Easing into the Lectures

I came late this week. I had to have lunch, and I don’t like rushing it. I have a class that finishes ten minutes before the lecture starts and lunch always comes first.

I walked in about fifteen minutes late and was treated to what I’ve come to expect. The usual symposium (would have no reason to call it an un-symposium, just saying). The lectures interesting if you’re willing to take in what is being said. It isn’t like a normal lecture in the sense that there is a set learning for the week. It is basically a congregation of the subject, with the tutors coming together as a group to discuss various things that are not set around learnings for the week.

There were some good points discussed on the influence the author has over his/her text. Adrian played an old childhood word trick on people and said that if we could answer a question completely wrong like that, then what control do you have over your audience, or something? I think that’s a complete opposite. If you are able to write something that tricks your audience into thinking on thing, then to reveal they were completely wrong, then you are a fantastic author or spy. Any film where there is a plot defining character twist like Fight Club or The Sixth Sense captures exactly what the author wants. That being said, it must be well crafted. My brother said that he guessed the twist in Shutter Island early on, and I guessed the twist in Now You See Me (not through hints, just through an “oh, wouldn’t it be cool if” moment). I understand what Adrian was trying to say. Look at the guy who killed John Lennon. I believe that he had some fascination with Catcher in the Rye. He created his own meaning from it. When I saw Only God Forgives, a movie with most negative reviews due to it being “over-pretentious”, I developed my own meaning as the film went on, and the ending fulfilled my satisfaction of what i saw the story as. My interpretation was different to everyone I saw the film with. The point is, the author has a very strong control over its audience to the most part. If Atticus Finch is in the court room defending Tom Robinson, most people would assume that he is in fact doing that, rather than it being a metaphor for something else. I think Adrian’s metaphor was much too generalized.

I was also disappointed that the topic of whether video-games were an interactive narrative wasn’t discussed. So my next post will be a further look into that.

As for general feedback, I’m still hoping for more of a discussion, if not with the students, then a rapid back and forth with the tutors, like Margaret and David.