Internship Journal #2 My Novel Progress

These past two weeks  at my internship, I have really been experiencing the writer's end of editing. In this journal, my focus will be about my own writing and the progress and experience that I have gained.    We started off the week, by doing a business lunch at Beasely's Books and Eccentricities in Charles Town, WV.  The atmosphere of Beasely's is the perfect place to come together and brainstorm as writers. The walls are lined with libraries of novels and have little reading nooks tucked in quiet corners for the ultimate curl-up spot. My supervisors and I found a great location inside to meet over a small meal. It was definitely a high-light of my week. We set up our laptops and had an editing session.  We also began start analyzing and monitoring the progress on my novel.
Though I do not want to write or be an author,  I have such a greater appreciation and understanding of the different types of writing styles.  I've realized in these past short weeks that you have to have such an open mind for a writing style that is different than you might expect. Proper editing does not change or alter someone's writing style, but it's a balance of finding and interpreting the writing style and seeing how it affects a certain audience. When you are writing, you have to keep in mind your audience and you have to be aware of everything you're writing. As I've seen, that editing is extremely useful for those ideas that don't quite make it outside of your head. Writing helps you recognize the way authors write, and as editors you know how to improve on any writing style.  So far, I have completed my first chapter and am in progress of my second chapter. (of ten chapters)
Web design and the basics of E-publishing also played a role in my activities for the past two weeks. Uploading manuscripts for E-publishing actually requires some knowledge in web design because websites such as Amazon and Nook require some form of HTML coding.

Comic Transitions and Maus

In Understanding Comics, author Scott McCloud lists six different panel to panel transitions in comics. He defines six transitions from one panel to the next:
1. Moment-to-moment, where relatively little change takes place between the two panels.
2. Action-to-action, where the actions of a single subject are shown.
3. Subject to subject, which transitions between different subjects in the same scene.
4. Scene-to-scene, which "transports us across significant distances of time and space."
5. Aspect-to-aspect, which "bypasses time for the most part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place, idea, or mood."
6. Non-sequitur, "which offers no logical relationship between panels whatsoever."

These transitions help us to understand the relationship between each panel and how we as readers are supposed to view them and interpret them. In the novel Maus, by Art Spiegelman, these transitions are not always obvious to the reader because our brains are  synthesizing their information without even thinking about it! And Spiegelman's work often has panels that are relatively all the same size and shape, which doesn't automatically signal to us that a transition has occurred. We as readers fill in the gaps already!

Moment to Moment transition.

Take these panels here (right), which depicts the main character Artie having a conversation with his father. As you can see, this panel shows moment to moment transition, where there is the subjects Artie and his father hardly change position and there is little left to the readers to have closure on.

Subject to Subject transition

Other times, in Maus, there are subject-to-subject transitions (left), such as  the scene when Artie's father is describing how it was to be a POW of the Nazis. The panels include how they passed the time while imprisoned, which for Artie's father included playing chess with the other prisoners and writing letters to his wife Anja.

Most common in all graphic novels are action to action transitions (bottom center), which are the actions in progression of a single subject.  In Maus, on of the more memorable action-to-action sequences for me was in the POW camp when Artie's father has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. However as he goes outside to pee, he is shot at by guarding soldiers and must quickly go back inside before he is shot. The sequence of showing all of these actions together draws your mind to show you how actions and time has passed in this scene.

Action to Action transition

All images from Maus by Art Spiegelman, for educational use only. Taken by Rachel.

Journal #1 Internship

Spanish Intrigue, the first volume of the L&L Mysteries
by Wendy Lohr, one of my supervisors

I’d been planning my internship months before I started it and actually had several opportunities to me with my supervisors ahead of time which was so helpful in working out all the details for this semester. Where I work is a small editing and publishing company out of Gerrardstown, WV called Cressen Books, LLC. Operated out of their home office, Cressen Books, LLC was incorporated in 2010 and since then has published several novels from multiple authors. In my experience, I have been meeting with my supervisors not only to help them edit manuscripts of novels, but also with editing and help to write my own novel. My supervisors thought that it would be important for me to write a manuscript so I would understand first hand what authors go through in novel development all the way up through the editing process. Already, the have been showing me how to use different editing techniques and other programs such as Adobe InDesign, which the Wycloff article mentions is key in a career in Desktop Publishing. As of this week, I am still learning the editing process and how to use Microsoft Word more efficiently for novel and text editing. I have been working many independent hours to write and develop my own novel. I also attended a marketing seminar with my supervisors to gain new skills for their small business. Through these first experience, I have only confirmed that this is definitely the career path that I want to pursue, but I also realized that there is a definite level of professionalism that must be learned in our very relaxed environment. This internship requires alot of personal dedication and hours because I am producing a very personal product.

Let's Talk about Maus

Just from day one of our Graphic Novel class, I 've learned there is so much that readers and audiences have to learn about comics. There are so many misconceptions and preconceived notions about comics, that a general audience does not realize that the appeal comics have and their role in our lives is so much more apparent than what we know. As Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, notes that comic appeal to us because humans have a tendency to assign identities where none exist, and how not only we make out our world in our image, but how we can project that image on to other symbols and images to better understand the human experience.McCloud argues that audiences pay too much attention to the messenger (of an idea or story) and not the message. In Art Spiegelman's Maus, a novel depicting one experience of the Nazi regime around WWII, Spiegelman uses the idea of assigning human identity to his 'mice' characters, in an attempt to make the audience focus more on story events, rather than the characters themselves. 

Art Spigelman, author of Maus.
Photo by Nadja Spiegelman, 2006

In Maus, all characters are personified mice (though some are other animals, but mice mostly) , though they do have distinct personalities and character traits, I found as a reader that I focused more on the text of the frame, rather than the image to understand what was happening.  I wasn't as focused on their facial expressions, which I think helps me as reader take away more from what characters say. Main character Artie's, father's recollections of the first Nazi takeover in Germany create more of an environment for a reader to lose themselves in, rather than a character's specfic thoughts or motives. The readers do not care that the characters are not human after awhile because it doesn't matter. We've all heard stories about the Nazi regime, and anyone can tell what a Holocaust victim was or looks like. We know as humans the differences in the appearances of our race and the qualities and characteristics that each person is supposed to have. We know what Jews look like, what Aryans look like. But what does a mouse Jew look like? What do we care? All mice look the same to us. We look at the events that Artie's father is retelling, but our lens is different.  Identity is challenged, we are forced to revist our concepts of race, of character. Maus is successful because of the environment that the author has put the reader in. Almost all of the time, readers are forced to make connections with the characters, because we empathize with them as humans do to each other. Very rarely are we forced to make it through a setting or through events by ourselves,  because we can rely on the characters to help us or to guide us. But if we experience it ourselves, we understand what the story is about, what it is trying to present without out filtering out character development or influence, because then it is like "we" experience it
.

Reflection on The Persuaders

As I watched the The Persuaders, I was absolutely engrossed. The ways in which advertising has become so integrated and assimilated into our culture is startling. I was so fascinated with how ads are marketed to people. There is such an amazing depth in which advertisers try and sell a product. Advertisers capture the very essence of people, they get under their skin, and never before have I seen human emotions and interaction analyzed in such a way. For me,  it is a shame to find out so much about people, and only use that information to sell something. One thing that really surprised me, was the role that brands and brand loyalty play in peoples’ lives and also how advertising is integrated into entertainment. Not only are there commercials, but the advertising is also inside of the entertainment that we watch.

I'm more than a car, I'm a Chevy. That means something to you, right?

In order to create brand loyalty, advertisers in The Persuaders actually studied cults in order to know how to create a deep, loyal following to their own brand. How crazy is that? And even crazier, it worked. Brand loyalty plays on the human and societal need to belong. The brands just don’t try to sell a product they try to sell meaning. Brands provide a ready made identity and provide people with a transference of feelings from the emotions about an idea to the product. One advertiser went as far as to create a lovemark, or a brand with loyalty beyond reason. These lovemarks create emotional connections, and move from a brand to an experience.  This was one of the methods used by the airline company Song.

Song’s advertising would have exploded today, I believe that Song was on the right track with using the brand as an adjective, as an inner state of mind, but with the advent of Facebook and apps and the whole social media / app sensation, I think that Song would have had more of a chance to become big. Today,  I think that Song would need more, as hard as they have worked, as much as they have researched, and as good as what they campaign is, I don’t think that in 2012, 8 years later, that it would suffice. Airlines are increasing in price, and I don’t know if Song could maintain their promises and advertising in today’s world.  Though there are so much more advertising opportunities (social media/ hyper façades), they have to do it first.

The integration of advertising in entertainment also shocked me. I think that for advertising, that it is BRILLANT.  Yes, it is product placement, but in movies such as Cast Away (Fed-Ex) and I Am Sam (Starbucks), The Persuaders argue that we grow to see brands as heroes and characters, they take on human traits and we care about them as we would other humans. We have that transference of feelings and emotions. As we personify our pets and our cars, we personify other products and through that we give them significance.

Advertising, I have to disagree with the movie by saying that it does not destroy our society, but it defines us.  Some people may view that as a bad thing, but I see it for what it is. These products are no longer just products, they are a part of us, we give them meaning. It doesn’t matter that the meaning is fabricated, or that it is intended to appeal to us in the first place. It only matter how people see it, products have no inherent emotional qualities, but now they are a part of who we. It is not a surprise to anyone that to be American, is to be in a consumeristic society. But is it? Just because ads aim to sell, or are fabricated, doesn’t mean that the ideas they carry or the concepts they try to sell aren’t real. 

In Summary....

The article that we read, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is just an extension of what we learned in Codes of Gender, which are both laced with the ideas of Erving Goffman.  In the article, it is mentioned that The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life describes social actions in relationship to how actors perform on a stage.

In relation to the Codes of Gender video, I think that out of the main concepts that Goffman describes in his article that manner and appearance encompass the ideas presented in Codes of Gender.

The concept of Appearance portrays the to the audience the social statuses of the performer. He says that appearance also tells us that dress and props serve to communicate gender, status, occupation, age, and personal commitments.  Appearance was often a focal point in Codes of Gender, because props and dress identify actors in the ads to us. Therefore we recognize the appearances attributed to each gender and how they are used to marker ads to a particular audience or are made to make the audience relate/ feel emotions about the advertisements. Even more so, I think that even Appearance can go even further in the direction of not only dress and props, but even inherent physical traits as well.  In stage and screen acting, actors who often look naturally like the part that the appearance is being ascribed to often are more accepted to the audience. The more that a person fills out a social role ( especially that of appearnce) the more there are accepted in any society.

In the article, Goffman presents the idea of Manner, or how an individual play the role and functions to warn the audience of how the performer will act or seek to act in a role. As example, Goffman says that adjectives like dominant, aggressive, receptive. Goffman also says that Manner can have inconsistencies and can be contradictory, when one does not present him or her self or behave in accordance to his social status or position. This was projected in the video when the ads of men in women’s usual advertising positions seemed to us as weird or unnatural.  Goffman also says that our appearance and manners are often contradictory, when was also apparent in the film, when the clip from the video showed the different ways in which the man was walking.  Even though the man performed the ultra masculine walk of John Wayne, he still was in controversy with his appearance with his already perceived femininity.

Walking Like John Wayne




The Birdcage

— MOVIECLIPS.com

Killing Us Softly? One Ad Would Have us Fendi(ng) off Predators

In Comm 406, we watched the most recent part of the advertising video “Killing Us Softly”  and "Gender Roles", videos that represent the role of women in advertising and also how masculinity and femininity are represented in society.  As the videos tell us, the treatment of women in advertising is absolutely horrible. Women are seen as second- lass inferior beings that only matter if they have ethereal beauty and a flawless body image.  As upsetting this is to me as a woman, on a different level as an advertising student, it provides an interesting perspective on how society and the media define the roles of women to people in said society. 

Though, one would think that if such a terrible thing like this were happening, that people would notice. One would hope that they would speak out against the advertising companies who have shown them in the negative light for so long, but unfortunately no. Until I watched "Killing Us Softly", even I was unaware of the insidious effect that negative advertising toward women, not only do I view it and am innocuous to its meaning, I am a product of it. I don't think there are any of us women who are not products of it.
As Gender Roles states, Advertisements are presented as commercial realism,  and present the world in the ways it could be real. Their ( the ads) seeming normality tells us about ourselves.

Fendi advertisement in Elle Magazine.
Photo found here.

I found this ad in the newest edition of Elle Magazine:

What does this ad seem like it is trying to sell you? What if you didn't know what kind of company Fendi is?

Obviously there is an attractive model, but where is she? Why is she standing on a dark street corner at night? At first it might be a innuendo to being a prostitute, however, the model is in conservative clothing, and carrying a handbag. So, the idea of prostitution is unlikely. 

With her close-cropped haircut and Photoshopped face, the model has a very young, almost childlike appearance. She is very slim and has slender, and almost shapeless legs. Perhaps if her lips and face were a little fuller, she would look positively cherubic.As "Gender Roles" notices, Females are often subjected to infantilization, women never leave girlhood. Girls and women are presented the same. Childhood is mixed  with adult sexuality.

The goal of this ad however, it that and more. Young looking girl alone in a dark alley, with a worried expression on her face. She is supposed to signify vulnerability. From society's view these days, advertising tells us that females are dependent and emotional. From her petite stature to the open position of her body, we are meant to see this woman as a defenseless, meek creature. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, if you look into the ad slightly visible in the upper right corner are two shady looking males, coming out of the shadows. Fendi might have you believe that perhaps they are just admiring the girl or the 'fabulous' Fendi bag she happens to be carrying. The bag is the only thing the girl is in control of, however, her environment is less secure, more obscure and dangerous.

However, if two strong, shadowy men encountered this vulnerable girl at night, I can tell you not many people would think that they just wanted to compliment her on her fashion sense. Actually in the original ad in the magazine, there are four men in the shadows instead of two, in most pictures online, the other two men are cropped out of the photo.  

Granted, perhaps the ad makers were supplying another use for their product, if the men were to try and attack her, she might be able to use the bag to Fend(i) them off. 

Jokes aside, this is a very serious kind of ad. This is exactly the kind of ad that was discussed in the video, designed to make women feel incompetent and weak. I am appalled to see this in a magazine, especially one that is so available to all kinds of women. Elle caters to so many different age levels at girls, in fact I think I first read an Elle Magazine at a hair salon before I was a teenager. It frightens me, that images as blatant as this one are prominently displayed as acceptable.

Also, if I haven't already mentioned it, Fendi is a world famous accessories and handbag designer.