55 Word Stories

I'm bringing back an old favorite from last semester (and if you did this last semester, you cannot reuse your old story): I'm including a link below to a website that publishes stories of exactly 55 words.  Read a few of them, and then you have one of two choices: a.) do a standard 250 word post discussing the stories or b.) try writing a 55 word story of your own.  The rules for a 55 word story: 1.) I will be checking to make sure it is exactly 55 words (otherwise, it wouldn't be a 55 word story), 2.) you can title it, but it doesn't count towards the 55 words, and 3.) there are no restrictions on content, but keep in mind this is a public forum, so exercise common sense.

Whichever option you choose, I'll give you until Sunday night (03/06) to get it done.  You only have to do one post this week because of conferences.

The link: http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/

Natural Born Killers

Class time is going to be devoted to discussing the deeper issues related to Natural Born Killers, so I'm giving you this space to give just a simple personal reaction to it.  What did you think of the film (love it, hate it, etc.) and how does it compare to other movies in the same vein that you've seen before?  As usual, 250 word post up by Thursday night (2/24) and 100 word response up by Sunday night (2/27).

Project One

By now, you are basically done with project one, so this is where I give you the space to discuss how you feel about the project.  Did you love it, hate it, didn't feel one way or the other, was it meaningful, useless?  Don't be afraid to be honest, there won't be any repercussions if you didn't like the project and negative feedback has been used to improve projects in the past.  As usual, 250 word post up by Thursday night and 100 word response up by Sunday night.

What is controversial?

So, we're going to be talking about controversial films in the next few weeks, so I'm going to ask you to speculate on what causes controversy.  Why did a film as shockingly violent as Machete hardly raise an eyebrow while a seemingly innocent film like The Golden Compass caused a public uproar?  What is it that makes a controversial film?  As usual, 250 word post up by Thursday night and 100 word response up by Sunday night.