(3621,1,'2013-11-05 21:45:38','2013-11-06 03:45:38','<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/brady.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3615 aligncenter\" alt=\"brady\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/brady-300x168.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" /></a>\"Photograph by Alexander Gardner. <em>Dead at Antietam.</em> October 1862\"</p>\r\nFrom the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, art was an excellent way to portray wars and inventions around the world. Painting showed how artists viewed events, and it successfully could appeal to and shaped how people felt about the world around them. However, beginning in 1835, art had experienced a new rival in terms of picture taking. Photography became popular in the United States and Europe, and this concept brought to the world a more vivid grasp of Realism. By the mid-nineteenth century, people worldwide thought that the camera was an amazing tool. People took photos of geographical icons and monuments. Wars were also a major interest, which inspired photographer Matthew Brady to take a collection of Civil War photographs. One of these photographs was Dead at Antietam, which was part of the Civil War collection of the Battle of Antietam in 1863. When these photographs were shown to people, the people got a true essence of what war was like during this time period, as witnessed by photographers. The work Dead at Antietam by Matthew Brady should be restored because people who enjoy photography would be very interested in learning about its origins.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nBrady’s Battle of Antietam series, including Death at Antietam, were innovative of the nineteenth century because this is the first time in history that people experienced the horrific life of war. Seeing realistic vivid footage of war was extremely alarming to people as well as influential. On the bright side, this new concept of photography allowed Civil War soldiers and families to see pictures of each other. It also served a method of communication between the home and war fronts so all Americans could see what was going on with their loved ones. Thanks to photography, mothers and children of soldiers got a big picture of the tragic and bloody events of the American Civil War.\r\n\r\nUnlike art, which did not portray Realism, photography had people frightened about the massive shootings in the North. The American Civil War was the first war to be shown in photographs instead of canvas art. People across America were enlightened by photography, especially Civil War soldiers, who had a great opportunity of connecting with their families. On the war front, soldiers had professional photographs sent home thanks to portrait studios being established on army campsites. Americans were thankful for these photos because they never knew if their loved ones would return home again. With realistic pictorial images, photography was a source of visual information across the United States that was helpful in keeping families together.\r\n\r\nIn the era of the twenty-first century, Brady’s photographs have travelled all across the United States. Museums such as the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the National Civil War Medicine. At the Smithsonian, portraits of Civil War Union soldiers are currently on display. At the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the Antietam series has been recreated and put on display. To this day, Brady’s portraits have been a liking to museum scholars alike as well as museum patrons.\r\n\r\nBrady’s work has sparked my interests because I knew very little about photography’s origins, nor did I know that war was a big interest to early photographers. I was impressed how early cameras took extraordinary photographs. Also, I found amazing how much these photographs how big of an impact these photographs had on families on the home front. One thing I did not appreciate so much is the fact that Brady was credited for fellow co-photographer Alexander Gardener’s work. I believe that Gardener should have received credit because he had taken most of the photos. If I was Brady, I would have given Gardner full credit for his work and praised him for taking the photographs for me.\r\n\r\nWhile the debut of taking war photographs occurred during the Civil War, the concept of showing war on television first appeared during the Vietnam War. This televised war had a big impact on families across the United States for ten years because these families ate dinner and watched soldiers being killed. Like Brady’s Civil War photographs, people were disturbed by the sights of the shootings. Having the ability of witnessing moving pictures and sounds, people became increasingly terrified of watching the evening news. Due to television, the Vietnam War was more frightening than the Civil War because of the effect of moving pictures.\r\n\r\nThe Tet Offensive became the most controversial massacre to be shown on television. People no longer trusted President Lyndon B. Johnson when they saw North Vietnam launching an attack on the United States in Saigon. The evening news had a major effect visually on people as the Vietnam War was the primary news focus on television. In comparison with Brady’s photographs, the Vietnam War television sights were frightening to people in this time period. These two visual sources were successful as they portrayed these wars to Americans by stirring horrific emotions.\r\n\r\nThe photographs by Matthew Brady, especially the Battle of Antietam series, should be restored because I believe learning what the first photographers were interested in may be of interest to people. I think the origins of photography are interesting to learn about because many people like me do not know how photography was invented. For a fact, I am definitely one of those people who found the history of photography to be of great interest. Along with Brady’s Antietam photographs, I think that the stories of the reactions of people and families of soldiers should be restored as well. These people’s stories would provide a good prospective of how they reacted when they viewed these photos for the first time. I enjoyed learning about Matthew Brady as well as the history of photography. As a student, my overall reaction was outstanding when I found out what a large impact on Civil War families. These portraits should definitely be restored to tell stories about how photography was a huge success in the beginning as well as to tell about the Civil War.\r\n\r\nBibliography:\r\n\r\n\"Mathew B. Brady.\" <i>Encyclopedia of World Biography</i>. Detroit: Gale, 1998. <i>World History In Context</i>. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.\r\n\r\nWert, Jeffry D. \"Civil War Photography.\" <i>Civil War Times</i> 45.6 (2006): 7. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\"Civil War Photography.\" <i>www.fofweb.com</i>. American History Online, Web. 20 Oct. 2013.','Matthew Brady\'s Civil War Photography','','inherit','open','open','','3570-revision-v1','','','2013-11-05 21:45:38','2013-11-06 03:45:38','',3570,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3621',0,'revision','',0),(3622,1,'2013-11-05 21:46:12','2013-11-06 03:46:12','It is no simple task to create a piece that simultaneously describes and fuels the nuances of the zeitgeist in any given time, which, upon deeper study, is a labyrinth of reference and metaphor, but is on its own still easily palatable to the audience for which it is intended. Masterpieces are created in this way, with themes that resonate deeply with their audience, and it is sometimes difficult to understand or accept those ideas many years after the fact – in fact, a modern audience may find the themes of previous times to be antiquated, regrettable or outright despicable. However, it is often the motifs of the past, be it recent or ancient, which color and determine those of the modern world. It is for this reason that we must maintain a connection with our earthly past; in order to understand the currents of today’s zeitgeist, the masterpieces and peoples of the past must be observed and studied. Richard Wagner’s <i>Der Ring Des Nibelungen</i> is one such masterpiece in many fields – it is itself a representative work of romantic nationalist art, the spirit of Germans and their neighbors in Western and Northern Europe in the mid 1800’s, and a masterful crafting of musical motifs of the time into a rich and complex tapestry of beautiful music and turbulent ideas – and it is for the above reason that the Ring cycle should be preserved.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\n\r\nWagner lived in an era that was rife with upheaval and change in both the power structures and national identities of Europe. Advances in industry and mechanization brought about the rise of new-money powers whose lives were rife with decadence, and whose power was in direct competition with the established powers in the area, to the decrement of the working class, which was riled by the spirit of reform put about by the French Revolution and the fall of Napoleon. Old powers were increasingly tyrannical as their strength was threatened, and tangled alliances further levied downward pressure on the already oft-impoverished people of the lower classes via the Metternich System, in which a nation would invite the armies of its allies to help quell rebellion. (Fisher, 2-6)\r\n\r\nThe Ring cycle is a series of four operas, referred to by Wagner as “dramas,” consisting of “Das Rheingold,” “Die Walküre,” “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung.” They were based on certain aspects of the mythos of Norse and Germanic peoples, following the story of a powerful magical ring which would grant its user nigh-limitless power, but the ring was cursed. The gods and many other powerful beings quarreled over the ring, but a hero arose who took its power, earned from Brünnhilde, his lover. However, the story ends with the loss of both Siegfried and Brünnhilde, and the destruction of the gods and their home in Valhalla, and the beginning of a new world. (Fiero, B5.67)\r\n\r\nThe cycle is itself a paragon of the nature of Romanticism, in particular its reaction against the impersonal nature of the industrial era (Fiero, B5.2) and the often destructively tyrannical rulership of the old elite in Europe. (Fisher, 2-6) Also like other contemporary musicians, Wagner utilized his music in a way that further combined the structural and emotional elements of music; as with Beethoven’s use of more expressive wording and dynamics in his music, (Fiero, B5.60) Wagner explored the use of incredibly complex leitmotifs in <i>The Ring</i>. (Fiero, B5.67)\r\n\r\nIt is difficult to separate the specific differences and similarities between Wagner’s work in <i>The Ring</i> and other Romantic pieces at the time, since it seems that one of the defining notions of the era was itself the exploration of new themes and styles in music in order to achieve a more natural and emotional flow. It could be said that Wagner’s mastery of the themes and styles that he was working with is the most outstanding feature, along with his dedication – he spent upwards of 20 years drafting, writing and completing the entire cycle of <i>The Ring</i>. (Films On Demand, 33:00)\r\n\r\nHelping to illustrate the spirit of Romanticism is the works of Beethoven, who was an influence to Wagner and about whom Wagner wrote. (Furness, 140) Beethoven’s symphony, <i>Eroica</i>, exemplifies in its themes and context much of the explorative and anti-establishment intent that Wagner attempts to elicit in his works. <i>Eroica</i> was initially intended to be dedicated to Napoleon as a hero of the people and an exemplary leader, but Beethoven angrily retracted his dedication when Napoleon named himself emperor, which was entirely contrary to the tide of Romanticism. Also, as mentioned above, Beethoven explored ways of making his music more expressive to the listener. (Fiero, B5.60)\r\n\r\nHowever, Eroica was specifically a portrait of an idealized hero in its nature, where the Ring cycle described the destruction of heroism by the greed and infighting of a group of powerful beings, likely metaphors for the people who were in power at that time in Europe – gods concerned with decadence, beasts concerned with power and dwarves whose sole interest was in riches. The story put forth by Wagner is a very dark one right up until the very end, in which the destruction of the entire establishment and a return to nature is the resolution to the entire problem.\r\n\r\nThe work was so well-received that it actually annoyed Wagner – the young king of Bavaria, his patron, demanded that <i>Die Rheingold </i>be played in Munich, before the other operas were completed; Wagner intended for his pieces to be completed as a four-day festival, back-to-back – he actually attempted to sabotage the performance, much to the ire of the king, such was his zeal. However, testament to the popularity of his works, various famous people attended the performances of his operas <i>Die Rheingold</i> and <i>Siegfried</i> in Munich while he acted as if they were not occurring. (Furness, 139, 140) Later, the German Emperor Wilhelm I greeted Wagner personally at a train station regarding his completion of the cycle, saying “I did not believe you would ever do it.” (Furness, 149)\r\n\r\nHowever, not all in Europe at the time were friendly to Wagner’s work. A critic in Vienna called the work a “crying shame” and said that the work “had nothing to do with the German people, who should, if they ever find pleasure in such a work, be removed from the ranks of the cultured peoples of Western Europe.” So bad were the reviews that Wagner and his family were prompted to escape to Sorrento for a month. (Furness, 151)\r\n\r\nModernly, epics like the Ring cycle have become a great deal more popular in various media, and it could be argued that various fantasy titles follow in some way, roundabout or directly, in the footsteps of the Ring mythos. Additionally, movie musicians have been known to borrow from the use of leitmotifs in Wagner’s operas, sewing similarities between the music in movies today and the sounds of Wagner’s operas. (Palmer)\r\n\r\nHowever, Wagner’s nationalistic background had a dark side – Wagner was a well-known anti-Semite, so much so that his music is banned in the nation of Israel today, due to its adoption by the Nazis after his death in their creation of the Holocaust. It has been argued that the attitude of anti-Semitism has transcended his life into the basis of his music; American academic Marc Weiner identifies the characters Albrich, Mime and Hagen from <i>The Ring</i> as being of the 19<sup>th</sup>-century Jewish stereotype. (Mourby)\r\n\r\nThe Ring cycle is itself a beautiful set of works which carries with it the meaning of several generations of German people, a powerful statement of the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century German zeitgeist. In an objective sense, it is masterful, especially for its time, and does things that no operatic piece has done before or since, and that alone is a powerful statement of its worth. The message is one that may be considered outdated, but its source is important to mankind – the extremes of European nobility, industry and revolution during the time are themselves a warning that should be carried into the generations of the future, a parable of the troubles of materialism and racism.\r\n\r\nThe future holds mysteries and puzzles that humankind will soon no longer be able to skirt by from. Both Wagner and his critics hold important messages to the human race, and it would do mankind well to maintain awareness of the arguments which tore Europe apart and embroiled them in war in the 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> centuries. The works representative of the time, the messages that they broadcast, and the context under which they were written are all important for this awareness, and Wagner should be kept alive in the minds of mankind, if not for the beauty and mastery of his work, then for the fundamental controversy of his era and the ideas, agreeable or not, which the man projected into his work. This is the importance of the preservation of <i>Der Ring Des Nibelungen</i>: It is masterfully woven into the tapestry of the 19<sup>th</sup>-century German zeitgeist, in both aesthetic form and philosophical content, and the human race would be the worse without the guidance of the wisdom of that era and its victories and failures.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">Fiero, Gloria K. <i>The Humanistic Tradition</i>. 6th ed. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. eBook.</p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Class Textbook; Helped me understand the era surrounding the writing of the Ring cycle, as well as my understanding of Beethoven’s <i>Eroica</i></p>\r\n\"Wilhelm Richard Wagner: A Concise Biography.\" <i>Films On Demand</i>. Films Media Group, 2005. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=17517&amp;xtid=44013&gt;.\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A video biography of Richard Wagner, for information regarding his life</p>\r\nFisher, Burton D., and Publishing Opera Journeys. <i>Exploring Wagner\'s The Ring Of The Nibelung : Der Ring Des Nibelungen</i>. [Coral Gables, Fla.]: Opera Journeys, 2002. <i>eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A specific book about the context of the Ring cycle, helpful for understanding its nuances</p>\r\nFurness, Raymond. <i>Richard Wagner</i>. Reaktion Books, 2013. eBook.\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A biography of Wagner, for further studies on his life</p>\r\nMourby, Adrian. \"Can We Forgive Wagner?.\" <i>The Guardian</i>. N.p., 21 Fri 2000. Web. Web. 5 Nov 2013. &lt;http://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,345459,00.html&gt;.\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A web article questioning whether Wagner can be forgiven for his nationalist agenda; helpful for understanding the less positive side of Wagner’s modern reception</p>\r\nPalmer, Dexter. \"Blogging Wagner’s Ring Cycle.\" <i>TOR.com</i>. N.p., 05 Apr 2010. Web. Web. 5 Nov 2013. &lt;http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/04/blogging-wagners-ring-cycle&gt;.\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A blog on a science fiction and fantasy website describing the basics of the cycle to modern sci-fi and fantasy readers, helpful for understanding its modern reception.</p>','TCP3: Richard Wagner\'s \"Der Ring Des Nibelungen\"','','inherit','open','open','','3617-revision-v1','','','2013-11-05 21:46:12','2013-11-06 03:46:12','',3617,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3622',0,'revision','',0),(3623,93,'2013-11-10 13:01:16','2013-11-10 19:01:16','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg\">http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg</a></p>\r\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\n\r\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\r\n\r\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\r\n\r\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\r\n\r\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\r\n\r\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\r\n\r\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> </span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','publish','open','open','','frankenstein-or-the-modern-prometheus','','','2013-11-24 14:31:06','2013-11-24 20:31:06','',0,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3623',0,'post','',6),(3624,93,'2013-11-10 10:42:38','2013-11-10 16:42:38','','Frankenstein_engraved','','inherit','open','open','','frankenstein_engraved','','','2013-11-10 10:42:38','2013-11-10 16:42:38','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(3625,93,'2013-11-10 10:42:57','2013-11-10 16:42:57','<p align=\"center\"></p>\r\n <a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.\r\n\r\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\r\n\r\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\r\n\r\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\r\n\r\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\r\n\r\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\r\n\r\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> </span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','inherit','open','open','','3623-revision-v1','','','2013-11-10 10:42:57','2013-11-10 16:42:57','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3625',0,'revision','',0),(3631,1,'2013-11-23 18:44:17','2013-11-24 00:44:17','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\r\n\r\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\r\n\r\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\r\n\r\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\r\n\r\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\r\n\r\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> </span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','inherit','open','open','','3623-revision-v1','','','2013-11-23 18:44:17','2013-11-24 00:44:17','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3631',0,'revision','',0),(3626,93,'2013-11-10 13:01:16','2013-11-10 19:01:16','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.\r\n\r\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\r\n\r\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\r\n\r\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\r\n\r\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\r\n\r\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\r\n\r\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> </span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','inherit','open','open','','3623-revision-v1','','','2013-11-10 13:01:16','2013-11-10 19:01:16','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3626',0,'revision','',0),(3627,89,'2013-11-11 10:44:12','2013-11-11 16:44:12','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3628 aligncenter\" alt=\"nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\">http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg</a></p>\r\nDuring the Romantic era a theatrical art form known as ballet gained massive popularity. Originating in Paris, France during the early nineteenth century, its popularity allowed it to move from the court to the theater where it was enjoyed as a form of middle class entertainment.  Many ballets similar to the <i>Nutcracker</i> all were inspired from popular legends and fairy tales, including <i>La Sylphine</i>, <i>Giselle, Swan Lake</i>, <i>and Sleeping Beauty</i>. Most of the ballets from the Romantic era all share a common similarity, the female central figure (Fiero). Many of the Romanticist believes that the female central protagonist often is portrayed as an angelic majestic female that symbolizes the ideals of love and beauty that was seen in most Romantic piece (Fiero).<!--more-->\r\n\r\nThe Nutcracker ballet was one of two pieces composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s and choreographed by Marius Petipa that premiered in St. Petersburg in December of 1892. The plot of the Nutcracker is based on German writer E.T.A. Hoffman titled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The story revolves around the adventures Marie (later Clara) is given a Nutcracker by her godfather as a present at a Christmas Eve party. Depending on the choreography the Marie is sent to a foreign land where sugar plum fairies, dancing snowflakes, and an army of rats roam the land.\r\n\r\nOriginally the nutcracker was seen as a failure, audiences were confused, and critics thought negatively of it. Much of the criticism came from  Tchaikovsky’s choice to ignore the romantic ballet formula, as the plot began going in one direction then move to another , and to make matters worse prima ballerina did not make an entrance until the end of the play (Patrick).\r\n\r\n121 years have passed since the nutcracker first premiered in St. Petersburg, and it has become one of the most popular ballets during the winter holidays.  Its popularity has become immense that ballet schools are becoming so dependent on the earnings from the nutcracker to support other activities throughout the year (???).  Valin claims that the Houston Ballet’s annual market doubles its Nutcracker ticket take making 25 percent of the organization’s annual budget, the Roxey Ballet in Lambert ville, New Jersey makes 30 percent of its annual budget from the Nutcracker.  During these 121 years the Nutcracker’s story has changed drastically. Depending on the choreography, the protagonist (Clara, Mary, Marie, or Masha) is given a nutcracker by her godfather during a Christmas party. Sometimes she’s defending the nutcracker from the King or the mice, rats, coyotes, and even a mouse queen. Even though the plot changes, Tchaikovsky’s music is always included in the ballet (Patrick).\r\n\r\nIolantra was the first piece that premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892. ().  Iolantra is a one act opera based on the play King Rene’s Daughter. The plot revolves around a blind princess that is unaware of her lost sight or her wealth. Even though Iolantra lives a life of luxury she still finds that she is missing something that she cannot possess. Iolantra’s father sentences death to any one that reveals the truth to Iolantra.  Tchaikovsky worked on both Iolantra and The nutcracker simultaneously from 1861 to early 1892, usually working on one piece then switching to the other. When compared nutcracker, Iolantra has a consistent plot and neat resolution. Both of the female protagonist are safe in the sanctuary their family. One is enchanted by the toy symbol of a man, the other by the voice of man that reveals her the truth to her misery. In both pieces the heroine rescues the life of the hero, Iolantra by opening her eyes, while Clara saving the nutcracker by throwing her slipper at the Mouse king. The critic Herman Laroche that claims Iolantra and the nutcracker are independent halves of a theatrical whole, stating “In the creative process from the very beginning [Tchaikovsky] imagined a certain unity of impression, and in certain features directly strove for such unity. The unity, however, is based on contrast.”(). Iolantra is about hearing while the Nutcracker is about seeing. Since Iolantra is blind her world is without color, Tchaikovsky’s orchestration of the opera is colorless. The nutcracker is considered a vivid ballet that awes its audience with its colorful props and its charming orchestra.\r\n\r\nDue to a series of unfortunate events, I never had to the chance to witness the Nutcracker during my childhood so I never really appreciate the fairy tale ballet that captivated children during the holidays. During the winter of 2011, I finally managed to buy some tickets, and I was impressed. The Dance of the sugar plum fairies featured a single ballerina swaying her body to each and every note, allowing the audience to sense the timid behavior of the fairies. What started as an average sized Christmas tree transformed into a massive living vivid stage. Inanimate object began slowly swaying as the orchestra played softly, suddenly the music picks up and we see the objects dancing gracefully to the cheery tone. The Nutcracker brought a small piece of nostalgia that gets lost along the path to adulthood.  The Nutcracker will help future generations revisit an older time where fairy tales, music, and dance are starting to be seen as one piece. The Nutcracker’s charming ballet soothes the eyes and raises the spirits with its elegant music, stunning choreography that captures the winter holiday spirit flawlessly.\r\n<p align=\"center\">Works Cited</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\neidelman, tamara. \"Tchaikovsky\'s Nutcracker.\" <i>Russian Life</i> 55.6 (2012): 24. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013 explores the history of the Nutcracker. Provided some basic information.\r\n\r\nFiero Gloria K “The Humanistic Tradition”, Sixth Edition, Books 3 through 6, by. McGraw-Hill, 2011. An analysis of humanitarian works, ranging from the renaissance to the present. Explained ballet’s structure during the Romantic era.\r\n\r\nJacobs, Laura. \"The Nutcracker\": A New Awakening.\" <i>New Criterion</i> 29.7 (2011): 17-22. <i>Literary Reference Center</i>. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. An indepth article that discusses the Nutcracker, its origin, a comparison to another of Tchaikovsky’s work, and the analysis of a recent Nutcracker ballet. Helped me understand how similar and different the forgotten Iolantra is to the Nutcracker.\r\n\r\nPatrick, K.C. \"Nutcrackers, Notcrackers And Joy To The World.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 74.12 (2000): 42. <i>Academic Search Complete</i>. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. An article that looks at the Nutcracker’s past, present, and future’s popularity. Helped me find more basic information\r\n\r\nValin, Kathy. \"Nutcracker $$$ Dreams.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 79.12 (2005): 94. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. How important the Nutcracker’s popularity effected ballet schools and an estimate on how much income was generated during its holiday premiere. Helped me find important figures that determined its popularity.','The Nutcracker','','publish','open','open','','the-nutcracker','','','2013-11-23 18:44:49','2013-11-24 00:44:49','',0,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3627',0,'post','',4),(3628,89,'2013-11-11 10:42:49','2013-11-11 16:42:49','','nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587','','inherit','open','open','','nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587','','','2013-11-11 10:42:49','2013-11-11 16:42:49','',3627,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(3629,89,'2013-11-11 10:43:57','2013-11-11 16:43:57','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3628 aligncenter\" alt=\"nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\">http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg</a></p>\r\nDuring the Romantic era a theatrical art form known as ballet gained massive popularity. Originating in Paris, France during the early nineteenth century, its popularity allowed it to move from the court to the theater where it was enjoyed as a form of middle class entertainment.  Many ballets similar to the <i>Nutcracker</i> all were inspired from popular legends and fairy tales, including <i>La Sylphine</i>, <i>Giselle, Swan Lake</i>, <i>and Sleeping Beauty</i>. Most of the ballets from the Romantic era all share a common similarity, the female central figure (Fiero). Many of the Romanticist believes that the female central protagonist often is portrayed as an angelic majestic female that symbolizes the ideals of love and beauty that was seen in most Romantic piece (Fiero).\r\n\r\nThe Nutcracker ballet was one of two pieces composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s and choreographed by Marius Petipa that premiered in St. Petersburg in December of 1892. The plot of the Nutcracker is based on German writer E.T.A. Hoffman titled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The story revolves around the adventures Marie (later Clara) is given a Nutcracker by her godfather as a present at a Christmas Eve party. Depending on the choreography the Marie is sent to a foreign land where sugar plum fairies, dancing snowflakes, and an army of rats roam the land.\r\n\r\nOriginally the nutcracker was seen as a failure, audiences were confused, and critics thought negatively of it. Much of the criticism came from  Tchaikovsky’s choice to ignore the romantic ballet formula, as the plot began going in one direction then move to another , and to make matters worse prima ballerina did not make an entrance until the end of the play (Patrick).\r\n\r\n121 years have passed since the nutcracker first premiered in St. Petersburg, and it has become one of the most popular ballets during the winter holidays.  Its popularity has become immense that ballet schools are becoming so dependent on the earnings from the nutcracker to support other activities throughout the year (???).  Valin claims that the Houston Ballet’s annual market doubles its Nutcracker ticket take making 25 percent of the organization’s annual budget, the Roxey Ballet in Lambert ville, New Jersey makes 30 percent of its annual budget from the Nutcracker.  During these 121 years the Nutcracker’s story has changed drastically. Depending on the choreography, the protagonist (Clara, Mary, Marie, or Masha) is given a nutcracker by her godfather during a Christmas party. Sometimes she’s defending the nutcracker from the King or the mice, rats, coyotes, and even a mouse queen. Even though the plot changes, Tchaikovsky’s music is always included in the ballet (Patrick).\r\n\r\nIolantra was the first piece that premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892. ().  Iolantra is a one act opera based on the play King Rene’s Daughter. The plot revolves around a blind princess that is unaware of her lost sight or her wealth. Even though Iolantra lives a life of luxury she still finds that she is missing something that she cannot possess. Iolantra’s father sentences death to any one that reveals the truth to Iolantra.  Tchaikovsky worked on both Iolantra and The nutcracker simultaneously from 1861 to early 1892, usually working on one piece then switching to the other. When compared nutcracker, Iolantra has a consistent plot and neat resolution. Both of the female protagonist are safe in the sanctuary their family. One is enchanted by the toy symbol of a man, the other by the voice of man that reveals her the truth to her misery. In both pieces the heroine rescues the life of the hero, Iolantra by opening her eyes, while Clara saving the nutcracker by throwing her slipper at the Mouse king. The critic Herman Laroche that claims Iolantra and the nutcracker are independent halves of a theatrical whole, stating “In the creative process from the very beginning [Tchaikovsky] imagined a certain unity of impression, and in certain features directly strove for such unity. The unity, however, is based on contrast.”(). Iolantra is about hearing while the Nutcracker is about seeing. Since Iolantra is blind her world is without color, Tchaikovsky’s orchestration of the opera is colorless. The nutcracker is considered a vivid ballet that awes its audience with its colorful props and its charming orchestra.\r\n\r\nDue to a series of unfortunate events, I never had to the chance to witness the Nutcracker during my childhood so I never really appreciate the fairy tale ballet that captivated children during the holidays. During the winter of 2011, I finally managed to buy some tickets, and I was impressed. The Dance of the sugar plum fairies featured a single ballerina swaying her body to each and every note, allowing the audience to sense the timid behavior of the fairies. What started as an average sized Christmas tree transformed into a massive living vivid stage. Inanimate object began slowly swaying as the orchestra played softly, suddenly the music picks up and we see the objects dancing gracefully to the cheery tone. The Nutcracker brought a small piece of nostalgia that gets lost along the path to adulthood.  The Nutcracker will help future generations revisit an older time where fairy tales, music, and dance are starting to be seen as one piece. The Nutcracker’s charming ballet soothes the eyes and raises the spirits with its elegant music, stunning choreography that captures the winter holiday spirit flawlessly.\r\n<p align=\"center\">Works Cited</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\neidelman, tamara. \"Tchaikovsky\'s Nutcracker.\" <i>Russian Life</i> 55.6 (2012): 24. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013 explores the history of the Nutcracker. Provided some basic information.\r\n\r\nFiero Gloria K “The Humanistic Tradition”, Sixth Edition, Books 3 through 6, by. McGraw-Hill, 2011. An analysis of humanitarian works, ranging from the renaissance to the present. Explained ballet’s structure during the Romantic era.\r\n\r\nJacobs, Laura. \"The Nutcracker\": A New Awakening.\" <i>New Criterion</i> 29.7 (2011): 17-22. <i>Literary Reference Center</i>. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. An indepth article that discusses the Nutcracker, its origin, a comparison to another of Tchaikovsky’s work, and the analysis of a recent Nutcracker ballet. Helped me understand how similar and different the forgotten Iolantra is to the Nutcracker.\r\n\r\nPatrick, K.C. \"Nutcrackers, Notcrackers And Joy To The World.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 74.12 (2000): 42. <i>Academic Search Complete</i>. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. An article that looks at the Nutcracker’s past, present, and future’s popularity. Helped me find more basic information\r\n\r\nValin, Kathy. \"Nutcracker $$$ Dreams.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 79.12 (2005): 94. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. How important the Nutcracker’s popularity effected ballet schools and an estimate on how much income was generated during its holiday premiere. Helped me find important figures that determined its popularity.','The Nutcracker','','inherit','open','open','','3627-revision-v1','','','2013-11-11 10:43:57','2013-11-11 16:43:57','',3627,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3629',0,'revision','',0),(3632,1,'2013-11-23 18:44:49','2013-11-24 00:44:49','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3628 aligncenter\" alt=\"nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg\">http://c0472851.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/nutcracker-pennsylvania-ballet-holidays-587.jpg</a></p>\r\nDuring the Romantic era a theatrical art form known as ballet gained massive popularity. Originating in Paris, France during the early nineteenth century, its popularity allowed it to move from the court to the theater where it was enjoyed as a form of middle class entertainment.  Many ballets similar to the <i>Nutcracker</i> all were inspired from popular legends and fairy tales, including <i>La Sylphine</i>, <i>Giselle, Swan Lake</i>, <i>and Sleeping Beauty</i>. Most of the ballets from the Romantic era all share a common similarity, the female central figure (Fiero). Many of the Romanticist believes that the female central protagonist often is portrayed as an angelic majestic female that symbolizes the ideals of love and beauty that was seen in most Romantic piece (Fiero).<!--more-->\r\n\r\nThe Nutcracker ballet was one of two pieces composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s and choreographed by Marius Petipa that premiered in St. Petersburg in December of 1892. The plot of the Nutcracker is based on German writer E.T.A. Hoffman titled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The story revolves around the adventures Marie (later Clara) is given a Nutcracker by her godfather as a present at a Christmas Eve party. Depending on the choreography the Marie is sent to a foreign land where sugar plum fairies, dancing snowflakes, and an army of rats roam the land.\r\n\r\nOriginally the nutcracker was seen as a failure, audiences were confused, and critics thought negatively of it. Much of the criticism came from  Tchaikovsky’s choice to ignore the romantic ballet formula, as the plot began going in one direction then move to another , and to make matters worse prima ballerina did not make an entrance until the end of the play (Patrick).\r\n\r\n121 years have passed since the nutcracker first premiered in St. Petersburg, and it has become one of the most popular ballets during the winter holidays.  Its popularity has become immense that ballet schools are becoming so dependent on the earnings from the nutcracker to support other activities throughout the year (???).  Valin claims that the Houston Ballet’s annual market doubles its Nutcracker ticket take making 25 percent of the organization’s annual budget, the Roxey Ballet in Lambert ville, New Jersey makes 30 percent of its annual budget from the Nutcracker.  During these 121 years the Nutcracker’s story has changed drastically. Depending on the choreography, the protagonist (Clara, Mary, Marie, or Masha) is given a nutcracker by her godfather during a Christmas party. Sometimes she’s defending the nutcracker from the King or the mice, rats, coyotes, and even a mouse queen. Even though the plot changes, Tchaikovsky’s music is always included in the ballet (Patrick).\r\n\r\nIolantra was the first piece that premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892. ().  Iolantra is a one act opera based on the play King Rene’s Daughter. The plot revolves around a blind princess that is unaware of her lost sight or her wealth. Even though Iolantra lives a life of luxury she still finds that she is missing something that she cannot possess. Iolantra’s father sentences death to any one that reveals the truth to Iolantra.  Tchaikovsky worked on both Iolantra and The nutcracker simultaneously from 1861 to early 1892, usually working on one piece then switching to the other. When compared nutcracker, Iolantra has a consistent plot and neat resolution. Both of the female protagonist are safe in the sanctuary their family. One is enchanted by the toy symbol of a man, the other by the voice of man that reveals her the truth to her misery. In both pieces the heroine rescues the life of the hero, Iolantra by opening her eyes, while Clara saving the nutcracker by throwing her slipper at the Mouse king. The critic Herman Laroche that claims Iolantra and the nutcracker are independent halves of a theatrical whole, stating “In the creative process from the very beginning [Tchaikovsky] imagined a certain unity of impression, and in certain features directly strove for such unity. The unity, however, is based on contrast.”(). Iolantra is about hearing while the Nutcracker is about seeing. Since Iolantra is blind her world is without color, Tchaikovsky’s orchestration of the opera is colorless. The nutcracker is considered a vivid ballet that awes its audience with its colorful props and its charming orchestra.\r\n\r\nDue to a series of unfortunate events, I never had to the chance to witness the Nutcracker during my childhood so I never really appreciate the fairy tale ballet that captivated children during the holidays. During the winter of 2011, I finally managed to buy some tickets, and I was impressed. The Dance of the sugar plum fairies featured a single ballerina swaying her body to each and every note, allowing the audience to sense the timid behavior of the fairies. What started as an average sized Christmas tree transformed into a massive living vivid stage. Inanimate object began slowly swaying as the orchestra played softly, suddenly the music picks up and we see the objects dancing gracefully to the cheery tone. The Nutcracker brought a small piece of nostalgia that gets lost along the path to adulthood.  The Nutcracker will help future generations revisit an older time where fairy tales, music, and dance are starting to be seen as one piece. The Nutcracker’s charming ballet soothes the eyes and raises the spirits with its elegant music, stunning choreography that captures the winter holiday spirit flawlessly.\r\n<p align=\"center\">Works Cited</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\neidelman, tamara. \"Tchaikovsky\'s Nutcracker.\" <i>Russian Life</i> 55.6 (2012): 24. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013 explores the history of the Nutcracker. Provided some basic information.\r\n\r\nFiero Gloria K “The Humanistic Tradition”, Sixth Edition, Books 3 through 6, by. McGraw-Hill, 2011. An analysis of humanitarian works, ranging from the renaissance to the present. Explained ballet’s structure during the Romantic era.\r\n\r\nJacobs, Laura. \"The Nutcracker\": A New Awakening.\" <i>New Criterion</i> 29.7 (2011): 17-22. <i>Literary Reference Center</i>. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. An indepth article that discusses the Nutcracker, its origin, a comparison to another of Tchaikovsky’s work, and the analysis of a recent Nutcracker ballet. Helped me understand how similar and different the forgotten Iolantra is to the Nutcracker.\r\n\r\nPatrick, K.C. \"Nutcrackers, Notcrackers And Joy To The World.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 74.12 (2000): 42. <i>Academic Search Complete</i>. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. An article that looks at the Nutcracker’s past, present, and future’s popularity. Helped me find more basic information\r\n\r\nValin, Kathy. \"Nutcracker $$$ Dreams.\" <i>Dance Magazine</i> 79.12 (2005): 94. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. How important the Nutcracker’s popularity effected ballet schools and an estimate on how much income was generated during its holiday premiere. Helped me find important figures that determined its popularity.','The Nutcracker','','inherit','open','open','','3627-revision-v1','','','2013-11-23 18:44:49','2013-11-24 00:44:49','',3627,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3632',0,'revision','',0),(3633,93,'2013-11-24 14:29:11','2013-11-24 20:29:11','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\n&nbsp;\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg\">http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg</a></p>\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.\n\n<!--more-->\n\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\n\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\n\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\n\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\n\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\n\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\n\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> </span></b></p>\n\n<ol>\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','inherit','open','open','','3623-autosave-v1','','','2013-11-24 14:29:11','2013-11-24 20:29:11','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3633',0,'revision','',0),(3634,93,'2013-11-24 14:31:06','2013-11-24 20:31:06','<a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-3624 aligncenter\" alt=\"Frankenstein_engraved\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Frankenstein_engraved-211x300.jpg\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg\">http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/Rq_WmHeQuLI/AAAAAAAAADE/d7WsNkjXOUk/s1600/frontispice.jpg</a></p>\r\nFew works of genre fiction can claim to be as influential and important as Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>. Originally published in 1818, the novel originated from a contest between Shelley and three other writers to see who could come up with the best horror story. [1] Eventually, she settled on a story about a scientist who manages to defy God and create life, only to reject his creation afterwards. Its if often cited not only as a work of gothic horror, but also credited as the first work of true science fiction, and has been adapted into and influenced countless other works. It should not only be preserved for its sheer influence, but also because it’s a thrilling and provocative work that rings true for all scientific discovery.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\n\r\nWhile not terribly typical of its era at all, the novel was published during a time of scientific and technological curiosity. With the Renaissance already behind the world, and the American Revolution over, world politics had settled down for a bit, allowing for creative and innovative thinking to take place again. It could be inferred that Shelley was inspired by this new wave of innovation, and decided to write a story about the ethics and responsibility of discovery. It is generally agreed upon that she drew from Humphry Davy’s book, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy</i>, in which Humphry wrote about how science has changed the way man can interact with and shape the world around him. [3] Most importantly, the subtitle of Shelley’s book, <i>The Modern Prometheus</i>, is derived from the Greek myth of Prometheus, an immortal whole stole the power of fire from the Gods to bestow it upon mankind, and thus elevate them out of the Neanderthal age. Within the context of her novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein steals the power to create life where there is none from God, or simply nature, and is punished for it.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, however, is how the novel is groundbreaking for its time. As opposed to most fiction involving scientific elements, which were fairly fantastical and lacking realism, <i>Frankenstein </i>focuses on a scientist who deliberately uses “modern experiments in the laboratory” to achieve a fantastic result. Brian Aldiss argues that because of this, it should be regarded as the first true work of science fiction. [2]\r\n\r\nAt the time of publication, the novel was widely panned by most literary critics and scholars, and for various reasons. Sir Walter Scott commended the expressiveness of the novel, but criticized the lack of credibility in the monster’s development. [4] Publications, such as The British Critic, that learned that the novel was written by a woman, it was dismissed nearly immediately and without much reason. [5] Nevertheless, it was a hugely popular success with the public.\r\n\r\nSince publication, it has gone on to become a hugely successful and influential work. Adapted into numerous films, stage productions, and other works of fiction, it has become an icon of popular culture, although the depiction of the monster has changed drastically over time. Originally envisioned as a grotesque and hulking creature sewn together from various body parts of corpses, its currently accepted appearance was popularized in the 1931 film by James Whale.\r\n\r\nHaving been mostly familiar with the story through other adaptations, I was relieved to find a much more thoughtful and evocative story in the novel than I had encountered previously. I found myself moved but also disturbed by the tale of a man who, in the words of Ian Malcolm in <i>Jurassic Park</i>, was so obsessed with whether or not he <i>could</i> do something that he didn’t stop to think about whether or not he <i>should</i>. This contrast between the thrill of discovery and the responsibilities of science struck a chord with me I did not expect to find so intellectually engaging.\r\n\r\nCompared to a work like <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, this monster tale is far more concerned with sparking a philosophical discussion about ethics and our place in the natural world than with thrilling the audience with provocative imagery. One could argue that <i>Dracula</i> makes a case for sexual liberation, but that appears to be primarily an inferred argument. Primarily, Stoker’s novel has a simple goal of thrilling the reader, and while that doesn’t make Shelley’s novel somehow boring by comparison, it illustrates a difference in both textual and sub-textual goals.\r\n\r\nAs we race towards an age of rapidly evolving technology and innovation, it is important to remember that we are yet mere mortals in a vast universe that we can barely comprehend. We should consistently strive not only to take responsibility for the discoveries we make, but also to keep our own hubris in check, lest we suffer the same fate as Victor Frankenstein.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Works Cited</span></b></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> </span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>British Library, <a href=\"http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html\">http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126765.html</a>, accessed 10/31/2013</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Aldiss, Brian, <i>The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, </i>(1995), p.78.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Davy, Humphry, <i>Elements of Chemical Philosophy, </i>(1812)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>Scott, Walter, <i>Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, </i>(20 March/ 1 April, 1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>\"Review of Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.\" <i>The British Critic</i> [London] 9 Apr. 1818: 432-38. Print.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;','Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus','','inherit','open','open','','3623-revision-v1','','','2013-11-24 14:31:06','2013-11-24 20:31:06','',3623,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3634',0,'revision','',0),(3655,79,'2013-11-25 12:42:44','2013-11-25 18:42:44','<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Jordan Pinion</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">11/9/13</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">HUMA 1302-007</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">TCP4</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\" width=\"219\" height=\"369\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" /></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Pi</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><i><a href=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg</a></i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Name: <i>Pi</i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">By: <i> </i>Darren Aronofsky</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Date: 1998</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> <i>Pi </i>by Darren Aronofsky is not only a psychological thriller, but also a surrealist masterpiece. It perfectly captures the spirit and feel of the modernist\'s take on cinema (breathing new life into the genre), but does so while provoking a scientific mystery that has captured the minds of modern scientific society. <i>Pi</i> should be preserved for its stunning use of surrealist techniques, in addition to its dark cautionary message of forbidden knowledge.  <!--more--></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Its the mid nineteen nineties, the United States is fairly business as usual, President Clinton starts receiving sexual harassment charges, Chris Farley overdoses on opiates, AOL is still a thing, and Putin starts his maniacal climb up the political ladder. “With the U.S. Economy booming under President Bill Clinton and the cold war finally over, many Americans experience peace and prosperity in the nineties.” (Holmlund) That being said, “terrorism” is on the rise, </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">with recent events including the Oklahoma bombing and Al Qaeda upstarts. All of this paired with mixed trust for the current leadership here at home. Production for <i>Pi</i> began in 1996, amidst this backdrop of dark foreboding.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> The 1990s was a great decade for independent and surrealist cinema. “... independent films captured hearts, engaged minds, and invaded Hollywood: by decade\'s end every studio boasted its own \'art film\' affiliate.” (Holmlund) Part of the reason why not only this film, but its genre and style did so well during the decade, is because they were so different from the norm of the time. The more popular genres tended to be action, horror/thriller, family friendly and feel-good romances.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> <i>Pi </i>is especially innovative in its filming methods, heavily using surrealist concepts and applications. “Surrealism was the first literary and artistic </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">movement to become seriously associated with cinema, though it has been a movement largely neglected by film critics and historians”(Kovacs). Shot in black and white (also unusual for the time period), in and of itself gives way to a surreal feeling of being in a dream. The time line of the movie is often unpredictable, and includes many examples of disturbing or otherwise shocking images. This is amazing, especially when considering the laughably small filming budget (a sparse $60,000)(IMDB).</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> Public reception of <i>Pi</i> was generally good. It even received decent praise from Roger Ebert as a thriller. “I am not very thrilled these days by whether the bad guys will get shot or the chase scene will end one way instead of another. You have to make a movie like that pretty skillfully before I care. But I am thrilled when a man risks his mind in the pursuit of a dangerous obsession”. (Ebert) <i>Pi</i> went on to earn Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival (kind of a big deal), among others.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> If it is at all possible, <i>Pi </i>may be more popular now than it was upon release. Current aggregate cinema polling (Rotten Tomatoes) has <i>Pi </i>at 87%. That\'s an average rating of 3.8/5 from over one hundred thousand user ratings. And while many inconsistencies have been found within the movie (forgivable considering the budget), this film\'s mystery still proves quite thought provoking, even to our greatest scientific minds.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> This has to be my favorite movie of all time. As a computer science major, I am obligated to find beauty in perfect mathematics. Some people like oil </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">paintings of lily gardens. Me..., I dig fractals. The golden rectangle, golden ratio, Fibonacci sequence, whatever name tag it wears, is to this day one of the greatest mysteries of mathematical and scientific theory. Stephen Hawking once said, “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. Similarly, many aspects of the golden ratio express fundamental mathematics, while some appear where there is no clear reason other than to create and express beauty”.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> What is most significant thing about <i>Pi</i> for future generations to be aware of, is its message that all knowledge comes at a price, and that if too zealous in its pursuit, we stand to be swallowed whole by an answer we are not even capable of understanding. </span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Holmlund, Christine. \"American Cinema of the 1990s.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>Project MUSE</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. Rutgers University Press, 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780813545783?auth=0&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Kovacs, Steven. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema. </i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">London: Farleigh Dickenson UP, 1980.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Ebert, Roger. \"Pi.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>All Content</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. N.p., 24 July 1998. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Hawking, Stephen. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. Print.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> Stephen Hawking\'s genius insight into the universe, as only he can tell it. It is no secret that Stephen Hawking\'s above average intelligence gives some credence to the mysteries surrounding Pi.</span></span></span>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><!--more--></span></p>','Pi','','publish','open','open','','pi','','','2013-11-25 12:46:30','2013-11-25 18:46:30','',0,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3655',0,'post','',6),(3654,86,'2013-11-25 12:25:27','2013-11-25 18:25:27','<p style=\"text-align: center\">V’nai Vazquez</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">The Matrix (1999)</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">The Wachowski’s</p>\r\n <a href=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/matrix.png\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-3652 aligncenter\" alt=\"matrix\" src=\"http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/matrix.png\" width=\"258\" height=\"196\" /></a>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://www.embodee.com/media/71.jpg\">http://www.embodee.com/media/71.jpg</a></p>\r\nThe Matrix directed by The Wachowski\'s is about Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer and a hacker, his alias is Neo. He feels something within himself and waits at his computer at night for some kind of sign that reality wasn’t what it seemed. He is contacted by Trinity who introduces him to Morpheus, who claims to have been watching Neo. Morpheus offers Neo the opportunity to either continue living the way he has been or to be awakened to true reality. Neo chooses true reality and finds that nearly all of humanity has been enslaved by machines who use human’s body heat and electric energy for survival and energy, and keep their minds focused on a reality the machines have created, this is known as the Matrix. The plot is based around Morpheus’s belief that Neo is “the One” that will be able to conquer the machines and free humanity. The Matrix directed by The Wachowskis should most certainly be preserved for not only the technical achievements but also the philosophical themes that still strike up conversations today.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nWhen The Matrix was released it was during the era of Postmodernism. The idea is that reality became shaped by the wealth of technological information. The artists of the time take ideas from history and current events and put an ironic or paradoxical spin to it, creating a style that is “superficial and profound” (Fiero). Scientifically there was a lot going on as well. The Chaos Theory that pointed to numerous patterns that occurred naturally. The Human Genome project was also underway, mapping DNA thus giving scientists the ability to clone life forms. The Language Theory was also being discussed, which advised that language actually limited our ability to understand philosophy (Fiero). Throughout the decade it seemed the question on everyone’s mind was what else could there be? A new age of philosophy had sprung up and there seemed to be so much that humans did not know or understand, that there must be more than what we had currently understood about life. The internet was launched less than ten years before the movie was released, which sprouted a new age of information. Visual stimulation seemed to take over like a wild fire. This new generation of people were saturated quickly by all of the access to computers, telephones and cameras, everything then became marketable to every audience.  Now add the deep new discoveries and theories that were coming to fruition in addition to the all access pass to nearly all of the information known to man, via the internet, and this lays the perfect ground work for The Matrix to come to life.\r\n\r\nBlast From the Past and Galaxy Quest were also released in 1999. Although they took a more satirical approach to the question of the future of America and the effects of machines and aliens, respectively, they both posed the question of what else is there. Blast From the Past focuses on the world as it was to become after the era of hippies it takes a few people that lived in the 60‘s and faces them with the reality of the 90‘s, where television was a focus and it seemed many people were mindless followers. Galaxy Quest was able to show what earthlings focus’s were, the aliens believe that Gilligan’s Island was an actual place, because when they learned about our planet that was what was on the television set. It was not a new idea to pose the question of where the world was heading, with the guide of our new technologies, and to show the potential from a third party perspective. In The Matrix we are able to see first hand from Neo’s perspective what may happen in the future. The painting art pieces of this era were focused on the consumerism idea. Andy Warhol based his art on every day commonplace objects, focusing them as the center, similarly to how it seemed the culture was facing itself. Consumerism was the name of the game in the 90’s it was as though a whole new world of products were finally able to enter the market because of the amount of available advertising. I think this plays into the idea of normalcy and consumerism going hand in hand because as Neo is learning about the matrix he finds that the machines had an opportunity to make the world perfect, the experiences of humans without flaw. However, humans wouldn’t accept that, they knew innately they were supposed to face hardships and they were supposed to make decisions on their own. Consumerism not only allows us to make our own choices it drives us to that.\r\n\r\nThe Matrix was unusual because of the intense amount of special effects and usage of certain effects that had been around but not the focus of many movies before. For instance there are the scenes where it is slow motion movement with a 360 degree around the actor. The film had over 3000 special effects (Taub). The way the Wachowski’s wanted it to be stylized was similar to Japanese animation, so when they “created weather, fire and smoke, [they] wanted it to move not realistically but impressionalistically” (Taub) The special effects were huge for the movie industry. A lot of study went into the facial expressions, body language, and hair and clothing movement. Since the Matrix was stepping into this new element of part live action part heavy special effects they found it very important to mesh the two types of video together seamlessly. Additionally this film sparked a lot of debate and philosophical conversations.\r\n\r\nTo anyone who is familiar with Descartes’ saying “I think therefore I am”, would understand the sudden spark in controversy. Descartes meant the only true way to tell if one exists is to think it, when you think “I am” it is truth, there can be no disputing it there is “immediate intuition, not the conclusion of dubious reasoning” (Brittanica). Which really throws The Matrix for a loop. Other than Neo, no one was questioning what life was all about or really had any type of philosophical thought process. The few people we are introduced to while in the Matrix are those who work in a colorless office, with little emotion, only flat monotonous activity. Secondly, we are introduced to a few young people who are only living for the moment, at a rave party, not concerned with the past or present. Was this life that we were all living a lie? Was it all just made up completely for us? What truly was the purpose of life, are we now giving more focus and attention to the machines at our fingertips than ourselves? What does reality truly mean? These among countless other questions arose and caused many people of all ages to consider a deeper meaning for life. Something that may be particularly interesting is the stir the film caused in the religious community. Various sites have forums that discuss the religious implications of Neo’s character among a slew of other comparisons to Christianity (ex. <a href=\"http://godlikeproductions.com\" target=\"_blank\">godlikeproductions.com</a> and <a href=\"http://angelfire.com\" target=\"_blank\">angelfire.com</a>).\r\n\r\nToday a lot of people really enjoy The Matrix, even though we have far more advanced technology and mind bending movies, this film really set the stage for these worlds to collide. The use of the technology is almost like an art in the way it enhances the idea of this future where you can enter the information in the program and be that person with certain skills. Additionally, it still sparks conversations any where you go. People that have not seen it in ages are able to conjure up the feelings the movie gave them, whether that is goose bumps when Neo dodges the bullets or the deep philosophical questions it left them wondering. Fewer people are likely to put up a fight if you disagree with them as far as the religious opinions go nowadays versus in the hayday of it’s release. My conclusion for that is that now a lot more people are open to any kind of religion and ideology. Suffice it to say, you will come across people who so adamantly believe that there was religious undertones, but for every one of those people you will speak to 10 who thought there were several layers but found them to mean something else. I find this both sad and amazing. To me it seems that less people are passionate about believing in something, but I think it’s incredible how far we’ve come as a society to be more accepting toward one another. Additionally, when people think of this film they find it to be a “definitive hybrid of technical wizardry and contextual excellence”, “plot as well as characters I cared about”, “to all who doubt the profound nature of The Matrix... free your mind and watch the film again” (IMDB). It would seem that this film is quite flawless in the minds of current viewers, the effects, the acting and the philosophy all seem to strike a chord within it’s viewers. Many films nowadays are a flash in the pan and disappear in popularity shortly after their release. The Matrix has been around for 14 years and is still going strong in the hearts of it’s audience.\r\n\r\nPrior to writing this paper I re-watched The Matrix. It still blows me away. The movie came out when I was nine, when I watched it then, there were a lot of explosions and slow motion graphics which I was all for. I mean what nine year old doesn’t like a good hand to hand combat scene? Watching it as an adult gave me a much clearer view point on how people were able to see as far as philosophy goes. In my opinion I love watching movies just for entertainment, however I can see how for many films the director’s ideologies come into play through their works. The Wachowskis are not philosophers, they do not have doctorates. It would seem they allowed so much room for interpretation of the film so that each of us would have to discover our own meaning from it. They gave it a wide enough berth that it gained in popularity through the discussion, rather than lose traction because of the strict black and white policy that some director’s use. I think The Matrix is meaningful because it leaves room for the human race to consider what it is we want from machinery. It has caused me to wonder just how far will we allow artificial intelligence to go, for instance Siri, by Apple she is able to work like a personal assistance. Sure, Siri doesn’t have arms and legs, but all the information that she learns about us just through our voices, she is able to understand when you talk to her “as you would to a person” (Siri). Although I do not think that it is plausible for machinery to take over the world, I think it is important for us to take a step back and truly consider the repercussions to our advancement in technology will lead us. It is pertinent that we tread the waters of advancement carefully before we just do it because “we can”.\r\n\r\nAnother movie that came out in 1999, is 10 Things I Hate About You. This is a horrible movie to do a comparison to The Matrix because they are completely different. The only similarity is that they are both films that were released in 1999. 10 Things I Hate About You (henceforth referred to as 10), is a movie about young love, it is about two sisters in high school who see the world completely different from one another but both find a boy who help them expand their world view in different ways. One of the sisters is the popular girl who meets a boy who is the nerdy character. The other sister is the outsider who goes against the grain and meets the bad boy. Although these aspects seem very trivial the movie shows young love in it’s pure form, without all the sex and lust that typically goes into that type of genre. Although there are no special effects in this movie. While The Matrix is relatable because it brings everyone to a point where they may consider the distant future for humanity, 10 brings everyone together under the reminder of their first love and to think back to the simplicity of young love. A few other movies that came out at the same time were She’s All That and Never Been Kissed, they were along the same genre and theme. Both The Matrix and 10 are extremely entertaining and have excellent actors. Although 10 does not have the longevity that The Matrix might have it can still conjure up a lot of emotions with the audience it was aimed toward.\r\n\r\nFuture generations should be aware of the great leaps in special effects it did and how it set the pace for what action movies began to aim for. They should be aware of the religious and philosophical themes that have been discussed so adamantly by people of all ages. Even if they never “learn” that this was such a big deal in both religious and non-religious circles, the story line is so malleable in it’s definition that the future generations will be able to pick up on the underlying themes themselves. Although it is helpful to learn about the history of the 90s to learn how much technology was effecting the generation  it is not pertinent to understand the movie itself, which is yet another reason it is worthy of preservation, the film speaks for itself.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Works Cited</p>\r\nEditors of The Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Cogito, ergo sum (philosophy)” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 2013. Web. 20 November 2013.\r\n\r\nA short article discussing Descartes’ Philosophy of “I think therefore I am”. I used this to gain a better understanding of the phrase and meaning of it.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nFiero. “The Humanistic Tradition”. 6th edition. August 2011. Textbook. 19 November 2013.\r\n\r\nI used chapter 37 in discussion with the visual arts and how Andy Warhol was a large part of the culture then. Additionally to grasp the context of the film in it\'s time.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n“Siri. Your Wish Is My Command.” Apple. 2013. Web. 21 November 2013.\r\n\r\nThis is an informative page released by Apple that tells of all the features and abilities that Siri is able to do. I used it to drive home the point of the scary reality of AI.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n“Reviews and Ratings for The Matrix.” IMDb.com, Inc. 1990-2013. Web. 21 November 2013.\r\n\r\nThis was a huge compilation of over 500 reviews of The Matrix. I used it to pick out what people in current times think of the film.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nTaub, Eric A. “The ‘Matrix’ Invented: A World of Special Effects”. <i>The New York Times</i>. 3 June 2003. Web. 20 November 2013.\r\n\r\nThis was a well worded newspaper article written in regards to the amount of special effects that made up The Matrix. I used it to discuss how the work was different than other works of it’s time.','The Matrix','','inherit','open','open','','3642-revision-v1','','','2013-11-25 12:25:27','2013-11-25 18:25:27','',3642,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3654',0,'revision','',0),(3657,1,'2013-11-25 12:46:30','2013-11-25 18:46:30','<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Jordan Pinion</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">11/9/13</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">HUMA 1302-007</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">TCP4</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\" width=\"219\" height=\"369\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" /></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Pi</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><i><a href=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg</a></i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Name: <i>Pi</i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">By: <i> </i>Darren Aronofsky</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Date: 1998</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> <i>Pi </i>by Darren Aronofsky is not only a psychological thriller, but also a surrealist masterpiece. It perfectly captures the spirit and feel of the modernist\'s take on cinema (breathing new life into the genre), but does so while provoking a scientific mystery that has captured the minds of modern scientific society. <i>Pi</i> should be preserved for its stunning use of surrealist techniques, in addition to its dark cautionary message of forbidden knowledge.  <!--more--></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">Its the mid nineteen nineties, the United States is fairly business as usual, President Clinton starts receiving sexual harassment charges, Chris Farley overdoses on opiates, AOL is still a thing, and Putin starts his maniacal climb up the political ladder. “With the U.S. Economy booming under President Bill Clinton and the cold war finally over, many Americans experience peace and prosperity in the nineties.” (Holmlund) That being said, “terrorism” is on the rise, </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">with recent events including the Oklahoma bombing and Al Qaeda upstarts. All of this paired with mixed trust for the current leadership here at home. Production for <i>Pi</i> began in 1996, amidst this backdrop of dark foreboding.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> The 1990s was a great decade for independent and surrealist cinema. “... independent films captured hearts, engaged minds, and invaded Hollywood: by decade\'s end every studio boasted its own \'art film\' affiliate.” (Holmlund) Part of the reason why not only this film, but its genre and style did so well during the decade, is because they were so different from the norm of the time. The more popular genres tended to be action, horror/thriller, family friendly and feel-good romances.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> <i>Pi </i>is especially innovative in its filming methods, heavily using surrealist concepts and applications. “Surrealism was the first literary and artistic </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">movement to become seriously associated with cinema, though it has been a movement largely neglected by film critics and historians”(Kovacs). Shot in black and white (also unusual for the time period), in and of itself gives way to a surreal feeling of being in a dream. The time line of the movie is often unpredictable, and includes many examples of disturbing or otherwise shocking images. This is amazing, especially when considering the laughably small filming budget (a sparse $60,000)(IMDB).</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> Public reception of <i>Pi</i> was generally good. It even received decent praise from Roger Ebert as a thriller. “I am not very thrilled these days by whether the bad guys will get shot or the chase scene will end one way instead of another. You have to make a movie like that pretty skillfully before I care. But I am thrilled when a man risks his mind in the pursuit of a dangerous obsession”. (Ebert) <i>Pi</i> went on to earn Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival (kind of a big deal), among others.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> If it is at all possible, <i>Pi </i>may be more popular now than it was upon release. Current aggregate cinema polling (Rotten Tomatoes) has <i>Pi </i>at 87%. That\'s an average rating of 3.8/5 from over one hundred thousand user ratings. And while many inconsistencies have been found within the movie (forgivable considering the budget), this film\'s mystery still proves quite thought provoking, even to our greatest scientific minds.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> This has to be my favorite movie of all time. As a computer science major, I am obligated to find beauty in perfect mathematics. Some people like oil </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\">paintings of lily gardens. Me..., I dig fractals. The golden rectangle, golden ratio, Fibonacci sequence, whatever name tag it wears, is to this day one of the greatest mysteries of mathematical and scientific theory. Stephen Hawking once said, “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. Similarly, many aspects of the golden ratio express fundamental mathematics, while some appear where there is no clear reason other than to create and express beauty”.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"> What is most significant thing about <i>Pi</i> for future generations to be aware of, is its message that all knowledge comes at a price, and that if too zealous in its pursuit, we stand to be swallowed whole by an answer we are not even capable of understanding. </span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Holmlund, Christine. \"American Cinema of the 1990s.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>Project MUSE</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. Rutgers University Press, 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780813545783?auth=0&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Kovacs, Steven. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema. </i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">London: Farleigh Dickenson UP, 1980.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Ebert, Roger. \"Pi.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>All Content</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. N.p., 24 July 1998. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Hawking, Stephen. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i>A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. Print.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> Stephen Hawking\'s genius insight into the universe, as only he can tell it. It is no secret that Stephen Hawking\'s above average intelligence gives some credence to the mysteries surrounding Pi.</span></span></span>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif;\"><!--more--></span></p>','Pi','','inherit','open','open','','3655-revision-v1','','','2013-11-25 12:46:30','2013-11-25 18:46:30','',3655,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3657',0,'revision','',0),(3656,79,'2013-11-25 12:42:44','2013-11-25 18:42:44','<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">Jordan Pinion</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">11/9/13</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">HUMA 1302-007</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"RIGHT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">TCP4</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\" width=\"219\" height=\"369\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" /></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">Pi</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"><i><a href=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg\">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Piposter.jpg</a></i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">Name: <i>Pi</i></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">By: <i> </i>Darren Aronofsky</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">Date: 1998</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> <i>Pi </i>by Darren Aronofsky is not only a psychological thriller, but also a surrealist masterpiece. It perfectly captures the spirit and feel of the modernist\'s take on cinema (breathing new life into the genre), but does so while provoking a scientific mystery that has captured the minds of modern scientific society. <i>Pi</i> should be preserved for its stunning use of surrealist techniques, in addition to its dark cautionary message of forbidden knowledge.  </span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">Its the mid nineteen nineties, the United States is fairly business as usual, President Clinton starts receiving sexual harassment charges, Chris Farley overdoses on opiates, AOL is still a thing, and Putin starts his maniacal climb up the political ladder. “With the U.S. Economy booming under President Bill Clinton and the cold war finally over, many Americans experience peace and prosperity in the nineties.” (Holmlund) That being said, “terrorism” is on the rise, </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">with recent events including the Oklahoma bombing and Al Qaeda upstarts. All of this paired with mixed trust for the current leadership here at home. Production for <i>Pi</i> began in 1996, amidst this backdrop of dark foreboding.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> The 1990s was a great decade for independent and surrealist cinema. “... independent films captured hearts, engaged minds, and invaded Hollywood: by decade\'s end every studio boasted its own \'art film\' affiliate.” (Holmlund) Part of the reason why not only this film, but its genre and style did so well during the decade, is because they were so different from the norm of the time. The more popular genres tended to be action, horror/thriller, family friendly and feel-good romances.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> <i>Pi </i>is especially innovative in its filming methods, heavily using surrealist concepts and applications. “Surrealism was the first literary and artistic </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">movement to become seriously associated with cinema, though it has been a movement largely neglected by film critics and historians”(Kovacs). Shot in black and white (also unusual for the time period), in and of itself gives way to a surreal feeling of being in a dream. The time line of the movie is often unpredictable, and includes many examples of disturbing or otherwise shocking images. This is amazing, especially when considering the laughably small filming budget (a sparse $60,000)(IMDB).</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> Public reception of <i>Pi</i> was generally good. It even received decent praise from Roger Ebert as a thriller. “I am not very thrilled these days by whether the bad guys will get shot or the chase scene will end one way instead of another. You have to make a movie like that pretty skillfully before I care. But I am thrilled when a man risks his mind in the pursuit of a dangerous obsession”. (Ebert) <i>Pi</i> went on to earn Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival (kind of a big deal), among others.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> If it is at all possible, <i>Pi </i>may be more popular now than it was upon release. Current aggregate cinema polling (Rotten Tomatoes) has <i>Pi </i>at 87%. That\'s an average rating of 3.8/5 from over one hundred thousand user ratings. And while many inconsistencies have been found within the movie (forgivable considering the budget), this film\'s mystery still proves quite thought provoking, even to our greatest scientific minds.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> This has to be my favorite movie of all time. As a computer science major, I am obligated to find beauty in perfect mathematics. Some people like oil </span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\">paintings of lily gardens. Me..., I dig fractals. The golden rectangle, golden ratio, Fibonacci sequence, whatever name tag it wears, is to this day one of the greatest mysteries of mathematical and scientific theory. Stephen Hawking once said, “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. Similarly, many aspects of the golden ratio express fundamental mathematics, while some appear where there is no clear reason other than to create and express beauty”.</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"> What is most significant thing about <i>Pi</i> for future generations to be aware of, is its message that all knowledge comes at a price, and that if too zealous in its pursuit, we stand to be swallowed whole by an answer we are not even capable of understanding. </span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Holmlund, Christine. \"American Cinema of the 1990s.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>Project MUSE</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">. Rutgers University Press, 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780813545783?auth=0&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Kovacs, Steven. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema. </i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">London: Farleigh Dickenson UP, 1980.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Ebert, Roger. \"Pi.\"</span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>All Content</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">. N.p., 24 July 1998. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. &lt;http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998&gt;.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Hawking, Stephen. </span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes</i></span></span></span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. Print.</span></span></span></p>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', Times, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> Stephen Hawking\'s genius insight into the universe, as only he can tell it. It is no secret that Stephen Hawking\'s above average intelligence gives some credence to the mysteries surrounding Pi.</span></span></span>\r\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\', serif\"><!--more--></span></p>','Pi','','inherit','open','open','','3655-revision-v1','','','2013-11-25 12:42:44','2013-11-25 18:42:44','',3655,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3656',0,'revision','',0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (3658,75,'2013-11-25 12:54:39','2013-11-25 18:54:39','<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/louis-armstrong.jpeg\" width=\"614\" height=\"461\" /></p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/louis-armstrong.jpeg&amp;imgrefurl=http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2013/05/&amp;h=768&amp;w=1024&amp;sz=88&amp;tbnid=jqlG5Lbfb6kQOM:&amp;tbnh=110&amp;tbnw=147&amp;zoom=1&amp;usg=__mlOfKBnWuAUxcImIgqT_DK0eZZ4=&amp;docid=0h_VLTVmrAGfVM&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=h5GTUo35OYjeoAScyoCYDQ&amp;ved=0CDcQ9QEwBA\">http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/louis-armstrong.jpeg&amp;imgrefurl=http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2013/05/&amp;h=768&amp;w=1024&amp;sz=88&amp;tbnid=jqlG5Lbfb6kQOM:&amp;tbnh=110&amp;tbnw=147&amp;zoom=1&amp;usg=__mlOfKBnWuAUxcImIgqT_DK0eZZ4=&amp;docid=0h_VLTVmrAGfVM&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=h5GTUo35OYjeoAScyoCYDQ&amp;ved=0CDcQ9QEwBA</a></p>\r\nThe name of the Jazz Music Masterpiece is: ♫Hotter Than That.\r\n\r\nCreator of work is “Louis Armstrong” and “Lil Hardin Armstrong”. Lil was Armstrong wife, and the piece of work was written by Lil Hardin.\r\n\r\nHotter Than That was recorded early December 13, 1927 and was among the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven.\r\n\r\n“The fiery “Hotter Than That” is one of Louis Armstrong masterpieces. Played at a flying tempo,. The opening trumpet solo is a brilliant example of developing a melodic idea, all with a dynamic sound and sophistication swing”. Armstrong advanced rhythmic sense is in full display as he sings behind the beat and then intensifies the rhythm with a brilliant series of dotted quarter notes which get further and further off the beat.\r\n\r\nThe work “Hotter Than That” one of Louis Armstrong masterpieces by the band: Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings made him a famous musician by 1925-28 by this Armstrong emerged as the first great jazz soloist, he single-handedly invented a compelling, propulsive, rhythmic inflection in his playing that came to be called “Swing”. Armstrong was considered as the most influential jazz musician of all time when he taught the whole world about swing and also had a profound effect on the development of jazz. Armstrong was a great trumpeters not only a trumpeter but trombonists, saxophonists, singers (such as Billie Holiday) and even a pianists just like the wife lil Hardy who played the Piano in Hotter Than That. Armstrong soars while most of his band-mate can barely get off the ground”.\r\n\r\nLouis Armstrong trumpeter style of play brought a whole new dynamism to jazz band, in his era the work was typical because he was the” first great jazz soloist consider as most the influential jazz musician of all, trumpeter soloist, someone that single-handedly invented a compelling, propulsive, rhythmic inflection in his playing that came to be called the swing. He was the dominant influence on the swing era in 1900’s.\r\n\r\nArmstrong artistic and technical prowess to jazz music makes his work innovative and unusual, his technique was superior to that of all competitors, altogether his immensely compelling swing; his brilliant technique; his sophisticated, daring sense of harmony; his ever-mobile, expressive attack, timbre, and inflection; his gift for creating vital melodies; his dramatic, often complex sense of solo design; and his out sized musical energy and genius made these recordings major innovation in jazz”.\r\n\r\nArmstrong even when paired with other soloists or with orchestral exerted a wide-range of influence on all manners of players playing with him, “his method and technique of play, the dramatic, his gift of creating vital melodies, expressive attack and more uniquely Armstrong become popular through his ingenious ensemble lead and the second cornet lines, his cornet duet passages (“called breaks”) with olive, and his solos all these in introduced in masterpiece ‘Hotter Than That”. And also his immensely compelling swing he invented in the artistic world of jazz”. Makes his work received in his time and today.\r\n\r\nPeople today think of the artistic and technical work of jazz by Armstrong “Hotter Than That” as one of the best masterpiece of the Hot Five and Hot Seven jazz Band Group. And with this he taught the whole world about “Swing”. They think Armstrong as the most influential jazz musician of all time. Armstrong introduces jazz to the whole world; he popularized what came to be called “scat”, a universally comprehensive art form that needed no translation. The receptions then and today for Armstrong music was universally accepted, there was never a dull moment when listening to father of jazz music inventor of swing.\r\n\r\nThat Armstrong was a creative, an artistic genius, . That “Hotter Than That” was having no contemporaries, that with this work he invented the swing, introduced the scat style of play. “The art form that needed no translation, his unique singing style, his vocalization of his improvisatory trumpet playing, played a crucial role in hotter than that. What specifically meaningful about Armstrong, is that, first and foremost he is the first jazz soloist, the leading trumpeter soloist, the first to invent the “swing” method of play, the one that popularized what came to be called “scat” today, and above all else, his swing-style trumpet playing influenced virtually all jazz horn players who followed him, and the swing and rhythmic suppleness of his vocal style were important influences on singers from Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby”.\r\n\r\nThe “Hotter Than That” masterpiece can be compared to Armstrong some other work style such as “the Struttin’ with Some Barbecue, Wild Man Blues, and Potato Head Blues”. Armstrong has no contemporaries rather his work was been improved upon by his followers, Armstrong unique way of trumpeting has no equals, he is the first superstar of jazz soloist of his kind, he is a jazz ambassador he introduce jazz to the world, he is the inventor of swing, in his era his own wife testify of that too that among those playing in her band non was as talented as Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong was a phenomenon. “He popularized what came to be called “scat” a method of singing without words or texts, a universally comprehensible art form that needed no translation”.\r\n\r\nThe innovation and creative style of play Armstrong introduced into the world of Jazz, the approach of playing the trumpet, trombone, saxophone, the swing method and the popularization of scat. And the way he uniquely play the cornet lines makes him outstanding, his expressive attack when playing the trumpet, his gift of creating vital melodies etc.\r\n\r\nWhen you listen to the music “Hotter Than That” you will agree with me that this work by Armstrong is highly technical and demands immerse strength.  He introduced the “swing” style and the “scat” method to this music that made him famous. He is the first Jazz soloist, famous on recordings and in theaters, he more than anyone else carried the message of jazz to America. The work \'Hotter Than That\" should be preserved because of the rhythmic inflection in his play that is called the \"swing\".\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Cited Work:</strong>\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li><strong>“Hotter Than That”. Encyclopedia Britannica’s Guide to Black History.2013. Print.(https://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-215415)</strong></li>\r\n	<li><strong>http://www.jazz.com.</strong></li>\r\n	<li><strong>http://www.jazz.com/music/2009/8/6/louis-armstrong-hotter-than-that</strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','3643-revision-v1','','','2013-11-25 12:54:39','2013-11-25 18:54:39','',3643,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3658',0,'revision','',0),(3609,84,'2013-11-04 23:53:56','2013-11-05 05:53:56','<img alt=\"\" src=\"image/png;base64,[encoded data, 200868 characters]\" />\r\n\r\n\"Photograph by Alexander Gardner. <em>Dead at Antietam.</em> October 1862\"\r\n\r\nFrom the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, art was an excellent way to portray wars and inventions around the world. Painting showed how artists viewed events, and it successfully could appeal to and shaped how people felt about the world around them. However, beginning in 1835, art had experienced a new rival in terms of picture taking. Photography became popular in the United States and Europe, and this concept brought to the world a more vivid grasp of Realism. By the mid-nineteenth century, people worldwide thought that the camera was an amazing tool. People took photos of geographical icons and monuments. Wars were also a major interest, which inspired photographer Matthew Brady to take a collection of Civil War photographs. One of these photographs was Dead at Antietam, which was part of the Civil War collection of the Battle of Antietam in 1863. When these photographs were shown to people, the people got a true essence of what war was like during this time period, as witnessed by photographers. The work Dead at Antietam by Matthew Brady should be restored because people who enjoy photography would be very interested in learning about its origins.\r\nBrady’s Battle of Antietam series, including Death at Antietam, were innovative of the nineteenth century because this is the first time in history that people experienced the horrific life of war. Seeing realistic vivid footage of war was extremely alarming to people as well as influential. On the bright side, this new concept of photography allowed Civil War soldiers and families to see pictures of each other. It also served a method of communication between the home and war fronts so all Americans could see what was going on with their loved ones. Thanks to photography, mothers and children of soldiers got a big picture of the tragic and bloody events of the American Civil War.\r\nUnlike art, which did not portray Realism, photography had people frightened about the massive shootings in the North. The American Civil War was the first war to be shown in photographs instead of canvas art. People across America were enlightened by photography, especially Civil War soldiers, who had a great opportunity of connecting with their families. On the war front, soldiers had professional photographs sent home thanks to portrait studios being established on army campsites. Americans were thankful for these photos because they never knew if their loved ones would return home again. With realistic pictorial images, photography was a source of visual information across the United States that was helpful in keeping families together.\r\nIn the era of the twenty-first century, Brady’s photographs have travelled all across the United States. Museums such as the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the National Civil War Medicine. At the Smithsonian, portraits of Civil War Union soldiers are currently on display. At the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the Antietam series has been recreated and put on display. To this day, Brady’s portraits have been a liking to museum scholars alike as well as museum patrons.\r\nBrady’s work has sparked my interests because I knew very little about photography’s origins, nor did I know that war was a big interest to early photographers. I was impressed how early cameras took extraordinary photographs. Also, I found amazing how much these photographs how big of an impact these photographs had on families on the home front. One thing I did not appreciate so much is the fact that Brady was credited for fellow co-photographer Alexander Gardener’s work. I believe that Gardener should have received credit because he had taken most of the photos. If I was Brady, I would have given Gardner full credit for his work and praised him for taking the photographs for me.\r\nWhile the debut of taking war photographs occurred during the Civil War, the concept of showing war on television first appeared during the Vietnam War. This televised war had a big impact on families across the United States for ten years because these families ate dinner and watched soldiers being killed. Like Brady’s Civil War photographs, people were disturbed by the sights of the shootings. Having the ability of witnessing moving pictures and sounds, people became increasingly terrified of watching the evening news. Due to television, the Vietnam War was more frightening than the Civil War because of the effect of moving pictures.\r\nThe Tet Offensive became the most controversial massacre to be shown on television. People no longer trusted President Lyndon B. Johnson when they saw North Vietnam launching an attack on the United States in Saigon. The evening news had a major effect visually on people as the Vietnam War was the primary news focus on television. In comparison with Brady’s photographs, the Vietnam War television sights were frightening to people in this time period. These two visual sources were successful as they portrayed these wars to Americans by stirring horrific emotions.\r\nThe photographs by Matthew Brady, especially the Battle of Antietam series, should be restored because I believe learning what the first photographers were interested in may be of interest to people. I think the origins of photography are interesting to learn about because many people like me do not know how photography was invented. For a fact, I am definitely one of those people who found the history of photography to be of great interest. Along with Brady’s Antietam photographs, I think that the stories of the reactions of people and families of soldiers should be restored as well. These people’s stories would provide a good prospective of how they reacted when they viewed these photos for the first time. I enjoyed learning about Matthew Brady as well as the history of photography. As a student, my overall reaction was outstanding when I found out what a large impact on Civil War families. These portraits should definitely be restored to tell stories about how photography was a huge success in the beginning as well as to tell about the Civil War.\r\n\r\nBibliography:\r\n<p align=\"center\"></p>\r\n\"Mathew B. Brady.\" <i>Encyclopedia of World Biography</i>. Detroit: Gale, 1998. <i>World History In Context</i>. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWert, Jeffry D. \"Civil War Photography.\" <i>Civil War Times</i> 45.6 (2006): 7. <i>MasterFILE Premier</i>. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\"Civil War Photography.\" <i>www.fofweb.com</i>. American History Online, Web. 20 Oct. 2013.','Matthew Brady\'s Civil War Photography','','inherit','open','open','','3570-revision-v1','','','2013-11-04 23:53:56','2013-11-05 05:53:56','',3570,'http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?p=3609',0,'revision','',0),(3610,84,'2013-11-04 23:54:04','2013-11-05 05:54:04','<img alt=\"\" src=\"image/png;base64,[encoded data, 181834 characters]