V Questions

2. The media reinforces racism and makes it a part of government policy by airing a show in which the protagonist is a white man and the antagonist is a dumb black man who wishes to rape the white man's female counter part. The white man guns down the black butchers who were trying to rape the woman, and is proclaimed a hero and there is a so called happy ending. This show makes all black people look like destructive animals that should be feared and eradicated. Any black person living in these times would be highly persecuted and be hated by society and thrown out like trash.

3. Women exist to give men something to keep their mind off of work. This is seen in the night clubs, where women are forced to dress like whores and put on shows for their inebriated viewers. Although this type of pleasing is promoted in night clubs, individual prostitution is punishable by life in prison or even death. This is because the club workers make money for the government, and the women that work the streets only make money for themselves.

4. V submits Evey to these torments to test her to see if she can truly be free of the prison that is happiness. Only when she is completely willing to give up her own life to be free of the prison and give her captors nothing does V finally relent and free her from her cell. I do agree that people need to be freed from their dream world, but I believe that V's methods are too severe and can just as easily drive someone to insanity or their own death as they can free them from the illusion.

The Damned Thing Adaptation

Conor Doyle

Mr. Bailey

10/13/10

The Damned Thing Adaptation

Ambridge, Pennsylvania, 1955. The town would have been bustling with activity. Wealthy shop keepers of all kinds would have their doors wide open to the happy shoppers that walked aimlessly along the sidewalk. Around 5:15 many of the laborers, many of whom were still in high school, could be found relaxing out on the town at a favorite bar or restaurant after a hard days work at the steel mills. Younger children would hang out in the many parks and fields along the east side of the Ohio River, some playing pick up games of baseball or football, and others lazily trying their luck with a fishing rod on the docks. They would later come home to their suburban houses, all neatly built along an efficient grid of streets, to a delicious home cooked meal that their mother had prepared for them. That was Ambridge, Pennsylvania, 55 years ago. Today roughly a third of the population remains in the town. The once busy streets are now almost completely empty, with only a few people still walking on the cracked and uneven sidewalks. Most of the shops had closed when the steel market went over seas, but the buildings still stand along the main street, with peeling lead paint and lettering so faded one could hardly distinguish between businesses. They stand as a memorial to those happy, carefree times in the 50’s before the good economy that came with the success of the steel market disappeared. Fields that were places of joy and laughter are now either built up with the empty shells of low income housing or overgrown with tall grass and small trees. The warm and inviting suburban houses are now boarded up structures of rotted wood, stained by the vandalism of restless youths who had nothing to do but make trouble. A colossal steel factory sits on the river bank, rust generously spread all over its corrugated roof and walls. The windows are all shattered from the many pieces of excess slag that thuggish kids have thrown at them. The inside of the factory is full of large ovens and massive iron pots used for the transportation of molten metal. Chains hang like vines from the ceiling clink together when the wind blows, and old machinery creaks and whines constantly. A small scrap metal store haphazardly thrown together in one small corner of the factory is the only reason that the relic still stands. An old man, who looks strangely youthful for his age, runs it. He works alone, spending his nights sitting and smoking by an improvised hobo stove. His house is a small, enclosed room that looks like it may have at one time been an officer for one of the rich steel barons. It is about 9 o’clock, and he has just returned from a rare trip to Riverton, Wyoming, to see his brother replenish his supply of pipe tobacco. He casually lights his pipe and sits down on a three-legged wooden stool next to the stove. Just when he has gotten completely relaxed in comfortable silence, he hears a crisp knock on his shop door.

“Shop’s closed,” he hollers with an aged southern accent in the direction of the door.

“Larry open up, it’s me, Steve,” a voice responds.

As Larry opens the door, the dim light shines on a man wearing an old sheriff’s uniform with a trooper’s hat, both of which look as though they have not been worn for a while, with dust on the brim of the hat and neat creases still the shirt. Steve’s face is worn with many lines and looks to be only a few years younger than Larry. His voice is deep and commanding.

            “Why’re y’all dressed up in your uniform tonight Steve? I ain’t in any trouble am I?” Larry asked inquisitively.

            “No, not at all Larry, at least you’re not yet. Listen, this morning I was out on my usual patrol, and as I came around to the docks, I saw some horrible things….”

* * *

            I woke up early on that crisp and chilly late November day. I got out of bed and went about my normal routine, but suddenly paused when I looked out the window. I saw the familiar large plumes of smoke and ominous orange glow coming from the old mill. I know they shut that mill down years ago and that all valuable materials and machinery had been removed. How could this be happening? I quickly threw on my leather coat, trooper’s hat, and sheriff’s badge, and sped over there in my squad car. The smoke had stopped by the time I arrived, but there was still something glowing around back. I got out of the car and was casually walking over when I heard a scream that seemed to be the voice of fear itself. The noise hit me like a freight train, and I tripped as I started to run like hell back to the car, locking myself inside. I thought of calling for back up, but it would take almost a half hour to get here, seeing as everyone else was sound asleep. After what seemed like forever, I forced my self to get back out of the car. Before I went anywhere, I took my brand new M590A1 pistol grip shot gun off of the gun rack, and struggled to load in 5 shells with my shaking hands. This time I slowly crept along the wall of the mill, cursing as my feet crunched on the frosted grass. As I neared the corner, I slowly took one step at a time, hoping that each step wouldn’t be my last. When I reached the corner, I summoned up all of my courage, and jumped around, chambering a round and yelling “FREEZE!” as I moved. As my eyes darted around, I quickly saw that I was alone, but then took notice of three dull orange stumps of metal in the process of solidifying. With adrenaline pumping in my veins, I sprinted to the other side of the mill and looked down the wall to make sure that nobody had tried to sneak off in the other direction. After convincing my self that I was alone, I tried to calm myself down, walking calmly back to the strange metal forms. Looking on the scene again, I noticed something small and cylindrical next to one of the lumps, and some tracks in the frost covered grass leading directly away from the area. Upon closer inspection, I realized the cylinder was a can of spray paint. It was at that moment a horrible thought crept into my mind. I looked more closely at one of the lumps, and to my horror I saw hand sticking out from underneath it, with all of the skin and flesh burned off, leaving only the charred bones, with the fingers dug into the ground as if the poor person had tried to pull themselves out. I jumped back, repulsed by the sight, and scrambled for my radio, calling all of the stations for back up. Luckily, back up could get here in about 15 minutes. Just as I finally relaxed, something like a raindrop hit the brim of my hat, and within a second a hot bead of molten metal burned all the way through, leaving a nice neat hole. Surprised, I looked up and saw how these three poor kids had been murdered. A huge melting pot had been overturned from the top floor window. I knew I had to go up there and investigate, but I couldn’t find an unlocked door anywhere. Right when I was about to break in through one of the locked doors, I noticed a small rusted out hole in the wall against the ground just big enough for me to squeeze past. After a few minutes of maneuvering and some small scrapes, I was in. I looked around the masses of huge old machines, and realized that someone could easily still be hiding in here, so I went on the alert, shotgun up and eyes scanning constantly. After a thorough check, I gazed at the far wall and saw that there was a sort of loft room that could be reached by an old rickety staircase. I padded over there on silent feet, trying to make as little squeaks as possible on the staircase, until I got to the door leading into the room. I tried the handle only to find that it was locked from the inside. I just had to get in there, so I stood as far back as I could, took aim, and blew the handle off with the shotgun. I ran in quick to surprise whoever was in there, But nearly fell down a great hole that had been melted through the grated floor just seconds earlier. I glimpsed down and saw what did it—a hideous monster constructed of boiling metal, with large arms and a head that had only a great mouth that screamed up at me as it sank underground until it was no longer visible. Absolutely amazed at what I had just seen, I pinched myself several times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I then realized that it was that creature that lifted up that several ton pot and killed those kids.

* * *

            “It was horrible Larry. So you’re saying you weren’t here at all these past few days?” Steve asked. Larry however didn’t respond immediately, and just sat there with a small smile on his face.

            “Larry?” Steve repeated.

            “Oh yeah, yeah, just awful what happened to them kids,” Larry responded hastily.

            “Well its not all bad, we think one got away, and we’ve got everyone looking for him,” Steve said hopefully.

            “What’d you say? One them thugs got away?” Larry said with a flash of anger.

            “Yeah, Larry, something wrong with that?” Steve said.

            “Uh… no, no, not at all. Good for him…” Larry mumbled in response. Steve looked at Larry suspiciously, thinking about how he always complained about those kids, and how he spent so much time down here alone, doing who knows what. He had lived his whole life in this town, and worked for years in the mill.

            “Say, Larry,” Steve questioned “You haven’t ever heard of any sort of metal monsters or anything like that in these parts, have you?”

            “Well,” Larry began with a strange grin “There always been rumors that the government people used the mills for experimenting on things, ‘specially with that nuclear type stuff. Heck, they even say they used it on a few fellas who were unlucky enough to volunteer. Of course, they say that the effects or what not wore off when they ran out of that stuff.” Steve’s heart started beating faster. What if the monster he saw was some old scientists mistake?

            “What kind of effects was this stuff supposed to have on somebody?” Steve asked with wide eyes and mouth slightly open, like a scared child asking what happens next in a ghost story.

            “Well now, I heard it gave a man prolonged youth, and supernatural powers of transformation. But these are all rumors, Steve, nothing to take seriously, right?” Larry said very softly.

            “Oh yes, of course, all hypothetical,” Steve said with an awkward laugh “But if these things were real, how do you suppose you would kill—,” Whatever Steve was trying to say was cut off with a large amount of static from his radio. He tuned a dial and a voice crackled over.

            “All units, we have found Kevin, the boy who escaped, I repeat, all units, we have found the boy who claims to have escaped the incident this morning,” The dispatcher then proceeded to give out an address for an apartment on the other side of town.

            “Ok Larry I gotta go now but can you do me a favor and stay here for a few hours till I sort this out?” Steve asked. Larry responded with a nod. Steve put on his jacket, and stepped outside, just as it started to rain.

            “You take care now, Steve,” Larry said as Steve walked out. After the door closed, Larry pulled a small bust strangely heavy lead box out from underneath his bed, and opened it, letting a strange glow light up his face.

* * *

I skipped last period a week ago on Thursday, with Jack, Dave, and Kyle. We had been talking about going and spray-painting for days, and that Thursday we got pumped up enough to actually go and buy some. It was stupid now that I think about it, but it seemed like fun at the time. Dave’s a year older than us, he was going to graduate this spring, and he said we’d be ok because he’d done it before. We weren’t going to do it, but then some old guy seemed to over hear us when we were talking when we were walking to Dave’s. It seemed like he was expecting us, because he jumped out of nowhere. He told us about this old mill that hadn’t been sprayed in a long time. He even told us about how in about a week the old guy who stayed was going away in a few days and that there were cameras everywhere except for on one wall. When we got to Dave’s, we told him about it, and he took us in his car and we scouted the place out. Now that I think about it, we didn’t see any cameras at all, but thought that they might be hidden. So we waited until real late last night, and snuck over there. I only survived because I came late, and was still a little hidden in the tall grass when it happened. Well, they thought we were set, so they didn’t try to be quiet or anything. They just shook the bottle up when suddenly a door up near the roof opened up, and we saw that same old guy that told us to come at this time. They thought he was helping us at first, and I was about to pop out when I saw him take some funny green stuff in a vial and inject it into his arm. Then he screamed, but not like a normal scream, much worse, and I nearly fainted. He convulsed, and it sounded like he fell down the stairs, but when he came back up, well, it wasn’t him, it was some kind of glowing metal monster. It had brought up a huge pot of molten steel, and threw globs of it at my friends. They were crying and screaming, and Dave even tried to pull himself away. The thing seemed to watch them, and it looked like he was laughing. Then it noticed a squad car had pulled up, and stepped back in the building. I started running when it went inside, and didn’t stop till I was home.

* * *

            The moment Kevin finished his story, Steve sprinted out to his car and raced, sirens blaring, all the way back to the mill. He grabbed his shotgun, blasted through the door, and ran in hoping he could catch Larry before he left, but he was gone. All that remained was an empty vial with the label “Gas Hills Uranium Mine, Riverton, Wyoming. Danger: highly radioactive substance.

Fairy Tales

The idea of a fairy tale has changed radically over the last two centuries. It has gone from meaning a lesson that should be taken seriously to the stuff of fluffy and wimpy stories of magical princes and princesses where nobody gets hurt and no one dies. In the story Fitcher's Bird, there are many lessons that children can learn. The first is if a stranger or in this case a disguised beggar comes up to you it is best to not talk to them or go with them. They may seem to be wonderful or offer you candy or riches, but chances are they want to hurt you like the mean sorcerer. Next, there is the classic problem with going specifically where you are told not to go when the person who told you not to go there is away. In the story, the daughters who open up the door that they were forbidden to open were chopped up with an axe. A child probably wouldn't be chopped up, but the idea is the same; if you are told not to go somewhere, there is probably a very good reason for it. This older and more graphic version of a fairy tale is more effective because it uses fear to prevent children from doing bad things instead of making it all fake and Walt Disney-ish.

Dark Fantasy Comparison

Conor Doyle

Mr. Bailey

Dark Fantasy Essay

10/3/10

            Dark fantasy plays on human’s most basic instinctive fears: death, the supernatural, and horror. These aspects are depicted well in Stephen King’s The Raft, Robert McCammon’s Nightcrawlers, and Richard Matheson’s Duel. The Raft is the best example of dark fantasy, followed by Nightcrawlers, and lastly Duel.

            Duel is a short story about a guy named Mann who is driving to San Francisco for a business trip, but a has a near deadly run in with a seemingly insane trucker, who nearly kills Mann on several occasions. In the end, Mann survives because the trucker tries to take a turn to sharply and overturns and explodes. Although there is no supernatural aspect to this short story, which is why it is not the best example of dark fantasy, its emphasis on the human mind and how it reacts when put in a life or death situation is what makes it still apply to the sub genre. When Mann first has an experience with the trucker passing him at a dangerously high speed, he is scared and tries to calm himself down. As the duel between them gets more intense, his fear becomes great enough that he can no longer make any excuses for the trucker, and starts to panic when he is followed to the diner. The death aspect comes into this story comes in not only when the trucker dies, but also when Mann realizes that he may not survive this ordeal, and thinks seriously that he was going to die.

            In Nightcrawlers, the story takes place at a highway diner somewhere down south. A policeman named Dennis is having a meal and talking to Cheryl, the waitress and the cook, whose name is Bob. A family is eating a quick snack in a booth. Death is suggested from the very beginning when Dennis tells of the hotel massacre at Daytona Beach. The massacre itself has an aspect of the supernatural because there were plenty of bullet holes and the victims looked like they had been shot up, yet no bullets were found. Then a Viet Nam veteran named Price comes in, and they fear him because he drives in recklessly, and yells at Dennis when he tries to talk to him about the war. Supernatural events occur when Price suddenly thinks of a beer and one appears in his hand for a moment, and Bob is stunned. This display of his paranormal powers really freaks Bob out, and he becomes scared. Horror, death, and the supernatural all come together in the chilling conclusion when Price falls asleep, his ghostly comrades from the war who he deserted converge on the diner, shooting the place up with the imaginary bullets, and killing price. This combination of all the dark fantasy traits makes it truly a great example of the sub genre.

            Finally the best example of dark fantasy is The Raft. It is truly great because you have four young college kids who decide to do something stupid to be tough, telling nobody where they are and being completely unaware. The swim out to the dock, and immediately the supernatural starts to happen when the oil slick monster comes, and hypnotizes Rachel into falling into it, and it burns through her with a terrible burning acid, leaving the other three kids in total horror on the dock, too petrified with fear to swim away. Right away there is horror, fear, and supernatural events happening to these poor kids, and all three remain constant for the rest of the story, making this short story the perfect example of dark fantasy.

             All three of these short stories had their own unique way of incorporating dark fantasy’s aspects of death, the supernatural, and horror. The Duel focused more on realism and the fear of death, but its total lack of the supernatural puts it in last place. Nightcrawlers had a strong sense of the supernatural, and there was great fear and death, but no constant horror that prevailed throughout. The Raft included all three aspects of dark fantasy in perfect balance, and that is why it was number one on my list. 

Dialogue Exercise with Narrative and Action

Dialogue Exercise
Owen Neuburger
Conor Doyle

Cree slowly turned her shopping cart around a display of Chef Boyardee, and into the frozen foods isle. She putted lazily down the isle, window shopping for frozen pizza, occasionally stopping to wipe off some condensation to read a label. She selected a brand, and dropped the box into her cart. As she closed the door, she looked down the aisle and saw her old friend Serena scrutinizing the nutrition facts on the back of a low fat ice cream.
“Serena?” Cree asked cautiously.
“Cree!” Serena answered in delight. “It’s been so long!”
Although Serena’s initial greeting was warm and inviting, she could not help but notice how much more weight her once thin and graceful high school friend had now put on.
“I know. How’s your family? How’s William?” Cree inquired.
“They’re good. We’ve had some minor problems but I’ll tell you about it in a bit, I want to know how you’re doing too.” Serena responded. Though she seemed happy enough, Cree noticed that her smile faded slightly when she spoke.
“I’m great, Ted is fine and so is Sonny. He’s the goalie on the school soccer team, and I’m so proud of him. Faith is having a tough time with high school, but I think she’s getting better now that it has been a few weeks,” Cree said.
“Good, good. My girls are doing well, but they are having some trouble making friends; they’re just not getting along people as well as they used to. William keeps saying it’s my fault for spoiling them, but he’s at work so much that he barely even knows them.”
“Aw, poor things, it can be so hard going through school without good friends. Cree said, thinking back to her early days in high school, when she had very similar problems. “How is William’s clinic doing?” She asked, changing the subject.
“Not too well actually,” Serena said, suddenly with a far off look in her eyes. “His business was going well at first, but lately it’s gone downhill, now that the new hospital emergency room opened up. God, he has been so depressed by it and when he comes home he’s angry and shuts us out.”
“I’m so sorry. I know it can be tough when a husband doesn’t see it your way,” Cree said as she thought back to how Ted hadn’t understood why Faith was having trouble in school.
“It’s ok; it’s not your fault. God, he just gets so angry. Lately he doesn’t get home till past 4 in the morning. He used to be home by 11:30. I think he’s going to a bar. He often gets home drunk, shoving us around and yelling and crying at the same time. I can’t go on like this. Two weeks ago he full on hit me across the face. I’m just scared the girls will find out, or he’ll target them,” Said Serena, exasperated.
“Well have you called the cops yet?” Cree asked. Before Serena could respond, there was a deep rumble, coming from nowhere in particular. Both women looked around for a moment, the lights flickered for a moment, and went out. In the pitch black of the windowless supermarket, both women began stumbling blindly toward where they thought the exit to be. They were quickly separated from each other by running shoppers and the blackness, and separately exited the supermarket and went home.

Pan's Labyrinth: A New Spin on a Fairy Tale

            A little girl who moves in with an evil stepfather and escapes into a world with fairies and magic seems like the stuff of a 6-year-old girl’s dream. A girl who travels through fascist Spain to live with a violent, merciless, and malicious military leader and is told that she is the Princess of the underworld by a peculiar faun, and must complete deadly and challenging tasks seems a little bit less like a chick flick and more like an action movie. Pan’s Labyrinth makes this jump expertly and creates a more realistic and in depth version of a Dark Fantasy, by using a brilliantly orchestrated mixture of a believable realistic plot and setting with a mysterious and magical fairy realm.

            Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is a girl of approximately 12 years of age when she and her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), move to live with Ofelia’s vicious and cruel military stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi López). Ofelia encounters a fairy when they stop on their way to Vidal’s mill, which is turned into a makeshift fort. When she arrives, we meet Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), Vidal’s handmaid, and the Doctor (Álex Angulo), who are both rebels working under his nose. As Carmen draws closer and closer to giving birth, Ofelia wanders into the Labyrinth that lies next to the mill, and encounters a Faun, who tells her that she is really a Princess of the underworld.  To prove her royalty, she must complete three terrible tasks by the time the moon is full. As she starts to complete these tasks, and the threat of a rising rebellion becomes greater and greater at the mill, the plot gets slightly harder to understand, as things start to happen and come together quickly. A blending between reality and the other realm makes the plot less believable, but all scenes and actions help to progress the plot as smoothly as possible.

            The actors in this film were well cast and all seemed fully capable to play their parts well. Captain Vidal’s animosity and utter loss of sympathy for any creature beside himself was displayed perfectly by Sergi López. The director, Guillermo del Toro, was very smart to show no mercy whatsoever in this character, because it instinctively makes the viewer hate Vidal and view him as a monster. The only character that wasn’t represented as well as she should have been was Carmen. She was too complacent and seemingly not caring about what happened to Ofelia. Although she was pregnant, she seemed to disregard how Ofelia felt about Vidal, and she should have been able to see how much of a monster Vidal was and should have tried to protect Ofelia. Guillermo del Toro did a great job with this film overall. Although it was hard to get the full effect of the characters emotions by reading subtitles instead, especially in the more action packed or revealing scenes, the script was still easy to follow, and made sense, with no horribly awkward or confusing parts. There may have been some description lost in translation, for some Spanish words hold different meanings that are hard to express in English, especially their expletives, which do not line up with ours.

            The setting of the film was perfect. Having it set back in the latter years of World War II makes the film simpler, because evil can be represented by the political or military figures that were present during that time period. This also eliminates some of the skepticism and loss of wonder and mysteriousness that comes from modern media and information. Back then, fairy tales and magic could still be possibilities because the world was not as revealed as it is now. The old mill and woodland setting make the old Labyrinth look less out of place than it would have been in a suburban neighborhood or city. The eerie lullaby that Mercedes sings for Ofelia fits perfectly with the shadow and uncertainty that surrounds the other realm. Vidal’s military style songs that he listens to in the mornings when he gets ready for the day nicely emphasize his disciplined way of life.

            This film is extremely effective because it takes a story line that many people grew up with and brings it back to them in a more adult manor, using motifs like the fear of death. Guillermo uses blood to expand on this, like the bloody sheets when Carmen dies in childbirth, or the final scene where the only color visible is Ofelia’s blood as she lets it drip down on to the portal to the underworld. People would never expect to see these things in a child’s fairy tale, but realize when watching the film that these problems and motifs are the things that provide the chilling realistic effect of the movie and the characters involved. For instance, it would not be enough to just have Vidal grimace and look tough. To truly express his cruelty, scenes like the one with the two innocent hunters that he brutally murdered are needed to make the viewer really believe and fear the man. This film gave people who love dark fantasy and action something they had never quite seen before, and for that I give it 3 out 4 headless fairies.

Pan's Labyrinth

The movie takes place in fascist Spain during the latter years of World War II. The first scene shows us Ofelia, a young girl of about 12 years old, and her pregnant mother, Cameron, traveling together to live with her stepfather, Captain Vidal. They arrive at his mill, which is being used as a base camp for him and his soldiers as they fight the guerrilla rebels that oppose the dictator. We immediately see Vidal as a cruel, merciless, and disciplined military leader who uses fear to get what he wants. When Ofelia and her mother arrive, he seems only to care for the well being of his son that Cameron is carrying. On their way to the mill, Ofelia discovered a fairy, which in turn follows her. She becomes fascinated by it, and it leads her into the labyrinth, where a faun tells her she is actually Princess Moana of the underworld, and that she must complete three tasks by the full moon to return to her throne. Along with these challenges, Ofelia must also deal with Vidal's watchful eye, her pregnant mother's approaching labour, and her new lifestyle at the mill.