Serious dramatic deficiency Essay Example for Free

Serious dramatic deficiency Essay It is not only in period pieces, however, that the rejection of our countrys history and tradition robs actors performances of authenticity. In postwar Japans cultural climate, it is exceedingly difficult for actors in any type of role to convincingly express complex, deep or intense emotion — in fact, any dramatic emotion at all. To appear real, this sort of emotional expression demands exactly the right modulation and combination of subtle elements, including not only choice of words and facial expression, but also posture, gesture, tone of voice, direction of gaze, and distance from other actors. And the right modulation and combination differs from culture to culture. Every culture has its own framework of expressive conventions from which actors must draw in order to express emotion that will strike their audience as authentic. As long as Japanese actors refuse to work within the framework of emotional expression stipulated by Japanese culture, they cannot express dramatic emotion in a convincing manner. The famed Meiji-era novelist Natsume Soseki once taught his students that the true Japanese translation for I love you is Tsuki ga tottemo aoi na (The moon is so blue tonight); what he meant was that to express within the Japanese cultural framework the same emotion expressed in English by I love you, one must choose words like The moon is so blue tonight. Since every culture evolves naturally over time, the cultural framework for emotional expression is by no means immutable. But in post-war Japan the process of change has been unnatural and rushed. Regarding their traditional modes of expression as archaic and feudalistic, and eager to Westernize, the Japanese have attempted to adopt the Western (more specifically, the American) expressive framework wholesale. Yet given that they continue to use the Japanese language as their vehicle for verbal expression, any attempt to affect a de-Japanized manner at this level is half-baked. Today, one might say, a Japanese person is unable to convincingly express passion for another either by the English I love you or by the Japanese The moon is so blue tonight. This may be why, since the 1980s, young people in Japan have increasingly disdained the expression of serious or dramatic emotion as kusai, or corny, and prized the appearance of emotional detachment as kakko-ii, or cool. In terms of dramatic expression, then, the Japanese film labors under a heavy burden. If it portrays emotion within the traditional Japanese framework, it may achieve authenticity, but the effect is antiquated. If it portrays emotion within the Western framework, it comes across as meretricious and unconvincing. Films that try to blend the two modes often end up antiquated and unconvincing. Yet in animation, which lacks visual realism and features de-Japanized characters to begin with, the expression of emotion paradoxically takes on a more convincing sense of reality. This may explain why most of the serious and ambitious film efforts have used the vehicle of anime. Given the serious dramatic deficiency, Japanese live-action films can no longer tackle any serious or profound subject matter. In the context of contemporary Japanese film, then, anime often conveys a greater sense of reality than live-action films. The thin, insubstantial reality of animated film, that is to say, is more alive — literally, more animated — than the flesh-and-blood reality. And if anime is perceived as more real (i. e. , closer to physical reality) than live-action, this means that, increasingly, anime embodies the Japanese consciousness of reality. The Japanese conception of reality is undergoing a process of animation. The rise of anime as well as manga is a cultural by-product of modern Japans tendency to promote modernization and Westernization while rejecting its history and traditions. A medium that fuses elements of East and West, and lacks a clear national identity, could be considered international in a certain sense, and this is doubtless a major reason why anime has so many fans overseas. But the current state of affairs, in which anime represents the mainstream of Japanese cinema, is by no means desirable, inasmuch as it signifies an ever-widening gap between physical reality and peoples conception of it.

Individual Liberty Versus Majoritarian Democracy in Edward Larson’s Sum

Individual Liberty Versus Majoritarian Democracy in Edward Larson’s Summer For the Gods The Scopes trial, writes Edward Larson, to most Americans embodies â€Å"the timeless debate over science and religion.† (265) Written by historians, judges, and playwrights, the history of the Scopes trial has caused Americans to perceive â€Å"the relationship between science and religion in . . . simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.† (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from allover to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning. In Summer for the Gods, Edward Larson argues that a more significant battle was waged between individual liberty and majoritarian democracy. Even though the rural fundamentalist majority legally banned teaching evolution i n 1925, the rise of modernism, started long before the trial, raised a critical question for rural Americans: should they publicly impose their religious beliefs upon individuals who believed more and more in science. Larson divides his account into three sections: before, during, and after. The first section carefully exposes the political struggle over individual rights hidden in the debate between science and religion. What emerge are the political views of the two opposing parties: William Jennings Bryan and the ACLU. William Jennings Bryan’s adherence to fundamental Christianity and creationism was only one part of his politics. He also believed that the state had a duty to ... ...e and technology with their religious beliefs. Summer for the Gods profoundly contributes to the scholarship of progressivism. The role of experts, legal reform, majoritarian democracy, modernism, and individual rights were all part of the progressive movement. The Scopes trial is the perfect test case to show how these progressive tenets were not coherently driving toward a single societal goal. William Jennings Bryan could claim to be a progressive as much as the leaders of the ACLU. Religion and science became the sticking points between progressives like Bryan who believed in majority rule and the ACLU whose very adherence to science and experts pushed them to favor individual freedom. While science lost the trial to religion, Larson shows how a fundamental shift to modernism produced the rise of individual rights and the decline of majoritarian democracy. Individual Liberty Versus Majoritarian Democracy in Edward Larson’s Sum Individual Liberty Versus Majoritarian Democracy in Edward Larson’s Summer For the Gods The Scopes trial, writes Edward Larson, to most Americans embodies â€Å"the timeless debate over science and religion.† (265) Written by historians, judges, and playwrights, the history of the Scopes trial has caused Americans to perceive â€Å"the relationship between science and religion in . . . simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.† (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from allover to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning. In Summer for the Gods, Edward Larson argues that a more significant battle was waged between individual liberty and majoritarian democracy. Even though the rural fundamentalist majority legally banned teaching evolution i n 1925, the rise of modernism, started long before the trial, raised a critical question for rural Americans: should they publicly impose their religious beliefs upon individuals who believed more and more in science. Larson divides his account into three sections: before, during, and after. The first section carefully exposes the political struggle over individual rights hidden in the debate between science and religion. What emerge are the political views of the two opposing parties: William Jennings Bryan and the ACLU. William Jennings Bryan’s adherence to fundamental Christianity and creationism was only one part of his politics. He also believed that the state had a duty to ... ...e and technology with their religious beliefs. Summer for the Gods profoundly contributes to the scholarship of progressivism. The role of experts, legal reform, majoritarian democracy, modernism, and individual rights were all part of the progressive movement. The Scopes trial is the perfect test case to show how these progressive tenets were not coherently driving toward a single societal goal. William Jennings Bryan could claim to be a progressive as much as the leaders of the ACLU. Religion and science became the sticking points between progressives like Bryan who believed in majority rule and the ACLU whose very adherence to science and experts pushed them to favor individual freedom. While science lost the trial to religion, Larson shows how a fundamental shift to modernism produced the rise of individual rights and the decline of majoritarian democracy.

Current foreign Relations with Africa Compared to Past Administrations Essay

The recent visit of President Obama to Africa particularly in Ghana and how he was received in that country is a reflection of the United States’ current foreign relations to Africa. Apparently, the U. S. foreign relation with Africa under the Obama administration is reflected in the following words spoken by the president before the Parliament in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Quoting the President’s word, Peter Baker puts it, â€Å"†¦But I can promise you this: America will be with you every step of the way, as a partner, as friend† (Baker). The US foreign policy as outlined in the president’s message was that the American support to African development efforts is dependent on how Africa takes it responsibility for its own problems. This is clearly depicted in the President’s words as cited by Baker, â€Å"We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans† (Baker). Obama emphasized that the US support on Africa is primarily because of a functioning democracy and honest governance as he warned that â€Å"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. † Furthermore, he said â€Å"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery† (Baker). Citing the statement of Representative Donald Payne, head of the House sub-committee on Africa, Baker points out that the Obama foreign policy, as Payne predicted, will likely to â€Å"concentrate on things that would prevent terror like higher education† rather than on the U. S. war on terror (Gettleman) Africa has always been important in the United States’ foreign policy in view of the former USSR’s interests in the Red Sea through which oil flawed to the Red Sea from the Middle East. This importance is reflected in Alan Dobson and Steve Marsh assertion that during the Reagan administration, â€Å"His reinvigoration of the cold war caused him †¦more than any other Cold War US President to Africa in colors of red versus the star-spangled banner rather than the black versus white† (Dobson & Marsh 93). The issue behind the Cold War between the United States and USSR relating to the interest of these two world powers has generated the importance of Africa in the US foreign policy not in an effort to counter the threat of communism in the region, through spreading promoting the blessings democracy in this former slave colony. Apparently, the Carter period sees domestic turmoil as caused by the communist adventurism and implemented a policy of â€Å"bringing about democracy† in Africa† (Adar). Compared to these previous foreign policies, although the Obama government embarked on preventive similar measures, the circumstances demanding for such concerns were a bit different. The situation confronting Africa during the Cold War period was critical because of the threat of communism to reign over the continent, while the situation in Africa confronting the Obama administration is the existence of evils in our world. Baker noted that one evil in Africa that Obama came to fight â€Å"is pernicious mix of greed, famine, and war that has kept Africa down† (Baker). The U. S. foreign relation to Africa during the Cold War era viewed democracy as essential component of the US foreign involvement in Africa. According to Korwa Adar, both the Reagan and Bush Sr. ’s administration viewed â€Å"the issue of democracy and human rights† (Adar, par. 14) as the main agenda in their foreign relation’s policy with Africa. Although the Obama administration also emphasized on the role of ‘functioning democracy’ in his foreign relation policy with Africa, the Obama administration stressed on the issues of corruption and tyranny in the government as the main issues held by the government as primary responsibility of the government to resolve, whereas, both the Reagan and Bush Sr. administration pointed out the human rights violation and the containment of communism as their main agenda in their foreign policy. Regarding the Clinton administration, Adar pointed out that the Bush administration’s efforts on the issue of human rights and democracy â€Å"were carried on by President Clinton† (Adar par. 17). Adar argued that even though the US had no foreign policy towards Africa prior to Clinton presidency, the existing policy during that time was to provide support to leaders â€Å"on the basis of anti-communist or anti-apartheid rhetoric more than their actions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Adar, par. 16). The Clinton administration strengthened its commitment as part of his foreign policy, its commitment to human rights. Adar cited that in response to violence and killings of innocent people by the Abacha regime in Nigeria, Clinton cutoff $450, 000 in the US aid in military training and $11 million in grants. In comparison, although the Obama government is also dealing with insurgencies, as Representative Payne earlier cited, the Obama government policy to be implemented in Africa will not likely be about the ‘US fight on the war on terror’, but it will be on preventing the breeding of terrorist and terrorism through providing opportunity of having higher education. Thus, the Obama government foreign policy will likely to yield better results than the previous governments. Obviously, the big difference was that his ethnic origin with Africa placed his foreign policy towards Africa make all the difference because it is based not only shared political ends, but on his shared heritage with Africa. Work Cited Adar, Korwa G. â€Å"The Wilsonian Conception of Democracy and Human Rights: A Retrospective and Prospective. † African Studies Quarterly: The Online Journal for African Studies. Date Retrieved: July 14, 2009. http://web. africa. ufl. edu/asq/v2/v2i2a3. htm Baker, Peter. â€Å"Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa. † July 11, 2009. The New York Times. July 14, 2009. http://www. nytimes. com/2009/07/12/world/africa/12prexy. html? em Dobson, Alan P. $ Marsh, S. US Foreign Policy Since 1945. New York: Routledge 2001 Gettleman, Jeffrey. â€Å"Obama in Africa: Welcome Back, Son. Now Don’t Forget Us. † July 11, 2009. The New York Times. July 14, 2009. http://www. nytimes. com/2009/07/12/weekinreview/12gettleman. html? ref=africa

Nine States of Matter The Lesser Known States of Matter...

Traditionally in school we are taught that there are only four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Fortunately this is not true as that would be boring. There are also at least 4 other-less common states and Icontest a fifth. These are Bose-Einstein condensate, photonic molecules, quark-gluon plasma, superconductors, and superfluids. They all have unique properties that clearly distinguish differences between them and the traditional four states. These breakthroughs could help us in the future and have some practical uses right now. My personal favorite state of matter is actually Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). This state was first achieved in 1995 (predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein) by firing photons directly at the†¦show more content†¦Mikhael Lukin (the Physicist that led the study) wanted to know what would happen when you fired two protons through the same space so that the first would slow down and the second would just pass through the other. That however did not happen and the two photons emerged together bonded through their poles. Quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a substance that existed â€Å"For a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang† (Trafton). it was the â€Å"soup† that was made up of the things that protons and neutrons are made of. These infinitesimally small particles are quarks and gluons. They exist at temperatures around four trillion degrees. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to study these wonders through a telescope (since they dont even exist at all in nature). so we have to make and study them up close, using particle accelerators. The scientists that make QGP accelerate particles until they are traveling almost the speed of light then crash them head on into one another. the heat that occurs from this collision is enough to melt the protons into quarks and gluons. the resultant substance has almost no friction and is almost a liquid. It used to be that when the public found out about particle accelerators that a lot of them though that they could create a black hole wi th them Superconductors are not new, they were discovered in 1911 by Heike Onnes when he had just succeeded at liquefying helium (a few degreesShow MoreRelatedThe Appellate Process Essay1417 Words   |  6 PagesThe Appellate Process The two basic types of courts in the United States are trial courts and appellate courts. These two types of courts have two entirely different functions. The job of a trial courts is to determine questions of fact. Appeals courts, on the other hand, must determine questions of law. Appellate courts have the right to overrule jury verdicts and judges decisions due to the fact that an appellate court typically concerns itself solely with issues of law. An appeal isRead MoreThe Australia Legal System1406 Words   |  6 Pagesforms the basis of Australian jurisprudence. It is distinct from the civil law systems that operate in Europe, South America and Japan, which are derived from Roman law. Other countries that employ variations of the common law system are the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia and India. The chief feature of the common law system is that judges’ decisions in pending cases are informed by the decisions of previously settled cases. Australian law has evolved via many routes: customs ofRead MoreEvery Human Begins Their Learning Process The Day They1115 Words   |  5 Pagesborn. Humans learn things every single day, no matter how old a person is, they will still continue to learn. There are many different techniques of learning. Everyone has their own way of comprehending certain skills. Humans begin to adapt certain ways of learning when they are little and they continue to use it for the rest of their lives. These techniques we use to learn come from a guy by the name of Howard Gardener. Gardener states that there are nine everyday intelligences that people use to learnRead MoreShijing and Chuci Essay examples1885 Words   |  8 PagesNorthern Chinese feudal nobility are thought to have authored most of the works. The poetry of the Shijing is not very complex; rather it is characterized for its realistic subject matter, which tended to be the many aspects of contemporary life of the time. The Shijing has fou r sections: Daya (Great Odes), Xiaoya (Lesser Odes), the Guofeng (Airs) and Songs (Hymns). The collection has been cut to and added to through the years; it is said that Confucius from an original body consisted of overRead MoreThe Death Of A Felon s Proper Reintegration Into Society1588 Words   |  7 Pages A practice that has been used in the United States of America since its conception, disenfranchisement allows for a state to remove the rights of a convicted criminal, more commonly a felon, upon release from the penitentiary. Most of the time these rights are limited to the right to bear arms, as well as the right to vote and run for public office, because they are considered dangerous criminals. For centuries now, the American people have justified this practice through the use of fearmongeringRead MoreThe Day Of Deliverance, By John Adams1496 Words   |  6 Pagesforthcoming Independence Day, I think of our country and how privileged we are to have the rights we do today . Although laws and other things of that sort have been passed for years, we continue to acquire more liberation to this day. Two hundred and thirty-nine years ago, on July 4th of 1776, it was a day of commemoration concerning the Declaration of Independence as our nation was finally free at last from Great Britain’s government. On a day near the beginning of July, John Adams wrote the following passageRead MoreSikhism Essay1459 Words   |  6 PagesSikhism Sikhism is the youngest of the world fifth great monotheistic religions. In 1801, the Sikh state was founded in Northern India by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The word ‘sikh the Punjabi language means ‘disciple or ‘learner. Sikhs are the disciple of god who follow the writings and teachings of the ten Sikh gujus (teacher). The wisdom of these teachings in SRI GUJU GRANTH SHAIB is practical and Universal in their appeal to all mankind. Sikhism was founded by Shri Guju Nanak Dev Ji (1469-1538)Read MoreHow Man Can Invent Life Changing Inventions Essay1688 Words   |  7 PagesThrough research, studies, science and technology, man has been extremely powerful in such a short existence on this planet. Man has developed laws of nature, machines, computers, satellites, space shuttles, and weapons strong enough to destroy all known human existence. Man is amazing. Man can invent life-changing inventions but cannot ‘create’. To create is to cause something new to exist. All that man has made was from something that already exists. Man cannot create something from nothing and manRead MoreMega Moolah Jackpot Inches Closer Towards â‚ ¬ 12 Million1718 Words   |  7 PagesBlog 1 – Mega Moolah jackpot inches closer towards â‚ ¬12 million Progressive jackpots are quite possibly the only online casino platform that can make a player a millionaire in a matter of moments. Dragging the online shots genre into the 21st century, such games have raised the stakes in more ways that one. Players around the world now log-on to progressive slot games in the hope that their next spin of the reels will make them an instant millionaire. As the level of game interaction has increasedRead MoreA Brief History of Buddhism1417 Words   |  6 Pagesto the Theravada as Hinayana, the lesser vehicle. It is dominant in India, Tibet, Japan, Nepal, Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia. Siddhartha Guatama was born in Kapilivastu. His father was the ruler of the small kingdom near the Indian/Nepal border. As a child, his future was foretold by sages. They believed that he would someday be a fellow sage or leader of a great empire. He led a very pampered and sheltered life until the age of twenty-nine. It was at that time that he realized