2011년 12월 3일 토요일

My Essay: Book or Movies

This is a compare and contrast essay I wrote during Advanced English Writing course while I'm attending Honor's Program at KAIST. I post this essay adapting professor Smith's suggestion. "All rights are reserved to myself".


“Movies based on well-known novels tend to catch more attention from audiences and critiques,” according to both Richard Corliss, an expert on movie. Since movie directors who are planning to make movies which have bases on books tend to choose well-known literatures, it is not necessary to concern whether to watch the movie or not—because we already read the books. Sometimes, however, we find a new movie is based on a novel which we have not read yet, and fall into agony concerning either to watch the movie or to read the book. Which choice would be a better selection? What is the difference between the movie and the book, and which points should be considered choosing either watching the movie or the book? Considering abundance of plots, originality of story, and imaginability, with examples comparing two movies and two books, the better choice is reading the book instead of watching the movie.
Since movies based on books literally used the books as their basis of story lines, the basic stories of the movies and the books are similar. Both in a book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and a movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2,” for example, Harry Potter and his friends looks for “Horcruxes,” which are containing soul pieces of Voldemort, destroy them, and finally make Voldemort die. In another example, a movie named “Il Postino (Postman)” and a book named “Neruda’s Postman” deal life of both two main characters, Pablo Neruda—a great poet—and Mario—Neruda’s Postman—in a beautiful countryside in Italy. In spite of the similarities between basic stories of movies and books, as reviewed with the two sets of examples,—the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and the movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2,” and the book “Neruda’s Postman” and the movie “Il Postino”—there are plenty of noticeable differences between movies and their books for basis; and it is why we should consider about whether to watch the movies or to read the books.
The first point which should be considered is the fruitfulness of story. Almost always, a book has more abundant plot than a movie which is based on the book. There are plenty of examples. In the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” Bill Weasley, an older brother of Ron Weasely, talks to Harry the reason why Goblins never trust Wizards and Witches; in the movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2,” however, Bill never explains the reason. Because of this difference, the movie cannot explain to the audience the reason why a goblin’s extraordinarily hostile behavior toward Harry and his friends, while the movie cannot. In a book named “Neruda’s Postman,” a fact-based novel about a great poet Pablo Neruda and a postman who delivered posts while Pablo stayed in Italy, for another example, themes related to the modern history of Chile is included; nonetheless, any parts related to history of Chile is not included in a movie “Il Postino” which is based on the book “Neruda’s Postman”. It is true that the movie “Il Postino” is still understandable without the knowledge on the history of Chile; however, this difference does not allow audience to have deeper understanding to the story. A possible explanation of why the movies omit some plots of their book bases is time limit: Since it is hard to play movies for more than three hours—because of both by limit time of audiences’ attention and problems related to cost—directors must condense the story lines of basis books. Even though with this plausible reason for omissions in movies, the fact that books give deep understanding on stories with detailed story makes books more interesting to read than watching the corresponding movies. Then, what about the originality of stories?
Between movies and books, some differences in the story line exist. Since the movies are based on books, audiences take it for granted that the plots in movies are exactly the same to the books, excluding some omissions. This idea, however, is wrong: There exist some plots which are totally different from the original version. In the movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2,” Harry, on a bridge, with Hermione and Ron, breaks Dumbledore’s Elder Wand into two and throws into a river that flows in front of Hogwart. In the book, on the other hand, Harry goes up to the office of Headmaster with Herminone and Ron, has conversation with Dumbledore’s portrait, and use Elder Wand to repair his broken wand using the spell, reparo. And then, Harry talks to Dumbledore in his portrait that he’ll put the wand back to Dumbledore’s tomb and will never use it until Harry dies, so that there would be nobody who is a real master of Elder Wand in the world. Also, such a critical difference also appears in between “Il Postino” and “Neruda’s Postman”. Although the poet Pablo Neruda dies and the postman Mario is arrested in the book while working for their ideal, only Mario dies and Pablo hears the death of Mario when he visited an island where Pablo stayed for about a year with Mario; this is not a subtle difference but a great difference that changes the ending of the movie. So we can understand that not only omission in story line but also manipulating the story line is possible from these two examples. Probably, directors might change some portions of stories having different intention from authors of the books used as bases; nonetheless, such changes distort authors’ intricately planned purpose with the story.
Finally, in addition to omissions and changes on stories, movies and books have dramatically different characteristics on “imaginability”. One of the strength of movies based on novel is that they can give audiences vivid images and sounds. In the movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2,” beautiful treasures of the magical history and spectacular fighting scenes can be enjoyed. And in “Il Postino,” romantic vista of an Italian coastline is quite well described. Books, in contrast, cannot stimulate human senses as much as movies. Nevertheless, this fact brings books a powerful strength. Because of such vivid scenes in movies, it is impossible to imagine; to say more exactly, audiences never need to do. Even if we try to have further imagination on scenes of movies, we cannot—due to the imprinted images. Thanks to their letter-filled compositions, books, in contrary, allow readers have infinite imagination on scenes with various descriptive words; appearance of characters, voices, backgrounds, and everything. Their detailed description on certain situations, moreover, helps readers to enjoy not only visual and auditory information, but also olfactory, somatosensory information of the background where characters are experiencing certain events, as following quote proves.
Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset. The landscape seemed to grow larger and more detailed as he squinted over the side of the dragon, and he wondered whether it had divined the presence of fresh water by the flashes of reflected sunlight.
Lower and lower the dragon flew, in great spiraling circles, honing in, it seemed, upon one of the smaller lakes… They Agreed, Herminone a little faintly, and now Harry could see the dragon’s yellow underbelly rippling in the surface of the water.
“NOW!”
He slithered over the side of the dragon and plummeted feetfirst toward the surface of the lake; the drop was greater than he had estimated and he hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing, green, reed-filled world. He kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting, to see enormous ripples emanating in circles from the places where Ron and Hermione had fallen. The dragon did not seem to have noticed anything: It was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred snout…
-J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Thus, books provide more chances to imagine a situation to readers.
Watching a movie or reading a book that is a basis of the movie: a very hard selection to give a choice. Apparently, the best solution for this question is both; watch the movie and then read the book, or vice versa. For busy modern-society people, however, it would be not easy to enjoy both forms of arts. A short, in-haste concern on this problem may lead people to a movie. But think deeper, and consider the three points: omissions, changes, and imaginableness. Then there would be no regret after choosing one: reading a book.

The Ethicist--Piercing

Among many issues in the Ethicist column of New York Times, what I read is "Nose Ring of Truth" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/the-ethicist-nose-ring-of-truth.html?ref=theethicist). In this issue, a woman who owns a high-end home-furnishing showroom is asking for an ethical judge on her action to a great sales candidate with piercing on nose and tongue: elimination of the candidate for reasons of piercing.

In response to this query, the columnist mentions the importance of physical appearance in such jobs as models, and also say that it is not important point on other jobs like programmer. In cases of the other jobs that beauty attributes a portion, however, the columnist agree with that it is a hard case to decide whether to eliminate or accept a candidate with undesirable appearance. In a case of sales person, following a style which naturally biased clients love is important. And since the problem of the eliminated great sales candidate is piercing, rather than the candidate's un-correctable physical ones on body, the owner of the showroom can ask the candidate to take off the ornaments during work hours.

I am with the columnist in this issue. In sales job, physical appearance is not one's freedom but a professional requirements for customers. Since an unfavorable appearance or ornament can make clients uncomfortable and consequently lower the profit of a company or a store, a manager can ask a qualified candidate change his or her own style, at least during the work time. If the candidate refuses, then the manager can discriminate the candidate out.

2011년 11월 23일 수요일

Argumentative Essay--Ghosts, again

As a topic of my argumentative essay, I'll again choose ghosts--it's existence. In my essay with quotation, I compared three points: EVP, life of Thomas Edison, and automatic writing. Although the length of my essay was quite long, I could not still include all the details I found--because of the length. So in my argumentative essay, I'd like to write about the existence of ghosts again. Actually, I think the topic is not so great for my mental health, I'll try again. Some sources I used are below:

EVP:

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomena
  • http://www.rense.com/general33/evpcase.htm (this is a content of conversation with ghosts by means of EVP, and is a clue of solving a crime)
  • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4152805.stm

Thomas Edison:

  • http://www.ghost-science.co.uk/2010/08/thomas-edisons-life-units/
  • http://www.prairieghosts.com/oh-milan.html

Automatic Writing:



2011년 11월 9일 수요일

Existence of Ghosts: True or False

Supernatural beings, it is probably a theme which makes most of people interesting. Supernatural phenomenons seem so realistic, but it is hard to experience such events in our ordinary life; and this might be the reason why stories about supernatural phenomenon intrigue us so strongly. In this essay, I'd like to choose a ghost as a topic. Since it is hard to prove the existence of ghosts in scientific approach--but there are so many evidences of existence of ghosts and witnesses of ghosts in the world--the existence of ghost is still controversial. I'll introduce both sides on this theme--who believe ghosts and who do not--in this essay. The sources I'll quote are below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost
: definition of ghost, and general information on ghosts

http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghostaudiovideo/a/edison-ghost-machine.htm
: Thomas Edison, the great inventor, also studied about ghosts and made a machine which allows communication with ghosts

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/ghost3.htm
: Scientific explanations on "seeing ghosts"

2011년 10월 31일 월요일

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollowsㅡthe Book and the Movie?

        "Harry Potter" is very famous movies and books--there would be probably no one who can argue about this "fact." Certainly, there is nobody who has never heard of Harry Potter at KAIST. As a pen of Harry Potter, I read all series of the books and even watched all series of the movies. And of course, I found so many differences in the story between the books and the movies. Until now, however, I haven't analyzed specific differences between the movies and the books, so I think this is a good chance to contrast them. Since people normally do not analyze the differences in story of a movie that is based on a book, it would be quite meaningful to have time to find the differences between the movies and the books of Harry Potter.

        To start the essay more smoothly, I'm going to mention about the outline of the story of Harry Potter, which is common between the books and the movies. Then, I will begin to explain about the specific differences. Since I'm going to explain what part of the book is different from the movie--and vice versa-- contrasting the books and the movies will be much fun--to both writer and readers. In addition, I'm going to add some of my own explanations for the possible reasons of making those differences, to make the essay more interesting. Because of the reputation of Harry Potter and the interesting elements that I'll integrate in the essay--particularly, the differences between the books and the movies, and the possible explanations for them-- I'm quite sure the audiences would like to read this essay.

2011년 9월 3일 토요일

Nice To Meet You:)


Hello, my name is Kyeong Rok Choi, a student who is taking the 'interesting-looking' class, 'Advanced English Writing', at KAIST. I was happy to meet all of you in the first class.(The leftside, don't surprise about the different hair length compared to current hair. I visited barbor shop last weak to cut my hair =)

In contrast to your expectation, I'm not an adult and not a normal student in KAIST. I'm a 17-year-old boy(American--or European--age, of course) and a student of 'Korea Science Academy of KAIST' which is a gifted school oriented to science and mathematics. Then why am I in the writing class in KAIST? It's because I'm attending a special program called 'Honor's Program.' As a participant of this program, I'm spending the last semester in high school. But please never regard me as a foreigner or non-KAISTian-- I have both my stdent ID and an ID card!!

I'm really interested in biology--but it doesn't mean that I don't like other subjects; I love all the scientific subjects and even the arts, and the humanities! Last year, I conducted research on ncRNA at the lab of professor Young Hoon Lee at KAIST, and until last summer vacation, I conducted graduation research on cell aggregation at KSA. My another interest in biological area is brain science. I started learning brain science since last year, and I attended an international brain science competition about a month ago. Without science, I also love phylosophy and psychology, and really interested in learning foreing languages, such as French, Chinese, German and so on...

My hobbies... there are so many things. I love reading literatures, drawing pictures, watching movies, playing musical instrumets... there are so many favorite things to enjoy during my free time. But a problems is that: I have not enough free time to enjoy those fascinating things because of busy schedules of classes and research. Anyway, there are more hobbies I'd love to do. I like playing basket ball and badminton. Since about few days ago, I started learning tennis--it's really fun! I'm planning to learn swimming during next winter vacation!!

It was a long story, wasn't it? I'd like to have fun classes and spend great time with you in the class:) Again, nice to meet you!