Ambiguity

While others say that there is not very much ambiguity in Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, I would say that the entire piece is laden with it.  Even the
title, an expression which comes up multiple times in the piece, is used
in many different ways referring to different people in different ways.
 The idea of a cat on a hot tin roof represents discomfort with change,
even if the current situation  is worse; stubbornness, the need to get
what you want no matter the cost; and indecisiveness, not being able to
choose what you want.  Brick talks about drinking until he gets the
“click”.  The click could be anything from: peace, to drunken stupor, to
the answer for his problems.  While the click represents his hope, it
also represents his alcoholism.  Even his past with Skipper is ambiguous
because the characters are not sure whether it was a gay relationship or
just a pure friendship.  Big Daddy has been with Big Mama for more than
40 years and can’t stand her.  Yet only now is he beginning to see that
he doesn’t have to be with her.  But this isn’t just discomfort with
change, its also indecisiveness because Big Daddy cant choose who to
give the land and house to should he die.  And yet its also stubbornness
because Big Daddy refuses to accept the truth that he might die,
convincing himself he is better when he is not.  There are many more
cases but to keep it brief allow me to summarize this literary term in
today’s society.  Politics - they tell you bits and pieces of what you
should know to get another meaning in what you need to know.  The vaguer
the better.  Even with the idea of the word “insurgents” a term that
means someone who rebels against authority or leadership.  Yet of course
the idea is which is the right authority and leadership.  Do we have the
right to take that authority?  In today’s society -  if two men go out
together or like clothes, are they gay or just good friends with taste?
 Even in the way that people talk and react to things.  People leave a
little uncertainty because people like options.  If one option doesn’t
work, another can be used instead.  I suppose ambiguity represents
freedom from a definitive.

De Beauvoir

 I actually liked the piece done by Simone de Beauvoir.  I thought it
would be another look at women and how they need to stand up, fight, be
the woman.  In a way it still was, but through her own musings and
questions we are forced to look deeper.  My favorite part really is her
writing because of the intense imagery that relays meaning.
“Woman has ovaries, a uterus: these peculiarities imprison her in her
subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits of her own nature.”
 This image here gives off the idea that a woman, in being a woman,
imprisons herself.  A common sign of a woman is the womb.  Thus the
image here is that a woman is imprisoned within her womb, within her
womanhood.
“In actuality the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of
two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the
neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human
beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined
by limiting criteria, without reciprocity”
 I love this image because the idea of the positive and the negative and
the neutral brings in the idea of opposites as well.  She relates this
to magnets in a way, men being positive and woman being negative.  Yet
when the two are combined and joined, then neutral state is still known
as positive or male.  Even in a good and bad sense, men are positive,
good; women, negative and evil.
 So through her use of imagery, we find that the woman is trapped by her
own nature in the males eyes.  Because the males are the ones in power
and therefore decide what means what.

Week 1

The first week of school is always immensely entertaining to me.  New
people, new teachers, new homework.  Well not so much the last part.
But overall it's fun because at no other time can you walk into a
classroom with no idea of what your about to do, and be able to get away
with that.  Stepping into the popular culture classroom, my first
impressions where:
1. Look around and see if you recognize anyone.  2. play it cool, find a
seat, then pull out your phone and text someone.  3.  Wonder if your in
the right classroom.  4. Think about if ratemyprofessor.com really is
accurate.  5. Pray that the syllabus being handed out is not longer then
5 pages, if so your in for a lot of work this semester.  6. Slap
yourself to make sure your not dreaming when you hear "no test, no
papers, just discussion".  7.  Ask yourself who? when your hear the word
"blog".  8.  Watch anchorman and fatal attraction.  9.  Wait for the
teacher to pull off the mask to reveal a grumpy old professor that says
"just kidding, gotcha!"  10.  Walk out telling all your friends what you
just experienced on the first day, at which point each one of them ask
"Are they adding?"
On a serious note though, as a film major I was really excited to watch
Anchorman and Fatal Attraction, then be able to compare views on gender
and love in the two.  From a film standpoint alone there are two ways of
looking at the gender parts.  The film as a whole and the scene which we
saw.
Overall both films are seen from a male standpoint.  The protagonist is
defiantly the male characters.  In addition, the power in the film
(while it does shift) is predominantly male too.  However,  if we just
look at the scene, there is a power shift where the females become the
dominant figure.  In Anchorman, Ron is trying to impress the girl.  She
actually is on a higher level then he is.  Ron tries to get to this
level by acting cool, yet in a way ends up just looking like a stupid
idiot.  Yet because he is loved by everyone she moves down to his level.
At this point, Ron is back in power.  Fatal Attraction is very
similiar.  The male admits to having an affair only after his wife asks
him if he is in one.  Shift in power.  From this point on the wife has
the power because she can leave him.  The relationship is entirely up to
her.  In the end though that shift comes back to the man because he is
the one that saves her.  But there is an interesting twist in the ending
as well.  The man may have saved his wife from his crazed lover, but his
wife is the one that killed her.  And so she appears on a more equal
playing field with him.  She is the one that saved the family, and put
an end to this terror that sought to rip them apart.
It was a good first week and I excited to see how the rest of the
semester will go.