Moulin Rouge and the Disneyfication of the Avant Garde :: Movie Film Essays

Moulin Rouge and the Disneyfication of the Avant Garde At best Moulin Rouge is a lot of fun. At worst it represents the erasure of history. Moulin Rouge is set in the Paris of 1900--at least ostensibly it is. The actual Paris of 1900 is the Paris of Satie, the Paris of Ravel, of Debussy. The actual Paris of 1900 is the Paris of Matisse, and at least for part of the year, the Paris of Picasso. This is very fertile ground for a love story, a musical, anything, really. Puccini found it good enough for La boheme, after all. What we get in Moulin Rouge, though, is a Paris of 1900 filtered through the myopia of late 20th Century pop culture, especially pop music. We get an anachronistic melange of Madonna and Elton John, of Nirvana and Olivia Newton John. In other words, it isn’t the Paris of 1900. It isn’t even close. Granted, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec shows up as a supporting character and there is, in the film, a nightclub called Moulin Rouge from which the film cribs its title. But other than that, and the ubiquitous absinthe, there’s not much Parisy about Moulin Rouge the movie, much less Paris, 1900. The character of Toulouse-Lautrec speaks vaguely of the â€Å"Bohemian Revolution† but only long enough for the film to make fun of it, and never in enough detail for either a credible manifesto or a credible satire. And, of course, it has to be advocated by Toulouse-Lautrec because Hollywood still thinks dwarves are funny, especially dwarves with lisps. So why does so little of the real Paris of 1900 appear in this film? I have my suspicions that to use, say the music of Erik Satie, would have been too â€Å"challenging† for contemporary audiences. It may have been deemed out of the target demographic of the film, probably â€Å"indie† movie buffs in the 19-30 range whose introduction to the avant-garde was Trainspotting. A movie about a writer in Paris that actually dealt with other writers who were really there, other artists who didn’t have the luck to be born lisping dwarves, would never have been made. I mean, who would go to see it? Old people? The problem, of course, with always making things people can â€Å"relate† to, is that in constantly recycling what we know, we fail to ever learn or be challenged by anything new, even if that thing, new to our experience, is past history.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 17109201 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2012. 1. 5 Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ——A Probe into the Character of Emily A Rose for Emily is a short story written by American author William Faulkner first published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum.It describes the tragedy of a typical southern lady, Miss Emily, who is deeply victimized in her character and mind by the conventional system of the South and patriarchy; thus even though she wants to fight, she still fails to confront and deal with the changes caused by the shock of northern industrialization all by herself and finally leads to destruction and self-destruction on the way of pursuing happiness.This essay concentrates on exploring the character of Emily with the efforts she has made for her life and especially the reasons for her failure in â€Å"fighting† from the three aspects as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, (the well-known phrase applied from the United States Declaration of Independence). 1. The Backup of Early Life As a descendent of the southern conventional noble family, Emily was born in the environment full of the thought of feudalism and hierarchy which makes her acquire not only the attitude of arrogance and indifference to common people, but, most importantly, the habit of obedience to her father.Before her father dies, he is the only one Emily could rely on in her family. Therefore, there should be no blame to her that she depended on her father when she was still young, just as most of us would depend on our parents during our childhood and youth. However, the fact the she gets to be thirty and is still single reveals the abnormality of the dependence. Actually, it is no longer pure dependence on her father. Instead, the dependence has developed into over obedience which then is taken advantage of by her father to control her completely under the constraint of the old southern tradition.The control is ju st described by William Faulkner as the tableau, â€Å"Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door†. The father, a typical symbol of patriarchy, clutching a horsewhip, acts as a tyrant. It’s him who holds the Griersons always a little too high for what they really are and uses his horsewhip, which exactly symbolizes patriarchy, to beat off all of the young men who come to make proposals to his daughter, Miss Emily, believing that no one is quite good enough for her.In fact, in his opinion, none of the young men are quite good enough not for his daughter, but for the old southern tradition and its dignity. He never regards Emily as an independent individual. On the contrary, he regards her as the tool to maintain their dignity in the conventional system. However, Emily has been regarding her father as the whole b ackup of her life since she was born. What’s more, she has been in this state for more than thirty years. She has long been used to this dependence and even allows this kind of dependence to conquer her strong desire for free life and love. To her, this dependence is just her whole life.Therefore, when her father dies, she cannot accept the fact because her father is her whole dependence and the dependence is just her whole life. Her father’s death has also deprived all the hope of her life. Her father and the old tradition her father represents are the root of Emily’s tragedy; thus, her father’s death should be regarded as the chance for Emily to free herself from the constraint of the conventional system. It’s the beginning of Emily’s fighting for her own life, liberty and happiness. 2. Liberty Getting rid of her father’s control is just like releasing from a prison.After a long time of being sick, she is seen again with hair cut sh ort and looks like a girl, which declares the beginning of her liberty. However, Faulkner describes her as resembling to those angels in colored church windows—sort of tragic and serene. The word of â€Å"tragic† seems to have indicated the sad ending of Emily’s life even though she has the chance to gain liberty. And the reason lies on Emily’s wrong interpretation of liberty. From the description by Faulkner, after her father’s death, the character of Emily appearing before the readers is still such an arrogant and indifferent person typically symbolizing the old tradition.It is clearly known by the readers that actually Emily never frees herself from the fetter of the conventional system even though she has gotten rid of her father’s control. However, Emily sees her liberty from a different angle. To her, liberty means to live in a way she has long been used to at her own will. Since her father died, nobody and nothing can ever take her un der control any more. Therefore, she ignores all the others’ denouncing the smell of her house, vanquishes the new generation’s demanding her taxes and rejects the newer generation’s attaching a mailbox.She still carries her head high enough—even when others all believe that she is fallen, because the way of living she has been used to is just to maintain dignity as much as she can in the environment of the old southern tradition. She refuses to free herself from the conventional system because it’s the very place she feels relatively free. In contrast, the new world with all those changes caused by the shock of northern industrialization is where she will feel unsafe, uneasy and uncomfortable.Similarly in the film The Shawshank redemption, the two people, the old log, Brooks, and one of the protagonists, Red, have much difficulty in adjusting themselves to the life outside after they get their parole from decades of imprisonment. Brooks even commi ts suicide and Red can never pea unless asking for permission. And Emily has also been imprisoned for more than thirty years which has made her long ago assimilated by the old tradition. Emily has made efforts for her life and liberty after her father’s death. Unfortunately, she interprets her liberty in the way which is against the development of the new world both in aterial and spiritual aspects. And her false interpretation is still due to the over thirty years’ imprisonment of patriarchy and the conventional system of the South. 3. The Pursuit of Happiness Even though the living style has been assimilated by the convention, there is still something that everyone is born with including Emily. That is the desire for happiness. Emily lives in her own old world but all alone. She earns liberty but lacks happiness. Therefore, when Homer Barron shows up, she believes that he is the source of her happiness and makes up her mind to grasping the slight of hope.However, the chance of gaining happiness is ruined again by the conflict between her old world and the shock of northern industrialization. What’s worse, finally she leads to the road of destruction and self-destruction by her extreme desire resulting from patriarchy and the old tradition’s severe oppression Homer Barron, a Yankee, comes from the north and symbolizes the northern industrialization, which is definitely against the old tradition and even some basic principles of Emily’s own old world such as the feature of dignity. But on the other side, he seems to Emily the hope for her happiness.As a woman oppressed by spiritual loneliness for such a long time, the desire for love and happiness is strong enough to for Emily to conquer the continual restraint of conventional hierarchical thought. As a result, she goes out of the old house, which symbolizes the convention, with her head high and together with Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins a nd whip in a yellow glove driving in the glittering buggy on Sunday afternoons. She even decides to marry him by buying a complete outfit of men’s clothing regardless of all the objects and conflicts.During this period, she has gradually become deeply trapped in the love and happiness with Homer Barron. She has been oppressed by patriarchy and the southern convention for more than thirty years, and now the love she is experiencing is so unique and incomparable that it has become the whole happiness of her life and that it is impossible for her to let it go. If Homer Barron isn’t going to leave her, then the love and happiness will certainly continue. However, as the symbol of northern industrialization, Homer Barron holds a completely opposite attitude towards the relationship with Miss Emily.He just regards it as a pure way of entertainment without any responsibility, which is a sharp conflict between not only Homer and Emily, but also the morals of northern industria lization and the old southern convention. Under the pressure of the conflicts and the long-term victimization by patriarchy and the convention, Emily’s character and mind has been completely deformed. In the end, to prevent the happiness from disappearing, Emily takes drastic measures as killing Homer and let the body stay with her forever so that her love and happiness will also never leave.This measure finally destroys her whole life and leaves her a complete tragedy as well as Homer Barron. In this extraordinary short story, the character of Emily William Faulkner created has made some efforts to earn her own life and liberty and even persist in the pursuit of happiness. However, her life is based on patriarchy and the conventional system of the South for more than 30 years; the liberty she goes after is still trapped in the old tradition; and her pursuit of happiness comes across the conflicts between the southern old tradition and the shock of northern industrialization. All of these negative factors lead to the final tragic destruction. References Olga W. Vickery. The Novels of William Faulkner: A Critical Appraisal [M]. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964 Fang Yigui [ ]. [J]. ,2007 1 Liu Aiying [ ]. [J]. ,1998 2 Liu Zhuo [ ] & Peng Changliu [ ]. : [J]. ,2004 5 Wang Minqin [ ]. ?< > [J]. ,2002 2? ,? 66-69 Xiao Minghan [ ].  ·. : ,1997?

Lewis Katz School Of Medicine Essay - 1308 Words

Temple What is the nature of your special interest in the Lewis Katz School of Medicine? Lewis Katz School of Medicine graduates humanistic physicians and emphasizes the caring of human beings. I believe that patient interaction is as a vital part of being a physician as medical knowledge.At Lewis Katz, each student belongs to one of the seven Doctoring colleges. Through the Doctoring colleges, I will start learning and practicing critical clinical skills as early as my first year. Being with the same group over the next two years, I will not only learn to work with others but also form meaningful relationships with faculty members. Lewis Katz is well known for its diversity and inclusion. Since its founding, it has been co-educational, graduating its first woman physicians as early as 1906. It trains its students to be culturally competent and ready to serve diverse patient populations. It also has a great connection with its surrounding communities. Located in North Philadelphia, Temple University Hospital (TUH) tries to meet the health needs of a vulnerable and econ omically stressed population, oftentimes providing low cost or even free medical care. The School of Medicine encourages its students to service under-served populations and work to improve health equity. I would love to be part of the new The TEACH and CARE student-run clinic which offers primary care to the community from 5 to 8 PM. Not only will I gain valuable clinical experience, I will be serving theShow MoreRelatedA Knowledge Of Maternal Substance Abuse And The Disordered Language Characteristics2173 Words   |  9 Pagescharacteristics that are concomitant, is essential to effective therapy. Researchers concur that varying qualities and quantities of an enriching postnatal linguistic environment, directly correlates to the child’s future linguistic and academic success (Lewis et al., 2004). 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