The voice of an author

Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba had a strong voice that went along well with the art style. The story also translates well into a graphic novel. I think the voice of the author in this depressing because of the reoccurring theme of death throughout the comic. The structure of the dialogue retains the personality of Bras while the purple narration texts explain what Bras is thinking about. For example, when he was having a conversation with his mother on the phone he was trying his best to seem okay but afterwards when he begins to work on his writing, Bras begins to break down as the narration explains what is going on in his mind. The author’s voice makes you think and revaluate your own life, for example during the moment where Genarinho’s nephew came into the bar to take his money, they were discussing about family. Ironically, many bad things happen at the end and I don’t want to spoil it. The comic is short and pretty fast paced as a lot of events happened but feels complete. I think the author’s voice was successful in trying to get the idea across in a short amount of time.

Tone and Voice

When discussing an author’s work, it is important to understand the difference between tone and voice. An author’s tone reflects their attitude towards the topic they are writing about. An author’s voice is their personality expressed in writing. For example, in Karen Russell’s story, Sleep Donation, the Baby A was being harvested for its precious sleep as a resource. So far in the book the main idea is about the lack of sleep in society and the only way to save lives is to siphon sleep from donors. When discovering a baby that can save lives, it has been used everyday to extract sleep for the well being of others.

Russell’s tone can be described as sympathetic towards the issue of people suffering for the sake of other’s well being. This controversy has been a commonly used for other works and I think she is using this story to show the non-biased perspective of the situation. In the story, the main character understands both sides to the sleep-deprived epidemic.

I remembered in class when we discussed men and women writers and how it’s sometimes hard to tell what gender the author is. I can tell Russell was a woman before reading the story (Disregarding the name of course) and it seems evident with the choice of words when new characters, objects and settings are described. There could be parts where the author’s tone and voice are not similar but so far in Sleep Donation, the main character seems to have the right personality to fit the tone of the story.

Ready Player One Scene Script

The scene for this script involves the part where Wade enters the van to access his secret hideout where the OASIS is kept.

Wade walks down the road and then towards tall grass where a pile of cars lay.

He was on an abandoned highway where weeds and grass began to grow on top of it.

Wade looks around making sure no one is around before disappearing from the road.

Deep towards the back of the mess of cars is a rusty van with only the rear door visible and accessible.

Wade unlocks the door with the key around his neck and shines his flashlight inside.

He goes inside.

Darkness. Dust and cobwebs are reflecting from the flashlight.

He turns on a little desk lamp that is duct taped on the top corner of the room in the van.

The inside of the van becomes well lit and looks like a cozy place for Wade.

Queue narration about how he discovered this place 4 years ago…

Details of the space are shown including shots of cardboard, egg carton shells, Styrofoam and pieces of carpeting lining the van.

Wade gets up and begins riding on the exercise bike to charge the OASIS.

Afterwards he opens an old lunchbox that contains his school issued OASIS virtual reality headset…

The Ethos of Oscar Wao

         While reading the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, his Dominican culture is characterized with masculinity and the belief that having lots of sex is a metaphor for success. According to the novel, Oscar is an overweight nerd, who is not the most attractive guy out there. In contrast to Oscar is his roommate, Yunior, who is handsome and constantly narrates about all the girls he has sex with. I noticed that throughout the book, it describes how Oscar would romanticize and have a unique approach towards girls. His ethos for relationships contains all the elements for a healthy relationship but his physical appearance does not look healthy. Yunior’s approach towards girls are often empathetic and misogynistic because of how he treats them as sex partners and also cheated on Oscar’s sister when they were together. 
          He might have a healthy appearance, but his relationships with women are not. There are two ethos that are significant in the book, the first being the context of Dominican culture for masculinity, and the second being Oscar’s ethos, which is to treat girls respectfully because he was unfortunately unable to conform to his culture’s expectations. 

Inside the World of a Real City

It was still wet outside. The smell of dirt and beer rose from the humid air. The sidewalk glistened of the street lights.. Nobody was outside for now… This neighborhood looks a lot sketchier at night than I thought. Illumination from the moonlight on the puddles lit up the streets. Above the buildings, the skyline is shrouded with clouds and blinking lights from the skyscrapers in the distance. The stillness from the dead night made any slight movement look threatening. I wanted to go back inside the bar but it was closed. Who closes at three? I guess they wanted to close early since I was the only one there for a while. A pink glow emitted from the neon “open” sign on the window, making the sidewalk in front of me look like a fashion runway.

I knew I was too drunk to drive my car. It was the shitty ’98 Sentra that used to be white. Now it’s yellowed out, covered in dirt and dust and abused from intoxicated driving. There were too many cars parked on the street, I could barely see my car parked a little ways down the block but you can see how it sticks out among the other cars because of my awful parking job. Oh well, I guess I’m walking home. The Q train is only 3 blocks away my train card still had a few swipes left.

I lit a cigarette.

“Hey buddy, can you spare one?” A voice ached. It was a man sitting next to a rusty silver garbage can. He was snuggled in the corner of the darkness right next to the bar. No wonder, I didn’t notice him. “Yea.” I pulled out another cig, walked towards and gave it to him. “Thanks.” He said, but I didn’t acknowledge him. I was already walking away towards the subway station. The man smelled like he was fermenting faster than the garbage inside the cans. I walked past a spanish deli, an electronic store and a couple of apartments. My head was fixed at my reflection from the windows, then my reflection turned into a view of brick walls, then my reflection again and so on. I was stuck in a trance. Water was still dripping from the awnings, gutters and pipes on the sides of each building. Then a cold droplet fell inside the collar of my jacket, ruining my illusion of warmth for a split second. I fucking hate that. Nothing like something small and irritating to make me snap. Fuck it. I got in my car and started the engine.

True Grit or Myth?

In the novel True Grit, written by Charles Portis and the 2010 film remake directed by the Coen brothers, there are American mythologies represented in both. The setting takes place in the old West, also referred to as the Wild West and the Frontier. Mattie is the main character of True Grit, and tells the tale of how she was able to avenge her father’s death. I think this is good example of American mythology because of how Mattie’s particular story can be comparable to other similar folklores about death and revenge.

Famous criminals are another example of American mythology. In True Grit, Lucky Ned Pepper is one of the antagonists in the story and someone Mattie was not intending to pursue, but just like folklore, everyone knew who Ned was through word of mouth and his notorious history. Ned’s portrayal of a criminal can be compared to the other Western myths of notorious criminals such as Buffalo Bill and Jesse James because of how they evolve into old legends.

Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) kicking ass

Something that I noticed from the movie that gave it more authenticity was the use of music. The soundtrack had a church music theme that gave the film a soothing and uplifting yet melancholic tone. I think the composer chose this type of music to show how the impact of religion such as Christianity shaped the way people lived in the west. For instance, Mattie mentions the “glory of God” in the beginning of the film. In a way, religion could be considered American mythology because of how manifest destiny has influences from Christianity as well as how people treated each other during this period of time.

I found it interesting during the scene where the three men were being hanged because two were white men and the other was a Native American man. The two white men had speeches to give before the hanging and when it came to the Native American man’s turn to talk, he was immediately muffled and hanged. I believe that it expressed the idea of racism during the Western times because of the historical relationships between White settlers and the Indians. I’m sure this had a mythological impact in the American Western culture because the fighting and bloodshed that occurred historically, led to exaggerated stories between both parties.

Comparing the novel to the movie, I think that Hollywood creates more of a myth to the old Western culture. The novel describes the frontier lifestyle in fuller and more raw context while the film portrays the events of the story in a glamourized viewpoint. Although both forms of True Grit contains ideas representing American mythology, I think the novel did a better job in telling the truth of the story while the film did not show the smaller details of Western folklore but rather the main idea.