Week6

I enjoyed this animation. I have watched almost every Miyazaki’s films as I really like his film.

What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

‘Shoujo’ is a Japanese word meaning ‘girl’ or ‘young female’, aged between 10 to 18 years old. In anime, ‘Shoujo’ is demographic genre of Japanese manga/comic aimed at young female audience. It is one of most popular and successful animation genre in the universe.

‘Shoujo’ stories are mostly about adolescent girl romance with relationship and adventure (growth). Miyazaki, who has drawn a line of stroke in anime, his anime has mostly and mainly focuses in ‘Shoujo’ as subgenre, and his ‘Shoujo’ is represented as strong, brave, righteous, smart and curious than normal adolescent girls. This may contrast from traditional Japanese women figure which are always obeying and respect in men.

In ‘Princess Mononoke’, we can notice that the main character Princess Mononoke is brave, independence, and pursuing clear purpose of living in her path by herself.

On the other hand, Tamae Prindle (1998, as cited in Cavallaro, 2006) points, “What fascinates the Japanese is that the shoujo nestle in a shallow lacuna between adulthood and childhood, power and powerlessness, awareness and innocence as well as masculinity and femininity” As Prindle explained, ‘Shoujo’, subgenre of anime, has much wider section which is not only for teenagers but also adults could think, learn and achieve broadly from it like a purity of ‘Shoujo’.



Reference

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.

Hi group 4 - some good work being done, but need more comments on some blogs. Remember that you get credit for commenting and replying to comments on your blog. If Karen or I ask a direct question, you should do your best to answer it.

week 4-5 Questions

How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guin?

According to Le Guin, science fiction could be defined as a form of modern literature which is intended to predict future and also predict the human world. Le Guin has emphasized that both fantasy and science fiction inspire readers’ imagination. However, science fiction is more likely to be based on facts and the settings in sci-fi are scientifically possible. On the contrary, fantasy usually involves fate, romance, being chosen…something happens in a fantasy story that is impossible by the laws of nature as we know them.

week 4-5 Questions

Question: In what ways does Tax (2002) suggest Earthsea may still be relevant today?

According to Tax(2002)’s research, Earthsea maintains a relevance in our society because it provides pure writing style of English and lead the audience think and feel outside of regular realistic patterns of other fantasy fictions. To fantasy readers, Le Guin is not only one of the purest stylists writing in English but the most extraordinary straightforward of writers. As Le Guin herself pointed out, “The great fantasies, myths, and tales are indeed like dreams: they speak from the unconscious to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious--symbol and archetype.”  Tax(2002) then goes on to indicate that one of the reasons that Earthsea is still relevant today is the masterpiece contains conflict between gender roles. For example, Tax(2002) emphasizes that male roles rule the world and define social conventions in Earthsea. Despite the fact in Earthsea, the male role has not changed radically in contemporary society and males are always considered to be the head of the household. Tax(2002) further illustrates that the theme and archetypes of characters in Le Guin’s book strike a chord with her audience. I personally agree with this point, not only with regard to Earthsea, but also the other fantasy fictions. The constant stability in Earthsea is the central character, the plot and the balance of light and dark (yin and yang).

Reference

Tax, M. (Jan 28, 2002). Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon. In The Nation.

Le Guinn, U. (2005) Plausibility in Fantasy. Retrieved 15, Augst 2012, http://www.ursulakleguin.com/plausibilityinfantasy.html

Week4

How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guin?



Both science fiction and fantasy are not actually happened in real life which could be defined as fiction.

According to Le Guin, “fantasy is far more direct in its fictionality than either realism or science fiction. Its contract with the reader is a different one.”
Fantasy has no limitation that the story may have more broad imagination or portray. It creates unpredictable things.

Science fiction is more likely to describe or imagine the future based on the real world. “Most science fiction pretends that the future is the present or the past, and then tells us what happened in it.” Le Guin said.
Making unknown future correlates with the characteristics of current people or society.

In science fiction, making unknown future, mostly it has relationship between present and future which makes a condition of explanation why the future has been created. However, fantasy does not necessitate explaining the reason of creating new world because fantasy itself has to be unrealistic, unexplainable and unbelievable stories that is Fantasy.

In the movie that we watched in the class, it was about the magic which is unrealistic and we could not expect to happen in our real life, so we can easily determine that is fantasy.





Reference

Le Guin, U. (2005). Plausibility revisited wha hoppen and what didn't. Retrieved from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html

Week Three Catch up- first thoughts on fantasy

When looking at the structure of fantasy that also translates to film i feel that this formula may be over used. In recent months i have noticed that in general, the western world has stopped making "Original", innovative and creative ways to make art and literature. We seem to be stuck in a time where the good guys always win and there is some struggle and revelation that the archetypical "superhero" has. In popular music, film and television there has been little development in the way we create. However this could reflect societies lack of interest. The people making these books and films and music are playing it to safe and are not asking themselves the hard questions anymore that make really good art. In simpler terms, i haven't seen any popular writer take a good risk in a long time. 

Fantasy to me is just as much about the relationships and growth a character makes as it is the magic. Harry Potter was a good example of this. It also brought in what a good fantasy should: propaganda hidden behind an exciting plot line. This followed (roughly) the same formula, but gave the reader more  to go with during the journey- not just three basic acts with one climax, but a series of "beats" (smaller changes within character and relationship that ultimately make tension and mood rise within a text and more important to a reader).

This is just an overview of my thoughts since being introduced to fantasy- more to come on Earthsea when i have finished the novel.

Week 2 Questions

Q. Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?

In my opinion, the comic books, which also named in a modern way-the graphic novel, are both children’s and adult media and genre. Comic books have been a symbol of ‘childish’ in old period and adults are not willing to be caught when they are reading comic books. However, the recent phenomenon indicates that movies and other media adapted from popular comic books have achieved great success, for instance, the ‘iron man’ and ‘The Batman’. When we refer to the benefits for children, comic books take significant roles to help children understand literature since they had a hard time reading text book. According to the new research, reading graphic novels in classrooms have led to discussion and therefor comic books have unexploited potential to improve literacy of children.

Week 2 Questions

How might Hergé's The Blue Lotus address or relate to to what Said (1977) terms 'orientalism'?

As Said(1977) states in his book ‘Orientalism’, the term ‘orientalism’ could be defined as inappropriate assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward Asia, such as China and Arabia. According to the research of Said(1977), the false understandings occurs since the 20^th century and the major issues that thinkers have considered about ‘orientalism’ are that Western knowledge about Asia is only engendered from the older generations, who may describe that all eastern countries share similar societies and systems. If you have read the third section of the entire book ‘Orientalism’, Said(1977) focus on the way in which the colonizing countries have invent false images and myths of the third world countries. As a result, those images have conveniently justified western domination of Eastern cultures and people. In the comic ‘the Blue Lotus’, there is a scene which Tintin saved Chen’s live and their conversation display the misunderstandings between two different cultures and this section obviously relate to the aspects of ‘Orientalism’.