October 31 Class Blog

Today we began class by responding to the question on classroom: how many of your Halloween costumes do you remember? Then in our groups we calculated the fraction of how many of the costumes were allusions to the media such as Batman, Spider-man, etc… In total, 54% of the costumes were allusions to the media. We then began notes by defining illusion and allusion

• Illusion- usually a magical trick, played on the eye
• Allusion- making a reference to things that matter: historical or literary

As a class, we looked at a screenshot of Bart Simpson wearing a bra to resemble Mickey Mouse saying, “I am the mascot of an evil corporation”. This allusion towards Disney is explicitly negative by saying the words “evil corporation”. We then talked more about allusions being positive and negative:

• Critical allusions work well for satire
• Positive allusions are called homage

After we watched a short clip of a video showing the allusions to famous movies in the 70’s and 80’s in the first season if Stranger Things. These were positive references, honoring the audience in a way for understanding the allusions. We ended off class by starting to read the first chapter of Ready Player One. The first chapter is due by November 11th. We have to come to class with specific details about:

• Allusions- (what they say about the characters and what they say about the source material)
• Assembly-(and how the story is put together  to make something GG, BB, or something in between)