Response to the Presentation of Fiction Group

       Last week, our group began to prepare for our final presentation about how our fiction group members devoted ourselves into the Lying Cotton Review. Our group members had a meeting to discuss about which specific part each of us was responsible for the presentation. Zoe and Debbie are the presenters; Susan and Jo are responsible for writing the speech; I am a designer to create the     infographic and Prezi slides. 

      For creating the info graphic, I  collected the statistics of total submissions we had read and how many submissions each of us had read. From total 50 submissions, our group finally chose 6 submissions to publish, and each of them was edited by three members in average. Besides editing the submissions , we did other jobs including email editing, email sending, giving feedbacks, writing and submitting our own work. 

     Furthermore, it was a kind of difficult process for me to use Prezi because I has not used it for many times, thus I spent a lot of times on being familiar with it. I put selfies of all group members and the images of our jobs. According to other members' content, I modified it many times and also sent them to revise it. Following are two images that show my work.

Response to the Electronic Literature

       In todays’ class, we have the discussion about the electronic literature. Our group think that it’s not true that electronic literature is just hypertext essays. Yes, in some way, it is regarded as the hypertext essays. We click some places which lead us to other places. For example, some stories have many links to the explanation of difficult words and terminology to make readers understand the content. We can always click the authors’ names to find their information. However, some literature works are not equal to the hypertext essay. Some stories are collected in the stand-alone website, and does not have any hypertext. There are many new forms of electronic literature appearing rather than hypertext essays. For instance, many websites present the stories or poetries in Flash or other platforms. Some authors attempts to protect their ownership so there is no link in their works. The electronic literature now develops a lot. It always has interactive and collaborative part that allow the audience to comment on the work. 

       There is no denying that the electronic literature has some differences from the print works. Electronic literature has many visible advantages. It is more searchable, we could look over it through many devices including computers, phones or any tablets. Furthermore, online-reading have the function of memory, so we can continue reading the content where we stop last time. Online-reading also contributes to the environmental protection. 

       By contrast, the electronic literature has detriments. It is harmful to people’s health. It causes the risks of ownership, and sometimes there are some technology problems. 

The Ending of Killing Alec

        He climbed out of the hole. He really was beautiful. We admire him. We exhaled smoke again, slowly this time. Time was standing still for a moment, and then Anje burst into tears. “No, we haven’t actually dated,” Anje sobbed. “No, we cannot kill him. I cannot bear to lose him.“ Silence again.

       “Anyone of us could not bear that, but he cheated us. Our poor Alec cheated all of us,” I broke the silence as I saw Alec jumped into the hole. It seemed that his body, his words and all of his memory would gone, and gone so far. A sentimental feeling rapidly twisted my heart. 

       “Let’s vote,” said Tiffany. She was still smoking, and smoking with frown. Silence again. “Maybe we should give him another chance.” She put out the cigar and stared at all of us waiting for our answers. 

       Caroline bowed her head whispering, “Yeah, he is my love Alec.”

       “The most hateful thing for me is being betrayed by someone. I cannot endure that he love other women at all. Let’s bury him, “ Marlena replied. 

       "Whether or not he will die, we all love him, and still love him, right?” I began go back to the car as the result was obvious. Alec didn’t need to die. 

       “Hey, ladies. Game is over. I let you love me, I let you find me, I let you kill me, and I bet you won’t let me die. I know you, all of you, and that’s my life, “said Alec. We did not notice when he came out the hole again, and we did not realize that he ran far away. He run so fast to another car, and escape. He waved us goodbye. 

       This is my version of the ending. I don’t think Alec need to die because in the process of deciding Alec’s death, those five women are always jealous for each other and compete to win Alec’s love. They all love Alec very much. In addition, the description of the Alec before is a little, which makes this figure mysterious. The audience may wonder why Alec takes part in the discussion of his death and why he does not go to another place instead of Florida. This ending makes Alec more complex, and release the emotion of audience to a certain extent. 

Response to Editing of Killing Alec

       The narrator and other women including Caroline, Anje and Tiffany find that they have common boyfriend Alec, who has been cheating on them, so they decide to kill him. They decide to have a manhunt that Alec will be killed if they find and catch him. They found him and another woman Marlena in Florida, and tell Marlena the truth. Eventually, five women drive Alec to the swamp, and decide to bury him in the mud.  

       What is working:1. The story arouses my emotion effectively. The setting is quiet interesting, strange and exciting. It’s weird that four women and their common boyfriend have the meeting to discuss the way of killing, and Alec is not scared of his death at all. All the women hate the man, but love him so much at the same time, which make me feel curious about the progress of the story-telling and the result of Alec. 2. I love the plot because it is complex with the conflict between “love” and “kill”. The narrator and other women decide to kill Alec because of his cheating, but the implementation of the killing takes a long time. They care so much about Alec from the details in their discussion and behaviors. The complexity is particularly apparent when they smoke filling with sorrow in front of the hole.
       What needs to be fixed: 1. There are some confusing moments that I want to figure them out. Since they all love Alec, Why do those woman want to carry out the way of killing Alec instead of other ways to punish him? Why does Alec calmly accept his death? What’s the role of Marlena in the story? Do they really bury the Alec in the hole? The story can be continued and added more information. 2. The story is progressing so smoothly and successfully without twists and turns. From my perspectives, it will be much more fun if adding some plots such as the conflict between those women and the resistance of Alec.

Second Work of Appropriation

       The original image I choose is the Portrait of Innocent X created by the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez in Italy during 1650. From the title, it’s obvious that the figure in the image is the pope Innocent X at that time. The expression of the pope is serious, august, determined, and a little bit cattish. There is a strong contrast between his red shawl and white rocket, which makes people feel a sense of stateliness. The red background also reflect the solemn atmosphere of religion and papacy. In ancient Rome, pope has very strong power to control people. Many people think the Innocent X is the ugliest man in Rome and he has a very ill temper. 

       In the new image, the face of the pope is replaced by U.S president Obama. Obama is laughing happily closing his eyes and showing his white teeth. Although he is a president who have very high social status and reputation, he looks very friendly, kind and approachable. His face subverts the serious face in the original image. The new image builds the close relationship between Obama and people, and it also shows his moral character. 

Response to the definition of love

        The word “love” has various concepts. It may refers to strong positive emotion of regard and affection, and may refers to the warm attachment and devotion to something. Also, it means the issues with sexual desire, attraction or sexual activities. According to the story Killing Alec, Alec is dating with five women at the same time. The love in the story is about the sexual and romantic love, but not the love between families and friends. If the love is about the sexual and romantic love, does one person just can love one person, or one person can love more than one person at the same time?

       In my opinion, it’s possible for one person to love more than one at the same time despite of moral issues. The first reason is that we always love many people in an loving friendships and family bonds, which has the same principle as romantic love. The need of love emotion will not decrease if we have already loved others. Second, although many people in many places are bonded with the way of monogamy’s, there are still some places using the non-monogamous pair bonds or polyamory. Love is not an objective that we can describe accurately, it is unrealistic and complex, so nothing is impossible to the love. 

Response to the art of editing

       As one of the general editing staffs in our publication, it’s important for me to know the art of editing to make sure that the good journal could be published successfully. There are three types or steps of editing: substantive editing, copy editing and proof editing. 

       Substantive editing fouces on the structure, content, clarity and language such as the use of metaphors and similes. This type refers to the establishment of goals, identification of audience, guidance, fill of blanks and the elimination of repetition, which helps author deliver clear and coherent writings to the target audience. 

       After finishing the substantive editing, copy editing is required to read many times because the step is concerned with the grammar, spelling, punctuation and style. In the class, I have understood a lot of common editing errors. For example, authors may use a plural pronoun for a singular antecedent.  From the specific sentence states, “This factory provides their employees many opportunities”, we can observe that “their” should be replaced by “its” because the subject is singular. 

       Completing the two types of editing above, we should proceed the proof editing which is focused on the typographical error and miscellaneous mistakes. 

       Through these three types, we need to have frequent communications with authors to improve the quality of the writings as much as possible. 

Response to The City of Tanfy

       The narrator entered the city Tanfy, and he was considered as an outsider. People lived in Tanfy have strange customs such as eating cold food. On his way to the room, he met many lavish women dancing. Then he ran out of the dancing party, and met a butcher who gave him the hot meat to eat. After eating the hot meat, the narrator came back to the stage of the party telling people that they should enjoy their life instead of eating the cold food. 

       The good place of the story is the beginning of the story. The author describes a city named Tanfy where things seem to be different from the normal world. Eating cold food, the way of digesting food and other customs make audience curious about the city. And the acts such as the consumption of meat and dancing in the party are a little bit threatening, which make me think about the cannibalism. In addition, the appearance of the butcher is good because it is a turning point of the story. 

        By contrast, there are some places that the author needs to fix out. The first problem is about the transition. The scenes shift quickly so that audience cannot see the relationships and will feel confused. The second problem is that the narrator is not totally involved in the story. We don’t know why and how he comes to the city. His intent is not clear. Finally, the model of the story should changed. 

Appropriation of Visual Art

       The Original Piece I choose is the Portrait of and Unknown Woman created by the Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi in 1883. The woman in the piece sit sideways in the carriage looking down at the society, and her eyes are so proud and haughty. She was dressed in the all black, a black coat with fur,  a black hat with ornament and a pair of black gloves. Her postures make a strong contrast to the pale background, which seems that she is a woman that dissatisfy with the society at that time. Nobody knows who the woman is, and many people think that the woman is like the Anna Karenina which written by the Lev Tolstoy. The unknown women represents the ideal image of the women in Russian new era.
        The icon I select is Kim Kardashian, a very famous American television show and social media actress. Many people especially young people have crazy chase to Kim Kardashian because of her fame, body and money. However, many people argue that Kim Kardashian is the icon of the "sick society". She represents the a decline value of civilization including obsession with wealth, narcissism, opportunism and effortless celebrity.
  The two characters in the original piece and the new one have different features and symbols. The new meaning of the image is to show how the icons affect our life. It also created to persuade people not to blindly worshipping stars, and make them keep balance under the advertisement.

Report for Our Journal Discussion on 10.28

       I’m very glad to be one of the general editorial staff in fiction group. Three general editorial staff in the fiction group are responsible for reading  fictions, picking up good fictions and discussing with the fiction editor. 

       Before we read those submissions, it’s very important for us to make clear what is a “good” fiction and what makes “good”. So, our fiction group members set a few criteria to choose good fictions. Following are the five principles:

1.     The author shows the story rather than tells the story (using setting, character, and tension rather than description to illustrate action & create sequence)
2.     Good fiction should show the motivation of the character (focus on why & how).
3.     Good fiction should impart knowledge or wisdom (it can be shown in many forms such as give information about a place or teach sth)
4.     Good fiction should show the understanding of human nature (explain humanity, understand the world, what makes people who they are etc. so that readers could have space to imagine)
5.     Good fiction should entertain readers (entertaining means that it takes readers on a journey, arouses readers’ feelings such as making heart soar or sink, transport them from the normality of life for a short while before releasing them back to reality such as open a new world for a while)
       In addition, we also decide our target audience. They are people who under 30 years old. But the decision of audience is not the final result. We need to talk to other groups and make us have the same target. 

Response to Class On November 10

       In today’s class, we were assigned to fix the Billy’s story in the movie seven Psychopaths. Many students among us do not like Billy’s story, neither do I. Billy’s story is so convenient and so simple. He just put all characters he knows into the story, letting them involve into a battle with gang leaders. His story is added to many gratuitous elements that make no sense at all. Gratuitous elements are useless issues that do not adapt to the plots. Kaya’s role and some of psychopaths are considered gratuitous. They just appear for  several seconds and disappear soon. The ending of the story make us feel confused. We can totally understand that billy want to create a warm ending with bright blue sky, but the whole story is based on the dark plot such as graveyard and death. Although the story is really absurd, it can make us laugh and feel happy. 

       Besides Billy’s story, we also discuss about the appropriation of the visual art. Appropriation means to take something for our own. For example, I use English “Hello” to greet, which is an appropriation because I take the language from others. There are three things that we have learned today about the appropriation of visual art including the original image, the iconic element and mixing the iconic element to change the original images’ meanings. 

Response to Billy’s Story

       After watching the Mary’s and Hans’ story, Billy’s story is a kind of ridiculous. Following are the problems: 1. The setting is not good. Returning a dog in the graveyard with shootout seems to be absurd. Some plots are not real. How could one’s head explode when he get shoots? 

2. All characters are “simple” because of simple emotion. All people feel angry and kill others. Everyone eventually dies except Marty and Hans. 

3. Characters appear suddenly such as the vietnamese and Marty’s girlfriend. 

       Although the story is a little bit moving, it should be turned to the reality and be more complex. 

       Jack diamond decides to return the dog to the gang-leader in a night club which owned by the gang-leader. He knows that the gang-leader is a psychopath, so he calls the seven psychopaths together  to let them rescue him if he does not come out of the club after twenty minutes. The gang-leader keeps in silence for a moment when he get his honey dog, and then he begins to laugh. Suddenly, he takes out the gang and shoot one of the servants saying: “It’s definitely something worth celebrating.”

       The seven psychopaths heard the shot and burst into room to have fight with the underworld. They are worried about Jack’s condition and try to find Jack. All of them use the gun to have battle with the bad guys. People in the club are so scared that they run out of the club. Kaya, Marty’s girlfriend, is one of the people in the club. She rushed to Marty when she saw a bullet directing to Marty, and she died in Marty’s arm. Marty is going to be crazy. The vietnamese realized that he killed so much people, which is the same as what American do to his family. He burns himself in the club, which shocked all the people. The gang-leader stopped to fight, and kneels on the ground. He starts crying, and the cry did not stop until he was shot by Marty. Eventually, Marty and Hans are two people survive eventually. They find every corner, but there is no Jack. You know what, Jack is fine. He has already escaped from the club when the seven psychopaths burst into the club. 

Response to Class On 11.3

       In today's class, we discuss that a good editing should make the stories grow organically instead of making it synthetic or manipulated. Our discussion is based on the movie "Seven Psychopaths", which contains two different versions of the revenge of the vietnamese. 
       In Marty's story, there are two characters including the vietnamese priest and the hooker. The vietnamese is vengeful and full of anger. The hooker is naked and objectifies. It seems that she is not intelligent at all because of his terrible voice and wrong English speaking. This characters in this story are very simple. The woman lacks depth of emotion, and is very awful. The man just has one feeling, and finally kills lots of people. 
       By contrast, in Han's story, despite of the same characters, there are some changes. The hooker wears clothes and gains the respect. She has intelligent speech with the vietnamese and conveys her voice in reason. The vietnamese chooses to burn himself as a buddhist monk, which leads the violence direct inward to show the extreme selflessness. 

       The Han's story is more complex than Marty's. One reason is that the characters have more emotions and are more complicated. In addition, there is a turning point in Han's story. The woman's voice transforms the story into reality, and then the scene changed. The vietnamese realized the reality and then has the self-immolating. The  combination of these two stories promote the quality of stories, which sets up a good example for us. 

Response to the Class on 10.27

       In today's class, we focused on the story Manners of Dying and had a deep analysis of it. Following are the characters: the warden as the narrator, Mr. Barlow as the recipient, Kevin as the prisoner, Father Preston and the doctor who provides the medicine assistance. The genre of the story is the epistle letter, which is conveyed to inform the manners of Kevin and to comfort the mother. The story includes different versions of how Kevin face his execution in the last 12 hours.
       The story reflects the emotional truth rather than the actual truth. Actual truth is talking about why and how the actual event really happens, while the emotional truth is talk about the same events but arouse various feelings of the audience. Fo example, as we discussed in the class, when someone is throwing a mark to you, you make have different responses such as happiness, depression, and surprise. Also, the story Manners of Dying makes us feel in different ways of Kevin's different manners. Kevin is a jerk; he is calm; he has a sense of humor; he is thoughtful, spiritual; he is also timid, nervous and afraid.
      If you asked me whether or not I believe that one person has so many personalities in the same time, I will say "No". What I mean is that these version are parallel  universe or stories instead of different templates. Each of them is true and is from the reality in our life. The author attempts to gathers the various manners of dying into one person to make us have deep thinking about the reality.

Response to the Class on 10.20

       In October 20th's class, we discuss the importance of plot and how it function well in a story.   In a story, complex characters are the most important thing, which is closely related to the plot. Some people may think a story is driven by the characters, which is not correct. The fact is that a story is drive by the plot. Plot motivates characters to affect the story. It seems that plot has communication with characters' minds and leads them to do actions. In addition, the plot concentrates on the lives of characters, pushing the development of story from beginning, middle part, climax to the end. 
        From my perspectives, a good plot should show a series conflict to provide characters' motions. Audience can be attracted by the plot. When they read the story, the plot may arouse their feelings like they actually have the same experience as the story. Many good plot will eventually lead audience to a "new world", which means audience get something they have never seen before. The ending make be a kind of surprise with making the conflicts done. 
       Our discussion is based on the story "A Happy Ending" which is a metafiction. The author created the story without the traditional ways, and create the good plot to attract people. The six parts of the story are like hypertext and make us revise again and again. 

Response to “Manners of Dying”

Manners of Dying are composed of many letters from Ms. Harry Parlington, a warden at the Cantos Correctional Institution, to Mrs. Barlow, the mother of the criminal Kevin. In the letters, the warden describes how Kevin faces his execution of death in the last 12 hours. All the letters are just similar versions that include Kevin’s last dinner, Father Preston’s services, Periodic checks, another Father Preston’s services, the judgment reading, process of corridor, last words, and the type of death. The difference places are Kevin’s manners and feelings.

I don’t think it’s a good fiction. The reason is that the fiction does not make my heart sink or soar. The letters are showed with ambiguity. There are so many versions filled with too many possibilities. Is he very calm, anger or sad? I don’t know what’s the real manner of Kevin when he faces his death and which one the warden sends to Kevin’s mother. I just feel nothing of the stories because it lacks of a turning point to a “new world”. The common people take granted that people do the bad things should be punished, which is the reason of the existence of the law. Kevin does the crime, so he has to confess his sins and pay for it.

Maybe the author wants to show us the reality of how different people face the punishment by the different versions of Kevin.

Response to Atwood’s “Happy Endings”

The story “Happy Endings” contains six different small stories from version A to version F. The protagonists in the stories are John and Mary, and other two characters are Madge and Fred. Four flat characters with four flat names, and they are repeated throughout the stories. All the six stories are described quickly and concisely, and are ended up with death. Besides, all the stories are closely related to the version A as “everything continues as in A”, which attracts me so much.

I think this is a good fiction because it makes my heart sink. There is a strong contrast between the title “Happy Ending” and the content of six stories. It seems that Atwood do not use any happy or optimistic words in the stories even in the version A. The endings are all the same, the death. “The only authentic ending is the one presented here: John and Mary dies. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” The sentence actually delivers the deep meaning of the “happy endings”, which brutally reflects the result of people’s life: We will die eventually, whoever we are, whatever we have, however we live and wherever we are.

       In addition, I can feel a sense of gender inequality from six stories, especially the second story. Atwood use the tone of satire to express how women are vulnerable and stand in a low position in front of man. Although the stories have no specific descriptions, they make me have deep thoughts of the philosophy of the life. 

The Position of Our Own Journal

       I would like to be the editorial assistant in our own journal. 

       Editorial assistants are supposed to perform a range of editorial work and administration. The position is regarded as a liaison among the people in the process of the publication, especially from selecting submissions to handing them to the publication staff. 

       There are three reasons for me to be interested in the position of editorial assistant. 

       The first one and the most important one is that I like reading various books, articles and stories. In fact, I am not good at writing stories so much, but I'm very happy to assess manuscripts and do some research. I would like to come up with new ideas to the publication.

       The second reason is that I have the good communication skills and get along well with others.  I am able to source authors to provide new submissions. Besides, I can discuss with the editors and other staffs frequently and give some recommendations.

       The third reason is that I have the good organizational skills. I can picture the research and organize the items well. 

       All in all, I believe that I will be responsible for this position and try my best to do the good job. 

Response to Movie "10 Minutes"

       The third short movie we see is 10 Minutes.

       At the beginning of the movie, a Japanese tourist plays in Rome and takes many photos along his travel. He goes to a photo studio to develop photos. The next scene changes in sudden, which shows the life of a Bosnian family. A young boy Memo was sent to find the food by his mother. He has a long way to pass through neighbors and trenches of the war zone. Sometimes he stops to play with kids and greets with neighbors. He talks with soldiers and is acquired to get some bread and water. Unfortunately, the fire is open. When the boy runs to his home, his family members are all dead. A neighbor we see before attempts to pretend Memo from the destroyed house. At the end of the movie, the scene is back to the Japanese tourist who gets the photos.

       The director uses a strong contrast between the life of Japanese tourist and the Bosnian people in the same 10 minutes. The background of the tourist is filled with European luxury architectures. The tourist has much leisure time, and he just can get things he wants by money. He may symbolize a privileged people in the world. However, Eastern Europe is not what the common people think about the Europe. We can feel the darkness, danger, destruction and poverty in that area. Although Bosnian people live in the terrible condition, they may get used to them. The movie conveys the warmness among those neighborhoods.

       All in all, the movie reflects the brutal reality that life can different among different people in the meantime. We should cherish our life and the peaceful time.

Response to "Vincent"

      The second movie is Vincent that was created by famous director Tim Burton in 1982. The movie is about a 7 year-old boy Vincent Malloy. It seems that Vincent has the delusional disorder because he pretends to be the actor Vincent Price. He imagines that he is the owner of the house, and he has a dead life. Besides, he thinks that her sister’s dog is a zombie, so he conducts some experiments on the dog. He never leaves the house and is separated from his beloved wife. In his imagination world, he regards himself as a real tortured artist, and we can see that he does many horrible things. Finally, his mother tells Vincent that he needs to go outside and has some fun. His mother’s words remind him of the reality, and his delusion reaches its peak. He is afraid that he will be tortured by someone in the world.

       Both real world and mythical world happen together in the movie, and the narrative is strongly conveyed by the songs. From these songs, we can not only feel the nature of a boy, but also experience the isolation and coldness of the horrible scene.

       From this movie, I just shocked by the children’s brain. The power of the imagination is too strong so that sometimes we cannot have the same empathy with them.