Reviewing My Progress During the Term

For my first post I made a personal learning plan which gave an outline of how I was going to accomplish the five learning outcomes of our Literature class:

1. Know basic literary terms and methods
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write literary arguments
4. Engage literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

When making my plan I identified where I was weak in my understanding and application of the learning outcomes. I decided that each week I would track my progress by logging my reading time in my posts and also by the content of those posts. After my midterm review I was told to make in improvements in the learning outcomes of Literary Terms, Writing Literary Arguments, and Creatively and Socially Engaging Literature. I also was told to not just use, but analyze new media which I have done in my more recent blog posts. I highlighted my new posts and improvements in green to show how far I have come in all five learning outcomes. I believe these posts represent the growth that I have had during this class:

The Story of My Paper

I guess the idea the idea for my paper came from an Elder's Quorum discussion we had a few months ago on what it means to be a man. Later someone from our Elder's Quorum posted a video on the art of manliness on facebook:

The video talked about going back to the masculinity found in males of our grandparent's generation or becoming a retro-sexual. I found this very interesting and it was something I had thought about for awhile after our discussion. When thinking of ideas for my paper I noticed that made a lot of posts on Bond, my Grandpa, and Mad Men. I noticed that all of these post had a common theme. All of them were focused on a certain generation, particularly the period between the 50's and 60's. This brought me back to the video and discussion that left impressions on me a few months back.

The Final Final Draft

So I just wanted to post this final draft of my paper for your enjoyment and critique before I send it in to my professor, any feedback would be very appreciated.

Bond, James Bond: A Man For All Times

The world today has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently, there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21^st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. However, while women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be manly. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. Actually, Bond was so masculine and direct in his demeanor that when the Bond novels first came out they were considered edgy by many and even downright misogynistic by some. Still, today he remains the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. Although James Bond is a flawed and sometimes overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.

Soda, Headphones, and Chinese Characters: Writing Rituals

Last night while finishing up my English Literature paper on James Bond I noticed something. Every time I write a big paper I go through a certain process or a series of "rituals" to help me think creatively. First of these rituals is to get a 2-liter bottle of soda.

Bond, James Bond: A Man For All Times

So this is my final rough draft of my English Literature paper. I hope you enjoy it! And to the other students on the blogs, if you read my paper and comment I will read yours and comment. Thanks!

James Bond is needed now more than ever

So this is my early rough draft for my English paper I hope you enjoy and I welcome any feedback. Of course it is incomplete in its current state so bear that in mind.

Today we live in a world that has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21^st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. While women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be masculine. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. He is the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. While James Bond is a flawed and overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.

Are motivational books literature?

Whenever I think of literature I think of poetry, novels, drama, and some non-fiction like biographies or travel writing. But rarely do I think of motivational books as literature. All of the above genres I mentioned, with the exception of motivational books, involve some sort of narrative or highly stylized grammatical structure in their specific genres. With motivational or self help books I think of strategies or procedures, maybe the occasional inspirational story. But I don't think there are enough stories in most motivational books to consider them to have a narrative structure however. So I decided to look up what defined literature to narrow down my analysis and figure it if motivational books met the criteria. Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines

Literature
1archaic : literary culture

2

: the production of literary work especially as an occupation

3

a (1) : writings in prose or verse; especially : writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest (2) : an example of such writings <what came out, though rarely literature, was always a roaring good story — People>

b : the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age

c : the body of writings on a particular subject <scientificliterature>

d : printed matter (as leaflets or circulars) <campaignliterature>

4

: the aggregate of a usually specified type of musical compositions

So looking at this we can see that motivational books don't fit most of these definitions except for one. Definition c allows for motivational books to be considered literature because motivational books are centered on a certain subject. They are devoted to help people in their specific issues. So although motivational books lack many of the traditional conventions of literature they can still be counted as literature according to this definition. For me this might open other categories that I hadn't considered as literature such as self help books, blogs, articles, pamphlets and many more. As we start to consider what whether what we read is literature or not we we will be to analyze those works in a new light because we will be to use the techniques in literary criticism.

Exploring the Genre

While researching for my paper on James Bond I decided to check out the Harold B. Lee Library for resources. One of the books I was looking for was Harmon and Holman's A Handbook to Literature which was recommended by my professor as a good general reference book for our papers. After looking around for a few minutes I was able to find the newest edition of the book. I could see why my professor recommended the book as it has countless helpful definitions of genre and terms in the world of fiction. One that I found particularly helpful was this passage on Escape Literature: "Writing whose clear intention is to amuse and beguile by offering readers a strong world, exciting adventures, or puzzling mysteries. It aims at no higher purpose than amusement. Adventure stories, detective stories, tales of fantasy, and many humorous stories are frankly escape literature, and they exist for no other purpose than to translate readers for a time from the care ridden actual world to an entrancing world of the imagination.

Talking with my Grandma

I stated earlier that the reason why I am writing this paper is because of my grandfather. He was the one that got us all into James Bond in the first place. I thought that calling my grandma would help in writing this paper  not only because she is from that same generation, but because her and my grandpa divorced when I was really young and I thought she could offer some good counterpoints to my thesis. I had been circulating my thesis statement around for couple days on places like facebook and she was my last stop. Also as someone who was able to get a job and starting making her own money in the 70's and 80's I thought she would be more feminist minded and a champion of social change. I was very wrong.

Shakespeare: Script vs Stage

For my drama class I read the Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare's famous comedies. I enjoyed reading the script, but one the questions on my reading prompt gave me some things to think about the difference between script and screen. The question asked that since Shakespeare's plays weren't meant to be read how would seeing it performed live change your interpretation of it. I thought back over some scenes like when Malvolio is trapped in a dark room and tortured, the scenes between Viola (who is disguised as man) and Olivia (who is infatuated with Viola in disguise). Seeing these scenes performed live would help me envision the setting more and understand the character and their actions. It is said that only 7% our communication is really verbal the rest is what our body shows. A lot can be lost if you can't picture the body movemnts and hear the tones of voice. Awkward scenes like Malvolio's torture and the dialogue between Viola and Olivia could be well, less awkward. Annotating scripts can have its benefits however. When you are watching a play it is really impossible to take in everything. When you are a reading a play though you can think longer, take pauses, and jot down things you have noticed. Still you can only get so far. Although reading plays can be beneficial it is better to see them as they were intended, to be performed live so that we can feel the emotions of the characters and gain a better understanding of the piece.

Patterns Followed, Patterns Compared

I am starting on my fourth Bond novel now and I have seen the movies let say around a hundred times. I think it is safe to say that I would be able to notice some sort of pattern by now. Recognizing this pattern will help me see the important points of the Bond texts and will help me develop a better paper for my literary analysis class. In the Bond films the pattern is pretty simple. In all of the films with the exception of the first film there is a pre-title sequence where either a quick action sequence is shown or something that teases the plot of the film (included here just for your enjoyment is the pre-title sequence from Goldfinger arguably the best of the Bond movies):

The opening chapters of the novels however are usually quite different. In traditional novel style the Bond books open up with a lot of exposition explaining characters and building a good background for the plot.

Why I am writing my James Bond paper

The main reason why I am writing this paper is probably because of my grandfather. He was the one who introduced the whole family to James Bond. He would always tell me about how he went to the first few Bond movies and later when the kids were old enough he would take them around the holidays to see James in the theaters and this became a tradition for my family and it is one that has been going ever since.

I have home videos where I am opening up presents on Christmas and the James Bond marathon is playing on TV in the background. When I went to visit my grandpa we watched two kinds of movies: war movies and James Bond. Also something about James Bond reminds me about my grandfather.

A Secretary in Bond's World

In the first chapter of Moonraker, entitled Secret Paper Work, we get a glimpse into the life of James Bond. His day to day affairs are often mundane. In fact the author writes "It was only two or three times a year that an assignment came along requiring his particular abilities. For the rest of the year he had the duties of an easy-going civil servant."

Realism vs. Fantasy

After buying the remaining Bond books needed to complete my collection I decided to go back and read the ones that I had missed and catch up to From Russia With Love. The first one I started with was Moonraker, the third book in the series. I had heard that this book was quite different from the film, but I didn't know it was going to be this different. It is almost an entirely different story. Sure some of the main characters have the same names, but everything else has changed. The settings and the plot are completely different. The plot of the novel is the investigation of a missile based national defense system. It is more realistic in tone. We learn about Bond's day to day life and what he does for hobbies. It is a hard-nosed spy thriller far more practical than its movie counterpart. The movie is all about space shuttles and guess what Bond actually gets to go into to space and shoot laser guns. Still even though the movie is fake beyond belief it is hard to choose which one I like best. It might help to put both into some historical context.

Thesis of Bond's generation and our generation.

This post will be dedicated to five different thesis statements based on the content and the claims I made in one of  my earlier blog posts. It would be helpful to review that blog post before reading this as it references some of the background information used to come up with my thesis statements and it connects them to the Bond novels. The purpose of posting these thesis statements is to help me prepare for writing a paper for my Literature Interpretation class. So feedback would be much appreciated.

Travel, Family, and The Internet

I have been reading up on some travel blogs lately, mostly the ones that deal with Taiwan as I am going there  in about a month for a study abroad. Topics such as food, hotels, hot springs, Chinese operas, language guides etc. make for interesting reading. I felt that the ones that had family or personal experiences to be the most interesting and helpful. Hearing first hand accounts of language barriers, getting lost, and trying exotic food just gets me more excited about the trip I will take. One big thing that I have been considering since taking my Literature Appreciation class is to make a blog on my own travel experiences in Taiwan. I had never done blogging before this class but now I realize that it is an easy and fulfilling experience.

Grandpa's generation vs. Our's

James Bond, the quintessential 60's man

As I have reflected over my readings of the James Bond novels and my blog posts one of the biggest things I have noticed is the difference between my generation and his. James Bond novels were written in the 50's and 60's, and the movies have been released continually since 1962. Reading a novel from this era is like stepping into a completely different world, one that is run by men. The only women mentioned are secretaries and the girls that Bond seduces. Most often the women are damsel in distress like figures. Bond is the man in charge always and he always gets the job done without much help from his female sidekicks. Even minor characters give their say about the importance of male dominance in society throughout the novels.

Whatever You Imagine

I got back from my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints last august and honestly one of things I looked forward to when I got back the most was reading books again. During our missions we are only allowed to read church materials and don't get me wrong I love reading the scriptures and I still do as much as I can, but I missed the escape found only in the world of fiction. I missed being transported to another land in travel writing. I missed reading and commenting on movie reviews. It was a part of me before my mission and it has really come back with my literary interpretation class this spring semester. We have had the time to read our own literature for analysis in the class which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Reading has been a big influence in my life. It has helped me understand life's hardest challenges through stories of triumph and determination like Walt Disney's biography or coming of age stories like A Separate Peace. It has helped me find excitement and intrigue in the James Bond novels or in science fiction like Ender's Game and Dune. These are the things that make us read. Reading can give us as the readers something called Catharsis which is a dramatic term for purging, purification, or intellectual clarification. It is a cleansing process giving us a sound mind and opportunity for introspection. It is something that all of us should do more often. In today's world of messages that are force fed through television, movies, and music we would do well to take some quiet time and curl up with a good book. Sure messages are definitely strong in literature as well, but I believe that literature offers the advantage of being able to really meditate and ponder on the words. It helps us analyze more thoughtfully because we have the power to go back over the words on the page and in our minds. We gain a connection to the characters and even the author of the piece because we are allowed deeper access into what they are thinking. Literature literally comes alive in the stage of our mind. I found this music video from one the beloved films of my childhood called The Pagemaster. Its the story of a young boy who is literally transported into the worlds of different books.  It sums up literature perfectly for me, its "whatever you imagine":

Everyman

I recently read a play entitled Everyman for my drama history course. Its a medieval play and I was expecting that it was going to be archaic and inapplicable to life today, but I actually found it very moving and  relevant. It is the story of a man appropriately called Everyman going to his death and death is actually represented as a character here along with many other things which most people consider to be just "ideas". They turned good deeds, knowledge, strength, material goods, beauty, discretion, and the five senses into people who actually interact with Everyman. Though this play is an in your face moral lesson I believe that is what makes it so great and it was so refreshing to read something like this after reading a lot of the veiled modern literature today sometimes with no moral lesson at all. Then I started to think of my what media could be considered morally strong from recent times.

So Its A Wonderful Life is necessarily recent, but it is far more recent than Everyman. I have seen this movie billions of times as it is on of my favorite films, but it was so fun comparing these two works because of their subject matter. In Everyman only his Good Deeds could follow him to the end. That was what mattered most. All of the other things faded throughout the play refusing to go with him. In Its A Wonderful Life George Bailey gets to see what life would be like for others if he was never born. After seeing the effect his life has had on friends and family he realizes how important he is to them. He may not have had much prestige or material wealth, but he had what really mattered. I love the line his brother says in his toast at the end "To my brother George, the richest man in town". He wasn't the richest man in town because of money, he was the richest man because of all of his friends and the good deeds that made them his friends.

Some old books....

So I went to California this past weekend for a friend's wedding reception. Going back home is always interesting. You get to see people you haven't seen for a long time, but then shortly after you leave again. Always a bittersweet experience. I tried to spend some quality time with my parents this weekend and while we were looking for a wedding card for my friend I noticed that there was a used book store next door. I decided to go look inside and see what I could find. Whenever I enter a bookstore I always think of the endless choices and possibilities. As I wandered looking through the old, tattered books I noticed I was in the Intrigue and Suspense section. Then I thought I wonder if.... I scanned the shelves... Then there they were. The entire collection of James Bond novels right in front of me. Many of them were printed during the 60's, but they had prints from all different eras there. This is what winning the lottery must feel like. The books were all reasonably priced around $3 a piece and I bought what was missing in my collection. The experience of buying books is one of my favorite parts of appreciating literature and these used books really made it fun for me. Now I own all of the Bond books for a fraction of the price and the books have their own history to them as well. Inside the covers are the names of their former owners. Then I kind of thought f the books as old friends that I hadn't seen in a while just like my friends and family back home. Now I'll get to read the books and know them better, but soon I'll be done reading them and I won't pick them up again for quite some time.