https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLor_KRXoI&feature=youtu.be

The All time classic: Coppola’s Dracula (1992) & Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Given the fact that Coppola’s Dracula movie, which is based on Bram Stoker’s novel, is a classic collection, I am glad that this week’s topic allows me to watch this amazing movie again. In regards to Coppola’s Dracula, besides the elements of mysterious and horror in vampire movie, Coppola has added the element of romance and love in the movie. One of the romantic scenes that caught my attention the most is the vampire blood giving and blood-drinking scene, where Count Dracula is letting Mina Harker to drink his own blood and becomes a vampire. The line where Dracula said “drink and join me for eternal life” has reflected the true love of a vampire for an everlasting love. Moreover, for instance, you can find the element of romance that not only in the movie, but also in the movie’s trailer. There is a line in the trailer, which mentions “Love never dies.” Moreover, I personally really like Keanu Reeves; he is one of my favorite male actors. Comparing to Stoker’s original version of Dracula, the main difference can be spotted on the main female character. In the original novel version, she is more of a passive, and weak character. There is lack of romance element as well as sexual scenes in the original version of Dracula. However, in the 1992 Coppola’s version of Dracula, Mina is illustrated as more sexualized. Mina has more control over her life decision, including her love and body. There is such a succinct difference in both versions, it is mainly because of the factor that the times of each version were published are different. The societies in 1897 and 1992 have critically different views in regards to the ideas of gender, feminism, romance, and sex.

In the literature work of “The Blood-Drawing Ghost,” it is an interesting and a different perspective to view the topic of the vampire story. The title itself is already catchy to my sight. In the literature work, there are several scenes that definitely caught most of my attention, and creates a lot of imagination areas for me to think further about the characters and the story. These scenes also bear a significant role of constructing the mood of the literature work, and help describe the main characters: Mary, John, and the dead man from the graveyard even more succinctly. Firstly, one of the important scenes occurs when John operates a test for the three ladies, and to decide whom he will get married to according t`o the result of the test. The other scene occurs in the setting of the graveyard, where Marry meets the dead man. This mysterious scene creates a lot of imagination aspect for me, and it enriches the story a lot. Furthermore, in the scene where Marry and the dead man from the graveyard are at John’s house. Mary is ordered by the dead man to drink the blood with the oatmeal. However, Mary hides the oatmeal, and pretends that she has ate it. Nonetheless, the scene nears the ending of the literature work is also very stunning and dramatic for me, which is one of the reasons why I really enjoy reading this literature work, as it offers a lot of freedom for me to explore even further by my own immigration. This scene occurs when Mary has finally returns to John’s house, in order to rescue him from his death, and return the blackthorn stick. However, there is one requirement for Mary to save his life, which is the only option of marry her.

I apologize for the delay of week 10 posting, I have trouble figuring out the “spaces” in two creative works.

In this week posting, I am trying to compare the spaces between the creative works of “Taming Space: Drug use, HIV, and homemaking in Downtown Eastside Vancouver,” by Leslie Robertson between Tomson Highway’s “The Kiss of The Fur Queen.”

In regards to the space and setting of Highway’s “The Kiss of The Fur Queen,” the residential school setting plays a pivotal role reflecting the author’s past experience, and represents the theme of the creative work itself. The space of the residential school offers a lack of freedom for the students. Some of the students, like the main character himself experienced sexual abuse in the school. As it is illustrated in the novel, the author describes the residential school is like a nightmare to the main characters of the novel, and they loss their freedom and respect at the school. From the boys’ perspective in the novel, the setting of the residential school relates to feeling such as unpleasant, lack of freedom, and the memory of being sexually abused.

For the setting and space in “Taming Space: Drug use, HIV, and homemaking in Downtown Eastside Vancouver, the location setting of the creative work is in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which is an area of Vancouver that is renowned for it’s population of drug users. The article also relates to areas such as medicalized space, living spaces, and public health service spaces in Eastside Vancouver Downtown. These “spaces” bear a crucial roles for individuals who live in Eastside of Vancouver Downtown, as it reflects the cultural identity as well as self-identity of the individuals who live in that area.

The creative work of Kiss Of The Fur Queen is well written by the author Tomson Highway. Tomson Highway is a Canadian novelist, who was born in Manitoba, and Cree is his first language. According to his biography he was once abused by the priests at a residential school. Moreover, Tomson Highway was a social worker and he through the experience he obtained during the years he was a social worker, he transformed the experience into his novel works. Tomson Highway’s experience has a crucial correlation as well as impact on the novel that he has written. For instance, in the creative work of Kiss of the Fur Queen, Tomson Highway has applied his experience while he was at a residential school into this novel. In the Kiss of the Fur Queen, it encapsulates that there are two brothers who are from Cree culture attend the residential school together. In the novel, these two Cree bothers have experienced a similar abused issue at the residential school as well. Thus, Tomson Highway’s personal experience has a critical impact on his creative work. It is succinctly reflected in the Kiss of the Fur Queen, if Tomson Highway was not from Cree culture and did not experience an abuse at residential school, he might not have written a creative work such as Kiss of the Fur Queen. Furthermore, the main characters in the Kiss of the Fur Queen, they have to search for a solution to heal themselves from the abuse experience at residential school. This might also reflects that in reality, Tomson Highway has encountered obstacle in overcoming the impact from the abuse experience. Therefore, Tomson also writes this into the novel, in order to reflects from his own experience.

When I first got the short fiction of “Out on Main Street” by the author of Shani Mootoo on my hands, my attention has been drawn to it’s title. Because I was born in B.C. and undoubtedly Main Street is one of the very iconic areas in Vancouver, therefore, it has caught my sight. Regarding to the context of the book, the author has successfully encapsulates the multiculturalism in regards to the issues of human rights, sexual orientations, and discrimination. The author has illustrated these issues from a setting of an Indian restaurant in Vancouver Main Street, and the fiction reflects these issues through different events that took place in the restaurant. Given that the author himself is a Caribbean Canadian, the author also sees the Canadian society as well as the culture different than the general public.

The novel of the Kappa Child has painted a vivid portrait in regards to the life of Japanese immigrants in Canada, which significantly reflects the challenges as well as obstacles they encounter as immigrants. The novel also places a heavy emphasis on the transformation between reality and fantasy. The author is able to draw connection between present and past as well as reality and fantasy, in regards to the life of the new immigrants Japanese family in Canada. For instance, there is an example of connection between reality and fantasy in the novel. As illustrated critically and realistically with regards to the hardship and failure that the family encounters through the years in Canada, meanwhile the father has fantasy of becoming very healthy as he thinks he owns a field that is fully grown with Japanese rice. Furthermore, the novel has also succinctly demonstrated the idea of “searching one’s own identity.” For instance, in the novel the character is Japanese and has retains a certain level of traditional Japanese culture, however when her family immigrated to the nation of Canada; in order to fit-in to the local culture, she has to learn and accept the local culture and practice. Therefore, as time goes by, she is confused of her self-identity, whether she is considered as a Canadian, or Japanese. The idea of searching and explore the self-identity is a common struggle that has occurred on many immigrants in Canada as well as other foreign nations. It reminds me of the other novel, The Joy Luck Club.

In the reading of Handmaid’s Tale, it has succinctly reflects the issue of women’s authority and role in the society. The novel mentions that The Republic of Gilead has subjugated women for sexual slavery, includes one of the main characters of Offred. However, Offred has strong desire for happiness as well as the right for freedom. Yet, she has experienced many obstacles, when it comes to struggling against the totalitarian restrictions to women in the society. In the reading, it illustrates that the control of reproduction is a critical issue in the society. Moreover, women have lack of rights in the society compared to men. For instance, they are not given the right to vote in political events. Women cannot be a contributing individual in the society, as they are also not allowed to receive advanced education, they are not allowed to read, or have a proper job. In many situations, women are considered as subhuman, as they are only considered as a tool of giving birth, in order to reproduce the next generation. In the novel, there is a scene when Offred lies in the bath, and it reflects that she treats her body as an instrument of the desires, and her task is to have sex with the men for the purpose of reproduction, in order to prove that she is useful and has her living values.

In the film of Juno, it succinctly illustrates one of the most controversial issues in today’s society, which is teen abortion and choice. As mentioned by the film, there are many factors that are affecting the decision of abortion for adolescents.  One of the most crucial factors is the pressure from the society, and the surrounding environment; for instance, especially for high school student like Juno, she has to face even more obstacles as well as stress from the environment. For example, in the movie of Juno, the idea of abortion has treated as a “dirty way,” this might reflects that teenagers or some people might have a negative perspective about this issue. Moreover, in the movie of Juno, there is a scene where Juno was initially planned to do the abortion, however when she arrived to the clinic office, she thought it felt like a dentist’s office, and she did not feel comfortable there; therefore, she gave up the choice of abortion. From my personal perspective, I think this movie didn’t dig really deep into the emotional reaction of how a pregnant teen feels. It is better to deliver a massage of the disadvantages, benefits as well as facts about abortion to the audience, so that the teenagers who watch this film will understand better of the consequence of getting pregnant. Indeed, there film has showed different options other than from abortion, such as adoption or becoming teen parents. Thus, regarding to the issue of teenage pregnancy, there is no model answer when one is deciding which option to take, because everyone has a unique family background and situation. Therefore, the most important element when a teenager is pregnant, she should reach out for help, so that a more mature minded professional individual can provide a more detailed and best suitable option for the teenager.

From my observation, there are several distinctions between Rose Kushner and Breast Cancer Action. For Kushner, it has constructed a lot of researches on the topic of breast cancer. Moreover, there are a lot of interviews, studies, and research data conducted in regards to the factors, and treatment of women breast cancer. One of the most critical elements that Kushner does is to raise the awareness as well as significance of breast cancer in different communities. It means that, the organization wants more people, especially women to acquire a better understanding of breast cancer, including the symptoms, factors, treatments, and history.

On the other hand, the Breast Cancer Action organization places a heavy emphasis on the idea of the commitment to social justice, which is their most crucial mission statement and vision for the future. Their focus is different than Kushner, as they mainly focus on the systemic interventions, which illustrate the root causes of the breast cancer, and deliver the idea of health benefits to different communities, in order to reduce the number of women who develop and die from breast cancer. Thus, both organizations share the same key feature, which is the significance of donation form the public; therefore, both organizations hold many donation events in the public, in order to have sufficient funds to keep the organizations running, and arise the awareness of the general public in regards to the topic of breast cancer.