ENTRY 30: Response to "Good Night&Good Luck"

This film is about 1950s when the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S has reached an intense relationship. This film describes the press circles and it is about the influence of public opinion to the politics. 1950 was an era when the McCarthyism was popular at that time which brought a lot of harm to many people. In this era, individuals doing something relevant to the communist, such as attended the communist meetings, read “dangerous” books, had close people with “different” opinions, would be accused as a communist and punished. In the present, we have learnt a lot of the harm of public opinion to an individual. However, sometimes, public opinion is very useful to help people out of trouble and give a blow to the people in high position who abuse his/her power. This film exactly describes the justice of the press. In the film, the CBS publicly criticized the McCarthy and spoke for Miss Moss who was considered to be a communist. Though it lost the sponsors as standing in opposite position of the officials but it earn the support from the public. I really like the words by Murrow in the end that “the media can teach, illuminate and inspire people”. I wish that today’s media can also speak for justice but not for its own benefits.  

ENTRY 29: Reflection on the "War Games"

There is a film named “War games”. This film depicts the tension of the cold war in a kind of fancy way assuming that the real war is approaching; it also discussed the hot issue like the technology and the children rebellion, leading to its popularity among the Americans. This film grabs the attention by its unique way to doubt the technology which is so trustworthy and becoming more and more closely connected with people’s daily life. In the film, all the coming war omens are the illusions created by the computer, and because people so much rely on the technology and a real war is almost round the corner. Actually, the same like today’s phenomenon, people rely on a lot on the computer, which is very dangerous. For example, if my computer breaks down at the end of the semester, it means all works that I’ve done must be redo again. What a terrible thing. Now, many statistic about human have been processed into computer, it is very dangerous because once the information is lost, the security of individual information lose. So this film give a warn to people that though computer is a creation of human being, it doesn’t mean it is secure. So we should be careful about the technology.

ENTRY 28: Respond to The Novel The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things is a novel by Indian writer Arundhati Roy published in 1997. It is book that I suddenly picked from the bookshelf for its highly praised comment on the cover with the words “one of the most popular work” when I was a junior middle school student. But I finished reading it when I was in high school as it seemed not attractive for me until I become a high school student. This book describes the experience of twins, a boy and a girl, which focuses on describing the very small things around their lives. The story adopts the flashbacks to initially give us the adult figure of the main characters, which are numb, withered and silent, and then the time goes back to the days when they were young, an age of pure, naïve and vigour. Then a lot small things happened to them in a quick succession, silently and quickly ruined their childhood. In my interpretation the god of small things stands for the power of small things; though always they are neglected by us, they still have the profound and hidden influence on our behaviors and attitudes. Sometimes, a big accidence can destroy one’s life, giving them a big blow, forcing people to change to adapt to the new situation. However, when someone’s life is filled with the small things to press them, it is really hard for one to recognize their danger. They gradually accustomed to their current life, being unaware of the small little changes, and they are sad, they are mad, they are depressed but they have no outlet as they have no idea when things begin to go wrongly. Actually, whether some literature are good works or not cannot be determined simply by other’s comment, but your own feeling counts the most.

ENTRY 27: Infographic of Final Presentation by Poetry Section

This infographic used in the final presentation includs the division of labor of our group; the work process, the information about our group problems, the analysis of the electronic literature and other things.

ENTRY 26: Response to Today’s Presentation.

The Lying cotton review is a big project needs the contribution and the efforts from all the members involved in this project. From today’s presentation, I had a better understanding that a collective effort can make a lot. The design, art, production and also other sections of the projects, all of them have done a great job that to make things happen. Also, I really appreciate the chance as member in this group as my little piece of effort help produce something. Actually, it is amazing to see it; and the feeling of it is just like the new baby born. We are the first group of people who devotes into this project; I expect more and more people will join this group. I hope that this journal can be better in future and gain a bunch of audience who really enjoy the works in this platform.

ENTRY 25: About Poetry Section.

We are most pleased with the part of cooperation of the group members.

We attend the weekly meeting regularly. We exchange our own understandings of the poems and analyze the poems together. For the editing process, we finish our own part on time and then the whole task will smoothly proceed.

We have 3 major problems involved in our jobs.

1.      Criteria:

At first, because we are the novice as editors in the poetry section; it’s hard for us to set the criteria as different people have different opinion of what a good poem is. After setting the criteria, it’s also hard to select poem as some poems have their own strength while not meeting all the criteria. So we have to make a careful choice.  

2.      Interpretation:

As we are not native English speakers, it’s easy for us to wrongly interpret the poems with confused words. Sometimes, we encounter such situation that one member think highly of one piece of poem while another one doesn’t like it. Also, we have the trouble that because of our interpretation of the poem is different from what the author wants to convey, conflicts between author and editor occur.

3.      Communication:

The editing part really requires effective communication between the editor and the author.  Our communication with the author is not very effective. In some cases, editors fail to give clear suggestions to the author, and haven’t clarified the problems clearly, and it causes a problem that the revision poems that editors get are not the ones that we want.

If we have a chance to redo it again, we will do it differently.

1.      We will clearly define the jobs of editors and reach a common understanding of the criteria before we begin our job.

2.      Giving more time to understand the poem, increase the confidence and effectively communicate with the poet. 

ENTRY 24: Problem in Poem Selecting Part

Different people have different interpretation about one piece of poem, which is agreed by most people. However, the problem here is when we, as editors, meet with the poems that are hard to interpret by ourselves; we always assume that it is not a good piece of poem as it cannot inspire us to think. However, then problems come as that is a possibility that when this piece of poem is shared with other readers, they can fell something and they consider it is a very good poem as they may have the same experience with the author who want to convey an emotion based on his own experience. In my point of view, a good poem cannot be appreciated by one specific group by it should have the universal meaning based on the social background that we ordinary people somewhat are familiar with. 

ENTRY 23: Response to the Film "GRAVITY"

I watched the Gravity today, because it is referred by many audiences to be compared with the Interstellar. The first feeling is the shots of George Clooney are a little sparse, and most of his face was cover by the space cap, which disappointed me a lot. In this film, there are a few characters and most of them are presented only vocally without showing the face. This films is a little bit amazing as it can won such a great reputation though it seems only one main character Dr. Ryan Stone playing throughout the whole film. She is an engineer and also astronaut who struggles to survive after the disaster in the space; and she eventually makes it, successfully landing on the earth, breathing the air of home. Though there are many logical and physical faults in the films, this films still successfully exemplifies a good science film. It offers us with magnificent scenery through the powerful post production, like the stars, the darkness, the amazing planet—our earth, which are the views that an ordinary people can hardly touch but we see it through the film. Also, this film inspires us to think about ourselves. We explore the outside of the earth, which may also bring huge disasters to ourselves. So should we break the rule of the nature to attach something to the nature or just leave it as what it is? 

ENTRY 22: Response to the Eletronic Literature

 The ending of the semester is approaching. In this semester we focus on the electronic literature, a genre of literature that we encounter always in our daily life, which I’ve had a further understanding of it through the study in this semester. As for the electronic literature, it has many benefits compared to the print literature. In the class, we’ve brought up several aspects which to evaluate which is a good choice, such as productivity, permanence, ownership, accessibility. Actually in my own choice, I prefer the print literature. In today’s information explosion, it becomes harder for us to digest such large number of information in the internet that we meet with every day and every moment. Different from the electronic literature, the print version can be kept, and also needs buying with money, so that we will consciously read it more carefully and cherish it rather than scanning it without fully understanding. Actually, I really cherish the memory of the days when the computers were not so widespread in China. At that time, the information is not so much, and I can talk a lot with my partners upon one very small topic for a long time. But now, we talk and we switch the topic all the time without fully discussing the previous one as we have lived in an era when we are immersed in the information all the time. As electronic literature is also one kind of online information, so for me, the electronic literature is not as effective as print literature.    

ENTRY 21: Response to the Presentation About the Relationship Between the U.S and China

The wednesday morning presentation was about the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Actually, in my point of view, the presentation was very "vague", a world aways used by my history professor. This means the presentor didn't cover the details of the relationship of the U.S and the China, but list some very general things that almost known to every students here. In the presentation, the beautiful prensentor hold a very positive attitude towards the future relationship between the U.S and China. However, she almost neglected most severe situations existed nowadays; as is said, the interests of the states determine the relationship between countries. Actually there are many conflicts between the U.S and the China towards economy, politics and also culture. I also expect a better future between the China and the U.S, but simply towards the presentation, I think it is not as good as what i've expected. But I really like the accent and voice of the speaker, very clear and beautiful.

ENTRY 20: Response to "The World Is Spining Around"

Selected poem: The World is Spinning Around

The world is spinning around
Black engulfs my eye
Nobody wants the sorrow drowned
In the slight raindrop sigh

Old melody echoes in the car
Rehashing cozy chat
The moonlight stepping far
As the wheels rolling forward flat

I am feeling standing on the mountain peak
Looking down autumn farm              
The chill of air freeze cheek
Taking away the strength of warm

The wind squeezes throat
Leaving the hoarse voice alone
Every wisp of the blowing mote
Piling up to tough stone


1. what's working well (what requirements of good poetry are here?)
This poem conveys a good sense of  rhythm with the words at the end of every lines. Also, the poet gives a stronge sense of image with the words like "black, raindrop, moonlight, wheel, moutain, farm, cheek."  Through the use of these words, we can sense a image where is cold and high and the feeling of loneliness and the hidden fear.

2. what is not working (what requirements of "good poetry" are lacking? or not quite working?)
However, the sense or the feeling of the narrator actually is a little hard to detect. Though i can feel a sense of loneliness and the fear, but the feeling is still so vague to be sensed as the poet uses something, seems to me, that are not very relative; for example, the car in the second stanza, in my mind, is not so relative with the sorrow and the chill in the first and the forth stanza. So the poem is a little bit hard to be understandable by me, a reader.

3. what needs to be changed?
The poet should give more connections between the things and the images he/she created to deliver a stronger feeling and to be more understandable by the audience.

4. suggestions for how the poet might change.
He/she can make advantages of the forms of the poem or other ways to build the connections between  the one image with another image; or change the form of the poem leading the audience to a more clear world.