Week 16

On Monday of this week, we discussed the movie Run Lola Run.   Some pretty interesting points were brought up.  As a class, we discussed how Lola's red hair could represent the power that she has.  We also talked about how the movie is like a video game and we are the people playing it.  The movie repeats the 20 minutes three time because it takes us three time to get to the next level.  Professor Tucker pointed out some things that I didn't realize were there when I watched it.  One thing was how the characters were first shown in the film.  They are pictured in a way so that it looks like the pictures are mug shots.  This is sometimes how characters are introduced at the beginning of video games.  While watching this movie, I was pretty confused, but after discussing it, I realized some of the purposes of the film.  The rest of the week we watched other student's presentations.

Week 15

This week we have been watching a movie.  The movie is titled Run Lola Run.  We were only able to watch the first 50 minutes of it today.  So far, the movie is about a girl named Lola and her boyfriend, Manni.  Manni accidentally lost $100,000 of his boss's money.  Now he is convinced that his boss will kill him when he comes to pick up the money in twenty minutes time.  Manni begins to plot robbing a store to get the money.  Lola tells him not to and to wait for her to get there.  Lola beings running all over the city it seems.  She goes to ask her rich father for the money but he refuses, so then she runs to Manni.  When she finds him, he is walking into a store holding a gun and preparing to rob it.  The two end up robbing the store together and then are chased by police.  Lola is eventually shot by a policeman.  Then, with some dramatically bad acting, she falls down and looks like she is dying.  Then randomly she says "stop", and the scene changes to the same scene as the one that started the movie.  Then the same sequence of events begins happening again only with some differences.  Overall, this movie was weird, but it held my attention.  I like how random it was and how it kept me guessing.

Week #14

Today in class we talked about pop art.  It was strange to talk about artist that are still alive and using art that is a little more popular today.  We talked about Robert Rauschenberg who was an artist who used materials that were pop culture "junk". Then we talked about Andy Warhol, an artist who uses serial use of images. He loved american popular culture. He takes Duchamp's indifference to a new level.  We learned that he made a 2 hour movie of a guy sleeping and a 24 hour movie of a tower.  I thought that was pretty American flag was interesting.  Professor Tucker brought up some interesting point about how we treat and actual flag and how we would treat a picture of a flag.

Week #13

This week we have been reading the book that Professor Tucker wrote himself.  It is call Derridada.  In class however, we have been talking about ready-made art.  We have discussed this before in class.  We also watched a video on Marcel Duchamp.  Professor Tucker talks a lot about Duchamp in his book.  The movie basically describes some of Duchamp's works and their significance.  Duchamp tried to bend the rules of art and create a new definition of it.  Duchamp would take everyday, useful objects and turned them into art by signing his name on it and naming the object. This lead us to discuss ready-made art.  On Friday, about half of the class brought in their own ready-made art in exchange for 100's on the rest of their quizzes.  Some peoples ready-made's were pretty interesting.  One guy made a chair out of a cardboard box.  I wasn't sure that was actually a ready-made but it made an interesting point.  The rest of the art was seemed relevant and most people seemed to think a lot about what their art meant.

Week 12

This week we finished reading The Stranger, which was about a man who basically had no feelings or concern for others.  It was interesting to think about how the main character lives a basically normal life only he avoids attachment to anything.  He ends up killing a man.  His excuse for killing the man was because the sun was in his eyes.  He is convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.  Most of the time while he is awaiting his death, he doesn't seem to care much about anything.  Right before his death however, he decided that he hopes when he is executed the people will greet him with cries of hate.  I found this book easy and interesting to read.  It was interesting to look at this book in detail.

Week 11

This week we have read Existentialism is a Humanism.  I found it fairly confusing to read.  In class, we discussed the various definitions of existence.  Dr. Tucker explained how the author was pondering his own existence and how he even knows that he exists or not.  Eventually, he decides that the one fact he can rely on to support the theory that he exists is "I think, therefore I am".   Dr. Tucker also talked about the relationship between God and man.  He talked about how God is considered absurd simply because his whole existence is irrational.  He is considered irrational because we can't see him.  We have no real proof that he is there.  So we must have faith to believe in him.  Man, however, is rational.  We can see man and know they are there.
Tonight we have our second to last movie to watch.  I'm hoping there are technical difficulties again or else I will be late. I am also hoping that this movie is in English.  Other than that, most of the movies have been ok. I at least was able to find something to write about both of them.

Blog # 10

This week we finished up reading Freud's book, Civilization and its Discontents.  We watched a movie about Sigmund Freud and his nephew. For today's class we read a bunch of poems off of the internet.  So today in class, instead of a commentary, we worked in groups.  We were given two poems and had to find certain elements in each poem. The elements weren't too hard to find.  They were things like "line that made you laugh" and "line with contradicting elements".   Then as a group, we made our own poem.  We each had to write a certain part of speech.  The catch was we didn't know what anyone else had written.  So the sentences came out really choppy but very entertaining.  Today's class was a good change from the usual lectures.

Week #9

This week is short because of fall break so we have only had class once since we got back.  Yesterday we watched a movie that talked a lot about art and inventions.  Last Wednesday we took our midterm exam.  I liked how we got immediate feedback after we took the test.  I didn't think the test was too bad.  I didn't study as much as I wanted to but I still did alright.  I think the test was scaled also so that helped my grade even further, which was nice.  For tomorrow I need to finish Sigmund Freud's book.  So far I find this book fairy confusing.  I am hoping that we will discuss it a little bit in class tomorrow to help me understand it.

Blog for week #8

This week we have reached the half way point of this class.  So that means that we have a midterm this week on Wednesday.  Today in class we discussed what will be on the test.  I was glad we discussed it because I had no idea what to expect on it.  Last week, the second movie showed at the local coffee shop.  I enjoyed this movie more than the last one.  It was called the Bicycle Thief.  The movie wasn't in English though so reading the subtitles got annoying.  Other than that, I found this movie much more entertaining that Dead Man.  I just finished writing the review for it.  So once I am done blogging, I will need to study for the midterm and then I will be done with this class until after fall break.

Blog #7

So far this week, we have been watching another movie in class.  The movie is called The Doll House. So far it is about a girl who goes off and marries a fairly wealthy man and ends up becoming kind of a snob.  When we left off yesterday, this girls long time friend, who she hasn't seen for quite sometime, randomly shows up for a visit.  There seems to be a lot of issues about money so far in this movie.  I wonder if that will be relevant later on. So far, it is a fairly interesting movie.  I'm looking forward to finding out how it ends.

Blog # 6

Today in class we watched part of the film The Yellow Wallpaper.  I found this film very interesting.  I have never read or even heard of the story, so I was a little lost during parts of the movie.  From what I understood, a family decides to move into a very nice house that has been uninhabited for quite some time. Everything seems like it is going to be great except the wife whose name is Charlotte, seems to have a bad feeling about everything.  Charlotte keeps having metal breakdowns, mostly due to her imagination and the yellow wall paper in her room.  She seems to find something creepy about the wall paper but still continues to write in the room.  We were unable to finish the film but we did see that Charlotte and her husband's marriage was hitting a rough patch.

Blog #5

So far this week, we have been reading Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.   For today, we had to read about the first half of the book.  I found the reading confusing for the most part, and for some reason parts of this book reminded me of A Tale of Two Cities.  I think that was because of the struggle of the lower classes to survive and the higher classes lived very easily.  Today in class we discussed the ideas that Marx was trying to get across in his book.  Marx believed that profit was a good thing, but not in large quantities. He didn't like that the lower classes were getting payed very little while the upper class had a profit surplus.    We also discussed in class the way that feudalism worked and how the classes changed from feudalism to capitalism.  After today's class, I hope that the reading will not be as confusing.

Week #4

This week we have been focusing on Frankenstein.  Today in class we watched part of the movie.  I thought watching the movie gave everyone a good visual of what is going on in the story.  I must admit that I have always imagined the creature to be not quite as ugly.  I don't know why this is but I think its because I usually take the creature's side.  I do agree with the creature when he says that he is like Adam but he had done nothing wrong.  Victor created him and then turned from him before he had even been alive for a few days.  I think the creature would have been able to over come that however if the family he had been watching had accepted him.  If they had accepted him and given him a chance to explain himself, the book would have turned out very differently.  This book does not have a happy ending really so we know that something has to happen that cannot be fixed.  I am looking forward to finishing the book, but I also wish we could have spent a little more time on Frankenstein.

Blog #3

This week was a short week so we were only able to have class twice.  (well technically we really only had class once because Professor Tucker let us out of class after only 5 minutes on Wednesday) This week we read two more romantic poems and started reading Frankenstein.  Everything we read this week I read last year for my English class.  It was interesting to learn about what we read in greater detail and to hear Professor Tucker's opinions and thoughts concerning the literature.  When I read Frankenstein this week, I was surprised by how much I remembered from when I read it last year.  I was also surprised that I learned a lot about the beginning of the book than I did from my English teacher last year.  I'm looking forward to finishing Frankenstein this week and finding out what else I missed when I read it last year.

Humanities Blog #2

Last night, I read the poem by William Wordsworth called "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey". I found that it was hard to follow at times, mostly because he often switched between the past, present, and future.  On my own, I managed to get the general idea of the poem.  During class, I realized how much I didn't pick up on while reading the poem.  I missed many of the details such as the part about the river and the part that described how innocent he was when he first visited the Abbey.

Jocelyn Utecht"s Humanities Blog #1

So far, I find this class fairly interesting.  It's interesting to learn how the Romantic Movement differed from other time periods and how we see those differences through art and literature.  I have learned about this time period before and already understand how nature was a huge part in the way the people thought.  In the artwork that we looked at in class, you can see how nature prevailed over man and how man is just another part of nature in the grand scheme of things.  I also found it interesting how Professor Tucker mentioned how he had a tough time adjusting to living in a rural area versus a big city.  I don't live in a big city, but I also found Chadron to be a very different place than where I grew up.  But like Professor Tucker, I am continuing to learn how to appreciate nature's beauty.