Neo-Traditional Romcom

To have a better understanding of romantic comedies I viewed the film 'Did you hear about the Morgans?'. It has elements of Neo- traditional Rom Coms because of its conservative ending and how it relies on the audience to feel sorry for the characters. As McDonald states in her book 'Romantc Comedy: Boy Meets girl meets genre'  (Pg. 85) " These films, therefore, while close to Annie Hall in their visual elements, adopt a much more conservative and traditional ending".  By traditional ending she means( pg.86) "boy meets girl, boy losses girl, boy gets girl back" unlike the radical romantic movies Woody Allen writes. Where the two people we are following throughout the film do not end up together, but split up or end up with the other guy/ girl in the film. We will never experience this in a neo-traditional RomCom because it does not fit in the mold. Also, "Did you hear about the Morgan's?" relies on our ability to feel for there situation. During the movie the couple has to outwit a hired gun man, forgive each other of infidelity, and learn to love one another again in a foreign atmosphere, the charming, quaint, modern 'old west' town they are hiding out in . This McDonald's says is " The works they reference, however, come not from the ranks if screwball or sex comedies, but from romantic dramas, and it is from this type of film that the newer romantic comedy draws its increased emphasis on the importance of tears". Although, I shed no tears while viewing this film I was compelled to feel sorry for the situation they were "forced" into.Ultimately we as the audience have to buy into their sad situation so that we  root for them to be reunited at the end.

The pigs are sleeping in our beds (Paper)

April Boyd

Steven Wexler

10-21-10         

English 313 (Popular culture) 

Most of the time when we think of love or romance the first situation that pops into our mind is boy meets girl, they fall in love, and live happily ever after.  It doesn’t first occur to us that there are other displays of romantic love that are not between two people in romantic relationship.  There’s the romantic love of a child with idea of Christmas, or the housewife’s romantic love of the white picket fenced house, or the romance between an artist and their place in history.  Similar to this non-human to human romances, George Orwell’s Animal Farm explores the love of a bunch of farm animals to the idea of a utopian society.  As with most developing love, the farm animals’ affection is displayed in actions, songs, and writings.  However, their romance with the idea of a perfect farm becomes radical romance when they begin to resemble Oxford American Dictionary’s definition of “radical” by performing drastic, thorough, and extreme actions to obtain their love.

Romance is defined by McDonald as a romantic situation that involves people “ falling” in love, a romance becomes a radical when it stretches beyond this definition and into an area where most lovers don’t travel.  Radical love is demonstrated in Animal Farm when two of the main characters move beyond what the rest of animals will do for their love.   Napoleon (a pig / dictatorial leader) and Boxer (a horse / field worker) voluntarily do what the others would not do for their love; Napoleon oppresses the other animals that are supposed equals and Boxer works himself to death for his love of a utopian society.  They commit radical, extreme, and uncommon actions in an effort to obtain love.

One of the many interesting things about Napoleon and Boxer’s efforts at love is that they both loved the same thing but went about obtaining it in different ways.  Radical love in Animal Farm – and in life – doesn’t have a static definition.  It is something that is generated out of an individual and their cultural training. Like our discussions in class touched on, someone’s actions are formed by their culture.  People are trained by their surroundings to know normal or abnormal behavior or the difference between love and radical love.  For Napoleon, his pig culture was rude and assertive, so it made sense that his display of radical love would be violent.  For Boxer, his culture was primarily worker, therefore it made sense that his showing of radical love by committing himself until the completion of the windmill, which would lead to his death.

This idea of two people with the same object of their love being strived for in different ways is also illustrated in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.  The two aspiring matriarchs -- May and Maggie – fight for Big Daddy’s estate in different ways.  Mae, a mother of too many children flaunts her offspring as her proof that her man should take it over.  Maggie, childless but filled with Southern charm, appeals to common sense and Big Daddy’s love of his second born, Brick, as to why they should inherit everything.  Yet, in the end, they both exhibit radical love by exceeding the expectations of what anyone thought they would do.  Maggie lies about giving big Daddy an heir, Mae becomes ruthless by spreading rumors about Brick.  In these demonstrations of love for what they desire, they are radical in their context.

In both of these stories the ideology that drives the characters is fueled by the culture they were born into.  Maggie and Mae are taught that obtaining money and privilege equals security. So, they radically go after this ideal life in the same way that Napoleon and Boxer feel that by obtaining this utopian, ideal lifestyle they too will have security. What none of these characters realized during their quest to obtain their dreams is we are all, as Chris Barker refers to in Cultural Studies: Theory & Practice, socially constructed people and, when going about making a decision, we cannot separate ourselves from our environment.  

From the class discussions and the assigned readings, radical loves seems to be an action that transcends normal love behavior and is shaped by our cultural context.  It is a following after an object of desire in a way that is abnormal, extreme, and done with more passion than those around you.  From this place, the actions of the animals in Animal Farm demonstrate radical love because they exceeded the boundaries of love set by their farm culture.

                                          
Work Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. A signet classic New York: Harcourt  Inc. 1956

Sula presentation

Good Morning all,

This past week I participated in leading our class in a discussion with seven fellow students. In the  weeks prior to the assignment I studied the material, Sula; written by Toni Morrison, thoughtfully. Trying to find the rich meaning I knew lay underneath the characters in the book.

The ways I participated helping form our class discussion are: meeting after class, chatting on gmail , and email. Here's two of the most important emails I wrote :
" Hello all,
Some of my thoughts: What stuck  out for me when reading  Saussure was
his description of  the game of chess  and how it relates to language.
How when one chess piece is moved during the game their is a natural
repercussion on the whole system. And... how the players ( us, the
town of Bottom) cannot see or understand the effect that move will
have.

 This reminded me of national suicide day.How the "move" Shadrack
makes effects the whole town (p.15).Also, on p. 115 Sula's "move" when
she started sleeping with married men and tossing them aside when she
was finished caused the wives to love their husbands more.
Until...Sula's death changed things and once again and the women no
longer felt the need to be better mothers or wives. As Morrison says "
The tension was gone and so was the reason the effort they had made".



We can ask the class something like this : What binaries are we
unaware of in our society? How do other peoples actions " moves" get a
reaction from us?

Just a thought. I'm still working through the whole binaries thing.
I'm fine with whatever we end up doing. Maybe, we can give a few
examples of binary relationships from the book and then throw out a
few lead questions....Like Jenni and Mary have been suggesting, or we
can some how put the two ideas together.

Anyways, look forward to chatting with you all soon :)"

 Also,"Hey Kathy,

I found where the binary's are in the book.

Pg. These pages talk about why the townspeople change their behavior
117-118, 114, and  after she dies the town goes back to being
neglectful to their kids,husbands, houses ,etc.153-154

I'm in the middle of something right now and don't have time to write
'em all out. However, they relate to what you wrote. I think we should
try to stay simple. Focusing on good/ evil and how the towns people
know how to be good because... they see the way Sula is "evil". I
wrote it down and I can show you tomorrow. Lets try and meet up before
class to go over our part :)

Don't worry about not being a good public speaker either am I. I think
it's going to be alright as long as we say something interesting :)"

The day of our presentation I was super nervous, however I think my question came out clearly and stirred some interesting class discussion. I enjoyed hearing the thoughts and opinion of the class. Also, my group was amazing. I have never worked with such an organized smart group of people before. We really came together and made this project great.