English 1020

English 1020 was a great challenge with myself. I always believed that I had a strong structure in writing, and I thought I was good at it. However, this class helped me to understand that maybe I was too cocky about it. Anyway after started to take this class the first thing I saw my punctuation errors. I worked on them so hard , in so much as that just the night before my final essay I was dreaming about ,,,,,,FANBOYS,,,,,,,. I have never decided if it was a dream or a nightmare. Then I saw my grammar errors I was completely down. Probably the reason why I didn't get along well with my editor, while I was working as a writer, was my weak structure and my errors who knows : D But now I feel more confident about my punctuation and finding grammar errors in my writings, and I believe that this will help me in my future career. Although I am a bit more confident than before, I still need to work on my writing skills for sure.
Blog assignments has always been so much entertaining for me, I enjoyed while I was writing on my blog, and probably I will keep going on.... Furthermore, my actual favorite assignment is my business letter , I got FULL credit from that assignment which is AMAZING !! :D Also I am so glad to meet Professor Bonaparte she always has a smile on her face which makes me feel that I have to be more serious about this class and should not miss one of it. Thank You Professor!!. And lastly I have never worked so hard even in my own language(turkish) classes back home so I have never understood why JWU expects from international students to be as good as the native ones. This is my freshman year and this was my first term and this is the furher point that I can go in English for now. I hope JWU will be more merciful for the international students in the future about evaluating international students just like the native ones in  English classes.

The Portrait of Marlyn Monroe By Richard Avedon - Diane Arbus Double self portrait

There reasons why chose a Marilyn Monroe portrait by Richard Avedon, the first thing is Marilyn Monroe is a huge phenomena, everyone all around the world whenever her named called or heard always some ideas or thoughts come to minds. For me whenever I heard or called her name the brilliance, beauty and intelligence come to my mind and the other reason why I chose this portrait is Marilyn Monroe has portarits or photos that always symbolize her happiness, beauty or her wealth sometimes with the her diamonds and beautiful furs or sometimes with the photos of her with wealthy or famous people. However, this time when I saw Marilyn from the Richard Avedon's perspective, it made me understood that behind the perfect look of hers there is a woman who tried hard to achieve her success and fame, a woman who blinded herself to all bad and graceless things and devoted herself to be rich, famous and beloved, and a woman who tries to say that 'Although I gained a huge success, there are still something missing such as love and a real happiness or maybe a good reputation.' in a sad mood of whispering. When these ideas came up to my mind, I understood that I think Richard Avedon is like a real and more successful photographer than Andy Warhol. Because Warhol always photographed the beauty just like we can see when we take a look at a photograph. Warhol's works are just like evidences of beauty without a story or a background, and for describing beauty photos are needless tales, stories or experiences are enough just like the beauty of Cleopatra we all know things about her eventhough we don't have any visual aids. However, from Avedon's perspective we see the story or feelings beyond beauty because beauty is the easiest thing to be photographed. Beauty is beauty, but showing the secrets and telling the stories of that beauty is an art.

I chose this photo of Diane Arbus to narrate and analyze because firstly the way she looks at the world and the models that she chooses to photograph are amazingly interesting. She took the photographs of travesties, dwarfs, giants, prostitutes or ordinary working class in unconventional poses and settings. But here in this double portrait she photographed herself. Almost in every photos that she took, there is always a dilemma, extreme points or unconventional weird things, like dilemma in sex choosing to be a man or a woman or extreme points like dwarfs and giants or unconventional sides of the working class which is expected to be ordinary, regular and normal. This perspective of hers brought the idea of the way how she thinks and looks at the world to my mind. Totally different that what the ordinary people think we all in the knowledge of  existence of these people, but none of us came up with idea of experiencing and examining by taking their photos.I think this perspective is the thing that people makes an artist. Anyway in this photo she chose to took her photo with a baby, I don't know if it is her baby or not but either way the message that she wants to give to the people is the same 'CONFUSION'. Confusion is a feeling that shows the phase of the emotion, just in the middle of the two sides. The left portrait in this photo she is holding a baby like a new mother, and her face expression tells me that 'Although I love my baby, I don't know what to do I am still young and have a life to live on my own. Am I ready for this baby?' this side of the photo shows her feelings to the baby she loves him she wants to hold it forever but still have thoughts. And on the right portrait I see a more determined woman who has her baby but also a woman knows what to do. She knows that she is not ready for this baby she loves him but she knows that she has a life and things to do so she may leave her baby behind and keep living her life. The way she is holding the baby tells me that she doesn't want that baby and the pose of her tells me that she is determined because her feet located on the floor stronger. There might be millions comments on this photo but it is the way I got it.

Le Manoir Du Diable/ The Devil's Mansion

The very first horror movie which is taped in France in 1896 by Gorges Melies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skPKmMUfP9w

Japanese horror movie Grotesque banned by BBFC

1)      Do you agree or disagree that this film should have been banned? Why?

I agree with BBFC for sure because horror movies can be dangerous for somehow. Movies, songs, celebrities, ads etc have great impacts on the viewers such as ads for advertisers with the good promotions  there is nothing that can make us to do. We can buy the things that we really don't need, it is all about the magic of the white screen whoever of us didn't? Or very well known superstar  Lady Gaga after she released in the market with her fancy, crazy dresses whoever of us can refuse that the people dress like monsters like just Lady Gaga increased in a huge amount. It is obvious that media is one of the most powerful dictator in the whole world. As a little reminder the cartoon series 'Pokemon' was banned in many countries just because of the bad influence on children, in some of the countries the number of broken legs, arms and deaths in the younger ages increased just because of the children thought that they were 'pokemons' so they could fly. Or because of the many songs crime and murder also increased. They are all real things happened, in my opinion there is no need to be that tough but taking precautions is always good and safe.

2)      In the future, many analysts predict that horror movies will continue to become gorier and more sadistic. Do you believe this is true? 

Yes, frankly Grotesque the movie is a good example for that. We can see the changes from Le Manoir Du Diable (1896- the very first horror movie-) to Grotesque. The vampires, witches, psychopath killers even the paranormal things are already cliche. We as viewers are consumers we consume the characters and the topics and want more, as a result gory and sadism take the place.


3)      What do you think Stephen King’s point of view would be on horror movies being banned? How do you know?

Stephen King as a huge horror writer would be so death against banning horror movies because he is in this industry he owes his life to this industry. Although he is huge in the horror industry, he would want some challenge and new rivals. However, on the contrary as a person who has many weird phobias like fear of deformity or squishy things, he would so agree with banning these kind of movies. So this point of view could be a dilemma for him and if I were him I would choose to say 'No comment !'

3) Stephen King ends his article by stating, “As long as you keep the gators fed”. What does he mean by this statement? Does his argument have any credibility?

For many people gators are scary creatures and as long as they exist they will still be scary for many people. In my opinion this statement has an figurative meaning and I think he figures 'fears' as a gator and he means that as long as we keep feeding our fears, they will always be kept fresh. This is how horror movie industry can survive in the movie industry.

I totally agree with his argument that has a credibility. Let's assume that people all around the world have no fear of anything, they all brave and easy going on anything this could drag the human beings into chaos, the crimes would increase, wars could be happen at all times etc. That's why fears are part of a real life, that's why they are in our life cycle because of we have them there are justice, hierarchy and life exist.

2) Create a quick list of horror movies that you are familiar with. Why do you think these films are appealing to viewers?

a) Stepfather (2009)
b) The Paranormal activity (2007)
c) Misery (1990)
d) The Exorcist (1973)




These movies are my best 4. The reason why they all appealed by the viewers is all of them touch the viewers' sore spots which make them more effective and scary. Such as Stepfather (2005), the movie is about a killer who sneak in the families as a stepfather, first he charms the mother and plays the perfect daddy model after that he kills all the family members and move on his way but everything he does is really professional and flawless so no one can track him. Stepfathers are really in common in every community and especially for the children, it can be the worst nightmare so even the thought of stepfather is scary, think of a killer stepfather nothing can be more scary than this for one who has issues with stepfather.

The Paranormal Activity (2007). The movie is about a couple that has frightening problems with their house or this is better to say that something frightening in their house. It is about paranormal events such as taking out from bed while you are sleeping and sweeping on the floor to the other side of the house by something invisible. This movie touches the fear of paranormal activities and also for someone who has problems about staying home alone which is also common for everyone so that's why movie was catchy.


Misery (1990) This movie is based on the novel of Stephan King and about a woman who is obsessed about a man. That woman is a psychopath nurse finding a man in a car accident, taking care of him and after he starts to fell good to go back home, doesn't allow him to leave her so applying many scary ways to keep him with her like breaking his leg etc. and In my opinion everyone has some kinds of obsessions about someone such as a girl/boyfriend, a best friend or a celebrity that always want him/her with them forever and people can also apply some ways to do it but because of the ethical reasons they can't. This movie touches the darkest and hysterical side of the humans.


The Exorcist (1973) There is nothing to say about this cult movie everyone knows about it but as a quick reminder the movie is about exorcism. Many people all around the world believes the devil or the bad spirits can posses the mortal human body and also if we look at the year of the movie, it can be understood that especially for that time this could be scarier than now. This movie touches the fear of being possessed by a bad spirit and I'd like say that this fear is still on for many people.