I'd like to use this space here to introduce this blog and and say a little about what I plan to do with it. First off I'll start by giving some explanation for the name of the blog, Straight Outta AP Lit. I wanted to put a little urban flare into into my blog, a bit of street thug if you will. I was between 'Lit Thuggin' and 'Straight Outta AP Lit', I went with the later though because I just felt that it was right. Hopefully you've already noted that this is a reference to the song Straight Outta Compton, of course I like the juxtaposition that an blog about literature analysis and AP Lit is nothing like street life or Compton. But whatever, I'm straight outta AP Lit.
The purpose of this blog will be to analyze different pieces of literature in an insightful and academic manner in order to hopefully reach a level at which this becomes easy to do and brings something interesting into my literary analysis. I've already tried to mix up the usual way in which a literary analysis is done, my first blog was about the movie World's End directed by Edgar Wright and another blog about a song called Lux Aeterna, an orchestral piece by Clint Marshall. What was interesting, at least in my opinion, was that the analysis wasn't about a novel or another piece of traditional literature. Instead my blogs were on something different and hopefully it brought a new view to how I can write a literary analysis and what it can be.
My plan is to continue this and write blogs that explore the possibilities of the literary analysis. So stay tuned for more, because these are only the first of many more to come.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Lux Aeterna
This might seem a little out there, but I recently heard a song from the movie Requiem for a Dream called Lux Aeterna and found that it really felt like a story and so I'd like to do a literary analysis of it for this blog. The most comparable thing I can think of is an epic story, full of emotion, adventure, and suspense. It's an orchestral piece composed by Clint Mansell and while I've never seen the movie for which it was made, I'm sure that it helps drive the story. Check it out here to see what I mean. What I'd like to do is analyze how the song flows and how it connects to the idea of a stories plot. In order to do this I'll relate each part of the song with the original Star Wars film and the hero's journey that drives it.
In roughly the first 30 seconds the song presents what could be seen as an exposition, introducing the song and the tone of the piece, just as in Star Wars when we're introduced to the universe far away and Luke Skywalker. Then it slowly moves into a rising action for the next minute, like when Luke gets 2 very important droids and meets the old hermit Obi-wan. At approximately the 1:30 mark suspense breaks out for the next 20 or so seconds. This part can be related to the stormtrooper attack where Luke's aunt and uncle are both killed, the call to action. Then the piece slows down and builds up slowly; this would correspond to Luke's decision to leave his home and his emergence into a new life, his leaving of the symbolic threshold. Then the action starts again and we get into the conflict at 2:30, the Millenium Falcon has been tractor-beamed into the Death Star. From here on out the song is becomes more and more dramatic, 3:30 helps mark the adventure inside the Death Star including the freeing of Princess Leia, the escape into the trash compactor, and ending with Obi-wan's battle with Darth Vader. At 4:00 the piece slows once more, parallel to the death of Obi-wan. The song rebuilds suspense and slowly rises in tone until finally at around 4:35 the Rebel fighters make the jump to attack the Death Star. This is when the song gets intense reaching it's climax, the fighters approach the enemy, pilots get shot down, and Luke enters into the famous trench run. The emotion and tone of this part of the song work too well in unison with the climax of this movie. Then at 6:15 it's done, the Death Star explodes, the song brings everything to a head and the resolution begins as it does in Star Wars.
A song is like any other piece of art, it can be analyzed and thought over just as any novel or painting can be. Lux Aeterna is a condensed story, everything is wrapped up into 6 minutes of absolute epicness that could only really be compared to something as extraordinary and awe inspiring as the original Star Wars film.
In roughly the first 30 seconds the song presents what could be seen as an exposition, introducing the song and the tone of the piece, just as in Star Wars when we're introduced to the universe far away and Luke Skywalker. Then it slowly moves into a rising action for the next minute, like when Luke gets 2 very important droids and meets the old hermit Obi-wan. At approximately the 1:30 mark suspense breaks out for the next 20 or so seconds. This part can be related to the stormtrooper attack where Luke's aunt and uncle are both killed, the call to action. Then the piece slows down and builds up slowly; this would correspond to Luke's decision to leave his home and his emergence into a new life, his leaving of the symbolic threshold. Then the action starts again and we get into the conflict at 2:30, the Millenium Falcon has been tractor-beamed into the Death Star. From here on out the song is becomes more and more dramatic, 3:30 helps mark the adventure inside the Death Star including the freeing of Princess Leia, the escape into the trash compactor, and ending with Obi-wan's battle with Darth Vader. At 4:00 the piece slows once more, parallel to the death of Obi-wan. The song rebuilds suspense and slowly rises in tone until finally at around 4:35 the Rebel fighters make the jump to attack the Death Star. This is when the song gets intense reaching it's climax, the fighters approach the enemy, pilots get shot down, and Luke enters into the famous trench run. The emotion and tone of this part of the song work too well in unison with the climax of this movie. Then at 6:15 it's done, the Death Star explodes, the song brings everything to a head and the resolution begins as it does in Star Wars.
A song is like any other piece of art, it can be analyzed and thought over just as any novel or painting can be. Lux Aeterna is a condensed story, everything is wrapped up into 6 minutes of absolute epicness that could only really be compared to something as extraordinary and awe inspiring as the original Star Wars film.
The Confusing Case of Edgar Wright's World's End
For this first of many blogs to come I'll analyze a new movie out in theaters right now called World's End, a tale of 5 friends who set out to tackle an old high school mission of theirs, to hit 5 bars in one night. Of course the movie isn't really about the drinking capabilities of the film's main character Gary King, rather it focuses on Gary's underlying issues and what drives him to make his (mostly terrible) decisions. What's confusing about this movie is ultimately what the theme of the film is, what it all means.
[WARNING SPOILERS] Gary King is an absolute jerk to his friends, he is an all-around unlikeable person and to be frank by the end of the movie he actually causes the apocalypse. He's the sort of person who acts like nothing has changed since high school, that all the old rules still apply and he can be a kid at heart still, even referring to himself by as he did as teen (The King and also, "The once and future king.") Of course his life isn't quite so royal, in the beginning of the movie he's introduced while sitting in a rehab meeting, his friends even allude to some sort of substance abuse. The story sees Gary drinking a serious amount of booze, but ends with him ordering a very symbolic glass of water at the bar thus 'getting clean.' On top of his success with tackling his addictions, Gary also gets all his friends back... at least to some extent. To clear that up, Gary gets back the younger and cloned version of his friends. The real ones had begun to hate him at that point, but Gary gets new friends who roam with him through the post-apocalyptic world. This then begs the question does Gary 'win?' Is the theme of the story really that 'if you hold onto the past hard enough you might get it back'. Maybe I'm missing something but out of all the characters Gary is the least deserving of such a happy ending. It could also be possible that the theme could be 'some people deserve a second chance at happiness.' But these seem wrong, the tone of the film is dark and somewhat cynical, so maybe the director meant to deliver that the theme is 'the one who doesn't deserve to win sometimes does.' Overall, I was left pondering over what the movie was really trying to tell me.
What I'm trying to say at least is that the theme is hard to derive from the film, director Edgar Wright throws the audience for plenty of loops. Even after reading several reviews and analysis I find it difficult to put into words exactly what the purpose of the story might have been. The ending didn't seem to be fair at all, the characters who appeared to deserve something were left with nothing, but Gary gets back everything he one lost, and he gets it for no apparent reason. I'll have to watch it again and see if I can derive anything new from it.
[WARNING SPOILERS] Gary King is an absolute jerk to his friends, he is an all-around unlikeable person and to be frank by the end of the movie he actually causes the apocalypse. He's the sort of person who acts like nothing has changed since high school, that all the old rules still apply and he can be a kid at heart still, even referring to himself by as he did as teen (The King and also, "The once and future king.") Of course his life isn't quite so royal, in the beginning of the movie he's introduced while sitting in a rehab meeting, his friends even allude to some sort of substance abuse. The story sees Gary drinking a serious amount of booze, but ends with him ordering a very symbolic glass of water at the bar thus 'getting clean.' On top of his success with tackling his addictions, Gary also gets all his friends back... at least to some extent. To clear that up, Gary gets back the younger and cloned version of his friends. The real ones had begun to hate him at that point, but Gary gets new friends who roam with him through the post-apocalyptic world. This then begs the question does Gary 'win?' Is the theme of the story really that 'if you hold onto the past hard enough you might get it back'. Maybe I'm missing something but out of all the characters Gary is the least deserving of such a happy ending. It could also be possible that the theme could be 'some people deserve a second chance at happiness.' But these seem wrong, the tone of the film is dark and somewhat cynical, so maybe the director meant to deliver that the theme is 'the one who doesn't deserve to win sometimes does.' Overall, I was left pondering over what the movie was really trying to tell me.
What I'm trying to say at least is that the theme is hard to derive from the film, director Edgar Wright throws the audience for plenty of loops. Even after reading several reviews and analysis I find it difficult to put into words exactly what the purpose of the story might have been. The ending didn't seem to be fair at all, the characters who appeared to deserve something were left with nothing, but Gary gets back everything he one lost, and he gets it for no apparent reason. I'll have to watch it again and see if I can derive anything new from it.
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