Comparison: visual way and imagination

There are always many differences between books and movies of a same story. Some of movies are true to the books, but some are not really. Today, I watched a movie named Opal dreams which is adapted from the book, Pobby and Dingan. The movie is quite different from the book. In my opinion, I like the book more.

First, there are numerous differences. For example, the movie deleted one of my favorite parts in the book. There is a plot in the book that Ashmol came to tell the preacher something about Pobby and Dingan. When I was reading this part of the book, I imagined that the preacher must be a kind old man. I expected to see how this character look like in the movie, but the movie never mentioned this character! Also, Ashmol in this movie is not as brave as the book. In the book, there are many conversations between Ashmol and his family. However, the conversations are deleted in the movie, especially the conversations between Ashmol and Kellyanne. In my opinion, some conversations can express Ashmol’s bravery and love to his family. The film only has a few conversations. That makes Ashmol not as brave as the book.

In my opinion, I like the book more. The scenes in the book are invisible, so we can imagine them as what we like them to be. However, the movie is like what the directer liked. Thus, the scenes are different from what I thought. Also, the book has a richer content. The directer must consider the length of the film, so he must delete something. For me, I’d like to see a detailed story, so I like the book.

There are numerous differences between the movie and the book. The movie tells the story as a visual way, and the book gives us space to imagine. Both of them are excellent, but I like to read the book rather than watch the movie. 

Galileo: Learn something

Olivia Cao

Nov. 15. 2014

Galileo: Not only science

People always say Galileo is a great person. When we talk about Galileo, we can think of many achievements of him, such as improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. I watched the show named Galileo this Saturday. It is a drama which is wrote by Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt Brecht is a famous German playwright. Life of Galileo is one of his notable works. In this play, we can not only see Galileo’s achievements, but also his personalities and some social problems. This is an amazing play, I learned many things from it. I will recommend to my friends. 

Five hundred years before, if someone wanted to prove the earth rotates around the sun, he must consider the consequences. In some ways, Galileo was a brave man, even if he finally yielded. Some people think Galileo should stand up for science and truth. I ever read a article, the author said Galileo’s silence and weakness led the civilization of Europe to stop developing for fifty years. I agree with that, his experience and compromise scared other scientists at that time. People were afraid of telling the truth at that time. Thus, many theories could not be discuss in public. Even Galileo’s close students civilized him and hated him. From this perspective, Galileo should sacrifice for science. Is it wrong that he chose a shameful life. However, Galileo was human. In some ways, human is kind of selfish, living is human’s instinct. We can not ask everybody to sacrifice for science. It is a normal thing that Galileo chose to live with his daughter and gave up the science. 

However, there are many scientists are true to the truth, like Galileo’s student, Andrea. They are not afraid of death, they are real scientists. At last, when Andrea came by his teacher, they argued. Andrea was so true to justice that he could not accept the truth that his favorite teacher gave up the truth. Galileo understood Andrea’s thoughts, so he gave him his research results. Then the truth was known. In this play I liked Andrea most, he represented the truth and justice. Also, I like Galileo’s daughter, because she was the only one who stayed with Galileo and supported Galileo all the time. She thought about his father all the time, she loved Galileo. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest reasons why he gave up the truth, because he loved his daughter. 

Actually, I can not understand the whole play, so I did so much research after the play. I was confused the character which was acted by Luke. I did not understand who he was. Then, I asked Luke who he was. He said he was the worst guy in this play, he donated money to the church and controlled them. I was still confused, so I searched him by Internet, I got nothing. I am still confused about this character. 

I like this play and I will recommend this show to others, even if it is a little difficult to understand. I like the story, as the introduction of this play said “ Learn from the show”. I did learn something from this show, and I hope my friends learn something too. Also, I like the acting. Actors are so professional that I wondered was I watching some famous actors’ performance. Anyway, I will recommend this show to others.  

In conclusion, I am so glad I watched this show. This is a good show. If I have a chance to watch again, I must go. I recommend this to all my friends. I did not only enjoy this show, but also learn from this show. 

Citation: 

"Galileo Galilei." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German Marxist poet, playwright, and theatre director. Brecht died on 14 August 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58. 

His Notable works are The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. 

From his late twenties Brecht remained a lifelong committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his "epic theatre", synthesized and extended the experiments of Erwin Piscator and Vsevolod Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. 

Brecht has been a controversial figure in Germany, and in his native city of Augsburg there were objections to creating a birthplace museum. By the 1970s, however, Brecht's plays had surpassed Shakespeare's in the number of annual performances in Germany.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays: Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and many others.

Galileo--Great scientist

Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematican, engineer, astrongnomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the father of modern science". 

His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phase of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, a time when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was false and contrary to scripture, placing works advocating the Copernican system on the index of banned books and forbidding Galileo from advocating heliocentrism. Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating not only the Pope but also the Jesuits, both of whom had supported Galileo up until this point. He was tried by theHoly Office, then found "vehemently suspect of heresy", was forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, in which he summarised the work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials. 

Citation:
"Galileo Galilei." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Ed. 1900Parma1900. Wikipedia, 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

In class writing

" The secret of an opal's color lies not in its substance but in its absences." 

We all know opal is beautiful, but opal is rare and hard to find. Thus, it is expensive. Some people even spend their whole life on looking for opal. The rarer it is, the more beautiful it is. People like it more. 

Ashmol thought his sister was crazy and he never believed Poppy and Dingan were real before, but after Poppy and Dingan were lost, he changed. He even went to Old Sid's mine to look for Poppy and Dingan or organized a funeral for them. After Kellyanne died, he and the people in the town realized his sister were right. He thought Poppy and Dingan were real. At last, all the people in this town had an imaginary friend. Ashmol did not think her sister were crazy any more. He loved her, and he even did not believe she was died. He realized how " opal" was beautiful. 

In this story, Ashmol's father was almost crazy about opal, he cared opal more than his family. After he was charged as a ratter, he had more time to stay with his family. He felt how warm his family was. He was back to his family, and he loved them. He also understood the ' opal's real beautiful colors'.  

Change--Personality

Change—Personality

Actually, lots of people have a imaginary friends. They may be not real and invisible for others, so people always put the wrong construction on what they see. However, imaginary friends are important to themselves. Poppy and Dingan is a story about imaginary friends of a little girl named Kellyanne, and it is written by Ben Rice. I like this book not only because it has a rich content, but also because it reflect personalities. It is not just a simple story of a mad girl, we can know more from this book.  

First, as I said this is not a simple story. What does this mean? We can see all the people’s personality through two imaginary friends. Actually, this book is about a change, the change before Kellyanne’s father lost her friends and after he lost her friends. We can see everyone’s personality from this change. Her missing friends even changed her whole family or whole town. 

For example, before she lost her imaginary friends, Ashmol never believed Poppy and Dingan were real, he even was aggressive to them. “ I walked over to where Poppy was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Poppy was a figment of her imagining.” ( Page 3. Rice, Ben. Poppy and Dingan. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print.) After Kellyanne was ill, he changed a lot. He even went to Old Sid’s mine and went down the claim at midnight to look for Poppy and Dingan. He complained about himself, he also thought the thing which he was doing was a stupid thing on his way to the mine. The book said: “ When I was half the way out to Wyoming I stopped and asked myself what the hell I was doing going looking in the middle of the night for two dead people who didn't exist. ” ( Page 51. Rice, Ben. Poppy and Dingan. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print.) In my opinion, he still did not believe Poppy and Dingan were real, but he did these things. He loved his family and his sister, he could try his best to let his sister get better and cheer his parents up. Loving his family is one of his biggest personality. The author did not say this clearly in words, but he did wrote these details to express his personality. I like this method. In general, several details are stronger than one “ love” sentence. 

Also, this change influenced other people. Before Kellyanne’s dad lost Poppy and Dingan, people treated Kellyanne’s father normally or even liked him. However, after he lost Poppy and Dingan and was pointed as a ratter or a thief, people changed their attitudes. They did not believe him anymore, some of them even burned his tense, even though he was clean. People did not think of their past relationships, they wanted to kick Williamsons out of this town and protect their own mines. These are negative personalities from this book. 

At last, I should say I love this book. I’ve never seen a fiction that talks about imaginary friends, this is interesting. Also, I love the rich content in this book. The most interesting thing is the author expressed the personalities by writing this story of imaginary friends or change.