Reflection to Blogging

When we were first given the assignment of a blog, I was a little skeptical and unsure of what exactly it would entail. So, the first thing I did was go and look at some blogs just to see what they were all about, I concluded that all blogs are different and can serve pretty much any purpose you want. Therefore I decided that I would make this blog something that expressed me both in the title and the layout. I chose to title "Never though I'd have a Blog" because, well I never thought of myself as someone who would blog. I knew people in high school who had blogs and had read some before but never was interested in having my own. Regardless, I had to make this blog so I figured I'd play around with it. From the beginning I decided I would just write what I was thinking, without really thinking about it too much. In my first blog post, http://bridgetlyonsliveandtimes.blogspot.com/2011/08/sidewalks.html, I wrote of my childhood memories and what I hold dear to my heart. I consider my titles of the blogs were helpful to me to focus my writing and also help readers know what the blog is about. I learned that when using pictures like in this blog post, http://bridgetlyonsliveandtimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/close-reading-of-young-mother-sewing.html, it gives the reader the visual of what is being talked about. When I first started writing it I didn't really think about the reader but more of the blog as something personal and for class purposes. Then when I commented on other blogs and saw the interaction they had with the reader, I tried to incorporate that into my blogs. For me the blog was connected to the writing process because like the second post, http://bridgetlyonsliveandtimes.blogspot.com/2011/08/dreaming-big.html, we were prompted to be creative and write about what we would see our future as. I used these blogs to work on my writing and be creative in the writing process. The most difficult thing about making my blog was being creative with the site itself, not just the writing. I think I did this by including images and referring to film clips like I did in the Play or Film blog, http://bridgetlyonsliveandtimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/play-or-film.html. I think there were things I could have improved on and would have done if I was a little more into blogging such as adding hyperlinks like in this blog post or adding video clips and other interesting outside works that would add to what I was blogging about. I think in the future I would open to adding to posts to enhance what I was saying rather than just writing down thoughts. For example, http://bridgetlyonsliveandtimes.blogspot.com/2011/10/graphic-novels.html, I could have given examples of other graphic novels or even shown some about Persepolis, which it was about. Overall I think this blogging assignment was a learning experience and gave me insight into what you can achieve with blogging.

Play or Film

In our reading guide this statement and question caught my attention. "King Lear is one of Shakespeare's more famous tragedies. This play, however, might rank among his most "tragic". In what ways does the play push the bounds of loss?" The play absolutely is a tragedy with such a dramatic ending where almost everyone dies. Not only does the number of people who die make the play tragic but the fact that they are all lying together. The film we watched played out the tragedy very well in this scene. All of the daughters and Lear were dressed in white to point out their lifelessness. Lear is destroyed especially by Cordilia's death and he dies with her in his arms. The director of the film made the setting for this scene tragic as well. In the background you can see the barren land that was clearly war stricken and destroyed. The land was dead along with all the people. This leads me to the topic of director interpretation and the differences between plays and film. I personally like both because each has their own positives and negatives. I think plays are more personal and the actors can make you feel included in the tragedy, comedy or romance more so than films because you can almost interact and reach the actors. Films however can show characters in different angles and close ups where as a play you see the actors from the same place, for the most part. The film we watched in class played with angles in an interesting way, to make the viewer feel as if they were King Lear like when Cordilia responses with "nothing." 

Reading a play and then seeing it live or watching the film can really make these differences apparent. Also it can change your view of the play, by developing a scene differently than you did in your mind while reading. For example the choice of actors, for me, can really determine whether I enjoy the play or not. If the actor doesn't fit how I imagined the character then the whole play can seem "off" in a way. However, that is what makes every play and film unique according to the director's interpretations. 

King Lear

Shakespeare's King Lear is tragedy that involves family feuds over land and power. King Lear is concerned with appearance more than he cares about reality. He wants his daughters to show how much they love him, and isn't concerned about the truth of what they're saying. Lear decides to split up his land and his daughters must essentially compete to express the most love for their father. However, the daughter who has the most true love for Lear, Cordelia, responds with "nothing" because she does not want to compete in this game that she finds meaningless and trivial. Goneril and Regan however are in for the competition and are smart with their schemes to gain more land. Appearance and reality is seen throughout the play and shows the irony in Gloucester losing his sight. When he becomes blind it can be argued that he saw more than he did prior to blindness. Without his sight, he saw more. He was no longer able to visually seen appearances so he was somewhat forced to face reality. 

Mapping and Writing

Through reading and analyzing Servant's of the Map I think it can be said that mapping and writing have many commonalities. Max was a surveyor who drew up maps and he also spent time writing letters to his wife. He mapped his travels through the cartographer's work and he also mapped his mind in a way through his letters. In both the maps and the letters he included some information while leaving some out. He was giving insight into his mind and his emotional state, but only as much as he wanted to. There were aspects he did not include but that did not make his writing false but rather something that could not be a completely reliable source. In the mapping there is also a similar style in that cartographers include some aspects of the land where another cartographer may chose to leave that out. These differences don't make one map right and one wrong, rather they are just different versions. Just as maps can have different versions, I think people's writing can show them in different versions of themselves. Writing for oneself and writing for others can be completely different and therefore show different sides of a person. We don't always write everything we are thinking if it is going to be public for others to read. I think blogs can show this greatly if you were to compare a blog entry to a diary for example. Some people may want to blog about a certain event in their life or situation but they might leave out intimate thoughts about it because they are too personal. A diary would be much more revealing because it would be only for the writer's eyes and not the public. Therefore people feel free to write any kinds of thoughts or opinions they have because they will not be judged for them.

Servant's of The Map

I enjoyed this work a lot more than the other piece about maps because it was an account of a man's life and how his career of being a "servant of the map" changed his life greatly. He was far away from his family, he even missed the birth of his daughter, and they were on their own to take care of themselves. He wrote often and also had letters from his wife which she had written before he left, but even with those he felt so far away and disconnected from her life. Max, the main character's name, began to see a change in himself and even had an affair with a women. It was his dream to become a botanist and now seeing all of these new plants lives in the mountains, a reading a book by a famous botanist, Max wants to stay another year after his work with the surveying is finished. However, I wonder if this is truly his only motivation. I think he may be avoiding going home to his family because he does not want to face cheating on his wife and also because he knows he has changed and is unsure of how he will fit back into his old life. It ends with his letter to Clara saying that he will return one day and that her letter marked To Be Opened If You Know You Will Not Return To Me will not have to be opened. This kept me wondering and hoping that he will in fact return to his wife and that their what seemed to be happy marriage will last.