Course Description
Course Description
Can a highway billboard be counted as literature? Is Bob Dylan a sellout? Who is Lady Gaga? Can Google be used as a poetic constraint? How do internet phenomena like Youtube and Facebook shape our attitudes toward wisdom, knowledge, and information? Are we morally implicated just by watching? Is constructing our own identities a dangerous thing, and is deconstruction possible?
In this course we will try and answer these questions.
We will discuss relatively nascent literary forms, such as children’s literature, graphic novels, genre fiction, fan fiction, and blogging; we will explore the art of adaptation, and talk about the ways in which the narrative techniques used in film and television have shaped our formal understanding of image, character, metaphor, and plot; we will question the mythologizing power of nostalgia and ask whether speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) can offer us a better understanding of our own world.
Come prepared to both read and write generously. This course will be graded on enthusiasm, regular attendance, and a final portfolio of polished work.
Required Reading List:
Alan Moore, From Hell
Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
Additional reading materials will be provided in photocopy form.
First, I'd like to say that I have watched MANY of the literal music videos, and that one is by far the best one. My favorite line, which I mentioned in class, is "Holy F-ing crap, that angel guy just felt me up." The literal music video is a hilarious idea, that in some cases is tragically unfunny.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of tragedy, Hamlet... I thought the post on Hamlet was a very good condensation of the play. It hit all the main points in the show using contemporary phrasings.
However, what they have in common? I'm not sure. The only thing I can think of is that they retool something that is very well known into something else for comedic effect. Though, I'm sure I can be persuaded to find something more.
As I watched the literal music video, I never realized how ridiculous the music video was as a whole. Total Eclipse of the Heart is such a famous song, so I don't understand why the music video is so bizarre. However, I thought looking at the song and the video through a literal approach was an interesting take on the song. This approach seemed to highlight how ridiculous the music video was since it seemed to highlight school aged boys.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Hamlet post was such a modern take on an extremely old and well known play. From looking at Hamlet, through a Facebook lens, it really breaks down the story to a simple format. I never knew that such a piece could really be broken down into several short sentences.
Both of these pieces breaks down the song and the play into incredibly simple pieces of work via either the literal translation or a modern Facebook lens.
I thought the literal music videos were pretty funny and I found the Hamlet facebook page quite interesting. The biggest thing these two have in common, in my opinion, is how they both make the unfamiliar familiar. If we hadn't heard Total Eclipse of the Heart before, or have known anything about the story of Hamlet, the literal music video and the facebook page wouldn't have made much sense to us, therefore, making the unfamiliar song and facebook page familiar juxtaposed with Total Eclipse of the Heart and Hamlet.
ReplyDeleteWhile I did think the literal music video was pretty funny, I was more impressed with the Hamlet-facebook. It was surprising that the essential tale of Hamlet was able to be transposed into facebook form, and as an avid facebooker I found it very entertaining. Something that I believe connects the two is the ability for these platforms to rejuvenate older forms of entertainment and bring them back to popularity in the modern day. While Shakespeare's Hamlet is much older than a 1980's pop hit, both the facebook and the literal video were able to bring these works back into popularity. The literal video even claims to have made the Times lists for most viral and top youtube videos.
ReplyDeleteI found both of these very funny. So that is something they have in common, they took something usually taken seriously and basically make fun of it. Looking at these when they are changed this way, it makes them look like they are mediocre pieces of art, at least to me. I thought the Hamlet piece summed up the play well while pointing out how stupid Hamlet is. The music video pointed out how the images didn't match what the singer was saying.
ReplyDeleteI thought the literal video was hilarious. That was the first one i've seen. After class i ended up going home and watching about two more hours of them. They're pretty funny. I'm not so sure about the facebook page and how it has any real relation. I guess they are both just making complete monarchy of the original pieces. However not really the biggest shakespeare so i found the literally video much more interesting. On a side note i think that music video is weird as hell
ReplyDeleteI really liked both of the posts. I thought that the video was a very clever way of pointing out the completely over-exaggerated drama in the music video into actual lyrics. I don't think I would have realized how weird the video is unless I read those lyrics. The facebook page was also very funny--turning a character that was invented so far in the past, and putting him on something that is so modern. I think both of these posts pointed out their flaws and showed that even though they are both very popular pieces they can be downplayed to be very normal and funny.
ReplyDelete-Sydney Gitelis
I think it's interesting that both of these creations took something that already existed and created something new by changing one aspect of that creation. The music video already had the visual content yet the literal music video version changed the lyrics which completely changes the tone of the work. And the facebook page took the words of Hamlet and altered it's form to create a completely new piece of work as well. Both of the creations took somewhat serious material and changed one component of that piece to comically create something new with a new audience and new intentions.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these are things that are meant to be portrayed as having a serious effect but are given a comical effect instead. The literal version of the video is hilarious and I found it entertaining to watch. The facebook page was interesting as well because facebook is so modern and popular today that you would never think of anyone using it to react Hamlet out. Other than them both being known as serious things and having a comical effect, I'm not sure what else they have in common.
ReplyDeleteI thought the total eclipse of the heart video was so funny but it did make me realize how sad the actual video is. I mean to say sad as in pathetic. This kind of made me wonder if the people who create these original videos look at the literal ones and are embaressed or upset or if they think they're actually quite funny.The facebook page struck me as really inventive. I thought it was a cool portrayal of just how rediculous we are as a generation. It's crazy how many people facebook or tweet about exactly what they are doing and when. I don't know about anybody else but i don't think anybody cares when i stopped eating my burger to change my load of whites, and if they did i think it's creepy. The shakespeare plays were meant to be entertainment and facebook was started as a social network. It was intended, at least i think, to be a way to stay in contact with old and new friends and to network yourself as a business or sport or club of some sort. I don't know when people started treating their own lives as a source of entertainment, but i thought it shows how much we do not interact face to face anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhere nobody else sees a connection in subject matter, i agree with but due to the title of this blog, the commonality is very evident. The similarity that i see is in the different style of narration. Obviously, with the facebook page, everybody in the story becomes a narrator, except for Ophelia of course. Then witht the literal video, i find it harder to clearly define the narrator. It is meant to be the lead singer, but because is mocking the actual video, i am going to say it is a third person mockumentary.
ReplyDeleteI thought the music video was really funny and ridiculous looking back on. The Hamlet facebook was also a witty way to bring back something that almost everyone has read at some point in their education. Both of these are a way to bring something from older generations back into popular culture today using mediums that are pop culture phenomenons in our generation, in this case facebook and youtube. Both rewrite the originals in ways that are easy or entertaining for people in our culture to understand and appreciate in a new way.
ReplyDeleteI wasnt a real big fan of the music video, it was somewhat entertaining. It basically just mocked the irony of random things going on during a music video. I enjoyed the Facebook narration of Hamlet more. This creation took a very old classic play from Shakespeare, and put a modern technological twist on it, using an item of pop culture (Facebook) that most of us use every day.
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