sábado, 21 de abril de 2012

A PRESENT FOR BOOK LOVERS.

PLEASE, REMEMBER THIS WILL BE A WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT! Post your comments to the "Comentarios " section


A  colleague of mine has found this beautiful video. I was personally moved by it. You may know I'm a book lover and I have a collection of antique books. My oldest possession is dated 1689 (yes, 17 century!) and it's a book of magic.

Watch the video carefully, enjoy it, and try to identify the different NARRATIVE CATEGORIES and NARRATIVE FUNCTIONS (Labov, 1972) - that correspond to his Model of Natural Narrative- to the narration. We'll be discussing your analysis on WEDNESDAY 25.



stella :-)

source:Simpson, P. (2005) Stylistics. London: Routledge,

17 comentarios:

  1. Hello Stella! Shall we write about the video here or discuss it in class next week? Andrea

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  2. Actually we SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED it in class, but unluckily only two students had watched the video. THIS IS THE PLACE FOR DISCUSSION NOW.

    stella :-)

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  5. The title sequence of the movie serves to address that the movie is about to begin and answers the question: What was this about? sooo the winner Narrative Category is Abstract and the Narrative Function is to draw the attention from the viewer. Federico.

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  8. "The Fantastic Flying Books" by Morris Lessmore
    ABSTRACT
    The short film gives us the hint of what is going to happen firstly by seeing the title of the video, then the little creatures that have the numbers on their suits, the "American black" brings the change of music and when the red book appears with the title "The Fantastic Flying Books" by Morris Lessmore we realize that this is the beginning. The story is written in this book, which is very important during the course of the story.
    ORIENTATION
    The book opens. According to the first image in the book, we know that there is a city, a cyclist, a little girl and a hotel where a man, whom we know that he’s going to be one of the protagonists because he's shown in the video very slowly and the other people very briefly, this man is Mr. Morris, who is sitting and writing next to a pile of books in a balcony of the hotel. Focused on his writing he doesn't seem to be aware of what happens, but there's something that calls his attention, a breeze blowing some sheets of paper (that shows in a way what is going to happen later).
    COMPLICATING ACTION
    The wind blows violently and a TV set is flying in front of the man's face, then a man with his bike is flying. A twister is coming and taking everything in its path, buildings, the books and Mr. Morris himself. There´s something curious, the drawing of the little clown going out from an open book changes his face, at first when the man's writing on the book we see the clown smiling, but then after the strong wind, the clown seems to be worried and frightened, (foreshadowing the danger). Mr. Morris’ red book is blown away by the strong wind of the hurricane, he is desperate to catch it, but the wind is getting stronger, finally he reaches his book, but here comes the complication, all the words and drawings that were on the pages have gone. The entire city is devastated and everything goes black and white.
    RESOLUTION
    A young girl appears flying, she’s colorful and seems to be very happy and a blue book which actually can fly approaches Mr. Morris and invites him to go into a house. This house is full of animated books. They are on shelves and on the floor behaving like butterflies and birds.
    EVALUATION
    Understanding the evaluation as the function to make the point of the story clear I can say that the moment Mr. Morris brings the old and shabby book to life by reading it rather than fixing it with tape is a part of the evaluation, books need to be read and also when books give people back their color, because books are necessary to our lives. Finally when Mr. Morris becomes old and his book is finished he rises up and all the flying books turn him into a young man by flying as a hurricane around him. Now he can fly too and here we see that he was the successor of the young girl as the caretaker of the books. And that's the essence of being there, taking care of the books and spreading them among the people.
    CODA
    With Mr. Morris gone, a little girl arrives and the red book, the one that Mr. Morris has written before, welcomes the girl and so do the other books. The video ends with a wall showing all the pictures of the former caretakers of the flying books.

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  9. The fantastic flying books” by Morris Lessmore.

    When the opening credits are shown, it is said that the story of this video is going to start. According to Labov`s theory this will be the abstract. The first scene of this video is with a person who is sitting in a balcony and writing in a book. This character is a man and his name is Mr. Morris. Taking into account to Labov`s narrative model, this is the orientation of the story.

    It seemed to be a peaceful city since the birds were singing and the day was a warm one. However, that day the weather changed. There was a strong wind and not only people but also objects started to fly away. The main character Mr. Morris wanted to keep his books with him. Because of the hurricane this man fell into a hole and all the city is turned into white and black. He decided to walk around the city since he felt disappointed and sad. These events may characterize the complicating action of the story. A book invited mr.morris to go to a house in which there were lots of books. From that moment Mr. Morris became the care taker of the books.

    After that, It can be said that the resolution of the story is described. Mr Morris, who was living in that house gave the books to people who were sad and colourless, since then the colours returned.

    Finally, Mr. Morris, went outside and many books flow around him. The books made him young again. In the last scene a wonderful woman took the book. She seemed to be surprised. This last event could be the coda of this story

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  10. "The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"
    The elements that show that the abstract is taking place are: the sound of the music and the book which tell us that something is going to begin.
    As regards orientation the elements are: the place, that is to say, the hotel, the characters: a man writing a book, a cyclist and a woman and the situation:First the place is calm, then a sudden strong wind blows the man with his book including the people who are there. From my point of view, the complication starts when the wind appears and makes the man to fall into a deep hole. Since then, everything turns black and white.
    On the other hand, the resolution could be when he finally finds the book and give books to people, and when he does it, all people recover their colour, that is because books are important(or should be) in our lives, they give us knowledge and at the same time they enrich more our vocabulary.
    Finally,the coda, starts when Mr. Morris becomes older and another person takes his place.
    A really interesting video to see!!!

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  11. ABSTRACT: The opening of the book on the desk . (The kick-off) (Once upon a time…)

    ORIENTATION: The camera approaches the hotel and reached the writer and the books. As the orientation is characterized by the Past Continuous, we could say that it was an extraordinary calm morning somewhere a long time ago (may be an US city during the 50 s). The writer was sitting next some piles of books. He was a young writer and he seemed to love books, specially writing. They were his passion.

    COMPLICATION: Suddenly, a strong wind blew the writer and the books, and there was a bitter struggle between the writer and the wind. He made an enormous to save the red book (the one he was writer and the moment the wind started to blow), but words and letters were spread away by the wind as if the writer s own mind were confused and out of inspiration. The strong wind could represent a stormy mind with no inspiration.
    Once the wind eased, he saw a woman taken by books through the air (books were like balloons) Books were flying with her> He tried to make his own book fly but he could not.

    RESOLUTION: He got to a place where books used to live and where we could see or feel that there was something more than letters in books. We are shown that books can live as far as they are read. But not only books will live forever, their writers will too.

    EVALUATION: When the writer passed away (he flew away like the first woman), another young writer came in his place and the books became happy again. The writer became an everlasting soul in an everlasting book.

    CODA: Books and writers may be eternal and thus, take part of the lives of those who read them.

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  12. abstract: the black screen and the cover of the book.
    orientation: the storm begins, everything starts to fly, people,bikes,books,the letters of books,everything turns into black and white.

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  13. A man is writing a book, all what he wrote and drew flies with the wind.The storm ends, a black and white disaster is what it has left, book's sheets everywhere.He finds his book and start walking.

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  14. complicating action: he sees books flying carrying a beautiful lady, coloring everythig as they fly by.
    The writer's book does not fly, the lady gives him one as an answer for his inquiring eyes, that will become his guide to a library full of books.

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  15. The abstract in the animated short film is when appeared a red book with tehe title of "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore."

    The orientation happened when Morris Lessmore was writing on the balcony. Suddenly a hurricane stroke and blew Morris off the balcony. As a result, the hurricane blew away the buildings.

    The complicating action began when after the storm Morris walked through the streets strewn with book pages. There he saw a woman who was flying with the help of flying book. One of those books urged Morris to follow him.


    The resolution is when Morris arrived at a libray where the flying books lived.

    The evaluation happened when Morris owned the library and he took care of all the flying books. He shared out books among people who visted the library. They came from the ciy.

    The coda is in the part when years later Morris, an old man, was satisfied with his life’s work.He went to the library´s door and the flying books could become him young again.Then, he flew away, carried by flying books like the woman earlier.After that, a young girl arrived.She sit down on the steps of the library and began to read Morris's book.

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  16. Orientation: First of all we can realize that the video is about to start when white words saying " presents", appears on the black screen.

    Orientation: It is when Mr Morris was sitting at the balcony of a hotel writing a book, then suddenly, the wind started to blow furiously taking everything away, even to Mr Morrison himself.

    Complicating action: In my opinion it is the moment in which Mr Morrison landed on an unknown place to him where everything is in black and white. But when he started wandering, he saw a young lady in colour flying with colourful flying books. Moreover, one of those books called him and guided him to a kind of library in which all the books were alive. Then they not only encourage Mr Morris to take care of all of them but also to create his own book.

    Resolution: Since he start helping people to become colourful again by giving them a book.

    Evaluation: The moment in which he was already old sitting on a red armchair writing the end of his book.

    Coda: Mr Morris leaves the libriry, since he had already finished his work there. It was then when the books became sad. However the happiness came back when another person steps in the libriry to continue working there.

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    Respuestas
    1. Language and written expression III
      Irusta M. Soledad
      “The fantastic flying books”, Mr Morris Lessmore

      Once I watched the video I examined it in detail in order to sort the different parts according to the six key narrative categories and functions of Lavob´s natural narrative model. Thus I watched it several times to have a broad idea of it.
      I would situate the first category, “abstract”, at the very beginning of the video, the moment it is formally presented and a huge book entitles the story. This scene drawn interest from me and I also got to the sense that it was about to begin.
      The second category might be located the moment there is a general view of the place and time. The beginning events of the story account within this colourful city where the main character is quietly writing a book. Thus in my opinion, this is where I would situate the “orientation category”.
      In regard to the “complicating action” I would point it the moment the strong wind blows out letters the man had written in his book as well as the whole city. The whole place is physically destroyed. It is significant, the fact that the man survived and was not separated from the book he had been writing. Soon afterwards colours are gone and everything is in black and white. The man observed the ruins of the city and slowly walked and walked... until he saw a girl in colours who was flying through books. She gave him book that guided him. All these reflect the: what happened?
      I would say the “resolution” category could be located once the man gets colours as he arrives to a library where books had life. During that time he was taught things such as ways to take care of books, to feed them, fix them, give books to other people and many more. Through these scenes I got an idea of the his function within the library.
      The first signs of the story ending, “coda”, appear exactly when the man finishes to write his book, gets old and leaves the library. It seemed as if his mission had totally ended. Though he was an old man already, in a magic way, books become him young again. It is an open final because as the man leaves the place a young girl approaches exactly the same way he did once. This gives the idea of never ending, that the story will start again and again.
      It resulted curious to me the absence of words or dialogues in the video. Therefore colours and music became an essential element that guided me to pick up the different situations and moods. I also believe this forced me to pay full attention to each scene. I really liked the story. Its message was very interesting too.

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