Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Extra Credit Opportunity
Tomorrow (Thurs. 11/12) the History Dept. is sponsoring a guest speaker who will be speaking on the history of drugs, which is pertinent to our discussion of that issue in connection with reading "Tulia." To earn 4 extra credit points, I'd like you to attend Dr. Robert Stevens' lecture, "Shooting Celluloid: How to Shape Our Ideas About Addiction" at 4PM (right after our class) in the Olin Theater. In addition to attending, I want you to post a one or two-paragraph response on this blog focusing on anything you felt was interesting and informative about his talk. YOU NEED TO POST YOUR RESPONSE IN ORDER TO EARN THE 4 POINTS.
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2 comments:
Dr. Robert Stephens focused on how all drug films from the start are of the melodramatic genre. He criticizes how the audience has become expectant of the “injection” and “withdrawal” scenes. Because the audience expects these, the producers continue to include them in their films keeping drug movies stuck in the genre of melodrama. He mentions several movies and in his lecture includes clips. I personally had not seen any of the mentioned movies, so the clips really helped me interpret what he was saying. He concluded with five main points that summed up his arguments. The first is that most people mistake what Hollywood portrays in drug films as a reality. He supports this point by pointing out that the token withdrawal scene in Less than Zero consists of a crack addict going through a heroin withdrawal. His second point is that what is portrayed in movies is not the free thinking of the director but is shaped by institutions. He points out that people and filmmakers like to think they are commenting on social reality, and he feels the audience is the reason for the continuing production of these stereotypical melodramatic drug movies. Finally he concludes with the point that the effects of media effects have deleterious consequences, and ultimately allow law makers to carry out a war on drugs on its own citizens.
Ok Meredith. I, too, had never seen the films he focused on in his presentation. But he made some interesting and valuable points, as you brought out.
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