In class today, Professor O’Malley showed us a short clip of the movie Saving Private Ryan. He had said that there is nothing realistic about this movie. It conveys impossible scenarios that make them seem real. It shows you throughout the movie perspectives of different characters. At one moment you could be someone who was dying, the next you could be a NAZI, etc. It is unrealistic to be more than one person at a time or even be in more than one place. This technique is called parallel editing. It gives you a real feeling of emotion and power and makes you think about the world and yourself in different ways. O’Malley then asked the class the question of “Do movies imitate the way we have always thought?” We have been retrained to think by the narrative art forms of movies. The next topic brought up O’Malley started with “In 1776, slavery was common and so was indentured servitude. Why can’t I own one of you now?” No one in the class could answer that question. Yes it is against the law but that’s not the only answer. It is because modern people have a sense of divided self. For example, you have a job at Walmart, hate it, but still continue to work there. You cannot be owned but you decide to do things on your own. Modern technology is getting rid of that self-concept.

Today in class, Professor O’Malley brought up a topic called the Annihilation of Space and Time. To me, this was actually a very intriguing topic. The first example involved food. When you think about food, there is only certain kinds of foods that are offered at certain times of the year right? For example, we normally only eat corn and berries in the warmer weather months and potatoes, squash, and turnips in the colder months. Our diet is constricted by the place and time we are in. But now, however, with today’s modern technologies, food can be transported wherever so we can basically eat everything all year round. This is said to be radical dislocation. Now moving on, with the invention of the railroad systems and the telegraph, two obvious changes occurred: we had instant communication with distant places, and relatively rapid transit. These are all examples of the Annihilation of Space and Time because with these new technologies, it’s basically ignoring it! The next discussing was time zones. The time of day was a function of where you sat in space and was measured with the sun. People back in the day never followed the same time in the same area, so then what time really was it? See time in my opinion is an illusion to just keep each and every individual on track with a “schedule” for their day. The year 1880 was the beginning of the formation of regional time zones, also known as the “rearrangement of the authority that runs their lives.” The time of the day now had more to do with the telegraphic signals. The industrialization period forced regular clock hours. And as time goes on, more inventions are made. The invention of the telephone leads to the most important technologies. In 1900, motion pictures were common and so were phonograph recordings who Edison invented in 1877 which was used so dead people could talk to the dead (I know that is so not happening). And in 1905, flat disks were the most common form of music production. In a conclusion, today’s modern technologies has led to the annihilation of space and time.

I never knew what the Loudness War was until today, let alone there was a difference between the music being made today and the music from the past. The Loudness War is basically built on the idea that louder is better. However, this is flawed. People think it’s what helps them stand out from the crowd, but there is no connection between the “loudness” and the sales. Mr. O’Malley said this causes music to get flat, which in return makes the emotions flat. I don’t necessarily agree with this because like said before, people don’t notice this Loudness War, and for me personally, it does not make a difference. If I like a song, I like a song throughout the whole thing regardless of this “Loudness War.”  But of course this is different for everyone and some people do notice a change. Some people don’t notice it but do notice the dynamic of the song. That is what song writers should focus on. In class we also talked about idealism vs realism. I know for sure I am an idealist so there is no argument there. After all, I was in fact raised Catholic which Professor O’Malley said religious people are idealist but that’s not the only factor.