2001

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick wrote and directed the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick was inspired to write this movie because of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel. This film’s underlying message can be interpreted philosophically or allegorically. The main characters in the movie include: Dullea (Dr. David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Dr. Frank Poole), and William Sylvester (Dr. Heywood R. Floyd. This movie is not like every other movie today where the plot is apparent, there is an abundance of dialogue, and you don’t have to sit and ponder what the movie is actually portraying. Kubrick purposely made the movie this way because he wanted the viewers to interpret it however they thought was accurate. Background information of that time era and articles on how other people viewed the movie is needed for a better understanding. The evolution of mankind is what most people interpreted from this movie.

The film begins four million years ago in the prehistoric age with a bunch of apes. The apes discover that they can use bones for tools and in essence leads to the evolution of mankind and tools. It then goes to the year 2001 where the astronauts are traveling in space to the moon and Jupiter. The core brain of the whole operation is an artificial intelligence named HAL 9000. The men on the mission rely very much on HAL and trust her completely; after all she is a computer and mankind have made computers to be very intelligent so the humans have very little work. They soon realize that HAL has ulterior motives and begins to have what they think are malfunctions. Kubrick displayed the technology of 2001 pretty accurately for looking 33 years into the future. Mankind has successfully evolved their tools throughout the years, but perhaps they got ahead of themselves. HAL eventually outsmarts the men leaving them helpless; he had it planned all along. Today, people rely a great deal on technology because it can do so much. Some have discussed that sooner or later computers will be more intelligent than humans and be able to outsmart them as Kubrick displayed.

Throughout the movie a mysterious black rectangle appears which ends up leading to a time travel. The first time it appeared was in the beginning with the ape scene and then going into the present day of 2001 where they are going to begin their journey into space. They then see it on the moon taking them to 18 months later when they are traveling to Jupiter. When Dr. David Bowman is on his own with no other life form because of HAL’s malfunctions he ventures onto Jupiter. He goes through this psychedelic phase with bright lights all around for about six minutes and then ends up in a completely white room where he is looking at his pod and all you hear is breathing. It goes to show himself in the mirror and then he sees a man sitting at a table which is him but older. The man at the table hears the breathing so gets up to see if anything is there and of course there isn’t. He sits back down at the table and the younger version then disappears. He drops his glass of wine and looks down to see that the wine is still there; representing that there is no body but there is still a soul. He looks into the bed to find an even older version of him, basically on his deathbed and all of a sudden the mysterious black rectangle appears. The scene changes to outer space and reveals a starchild. Although what the black rectangle represents is still a mystery to many, but the whole process portrays the life and death of mankind and how it evolves. The apes represented what some people think as the evolution of mankind and from there it went in various stages of time until death.

This movie can be interpreted in many ways, but a huge one would be the evolution of mankind and the tools that they have discovered and made. Men and tools started out as the simplest of things and eventually have evolved into complex objects. Some people understand them while others still have not quite caught on. When writing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick thoroughly displayed how men and tools have evolved so extensively. When writing this in 1968, he pictured the future as technology based and he was pretty much right on target.

Judgement day

Evaluating a text can be very difficult, but if you know exactly what you are doing then it could be a breeze. I however, don't know the depth of writing an evaluation. When doing our peer reviews I would comment on what was good and maybe a few minor things that could have been improved, but when I saw something that I didn't like I felt bad saying it. Even though it's constructive criticism, I still felt like I was going to degrade their work when I'm sure they worked really hard. When somebody evaluates my work I try not to get offeneded because I know in the end it's going to help me out and I like to know what I need to do to improve it. But sometimes I just don't like hearing that something is wrong with what I did. To effectively write an evaluation of something it's important to discuss the subject but very briefly, just enough so the audience gets the gist of it. You need to be knowledgable about your subject and define your criteria in which you are evaluating. Also, never like or dislike what you are writing about. Be fair with your evaluation, mention the positives and the negatives. I think this chapter will really help me when writing my evaluation because now I know what needs to be included. The only hard part is actually understanding the movie I'm supposed to evaluate.

Good Work

We had our conference last week and it went really well. It was the first time I saw the video and I'm really happy with how it turned out, it looks really good. The only thing we had left to do was figure out what we wanted to talk about during our presentation and who would say what. We assigned specific points to talk about for each person and all put in ideas about what would be said. We didn't write it word for word but just some main things to cover and everybody can say what they want. I feel really confident about our presentation and I think it will go really smoothly. We all know what's going on and what we need to do.

Coming Along

For our project we are doing "how to play Bracken tag" and making a video for it. In the previous classes we discussed what we would do and how we would do it. We got everything figured out and wrote a script, not really to abide by but just as a guideline. Last night we taped the video and everything went really well. One of the group members was behind the camera while the other 3 were in the spotlight. It was a really fun and interesting experience. We did a lot of different shots and when it's all done and edited it should have some really cool effects. So far, everything has been going really smoothly and we are getting the job done in a timely manner. We recorded the voice of one of the group members as the narrator telling what the rules of the game are, which plays throughout the video. I'm really excited to see the end results, because a couple of the group members are really good with editing videos and adding special effects to really make the video good. The only main thing we have left to do is edit and then we are practically done.

The beginning to an end

The beginning and end of a story is the most important part. The beginning should be set up so that it grabs your attention and makes you interested in what's to come in the rest of the story. However the beginning is phrased there should always be a thesis statement. The ending could do many different things such as: sum up the whole story in several ways, go back to what was said in the beginning, or somehow end it in a way so the reader feels a certain emotion about the story and maybe make them think deeper about related things. Throughout the entire story, not just the beginning and end, you should guide the reader along so they know exactly what is being talked about. Titles can be a good source to guide the reader because it usually has something to do with the story, the thesis statement is the key element because it says what is going to be said in that specific paragraph, and topic sentences state the subject of the paragraph. In my opinion the beginning and end are what make or break the story because when I read the beginning it should be interesting to me or else I'm not going to read the rest. The ending should sum up the whole story so it all makes sense or evoke certain emotions from me that keep me thinking.

The Key...

When reading a text, it's often times hard to understand what is going on when just simply reading it. I don't always get the concepts of stories that are supposed to have a deeper meaning because I'm not very good at picking apart the story to see what it's really about, I like having somebody tell me what is going on, but that can't always be done. In order to fully comprehend what is being said you need to read it strategically and this can be done in many ways. First skim over the entire text to get the jest of it. After that write down a few questions and then read the entire text. Once it has been read, mark it up. Mark what makes sense, what doesn't, main characters, main plots, thesis statements, purpose, and anything else that will help you better understand it. Sometimes to get a better understanding writing ideas down that agree with the text and don't disagree with the text can help. When I read something I try to pick out and highlight or underline key concepts and phrases that I think are important and try to piece it all together. Also, summarizing the story in your own words can be beneficial. Analyze the entire text so nothing is missing because one little thing could be crucial. After all that has been done try to imagine the bigger picture in how the author wrote it to see if it makes sense now. If it does then you have been successful at strategically reading, but if not then go through it some more to pick out more details.

Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading is not something that everybody does. I for one, rely on my computer's spell check to catch my mistakes and hope that they can catch them all. Once done with a paper I have written I will scan over it to see if the majority makes sense. I don't wanna take the time to get down to the nitty gritty because I'm just so happy that I finally finished the paper and I just want to be done with it. However, editing and proofreading your paper is a very important step and can sometimes be the downfall to getting a bad grade. Instead of skimming over the paper you need to focus on the details such as: spelling, punctuation, does everything make sense and relate to the main point, do all the verbs agree with each other, are there transitions, do the sentences start with the same word too many times, are the sentences varied, how is the tone, do the words used have the correct meaning, and so many more things to look for. But before you edit, you must proofread and reading over your paper slowly and precisely a couple times would be more sufficient than just once. If I would just proofread and edit every one of my papers, I would save my teachers' a lot of hassle, but I hate doing it; it is their job after all. The fact that I have finally completed the paper is such a relief and the last thing I want to do is read over it to find any mistakes and go back and change it.

The Importance of Assessing and Revising

When writing a paper it's very important to re-read it a couple times before you are sure that it's sufficient enough to turn in. Not only should you read it but also having somebody else read it would be a good idea so you can hear their input. When examining the text you need to decipher a few things such as: where the writing is the strongest, weakest, or if more needs to be added. A huge factor in writing a paper is the main point or focus. The thesis, beginning, middle, and end should all revolve around the focus of your paper. If you are reading through and it starts to go off on a tangent then it needs to be changed so everything flows smoothly and makes sense. Going along with your thesis you need to make sure that the body is agreeing with it. When revising some things to be considered would be the title, the attention grabber, thesis, arguments, organization and clarity. Grammar and spelling aren't the important parts of the paper, it's what is actually being said in it.

Outlines and Details

So many things go into any genre of writing. When writing a long and important essay, most would create an outline first to get all their ideas down before they start writing so they know roughly what their essay will look like. After the outline comes the draft and there is never a specific amount of drafts one can have, just as long as the final copy is perfected. When doing an outline you never write down a lot, just a few words here and there to remind you what it is you are writing. It never goes into great detail. However, when writing the actual essay the detail is a very important factor in writing a successful piece. Nobody wants to read something that is boring and only goes over the basics. We like to hear what, how, where, when, what it looked like, smelled like, and tasted like. It keeps the audience reading. Not all things need to be in detail but if you want the reader's attention going in depth is the way to do it. I like to feel like I'm actually there when reading something, it makes me feel connected and keeps me reading on because I want to know what is going to happen. The writer has to know what appeals to the certain audience they are writing for and put in the detail and dialogue that they think the reader will thoroughly enjoy.

Learning to Read and Write

When reading these narratives I got out of it what it's like learning to read and write from so many different people. Being born in the United States, I have been accustomed to speaking, reading, and writing in English, because it came natural to me. However, in these stories not all the people were from the United States. Some had trouble learning English because they weren't born native to the U.S. In the first story a Latina girl who migrated over to the U.S. took on English very quickly, because she knew that's what she needed to do in order to fit in. She didn't do it for solely for her education, but to gain acceptance from her peers. In the other stories, they learn to read and write, because it's something that you need to learn living in the United States. When I was little the first thing we learn is to speak, next is to read, then after that is to write. These are all essential to growing up in the United States and we are all taught at an early age. It's not something that is taken lightly either. Parents and teachers force it upon you, because the significance it has in society. You won't get anywhere if you don't know how to read, write, or speak English.

Writing for an Audience

"Do unto audiences as you would have them do unto you." Out of all the reading this quote is what really stood out to me. If you want your audience to respect and appreciate you then you should write as if you respect them. When I write a paper I don't use slang or jargon, I don't write about inappropriate things, and most of all I get to the point of the paper instead of going on tangents. After reading this section I realized that writing for a specific audience is a really important aspect and could make or break a writing. When I read something I want to be interested in it based on my beliefs and things that are important to me. Now when I write, not only do I need to cover all the necessary main points, but also write for my specific audience.

Along with writing to a specific audience being an important aspect, so is detail. Although, I am not always the best at giving great details, I really do try. Giving details is what makes a story especially if the audience is interested in what is being written. It's what gives depth and meaning to any sort of writing. I like to know what my teachers like and dislike about a paper so I can write my paper to their approval, and most teachers like a lot of detail. When writing a paper for a class I never write it for a friend, relative, or peer. I write for my teacher because they are my audience and they are the one giving me the grade. A lot goes into writing a paper but in my perspective detail and audience are key to writing a good paper.