F you to Essays

Seth Hornbrook

ENG 102, G2

25 Feb. 2011

No Original Thought

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. A professor once told me if I was having a hard time starting a paper that I should start out with blah, blah, blah, just to get the words flowing and the writing starting. So one day I decided to think why I needed this technique to begin with. My conclusion was a thesis driven essay. You never know where to start. An academic paper that has a thesis is so strictly structured that it sucks the very life out of your paper. Add in the fact that you need quotes from multiple sources and you might as well throw your pen away because you aren’t creating any original thought. It is just high school all over again, regurgitating information. But this paper is for an English class and therefore needs a thesis, so here it is. Thesis: Academic papers that are thesis driven and source driven, negate any possibility for original thought. There it was. Did you see it? Now let’s get to the paragraphs that back up my thesis argument.

It’s always good to have an argument, an idea, a thought. These are the things that bring light to new topics, stir controversy, and change life. Then why must we have the thesis? According to my professors, it is your argument, that you then need to back up: a focal point if you will. Organization is essential in every platform, but a thesis severely limits your ability to be creative and to be original. A “proper” thesis is only one sentence. What if you wanted to explore a larger topic? Well too bad! You can’t. You must stick to the formula and be a drone like everyone else.

Now for the most important part: sources. Why get sources to back up your thesis you may ask? Good question fellow scholar! The reason is because you have already turned your once blank sheet of paper full of the possibility for creativity, into a thesis driven, unoriginal essay. This point is proven when you have to find sources that “back up” your argument. If sources even exist that reinforce your thesis, then you are obviously not the first one to think of this and there for wasting everyone’s time by saying the same thing again, and probably less eloquently than the original source, because the original source has to be “credible.” Can’t be some quote from “Nature” magazine because that specific publication doesn’t list its sources.

Credible sources, leads me to my next topic sentence for my next paragraph that is designed to add another point to support my thesis. Did you see the topic sentence? It was the first one. That’s where it has to be, formula and unoriginality and all that. So – credible sources is a nice way of saying, if you don’t have a PhD and weren’t published in some snobby publication, then your ideas are worthless. I don’t care if you are a genius and have a blog that receives 18 million views a day. Nope sorry, you’re not credible. I can’t use your brilliance to make my paper shine. Are you kidding me? No, sorry fellow readers, I am not. You must have a “credible” source.

Okay, so here we are at the conclusion. This is the part of the formula where we further regurgitate all that we have said previously, tying it in to our thesis. Why is this necessary you ask? Well it’s perfectly simple my dear reader. The assignment was to write an argumentative paper: with a thesis, topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph, each paragraph lending support back to your thesis, with each paragraph having credible sources to help validate your support for your thesis. The next step in that assignment formula is the summary. But if I have the ability to summarize all my thoughts into one nicely and well written paragraph, why did I go through all that hassle of writing the whole paper? Well dear reader, you’ve got me. I don’t know. Seems like if you have such a firm grasp on what you want to say that you can succinctly say it all in one paragraph, why waist everyone’s time with the other paragraphs? But wait, I have digressed and neglected to make my summary: Having a thesis driven essay only confounds the writer into writing on a small topic instead of expanding with creativity and scope. This is further compounded by forcing the writer to find credible sources that have already said the exact same thing as you. And in so finding them, you have wasted yours and everyone else’s time because you have not shown an ounce of creative or original thought, because someone else much more qualified than you has already said it. So stop typing write now, turn in your regurgitation of stagnant ideas and writing, and receive your grade for the assignment. Congratulations, you are now a sheep. Follow that herd blindly and you will get exactly where you are meant to be, nowhere.

Work Cited

Hornbrook, Seth. “From his Brain.” Mostly the Right Hemisphere. First Edition. Ed. Seth Hornbrook. Washington, 2011.

Welcome to My Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! I am a writer who needs some writing practice for the summer and I thought I would utilize my blog to do so. My blog will have three types of entries:

- Movie reviews when I feel like writing them. There are already a couple on here.

- Memories. I find a certain fascination and attachment with some of my more vibrant memories and I would like not to lose them threw time. I figure writing them down and sharing them with the world will be a good way of doing so. I will try to add a new memory a week, but no promises.

- And lastly, Top Ten Lists. I have a fascination for them and will be posting mine here.

Again welcome! And I hope you enjoy the random fun of a writer in training. =)

Sincerely,

-Sethbebad

Clash of the Titans (2010) Movie Review

I’m a fan of Greek Mythology. So it’s always entertaining for me to see how each director chooses to visualize their story. How will they reinvent what has been shown thousands of times in thousands of different forms for generations? Clash of the Titans is no let down in that department. The visuals are impressive in everyway -- true eye candy for the visual effects aficionado.

Apart from that however, the movie falls short. The story is just blah, and the characters are very one dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, I left the theater having enjoyed the film; but besides the spectacular special effects, this movie didn’t have much.

Sam Worthington, fresh from his role as Jake Sully in the highest grossing film of all time Avatar, is this movie’s lead character Perseus – a classic youth from mysterious origins setting off to save the day. Defiant from the beginning to the end, Sam’s character shows little development throughout the film. It seems pure defiance is all the depth this character has. He is accompanied by a few other warriors and protectors who also share only one character attribute; whether it is contempt, protectiveness, wisdom or resourcefulness -- but none showing any growth or change.

The plot is also disappointingly one dimensional. This movie is supposed to be a remake of the 1981 movie version of the same name which is more of a literal translation on the actual Greek Mythological story of Perseus, who fell in love with Princess Andromeda and had to prevent her death from the dreaded Kraken by completing several nearly impossible quests. This is more or less the plotline of the new Clash of the Titans. This time around however, the writers chose to add what they presumed to be more depth to the tale; but instead, in this reviewer’s opinion, they added a tired plot line -- Hades (Ralph Fiennes) rising up against his brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) to take control of the heavens. Though to the writer’s credit, there was one new element that I hadn’t seen before that I thought was exceptionally cool, but I won’t spoil it here.

So conclusion time: Go see it! Have fun! Enjoy the effects, the visual style, the fast pace, the nonstop fight scenes, and the epic monsters. But don’t go expecting a moving storyline or character’s that will steal your heart away -- they just don’t exist in this movie.

The Princess and the Frog Movie Review

The real question here is: Will Princess Tiana join the ranks of the legendary and adored Princesses of Disney’s past?

A friend of mine, who liked the movie, said no. She claims that deep down in the hearts of all little girls is the deepest yearning for a prince to come charging in on his white stead, sweep the princess off her feet, and save the day before living happily ever after. But that’s not really the formula of this movie.

The story is told from Tiana’s perspective - working hard to make her and her deceased father’s dream of owning a world class restaurant a reality. She works two jobs and has no time for fun or a social life. Next enters Prince Naveen - a lighthearted, lazy man of royalty. He has been “cut off” from his parents fortune until he marries; leading him to New Orleans to seek a wealthy bride. So looking for a quick fix as all lighthearted and lazy men do, Prince Naveen runs into the villain of our tale, Dr. Facilier or better known as the Shadow Man, and the story progresses from there.

The Princess and the Frog teaches many valuable lessons that may have been left out of previous Disney movies which I applaud; such as the benefit of working hard, and the value of having love in your life being more important than money or material wealth, even at the cost of your biggest dreams. Messages that are true and worthy in a children’s film, but it isn’t a Princess’ fairy tale, not according to little girls around the world anyways.

So the second question posed here is: Does Prince Naveen live up to the name of a true Prince Charming enabling Tiana to become a lasting Princess? Sure he’s charming, cute, and flirtatious, but he’s also lazy and unskilled. He does learn some valuable lessons along the way and has a change of heart strengthening his character, but he never really “saves the day”. That unsavory task is left to Tiana, the Princess herself, and to a funnier and more lovable character named Raymond, who everyone just calls Ray.

In my humble opinion Ray stole the show. Like so many side Disney character’s from the past, they have a habit of nearly outshining the main characters with their lovability. Ray brings to my mind the controversy that raged when The Little Mermaid was released about Sebastian. He was such a lovable character you almost forgot about the plights of the main characters. But in that case his lovability only heightened the overall experience, where here, in a weaker movie, Ray really steals the show. This is not necessarily a bad thing - in fact its the only thing that saved this movie in my opinion.

For all the “Ups” in this film, there where also quite a few “downs” that almost blew out the flame of this movie that Ray was luckily able to relight and strengthen. Were Ray revived the film, Louis the crocodile nearly killed it. To anyone who is a fan of MGM and Don Bluth’s much loved All Dogs Go to Heaven; Louis the Crocodile left a bad taste in my mouth. It was far too close to the music loving King Gator crocodile from All Dogs Go To Heaven. Even down to the line “Where have you been all my life?” - ugh. Luckily Ray was so lovable that he cast his shadow over Louis, helping me forget his plagiaristic existence. Along with Louis’ failure, this story’s villain fell a little short as well. He just wasn’t as epic a villain as Maleficent, Jafar, and Ursula the Sea Witch. Sure he had an evil plan full of trickery and his shadowy minions may be too scary for some of the younger viewers out there, but Dr. Facilier (a name I couldn’t even remember when writing this article) just didn’t join the ranks of the true villains of Disney’s past.

So the the real question remains: Does Tiana deserve the title of “Disney Princess”? A title that places her next to Bell and Aurora. It’s your call and only time will tell. In the mean time though, this question will surely encourage fierce debate. But either way, all this talk will surely skyrocket the sales of the Disney Princess Line of toys. Heck my 20 year old cousin got a Princess Bell toy set for Christmas this year. So already we are seeing the financial fallout of the addition of a new princess. The first addition in 17 years is an exciting thing wether you are for or against her entrance into the Princess’ Hall.

The Princess and the Frog was worth my time and my money, and I will look forward to seeing it again one day; but is it really one I want to watch repeatedly for all time? Doubtful.



Thanks for reading! =)


-Seth William Hornbrook