Week 12

How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the ‘real’?

Documentaries, in general, are basically a snapshot of an aspect of normal human life, or are an insider's look into "another world" we may never experience once in our lives. Compare that to reality TV, which is simply "real" entertainment involving "real" people in "real" situations, and we have a small problem. Sure, they both entertain viewers, but in wholly different ways. Documentaries aim to mostly educate and alter the perceptions of viewers, get them to think about what it is they're doing, while reality TV just simply entertains viewers without any kind of heavy thinking necessary.

Documentaries are very real, in that the people shown in them are real people and not necessarily actors. How does the average viewer know that though? They may simply be people hired on temporarily to help with filming, and are considered real people because they don't sound like they're reading a script. This is where reality TV comes in, as it takes this thought process and creates just that: real people reading off of a script. A good example of this is the popular MTV show "Date My Mom", which introduces a guy going out with the mothers of 5 potential girlfriends. Out of those 5 girlfriends, he has to choose one of them to go out with via elimination style. The show makes very good use of scripts, which is slightly annoying, as the scripts are EVERYWHERE: on the dates, at the elimination, pretty much everywhere. Not only that, but they are read, not spoken, which removes the viewer from the immersion completely.

Reality TV, compared to Documentaries, do not present a true reality, as the situations thrown at the people in reality TV are most often scripted and pre-planned. Also, there are likely scripts   involved in certain points (or everywhere, as shown above). Sometimes the real people aren't exactly real at all, and are instead renowned actors paid to appear on the show for easy money.

Overall, Documentaries and Reality TV present the 'real' in different ways: through real people being insiders into other lives or circumstances, or by showing real or "fake" people through a camera lens, giving them situations to get through in different ways. This can work as entertainment, or it can work for educational purposes. Either way, they both present the real as a completely different object: Documentaries present it as a factor in determining how we perceive what is shown in the documentary, and reality TV presents it as something to be trivialised and entertained through scripts and situations.

Week 10

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

The Buffy series was notorious for the changing faces of the various characters, as they would follow their own wants, needs and desires in accordance with the situations presented to them. Good and evil are defined by the Free Dictionary as being "of moral excellence; upright" and "morally bad or wrong; wicked", respectively. However, the characters in Buffy can be both good and evil at the same time, or they can be doing something inherently evil, in order to do a good act or for what they perceive as good.

An example present in the episode "The I In Team" was when Buffy joined up with the secret group called the Initiative, who were supposedly doing "good" by capturing demons and monsters. Unfortunately, those lines were slightly blurred when the viewer finds out about Walsh's ambiguous motive behind the Initiative's goal, which was to create a creature using parts extracted from the captured demons , with help from Buffy. This in turn made Buffy leave the Initiative, along with Riley doing so only because of his morally unambiguous feelings towards Buffy (he goes back to them later on). Therefore, throughout this episode, traditional ideas of good and evil are very much blurred, and are sometimes unrecognisable to almost be neutral.

The next example is in the very next episode  "Goodbye Iowa" where Buffy and the viewers find out about Walsh's hidden project (the creature mentioned previously) and the consequences associated with it. The creature named Adam escaped and is wandering around causing havoc, a la Frankenstein, and being the supposedly evil character he is. He then comes across a boy playing in the woods. Adam asks him deep and meaningful questions about who he is and what the boy is, after which the boy calls him a monster. After killing the boy, we can see that Adam, being the creation he is, has no morals and therefore does not care about who he kills, so long as he finds out about himself and what his purpose is. The line between good and evil then becomes slightly blurred when Buffy and Riley go back to the Initiative and confront Dr. Angleman about Walsh and Adam. Angleman is killed when Adam appears from the ventilation ducts and stabs him in the back, and once he escapes, the other Initiative soldiers take Riley back with them, effectively switching the Initiative's position to evil.

Overall, the notions of good and evil switch constantly within the Buffy universe, as characters who stay the same throughout the series would be very boring to watch and relate to. Also, it would mean no progress through the plot, as there would be no real character development associated with the changing of alignment.

Week 6

What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

The term shojo is defined, literally, as "young girl", and when put into the context of anime or manga, shojo can mean that the anime/manga has a young female main character, or that the anime/manga is intended for young girls. In the case of Princess Mononoke, it is the former, as the story can get very mature at times, along with a lot of blood and gore. Definitely not a young girl's anime.

Usually, the 'shojo' (when looking at anime) is a young girl with whom the viewers can relate to on a very broad scale. This, in turn, brings in a select audience that may enjoy watching something like this, or those who can easily relate to the character. In Princess Mononoke, San is classified as the female lead character, and as such is classified as a 'shojo' character, as she looks to be no older or no younger than Ashitaka. However, she does seem to have a wild streak, akin to her wolf 'family', which gives her a sort of feral look and attitude towards people. This is not exactly typical of normal shojo characters, as they are frequently portrayed as being the ideal good girl character: nice to everyone they meet, kind-hearted, and slightly naive. Then again, that is what she briefly turns into once she rescues Ashitaka.

Compare this to western movies and TV shows, and there are only a select few shojo characters, examples of which are Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons), Gabrielle (Xena) and Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), just to name a few. Young female leads are still somewhat hard to find, but they can still be found within very niche TV series'. Nowadays, western media is concentrating on the gritty and realistic, and none of what was mostly shown earlier on (examples being Life with Loopy, Clarissa, Full House etc), which was mostly just boys and girls having fun and overcoming barriers in the world they live in and not necessarily fighting against it.

Week 4 - Archetypes

What are some archetypes (e.g. common character types) of fantasy fiction?

An archetype is defined by The Free Dictionary as being "An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned" and "In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious."

Looking at this, an archetype could be anything from a skater to a hippy, to an intellectual and to a artist, as well as Jungian archetypes like the Shadow and the Self. However, those are typical archetypes in the real world. In fantasy fiction, it goes beyond that and introduces a whole group of generic archetypes within a specific genre.

To start this off, we'll go with the basic of the basic: The Hero. In "A Wizard of Earthsea" that Hero archetype is, of course, Ged. After having his village attacked by Karg raiders, then saved by his timely use of a fog-gathering spell, he heeded the call to adventure after the Gontish mage Ogion heard of this feat and called upon him to learn more about magic. He did so because if he didn't, he would possibly become a danger to everyone, including himself.

This then introduces another common archetype of fantasy fiction: The Mentor/The Wizard. Ogion is the quintessential mentor, as after Ged saves the village, he takes Ged on as an apprentice and tries to teach him all he knows about magic. He also acts as a father figure, more so than his real father back at the village, as he understands Ged's burden of magic and the usual problems associated with growing up.

Once Ged leaves Ogion after growing restless under his tutelage, as well as almost summoning the shadow who is the main villain in the story, we move on to a third archetype: The Shadow. In Earthsea's case, the shadow archetype is literally a shadow; a being of pure evil that is unwittingly summoned by Ged, and is basically a manifestation of his innermost fears. The shadow in Earthsea acts as the villain, but isn't one of the typical villains in normal fantasy stories as the shadow isn't human. Once Ged leaves Ogion, he goes to the school on the island of Roke, and learns a lot within the school. However, because he is still so young and prideful, he turns all that around when he tries to summon a dead spirit. The shadow that manifested while under Ogion now finds a way to be summoned into the world. During this ordeal, his face gets scarred by the shadow before being driven off by the Archmage of the school, Nemmerle. However, Nemmerle uses up all of his power driving it away, and ultimately dies.

week 6

God – man+ woman

From the scene when San and Ishitaka were lifting and holding the God of nature’s head to return, and when the God takes their offer, his head I thought the scene describes the unity of a man and a woman who can become one to overcome problems. Back in the past, both east and west societies, men have dominated in and out of their house. Despite of the background history of the film which was medieval era when people think women should stay at home raise children and do housework while men go out and make money, this animation has defamiliarized and changed image of Japanese traditional female to active. In this film, women were working in ironwork, commanding men what to do and shooting rifles and even kill the God. However what I concern about this defamiliarzation is people who do not know Japanese culture would misunderstand traditional Japanese women roles in that time. People would think Japan had modernized women's social position as this film is not based on an actual historical event.

Human vs human

The history of human tells us, there were many wars and there are still. The force of Lady Eboshi and the emperor’s forces had battles for the ironwork.

Disaster + nature vs human + greed

As a result of destroying environment, people are having a hard time because of natural disasters. for instance, Japan was hit by a number of devastating natural disasters in recent year. In the film, a guy from emperor's side wearing strange but traditional wooden shoes were trying to take the head of the god of nature to have the power of god to develop production of the country by cutting and destroying forests.

Destroy vs new life

it is like a cycle that humans destroy the nature to develop and natural disaster occur and it ruins what human have established. Naturally no matter how human's have high technology, men surrendered to the nature

There are many underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke, but as a viewer or audience we have different interpretations of what we believe to be the themes in this anime. This film has many female characters especially those women who are under the care of Lady Eboshi. We clearly see that the women who are always carrying riffles are in charge and most likely have the authority figure within relationship status. There is also the greed of materialism where the humans who want the power from the gods of nature almost end human race itself.

 

Week 12

Reality TV is a television programming that presents "humorous" situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors,. The genre exploded as a phenomenon around 1999–2000 with the success of such television series as Big Brother and Survivor. Programs in the reality television genre are commonly called reality shows and often are produced in a television series. Documentaries, television news and sports television are usually not classified as reality shows.

The genre covers a wide range of television programming formats, from game show or quiz shows to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big Brother Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of day-to-day life, at times utilizing sensationalism to attract audience viewers.

Hill (2005) states ‘Reality TV’ has undergone changes over years and first explains it is a ‘genre in transition’. From legal and emergency report programs, Hill looks to analyse the threshold between factual and fictional TV. ‘perhaps the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment. The term usefully merges factual programming with entertainment-based television, and highlights hybridization, a common generic feature of most reality programmes.’
Hill (2005, p. 108) clarifies; ‘Another traditional industry term is that of popular factual, a term that links popular audiences with a variety of factual television genres and formats.’
Hill uses the name of ‘popular factual’ as a basis for his analysis.

Public television audiences interviewed gave a loose consensus that ‘viewers equated reality TV with ‘cameras following people around.’’

Hill (2005, p. 114) concludes ‘There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre.’

Weeks 9&10 (Cult TV)

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

Traditionally or religiously the notion of good and evil can be distinguished by that bad people will go to hell and good people will go to heaven. Perhaps the Buffy as a person, she is good. However as looking through her life, she isn’t a good one. Braun (2000), It was season 2, it was called "Innocence". Angel experienced a true moment of happiness when he and Buffy had sex, and because of that, his curse was broken.“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” broke the traditional notion of good and evil. Probably Angel is a big factor in that.

When people like the contras between the two, it’s just a matter of awareness. Has nothing to do with "back sliding" as much as it has to do with the denial of human experience that serves a purpose. Attitudes toward good and evil are very rigorous and unbending.

Braun, B. (2000) The X-files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The ambiguity of evil in supernatural representations. Retrieved 18 October, 2005 from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_28/ai_64688900