Quotes to use for my paper.

I have to write an argument paper about there is no character is all good or all evil in the book Frankenstein. And after these days’ reading, I am going to choose Victor Frankenstein in the book (maybe changed later) and  I have picked some paragraph or sentences which being prepared to use in my paper.

As people doing everything with a motivation, I am going to analyse the motivation of Dr Frankenstein’s experiment first. In Shelly’s book, herself maintain that Dr. Frankenstein has a big curiosity about nature science, as which is mentioned in this sentence “While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.“(38) In other words, everything started with the curiosity of Dr. Frankenstein. It was his interest which leaded him into the door of  science. Instead of becoming a hero or seizing the world, his initial motivation looks so simple.

Besides his interest, the characteristic of Dr. Frankenstein is another very crucial reason why he would lost himself during the experiment.  As describing Frankenstein’s character, Shelly wrote these, “It was my temper to avoid a crowd, and to attach myself fervently to a few.“ (38) From which we can see he is solitary and prefer to stay alone. These kind of people may usually be overanxious and bigoted. Indeed, at the end of chapter 4, when Frankenstein could not succeed to make the creature he was said as “…I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me…“ (57) This nervousness became more and more seriously till the creature was made and translated to his illness.

In addition, he has such a strong urge to control everything, including his friends and experiment.  At the end of chapter 1, it was describing that “… and looked upon Elizabeth as mine – mine to protect, love, and cherish… my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only. “ (37) This kind of selfish and arrogant leaded Frankenstein to his crazy mind finally without others guidance.

I am sure I can get more details about Dr. Frankenstein from the book in the future. I will share with you then.

ADS about Frankenstein

After being showed pieces of  advertisement  in the class on Friday,(click to see) I specially love the design of “Absolut Shelly”! It is so fancy that I can’t move my eye! The bottle is not only creative but also delicate. The bolts on the neck of the bottle are funny and I am still wondering how they put them together? Compared of this, the “Absolut Karloff” is a little bit monotonous. It looks like an old style wine pot. And the first thing which it reminds me of is not Frankenstein but the Mummy.

In my opinion, the reason why manufacturers choose the Frankenstein in their ads is because the specialty of the character can resonate the feelings of audience. Like the commercial for the “Osteo Bi-Flex”, it takes the advantage of the stiffness of Frankenstein instead of a conman people’s experience to make the audience have a better understand of how unbelievable the product is.

I really like the idea for some advertisements which are designed based on a famous character. And usually when I watching a movie or reading a novel, I am always thinking of their specialized qualities which can represent them obviously and also being used like an advertisement.

For Frankenstein, the first thing come to my mind is his afraid of fire. It leaves me a deep impression in the movie. That leads to the idea of a Frankenstein Fire alarm!

The fire alarm in my apartment sometimes rings unreasonably. It screams so harsh that I feel like it is going to hurt my ears. But if we change it into a Frankenstein fire alarm, besides ringing a lower volume of “Beep” sound it can also make a sound like the roaring of Frankenstein.  That will definitely scares me and some children I believe. For the appearance, it can be green and has bolts in both side of the base. Or even better, it will be installed just like being sewed on the floor.

Next time when the Frankenstein fire alarm rings, people may be more hurried to evacuate from the house due to the panic roaring of Frankenstein reminding them of the horrible fire.

Two more blogs about Frankenstein.

I have read two blogs about “Frankenstein” this week. One is by Keith Phipps (link to the blog) which talks about the DVD version of “Frankenstein(1931)”. And another one is written by Brett Gallman (link to the blog) which mentions aothor’s experience of horror movies and his perspectives of “Frankenstein(1931)”. Both of them are informative and inspire me  a lot.

The biggest enemy of classic is  being lost. Fortunately, we have the new DVD version of “Frankenstein”. According to Phipps’ blog, “The restored print and cleaned-up soundtrack make it look and sound better than any previous video version, which is to be expected……” I celebrate the fact that people decide to put it into a DVD version so that the frames will be clearer which can let audience have an experience of the elaborate make up in the movie.

Besides, the special extra as Phipps mentions in his blog catches my eye.  He agrees,when he writes “It is, in short, the best way short of a time machine to gain a sense of what Frankenstein means. Given the tendency of the DVD market to gravitate toward recent films, it also provides a model of just how useful and entertaining the format can be for those interested in exploring cinema’s past.“ Indeed, it will be a helpful way to understand Frankenstein and models for other classical movies to explore more.

The second blog by Gallman arouse my memory of seeing horror movies. Gallman himself writes,“I have come to appreciate that type of atmosphere when watching a film. Any horror fan will tell you that there’s something different about watching a horror film on late night television. Sure, they’re usually edited and interrupted by commercial breaks, but for many fans, this is how they grew up with the genre (myself included). ” I strongly agree that the time and place to watch horror movie can make difference a lot, because when I saw the “Paranormal Activity”, there’s only me and my bestie in our dorm that night. We didn’t turn on any light even a desk lamp. It was really a big big torment to me, the atmosphere was killing me!!  If you have seen that you will know how freaking it is. Compared to this one, “A nightmare on Elm Street”  in the cinema is just like a fairy tale!!

Anyway, these two blogs are very attractive especially the one by Gallman. It’s a special memory and arouse sympathy among all of the horror movie fans or victims just like me.

 

 

The cemetery skeleton in “Frankenstein”(1931)

Let’s continue talking about the movie “Frankenstein”(1931). I have read a brief blog yesterday (fail to find the author and here is the link for everyone to share http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-frankensteinia-archives-cemetery.html) which thoroughly analyzes the use of cemetery skeleton as a prop in the film.

The author believes the cemetery skeleton plays an important role at the beginning of the film and I strongly agree with him. At the beginning, the crying mourners surrounding around the graveyard builds a suspense to the audience. The appearance of the cemetery skeleton is  haircurling especially in the black and white movie. As the author described in his blog “Frankenstein’s cemetery skeleton stands off to the side, boxed in with pickets, its bony hands resting on the hilt of a sword. The bleak, sparse set suggests a pauper’s graveyard, with an expressionistic dead tree, a plaster Christ on his calvary cross and a few wooden grave markers stuck at crazy angles. ”  I can feel terrifying through these words much less seeing the scene from movie.

Besides creating a scaring atmosphere, the cemetery skeleton helps to  predict the terrible thing which will happen in the movie. In the author of this blog ‘s view, he observed that “The grim sentinel stands prominently screen right, a witness to desecration, through the entire sequence where Frankenstein and Fritz dig up and raise the coffin. In a telling gesture, Colin Clive’s Frankenstein, concentrated on his urgent task, blithely throws a shovelful of graveyard dirt square into the skeleton’s face. …… but it is also a signal of Frankenstein’s maniacal focus on the job at hand, unconcerned with the consequences of his acts. As a symbolic gesture, it illustrates Frankenstein’s disrespect for Death itself.”  Exactly,  the cemetery skeleton usually act as a symbol of death. People put them around the graveyard to let grave robbers feel afraid. While Dr.Frankenstein and his assistant ignored the warning which just like offended the death. All leaded to the punishment they got later in the movie.

A good movie is not only made up by the actors and plot, but also every meaningful prop and scene in the movie.

Impression of “Frankenstein”

This week, I watched the movie “Frankenstein”(1931) in my ENGL 106 class. I have to say, as a movie which was made in 1930s, “Frankenstein” is undoubtedly successful for its plot and making up technology.  Later, I have read an article written by Nate Papp on Classic-Horror.com which made me think more thoroughly and   objectively about this movie.

Like what Nate mentioned, the design of the monster is fascinating.  The make up pf Frankenstein is lifelike. Although it is a black and white movie, the bolts are just like being built in the neck and the flat-top head is like being chopped.

And also I strongly agree with Nate’s opinion about the acting by Mae Clark as Elizabeth. He said “she tends to fall back on her ability to enunciate clearly to get her through the part” Indeed, she talked like with something in her mouth in the movie which made me feel confused about what she was saying. (May be that also because of my bad English listening…) Besides, the overwrought of the acting brought up by Nate is reasonable. If I was Vector I would think she might just  got a little bit premarital phobia instead of an ominous sign.

On the other hand, I have a different idea for the favorite scene with Nate.  Actually I didn’t get his point about the reason why he chose that scene. My favorite scene is Frankenstein was having fun with the little girl, while he dropped her into the river without wickedness. He even looked panic after he doing this which I think he knew himself did a stupid thing. This is the only part which shows the humanity on Frankenstein in the movie except a negative emotion like hate.

But like Nate said nearly the entire film is first-rate, I like the whole movie after all. It’s a master piece and will it be a good medium helping me read the book in the future.

Remix in my eye.

Speaking of the remix, in my opinion it’s really a good stuff for people to creat a movie or other kinds of art. Different from the plagirasim, remix is picking the classical things from the original version and then produce something new. It’s just like inherit the advantages from the old then develop a new specific way.

The first examples jump into my head is the most famous and successful(I think) American TV episode  ”Friends”. There are so many humorous plot and affecting stories in this show. Since then, we can find “Friends” stlye stories exist in almost all of the TV comedies. At the begining of the S1E1, Ross found his wife was a lesbian which was taken by “Two and half men” that Alan was kicked out by his wife Julia who thought herself was a lesbian.  Besides, in “How I met your mother”. The character Ted becomes a College professor and have a relationship with his student which is just like Ross’s story in “Friends”.

Not only the plot but also the personality of characters are similar. Like Sheldon ‘s paranoid in “The Big Bang theory” is an intensive version of Monica. Common person has a superstar dream like Joe in “Friends”and Penny in “The Big Bang Theory”. After all, the most classic one, there are always a “Casanova” man in every comedy. Like “Friends” has a Joey, “The Big Bang Theory” has Howard, “How I met you mother” has Barney(who is my favorite character in American TV episode), and Charlie in “Two and half man”.

Like what I have said before, the reason why people keep those thing in the new generation is because everyone like that. And they can be  a “showing respect to the classic” point in episodes, meanwhile stimulating people pay more attention on the new one until one day, new one itself becomes the classic.

Something about me

Viento is a special name cause it’s a spanish word and the only spanish word I know. It means “wind”. I take this cause usually I talk fast(in chinese), walk fast, think fast, do everything as quickly as I can.When I have a debate with others they feel really stressful because of my talking speed and can hardly beat me. While sometime I will make some stupid mistakes as I do some reaction too immediately to even think about them.

I like music and biology. But my current major has no link to these two stuff. That’s why I plan to change my major to Biological engineering next year. All my friends support me cause they know that’s what I am really interesting in. However when I talked my idea to my mum who is a Doctor of microbiology, she turned me down directly and said I am not that kind of person to learn biology. That makes no sense! Since I love it why can not do it?! Then we have series of arguments via skype. That’s a fun memory for me but the process was not fun at all! Anyway, like what I have said before, I always win in a debate. Finally my mum said I can have a try just don’t take a too long time to graduate.

It’s a bid challenge for me to meet the requirements of first-year engineering for the physics class I have to take. I was lame at physics when I was in high school, most grades were B and C. But at least I have a friend take the same course with me and he is really good that physics. So hopefully he can help me with this hard stuff.

About ENGL 106, I am not sure if I can get the grade what I expected before as a lot of my friend got a B or A-, but I will try my best. At least I don’t hate writing! I always have a lot of stuff to say, so do writing.

Hope everthing will be better and I can prove to my mum that I can deal with the Biology!

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