Screw English Teachers! - 02/19/05 11:01 AM
Well my [censored] English Prof is being a real dick, so I took some time adding the Deffy touch to my response paper, enjoy
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How to ruin entertainment
Sometimes people will really enjoy a piece of poetry, literature, or even a good movie. There are those that can identify with the author's clever uses of symbolism and imagery. There are also those who can really get a feel for the themes of the work, and can readily identify with the characters, situations, and locations. There are also those who enjoy finding flaws, such as those who spend hours nitpicking over tiny details and historical inaccuracies. These are the same people who will completely defecate on another's work, citing as many flaws or weaknesses they can find in writing. These supposed authorities of the arts, whether they be critics or �academics� may be the reason why even the joys of watching a play, are quickly stamped out by analysis, long winded explanations of symbols, or how their favorite playwright/director could have done a better job.
Shakespeare has been revered as one of the greatest playwrights of his, or any era. While a play or a movie based upon his works can be a rewarding and enriching experience, however there are those that insist on drawing things out until physical pain sets in. After reading the literary reviews by these so called scholars, yes I say that with the same condescending tone used by these type of individuals, I have come to the conclusion that these people must not have any real job skills.
Many hundreds of years have passed since the original writing of Othello. In the passing of those years, society has changed so much that many of Shakespeare's symbols and jokes really do not make sense to us anymore. This has given the �academics� a free ride by allowing them to interpret these symbols in an attempt to make things seem deeper then they really are. These same �academics� are those that would shudder at the notion that Othello was simply a play based upon Ben Johnson's Therello, and was written to entertain an audience. They always need to find the big picture, mostly so they can put out more of this tripe while putting off a serious job search for another month or two. Makes one wonder what Shakespeare himself would feel about these interpretations of his works.
In honor of these hard pressed academics, striving to impress the other intellectuals at the cafe, I will now interpret the political messages in Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. On the surface we have the hero, Sam, trying very hard to get his friend to try green eggs and ham. After much fuss and refusal, his friend finally tries the dish to discover that he really does enjoy green eggs and ham. Of course we can easily see that Dr. Seuss was clearly talking about the Cold War. Sam is clearly the manifestation of Uncle Sam or the United States, while his much larger friend represents the Soviet Union. Therefore we can deduce that the green eggs and ham are the image of money, or more importantly an open and free market. Now the friend is sticking to his Leninist and Communist ideals by refusing to try the green eggs and ham. It is only after constant harassment by Sam does he finally break down and try them. From that we can see that once the Soviet Union reaps the benefits of Capitalism, even from a small taste, it will enjoy the open markets and free trade. Dr. Seuss could have very well been predicting the effects of Perestroika in Gorbachev's USSR.
Now these leads into serious questions as to why such in depth interpretations are necessary in a class that focuses the comparisons between films and literature. What does the variations between films have to do with falconry or the history of the Tudor household? Does the story of Peter Negro have anything to do with how Orson Welles or Oliver Parker's adaptations of Othello? May this have something to do with the Nostradamian use of the Latin silent H?
It appears that the class is turning into a high school English class where massive amounts of focus is put on the text and then the class gets to watch snippets of the movie in class. I was also under the assumption that Response Papers and Thesis Essays were completely different papers, have all my previous English or Literature professors been lying to me this whole time. Maybe I was learning the New Literature (direct relative to New Math) when it was explained what a Response Paper was, and how basically it was just a paper to express my thoughts about the work, any cool things I picked up on, and not having to hash out a Thesis with supporting arguments and closing statements.
In closing, I feel that critics and analysts ruin good media. Sometimes a play is just a play, an expression of feeling or a desire to entertain. When we take things too far and start ripping apart every line looking for some kind of hidden meaning or symbol, it makes the whole experience less enjoyable. I actually did see the entire Oliver Parker's Othello as well as Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet before I took this class. I enjoyed both movies but now I find myself feeling that reading Othello to be a chore. High school English teachers already successfully destroyed 1984, Catcher in the Rye, and Crime and Punishment for myself as well as many others, why do we feel the need to continue to ruin other works of art for the sake of �academia�? I couldn't help but quote one of my favorite musicians, William Shatner. The quote is very fitting:
...GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!
...I didn't think so! There's a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn't watch television! I LIVED! So... move out of your parent's basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it's just a TV show dammit, IT'S JUST A TV SHOW!
(snltranscripts.jt.org)
_________________________________________________
How to ruin entertainment
Sometimes people will really enjoy a piece of poetry, literature, or even a good movie. There are those that can identify with the author's clever uses of symbolism and imagery. There are also those who can really get a feel for the themes of the work, and can readily identify with the characters, situations, and locations. There are also those who enjoy finding flaws, such as those who spend hours nitpicking over tiny details and historical inaccuracies. These are the same people who will completely defecate on another's work, citing as many flaws or weaknesses they can find in writing. These supposed authorities of the arts, whether they be critics or �academics� may be the reason why even the joys of watching a play, are quickly stamped out by analysis, long winded explanations of symbols, or how their favorite playwright/director could have done a better job.
Shakespeare has been revered as one of the greatest playwrights of his, or any era. While a play or a movie based upon his works can be a rewarding and enriching experience, however there are those that insist on drawing things out until physical pain sets in. After reading the literary reviews by these so called scholars, yes I say that with the same condescending tone used by these type of individuals, I have come to the conclusion that these people must not have any real job skills.
Many hundreds of years have passed since the original writing of Othello. In the passing of those years, society has changed so much that many of Shakespeare's symbols and jokes really do not make sense to us anymore. This has given the �academics� a free ride by allowing them to interpret these symbols in an attempt to make things seem deeper then they really are. These same �academics� are those that would shudder at the notion that Othello was simply a play based upon Ben Johnson's Therello, and was written to entertain an audience. They always need to find the big picture, mostly so they can put out more of this tripe while putting off a serious job search for another month or two. Makes one wonder what Shakespeare himself would feel about these interpretations of his works.
In honor of these hard pressed academics, striving to impress the other intellectuals at the cafe, I will now interpret the political messages in Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. On the surface we have the hero, Sam, trying very hard to get his friend to try green eggs and ham. After much fuss and refusal, his friend finally tries the dish to discover that he really does enjoy green eggs and ham. Of course we can easily see that Dr. Seuss was clearly talking about the Cold War. Sam is clearly the manifestation of Uncle Sam or the United States, while his much larger friend represents the Soviet Union. Therefore we can deduce that the green eggs and ham are the image of money, or more importantly an open and free market. Now the friend is sticking to his Leninist and Communist ideals by refusing to try the green eggs and ham. It is only after constant harassment by Sam does he finally break down and try them. From that we can see that once the Soviet Union reaps the benefits of Capitalism, even from a small taste, it will enjoy the open markets and free trade. Dr. Seuss could have very well been predicting the effects of Perestroika in Gorbachev's USSR.
Now these leads into serious questions as to why such in depth interpretations are necessary in a class that focuses the comparisons between films and literature. What does the variations between films have to do with falconry or the history of the Tudor household? Does the story of Peter Negro have anything to do with how Orson Welles or Oliver Parker's adaptations of Othello? May this have something to do with the Nostradamian use of the Latin silent H?
It appears that the class is turning into a high school English class where massive amounts of focus is put on the text and then the class gets to watch snippets of the movie in class. I was also under the assumption that Response Papers and Thesis Essays were completely different papers, have all my previous English or Literature professors been lying to me this whole time. Maybe I was learning the New Literature (direct relative to New Math) when it was explained what a Response Paper was, and how basically it was just a paper to express my thoughts about the work, any cool things I picked up on, and not having to hash out a Thesis with supporting arguments and closing statements.
In closing, I feel that critics and analysts ruin good media. Sometimes a play is just a play, an expression of feeling or a desire to entertain. When we take things too far and start ripping apart every line looking for some kind of hidden meaning or symbol, it makes the whole experience less enjoyable. I actually did see the entire Oliver Parker's Othello as well as Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet before I took this class. I enjoyed both movies but now I find myself feeling that reading Othello to be a chore. High school English teachers already successfully destroyed 1984, Catcher in the Rye, and Crime and Punishment for myself as well as many others, why do we feel the need to continue to ruin other works of art for the sake of �academia�? I couldn't help but quote one of my favorite musicians, William Shatner. The quote is very fitting:
...GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!
...I didn't think so! There's a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn't watch television! I LIVED! So... move out of your parent's basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it's just a TV show dammit, IT'S JUST A TV SHOW!
(snltranscripts.jt.org)