Saturday, December 28, 2019

Sylvia Plath s Literary Escape - 1203 Words

Sylvia Plath’s Literary Escape Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar to liberate her from her past. This novel is the autobiographical tale of a young Sylvia Plath. Through Esther Greenwood, Sylvia manages to narrate almost exactly her life story. This narration includes her college days, her stay at the all-women’s college, her friendships with Doreen and Buddy Willard, her stay at a mental institution after a suicide attempt and even her deflowering. Sylvia penned the story in England under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas (Kehoe, para 16). Sylvia used a pseudonym because all though she changed all the characters’ names, the detail she put into her novel was borderline ferocious. The following essay will analyze why Sylvia wrote The Bell Jar, the†¦show more content†¦Sylvia’s character Esther Greenwood acts as an alter ego for Sylvia. The personalities share in the same life events such as their time in college and their stay in New York at an all-girls hotel. The two women even share in the graver events such as their sexual life and eventually their suicide attempts. Even the people in Sylvia’s life and the character’s in Esther’s fictional life resembled one another. Esther’s mother, Mrs. Greenwood, and Sylvia’s own mother shared in the same mindset. Both had definite beliefs about a woman’s role in the world which neither Esther nor Sylvia reciprocated no matter how hard they tried. Another person in Sylvia’s life transformed into a character is the deceased father of Esther. Sylvia’s own father had died. In the novel, Esther attempts suicide by over-dosing in a crawl space (Plath, 169). In Sylvia’s real life, she overdoses the pills in a cellar (Materer, 22). Both personalities are admitted into a psychiatric facility where they receive electroshock therapy and both leave the psychiatric facility with board approval. The differences in the two people lie in their concluding attitudes about life. Esther Greenwood does survive at the conclusion of the novel, while Sylvia, on February 11, 1963 puts her head in the oven at her flat in London and turns on the gas killing herself (Ames,15). Perhaps, one of Sylvia’s last harrowing sentences in The Bell Jar was how sheShow MoreRelatedThe Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath1211 Words   |  5 PagesSylvia Plath Research Paper Title The Bell Jar place[s] [the] turbulent months[of an adolescent’s life] in[to] mature perspective (Hall, 30). In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses parallelism, stream of consciousness, the motif of renewal and rebirth, symbolism of the boundary-driven entrapped mentally ill, and auto-biographical details to epitomize the mental downfall of protagonist, Esther Greenwood. Plath also explores the idea of how grave these timeless and poignant issues can affect a fragileRead More Virgin In A Tree1276 Words   |  6 Pages This poem was written in 1958, after Sylvia Plath left her job at Smith College to write for a living. It was during this time she found writing extremely difficult and resorted to set themes and deliberate exercises in style, in her efforts to find a release. The poem is based on a drawing quot;The Virgin in a Treequot; by Paul Klee. Sylvia Plath expresses her feelings about the concept of virginity, virgins etc. She holds their morals and values accountable, for wh at they believe to be rightRead MoreEssay on The Dark Life and Confessional Poetry of Sylvia Plath2207 Words   |  9 Pagespoetry—established their poetry in a single, unified voice that accentuated intimate human topics such as death, sexuality, and family. An important contributor to contemporary and confessional poetry was Sylvia Plath, who employed personal aspects of her life into her style of confessional poetry. Plath suffered from a deep depression that influenced her to often write in a dark, melancholy style. This depression included two suicide attempts of which she wrote before succeeding in suicide at the ageRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Bell Jar 1536 Words   |  7 Pagesnormality varies in many ways such as by person, time, place, situation, culture and set of values. Normality is usually seen as good and desirable by society and what society thinks while abnormality may be seen as bad or undesirable (Boundless). Sylvia Plath, the author of The Bell Jar, writes in a very simple and ordinary but exceptionally unique way. She put her whole young genuine heart and soul into this semi-autobiography. Her first person point of view allows the reader to really engage withRead MoreAnalysis Of Hughes s Poem Light Of This 1977 Words   |  8 Pages However, the ambiguity of Hughes s poetry may be derived not so much from a desire to obscure truthful representation, but from the inherently traumatic impact of this act of writing. In light of this, Hughes s fragmentary syntax and the episodic construction of the Birthday Letters sequence, may well be understood as a literal manifestation of his attempt to pull together a scattered, dispersed, or lost series of recollections (Freeman, 30); the trauma of which constantly resists any easy assimilationRead More`` Let Me Live, Love, And Say It Well Good Sentences `` Good Sentence ``2052 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences† (Plath). Sylvia Plath is a confessional poet who is often the subject of her poetry. Throughout the majority of her life Sylvia Plath simply wished to live an ordinary life. However, Plath endured many tragedies during her life that influenced her stylistic approach to poetry; often based off her emotions. In her p oems, Plath acquires her central source of influence from her personal life and employs a variety of techniques to brand her messageRead MoreSylvia Plath And Anne Sexton1782 Words   |  8 PagesConfessional poets in the 1950’s and 1960’s shaped confessional poetry into a type of writing that forever changed American literature. With controversial subjects at the time such as death, trauma, depression and how relationships impacted people, confessional poetry carved a gateway for private subjects and feelings to be expressed through autobiographical writing. The inspiration behind confessional poetry was the therapy it brought to the writer, being able to take personal experiences and thoughtsRead MorePoem Analysis of Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath3011 Words   |  13 Pagesof being equally gripping and repulsive. Although suicide is seen as overtly morbid, gruesome and disturbing, it has made many people famous. Sylvia Plath, the illustrious 20th century poetess, is o ne of them. Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, 1932 of two parents in a middleclass household in Boston. At a very young age, she demonstrated great literary talent and a hardworking attitude, publishing her first poem at the age of eight and maintaining a straight A record throughout all of her studiesRead MoreKate Chopins Writing Career and Influence on Society Essay1091 Words   |  5 Pagesa place in society, love, and individuality. Kate impressively portrayed Edna as a free spirited woman who openly was searching for her own happiness. The public at this time believed that portraying a woman in this way was an abomination to the literary world. The continuous bad publicity of her second novel made it exceptionally hard for her to publish more stories. Kate continued writing stories after The Awakening was published. They were not revealed to the society since no publisher would publishRead MoreEssay on Female Protagonists in Womens Literature2419 Words   |  10 Pagesexcess, the lan guages designed to consume them (Yaeger 11). She applies this theory to Charlotte Brontes heroines, but it is also applicable to other literary works such as The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, The Lais of Marie de France, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Lillian Hellmans plays, and the poetry of Sappho and Sylvia Plath. Yaeger discusses several qualities of the honey-mad woman, and applies them to the female protagonists in Brontes writing. [b]y consuming not

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Outrage over the NSAs Data Collection is Hypocritical in...

Outrage Over the NSAs Data Collection Is Hypocritical in The Publics Acceptance of Data Mining by Other Companies. Everyone assumes that Edward Snowden first brought to the public’s attention the actions by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the mining of public data. (The Guardian and The Washington Post on June 5, 2013). â€Å"The release of classified material was called the most significant leak in US history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg†. (Gellman, B., Poitras, L. 2013). This was first reported by USA Today. ( Cauley, Leslie. 2006). There was no public comment at this time and it faded from memory. Recent events by the NSA have created public outrage about this invasion of privacy and expressed incredulity at how this†¦show more content†¦While there is the potential of conversations being heard over cordless phones, what should be more troubling is the potential for conversations being heard over the baby monitor. While a cordless phone may capture only what can be transmitted through the mouth piece transmitter, a baby monitor has the capability to ca pture sounds in larger areas. As phone systems became less reliant on land lines, privacy issues have risen as to the expectations of privacy by law enforcement. Courts struggle with the issue of cell phone conversations and the expectancy of privacy especially with the wireless transmission process. (Sengupta, S. 2013) While much of the public has experienced or is aware of the potential of conversations being heard over cordless phones and baby monitors very few complaints about invasion of privacy were made. This also has not stopped the use of them nor has this awareness guided many in using due diligence in certain illegal or immoral activities. Whether this is a conscious choice or not, it seems this invasion of our privacy has been accepted as a byproduct and benefit of the ability of freedom of movement in our ability to keep in touch. We demand privacy and yet we compromise our privacy continuously. As technology has advanced and provided better and easier ways for us to communicate through using the internet and social media sites, it has also provided income potential for businesses. Companies spend money on

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Has Disneyfication destroyed the traditional folk tale and damaged childrens illustrated literature Essay Example For Students

Has Disneyfication destroyed the traditional folk tale and damaged childrens illustrated literature? Essay Has Disneyfication destroyed the traditional folk tale and damaged childrens illustrated literature? Contents 3. Introduction 4. The Death of the Seven Dwarves 5. Folk Tales 6. Rant #1 7. Input ~ Laurence Anholt writes 8. Beauty and the Beast 9. Cartoons, Capitalism, Commerce and Conjecture 13. Walter Elias Disney 18. Forum 21. I Relent 22. Sycophant 24. Rant #2 26. Tex Avery 27. Cutting Edge and Contemporary with Typographical Twists 31. Conclusion 33. Bibliography / Reference Introduction Having decided to produce a childrens book as part of my Degree course, I initially considered writing a contemporary version of one of the old folk or fairy tales, possibly a story by Hans Christian Andersen or a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. I narrowed my selections and decided tentatively on a reworking of the classic folk tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I immediately tried to blank all thoughts of Happy, Dopey, Sneezey, Bashful, Sleepy, Grumpy and Doc, but this proved harder than expected. How do you go about renaming, individualising and illustrating characters that are so firmly ensconced in the memories of children all over the world? Disneys monopolising of the fairy/folk tale genre and mass marketing of the characters as toys appeared to limit my options of adapting the Snow White story to a. Mocking the Disney version in the tale itself. or b. Radically departing from the original story and imagery. both of which seemed quite appealing. I finally decided on a subtle combination of both options, but resolved to look further into Disneys domination and desecration of folk tales, myths, fables and classic childrens literature. The Death of the Seven Dwarfs On a high plain between Brugg and Waldshut, near the Black Forest, seven dwarfs lived together in a small house. Late one evening an attractive young peasant girl, who was lost and hungry, approached them and requested shelter for the night. The dwarfs had only seven beds, and they fell to arguing with one another, for each one wanted to give up his bed for the girl. Finally the oldest one took the girl into his bed. Before they could fall asleep a peasant woman appeared before their house, knocked on the door, and asked to be let inside. The girl got up immediately and told the woman that the dwarfs had only seven beds, and that there was no room there for anyone else. With this the woman became very angry and accused the girl of being a slut, thinking that she was cohabiting with all seven men. Threatening to make a quick end to such evil business, she went away in a rage. That same night she returned with two men, whom she had brought up from the bank of the Rhine. Together they broke into the house and killed the seven dwarfs. They buried the bodies outside in the garden and burned the house to the ground. No one knows what became of the girl. Documented by Ernst Ludwig Rochholz 1856 Translation by D. L. Ashliman 1998 Whilst researching traditional fairy tales, particularly those collected by the Brothers Grimm, it became apparent to me that Disneyfication has impeded the natural evolution of the folk tale and, to some extent, tainted childrens illustrated literature and animation as a whole. Clearly my introductory tale The Death of the Seven Dwarfs would now be construed as being in bad taste: and rightly so, if considered purely in the context of 20th/21st century childrens books, and of course its an extreme example. But initially traditional folk-tales werent necessarily childrens stories, they just became so during the natural evolution of the story due to the oral traditions of times past; each re-telling would elicit new twists and variations on a fable, some subtle and engaging, others decidedly grim. In the words of writer Joseph Campbell, these stories are Told and retold, losing here a detail, gaining there a new hero, disintegrating gradually in outline, but re-created occasionally by some narrator. In his book The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology Campbell describes the folk-tale as an art on which the whole community of mankind has worked, and as if in warning to Disney himself asserts Clearly, mythology is no toy for children. Many children dont like them and many adults do C. S. Lewis on the subject of fairy tales. In my opinion the preceding old Swiss version of the tale, though cutting and concise, is far more exciting, charming and evocative than anything in Walt Disneys celluloid outing. Did Snow White really require such a nauseatingly saccharine sweet voice? Did they have to give the dwarfs memorably endearing/stupid names? Of course, I wouldnt want any young child of mine to encounter the language and brutality described in the previous text, but corny, clean-cut sentimentality, moralising, and censorship are just as, if not more offensive. My other reason for recounting The Death of the Seven Dwarves is to illustrate how the Disney machine has desecrated classic storytelling, and deigned to stamp its own sterile mark, not only on early folk tales, but also enduring favourites such as Alice in Wonderland or Tarzan. To me, sanitising great literature is plummeting to the depths of bad taste but thats not to say it shouldnt be mocked or satirized. Perhaps, during my research I was in danger of becoming a little too biased against the Disney Corporation: I need, after all, to try and balance the companys good and bad points and it certainly does have its good points. Maybe political correctness, the ever-changing moral climate, and the fickle and erratic tastes of children and parents, have a part to play in this matter. To give balance to my deliberations I decided to get a second opinion on the matter. I wrote to Catherine and Laurence Anholt, Double Gold Award winners of the NestlÃÆ'ƒÂ © Smarties Book prize and named as Top 10 childrens authors in Britain by the Independent on Sunday; and I posed the following questions Has the Disneyfication of traditional folk tales and classic childrenquot;s literature Halted the natural evolution of the folk/fairy tale? Damaged childrenquot;s literature as a whole? Affected the way that you work? and in the same way has political correctness damaged/enhanced or in any way changed the folktale or childrens literature as a whole? In response to my inquiry Laurence Anholt writes Im not a huge fan of contemporary Disney, although I loved some of the earlier animations as a child, but I guess trad itional tales have always been moderated, contemporised or censored by each new generation, and you could argue that quot;Disneyficationquot; is a natural part of that process. Itquot;s a bit like complaining that slang defiles the English language, whereas in fact language is an organic, constantly changing thing, in which slang has always played an important part. Essentially I accept Mr. Anholts point, but I would like to suggest that, in the case of folk tales unlike childrens literary classics, where we have a concrete and definite reference point, the animation giant has permanently etched a number of distinctive characters each with their own particular idiosyncrasies and a clear-cut chain of events into our subconscious minds, effectively eradicating its organic and constantly changing nature. Take for example Beauty and the Beast; As a child, no matter how many illustrated interpretations of The Beast I saw depicted in countless editions of the story, my imagination could still conjure up its own grotesque, misshapen behemoth. Sadly Disneys gruff, yet cute and cuddly buffalo style creation has entrenched itself in our bookshelves, brains, and living rooms via The Disney Store and I fear that the great illustrated revisions of this particular tale, by countless artists from the past, such as Paul Woodroffe, Margaret Tarrant, Jessie Willcox Smith, W. Heath Robinson, Charles Robinson, Arthur Rackham, Margaret Evans Price, Peter Newell, Warwick Goble, H. J. Ford, Edmund Dulac, Walter Crane, Eleanor Vere Boyle and John Batten, not to mention more recent editions illustrated by Mercer Mayer in 1978 and Jan Brett in 1989 cannot compete with complete saturation of the marketplace. I hope I can follow the path these dark illustrators have walked, or at least use the sidewalk that runs alongside it. Lane Smith ~ Childrens book illustrator In essence, Disneys machine was designed to shatter the two most valuable things about childhood ~ its secrets and its silences ~ thus forcing everyone to share the same formative dreams. It has placed a Mickey Mouse hat on every little developing personality in America. As capitalism, it is a work of genius; as culture, it is mostly a horror. Richard Schickel The Disney Version At this point I would like to point out that Im certain Disney, in its infancy, didnt set out to erase our traditions, flood the marketplace with mass produced posters and playthings or brainwash anyone, but somewhere in the companys long history, either Walt, or at least one of his unscrupulous yet perceptive employees, decided to utilise their power, to exploit gullible consumers and to overlook minor little irritations like history and folklore. Conversely, in Disneys defence Anholt rightfully points out that Angela Carterquot;s superb retellings and the Opiesquot; collections of the original versions, remind us that fairytales were cleaned up and sentimentalised long before Disney got hold of them. Traditional fairytales are full of violence and even rape and I think the Victorians changed them quite dramatically for their young readers. The stories we were told as children were also softened. Itquot;s important to consider that the original stories grew out of an oral tradition and they were told to adults as well as children and were steeped in the brutality nd morality of their time. Anholt also states that although I personally loathe the sentimental, dollar-motivated, formulaic junk that spews out of Disneyland, I feel that classic stories are robust enough to stand a bit of a thrashing. I donquot;t know if you have read my Seriously Silly Stories, illustrated by Arthur Robins, but they are certainly not reverential to tradition. In fact I would go as far as to say that some aspects of traditional fairystories need a good shaking. And in reference to one of the aforementioned tomes Beauty and the Beast for example, is a beautiful story but it could have been written by Goebbels himself! I mean it is decidedly non politically correct and needs to be completely re-told in a contemporary light. My problem with Disney is that they donquot;t challenge enough. I could go at length, but in summary I donquot;t think we need to worry too much about quot;Disneyficationquot; children have never had a greater wealth of stories and pictures; some good, some lousy, and only the best will survive the test of time. On the subject of the adaptations of classic childrens literature, in particular the travesty that is Walt Disneyquot;s Alice in Wonderland I would like to refer to reviewer Dan Patanella, who pledges in his internet appraisal of the film that; No amount of contextualism, revisionism, conversations with caterpillars, or sampling alternate slices of giant mushrooms will convince anyone that Disneyquot;s Alice in Wonderland is a classic film. Itquot;s a time-filler. Disney turned the Tea Party into an amusing ride at his various theme parks, and thatquot;s perhaps the kindest thing I can say. Ever the conservative film, the Disney version of Alice follows the Hollywood tradition of mashing together Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass , using Carrolls bizarre characters as excuses for stunt casting , and presenting the final result as a whimsical, neutered fairy tale. Patanella informs us that prior to the presentation of the finished artwork, studio drawings suggested a blatant Tenniel influence, but that on completion of the project the clean lines and flat colours were reminiscent of a more recent animation style such as Hanna-Barbera. He goes on to assert that in this film Much of Carrolls wordplay is dumped, and what little retained is delivered in a fey, overly precious manner. Mr Patanella also quizzically contemplates the question of whether Alice in Wonderland could be described as Disneys worst animated full-length feature film; but ultimately deems this accusation a little unfair, considering the companys recent penchant for churning out straight to video sequels such as Aladdin. I was personally quite flabbergasted, recently, to see a television advertisement for Disneys latest venture: a DVD/Video sequel to 101 Dalmatians. What they appear to be feeding us here in 101 Dalmatians 2- Patchs London Adventure is a feature film sequel, that is not only 40 years too late, but one which has been preceded by the live-action version of the original film, as well as its live-action sequel. In this instance I think that the Disney Corporation is being a little too greedy and far too lazy for its own good and I think that, unfortunately, children brought up on a diet of tedious, run of the mill entertainment and audiovisual mediocrity will greet it with open arms and lazy parents will accept it as another animated quick-fix to silence their restless and understandably inquisitive offspring, whilst critics and those with a more selective appetite will justifiably shake their heads and simply yawn. In the same vein Dan Patanella states that Alice may very well be a suitable time-killer for undemanding children totally unfamiliar with the Lewis Carroll texts. All others will find the film annoying in proportion to their love of Carrolls writing, and hope that Disneys heirs dont revive the hookah-smoking caterpillar and the Mad Hatter in a direct-to-video sequel. Patanella also points out in his review that Uncle Walts input on the film was negligible, aside from obtaining the rights to use Tenniels original book illustrations as a basis for character outline and design, he also indicates the irony in that an early animated series by Walt Disney himself had the title Alice in Cartoonland and questions why Disney didnt shown more interest in the development of the project. In The Disney Version The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, Author Richard Schickel informs us that, apparently the movie mogul didnt particularly care for the film personally and, in hindsight, bemoaned the fact that it was filled with weird characters The more he worked on it, the more he came to think of Alice herself as a prim and prissy little person, lacking in humour and too passive in her role in the story. Audiences, he felt, could not identify with her and he could not blame them much: neither could he. To me, this begs the question; is it Disney the man or Disney the company that I should be taking issue with? To clarify this point I decided to read a little more on the man himself. Could go on a Disney slagging off session as I hate everything he stood for politically. That, however, is not the point here. James Merry Illustrator/Animator Apparently, when Walter Elias Disney died of acute circulatory collapse on a December morning in 1966, his empire was at its zenith. The corporations balance sheets showed total profits at their highest since the companys inception in the early twenties. The character of Nora in A Doll's House EssayIf Disney hadnquot;t participated in telling those tales many children and adults may never have heard them at all. Perhaps they even encouraged the older versions to be retold over the years I never read The Little Mermaid until I saw the movie first and became interested in the story. What good is a book if it sits on the shelf? The beauty of a story is in the telling. You refer to the final version of the Beast that appeared in the film as some kind of branding iron that will burn all other versions of this character from the memory or imaginations of the public. Personally, I suggest you take a look at some of the concept art that was created in the planning stages for that film, they werenquot;t all sweet and the illustrations are fantastic, but again this is just one telling for the story by a team of artists. I doubt this or any other film, will eradicate any piece of inspiring artwork from a readerquot;s memory. Where in any Disney Marketing material do you see anyone telling consumers to overlook minor little irritations like history and folklore? No one is holding that child in his/her chair and saying Donquot;t you do it! Donquot;t you open that book! For Godquot;s sake, donquot;t READ it!! . Since Waltquot;s death, the lull that the Disney Company had in the early 80quot;s anybody remember The Black Cauldron. anybody and the resurgence and perverse expansion into every type of business they could become involved in I think many people have become bitter toward the Mouse and Mickey as more of corporate symbol than the character they loved as a child. Marketing, high prices at the Disney Store, and press coverage of Michael Eisner in court have diluted the Technicolor that once awed America on Sunday night television. But the heart and soul of the Disney Company has always been its feature-animated films, and every good film starts with a good story. -Lisa Mazzuca On Your Mark Design Graphics www. oymdesigngraphics. com Courageous storytelling ~ Although I have already accepted and conceded some of these points in my previous text, I have to say that I believe that it is this type of unadulterated hero worship and pitiful sycophancy and that has turned Walt Disney into both an American deity and, conversely, an object of disdain and ridicule. It seems to escape the minds of some people that Disney was, amongst other things, a businessman and predominantly interested in making money and not a saintly benefactor working for the good of mankind as Ms. Mazzuca would suggest. Surely it is no coincidence, as Gary Morris points out in his Bright Lights Film Journal that: these stories predate the copyright laws and were thus free to adapt. Making money has always played an important part in the make-up of the Disney corporation and I do not think that unwarranted fawning and flattering of the man can absolve him from any blame, he was after all an unabashed capitalist. I also cannot see how anyone could possibly submit Disneys The Little Mermaid as a positive example of an adapted folk tale, and extolling the virtues of concept art in the planning stages of Beauty and the Beast merely highlights the fact that these fantastic unsweetened drawings were not used in the final film. I do accept a point that many have made which suggests some of the earlier animated feature films were intentionally over-sweetened to combat the general gloom resulting from the Great Depression, but I think its important to remember that Disney wasnt the only animator at that time toying with folk and fairy tales, and some of these others didnt subscribe to Disneys sugary style. In one of Gary Morriss journal articles he informs us that Not everyone in Hollywood was so enamoured of order or happy endings or the sentimental school of mindless, grinning funny little animals. Amongst these renegades of Warner Brothers Termite Terrace were Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and most notably Tex Avery. As Morris affirms Averyquot;s application of modernist elements to an ancient cultural form is the most complex and extreme of the lot. Between 1937 and 1949, whilst animating for Warner Bros. and M-G-M studios, Tex Avery made eight films based on or relating to fairy tales, namely: Little Red Wa lking Hood, Little Rural Riding Hood, Red Hot Riding Hood, Swing Shift Cinderella, Cinderella Meets Fella, The Bears Tale, A Gander at Mother Goose, and Blitz Wolf. Morris again explains that these animated shorts represent an assault on the Bettelheim school that sees fairy tales as the source of moral instruction for youth, and, closer to home, on the Disney aesthetic. Averyquot;s rendering of these ancient tales were produced to gratify the young and naive, as well as the more mature worldly-wise audience and to reverse the sentimentalist trend by bringing chaos out of order. For young audiences, Avery preserves the trappings of the genre ~ talking animals, supernatural events ~ and adds the cinematic touch of physical law constantly challenged. For adults, he litters his work with sexual innuendo and distancing devices that replace the sense of reassuring archetypes with a modernist construct that merges the story with its audience, puts adult preoccupations e. g. , sex in place of childrenquot;s, and imagines characters not as clueless tabula rasas awaiting moral enlightenment but as sophisticated, willful creatures with a bottomless bag o f tricks. Gary Morris The Fairy Tales of Tex Avery For a time, Avery was able to successfully remove the tired old characters of the big bad wolf and red riding hood from their safe and sacred sanctuary of the well-worn fantasy narrative and relocate them into a sleazy, urban landscape full of pool halls and nightclubs awash with lusty ladies, sinful suggestions and sarcastic side swipes: creating in the process a unique world of self-conscious cartoon actors who know theyquot;re in a cartoon and freely comment on their status as fictional creations, undercutting the story at every turn. So, are there any contemporary artists still willing to challenge the Disney aesthetic and produce childrens books and illustrated folk-tales with a harder edge? A name that was mentioned earlier in this discussion is that of Lane Smith, an artist renowned for distorting folk tales and fables. After meeting with writer Jon Scieszka in 1986 the inventive pair produced The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. The book, described by internet childrens book site Kidsreads. om as a wise-guy fairytale was initially rejected by most publishers for being too weird and too sophisticated but has now sold over a million copies, been translated into ten languages, and has been called a classic picture book for all ages. Their next venture which, incidentally, I recently purchased was a collection of anarchic interpretations of classic tales and fables called The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales and certainly breaks boundaries in the world of childrens illustrated literature. The book itself questions the principles and standard practices not only of folk-tales but even those of typography and publishing. For example: Take the opening tale, the classic Chicken Licken; One minute the story is running along smoothly in the traditional manner and then an odd little character, claiming to be Jack the Narrator appears shouting Wait a minute! Wait a minute! , only to inform us that he forgot to publish the contents page; The throng of familiar characters Goosey Loosey, Ducky Lucky etc. gnore this bizarre interlude and carry on their customary course until the Table of Contents falls from the sky and kills them all, leaving a twisted mass of typography and body parts. But of course its not purely Jon Scieszkas bizarre plot and the imaginative use of typography that makes this book so different and so successful; Lane Smiths beguiling use of all manner of media, from photomontage to printed textiles certainly strike the eye accordingly, in his weird and wonderful renderings of such tales as Cinderumplestiltskin and The Really Ugly Duckling. I was surprised to read that much of his sinister grainy work was not done using any spray-painting technique. As Smith himself explains: A lot of reviewers have misidentified my technique as airbrush or dyes or even egg tempera. I think this is because it almost looks as if it was sprayed with paint with little dots of color and texture visible. Actually, my work is rendered in oil paints. I paint on board, building up several thin glazes of the oil, sealing them between coats with an acrylic spray varnish. This not only dries the oil instantly, but also causes a chemical reaction between the oil and the acrylic. Normally, it would be a mistake to combine two opposites like this and in fact it was a mistake the first time I did it, but I liked the results. Iquot;m a big fan of artists who play with surfaces. I love texture and grunge. The trick is to know when to stop. Sometimes I keep adding more and more layers until Iquot;ve ruined the piece. Usually I stop when the painting starts to look interesting. Then I go in with a fine brush and add details, lights and darks, etc. Itquot;s a laborious process, but itquot;s unpredictable and it keeps me interested and surprised. This book retains its appeal to children as a familiar storybook, whilst attracting the adult graphic-novel readers, sells successfully worldwide, has won many awards and still manages to offend a few purists along the way. Another artist who works with a variety of media, styles and techniques is Lauren Child. I was interested in her innovative mix of naive-art, montage and creative typography, but particularly the combination of these techniques with digital media A recipe I have recently been experimenting with myself. In Whoquot;s Afraid of the Big Bad Book, the hero Herb falls into a book of fairytales, where he instigates a chaotic series of events, meets a tenacious and headstrong Goldilocks, is pursued by numerous recognizable individuals and ultimately gets rescued by his Fairy Godmother. Herb is also the star of Beware of the Storybook Wolves another Lauren Child book to mess about with the conventions of this genre. This time, the wolves from his bedtime story come alive to devour the boy, but the child tricks the wolves and again begins a madcap jaunt through a number of well-known fables, along with more of those notorious fairy tale characters and mocked clichÃÆ'ƒÂ ©s. Ilene Cooper, in her internet review of the book, states that The artwork is franticÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢ €šÂ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?strips of color serve as background for exuberant pen-and-watercolor pictures reminiscent of Quentin Blakes art, only kicked up one dizzy notch. Of course, having mentioned Quentin Blake, we are reminded of hi work with the late Roald Dahl and in particular their book of Revolting Rhymes which memorably satirised a number of tales, again including Little Red Riding Hood. In Dahls last picture book he teamed up with illustrator Patrick Benson to produce a book that almost straddles genres; a contemporary tale that, whilst featuring deep dark forests, a throng of little people, a largely unseen beast and a general feeling of foreboding, still manages to retain a modern, upbeat, quality largely due to Bensons twisting on the old cross-hatching style. My final example is the work of author James Finn Garner and illustrator Lisa Amoroso entitled Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life Times a sample of which is neatly condensed by book reviewer Russell A. Peck: Cinderella is a kind of misfit with sisters-of-step heavily augmented with cosmetics, a man appears, her individual deity proxy, who helps her prepare for the ball with tight-fitting clothes that cut off her circulation and high heeled shoes that ruin peoplequot;s bone structure. Conclusion To start summing up, I would like to point out that when I first started this dissertation I honestly believed that my original question Has Disneyfication destroyed the traditional folk tale and damaged childrens illustrated literature? had an obvious answer and that my research would reveal an open and shut case. But during my research I have discovered the matter to be far more complex than I had initially anticipated. Even though I still believe that the Disne y corporation has permanently altered the course of the folk tale, I now dont necessarily believe this to be such a heinous crime. For the foreseeable future I will still look upon Disney ~ the man, the machine and the mouse ~ with a certain amount of scepticism, contempt and culpability but possibly with a little less angst. It has recently occurred to me that we can equate Disneys apparently inadvertent interference in the evolution of the folk tale with that of the new breed of Illusionists who supposedly spoil the traditional, tried and tested, formulaic magic by showing you exactly how the trick is done: when in reality they are challenging the conventions of a dying art and merely invite revitalisation, invention and the promotion of healthy competition. Back in the area of childrens literature and film, I am also encouraged by the resurgence of witches, wizards, ogres and the like, in blockbusters such as Shrek and the Harry Potter series, whilst obviously not forgetting The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But funnily enough, the final factor in turning my argument around was simply the fleeting appearance of a number of well known storybook characters in a recent, extremely popular, award winning childrens book. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, a beautifully illustrated and fairly cheerful tale about a cat, a squirrel and a duck, contains a segment where two of these protagonists wander through a grim, shadowy forest, imagining all manner of beast and villain, most notably the green-faced witch in the pointy hat, the big bad wolf, a hungry fox and a brutal bear, whilst a lost and oblivious innocent skips playfully on his way. And here again we have an artist imaginatively playing with typography and challenging conventions. All of this simply proves that somehow, however stale or sterile the genre can get, there are always cutting edge artists around to tinker with ideas and subvert from the norm, not to mention annual pantomimes and Halloween celebrations to keep these shady characters tightly lodged in our subconscious minds. And having researched far more on the subject of Disney than I could possibly convey in this thesis, I will have to leave you with a thought from Paul Bommer Artist and Illustrator, who surmises: I guess the old frozen nazi wasnquot;t all bad!

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

The Importance of Service Experience-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Importance of Service Experience and the difficulties in Management associated with it. Answer: Introduction This paper intends to look at the importance of service experience and the difficulties in management associated with it. In the day to day business environment, the service providers offer services to their customers. Each customers experience at the service counter or at the table in a restaurant situation is different. The way the hotel attendants handle cases, such as mixed up table reservations or having to break to the customer the bad news that all the tables available have been booked, defines each customers experience. Different attending employees have different methods of handling the customers. Some will first engage the customer in a brief conversation, making them feel welcome and valued while others go straight to the point, serve the customer without making them feel welcome a second time. Customers are pleased with good service and where they get to be engaged by the service provider. Significance of Service Encounter The opinion that a customer has towards a service rendered to them whether in a restaurant after a nice meal, or an airline after flying with it is called service encounter. The capability to meet the needs of the customer is entirely dependent on the service giver (Updhyay, Sharma 2014, pp.34). Immediately the customer gets to speak with the hotel attendant serving him or her, they start to assess their dining experience at that restaurant. Customers evaluate the level to which their satisfaction has been met in accordance to the service provider hence, even though the meal served to them is a delicacy and the waiter bring it to the table is rude, the customer will most likely conclude the entire dining experience was unpleasant. The restaurant business is competitive since at every corner there is a hotel or a fast food service system, therefore, the business owners strive to create business models without gaps that could be filled by upcoming entrepreneurs. The behavior portrayed by the service providers at the front line is critical to a customer's assessment of a service (Hassan 2013, pp.412). Thereby, a good service encounter is key to defeating competitors in the currently overpopulated marketplace. Employers are now hiring motivated, high performance and productive employees so as to improve the quality of services rendered to their customers. Due to the fast growth of the service department, customers have become stricter in the assessment of their service encounters (Ryu, Lee, Gon Kim 2012, pp.203). To counter this strictness, the service givers are more attentive to the surroundings, in other words, known as the services cape, and their general effect on the quality of the service offered (Ryu, Lee, Gon Kim 2012, pp.200). Research into services cape has shown that certain atmospheric characteristics have a straight forward impact on customer's feelings and fulfillment and also the behavior of the employee. Research has also shown that with good relaxing music playing in the background in a restaurant setting and beautiful decorations accompanied by a delicious meal the customers give positive opinions about their service experiences (Rankin, Senoadi, Bradshaw, Wiman, Bengtsson, Sharpe, Wentland, Claflin 2013, pp.34). Factors such as sweet smelling aroma to get the customer drooling even before he/she is served and well-arranged tables with glasses displayed in an orderly manner ensure the customer enjoys the night and leaves the restaurant satisfied. The customer also expects that the delivery of the service will be of good quality. The attendants in the restaurant are tasked with the duty to make the customer feel welcome during their interaction at the same time paying attention to them at the time they are making their order or asking for anything else. Analysis of the Managerial Implications In the current business environment, competition is one major challenge faced by every business except in cases of monopoly (Krishna, 2014, pp.45). The restaurant business is not any different. The managerial department in the restaurants has established that it's not enough to offer great meals or excellent atmosphere to the consumers (Krishna, 2014, pp.54). Customers have evolved to become more refined and their assessment of the general dining experience stretches beyond the physical environment thereby including the hotel attendants interaction with them (Oliveira, Thomas, Baptista, Campos 2016, pp.404). The customers have become overly cautious such that specific characteristics determine whether or not they are satisfied. The assumption that the atmosphere in the restaurant matching the food served and the type of design on the inside suiting the outside ensures more satisfaction for the customer, has certain implications for the managers which include; the consumers assess their experiences at a restaurant as a package. The service providers need to ensure that they meet the customers expectations of both the services cape and their delivery of the service. Secondly, keen consideration is required in deciding the right level of excitement brought about by the factors in the surrounding. Thirdly, the service providers at the restaurant can incorporate the unique external environment characteristics to create remarkable memories for the customer (Montaa 2017, pp.31). Fourthly, involving the customers in the sales process by the collecting their views on the quality of the services offered and the products. Finally, there is the need for a balanced equilibrium between the services cape and the main product of sale. In the event that more attention is paid to the physical environment and the service is neglected, the customers will not be satisfied. Conclusion The customers feelings and assessment of a restaurant are greatly affected by the surrounding environment and the quality of the service they receive. The customers perceive their experiences at a restaurant in a holistic version. The package includes the kind of food they are served how good it is and the atmosphere at the restaurant. Regardless of the competitive nature of the restaurant business, the key to succeeding is being able to identify all the needs of the customers and satisfying them (Eccles, Ioannou and Serafeim, 2014 pp.2835). Customers look for things such as how the waiter handled the customer's request, how good he/she was at delivering the service and also personal attributes such as warm smile, easy to interact with (Visser, 2014 pp.10). The first impression that a customer gets after interacting with the server dictates the opinion that he/she leaves the restaurant with that day. The success brought about by adopting the unique characteristics of the physical env ironment provides evidence that other business can utilize this strategy and succeed. Bibliography Oliveira, T., Thomas, M., Baptista, G. and Campos, F., 2016. Mobile payment: Understanding the determinants of customer adoption and intention to recommend the technology. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, pp.404-414. Rankin, R.L., Senoadi, N., Bradshaw, K.C., Wiman, E.I., Bengtsson, R.J., Sharpe, B.L., Wentland, M.E. and Claflin, S., The Boeing Company, 2013. Customizable service space. U.S. Patent 8,519,824. Ryu, K., Lee, H.R. and Gon Kim, W., 2012. The influence of the quality of the physical environment, food, and service on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 24(2), pp.200-223. Updhyay, Y. and Sharma, D., 2014. Culinary preferences of foreign tourists in India. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 20(1), pp.29-39. Prasad, H.A.C., Sathish, R. and Singh, S.S., 2014. Emerging Global Economic Situation: Opportunities And Policy Issues for Services Sector. Government of IndiaMinistry of Finance, New Delhi. Krishna, K., 2014. Analysing Competition in the Quick Service Restaurant Industry. Browser Download This Paper. Hassan, A., 2013. Perspective analysis and implications of visitor managementexperiences from the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Anatolia, 24(3), pp.410-426. Montaa, R.A., 2017. Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility 2.0: Moral Foundations and Implications. KRITIKE: An Online Journal of Philosophy, 11(1). Visser, W., 2014.CSR 2.0: Transforming corporate sustainability and responsibility. New York, NY: Springer. Eccles, R.G., Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2014. The impact of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance.Management Science,60(11), pp.2835-2857