Popular Culture

Information:
The question requires reference to at least three different lectures (attached). There are to be no secondary sources.

Essay Question:
Jean Luc Godard, the Swiss film-maker, once said about movies that they lie and tell the truth twenty-four times a second (his reference is that most movies contain twenty-four individual frames for every second of screen time). They lie because what they are showing us is staged, created for the camera. But his comment is also stating that these lies can add up to psychological truths, they can expose us, they can move us, and they can alter us, because there is a reality in the fakeness. Considering popular movies, music, and film, what lies do you see and what truth is exposed in those lies? How has our modern popular culture impacted our current psychological state in both a social and a personal sense? Do you think our popular culture is mostly corrupt or more so a source of edification? Why?

General Advice:
– Simplify the complicated, and complicate the simple. If your response seems straight forward, you are likely missing something crucial.
– Pay attention to the idea that you are writing to communicate to your reader and not simply expressing yourself.
– Your reflection is to be a conversation with the course. This means that lecture material should be presented as an interlocutor and not just as a requirement.
– Believe that if you are engaged in what you write, your reader is more likely to be engaged as well. Interested students interest their readers. And vice versa.
– Be sincere and be careful. Think your thoughts through and pay attention to how they are connected to your feelings.

Marking:
A reflection for all grades is thinking, demonstrating and defining one’s own opinion. This essay does not rely on the presumption of a thought but demands clarification of what it means and why it means it. The student needs to do this through addressing one aspect of course material and demonstrating some level of personal engagement.
– A C paper (60 -69): some grasp of the course material and offers a thought but not a deeply explained one. It is lacking in stylistic clarity and in depth of reflection; or it has neglected to provide a thorough reference to lecture materials.
– A B paper (70-79): is either very clear but not very strong in its ability to reflect on the question and their own thought, the student presents a broad surface but does not explore their own thought in significant depth. Or vice versa, they have provided a very good reflection but not a very clear presentation of their ideas, many statements and fewer explanations.
– An A paper (80-89): is very clear and excellent in both aspects.
– An A+ paper (90-100): is profoundly clear and thoughtful, the student is aware of complexity and nuance and demonstrates both in an absolutely clear fashion.
My advice is to not to try to make many points but develop one point in depth. The point you develop should be tied to the question as a whole. In order to work towards depth I recommend the following strategy: when you write a statement of opinion ask yourself why you think it. When you come up with an answer to that question ask yourself again why do I think this? Doing this three times should work to deepenaing your response so that it is not just a collection of statements but something that you explain and demonstrate.