I’m in favor of the book as well for possibly different reasons.  I’m inclined to think the movie was just someone’s interpretation of the book produced to appeal to a certain audience not necessarily an actual deception of the author’s vision of the book.  The book to me seems more in depth and unrestricted from censorship then did the movie, which is no surprise since movies are routinely subjected to this.  The boy’s role in the movie wasn’t the best depiction of him from the book.  I thought the actor looked a little too old to reflect the boy’s immaturity as described in the book.   With that said I thought the book was a great read and looking forward to starting his novel “No Country For Old Men” which I thought was a far better movie. gtaylor2004: sherryhaz: I did not like the movie The Road as much as i liked reading the book. There were many differences between the two. The sequence of the story line is in a different order between the two. Also, there were many scenes in the movie that were not in the book. There was also a lot more dialogue in the movie compared to the book. I think that the ending in the book was a lot more emotional for me than the ending in the movie. I was more attached to the little boys character in the book. He seemed much younger in the book, and seemed more helpless. The reason that i did not like the movie as much as the book was because the book seemed to be more in depth to me. When i visualized the book while reading it, the movie was nothing like what i was visualizing. Something that i did like about the movie was the way that the creators made the world look. All of the run down house, broken roads, forest fires, destroyed overpasses, etc. If someone wanted to watch The Road, i would tell them to read the book first, otherwise i dont think that the movie would be very appealing to them. I kind of disagree about the movie vs the book. I watched the movie when it first came out having no idea that there was even a book first. Generally I read most books before I watch the movie just because it is always better. With this story, however, for me to have watched the movie first helped me get threw the book. What I mean by this is the way the author wrote was somewhat difficult in cases to understand who was actually talking and not trying to get confused. Not using the correct quotations and apostrophes really hung me up every now and then.
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I’m in favor of the book as well for possibly different reasons.  I’m inclined to think the movie was just someone’s interpretation of the book produced to appeal to a certain audience not necessarily an actual deception of the author’s vision of the book.  The book to me seems more in depth and unrestricted from censorship then did the movie, which is no surprise since movies are routinely subjected to this.  The boy’s role in the movie wasn’t the best depiction of him from the book.  I thought the actor looked a little too old to reflect the boy’s immaturity as described in the book.   With that said I thought the book was a great read and looking forward to starting his novel “No Country For Old Men” which I thought was a far better movie.

gtaylor2004:

sherryhaz:

I did not like the movie The Road as much as i liked reading the book. There were many differences between the two. The sequence of the story line is in a different order between the two. Also, there were many scenes in the movie that were not in the book. There was also a lot more dialogue in the movie compared to the book. I think that the ending in the book was a lot more emotional for me than the ending in the movie. I was more attached to the little boys character in the book. He seemed much younger in the book, and seemed more helpless.

The reason that i did not like the movie as much as the book was because the book seemed to be more in depth to me. When i visualized the book while reading it, the movie was nothing like what i was visualizing. Something that i did like about the movie was the way that the creators made the world look. All of the run down house, broken roads, forest fires, destroyed overpasses, etc. If someone wanted to watch The Road, i would tell them to read the book first, otherwise i dont think that the movie would be very appealing to them.

I kind of disagree about the movie vs the book. I watched the movie when it first came out having no idea that there was even a book first. Generally I read most books before I watch the movie just because it is always better. With this story, however, for me to have watched the movie first helped me get threw the book. What I mean by this is the way the author wrote was somewhat difficult in cases to understand who was actually talking and not trying to get confused. Not using the correct quotations and apostrophes really hung me up every now and then.

Source: sherryhaz

“This is Water” 

Earlier in the semester Prof. Clarke mentioned David Foster Wallace and his commencement speech when we were discussing new post modern literature in class.  The whole speech (parts 1 and 2) come to a total of a little over 22 minutes.  In this audio recording,  Wallace delivers a truly inspiring, dark, and revealing speech that strays far away from conventions of commencement speeches.  The diction in the speech (IMHO) reveals Wallace’s true brilliance in the literary field which is also found in his novel “Infinite Jest”.  It was devastating to hear that he died a few years after this speech by his own hand; succumbing to a long battle with depression.

We all live under the same sky,: The Road

To me what the mother did was extremely selfish.  Most of her reasoning in the book points toward this I thought. At first I agree that the father and son may have been better off but then I thought that’s one more person (an adult) which means more body heat to keep each other warm, another person to gather food, and could have set up a rotation thru the nights to keep the fire going and be a look out.  It seems to me that it’s possible McCarthy may have done this to shine a little light on the motivations behind suicide in certain situations.  

sherryhaz:

steph-clay:

I think you should excuse the tardiness because it was a holiday (:

But i did finish the book, and boy did it have me in tears at the end ): I can only imagine this being my daughter and I, for one I dont think i am that strong of a person to carry on for years with my child, starving, trying to…

 If i was a parent i could not imagaine what it would be like to protect your child in a world like the father and son in The Road lived in. Everyday having to worry that you or your child might be eaten. That’s scary. Even though i am not a parent, i know that i would try my best to protect my child like that father did in this book. The only thing i truley dont understand is how the mother was able to kill herself. She left her husband and son to fend for themselves. This might sound kind of bad, but if the mother had went on the journey with her husband and son, they all might not have survived for as long as the father and the boy did. They would have to have more food and water and would have to have smaller portions when they did get to eat and drink. In a way the mother killing herself, may have helped the father get his son down south to avoid the harsh winter.

Unforunetly i would not be the best at the whole survival situation. I have watched Man Vs. Wild a hundred times (lol), but that definetly does not prepare me for a catastrophe. I would not now how to hunt, find water, start a fire, nothing. If a catastrophe like this happens I would try to find Bear Grylls (cant spell today) and survive with him.

Source: steph-clay

The role language plays in today’s consumer society, which I believe is an appropriate topic for this weeks post being that it is Black Friday and it appears in “The Road”.  Language provokes emotion, action, and desire in many forms for good and bad.  For example it can be used to manipulate people by forming created wants so that they will want to buy products that really have no necessity.  Marketing has in fact removed in my opinion much of the meaning in such terms as natural, guaranteed, satisfaction, and a whole list of others by using them repeatedly in a ways that are not true to their actual meaning.

Untitled: Cannibalism or bust?

Rationally, if the situation is that humans are all that’s left to eat and you decide to starve to death to uphold some self-righteous moral code, then that is your own undoing. i mean that in the nicest way possible.  I thought it was ironic that the book kept referencing the “bad guys” as the cannibals because when looking at it from a human evolution standpoint they are actually doing what is best for the greater good in a sense. They have actually torn down the barriers made by becoming civilized in order to keep the species alive.  And it is the “good guys” as portrayed by the protagonists who cling desperately to the former civilized teachings (the ones that more than likely were the cause of the catastrophe) that are hurting the greater good.  After a major catastrophe where the human species is being threatened by extinction shouldn’t it be every human being’s obligation to ensure human’s existence?  

graham-l:

In the book “The Road,” cannibalism is something that most people took part of after the catostrophic event that happened and ruined the world as we know it. Atleast the way Cormac McCarthy it seems like the world is filled with the “bad guys” who eat other people. Now we kind of talked about this…

I’ve always enjoyed end of the world, apocalyptic type movies/Books and The Road definitely ranks high in my opinion.  I like how it has pushed the boundaries of exploring the perverseness of the human psyche. The best example of this in the book is the trap that’s set up at the grande house where the people were being stored for letter consumption.  Although most people don’t like to admit it but on a basic level we all are selfish and have the capability of doing some real evil in order to get whatever it is we are seeking.  You don’t have to look far to find some examples just turn on the TV. 

Pictured here is a sculpture by Michael Enn Sirvet called the “Dream Machine”.  Like most of his art works the sculpture was created around a found object in this case a door or hatch that he had found in an old Baltimore factory.  Initially he had intended to make a beautiful piece but during the process it turned out to be coming from a very dark place.  A place where the horrors that are the result of the battle between nature and modernity have an overwhelming quality.  This unique creative process of finding an object then creating a sculpture around that object strongly reflects the idea behind most postmodern thought.
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Pictured here is a sculpture by Michael Enn Sirvet called the “Dream Machine”.  Like most of his art works the sculpture was created around a found object in this case a door or hatch that he had found in an old Baltimore factory.  Initially he had intended to make a beautiful piece but during the process it turned out to be coming from a very dark place.  A place where the horrors that are the result of the battle between nature and modernity have an overwhelming quality.  This unique creative process of finding an object then creating a sculpture around that object strongly reflects the idea behind most postmodern thought.

Ramblings in the Wind: I gotta long one for ya....

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Ok so in class Ms. Clark has mentioned a few times how people recognize certain smells and how some smells carry strong emotional ties within us. Honestly I’ve been very much interested in this since we first discussed in one of our first classes. I’ve tried to do some reading up on this but so…

In fact out of the 5 senses smell has the strongest association with long-term memory. It’s quite amazing how even the slightest whiff can bring back so much detail that our other senses cant come close too.  This is a general overview of how it works when you first smell a new scent; you link it to an event, a person, a thing or even a moment. Your brain generates a link between the smell and a memory for instance associating the smell of  chlorine with summers at the pool or lilies with a funeral. When you encounter the smell again, the link is already there, ready to extract a memory or a mood.  The power of smell has been utilized for marketing in a big way.  A lot of the clothing stores that market younger generations fill their stores with the scent of their perfumes and colognes. Why do you think movie theaters use so much butter on their popcorn not so they can charge more but because it creates a memory association with the smell of buttery popcorn with the movie theater experience.  

jdlit: I got through the first few chapters of A visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and wow, this book really grabs you! i notice that the chapters are kinda like stories, and I like the way they intersect by giving us different POVs from past and present. This gives a very post modern feel to the novel, along with the informality of it. The dialogue and change of time is also reminiscent of EL&IC. I enjoy the use of Sasha’s “problem” and how it emerges to give those moments of irony and tension. For instance, Benny notices Sasha has been “finding” his gold flakes more and more, which he is thankful for, but we learn at that point that she has been lifting fom Benny. I predict this will be an issue later in the book! I am eager to see how these characters will intersect , and overall I think Professor Clark has chosen another enjoyable book that goes right along with the post-modern theme! Jennifer Egan’s “The visit from the Goon Squads” has a unique style of writing intertwining each of the chapter’s stories with the others.  Each of the chapters embrace the dynamics of the two main characters Sasha and her boss Beanie relationship in an unconventional way. These reasons and the story’s nonlinear structure help in characterizing this book in the postmodern category.  After reading the first five chapters I predict Egan wrote this novel in a way that combines all the chapters (or stories) to tell one main story.  I have to agree with you there are many stylistic similarities to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and not just its nonlinear structure.
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jdlit:

I got through the first few chapters of A visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and wow, this book really grabs you! i notice that the chapters are kinda like stories, and I like the way they intersect by giving us different POVs from past and present. This gives a very post modern feel to the novel, along with the informality of it. The dialogue and change of time is also reminiscent of EL&IC. I enjoy the use of Sasha’s “problem” and how it emerges to give those moments of irony and tension. For instance, Benny notices Sasha has been “finding” his gold flakes more and more, which he is thankful for, but we learn at that point that she has been lifting fom Benny. I predict this will be an issue later in the book! I am eager to see how these characters will intersect , and overall I think Professor Clark has chosen another enjoyable book that goes right along with the post-modern theme!

Jennifer Egan’s “The visit from the Goon Squads” has a unique style of writing intertwining each of the chapter’s stories with the others.  Each of the chapters embrace the dynamics of the two main characters Sasha and her boss Beanie relationship in an unconventional way. These reasons and the story’s nonlinear structure help in characterizing this book in the postmodern category.  After reading the first five chapters I predict Egan wrote this novel in a way that combines all the chapters (or stories) to tell one main story.  I have to agree with you there are many stylistic similarities to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and not just its nonlinear structure.

When attempting to list the characteristics of postmodernism, it’s important to remember that postmodernists do not define their philosophy to some set category of beliefs.  Their beliefs and practices tend to be more personal rather than being identifiable with a particular establishment.  However there are a few principles that have appeared elemental to postmodernists.  For instance most believe that this notion of truth is nothing but a contrived illusion thats being misused by people and special interest groups to gain power over others.  Also majority of postmodernists hold the belief that facts are to limiting to really determine anything. They change constantly and eventually become unreliable.