his real life experiences. Im not sure whether or not the person in the poem died of AIDS, but it sort of seems that way to me. This poem actually reminded me of a character from the novel Dry by Augusten Burroughs. The character in this novel named Pighead dies of aids but has a piece of jewlery made for Augusten that he recieves only after Pighead dies. For whatever reason this poem sort of reminded me of the part in the novel right after Augusten leaves the jewelry store and walks down the street crying. I guess I was reminded of this because after the person in the poem dies the narrartor talks about his breath filling his own lungs and their lips touching. Sort of off topic, but I really enjoyed the poem, it was really sad to me, but very touching.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

This story was pretty disturbing in my opinion. I think the creepiest part of the story was at the end when the Misfit is talking to the Grandmother, while Bobby Lee was killing the others. The metaphors he uses letting her know she is pretty much as good as dead are really creepy to me. He knows he is going to kill her, he lets her know he is going to kill her nomatter what she says, but he still continues to talk to her for a while. When she offers to give him all the money she has the Misfit says, "Lady, there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip." Which pretty much means shes already dead to him. When she hears a gun shot and calls out for Bailey Boy the Misfit says, "Jesus was the only One ever raised the dead." Also meaning Bailey Boy was already dead and her screams could do no good. His matter of fact way of speach and coolness throughout the story were pretty typical I think of people who commit crimes like these. The author does a great job of making him very detached from what is going on and from the things he is actually doing.

Life of Pi: Video Project

Posted December 4th, 2007 by taylormc

For my video project I chose to interpret the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The novel is based around an indian boy named Pi, the son of a zoo keeper. His father owns the Pondicherry zoo in India, but his family leaves India for Canada fleeing political oppression. En route to Canada the ship Tsimtsum, which is carrying Pi's mother, father, brother and many of the animals from the zoo, sinks leaving as the only survivors; Pi, an injured zebra, an orangutan named Orange Juice, a hyena and a bengal tiger named Richard Parker. A more elaborate synopsis of the novel can be found on wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi.

The events or aspects of the novel I chose to interpret for my video are the zoo animals, the ship sinking and the surviving animals swimming to the lifeboat, the dangers that Pi is subjected to like sharks and storms. The algae island inhabited by meercats that Pi discovers becomes dangerously acidic at night forcing him to leave and face the ocean once again. I used the clip of Tom Hanks from Castaway to interpret Pi's feelings when he realizes the island becomes a maneater at night. And finally, Pi and Richard Parker's arrival in Mexico.

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/147

Midterm Portfolio

Posted December 4th, 2007 by taylormc

Portfolio

When reading over other student's portfolios I realized that I, like most was more than pleasantly surprised by this course. I, like others, thought that this course could possibly turn out to be dreadfully boring like many literature courses end up being. However, I love literature and so I wanted to give this course a try. This class has ended up being probably one of my favorite classes I have ever taken! I loved learning new ways of interpreting literature, as well as learning new media programs. Music and literature are two huge aspects of my life, and being able to use music as a means of interpreting literature was so much fun for me.

The play list assignment has been my favorite project we have completed so far in the semester. I chose Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk as my inspiration for the play list. This off the wall novel has so many twists and turns and outrageous characters that it was so much fun finding songs to represent aspects of the novel and characters. In my first play list I did not give a lot of explanation of what or why or how the songs I chose related to the novel or specific characters so for my revision I tried much harder to give more thorough explanations. I also used more lyrics, music videos and excerpts from the novel in an attempt to better explain my choices of songs.

Original play list
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19/revisions/198/view

Revised play list
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19

For my character collage I once again used the novel Invisible Monsters as my inspiration. I chose the main character and narrator Shannon McFarland as my main inspiration for the collage. I used Shannon's veiled face as the focal point of the collage. For the background I used a burning house to represent Evie Cottrell's mansion burning down on her wedding day; set fire by Shannon of course. And off to the sides of the collage a shotgun and camera, aspects of Shannon's former life; she shot her lower jaw off with a shotgun because she was tired of being beautiful, and a camera because she was a model before the shotgun incident.

For the revisions on my character collage I changed the floating camera to a camera on a tripod, and I made the shotgun more visible by editing the color.

Original Character Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/73

Revised Character collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/132

Original Poem Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/74

Revised Poem Collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/130

Revised Playlist

Posted October 31st, 2007 by taylormc

Playlist

"Shes a fashion model who has everything; a boyfriend, a career, a loyal bestfriend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you'll ever want to look." Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

I chose this novel because it offers a glimpse into the wonderful weird world of fashion, trans-gendered pill popping beauty queens and the legnths some will go to feel differently about themselves. If you havent read the book I have included a link to a breif description of the novel.

The events in this novel do not happen in chronological order, the author jumps back and forth through time with no rhyme or reason.
"Dont expect this to be the kind of story that goes; and then, and then, and then. What happens here will have more of that fashion magazine feel, a Vogue or a Glamour magazine chaos with page numbers on every second or fifth or third page. Perfume cards falling out, and full-page naked women coming out of nowhere to sell you make-up."
Palahniuk uses no real order to his novel; therefore I will no use no order in the sequencing of my playlist. I will however try to better explain the reason that I chose each song and the relevance it has to the story.

1. Supermodel, by Jill Sobule

I chose the song Supermodel because the main character, whose real name (Shannon McFarland) is not revealed until the end of the novel and her best friend, Evie Cottrell are both fashion models. Throughout the novel there are injections with photographers directions.

"Most of my adult life so far has been me standing on seamless paper for a raft of bucks per hour, wearing clothes and shoes, my hair done and some famous fashion photographer telling me how to feel.

Him yelling, Give me lust baby.

Flash.

Give me malice.

Flash.

Give me detached existentialist ennui.

Flash.

Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism."

Lyrics

2. Brandy Alexander, by Feist

Brandy Alexander, it is the name of one of the main characters. Brandy is the "Queen Supreme" and ring leader of the characters throughout the story.
"If you have to start with one detail, it has to be Brandy's hands. Beaded with rings to make them look even bigger, Brandy's hands are enormous. Beaded with rings, as if they could be more obvious, hands are the one part about Brandy Alexander the surgeons couldn't change. So Brandy doesn't even try and hide her hands."

Lyrics

3. Medication, by OURS

Brandy, Shannon and Manus Kelly visit multiple open houses of mansions for sale for the sole purpose of raiding the medicine cabinets and stealing all of the occupants pills. Shannon also feeds Manus estrogen pills (unknown to him), and Brandy takes a daily plethora of pills in her quest to become a real woman.

Lyrics

"We've taken medication, so we can run away from another day."

Each character in the story is running from something, Evie a boring existence, Shannon from the undeserved attention and accomplishments that were given to her beauty not herself, Shane or Brandy Alexander, from her past as a man.

4. For Today I am a Boy, by Antony and the Johnsons

A prevelant theme explored in this band's music is aspects of transgender life. This is expressed in "For Today I Am A Boy", in which a young boy dreams of growing up to be a woman. This is relevant to the story because both Brandy Alexander and Evie Cottrell began life as males, Evie had a complete sex change and Brandy only has one more operation before she is a real woman.

Lyrics

"One day I'll grow up and I'll be a beautiful woman. One day I'll grow up and I'll be a beautiful girl. But for today I am a child, for today i am a boy."

At the end of the novel Shannon gives her brother, Brandy Alexander, who started life as Shane McFarland her old life.

"Shane, I'm giving you my life, my driver's license, my old report cards, because you look more like me than I can ever remember looking. You make Sofonda get you a top contract, no local charity benefit runway shit. You're Shannon fucking McFarland now. You go right to the top."

5. You Are My Sister, by Antony and the Johnsons

You are my sister, we were born

So innocent, so full of need

There were times we were friends but times I was so cruel

Each night I'd ask for you to watch me as I sleep

I was so afraid of the night

You seemed to move through the places that I feared

You lived inside my world so softly

Protected only by the kindness of your nature

You are my sister

And I love you

May all of your dreams come true

We felt so differently then

So similar over the years

The way we laugh the way we experience pain

So many memories

But there's nothing left to gain from remembering

Faces and worlds that no one else will ever know

You are my sister

And I love you

May all of your dreams come true

I want this for you

They're gonna come true (gonna come true)

At the end of the novel Shannon hands her old life over to her brother, previously Shane McFarland, presently Brandy Alexander.

"I'm giving you my life to prove to myself I can, I really can love somebody. Even when I'm not getting paid, I can give love and happiness and charm. You see, I can handle the baby food and the not talking and being homeless and invisible, but I have to know that I can love somebody. Completely and totally, permanently and without hope of reward, just as an act of will, I will love somebody. I lean in, as if I could kiss my brothers face."

6. Slob, by Weezer

Leave me alone.

I won't pick up the phone.

And I won't listen to messages

Sent by someone who calls up and says.

"I don't like how your living my life."

Get yourself a wife.

Get yourself a job.

Your living in a dream.

Don't you be a slob.

Leave me again.

Don't hang out in my den.

Waiting for little clues to appear

That I drank some of granddaddy's beer

I don't like how your living my life

Get yourself a wife

Get yourself a job

Your living in a dream

Don't you be a slob

Slob, slob

Waiting for little clues to appear

That I drank some of granddaddy's beer

I don't like how your living my life

Get yourself a wife

Get yourself a job

Your living a dream

Don't you be a slob

Slob, slob

The last night Shane McFarland lived in his parents house, the last night they ever saw him, was the night they found out he was gay.

"Drugs," my mom said, "we could deal with."

"Teenage pregnancy," my mom said, "we could deal with."

"Doctor Peterson," she said. "He said there's just about only one way you could get the disease the way you have it, but I told him, no, not our child, not you, Shane."

"Tonight," my father said. "We want you our of here." Our father.

"We don't know what kind of filthy diseases you're bringing into this house, mister, but you can just find another place to sleep tonight."

A few months later the McFarlands received a call from an unidentified person telling them that Shane McFarland was dead. What they assumed was that he died of AIDS. But really, Shane McFarland was dead, and Brandy Alexander was born.

7. Time to Dance, by Panic! At the Disco

This song was actually inspired by the novel, there are direct references and quotes taken right out of the book.

"Give me envy, give me malice, give me attention." This refers to the photographer directions that are randomly placed throughout the novel.

"Boys will be boys hiding in estrogen and wearing Aubergine dreams." This refers to Brandy Alexander who wears aubergine dream lip color and takes estrogen pills, as well as Manus because he unknowingly takes them as well.

"Pulling the trigger" refers to Shannon shooting herself in the face with the shot gun and Evie shooting Brandy at her wedding with the same shotgun.

Lyrics

8. I Write Sins Not Tragedies, by Panic! At the Disco

I chose this video because as I said earlier this band used Invisible Monsters as inspiration for multiple songs. This video could be an interpretation of Evie's wedding where she shoots Brandy and Shannon burns the house down.

The novel opens with Evie's wedding reception. "Where you're supposed to be is some big West Hills wedding reception in a big manor house with flower arrangements and stuffed mushrooms all over the house. This is called scene setting: where everybody is, who's alive, who's dead. This is Evie Cottrell's big wedding reception moment. Evie is standing halfway down the big staircase in the manor house foyer, naked inside what's left of her wedding dress, still holding her rifle. Me, I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs but only in a physical way. My mind is, i don't know where. Nobody's all-the-way dead yet, but let's just say the clock is ticking."

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taylormc's blog

Final Portfolio

Betwixt and Bewildered

Advice to My Son

Rites of Passage

The Distant Moon

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Life of Pi: Video Project

Midterm Portfolio

Revised Playlist

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