Dialoguing about a Favourite Film - Assignment Example

Lecturer: Dialogue Dialogue Introduction Three theorists walk into a café. A lively conversation ensues, and the topic of favorite film comes up. They include Dan, Stella, and Yung. Being in a very lively mood, they sit down (Dan a remains transfixed on something, Yung taps him and turns quickly) DAN: Somebody to have a look how the world is brilliant combination of people. I think we should appreciate how it is important to have a female president in this country. STELLA: (Laughing). Can somebody define the meaning of the having an equality and diversity in the society (she uttered in a convincing tone while pulling her chair) YUNG: (To Dan) let me not call you a racist or any other related term to it. We are in the 21st century and the position of every mortal being is to be respected. STELLA: (She props her elbow against the chair and cupping her cheek with other hand). Actually do not bother to answer him. I have a balanced answer for him in the film “West Side Story.”Has anyone on this table had a look at it? (She asked) DAN: Yes I have but I have my favorite film as “Annie Hall” by Allen (interrupted by Yung in a polite way. He stops and stares at him) YUNG: Mine is the themes depicted in the way we relate to the different cultural practices. This is strongly relied in the film ‘Rebel Without Cause’ by Nicolas Rey. STELLA: So what’s good in the film Dan? (She asked inquisitively) DAN: (Clearing the throat) have you ever thought of romance as the second way of living a beautiful life. ‘Then the nature of love is by repeating it’ (McDonald 45) YUNG: (Shaking his head, he asked). Is not the coherence in the societal interactions that foster love? (He asked). DAN: To some extent (he answered). STELLA: relationships have formed a topic of discussion from many literary studies. With me I am of the opinion that relationships should not end in tragedies. YUNG: (Interrupting) what are we having before we continue? (He questioned) DAN: (Calling the waiter) bring me some fruit salad and cake (looking at Stella) what are you having? STELLA: I am health conscious, just get some hamburger YUNG: Any Chinese food will do. Us we only eat when we are hungry (all burst into loud laughs). DAN: (Shifting his chair) why is culture such an issue in the society? Especially pop culture STELLA: This is because popular culture is most of the time perceived as being trivial and dumbed-down so as look for consensual acceptance through the mainstream. This makes to come under heavy scrutiny. YUNG: The culture of capitalism is involved in the shaping up of societal behavior. This later gives people the right to identify themselves with a certain faction of people. DAN: How many cultures do we have? (He asked) STELLA: (Takes a glass of water and poses in between the gulps) basically, we have the mainstream culture and the subculture. DAN: (Appreciatively) you are brilliant YUNG: (Inquisitively) how do you differentiate between sub culture and mainstream culture? (Repositioning his spectacles, before removing them and wiping dust from the surfaces) STELLA: “A pattern of doing something is dictated by a certain group and if you want to be associated with the group following what it does is bound to underline the status quo and bring out a sense of identity to the individual” (Lum 68). The mainstream culture is about trying to achieve the status quo and control of power in the society. It leads to people being engraved in doing things that will satisfy their ego. YUNG: “When the person does not conform to the cultures of the mainstream is considered as an outcast and a sell out” (Lum 72). The involvement of a person in the mainstream culture needs one to be repacked that he or she fits in the status quo. DAN: Good and comprehensive answer. YUNG: A sub culture on the other hand, consists of “individuals who collectively resolve societal status problems by developing new values which rendered status-worthy the characteristics they shared” (Lum 23) DAN: The subjective perceptions of the subculture group are associated with the positive sentiments made about change as evidenced by the contemporaries of their ephemerality and superficiality STELLA: perpetrators of capitalism are only engrossed in satisfying their own ego and desires irrespective of the harm they cause to the society when striving to achieve those desires. YUNG: Most of the issues that are undertaken by the humans are greatly influenced by the way they use their culture. STELLA: The subcultures with their dominance spread out, their identities are fluid, mobile and always on the move to stamp out their dominance (Young, 145). DAN: So Stella tell us about the ‘West Side Story’ (Robbins and Wise 23). STELLA: The story gives us an insight of a classical romantic tragedy. This gives us a lesson on how we can relate with different sexes. DAN: Different cultures have perceived sex an object of knowledge and an art of sensual pleasure. YUNG: (Assertively).Our culture is somehow different and distinct. We treat sex as an object which has distanced scientific investigation. STELLA: So you are insinuating that scientific discourse then mixed with the forms of confessions shapes our discourse for sex (She asserted). DAN: Does it mean that subjects were supposed to confess and also divulge their hidden secretes about sex (Foucault 23). YUNG: Therefore, in the past years we have been having a history tied to repression (Robbins and Wise 13). STELLA: (Nodding her head) Yes. DAN: The discourse regarding sex intensified during the 18th century YUNG: With the “proliferation and intensification of the discourse, the emphasis actually moved from the married couples to child sexuality, sexual pervasion, and homosexuality” (Foucault 58) STELLA: ones sexuality also was thought that to some extent it explained about the character of someone. (She uttered) DAN: The identified four major points include, “sexuality of women, children, married couples, and the sexually perverse” (Foucault 55) YUNG: Does it mean that the four major points indicate that the power of sex is allowed to spread within the family then throughout the society. STELLA: Power is actually exercised in the interest of preserving and fostering life. DAN: I think sexuality as an essence as it makes us what we are, when actually it is just a social construct that makes us much easier to have control over. STELLA: Even the catholic has various perceptions with regard to sexuality YUNG: The catholic still enjoins and enforces though in a subtle way complete obedience and docility on the principle of Roma locuta causa finite (Rome has spoken no more debate). DAN: (Talking in a pensive tone) In the recent times it has been observed that many Westerners, scholars, Catholic priests and nuns around the world have rejected the Catholic Church stand on sexual morality because of what they consider as lack of conformity with reality concerning sexual situations. STELLA: (Taking out her rosary to signify her faith) basically the Catholic Church perceives that any form of sexual act outside marriage is a sin according to the doctrines therefore is excluded from sacramental communion YUNG: The Catholic Church objects with zeal that the use of contraceptives and abortion, “neither the Jewish Talmund no the Moslem Quran and Hadith forbid polygamy, contraception or abortion” (Young 45). STELLA: Therefore the need to go back to our a romantic comedy. DAN: Of course YUNG: “Evolution of the romantic comedy was influenced by its social context…the particular climate of American society in the late 1960’s and early 1970s affecting the way in which romantic comedy of this period developed” (McDonald 59). STELLA: In the ‘Romantic Radical Comedy’ what happens are the differences between traditional and the radical romantic comedy (McDonald 34). DAN: Jenny Hanley willingly accepted George as a sex partner though she was on a honeymoon with another man. It actually exemplifies the “the changing societal attitudes to sex” (McDonald 60) YUNG: (Taking a sip of the sour Chinese tea) sex is equally important to all mortal beings. STELLA: However, it is a topic that generates a lot of controversy in today’s world. DAN: Even the church is at logger heads on advising its flock accordingly YUNG: (Talking in a soft tone) Even on the same sex marriages STELLA: Mmmmmmh (nodding her head). DAN: When McDonald referred to Annie Hall (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), and the Graduate (1967) as a deviation from the Romantic Comedies of the 1950s and 60s (McDonald, 40). This is actually attributed to the fact that women are now using pills for birth controls. YUNG: Not to forget the buzzing pornography industry, the “indoor activities of which sex was only one” (McDonald 41). STELLA: the thrust of the narrative is about sex and the idiots it makes of otherwise rational people (McDonald 45). YUNG: But we are more liberal today (he uttered). DAN: Sex is being talked about, plotted and lid for in the process but it was never enacted, thereby loosing its impetus (McDonald 55) STELLA: sexual libertinism is mainly perpetuated by the mainstream culture. This points the importance of Allen’s Annie Hall film where it has been the influential of the genre of the radical romantic comedy as “work most conscious iconoclasm, it breaks with many generic conventions, most notably the happy ending” (McDonald 59). YUNG: This shows the evolvement of the popular culture, and romantic comedy is not an exception. DAN: (Showing an apprehensive mood) we need to appreciate the comedies. STELLA: This makes the sexual topic to be jurioco-discursive (Foucault 23) YUNG: relationships should be portrayed in all the spheres and not just being shown the happy, touching moments but also the reality comes with coupling (Frascella, Lawrence and Weisel 85). DAN: Is that Allen’s Annie Hall film. YUNG: Yes STELLA: Watching ‘Annie Hall’ is like sitting on a bistro table and having a look at another couple which is just a few tables away. This makes the film to be very endearing. YUNG: (Making a continuation of Stella) this makes most people to relate to some aspects of Alvy and Annie’s relationship making the film a timeless one (Allen 43). DAN: It is like a fond memory (He utters). STELLA: This is a story of people who fall in love, falling out in the process and goes on. YUNG: Love is “irrational and crazy and absurd” (Allen 67) DAN: Therefore, we should cultivate a good foundation for our youth in the society. STELLA: do you mean “Rebel Without a Cause” DAN: Exactly YUNG: (Shifting the position on the chair) but it is the obligation of the parents to cultivate god behavior from their children DAN: (Raising his voice) actually, that is ill reasoned because we are all under one societal obligation of caring for our children STELLA: Someone seems interested in our discussion (she remarks) (A young man wearing a stripped shirt with black trousers appears. He pulls a chair and joins the conversation) YUNG: Welcome PETER: (Extending his hand) Hello I am Peter STELLA: The youth should be guided accordingly. PETER: This because of the affiliation to the sub culture as it is the cruciable for youth culture DAN: Culture plays a crucial role in the molding of the societal roles (Barker 56). YUNG: Are the youths who join criminal gangs responsible for the decaying respect for people’s property and life (he asserted). STELLA: It is because nobody talks to the children. No they tell them (Ray 90) PETER: Then we are responsible for our children’s mode of life and not to leave everything to the teachers (Frascella, Lawrence and Weisel 56) YUNG: You are tearing me apart (Ray 55) PETER: We should the formation of subcultures as they are a recipe for criminal activities DAN: I agree with you STELLA: (Taking the last sip of the drink) it was a fruitful conversation. PETER: (Stretching his hand for a greeting) I appreciate your company, thank you. YUNG: Thank you all. Works Cited Annie Hall. Perf. Allen. 1968. Foucault, Michel. History of Sexuality. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976. Frascella, Lawrence and Weisel. The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause. New York: Touchstone, 2005. Lum, Domain. Culturally Competent Practise: A Framework for Understanding Diverse Groups. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010. McDonald. "Radical Romantic Comedies." New York: Sage Publishers, 1958. 45-65. West Side Story. Perf. Robbins and Wise. 1978. Young, M J. "The Five Faces of Oppression." Cudd, A and R Andreasen. Feminist Theory:A Philosophical Anthology. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 91-104. Read More