Pulp Fiction: Ezequiel 25:17

Vincent flips the two locks, opening the case. A small glow emits from the case.

CLICK CLICK

                                     JULES

                         We happy?

               No answer from Vincent.

                                     JULES

                         Vincent!

               Vincent looks up at Jules.

                                     JULES

                         We happy?

               Closing the case.

                                     VINCENT

                         Yeah we happy.

                                     BRETT

                         Look, I’m sorry uhh I didn’t get your name, I got yours, uhh Vincent, right?    But but I never got yours.

                                     JULES

                         My name's Pitt, and your ass ain't talkin'

                         your way outta this shit.

                                     BRETT

                         I just want you to know how sorry we

                         are about how fucked up things got

                         between us and Mr. Wallace. When we

                         entered into this thing, we only had

                         the best intentions –

BANG

               As Brett talks, Jules takes out his gun and SHOOTS Roger

               three times in the chest, BLOWING him out of his chair.

               Brett has just shit his pants. He's not crying or whimpering,

               but he's so full of fear, it's as if his body is imploding.

                                     JULES

                              (to Brett)

                         Oh, I'm sorry. Did that break your

                         concentration? I didn't mean to do

                         that.  Please, continue. I believe

                         you were saying something about "best

                         intentions."

               Brett can't say a word.

                                     JULES

                         Whatsamatter? Oh, you were finished

                         anyway.  Well, let me retort. Would

                         you describe for me what Marsellus

                         Wallace looks like?

               Brett still can't speak.

               Jules SNAPS, SAVAGELY TIPPING the card table over, removing

               the only barrier between himself and Brett. Brett now sits

               in a lone chair before Jules like a political prisoner in

               front of an interrogator.

                                     JULES

                         What country you from!

                                     BRETT

           What?

                                     JULES

                         "What" ain't no country I know! Do

                         they speak English in "What?"

                                     BRETT

                              (near heart attack)

                         What?

                                     JULES

                         English-motherfucker-can-you-speak-

                         it?

                                     BRETT

                         Yes.

                                     JULES

                         Then you understand what I'm sayin'?

                                     BRETT

                         Yes.

                                     JULES

                         Now describe what Marsellus Wallace

                         looks like!

                                     BRETT

                              (out of fear)

                         What?

               Jules takes his .45 and PRESSES the barrel HARD in Brett's

               cheek.

                                     JULES

                         Say "What" again! C'mon, say "What"

                         again!  I dare ya, I double dare ya

                         motherfucker, say "What" one more

                         goddamn time!

                                     JULES

                         Now describe to me what Marsellus

                         Wallace looks like!

               Brett does his best.

                                     BRETT

                         Well he's... he's... black –

                                     JULES

                         – go on!

                                     BRETT

                         ...and he's... he's... bald –

                                     JULES

                         – does he look like a bitch?!

                                     BRETT

                        

                         What?

               Jules' eyes go to Vincent, Vincent smirks, Jules rolls his

               eyes and SHOOT Brett in the shoulder.

BANG

               Brett SCREAMS, breaking into a SHAKING/TREMBLING SPASM in

               the chair.

                                     JULES

                         Does-he-look-like-a-bitch?!

                                     BRETT

                              (in agony)

                         No.

                                     JULES

                         Then why did you try to fuck 'im

                         like a bitch?!

                                     BRETT

                              (in spasm)

                         I didn't.

               Now in a lower voice.

                                     JULES

                         Yes ya did Brett. Ya tried ta fuck

                         'im.  You ever read the Bible, Brett?

                                     BRETT

                              (in spasm)

                         Yes.

                                     JULES

                         There's a passage I got memorized,

                         seems appropriate for this situation:

                         Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the

                         righteous man is beset on all sides

                         by the inequities of the selfish and

                         the tyranny of evil men.  Blessed is

                         he who, in the name of charity and

                         good will, shepherds the weak through

                         the valley of darkness, for he is

                         truly his brother's keeper and the

                         finder of lost children. And I will

                         strike down upon thee with great

                         vengeance and furious anger those

                         who attempt to poison and destroy my

                         brothers. And you will know my name

                         is the Lord when I lay my vengeance

                         upon you."

               The two men EMPTY their guns at the same time on the sitting

               Brett.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

I have chosen the ezequiel 25:17 scene from Pulp Fiction because it has great use of sound elements and the sequence is all around very powerful. For listening modes we have the simple casual listening for all the gun shots. The dialogue where Brett is unsure of what Jules means and keeps saying "What" is a good example of semantic listening. Gestalt principles is taken into consideration in this scene. Figure and Ground is the first thing I noticed. When Jules is talking to Brett, he is standing and Brett is seated. This lets the audience easily decode the relationship between the two. For space we have Jules in the front and vincent in the back, both standing and very large men. The men they are there to see are smaller representing how little power they have in the scene. For time speed and loudness are very important in the climax. Jules recites his famous bible verse. He gets faster and louder until the end and that is when they kill Brett.

Brainwashed

Acknowledge the Lizard: This is referring to the part of the brain that worries about safety and when needed dishes out anger. It causes us to be hesitant when showing something that we’ve created. It is afraid to be laughed at, which is what Pressfield calls “resistance”. This is the voice that is complicit in the brainwashing.

Connect: Some may think social networking is a waste of time. Yes I agree it can be but we must acknowledge a greater use for such technologies. Being connected is extremely beneficial. You can make real connections with people that have similar interests. This can teach you things most people would never learn. Society has never been so close. The future is connected and we must utilize the technology to the max.

Ship: Scarcity creates value. People that are getting things done and are able to beat the competition are going to succeed. They become indispensible. The goal is to be the best around.

     I do not find these exercises completely worthless, although there are many problems I have with them. First, I would like to point out that having a word count seems like a good suggestion because some students may not work as hard as others when writing these blogs. Though we are being graded by the quality of our writing, the problem is that we are also being graded on quantity. If I can get my point across in a lesser amount of words than is required, why does my grade have to suffer? When limitations are given the quality of the work will diminish. Even right now I have to bullshit some of these sentences just to meet the requirements. My second problem is the vagueness when assigning the blogs. Some of the homework is very questionable, meaning when I read what the project entails I just ask myself “Why?” It could just be me but sometimes I can’t grasp the value of these assignments. I think that these are just given to us as “work” to do. Maybe discussing the importance of the assignment and its relevance to media a little more thoroughly will help to motivate us. The third and final problem is I can’t understand whyI also have a suggestion for future assignments. This is a media class and we do study media, so maybe watching a film and writing an essay about it will give us more interaction to work with. It can also give us the opportunity for group collaboration if we like. I don’t think I’m alone in this. Many of us media types are artistic and creative. Writing a 500 word essay is not going to be in our list of specialties. The work we do for class should inspire us as filmmakers instead of making us dread the couple of hours it takes to right the assignment.

Finding Your Howl

     In this first story Flaum talks about an endangered species of wolf and what was done to save them. He tells the story of a wolf named Mumon, who has just been released back into the wild. Mumon and his pack don’t have a leader because they’ve forgotten how to howl. Mumon leaves the pack to go on a journey to find his howl. Mumon comes across a deer and instinctively kills and eats the animal. He feels sadness when he finds that he needs to kill to survive. Mumon feels the deer’s’ spirit inside him. He feels his old being strip away. Mumon has found his howl.

     There are a series of videos that RSA has made of which I believe helps me understand the creative process a little easier. These videos are speeches that have been illustrated to maximize the entertainment and learning value. Each video showcases ideas from innovative research. There is one specific video that demonstrates how education works and why it suppresses creativity rather than encourage it. It is a speech given by Sir Ken Robinson titled Changing Paradigms. Understanding how education works can really open your eyes to new ideas. Robinson demonstrates how the “Arts” are the victims in today’s society.  The arts are what he calls an aesthetic experience, meaning your senses are at their peak or when you are fully alive. Anesthetic experiences are when you shut yourself off, or deadening of the senses. These experiences are what we are constantly exposed to at school. Another point Sir Robinson makes is that this is not entirely the schools fault. Our children are prescribed drugs to help them focus and learn and no one seems to have a problem with that. He says that now is the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth. Today, kids are exposed to advertisement and different technologies that ultimately become too much information to process. We see that a child is struggling in school, so we medicate them. He says that we go to school to be standardized and believes we must go in the opposite direction. He then talks about the notion of “divergent thinking”. This type of mindset is related to creativity but it’s not exactly the same. He describes it as an essential capacity for creativity, meaning the more you think divergently, the more creativity you will have. It is the ability to think of lots of possible answers to a question, or being able to interpret a question in many different ways. It’s being able to not think in the typical linear or convergent ways. A study was done to measure the level of divergent thinking in a kindergarten class. Ninety-eight percent score above the genius level. Five years later they were tested again. The results were cut in half. Only fifty percent of the kids scored above the genius level. This suggests that the education system in the United States is very left-brained in its teaching. Another thing I’d like to add is that we must understand that being accessed individually is also detrimental to our learning abilities. Robinson says the best type of thinking is group thinking, or collaboration. After hearing the entire speech I must say I completely agree with Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas, as he was very persuasive. This really speaks to me as a creative person in that we must defend creativity. Our right to think has been replaced by standardization. If everyone truly what “education” is doing to us, there would be, I would hope some sort of revolution where an alternate system would be built from scratch. Robinson has a way of being able to open our eyes to a false reality and I found his speech very moving.