Watching this film at home, I reflected often on my own experience being evicted, and struggling to maintain my school enrollment with a morsel of dignity. Although I was grown enough to fend for myself, my now-wife and I scrambled with busy school and work schedules to find a home willing to accept us despite all of the blacklists we have been placed on since our eviction. Not long after being expelled from our houses on short notice, I was laid off from my job, and my car stopped working. Amy and I felt helpless and debilitated by the one institution that we thought was there for us to redeem us when we fell. In our darkest hour, I would write:
Expectant mothers on the street cast from the synagogue,
Jobless fathers on their knees, repentance cumbersome
Their laws breed lifelong rats, these godless bureaucrats
I hope they know responsibility; where is the Honor in that!?
My wife would write in this time of trouble as well:
The windshield weeps in the shadow of the olive tree
And while we wander in search of refuge
The raindrops appear as His blood.
Though written separately, the pain apparent in these bleeding, angst-ridden notebooks was that of faith in crisis. Though we loved our families, and though we loved our friends, and though we came to accept their hypocrisies as a beautiful profundity in the realm of religion, we could not reconcile our belief in divine inspiration - or even mercy - with the draconian methods the Church and its programs took to deprive us of our lifelines despite the reason for our punishment being substantiated by mere rumor. Surely, God will convey our innocence to the right people, we prayed. God save us. But our prayers were unanswered. We were forced to evacuate the premises in three days, with no place to go.
At the time of our eviction, it was the middle of winter semester and the height of the return-missionary influx, and we couldn't find anything. We squatted our first night in Amy's cousin's empty apartment before his roommates had moved in. Although we were not sick or in extreme poverty, we were given no help or support by Amy's staunchly Mormon family. We had nothing but each other, and good friends. I don't believe it would be right of me to suggest that God abandoned us, but from this experience, I've come to understand an idea that resembles deism: laissez faire divinity. God Bless the Child would have us believe that siblings are there to care for each other. I would have to agree with this sentiment, emphasizing its eternal significance. As spiritual brothers and sisters, it is our duty to care for one another, even when God - or he who is meant to represent him - is not dependable.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Film Analysis - High School (1968)
Once again, as a student at the cusp of college graduation, I often compare what I remembering knowing from high school on what I learned in supplementary courses, and I can't say that it has been all that much scholastically. The majority of what I learned in school was based in my own capability. How much work can I handle? How long can I put this off? What is the best way to structure my problems so that I can sort them out in a timely manner? I would probably argue that the finals years in high school were formative in a similar way. The monotony of a daily routine was educative if not for the social exercise that it gave me. Frederick Wiseman's 1968 documentary High School, one of the first in cinema verite style, is the right kind of exercise.
Slow-moving and uneventful, this documentary chronicles the typical process of the high school year: class time, break time, and social flow. We watch teachers speaking low to their students, and students returning verbal blows or acquiescing to their power. To some it may appear that this is condemning abuse of power, but I think it simply portrays a condition in its organic environment, seeking not to choose sides. One of the most crucial questions to ask about cinema verite is whether the presence of a camera will change the natural course of events. In this case, I would defend High School as one that did not change the course of events just because a camera was present. Students and teachers alike, without trying to gain or give attention to the documentarian, are behaving normally.
An interesting angle to approach children's education than taking the same scientific approach that the camera's lens does. It is present on scene just as our own vessels occupy reality as a looming and betimes intimidating figure suspended in a moment in which broken and injured souls are projected in all of their virtues, beliefs, and hypocrisies. From the flawed and limited perspective of a 90-degree window into reality, we must draw intimate conclusions about our social atmosphere, those in front and those behind, those above us, and those below. Wiseman's window into 1960's high school life bears the similitude of an authority staff member at the school. Some might say that the camera's presence examines and scrutinizes them and affects their behavior therefore; however, I would argue that the camera is no different in this setting than another person in a throng of people.
Slow-moving and uneventful, this documentary chronicles the typical process of the high school year: class time, break time, and social flow. We watch teachers speaking low to their students, and students returning verbal blows or acquiescing to their power. To some it may appear that this is condemning abuse of power, but I think it simply portrays a condition in its organic environment, seeking not to choose sides. One of the most crucial questions to ask about cinema verite is whether the presence of a camera will change the natural course of events. In this case, I would defend High School as one that did not change the course of events just because a camera was present. Students and teachers alike, without trying to gain or give attention to the documentarian, are behaving normally.
An interesting angle to approach children's education than taking the same scientific approach that the camera's lens does. It is present on scene just as our own vessels occupy reality as a looming and betimes intimidating figure suspended in a moment in which broken and injured souls are projected in all of their virtues, beliefs, and hypocrisies. From the flawed and limited perspective of a 90-degree window into reality, we must draw intimate conclusions about our social atmosphere, those in front and those behind, those above us, and those below. Wiseman's window into 1960's high school life bears the similitude of an authority staff member at the school. Some might say that the camera's presence examines and scrutinizes them and affects their behavior therefore; however, I would argue that the camera is no different in this setting than another person in a throng of people.
Book Analysis - The Catcher in the Rye
As a student at the cusp of graduation, feeling all of the angst that builds somewhere in the abdomen before freefall, I can say that I deeply relate to Holden Caulfield as a character. Allow me to clarify, however. I feel that Holden is the embodiment of a student of ill character, but at times, and with the same level of hyperbole he is known for, I fit and even aspire to his level of cringitude. Though better judgment implores me to refrain, Holden is the personified embodiment of our most lost selves, prone to argue, complain, and quit when the going gets too tough.
As trivial as we might make adolescent problems out to be, they are of monumental importance to adolescents. To us, the brand of jeans that one wears to school is hardly a concern. Nor is the tidy nature of our living space. But for Holden, whose primary guiding emotion in all that he does is disgust, how he looks around Sally Hayes, and whether Ackley cuts his "goddam crumby nails over the table" is of extreme importance. Holden's insistence on self-reliance and his capacity to lie signals a problem as overseers of children and teenagers whether they have their own best interests in mind. Holden's confident diction would prove that he probably is a good liar, and I must admit that when I first read this book in high school, I believed most of what he said; however, as a man approaching middle age, I can testify of the same insecurities that bring most of the bullshit that Holden says into a glaringly self-cynical light.
The book has been criticized by many different school boards and frequently gets rejected in public classrooms because of its use of profanity and seemingly promoting rebellion. Without the proper supervision of an adult mining into subtext and context, a student would be liable to get this impression, because the narrator is a peer. Nevertheless, with the aid of a teacher with adult insight and a seasoned ear for deception, students would be well-equipped to see the book as it really is: a satire on angst.
As often as Holden likes to pretend like an adult, he also falsely flaunts his lack of direction as a badge of honor. While aimlessly traveling on public transit, he ogles an older women during which he offers this pitiful insight, presumably to an older actually sexually-active male: "Women kill me. They really do. I don't mean I'm over-sexed or anything, although I am quite sexy." It's lines like that that, when pointed out to youth, are flagrant examples of poseurism.
The novel is a wonderful example of adult media about children. It plays out very well, as the type of children's media that ought not go unsupervised for fear that the rich and sardonic thematic material might be mistaken for being of a serious nature. It truly s a shame that this book is lambasted by administrations who judge it on its adult substance, when in fact it presents bounteous lessons that would be mostly helpful to youth in their youth.
As trivial as we might make adolescent problems out to be, they are of monumental importance to adolescents. To us, the brand of jeans that one wears to school is hardly a concern. Nor is the tidy nature of our living space. But for Holden, whose primary guiding emotion in all that he does is disgust, how he looks around Sally Hayes, and whether Ackley cuts his "goddam crumby nails over the table" is of extreme importance. Holden's insistence on self-reliance and his capacity to lie signals a problem as overseers of children and teenagers whether they have their own best interests in mind. Holden's confident diction would prove that he probably is a good liar, and I must admit that when I first read this book in high school, I believed most of what he said; however, as a man approaching middle age, I can testify of the same insecurities that bring most of the bullshit that Holden says into a glaringly self-cynical light.
The book has been criticized by many different school boards and frequently gets rejected in public classrooms because of its use of profanity and seemingly promoting rebellion. Without the proper supervision of an adult mining into subtext and context, a student would be liable to get this impression, because the narrator is a peer. Nevertheless, with the aid of a teacher with adult insight and a seasoned ear for deception, students would be well-equipped to see the book as it really is: a satire on angst.
As often as Holden likes to pretend like an adult, he also falsely flaunts his lack of direction as a badge of honor. While aimlessly traveling on public transit, he ogles an older women during which he offers this pitiful insight, presumably to an older actually sexually-active male: "Women kill me. They really do. I don't mean I'm over-sexed or anything, although I am quite sexy." It's lines like that that, when pointed out to youth, are flagrant examples of poseurism.
The novel is a wonderful example of adult media about children. It plays out very well, as the type of children's media that ought not go unsupervised for fear that the rich and sardonic thematic material might be mistaken for being of a serious nature. It truly s a shame that this book is lambasted by administrations who judge it on its adult substance, when in fact it presents bounteous lessons that would be mostly helpful to youth in their youth.
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