The Gothschall book was an amazing read and even better experience after the first FAMS class.  The title, ” The storytelling animal how stories make us human” could not have been a better title as over the course Gottschall proved his humanity with his storytelling ability perverting everyday experiences and making them into extravagant experiences. All the while, approaching the very anthropological  theme of storytelling and mythmaking in su ch an interdisciplinary manner all the while making it extremely entertaining and thought provoking. When bringing into the argument the likes of schizophrenics, epileptics, and other forms of mental disorders often othered as social deviants as they come to be seen as mentally dysfunctional, seem to me to be hyper-functional human beings. Their minds allow them to navigate to “Neverland” and never return which seems to be the point of human existence, at least in optimal experience. This is why Peter Pan isn’t seen negatively rather children love him and adults envy his experience. Another thing it forced me to think about (which I often find myself doing due to my major) is analyzing how much we undervalue the oral narrative. While time has indeed transformed the concept of technology and reading has been made available (mass literacy and whatnot) , oral narratives have become somewhat extinct in the social interactive setting and there roles in  history have been belittled. Ironically conservative academia is at the basis of this as it has a lot to do with the belittling of Eastern and continental African culture as primitive so it works better to the maintenance of the status quo to enforce a firm distrust of the storyteller. This alludes to my next point, there is an immense amount of power in storytelling, i’ll give two examples, one from the book and one from personal thought.  The first being that of the Hitler story where he was influenced by Wagner, this is a clear example where the wrong story falls into the wrong hands, where a story of nation-building and purity was resurrected in the form of mass mayhem and the genocide of several ethnic groups. Even within the story of the Holocaust you can see the reception of the news of this mass genocide in conjunction was distorted across the globe as it is replicated time and time again it is portrayed as the Jewish Holocaust when so many other ethnicities were decimated as well.

Political violence is often diluted, censoring the peoples from the harsh realities of the truth. History is thus storytelling . Storytelling is intrinsic to nation-building.

-Remember the Alamo

-The American Dream

-Our Last Night’s Dream

-Manifest Destiny

The second scenario is under the realm of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, no need to explain it here as everyone knows what exactly happened as a result of the trade. However, American textbooks try to dilute its harsh realities and everlasting impact by in some cases not even addressing it. Storytelling is thus manifested in everything constructed about us, if there is one universal truth of humans is that we lie to cover our own. It’s evident in the political processes, in the idea of the American ethos “land of the free, home of the brave”, its evident in self-reflections, college essays etc its a mechanism to unite, create conflict, engage and entertain.

After the first class, I was so intrigued by the beginning of Apocalypse Now that I watched it that very evening. I could not believe that this movie was made in the late 1970s… given how well produced it was. It made sense that the movie won many awards. I eventually realized that I was one of the few people that had never heard of this movie. Whenever I bring it up to friends, they all knew about it already. I guess it is great that I am taking this Film & Media studies class for several reasons. One of the reasons is that I clearly did not grow up watching the iconic films that everyone else seemed to.

I think I loved Apocalypse Now so much, not just because of the production and acting, but also because I was in the right mood when I watched it. In Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, there is an emphasis on the idea of “emotion contagion” and how oftentimes the emotions of others can cause you to feel that same way. I think unconsciously we are aware of this and so we enjoy movies more when we are already in the mood that the characters may be in as well.

Every year, the most difficult time for me is the end of spring semester and the very start of summer. I am not a fan of transitions and change, and although summertime is usually associated with fun and happiness… for me the summer is usually a time where I do a lot of deep thinking and self reflection. I think that I picked up on a lot of the hidden meaning behind symbols in Apocalypse Now because I was already searching for meaning in other aspects of my life. I just found it very interesting that The Storytelling Animal talked a lot about the science behind humans and how we interact with media and how we create stories or interpret them. I made a lot of connections between the book and my experience watching Apocalypse Now.

I learned so much from the first day of class that I began to see television, movies, and any video/media in general from a new perspective. Although I do not like some types of change, I am very open to changing my perspective. Because I know the more knowledge and experiences we attain, the more likely we are to view things differently. And that is a good thing!

ALSO…. I mentioned Joseph Campbell’s A Hero With A Thousand Faces during the first class… if you were interested in knowing why that was relevant, here is just one of the slideshare presentations I found that relates Campbell’s book to Film & Media:

 

Hoping this is how I upload to the blog section. Hello class its Ahmed. I wasn’t sure how to respond to the post so I figured I would start it off in a slightly irritating fashion…apologies, hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day Weekend though. For starters last class period (hoping to sound as little of a suck up as possible) was great especially the kicker with the “Batman: Dark Night” analysis it as I mentioned in class sparked the idea of how Batman has thematically and since its origins been used to address issues of Americanism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO0ACBZFcz8
In the clip given, it is merely a small clip of a 1943 “Batman” movie where essentially Batman must save an American from the cusp of a Japanese operative tasked with the annihilation of America’s prestigious democratic government. While many other movies have a similar theme of confronting the political realm of America, few have had the longevity because none have matched the trope of the superhero. Even Batman’s character has evolved, in the earlier times he was hired by the federal government and was more so a caped spy, willing to do whatever to defend the honor and legacy of the people all while hiding his identity to ensure the utmost humility. In this sense both Batman and Bruce Wayne represented all it meant to be a young, white male in America at the time: extremely patriotic and willing to do whatever for the nation while simultaneously having a playboy image. Now in Gotham City, which is apparently a pseudonym for New York, the caped crusader is seen as a dangerous threat to the city and is wanted by the police despite the fact he is supposed to be saving the nation from anarchy at the hands of the Joker even after he saves the day, he escapes into the smoke. If this is to reflect 9/11 it makes perfect sense as to why to use Batman, if he is to represent America as a somewhat transcendental figure and how much America was demonized by its citizens for its response to 9/11 in comparison to the patriotism and non-challenging of the government in dealing with the Japanese in Pearl Harbor.

SO. This blog shall be about my reaction to first class. Just analyzing at the photograph, At the Time of the Louisville Flood, may have been one of my favorite parts of class. I rarely take the time to fully analyze a photo. Sometimes I refrain because I like the initial feeling I get when I see something, and if I were to fully analyze it would completely change my perception. I also enjoyed the exercise we did with the beginning of Apocalypse Now. Since watching that clip and several others, I am convinced that analyzing sound is my favorite part of understanding a film. I was given the task to pay close attention to the sounds that were featured in the movie, and assess how well they played with the scenery. I noticed that the more I tried to focus solely on the sound, the more overwhelmed I felt because there were so many crashing sounds. Most movies that I watch I pay attention to the music that is played because I am an avid fan of movie soundtracks. I just think that sound carries a movie and if they don’t match, you don’t want to pay attention or get frustrated like when the sound doesn’t match up with the pictures of the screen.

Thanks for your patience with my getting the blog to you. Please begin using this space to post–several times per week–your reactions to and thoughts about 1) readings, 2) screenings, 3) class discussions, 4) assignments, 5) outside the classroom issues connected to the study of film and media.

As you will recall from class on Wednesday, our work for this week is to:

1. Acquire the course books.
2. Read Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal (Preface-199).
3. For Wednesday, prepare to speak in some detail about at least two chapters (your choice) in Storytelling Animal.
4. Begin to read around in The Film Experience, especially in the early chapters of the book.
5. Find and watch Apocalypse Now (1979). There are other versions of the film, principally the longer Apocalypse Now Redux (2001). It’s fine to watch that version, but I’ll be referring mostly to the 1979 film.
6. Begin blogging. You should be able to supply at least 3 posts to get going: One to react to what we did in class last Wednesday; one to organize what you want to say about Gottschall’s book; another to react to Apocalypse Now (see questions on the FILMS page).

This week I’ll go over some syllabus details, but you might look around on the blog pages to see some of this information ahead of time. I’ll field any questions you might have on Wednesday.