Woody (Rough Draft and Still In Progress)

Woody
(Caution! Title Still in Progress/ Rough Draft!!)


It is undeniably evident that Woody Allen experiences his very existence through the dichotomy between his real life and his those of his works. He embodies his actual self in almost every single character he plays. As a man who has gone through over 30 years of intense Freudian psychoanalysis one can only except that the man himself is truly an egoist. It can be argued that a person who spends so much time trying to figure themselves out through therapy practices could essentially be obsessed with their own identity. Think about it, Allen is constantly talking or thinking about himself in both movies that he stars in and real life whether it be to a doctor, to a loved one or through the scripts he writes. It is always he, he, he and more he (and that’s not just because “he-he” funny).

In order to completely understand the male egoist’s way of thinking one must not think outside of the box, but rather think inside of the box as this is what an egoist does naturally. Man may maximize the attempt to appeal his or her selfishness, but in actuality the motives are altruistically apparent by the goaded action. A person’s body language may make individuals unaware that he or she is egocentric, but when one gets deep underneath their external shell may see the “hidden motives” that lie burrowed in the ever-sinking hole of haughty superiority. Never in this world until now did I think Allen was this complex until reading more about his life and studying his works. Then again in a way I am just getting to know him. Every person has a story even if they don’t seem they do. Some people say in life seeing is believing, but that is where an egoist can trick everyone. Nobody can ever physically see a person’s true soul, but we know it’s there. It’s the science of our genetic makeup that makes us have so many complexities and disorders, but it is also what brings us together making us individuals of originality, like the great Woody Allen himself. On the other hand all of those complexities can make us frightening human beings as well. Take the film American Psycho for instance. The main character Patrick Bateman is a serial killer who could make any person feel a tingle down their spine. Bateman and Allen are two different types of “into themselves personalities.” Allen is more of the warm-hearted funny egoist who is selfish but doesn’t hurt a fly (physically that is). Then there is Bateman who is more of a narcissist than an egoist. One of the main differences between an egoist and a narcissist is an egoist thinks highly of their own characteristics and wants to serve only the self and yet is still emotionally tied to the world in one way or another. A narcissist, like Bateman for example, is constantly in search for fulfillment and feels totally disconnected to the world around him. He acts as if he is the be all end all in this world; almost as if he is an entity rather than a human. This quote from the film explains exactly why I was lead to this conclusion: “There is an idea of Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gave, and you can shake my hand and feel the flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable… I simple am not there” (IMDB quotes).

...Not quite 5 pages yet, to be continued... work in progress...will be completed after first peer assessment.
Still Hard at work on laptop :)

This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald

The other day in my class we looked at quotes pertaining to This Side of Paradise to be able to grasp a better understanding of the book's characters.
The quote that was given for us to analyze was on pg. 74:

"'Oh, but your missing the point, Tom.' Amory interrupted. ' You've just had your eyes open to the snobbishness of the world in a rather abrupt manner. Princeton invariably gives the thoughtful man and social sense.' (...) 'Yes,' he agreed, you're right. I wouldn't have liked it. Still it's hard to be made a cynic at twenty.' 'I was born one,' Amory murmured. 'I'm a cynical idealist.' He paused and wondered if that meant anything."

First my group thought it would be wise to define the word cynic, as this is what Amory is calling himself.
Cynic: someone who is critical of the motives of others.

As we can tell by the quote Tom looks at life in a more positive light. Amory thinks that Tom has been blinded by this outlook and wants him to be more of a cynic. Amory feels that Princeton has warped Tom and this is what has validated his positivity because he expects life will always be good for the comfortable or the wealthy. However, no matter how rich or well off a person is there will always be problems... in turn making life more like a soap opera: (i.e. the people who have everything really have nothing.) Through Amory the reader witnesses that wealth and education is fleeting and in the end everyone dies regardless of status. There is a bit of an existentialist point of view towards the characters in Fitzgerald’s book: that life is life and actions speak louder than words.

Jeremy Benthan's Panopticon

Jeremy Bentham, a designer of a jail in which each cell is visible through a guard tower (a panopticon). It is set it up this way
because people who know they are being watched are more likely to behave. Laws are panoptic and this helps to maintain order and power through citizens who control other citizens.

Michel Foucault uses Bentham's design in her studies. Foucault says it is what keeps us in order. Example: A parent spanks a child, an observer sees it and says something. Now the parent is more cautious of his or her actions because they have realized someone has been observing them. They are less likely to do spank their child in public again
because of the fear of being caught again in the act.

Here is two examples of Bentham's panopticon:





Side Note: A VISUAL OF FOUCAULT'S THEORIES
:
This is what people act like when they are NOT being observed:



This is what they look like when they FIND OUT they are being observed:



And now how they act when they are FULLY AWARE they are being observed at all times:


EITHER THAT OR THEY JUST "PULLING A WOODY ALLEN"
Definition of "PULLING A WOODY ALLEN"
Looking smart, but ACTING stupid. -no pun intended :)

HAHA.

The Two Different Types of Murders

The other day I was asked to compare Crime and Punishment's Raskolnikov to the character Patrick Bateman from the film American Psycho. These two men are different type of killers. Who knew there could be different types of killers eh?? Just like there are two kinds of nice I suppose.

American Psycho's Patrick Bateman is a very cold and complicated murderer. He has a superiority complex and is constantly obsessed with himself as if he is superhuman or not of this world. I think he thinks he a God (if he believed in religion, however I am guessing he doesn't because he thinks he is above all else). He is a narcissistic murder and he feels no remorse for any of the people that he kills. Whereas Raskolnikov would feel some sort of guilt or fear of getting caught. Raskolnikov is more of an egotistical murder. He thinks highly of himself and everyone else is inferior. His egoist role in the world is to serve himself no matter what the price is for the others around him. Both characters feel they are above the law and will commit any crimes necessary to make sure that their happiness is fulfilled. It is as if they believe the blistering fire of death in their hands will control the world counteracting anything or anyone who comes too close.

Relating Woody Allen to Crime and Punishment

At first I think it was hard for me to find a comparison between the main character in Crime and Punishment, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, with Woody Allen. For one Woody is no cold blooded killer. In fact, I don’t picture him even hurting a fly. Dostoevsky presents a modern day man who has beliefs that rely on science rather than religon. He responds to ideologies of a utopian society. However, Raskolnikov and Woody are both a bit strange so that works in their favor when trying to find similar comparisons. They both have a tendancy when they speak to get lost rambling in and out of their own inner monologue. They are also both socially awkward. Mind you I am not calling Woody Allen himself socially awkard (even though that may be the case) just that the roles that he usually plays are. An inside source from a local news station told me he doesn’t like to speak to the media in big profile states like California and New York, but instead will talk to smaller markets because he doesn’t like to see his interviews on television. Anyways back to the point and be it short and sweet both people have a lack of faith in the fellow man and puts oneself before the other.


on a side note: Woody Allen does have a simialrity to the title of the novel. He has comitted a crime that should be punishable... however and I think we all know what I am referring 2... his EX...STEP DAUGHTER!! I yie yie.

Group Presentation: Portnoy's Complaint

The other day my English class and I had a group discussion about the novel that we had just finished reading: Portnoy’s Complaint. Each student in the class is assigned a group and will discuss (in front of the class) their close analysis of the novel and how it compares to Woody Allen movies and/or other works. Ever since the beginning of the semester I wanted to make sure that I was in the group that would talk about Portnoy’s Complaint because I knew it was a controversial book from the get go. Let me tell you, it’s a page turner! You seriously don’t know what the author is going to write next. I don’t know if I would call this tasteful literature, but is still interesting none of the less. Makes me question who Phillip Roth really is… do a lot of people think the way he does or is he weird for thinking and writing the things he does or is he just honest? Something to contemplate anyways.

Alright, back to the presentation. I think over all my group did really well!! We all planned everything we wanted to do then put it into an outline so that our presentation would run smoothly. We communicated a lot by email. There was really only one person in our group that did not participate at all or take part in any of the work, even asked to see my paper as to what I was presenting; but no idea stealing here! You don’t do the work you don’t get the slice of cake. But no crying over spilled milk, us girls stuck together!!  For my part of the presentation I decided to show clips from the movie Running With Scissors and how it related to the novel. First off I wanted to show the class the trailer of the movie so they could see the conflict between the mother, son and father relationship. In the trailer we see that the father does not understand his son and that they have nothing in common (it’s almost as if there is the same Oedipus Complex as there is in Portnoy’s Complaint. In Running with Scissors the mother gives up the son, he is still looking for the comfort of a woman and then searches for that in the doctor’s younger daughter. This is exactly like the main character was doing in Portnoy’s when he says in the first paragraph in the book “She was deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seemed to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise.” (In other words, the mother abandons her son while he goes to school so he searches for another mother like substitution to replace her while she is not there.

Here's the tralier:


There is another youtube clip that I wanted to share from Running With Scissors and that was the masturbation scene. I think that this film would have made perfect Woody Allen film. It would not surprise me one bit if his name was in the credits (even though it’s not.) However, it looks like a movie that he would write and if he were younger he would have starred in it. It might have actually been even funnier if he starred in it. The doctor’s masturbation is a release for him, a way that he releases tension. That is the same reason why Alex of Portnoy does it too. Alex’s father on the other hand has problems with his bowels and is always blocked signifying the emotional disturbances in his life instead of “letting go.” This all sounds gross I know, but I was asked to analyze this stuff.

Here is the masturbation clip:


Overall, I was so happy to be in this group and the fact that we went first was even better. We could show the class how it’s done. Haha I’m just kidding. It’s nice to be in a group with hard working people. We were all team players. It was great!

Running with Scissors:A Non-Woody Allen Film

“You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to be a hundred” –Woody Allen

When trying to distinguish drama and sexual comedies there is only one Jewish man who does it the best, Woody Allen. Allen incorporates humorous matters with topics such as literature, sex, religion, psychology and other popular subjects in order to create notable pieces of work for his viewer’s pleasure. He is an icon of popular culture because of his works in films, directing, acting and writing. However prevalent Allen’s film philosophies are there are more people in Hollywood that take after his witty and sharp skills. Of those talents is Ryan Murphy who directed and adapted the screenplay to the movie Running with Scissors (2006) based off the memoir written by Augustan Burroughs himself. This film produces almost every element that Woody Allen would use in his works because of its funny yet dramatic nature.
Many of the jokes in a Woody Allen film are a bit off the wall and obscene, just like in Running with Scissors. To grasp a better understanding as to why their jokes are told the way they are Sigmund Freud writes in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, “With all obscene jokes we are subject to glaring errors of judgment about the goodness of jokes so far as it depends on formal determinants; the technique of such jokes is often quite wretched, but they have an immense success in provoking laughter (121).” It is natural for individuals to use jokes as an escape mechanism. Jokes are a way Augustan Burroughs is able to get through life because he feels sexually repressed, like Allen acts in most of his films. Freud also states “a desire to see one’s organs peculiar to each sex exposed is one of the original components of our libido. It may itself be a substitute for something earlier and go back to a hypothetical primary desire to touch the sexual parts (pg.116).” When there are feelings of sexual repression it drives one to act depressed, do crazy things out of the norm or use humor as a way of coping. Augustan’s comedic personality is in fact different than Allen’s because it is darker and more sinister, but nonetheless many still very similar.
Running with Scissors also relates to Philip Roth’s novel Portnoy’s Complaint. In the beginning of Roth’s novel he defines Portnoy’s Complaint as “a disorder in which in which strongly felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature (introduction).” The sexual intricacies in the life of Augustan relate to Alex (main character in Roth’s novel) because they look at things in an egocentric light. They both are so self-centered in the fact that they use sexual acts in order to get through the pain in their lives caused by familial situations or controversies. They tend to be selfish at times and only to do things that are sexually self-satisfying to make it through each day.
It would take a 10-page paper to discuss the many ways sexual identities control the lives of all those mentioned. It would not surprise me if Woody Allen was indeed the director of this film. Which makes me wonder if Ryan Murphy tried to channel in Allen’s expertise and use it as his own. Guess you could say great minds think a like… or perverted ones you choose.

Augustan Burroughs


He even looks like a young Woody Allen from the glasses to the side smirk on his face!!!