ENG 3 Jan 21 Homework + Machinima

Langston Hughes poem "Suicide Note" being Machinimized now gives a universal face to the poem. Now when people read the poem after having previously viewed the video the readers can all relate to the same imagery. In a sense this unifies the readers/viewers of this poem/video because they now can relate together instead of everyone having their own seperate images or outtakes on the poem. However, with this unification of the readers there is no sense of independence to where others can input their own ideas about the poem. The video was made under the vision of one person and now people would conform to that one persons interpretation of the poem. By adding a face to the poem the viewers of the video see and hear what the maker wants them to. Taking out the room for ones own interpretation of the poem is not what poetry is meant to do, it is meant to allow for people to interpret the poem in there own views and affect them in their own personal ways. For example, the tone in the poem is more of a tranquil or peaceful sense where the person in the poem is almost content with committing suicide. Where as the video seems to be sad because of the characters movements and the song added to the poem. The Machinima version of the poem differs from the true version of the poem in that it is just someones opinion of the poem not Hughes himself. This makes the machinima version just an interpretation of the poem instead of the intended meaning of the poem from Hughes.

References to poetry can be found in almost all pop culture. Many music groups have made songs based off of poems or televisions series been made from ideas from poems. The Simpsons, the longest running television show around has made several episodes that have contained references to poems. In one episode where the family gets a tour of a military base, one of the cadets is quoting the poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats. Lisa reconizes the quote and begins to talk of poetry and how her school never talks about it. By referencing a poem the episode has more depth because it can go beyond the television screen and into the poetry world. This also can allow for people who know of the poem to relate more to the episode and trigger ones interest even further. Making references to poetry seems to be a great technique to lure people into a series or a song just as poetry has always lured so many into its own world.

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ENG 3 Jan 14 Homework

ENG 3 Jan 14 Homework

Richard Brautigan’s poem “All watched over by machines of loving grace” is against technology. The three stanzas start with “I like to think…” followed by little remarks in parenthesis gives the poem a satirical tone. Brautigan uses this tone to give the sense of things seeming to be too good to be true. According to the poem machines have been given the power equivalent to a God in which is signified through the use of the word “grace.” Grace has been defined as a blessing to which a higher power gives favor to an inferior being. This would revert the human society to a simpler state of living in which the machines possess all control. On another note, being “free of our labors” and living in “harmony” is too good to be true. Machines cannot be programmed with love and if so, some one would still need to take care of the machines. If the machines fell then the society would also fall if no one were there to watch over the machines.

“All watched over by machines of loving grace” by Richard Brautigan is a poem of tranquility and peace. Most, if not all, of the imagery presented in the poem would be found in a state of utopia. In a perfect world where nothing goes awry, everyone is free of labors and the people have the liberty to “[Return] to our mammal brother and sisters.” People would be tended to by “machines of loving grace” freeing all people of their troubles. The tone of tranquility and the sense of all troubles being relieved from technological advancements produces a pro-technology message. This would be the ultimate goal set by humanity for machines.

The anti-technology interpretation is more convincing because when things seem to good to be true, they most commonly are. A utopian world where everything lives in harmony has yet to exist. The only way for machines to be capable of “watch[ing] over” people would be to have an artificial intelligence as to adapt to the changing world. However something that has the capability to think on its own would not be content with being a slave. Even if the machines did have artificial intelligence, someone would have to take care of the machine implying that humans will always be the dominant species. This person could possibly be bitter that he is not free of his labors or realize he has the power to control society. Eventually the utopia would collapse from a variety of reasons. The poem “All watched over by machines of loving grace” is mocking the thought of a utopian society and gives the impression of foreshadowing the imminent collapse of a utopia.

ENL 3 + Frost "Design"

English 3 Jan 12 homework

List of Imagery

- Dimpled spider, fat and white

- Holding up a moth

- White piece of rigid satin cloth

- Assorted characters of death and blight

- Witches’ broth

- Snow-drop spider

- Flower like a froth

- Dead wings

- Paper kite

- White

- Wayside blue

- Kindred spider

- White moth

- Design of darkness

- So small

Many of the images in Robert Frost’s poem “Design” are small creatures or objects that have a great deal of detailed design reflected through them. In the octane, Frost is merely observing a spider and a moth on a heal-all. The sextet is Frost questioning his observations about Life’s design affecting the spider, moth and heal-all. The spider is camouflaged on the white heal-all and is holding up the moth as a prize. This scene depicted by Frost is analyzed and broken down to reveal all of the little intricate details of Life’s design. The spider and moth are “assorted characters of death and blight” because the spider is killing the moth just as if it were planned.

The list of ingredients to the “witches brew” is a metaphor for how the whole scenario of this spider and moth are ingredients to Life’s design and everything occurred as intended. Frost is trying to understand what made the spider climb that heal-all to that certain height and capture the white moth in the night. The dark imagery produces an omniscient presence because at first in the octane the imagery is a dark description and gave more of a coincident appearance. Although with a closer look, Frost discovers a hidden agenda that had predetermined that the moth would fly at that specific time and the spider would be at that specific height. However even with such dark imagery there are hints of innocence in the insects and flower being “white.” White symbolizes purity and is intertwined with the concept of innocence. The purity and innocence reveals the other end of designs spectrum. The different use of these extremes implies the wide range of designs that are predetermined.

Just within this minuscule blip of time there is an astonishment of how much planning has gone into something that seems so microscopic. The most powerful imagery in this poem makes the creatures give the impression that they are all pawns in Life’s design.