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.

ENTRY 19: Response to the poem selection section

Actually, as a novice of poetry editor, I met with problem at the first turn of selecting the poems among a pile of works. Actually, everyone’s preference for a poem is different from others, and so do I. For myself, I don’t like the poem or other literal works with so much direct description of the internal emotion of the first person; that is to say to describe one’s internal feeling with sensational words. So in my own poem, I’d like to describe the things as a third person, which means to tell the story of others. But, it is just my preference, so I have to try to judge poems without this kind of bias and ask the advice of the group members. Also, as English is not our native language, so some choice of the words and the meaning will be confused. So the problem is, maybe what he/she wants to convey is very meaningful and understandable by me; however, it doesn’t mean he/she adopts the right word and can be perceived by everyone. Also, because most of the contributors are also the novice in the poetry, so most of the work is not mature; the meaning maybe confusing and the distribution of the poem is not proper. 

ENTRY 18：Response to the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan

The film Interstellar was on the screen in China recently, being hot discussed by the audience. It is directed by Christopher Nolan, the director of many other popular science fiction films, including Inception, a successful film won its popularity in the year of 2010 and leaves its profound influence on the audience by its unique and novel story. Actually, for in my own opinion, I think it very interesting to find the connections between the two films by the same director. In Inception, it explores the infinite inner world of human being to show the power, the potential and amazing ability of human being, which exhibits the huge of human being as we have great, potential power inside out body. Whereas in the Interstellar, it explores the outside of the earth, into the solar system, the galaxy and the alien galaxies, which shows how small and weak we human beings are in face with the universe. As for this film, the complex physical formulas and the huge data information has astonished me, which knocks on my mind constantly with the word “all the things can be true.” I really impressed with one of the film reviews that I’ve read, which can translated like “you come to the dark cinema from your ordinary life, and you step into a different life which lead you on a fantastic journey; you are into the play from layer to layer; but a film always has its ending, and you have to be out of the play from layer to layer, flowing out of the cinema with the crowd, immersed in the ordinary life as a vulgar in lanes and streets.” Actually, it's hard for an adult who has already formed a stable worldview to change his lifestyle or the worldview simply because of one film. They said all the story were based on the existing knowledge with the aid of Kip Stephan Thorne as consultant; but actually how to view the world base on yourself. The world can be enormous, and it also can be small.  

ENTRY 17：Response to “America” by Allen Ginsberg

“America” is a poem by Allen Ginsberg in the collection of Howl and Other Poems written in 1956.  This is an era of Cold War with an intensified conflict between the so-called democratic America and the communist Soviet Union. The poem contains many rhetorical devices which strengthens the themes of the poem. In this poem, the poet personifies “America” as a lost lover, and adopted a very disappointed tone to have a, seems like, dialogue with the lover. He uses the devices of sarcasm, irony to accuse the America of chasing after its own profit for its international status rather than focusing on the humanity. As a whole, this poem exemplifies a good work with the rhetorical devices of irony and sarcasm and it also aroused the national reflection on the American problems.