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.