Blog 9 Revise

We define a hero as someone who does a selfless act in aid of someone else without expecting a reward or personal gain. Our image of a hero in this country is someone who is flawless and has high moral standards to follow. He/she has to be physically photogenic, strong, and charismatic in order to believe the lie we’ve created. This illusion was made by us in order to inspire us to do the right thing and make the world a better place to live. The truth is in any developed country we live in a dog eat dog world consumed by our needs and wants. When people who have the characteristics of a hero like MLK Jr. or mother Teresa who rise up to the plate and try to benefit humanity are only to being taken for granted. When we hear about the heroic deeds of soldiers who are fighting the war in Iraq or a police officer who takes a bullet for a little girl we tend to pat them on the back and tell them they did a good job. Yet if it were to be anyone who went to the extreme like saved innocent lives from a car bombing and the person was just some normal guy he would be ignored by the media in favor for someone more interesting.

In the movie “Hero” John Bubber who has the characteristics of being a hero takes credit for the heroic deed that he did not do. He did because he wanted a place to stay and has nowhere else to go since he’s homeless. Gail the news reporter who couldn’t remember who really saved her immediately accepted him for his smile and his good nature. What’s worse is that the TV station she works for channel 4 heavily marketed his image and turned him into a nation’s hero over night. He was even a Vietnam vet who managed to save his fellow comrades from being killed. Whenever someone does a heroic deed we tend to focus on that person particular past to see if that person has done other credible things to awe and inspire us. If a former police officer or a former war vet helped a ‘white’ girl from a well she fell into they are considered to be the nation’s hero. After all they have a resume of service that the media can exploit their life story for ratings. If it were an average Joe like a hotdog vendor down on his luck and about to be homeless soon the credit will be given to the rescuers who showed up after the hotdog vendor saved the ‘white’ little girl. Since the hotdog vendor doesn’t have a laundry list of heroic deeds nor follow the characteristics of the hero this country made up. Like Bernie Laplante, he is purposely the opposite of what we idealistically think of a hero. Bernie is a crook and like us only looks out for himself, yet whenever there is a crisis he will rise to the challenge. Bernie saved the passengers from the burning plane out of guilt for the little boy who thinks his father is still trapped inside.

Bernie tries to tell everyone the heroic deed he did and no one believed him. Even when Gail finds out the truth she still refuses to accept that she owes her life to Bernie and thinks he’s trying to frame John Bubber for the credit cards he stole from her. There is another scene in the movie where John Bubber is taken out on a date with Gail to a fancy restaurant. The people there constantly congratulated him for the heroic deed they thought to believe he did. Even one person thanked him and said that if they were in a situation the same as him, he wouldn’t have done it. This couldn’t be sadder then the truth since we live in a society that mostly cater to its needs and wants. What we failed to realized is that there is a Superman/woman within us all we just choose to ignore it when the time calls for it. We fill ourselves with self doubt and excuses to the point where we refuse to give the damsel in distress help. Hoping for someone like John Bubber would be there to fix their problem for us. The key scene of the movie is where Bernie asks the bartender if he would believe that Bernie was the one who saved those passengers. The bartender replied no and he wouldn’t either for it’s not in their nature to do so furthering my point that people filled themselves with self doubt and excuses we come up with to worry our own businesses and not the needs of others.

Anyone can be a hero just not what our media’s definition to exploit and milk for ratings. The TV station milked John Bubber for the fame he had with the public. Sure John Bubber lied so he can have a place to sleep for the night, while others would argue he inspired people to do the right thing. Sure he inspired people to do the right thing, but eventually what’s keeping people to lose that motivation and go back to their natural behavior? Of course Bernie convinces John to continue the lie and continue to inspire people since he’s photogenic. Yet the truth will eventually come out. When it does people won’t take it lightly while others would say I knew that guy was a phony. Until then he’ll just use his fame to convince people to do the right thing and some would follow him. While others would just say “well he told them to do it so someone out there is taking care of that issue for me”. There is a hero with in all of us we just choose to ignore it and rely on someone else to answer the call for us. When someone tries to do a heroic deed like ending the oppression of a war torn nation or find a cure for aids. The media will shower them with attention until they find something else that will distract us from what they did. Eventually their contributions to humanity would be taken for granted and forgotten in a few short generations.

"follow up to blog 8."

As I mention before I have a curse residing in my right brain called critical cynicism. Sometimes I enjoy having it around my head constantly nip picking every little detail as if I were Siskel and Ebert themselves. Other times I really wish I knew how to control it or sell it to the nearest pawnshop to drop myself to everyone's level of delusion. People have called me killjoy, as if I'm the Grimm Reaper of great moments coming to the end. That really hurts me a lot since sometimes I wish I could join them in their moment.Being the other can be fun at times, but not always when the star attraction is always on sight. When debunking arguments with facts or in my case facts and standards people wouldn't accept what I have to say. Just case me aside with their measuring stick of mediocrity and accept what big business clogs into their mouths.
When people view me its not in a positive light but instead a force to be reckon with like Orson Wells after his pea commercial. People view me as the other no pun intended and rather associate with me they fear my ability to ruin their moment with my criticism. As mention before I don't know how to stop and people believe its a play I'm doing.

Blog 8: Criticism is a Habit.

Ever since I was a teenager I developed a critical mind that bothers most people. Most of my friends and family would want to alienate themselves whenever I put my analysis on their favorite movies, games, television shows, etc. I have no clue why but when ever I view something my brain analysis what I'm looking at. Breaks it down into essence and judge the material on its merits. Example my cousin loves the Dukes of Hazard, I respect his opinions on the show but from the critical standpoint it doesn't mean its a good show in any way. Though may sound silly and to the reader my obviously say to himself it's something called an opinion, but from my standpoint if something is done horrible does this qualify to be good? What I'm trying to say is what if a student writes a really bad paper. Didn't follow what the criteria asks him or her to do. This paper didn't answer the question, mostly uses filler, and its an incoherent ramble for twenty pages long. A really bad paper and yet the professor enjoys it. It's still a failing paper from all critical and even writing standards.
I can understand preference and why people would enjoy guilty pleasures in fact I do too, since after all I am a typical homosapian with faults going back to my primitive cave baby years. But my point is how can someone enjoy something so terrible, so vile of the stench of something so bad and yet people accept it. I know I have standards and expectancy but if something like The Room is considered to be the best movie of all time then I have a problem with that judgment. It's a habit putting my level of standards on people based on anything on what they're talking about. In my eyes I wish to enlighten them that their precious beloved rock they found on the beach was nothing more then dried up dog droppings. It's a force of habit that I can't control fully of I'm afraid and now you know my curse. The mind that can't stop being judgmental. I sometime wish I could grab my wrench or tire iron and beat my head silly to bring myself down to the level of the others. Sound silly but to me it hurts sometimes when having a conversation on our current cesspool of pop culture and not like the cesspool of yester decade about trends and shows people enjoy. Nothing bothers me more then being an outcast of freaks from the local carnival in town.
I've now become the oddity, the star attraction and to me that is a bad thing. I want to be with the other freaks like the mermaid with the terrible tan and an ugly accent, or the spoiled gorilla in a suit talking about his future goals in Yale with a promise of a broken marriage and drinking problems. I am an analysis though I may not crunch numbers or sell bounds on Wall Street, I like to look at things for what they really are. Eyes of a God some may call it, to me it's a blessing and to others an annoyance. With my eyes may sound good to some in actuality it's a curse with a forecast of alienation and a dark cloud of loneliness.

Blog 7

During the rise of comic book stores in the nineteen eighties people who wish to pursue their passion were able to distribute their works and work in the comic industry. Since DC and Marvel owned the entire comic book industry it made it nearly impossible for creators to freely express themselves. Both companies also made it impossible for creators to be compensated with their own creation or characters being used in their company brand names. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are one of the few who were successful in challenging the established status qua and trying to change the comic book industry for independent creators or at least attempted.

1. Talk about their creation TMNT and how it was an unexpected success.
2. How the sales showed that people were willing to try something different than what Marvel and DC were dishing out at the time. Especially being a self published book.
3. How both Eastman and Laird try to create the "Bill of comic Creators" helping comic book independent creators to control, publish, and inherit their royalties from their own creation.
4. Laird created the Xeric foundation a nonprofit organization that will give back to the industry as a whole and teach new up comers about self publishing.
5. Eastman left TMNT to create his own publishing company called Tundra to give comic writers a chance to diversify themselves from what Marvel and DC allows them to do.

Both Eastman and Laird tried their best to change the comic book industry for those who wished to do their own thing. Unfortunately their attempts were somewhat successful while others failed. To me these two people are pioneers of independent creators who tried to change the industry. What makes me cringe is that people give most of the credit to five artists who worked at Marvel comics and left to form their own company called Image. Sure they were most successful in the industry but they had fame and recognition from their fans. Plus they relied on gimmicks like reprinting multiple versions of issues of their first issues and devalued comics artistically as a whole with bad stories and lackluster art work. What Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird did was important in the comic industry since they did it all from scratch and didn't have any fame from their previous work. They spend countless weeks drawing, inking, and writing their stories in Laird's living room. That in my book is a huge change in mass communication.

McGill, g. Douglas “DYNAMIC DUO: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird; Turning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Into a Monster” New York Times. 25 December 1988. 21 October 2010.
Kean, Benjamin. “Turtles Days, Turtles Night”. Talking to Kevin Eastman. 31 August 2007. Newsarama. 21 october 2010 < http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540>

Blog #6

Hero is a word that has been thrown around to the point where people confuses it’s meaning like people who fight in war or someone who manages to save a cat from Ms. Danvers’ tree. A hero is someone who does a selfless act in aid only to get nothing in return.  In this movie the main protagonist Bernie Laplante is portrayed as a scumbag, societies lowest of the low if you will. He drinks, steals anything that can give him money or gratification, takes advantage of those who aid him, etc. Until one night while driving through the rain his car breaks down and he becomes involved in a plane accident that crashes though the Brooklyn bridge. Bernie does the opposite of what his character has been depicted from the first 25 minutes of the movie and decides to help the passengers who are trapped inside the burning plane.  Eventually he saves all the passengers only for the wrong/right motivation in which he wanted to save the boy’s father who he thought was trapped on the plane.  Bernie went through all the trails of a hero yet he has never received the credit for one since the homeless man John Bubber who Bernie hitched a ride from when he left the scene took the credit from him. John Bubber becomes a national hero and a positive symbol of human greatness.

What I like about this movie is how it incorporates humanity illusion that the world is a friendly place with realism where people are out for themselves. Like what Bernie said to his son “You have to look out for number one, you”.  Whenever a problem exist in the world especially within our country we like to think there are people out there like Bubber that will fix it for us. Like in the scene in the movie where Gail takes John out to a fancy restaurant, random strangers congratulating him for helping the passengers and said they would never do something like that. The TV station kept constantly whoring out his publicity and reported John’s achievements like saving soldiers during Vietnam. What’s sad is that the TV station only showed a couple of good things he did in the war and the public eat it all. Same can be said with what’s going on with the war in Iraq. The news stations will only report the good things that our soldiers over seas are doing and not the terrible incidents or innocent lives killed by the crossfire. Whenever Bernie tries to prove he actually saved the lives on that plane people ignore him or don’t believe him. What is another play on reality where if you have a record of good deeds and look photogenic the media wants to know everything about you like John Bubber.  Like what happen to the bombing in Time Square, if it were a stock broker or someone that came home after their service. They would be heroes, but instead it was a hotdog vendor that notices the smoke coming out of the van. The vendor was homeless and never had a resume that made him heroic in order for the media to mass market on.

In America we love our heroes to be flawless and to have high moral standards. John Bubber lied to Gail and the television station only to have a place to sleep for the night. Feeling guilty that he has taken the credit for something he never did. He uses his new found fame to encourage people to help the homeless and sick kids when he visited the hospital. Until he couldn’t take the guilt anymore and attempts suicide until Bernie convinces Bubber to continue the false publicity since he inspires people to do good or a nominal fee of Bubber’s half of his million dollars. If the public knew the truth they will automatically hate John for being a fraud and go back living where everyone is looking out for themselves. Plus the public won’t take the insult of their intelligence very well since the television station that heavily marketed John Bubber duped them for ratings. I’m in the middle since this whole philosophical motive and ideas are so grey. Sure John Bubber lied but look at the people he inspired to help. If no one claimed to save the reporter Bernie wouldn’t be out on bail, even if he went and claim his reward no one would believe him since he’s not heroic material.

Blog 5

During the nineteen eighties comic book stores began to boom and no longer could comics be found in local news stands and pharmacy magazine rack. Comic Book stores also promoted and sold independent comics that were created by fans thus began the black and white comic book boom. Two comic creators from Massachusetts Names Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird dominated at least a small fraction of the comic market proving that anyone who is an inspiring comic writer/artist. Don’t have to work for wither Marvel or DC comics.   

Blog 4

1) From what I gather during these four weeks of class is organizing my ideas and more in depth with my thesis/topics. I mention before in my about me blog that I want to become a writer specifically a comic writer, because I have a passion for it since I was fifteen. I had been told that I can come up with great ideas but keep having a problem with writing them on paper. My problem is that I sometimes having trouble organizing my material when writing an essay and it becomes a jumbling mess. In this class I learn how to create topic sentences, free writing, and clustering ideas to organize by paragraph.

          Topic sentence is nothing new for I have been doing it since high school and that’s all they teach about in the SAT essay portion of the test. This is not an issue for me except after my topic sentence I would sometimes meander away from the main point and not make a whole lot of sense, which free writing comes in. I’ve been taught by my sixth grade teacher about free writing but I never took it seriously and underestimated it. Eventually it came back to bite me in the worst case scenario when writing my first essay for this class. Not only could I get my ideas and main thesis pointed out, but also kept changing the introduction or any random sentence that I felt didn’t sound right. I’m practicing free writing more since I can jot down anything about the topic I’m writing and judge it later. For organization I write down a list of ideas that can go with my topic sentence and cluster the ones they have in common. This makes it easy for me to organize my ideas and improves my writing skills.

2) Interacting with other students from a different class was fun since now I can get feedback from someone else who stays up all night with nothing better to do then annoy my professor about my essay. Being an ass aside I can receive criticism of my work from the students prospective while learning what I can do to improve and make my blog post interesting to read. Though weird since I’m not use to having anyone else besides the professor seeing my work and now having my work display like a dog show contest is a new experience for me. So yes, these comment post I keep getting from students in ENA 099 or ENG101 are really helpful (please don’t stop). What is weird for me is that while pursuing a career as a writer I’ve become a very critical person, I guess it’s a package deal. Judging someone else’s work comes easy for me and makes me sound like a cold/calculative person. I’m the exact opposite in person though. I can get a bit harsh sometimes so I apologies to anyone I offend and will offend in the future (YOU HAVE BEEN Warned!!!!*laser beams are coming out of my cat’s mouth*).    

3) I love watching movies, since I’m becoming a writer I need more inspiration then just books and comics.  

Blog 3

After watching the matrix I can see the metaphorical meaning the Wachowski brothers were implementing before they realized it was a blockbuster summer movie and loses all meaning. The matrix dealt with many issues but what impacts me the most it the debate between Agent Smith and Morpheus of illusions vs. reality. In the movie humanity lives in a world that has seen better days, a dystopian future where vegetation and water is limited. Humans are in a war against sentinel machines that want to take over the world. The machines use humans as harvest energy to keep the fight going and there is the matrix a simulated computer reality world where people are able to do anything they want. Throughout the movie Morpheus along with his puppet trainee Neo enter a constant battle against Agent Smith who wants to stop Morpheus achieving his goal in saving humanity from the dystopian future.
     I can’t help but make a connection to Plato’s story “The Allegory of the Cave” in which Morpheus wants to help humanity out of the matrix or the illusionary virtual world and defeat the machines that inhabited the planet in order for the world to return back to it’s status quo. Agent Smith wants humanity to live in matrix or this illusionary dark cave since it can give everyone what they want. If given a choice I would side with agent smith for what the matrix for all is worth is their utopia. From my perspective in our country we take for granted with what’s around us and tend to ignore the rest of the worlds problems. Outside America you have countries that are suffering from famine, war, diseases, poverty, exploitation, etc. People from Cuba or North Korea would sell their souls to have the lives we have and never look back. Sure in our country everything is commercialized and our Government scares us to buy things that we really don’t need, but we still live in an illusionary world that brings us happiness. Agent Smith like the rest of humanity only wants to be happy in his own little world.
    Morpheus is blinded by his idealistic righteousness in restoring the real world back to the way it was (1999 in the movie). In the Matrix as I stated before is a computerized machine that can simulate anything the user wants and needs. In the matrix the world is literally at your finger tips and you the individual can do anything you want to your hearts content. Inside the matrix there is no crime, wars, famine, diseases, murder, etc. Morpheus argues that the matrix is just a simulated experience and people are being lied too. If the majority of people are happy then what’s the harm being done? Of course they are being lied to but at the same time the matrix offers everything that people can want and still feel like it’s real. If humanity goes back into the real world what could they possibly do to rebuild civilization. Even if they succeed in rebuilding and repopulating what’s to stop society being controlled and destroy by someone else. Throughout history humanity has done more harm then good, by living in the matrix all the desire these people want can be met without bloodshed or violence. Everyone is equal and human nature doesn’t exist in any form inside of the matrix.
    What is wrong living in illusion if the truth hurts more and brings humanity grief then good. As long as humanity continues to exist on this rock human nature will continue to take it’s course and eventually ends us all. I would rather live in a simulated world where all are needs and wants can be meet and achieve. Rather in reality where people can control, exploit, and destroy human lives for their own gain to achieve their goal.