Maus as a book has been an interesting read. I have heard many accounts of the Nazi cruelty and their constant pressures they placed upon the Jews, gypsies and anyone other than Arians. But, to hear it from a survivor’s perspective was a new experience for me. Art Spiegleman artfully shows, through his father’s eyes, how life as a Jew in Poland gradually deteriorated and eventually fell apart.
I have never read a comic book with the intent to finish it. So, when I started reading Maus, I was worried that I would lose interest in the writing style and would be forced to find the Sparknotes. However, I was hooked from the first page. This cartoon format actually makes the reading much easier and more fun than a conventional book. It also, however, makes this serious material seem less true and more fictional; something which definitely detracts from the seriousness of the message. However, I believe that Spiegelman does this on purpose to make the reader more informed without making them feel any guilt for having survived or having been German or anything like that.
The graphic format of Maus was, for me, a plus. If for nothing else, seeing animal faces on human bodies was comical. This use of animal imagery however, served several purposes in my opinion. First of all, Art Spiegelman uses the animal faces in place of human faces to dehumanize the situations and show the different types of people whom were affected by this war. If they had all been human faces, there is not much difference between human faces, when you really think about it. But, animal faces automatically relate a huge difference between groups and races to the reader. Secondly, Art Spiegelman uses the animal faces to bring the seriousness of the situations in the book down a level. By doing this, he reaches a greater audience. By making the material less stressful he reaches out to the young, the old, the educated and the not so educated. I think, Art Spiegleman does an extremely good job with this work.
If I decided to run away from my family, friends and home, then I know the general location I would head to, the Virginia – North Carolina Appalachian mountain region. I have always loved the States of Virginia and North Carolina. Their location is ideal for me because, I have always loved the mountains and the forests, something both States have plenty of. And, if I ever wanted to go see the ocean, I wouldn’t have far to travel. These two States have been favorites of mine for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was little, I have always loved this area of the country thus, if I ever left Indiana that is where I would head. ‘Course, everyone who knows me knows this so, I would have to change my name and cover my tracks if I wanted to disappear.
Changing my name however, is easier said than done. My name is who I am; and who I am is Ian E. Champ. Losing that part of my identity would be a hard obstacle. However, after the small amount of thought I have given this topic, I believe I know what I would rename myself. The name I have come up with is Quinn Libra. I have always liked the name Quinn and my astrological sign is Libra. Therefore, I would rename myself Quinn Libra. Doesn’t ring as well as Ian Champ but, it would do the job.
Finally, what I would do in this new life of mine would depend on how bold I become. If I grew the courage of Alexander Supertramp then I would follow my dreams and forgo work that entitled me to greater luxuries. This path would take me to the work I have always wanted to do but, been fearful of the lack of security they offer. My Grandfather on my Mother’s side was a Carpenter and ever since I saw the woodwork he could create I was hooked. My current plan for life is to work hard in whatever my chosen career path and learn the trade of carpentry on the side. Therefore, if I left my current life behind, I would dedicate myself to the artful working of wood. I would build my own home in the woods, a small but comfortable dwelling. I would forgo pleasures such as television, heating and cooling systems, phone lines, running water, and electricity in favor of a simpler, harder lifestyle. I know that no matter how hard I try, I will always rely on modern devices and inventions but, I would rid myself of the superfluous ones. I would work my own small plot of land and farm the food I could not kill or gather. I would build my own devices and maintain my land. I would keep a small truck for work and to get around (not fully primitive of me). With all of this peace, I would spend long hours ensuring survival through boiling water, preparing (sometimes hunting) food and in general ensuring I could keep living.
This lifestyle may not appeal to everyone but, I like the idea of living only off of what I need. It provides me with the opportunity to cut out the waste in my life and to return my life to a simpler time when everything a man did had tangible importance.
At the beginning of my reading of “Into the Wild,” I empathized with Chris, his dream to live with nature and to appreciate the true beauty in nature. After reading ten chapters however, I have become decreasingly fond of Chris and increasingly impatient with him. His lack of preparedness and rejection of proper equipment only illustrates, at a very least, a serious lack of judgment in my opinion; and at worst a suicidal wish he is trying to fulfill. I understand his love of the natural word, for I share his love of nature and the outdoors. The natural world is full of wonder and amazement but, it is NOT romantic. The natural world is a living growing thing but, it does not have a moral compass nor does it sympathize with any creature. It is a kill or be killed environment and I understand that, Chris does not. This is the source of my malcontent with Chris, his foolhardy attitude toward his own survival. I understand his desire to limit his personal possessions and I can even accept his desire to discard several pieces of equipment that I would have taken. But, his supplies for his Alaskan adventure were well below the bare minimum. His rifle was too small of a caliber, his boots were too poor of insulation for the frozen Alaskan tundra, he carried almost no food and apparently had no means of starting a fire or any emergency rescue preparations. Furthermore, and this is the big mistake, he went into Alaska alone and did not even tell anyone where he was heading or a date which he was aiming to return by. But, besides his lack of attention to detail, the most aggravating action by Chris that I have read is his treatment of his friends and family, especially his family. Family is a special gift that not everyone gets the chance to experience and Chris discards his like an empty bag of rice. Chris is a personable person but pulls away from people before anyone can become too close, which hurts said people. As for Chris’ family, I understand that they were controlling but, he did not resist them. Therefore, I feel no sympathy for him when it comes to his problems with his family. If he had fought for the right to live his life and they still lorded over him, then yes I would feel sympathy for him and even support his severance of them. However, he did not, he laid there and took their control and then, out of nowhere, he “divorces” his parents, and his sister. Every time I think about him doing this, it infuriates me! I am an only child and wish nothing more than to have a brother or sister to call my own. But, Chris had that, he had a loving sister whom he was close to and he left her just as easily as he left his controlling parents. As I have said, I feel no sympathy for his family troubles.
My Zine project has sadly not taken much shape. The idea I am currently following is to write my Zine over how my first ever basketball game hooked me for life. It was seventh grade and I joined my grade school’s C team to help keep me in shape but, I didn’t think that it would become a lifelong obsession (so far) at the time. The crowd was small, but, to me it was giant and the intensity of the game was amazing! Ever since then, I have been hooked. I plan to write my Zine over that first game and the subsequent obsession for college basketball I developed from that game (NBA isn’t really my thing).
Post 1:
The first post by Walter Day puts forth his version of the facts. That Twin Galaxies never showed Steve Wiebe or Tim Sczerby any resentment for their accomplishments or tried to protect Billy Mitchell from being replaced. Walter Day puts forth evidence that Twin Galaxies gave the proper attention and glory to these two men for their accomplishments. However, it omits the fact that Billy Mitchell did reclaim his throne through a video tape during the filming of this documentary.
Post 2:
This second post by Walter Day tries to illustrate that Steve Wiebe remained the world record holder for Donkey Kong over the course of the movie with a score that the directors neglected to show the audience. This, however, is marred by Mr. Day’s own evidence. One of his tables of scores lists the top three scores as of the year 2003. However, the second place score (Billy Mitchell’s score) is listed as 5/27/2004, a full year after the data is supposed to have been collected. Whether this is a mere mistake or a faulty graph is not important. The true importance of this evidence is found in the fact that this data was not presented to the audience in the film. This is a true case of “he said-she said.” with the directors of the documentary showing their footage of actual events versus Twin Galaxies trying to justify their innocence of any wrong doing.
Post 4:
This post by Walter Day speaks on the topic of his acceptance Billy Mitchell’s videotaped Donkey Kong score. He accepts responsibility for the mistake and confesses that, before he had a chance to remove the score himself, Robert Mruczek removed the score from the Twin Galaxies webpage. This was done in order to confirm the validity of the tape and therefore the score. According to Walter Day, the original tape was being sent by Billy to Twin galaxies for official approval and review. Curiously however, Walter Day never mentions anything more about this tape. He never mentions if it arrives, was reviewed, rejected or accepted. He simply drops the topic. Therefore, there are two conclusions. Either, Billy Mitchell forged the tape and the score was then invalidated or he never sent the tape. Either way, according to Twin Galaxies, Steve Wiebe remained the World Champion despite Billy’s attempt to reclaim his title.
Post 5:
This last post by Walter Day speaks to the events surrounding the Donkey Kong verification visit. According to him, two players offered to check out Steve Wiebe’s machine for Twin Galaxies. This offer was accepted and the machine was checked out by two anonymous people. If nothing else, this was a huge breach in procedures for Twin Galaxies and showed a lack of integrity for the process.
These five films have been collected over my nineteen years of life and are in no particular order. They are, quite simply, a list of five films which have been important to me.
Number one; The Sandlot.
The sandlot is a childhood favorite of almost every one of my friends and is one of mine aswell. Whether it’s the slo-mo “forever”, the zany contraptions the boys come up with, the pool scene or the final chase scene with the beast, my childhood imagination was captivated. I learned alot from that movie; about baseball, about friendship, about the many nicknames for Baba Ruth. But, the entire movie, as a whole, was what impacted me the most. It captivated my imagining as I wondered if that’s what a fifties summer was really like. Ever since I first watched it, The Sandlot has remained one of my top five movies ever.
Number Two; Kingdom of Heaven.
For those of you who have not watched The Kingdom of Heaven, it is an Orlando Bloom film documenting the experiences of a radically minded young black smith by the name of Balian. The story is full of scenarios which broke the social norms and bounds of medieval acceptability. These experiences shape Bailian into a more noble and honest man. He is offered Lordship over all of Christian controlled Jerusalem but there’s a catch; the rightful successor (a power-hungry and violent man) would need to be executed. Guy de Lusignan, the rightful successor to the throne of Jerusalem, earned this verdict from the king for trying to insight war between the Christian army and the Muslim Empire. However, even knowing this Balian cannot, in good conscience, accept the throne of Jerusalem. He states, “Jerusalem is a Kingdom of Conscience or not a Kingdom at all.” Also, this film provided me with my Senior quote for high School and continues to be a quote which guides my life. It reads, “What man is a man that does not make the world a better place?” It was Balian’s nobility and actions of doing what he knew to be right even though it might lead to his end that has placed this movie in my top five and has kept it there.
Number Three; Crash.
Crash built upon my own thoughts of the world and how it works, which drew me in from the very start. I had always believed in the repercussions of one’s actions and the ability to touch countless lives with simple gestures and words. Crash, illustrated these feelings of mine and placed them on the silver screen. Through the small problems, racist actions, heroic struggles and common banter, Crash illustrates daily life from a very personal place. Crash also portrays how little actions can have mighty repercussions. These facts hooked me from the get-go and have secure Crash’s position in my top five.
Number Four; The Dark Knight.
This recent addition to the top five actually bumped Casino Royale out. I’m sure we are all familiar with the newest Batman movie which supposedly caused Heath Ledger to accidently over dose. Many people find the Joker’s character to far “out there” to find any good in him. I, however, find immense interest in this Joker character. His thoughts on chaos and the sociological thought patterns of panicking people interested me quite a bit. I’m not saying I’m going to let “one, little ol’ mayor die” but I can see the virtue in his thoughts about chaos. Chaos truly is fair, there is no bias in a coin toss. Mathematically speaking, so long as the coin has even weight distribution along the coin, any outcome has exactly 50% of being chosen. There is no bias to either argument; chaos is blind (almost like our justice system strives to be). Aside from being an incredible movie, The Dark Knight taught me to flip a coin if I ever can’t make up my mind. And I have ever since.
Number Five; Dogma.
Following the adventures of Jay and silent Bob, Dogma takes a spiritual road and tries to teach people to be true to their heart. This movie, however, was and still is considered to be incredibly offensive to any organized religion. I, however, put forth that (besides the use of crude language) the movie Dogma merely challenges people to think about what they believe. It does not try to preach, or convert but, merely prods people to question what they believe in. I watched this movie for the first time when I was in the eighth grade. My parents have always been fairly liberal with what they allowed me to watch as a child and decided that Dogma could really help me on the road to personal discovery I was about to embark on in High School. Dogma has remained in my top five because of this powerful message and insight it probes each person to search for.
Tattoos are signs of personal identity and self-expression, group association and political statements, counter-culture ideas and rebelliousness. In short, tattoos are what the person makes them. The same tattoo could have hundreds of different meanings for hundreds of different people. If I were to have a tattoo, which I have been thinking about quite a bit recently, there are two I have in mind. The first and most important of my two tattoo ideas is also the more painful of the two to have applied. A tattoo on the ribs, as I’m sure you all know, is supposed to be the most painful place to get a tattoo, and that’s where I want it. My tattoo idea is to have my family motto, “Triumph Through Adversity”, tattooed in an Old English font on my left side so that the words follow the angle of my ribs. I don’t want any color, just straight black and skin. I know that if I ever do decide to have this done it will be painful but, it will also be worth it.
My second tattoo idea is more likely to be forgotten. My family has most recently served our country through Naval and Cost Guard service, therefore making me a member of a “Naval” family; at least in recent history. My idea would be to have a naval compass placed on my left shoulder blade. Surrounding the compass would be a quote such as “chart your own course” or “Even with the best of maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys.” These quotes combined with the naval compass illustrate that we are all plotting our own course in life with each passing moments and that we can never truly know what lies ahead of us.
Though I doubt that I will ever actually get a tattoo, I know that I have found the tattoos I would want to get. Each tattoo, in some way, identifies me as a member of my family. But, more than that, these tattoos symbolize my drive to push forward and live my life to the fullest I possibly can. I like the idea of these tattoos, and the idea that not many people will have them, especially the rib tattoo.
Quotation example: “This will not end public education. Contrary to conventional belief, legislators enacted compulsory-attendance laws to legalize what already existed. William Landes and Lewis Solomon, economists, found little evidence that mandatory-attendance laws increased the number of children in school” (Page 1).
Paraphrasing Example: Roger Sipher begins his essay by illustarating how the statistical data from test scores can be tied to the unwillingness of some students to actually attend school and learn. From this he concludes that the archaic mandatory-attendance laws should be abolished.
Summary Example: “So That Nobody Has To Go To School If They Don’t Want To” by Roger Sipher is an interesting essay in which Mr. Sipher argues his case for the abolishment of mandatory-attendance laws. Mr. Sipher provides the background for his six main points and his entire argument with great effectiveness. His main points stress the importance and the benefits of letting children whom do not wish to attend school to simply be dropped. In short, Mr. Sipher argues that repealing the mandatory-attendance laws would; give respect back to schools, increase actual learning, save State money, free teachers up to actually teach willing students, motivate students to learn and of course kick out the students who obviously don’t want to learn.
When I first heard about free running, almost two years ago, I was in awe. The way that these athletes could move and perform acrobatic moves, that I didn’t know could be preformed, hooked me and pulled me in close with wonder. I would always imagine my friends and me somehow learning how to move and flow as these urban athletes did, jumping from rooftop to roof top and making stupendous flips in mid air before landing with a roll. I could imagine running through the crowded halls of my high school dipping, weaving flying even and making my way through a stunned crowd. Obviously, I never got around to learning this amazing physical art form but, I never lost my wonder for it. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I learned about the origins of Free running in the French system known as Parkour. It is this Sub-Culture I plan to investigate and immerse myself in.
Free Running developed from the French style “Le Parkour” and incorporates many of its moves. Parkour itself stressed the efficiency of movement while also showing that when we move, we can move beautifully. Free running, or American Parkour, actually stresses much the same principles. It is amazing to think how these two systems have been separate for quite some time now but, they remain almost identical. While Free Runners do show off and have great fun with their abilities, their moves are designed to express freedom and beauty while still being highly structured. Through my research done thus far, I have found that the American Parkour and the original Parkour exist fairly harmoniously, except for one major disagreement. American Parkour allows and encourages competition, even to the extent of having professional and amateur status. Parkour on the other hand does not believe in using their skills for competition. One of the “second generation” Founders of Parkour is Sebastien Foucan. It is his words that sum up the anti-competition spirit of Parkour. He mentions in an interview that, while Parkour does hold competitions they are not “his way” they may be “someone else’s way” but they are not his way.
One of the major misconceptions of Le Parkour is that every person who practices it is in extremely good physical condition. While many of their members are in incredible shape everyone has to start somewhere. With Parkour’s non-competitive/ showboating nature and no official differentiation between skill levels, there is a natural diversity of individuals who call Le Parkour their own. However, Parkour does require that people be experienced athletes, especially runners, before beginning in Parkour. Therefore the misconception does hold some truth. Le Parkour does require its members to be active, healthy individuals but, not everyone is as muscular as the masters of Parkour.
Le Parkour is a fascinating art form which, until this assignment, had been unknown to me. I’m glad I was introduced to this athletic and artistic expression of personality and creativity. I sincerely hope that through this writing I can gain a greater insight and appreciation for Le Parkour and its offshoot Free Running.
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