The Write Way
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
The Character development In Sword art Online is bad
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Are Paper Books Better Than E-Books? By Alana Santiago
In my opinion, the debate between paper books and e-books boils down to personal preference and convenience. There's something undeniably nostalgic about the feel of a physical book in your hands—the smell of the pages, the weight of it as you turn each one. For many readers, myself included, there's a certain joy in flipping through the pages of a well-loved book and seeing the progress you've made. The experience of a paper book can't quite be replicated by an e-reader.
However, e-books offer their own advantages. They're incredibly convenient, allowing you to carry an entire library in the palm of your hand. Whether you're traveling or simply short on space, e-books provide unparalleled accessibility. Plus, they often come with features like adjustable font sizes and built-in dictionaries, enhancing the reading experience for those with visual impairments or non-native language speakers. From a practical standpoint, e-books can't be beaten in terms of portability and functionality.
Yet, despite their convenience, e-books lack the charm of paper books. There's something special about browsing through bookstore shelves, running your fingers along spines, and discovering hidden gems. Paper books also offer a respite from screens, providing a welcome break from the constant bombardment of digital stimuli. The act of disconnecting from technology and immersing oneself in the pages of a physical book is an essential part of the reading experience.
Paper books have a cultural significance that transcends their contents. They serve as tangible artifacts of human history and creativity, preserving stories and ideas for future generations. There's an emotional attachment to physical books that goes beyond the words on the page—they become mementos of cherished moments, marked by dog-eared pages and marginal notes. In a world increasingly dominated by digital media, the enduring appeal of paper books lies in their ability to evoke nostalgia and connection.
While both paper books and e-books have their advantages, the choice between the two ultimately depends on individual preferences and circumstances. For some, nothing can replace the sensory experience of reading a physical book, while others appreciate the convenience and versatility of e-readers. Personally, I find value in both formats, recognizing that each offers its own unique advantages and charms. Whether it's the comforting weight of a paperback or the sleek efficiency of a digital device, what matters most is the joy of immersing oneself in a good story, regardless of the source.
Are Sport Athletes Paid Too Much?
Are Sport Athletes Paid Too Much?
Should Stores Sell Violent Video Games to Minors?
Should Stores Sell Violent Video Games to Minors?
Should stores sell violent video games to minors? This is a very interesting question because there are many sides to it, which I will be covering. There's the legal side, and the ethical side. For the legal side, I will be seeing whether it is legal or not for minors to play violent games. In terms of the ethical side, I will give my opinion on whether I think teens should be able to play violent games, and whether I think it contributes to violence in the real world. I am a minor myself so I may have a bias, however I will be using reputable sources. I will be discussing the meaning of a rating and how valid it is in determining the law. To clarify, for the legal part I will not be discussing whether it is legal for teens to play violent games, but whether stores should sell them. Many teens already play violent games such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, including my 11 year old cousin.
I will be discussing the legality of the question first and then move on to the ethical side. It is not illegal for minors to play or purchase violent video games. The Mature rating given by the ESRB is just that; a rating. It is like a rating on a product or a recommendation. If a cool water bottle has a few bad reviews on Amazon, doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it, although it is recommended not to. In the case of retail of violent video games, it isn't illegal to sell minors video games for the most part. However, in certain places like Illinois, there are laws and fines put in place against retailers selling minors video games. According to the Illinois General Assembly website, it is illegal for retailers to sell minors video games, and if they do they will be charged with a $1,000 fee. This doesn't make it impossible or illegal for minors to play violent video games, as they can get it from a non-minor who bought it or buy it online, however, I am focusing on whether stores should sell them to minors or not. I think that this law is a good idea because it makes sure that minors aren't being sold violent games, however if a minor REALLY wants to defy the recommendation then they could buy it online or through similar means. It prevents minors from experiencing the violence while not making it so illegal for minors to play violent games that they would be charged for playing it.
Now it's time for the ethicality, which is purely based on my opinion alone and a reputable source. I think that if a minor wants to play a violent game and their parents or guardians are fine with it, they probably still shouldn't be able to since ratings are there for a reason, but they can if they want to. In the end the decision falls onto their parents or guardians. Do video games make teens violent though? That's a whole different story. According to the Harvard Health Publishing website, there is a mix of research that suggests that it does and does not. Some say that video games cause aggression in teens while others say that this doesn't mean they will have violent behaviors. I will have to disagree with the researchers that believe video games do make you violent because of the lack of reasoning behind their research. According to the Harvard Health Publishing website, 64-67% of teens 12-17 play video games that "action and adventure games that tend to contain violent content". See the wording they're using? "Action and adventure"? "Tend to"? Makes you think they aren't only talking about Mature rated games and above. If you look up "Mario", a very popular game that's well known to be all ages, every single game that shows up is rated E for everyone and has a Mild Fantasy/Cartoon Violence tag. Whether they included fantasy violence in their research or not is anyone's guess, however I'm inclined to think that they did since their wording was vague. Their research also says that "some children may become more aggressive as a result of watching and playing violent video games, but that most are not affected". Does some children being slightly more aggressive mean they'll commit grand theft auto or join a mafia when they get older? Unlikely, and even if they do, hard to believe it will be because of the games they played in their teens.
To wrap it all up, my research has shown that it's illegal for retailers to sell violent or M+ rated games to teens, even though it is not completely illegal for teens to buy and play these games through other means, such as buying online. In terms of the ethical side, I still think that teens should not be playing M and A rated games that are definitely not their age, however I do not think that these games will have a violent effect on them or significantly change their behavior. The research for the side that does think this to be true is vague and imprecise. I myself do not play M rated games, so I wouldn't completely know of the mental effects that playing extremely violent games may have, however based on my findings it appears that it does not significantly impact anyone.
- Belal Alawini
Reputable Sources:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/violent-video-games-and-young-people.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
The Effect of Cinematography in Horror Films
The Effect Of Cinematography in Horror Films
By Ellie Rosch
The effect cinematography can have on horror movies is very important. I enjoy a lot of movies, and cinematography plays a big part in my enjoyment of different movies. Think about an action movie where someone is jumping from one building to another and when they’re in the air it cuts to 20 different angles of that jump. That is to build up suspense because you can manipulate the angles to make the audience think they’ll fall and not make the jump, only to give the watchers a sigh of relief when they actually do. These tactics create extreme reactions in the audience, stimulating emotions, and horror movies are a prime example of movies that would want to convey that.
The first movie’s cinematography I want to talk about is American Psycho. American Psycho, in my opinion, is one of the best examples of using cinematography to convey emotions to the audience, mainly because it broke most of the “rules'' that were often used in horror movies before it came out. As you would expect in a horror movie, there’s a killer and when we see that first kill take place, it’s not a dark and broody scene like the first kill normally is. Instead, it’s in very bright light and could be compared to what you would normally see in a musical theater. Part of this is because the cinematographer wanted to add the comedic and insane feel of the movie, but as the movie continues and more kills take place, the killing scenes get darker and darker, representing the main character’s spiral into insanity. The way this movie plays with lighting is definitely one of the reasons that this movie is so good as it is. It properly conveys the spiral into insanity and ends the movie with the audience feeling some sort of unease.
I can’t talk about great horror movie cinematography without touching on The Shining. While American Psycho was a great example of using lighting, The Shining is supreme in its use of wide-angle shots and distorting perspective that really brings the unease and fear into shots of seemingly mundane scenes. There’s rarely a time watching this movie where you will feel at ease or safe looking at scenes that don’t even have anything dangerous in them. Part of this is because the cinematographers, John Alcott and Martin Kenzie, understood perspective so well. When characters are feeling scared, the camera angle will be above them, conveying the audience that they’re small and vulnerable, while dangerous characters will be seen from lower angles, showing that they are more powerful. Also, using the emptiness of space in backgrounds builds tension and an overarching feeling of dread; That is all used until the climax of the film. There’s a reason The Shining is such an iconic horror film and still referenced today despite its age, and the cinematographers diffidently have something to do with that.
The final movie I want to talk about is so good that it started its own horror genre. This would be the Blair Witch Project which created the found footage horror movies. Basically, when you watch a movie you are spectating other people’s lives, but in a found footage movie, it’s as it says. You are watching a film that has seemingly been recorded on a phone or some type of electronic, and you piece together the story from there. It’s not professional looking, for example some scary noise would be made and the actors are all scared and start running, but you can’t see what scared them because it was off screen. You wouldn’t even be able to see the actors running because the camera is shaking. It’s a very hard technique to pull off but the Blair Witch Project did an exceptional job. While technically this film technique had been used before in a movie called Cannibal Holocaust in 1980, it was not popular and the Blair Witch Project seemingly revived it. The found footage technique is the best way to get the audience feeling immersed in the horror film world. Part of this is because it just makes the whole movie feel that much more realistic, which is a huge part in conveying to the audience these heightened emotions of fear and unease.
All in all, cinematography has a huge impact on every movie, but especially horror films. It can be used to create fear, but more importantly it creates a feeling of unease and immersion in the movie. These were just three of the most popular examples of cinematography in scary movies, but there are plenty of other great examples. All three of these movies convey strong emotions that make these movies that much better.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Mez in The Lost Rainforest: Mez's Magic
The Lost Rainforest: Mez's Magic is a book about an unnatural cathemeral (shadowwalking) panther named Mez who must leave her home with her sister and aunt to help various other unnaturally cathemeral animals stop an evil Ant Queen from emerging and destroying their home, Caldera. Mez's mother died when Mez was at a very young age, and left Mez and her sister Chumba to live with their aunt and cousins. Because of this, Mez holds her sister very dear and is always thinking about and trying to protect her. In the novel, an important plot element called the Veil stops nocturnal species, or nightwalkers, from roaming the day, and diurnal species, or daywalkers, from roaming the night. The only cathemeral species are the ants, associated with evil because their queen is said to have threatened Caldera's existence. Because of this, any animal who can cross the veil and be awake at the wrong time is considered unnatural and must be killed or exiled. Mez was coincidentally born during an eclipse, so she gained the ability to cross the Veil. Her aunt found out and exiled her, and she's been separated from her sister Chumba since. Mez instead meets up with another nocturnal animal, a bat named Lima, who she repeatedly realizes the similarities between Chumba and Lima. Mez uses this similarity to comfort herself in strange environments.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Percy Jackson:The Battle of the Labyrinth was boring
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Do We Need Adults? (Lord of the Flies Analysis)
Do We Need Adults?
Kabir
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Sexuality and Identity in "If We Were Villains" by M.L. Rio
Monday, February 26, 2024
Does Day Deserve to be Executed in Marie Lu’s Legend?
Does Day Deserve to be Executed in Marie Lu’s Legend?
By Ellie Rosch
Legend by Marie Lu is a sci-fi dystopian book featuring two main characters named Day and June. June grows up wealthy and favored by a government she’ll later learn is corrupt. Day grew up poor and after taking a government mandated test and failing, the government tested on him and he was presumed dead. Obviously he survived and he turned to getting money in illegal ways so that he could still support his family. He becomes a vigilante of some sort that the government wants to kill.
First let's look at the crimes Day committed. The book opens his perspective with him sneaking into a hospital and stealing medicine for his youngest brother who was just diagnosed with a deadly sickness that’s spreading across the Republic (the faction of America they live in). He escapes, but narrowly. He almost gets caught by another officer and is forced to throw a knife into his shoulder so he can escape (Lu 33). Day is most famous for setting fire to a warehouse full of planes that would be used to hurt people living outside of the Republic. We also meet a character that Day has cut on his face that resulted in a thin scar (65). We also learn later in the book that Day often bets on street fights for money.
The way in which Day tries to save his family with illegal means is not by any means ok, but throughout the book we learn rules that he has and lines he doesn’t cross. The biggest one is his no-kill rule. Day often uses his smarts to steal or win money and his agility to run away. These tactics are non-lethal and he only engages in combat if he has too. The soldier that he threw a knife at actually ended up dying at someone else’s hand, but for a while Day thought he actually did kill him. He was ridden with guilt and I think that’s really telling of his character.
Day eventually gets captured and while deciding his legal fate the government doesn’t even give him a trial, but if they did his intentions would have become clear. Day never wanted to hurt anyone. It wasn’t his fault that he failed the government test and it’s a miracle he even survived the government testing. He never wanted to become a vigilante but his family would’ve most definitely died without his support throughout the years. It ends up all being for naught as his mom and older brother die halfway through the book by government interference when Day gets captured.
The government decides to execute him but I think that’s very harsh. Yes, he has done some bad and illegal things but I think of him as more of a Robin Hood character. All he does is to hurt the corrupt government and provide for his family. The government can take the hits Day gives and his family needs support, especially because his older brother was the only one who could get money (Day’s mom had to take care of her 9 year old named Eden who’s preparing for the government test and their father ran away). Not to mention, Day is fifteen. The government took this kid who they couldn’t catch for the longest time (and they only did because they found out his identity and killed his mom) who never killed anyone and sentenced him to die by firing squad in public.
My point is Day didn’t deserve to be sentenced to the firing squad. The government was behind all of his troubles and while he did participate in illegal activities that deserves jail time, no one can say a fifteen year old kid that never wanted to hurt anyone, never killed, and looked after his family, that he deserved to die for everything he did. He may be a vigilante but he still has morals.
Works Cited
Lu, Marie. Legend. Penguin Books, 2011.
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Is It Offensive for Sports Teams and Their Fans to Use Native American Names, Imagery and Gestures?
The Character development In Sword art Online is bad
Why Sword Art Online Has a Bad Character D evelopment By: Amari Dixon So, Have you ever heard of an anime called Sword Art online? If you ...
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Does Day Deserve to be Executed in Marie Lu’s Legend? By Ellie Rosch Legend by Marie Lu is a sci-fi dystopian book featuring two main c...
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In my opinion, the debate between paper books and e-books boils down to personal preference and convenience. There's something undeniabl...