KT's Week 7

According to Mountifort (2006), what role does the I-Ching have as an organisational device in the structure of High Castle?

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese oracle-text that Dick used to plot the development of his novel, The Man in the High Castle. Dick endorsed both the narratological and oracular functions of the I Ching, and he considered the I Ching itself as having in a sense written High Castle. The oracle-readings that Dick inserted at the critical junctures in the novel showed the ‘physical’ seams of the construction of Dick’s novel, constitute its central organisational device, and function as the meta-narrative, the text as oracle.

Actually I think the book of ‘The Man in the High Castle’ might have a simple structure, yet the story was so complicated. The characters in the novel have not met each other, but they were in the story of ‘The Grasshopper Lies Heavy’. It made me confused reality.

However at the end of the story, Juliana Frink asked some questions-Dick might not know how to finish his novel- and the I Ching explained the truth that life in The Man in the High Castle was a false reality.

In conclusion, SF is too difficult to understand for me.

Reference

Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.

Mountfort, P. (2006).Oracle-text/Cybertext in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.

Week 6: Anime II

Finally, with reference to Cavallaro (2006), what distinguishes Mononoke technically as being – it is generally agreed – a great work of anime?


Princess Mononoke was a huge success both in its home country Japan and in the U.S. Although becoming more successful in the U.S over time, it still shows that it was a film that stood out from other Anime films and was able to capture the imagination of those of a completely different culture and background.

Princess Mononoke was a big budget film for Anime, costing $19.6 million all up. But it was clearly worth it from the success it brought. The reason why the film was such a big success was because of how authentic it was. Cavallaro explains, “Art directors Nizo Yamamoto, Naoya Tanaka, Yoji Takeshige, Satoshi Kuroga and Kazuo Oga explored thoroughly the mountain island of Yakushima, home to an exceptionally wide variety of arboreal species, as well as locales that allowed for the detailed observation of numerous light and water effects.”

“One of the principal reasons behind the film’s tremendous popularity in its homeland is undoubtedly Japan’s fascination with legend, mythology and folklore, and its population’s ongoing devotion to the earliest collections of traditional tales.” This is very evident in other Japanese Anime I have watched such as Pokemon. There is a clear fascination by the Japanese of traditional stories involving extravagant mythical creatures and admirable heroes.

Patrick Drazen maintains, “The compilation of written collections of folktales in Japan was a courtly pastime going as far back as the early twelfth century, and most of the major anthologies reprinted and read in Japan today date to between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.”

Princess Mononoke is clearly not just any children’s film and has many aspects that can appeal to any type of audience. Grossing $3 million in the U.S it is clearly a distinguished great work of Anime.


Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland & Company.

Week 2 Sara

Compare the relationship between images and words in Herge (1933) and Spiegelman's (2004) works.

I really enjoy comparing Herge's Tintin, and Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers, as they are two entirely different comic works, belonging to two very different times for culture and art. It's amazing that they both belong under the umbrella of comic works, as they are so very different. Herge's works have an air of the armchair traveler about them; providing escapism and teaching readers about foreign cultures for those who couldn't afford the experience themselves. By contrast, Spiegelman's comic series references a very world-weary disposition, addressing readers in a world that increasingly gets smaller.

This is revealed particularly in the unconventional nature of the use of pictures and words in Spiegelman's comic, In the Shadow of No Towers. In contrast to Herge's (1933) The Blue Lotus, In the Shadow of No Towers plays with the traditional convention of sequential panels in comics, by overlapping panels-which are both horizontal, and vertical, in nature-and with frequent use of pictures and text escaping the boundaries of the panels. Compared to Herge's (1933) The Blue Lotus, In the Shadow of No Towers also changes up the use of fonts in its series, using fonts to inflect different things in the text. The conventional rules The Blue Lotus follows is what Spiegelman challenges, and experiments with.

References
Hergé. (2005; 1935). The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.
Spiegelman,A. (2004). The Sky is Falling. In In the Shadow of No Towers (pp. ii-iii). New York: Pantheon.

Week 2 Farish

What does Khordoc think the Asterix series does better than Hergé’s Tintin?

According to Khordoc, Asterix series was better than Tintin due to the fact that in the Asterix comics, the speech bubbles they used were colorful to indicate the emotions and give a visual soundtrack. Also the differences in language can be seen distinctively, an example of this is how the Egyptians speech is in drawings, rather than words, using the hieroglyphs. The difference in language also can be seen in Asterix and Cleopatra where Obelix attempts to speak to an Egyptian yet his poor accent is shown through a badly drawn heioglyph. In my own opinion I preferred Asterix to Tintin due to the action content as well as the existence of a wealth of strength in the form of a magic portion, which could not be found in Tintin. Tintin had his fair share of adventure, yet he seemed to use his wit more than his fists to outsmart his enemies.

Khordok, C. (2001). The Comics Book’s Soundtrack: Visual Sound-effects in Asterix. In Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.), The Language of Comics: word and image, (pp.156-173). Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.

Nazia Week 6

According to Napier, how does this anime problematize traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race?

This anime is such a great example of how Miyazaki has challenged traditional or conservative ideas of gender, class and race. The three leads (San, Moro and Eboshi) are all female and have the qualities that are not usually associated with the traditional female leads of Japanese anime. Although there are some qualities that are typical of the shojo, such as the sweetness and cuteness, they are more aggressive, independent and active. According to Napier, females are typically used as a “vehicle for tradition” which is not the case in this anime, especially with Eboshi who governs the city of Tatara (traditionally a man’s job). Even San is depicted in her warrior image with blood and paint on her face.
The construct of class is also touched upon in this anime for example the ‘un-touchability’ of the emperor and Tatara which is a sort of utopia for the outcasts of society where whores and lepers are held in higher regard than they would in traditional society.

References:

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan.

WEEK 6 (Winny)

According to Napier,how does this anime problematise traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race? 

According to Napier (2005), Princess Mononoke problematizes archetypes and icons, ranging from the notion of the emperor's untouchability to the traditional iconization of the feminine, to create a genuinely new vision of a Japan at the crossroads of history.  In some ways one might characterize the film as a violent, indeed apocalyptic, elegy for a lost Japan at the same time that it offers an alternative, heterogeneous, and female-centered vision of Japanese identity for the future.

I do agree with Napier with the way he said that it really differs as how people think.  Different people think of different things, this is why I believe that we should observe from different angles.  Not only Princess Mononoke, many heroines of Miyazaki's other works have bold characteristics.  They are all strong and brave young girls and have a boy beside to support them.  I haven't done any research about this before, but in my own opinion it looks like Miyazaki is a feminist.  That is because Japan is a typical country that people usually treat women inferior than men.  It seems like he feels that there are a obvious inequality in Japan Society, and he is trying to push people a bit?

References

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

WEEK FIVE - Ethan

Is it a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres,

To answer the question ‘Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media?’ it is easy to say that Anime is a high cultural genre/media as it plays off many old Japanese traditions. As Napier (2005, p.4) says, “Not only does the medium show influences from Japanese traditional arts as Kabuki and the woodblock print, but it also makes use of worldwide artistic traditions of the twentieth-century cinema and photography.”

As Napier (2005) also says, “The culture to which anime belongs is at present a “popular” or “mass” culture in Japan and in America it exists as a “Sub” culture. Anime has many sub genres such as Shojo, Shonen, Mecha and many more which can all be related to high cultural traditions as well as new traditions and societal interests like technology and robots, which is the reason anime has become such a popular media in not only Japan but around the world as it is something the audience can relate to and may be interested in.

References:

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

WEEK THREE - Ethan

How has fantasy as a genre been defined? Can the genre legitimately be defined by examples?

The fantasy genre is often described as a story that is based on impossibilities Attebery(1980). An example of this is ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy which is based in an imaginary world with things such as magic that are deemed impossible in the real world. As W. R. Irwin has said that the primary feature of fantasy is “an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility.” He also goes on to say “whatever the material, extravagant or seemingly commonplace, a narrative is a fantasy if it presents the persuasive establishment and development of impossibility, an arbitrary construct of the mind with all under the control of logic and rhetoric”. The fantasy genre cannot be defined down to a few certain texts as it can involve a lot of characteristics such as Gothicism, science fiction, utopia and much more. As long as it presents the persuasive establishment and development of impossibility it can be classed as a fantasy, W. R. Irwin.

References:
Extract: Atterbery, B. The Fantasy Tradition in America Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980, 1-10

Nazia Week 5

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


The ‘shojo’ according to Cavallaro (2006) is a term that literally means “little female” and “is used to designate girls aged 12 or 13” (p. 11). This type of character is common among anime and appeals largely to Japanese males because they offer a dramatic shift and excitement which is not available to them in their demanding work life.

Its function in anime is one that depicts the transitional age between childhood and adulthood, youth and maturity, sexlessness and eroticism, powerlessness and power, inexperience and understanding, masculinity and femininity. The ‘shojo’ stories are usually light-hearted and “bathed in an atmosphere of magic and wonder” (p.11). This is a stark contrast to the protagonists of Miyazaki who fit the shojo bill in terms of their physical appearance but are more self-sufficient, brave, curious and proactive (for example San in Mononoke).

Refernces:
Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.

Week 5: Anime I

Is it a high or low cultural genre, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?


Anime is a very unique Asian influenced culture that has developed into something that most young people today will most definitely recognise and be familiar with. For me, I grew up with Anime watching the immensely popular Pokemon series after school. For others it could be Digimon, Princess Mononoke, or Sailor Moon? Whatever it was, everyone has had some dose of Anime and can relate.

To answer the question “Is it a high or low cultural genre”, one must look at where it exists in society and where it came from. Anime originated in Japan. This must be why Napier (2005), states, “The "culture" to which anime belongs is at present a "popular" or "mass" culture in Japan, and in America it exists as a "sub" culture.” This is because America would have taken on Anime after seeing its popularity and seeing how unique it was in Japan. “Otomo Katsuhiro's Akira is a complex and challenging work of art that provoked, bewildered, and occasionally inspired Western audiences when it first appeared outside Japan in 1990.”

Because Anime is a very high cultural genre, it of course has many subgenres that are associated with it. Like I said, I grew up with a very obvious one called Pokemon. But the popularity has grown past the television and past Japan. Napier states, “Anime clubs continue to attract growing numbers of members. Anime is shown on the Sci-fi Channel, is available at such mainstream video venues as Blockbuster Video, and has a whole section devoted to it at Virgin Megastore in London. Anime's influence also extends beyond Japanese exports of actual video tapes to include everything from the Pokemon toy give-away in 1990 at Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

Other genres include Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and of course Princess Mononoke. Anime is and probably will remain in my opinion a very visibly popular genre in Asian and Western countries for years to come.


Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle pp.3-14).
Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan

WEEK FOUR - Ethan

What other influences does Burn (2005) suggest for Harry Potter? How does the fantasy genre relate to modern media such as video games?

The genre of fantasy novels has a major influence in modern media of video games.  Many fantasy novels in today’s age have also been turned into video games to allow the audience, which are mostly children to be engaged and be involved in the stories. An example of this is the ‘Harry Potter’ games. These Harry Potter games are based on the novels and allow the audience/player to play the role of their favorite characters as they complete the story line. Burn (2005) says, it also involves the means of puzzle solving and game survival which characterize the books.  Another example of the genre of fantasy affecting video games is ‘The Lord of the Rings’ game which as Burn (2005) said, gave rise to one of the most popular of modern game-genres, the RPG (role-playing game). The genre of fantasy novels are normally the starting point for games like this as the video games follow the story line of the novel, only changing minor things to make the game either last longer or more challenging and interesting.

References:

Burn, A (2005) ‘Potter-Literacy – from book to game and back again; literature, film, game and cross-media literacy’, in Papers: Explorations into Children’s literature Vol 14, No 3

KT's Week 6

With reference to Cavallaro(2006), what distinguishes Mononoke technically as being – it is generally agreed – a great work of anime?

Mononoke is a great work of anime in many ways, but people think it is distinguished especailly in the technical section. First of all, the production costs incurred by Princess Mononoke ultimately amounted to a record-breaking figure in the history the acquisition of software and hardware for the creation of computer graphics having caused the expenses to soar to a total of $19.6 million. It was a lot of money for the production of Animation. Also, the exceptionally high number of cels produced for Mononoke (144,000 out of which approximately 80,000 were key animation cels) to improve its overall style of motion which is substantially more fluid and realistic. Computer-generated imagery contributed significantly to this cumulative effect by communicating a sense of solidity and presence comparable to that achieved in live-action cinema.

Since Studio Ghibli’s CGI department was established in 1995, what is most remarkable about the use of CGI in Mononoke is that it never exhibits the dubious quality of an add-on but is fully synthesized into the overall action and is therefore able to contribute vitally to the evocation of a meticulously nuanced atmosphere wherein elements from diverse historical eras coalesce, and traditional motifs mesh with wholly fictional interpretations of the forces of both nature and technology. Mononoke contains about 15 minutes of CGI. Of these, 10 minutes are filled by the scenes that used digital ink and paint only. The remaining five minutes employed various digital techniques, such as 3D rendering, morphing, particles, digital composition and texture mapping. The fact that the CGI and digital techniques were used proves that Mononoke was a great work of anime and it was technically outstanding. As Camera manager stated, the job of the cameraman for animated films may disappear, or it may have already disappeared.

Unfortunately I couldn't watch the movie of 'Princess Mononoke' last week in class, but as Darryl recommanded, I would rent the video and watch it at home.

Reference

Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland & Company

Week One Sara

How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin's appeal to adults?

Michael Farr is evidently an avid Tintin fan. A general theme of his article is the many times he proclaims the "universal appeal" of Herge's work, which enabled it to "transcend fashion, age and nationality"(Farr, 1991). Herge himself said Tintin was intended as reading for "all young people aged from seven to seventy-seven".

This is backed up by the facts of Tintin's popularity; worldwide sales of the Tintin books totaling over 120 million, and translations into more than fifty languages (Farr, 1991). Farr theorises that Tintin appeals to all ages because of the layers incorporated into the books, which, as the best kind of art, can reveal different things to different viewers. Of course, we must not forget that the author, an adult himself, by all accounts had the knowledge and meticulousness of an adult, but the creativity of a child- and would appease both in his stories.

Farr (1991) also outlines the meticulous research that was put into the Tintin books by Herge, which is believed to have brought a real-world quality that contributes to it attracting older readers as well. For me, something like Tintin will not easily die as part of modern consciousness, simply because it promotes an earnest, young and adventurous-at-heart spirit that reaches beyond modern-world cynicism. Full-grown 'kids' can disappear into a meticulously drawn world with no romantic quibbles, and enjoy the good guy always winning with his trademark quiff still in place. The spirit of adventure, and naievity, in Herge's stories remind me of Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, which I still treasure enormously at my age, so I can relate to an adult appreciation of the Tintin books.

References
Farr, M. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.

Love Kim-Week 5

According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e comparing China and Japan)?

Lent (2000) addresses that animation has influenced on several aspects in many Asian countries such as culture, economy, politics, and other mass media.

First of all, Chinese animators at first were willfully not trying to adapt foreign animations’ elements unless it is suitable for their own culture. Wan, a Chinese animator, who produced his country’s first animation, addressed that the story of animation should fully be based on Chinese indigenous traditions and stories. He also emphasized that the sensibility of n Chinese and educational purposes are essential elements of the animation. Another animator, Jin Xi, agreed with the view point of Wan in terms of the aims of animation such as education and originality of Chinese culture. Unlike Chinese animators, Tezuka, a Japanese, embraced foreign-originated cartoons, for example, the works of Walt Disney International (WDI) such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Bambi.

Animation itself was also influenced by Asian culture, for example, indigenous artistry and skills in China, shadow theatre in China, Indonesia and Japan, and their literature, religion or folklore. 

As far as an animation industry’s economy is concerned, from 1960s, many Asia countries, for example, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and so on, have involved in an animation industry in America, Canada and West Europe. It leads to economic boosts in the Asia countries. It is the fact that Asia countries produce almost 90% of all television animation in the USA.

The most dominant area of foreign animation in Asia is children’s television. For example, about two third of recent Beijing’s TV animation is imported. In the late 1990, the influence of Western animation market was expanded to Southeast Asia, Australasia and India. As a result, animation training programs were introduced in tertiary institution in Singapore to attract foreign computer animation companies. Hong Kong Disneyland theme park also shows the popularity of animation in Asia.

In addition to the economic aspect of animation industry, it is also related to political purposes to some Asian countries such as China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Lastly, animation and other types of media influenced on one another in Asia. For example, manga and anime in Japan, live action movies and TV drama serials in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, anime theme songs in Hong Kong, and cartoon characters were used in the screen in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. 

Reference

Lent, J. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved 21 June, 2006, from AnimeResearch.com

Week 1 Farish

According to the second Farr extract (p.50-59), how did Hergé research China for The Blue Lotus?

At first he was about to research it through newspaper extracts but when a priest wrote to him urging to avoid clichés of the Chinese, Herge decided to do his research properly. Following with the advice the priest introduced him to Chang Cheong a sculpting student whom was the same age as Herge, they instantly took a liking of each other. Through Chang, Herge got a true taste of China and was so fascinated by it he even went as far as to learn about the Chinese art. Chang’s meeting was so important to expel all the stereotypes of the Chinese that Herge decided to make Chang a character in Tintin as a special friend to the main character. Herge went as far as to expose through the scene where Tintin meets Chang, not only the stereotypes of Chinese beliefs of Western people but also the Western beliefs of the Chinese people.

Farr, Michael. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.50-59). London: John Murray.