Creative Short Story and Analysis - Hunter Stokes

                                                                     An Angel at Midnight 

Enzo put his headphones in and walked down the dim lit street as he did every night. But this night was different; he needed to clear his head.

The air was clear and the stars were out, it was the perfect summer night.

Enzo had just gotten in the biggest argument with his father, because he had not chosen a school to attend to in the fall just yet.

USC, Florida State, Clemson? They were all awaiting an answer. What team would have the number one prospect in High School football come August.

This was the most stressful decision that he had ever faced. But he knew exactly where he wanted to go.  Enzo had dreamed of playing at USC since he was young. He was aspiring to be as good of a running back as Reggie Bush.

The problem with this was not where he wanted to go, it was where his dad wanted him to go to keep the family tradition alive.

Enzo’s father had played football at Clemson in the  80’s and wanted his son to follow his footsteps since Clemson had given him such a good offer, but that is not where his heart was taking him.

It felt wrong.

He had never disappointed his father, and without his coaching, Enzo would not be in the position that he is in.

Enzo began to run, the music blasting in his ears, his heart pounding.

Sprinting down the street with all the pent up anger, the frustration and guilt. The overwhelming stream of emotions just hit him like a tidal wave.

He ran, and ran until he couldn’t feel his legs moving anymore and he collapsed on the concrete.

“WHY!” Enzo yelled

“Why cant he just be proud of me?”

At a bench in the middle of town is where he had collapsed, desperately trying to catch his breath.

When a figure appeared from the shadows of the street light.

Walking towards him was a feeble old man, who was trembling, and used a cane.

“You’re quite the runner son.” The old man said

“You remind me a lot of myself when I was your age.”

“Who are you?” Enzo said quietly

The old man just brushed the question to the side as if it was never asked. He proceeded to walk closer and said “What’s troubling you?”

“Nothing” Enzo said sharply

The man knew he was lying, and just continued to question him.

“Hell of a running back Enzo”

“How do you know?” Enzo was so confused, how did this man recognize him to be the running back.

“I’ve been following your high school career, you run just like your father did, with more heart though.”    

Enzo quickly shouted out “How did you know my father?”

The old man began to tell Enzo a story.

“I knew your father very well Enzo, I was his high school football coach. Your father was one hell of an athlete, but had no idea how much untapped potential he actually had. He was always skipping practice, mouthing off to the other teammates, if it wasn’t his way it was the wrong way. When the college offers started rolling in your father showed no hesitance to choose Clemson since his father had played there. But when your dad got to Clemson he was not given the starting job, and remained a backup for all four years because of his attitude towards the coaches. He would’ve really been something else if he had just chosen his own path.”

Enzo was completely shocked at all this man knew about his father, and his past, and was very surprised to hear that his father had so much potential that he had wasted because of this decision.

But mostly he was frustrated that even after all of this, his father would want to have his son make the same mistake that he did just to get a re-do through the eyes of his son.

The old man looked at Enzo and said, “ Son, make the right decision for you, where you think you will have success, where the offense fits your style of play, and where the coaches, players, and staff will try to harvest your talent. But most of all choose a school that will give you a good education and understanding of how you can be successful after football, because trust me son the playing days end.”

Enzo still speechless and finally able to catch his breath looked up to the man and said “ Thank you Sir,” “Thank you so much for helping me through this, I needed advice but never knew who to ask.”

Enzo got up, shook the mans hand, and started to slowly walk back towards his house.

“Ill be looking forward to seeing the next chapter in your life Enzo. Surprise people, break the rules, and enjoy the California sun.”

Enzo got home that evening and went to bed as his mind was exhausted from the day he had just experienced.

The next morning Enzo and his father were sitting at the breakfast table when Enzo said “Dad, I am going to be committing to the University of Southern California to play football this fall.” Expecting a smack to the head Enzo nervously looked for a response.

His father calmly said “ Son, do what your heart desires. I will be proud to sport a USC hat to every game.” “I like the idea of California anyways”  he said with a smirk.

Enzo said “I just thought you would be so angry, but last night I was jogging and came across your high school coach, he told me so many stories, and really opened my eyes to show me I needed to do what my heart desires or I will live with a life of regret.”

Enzos father looked shocked; confused even.

“Son you must be confused, my high school coach passed away not long after I graduated from Clemson, but I hadn’t heard from him much after high school. You must have met someone else.

Enzo looked at his father in disbelief, “ No dad it was him he knew everything about you, he knew about college, about me, he even knew I wanted to go to USC but I hadn’t said anything about it.”

Enzo thought for a moment, and realized he had not said one thing about going to California, yet when he was leaving the old man, he knew exactly where I was planning on going.

“Someone must be watching over you son.” Enzo’s father said as he picked up his glass of orange juice, “Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.”

                                                                       Analysis 

When I was first starting to do the draft for this story I had no idea even where to start to think of a topic or even a main character, but the first thing that I wanted tot think of was a main characters name. I ended up deciding to name my main character Enzo, which is my cousins’ name. It seemed unique enough to fit in my story. The original Idea that I had was completely different than my final idea, but It ended up having some of the same elements like the idea that my character was going to have to make a very important and stressful decision. I was planning on writing a different story up until the moment I started typing, and at that point my idea completely changed and a story started flowing out.

            I honestly was not sure where I was going with my idea when I started typing but as I typed the first sentence a new story was just emerging In my mind and I just thoughtlessly typed sentence after sentence trying to be creative in how I developed the story. The original Idea I had was to make my character go somewhere late at night and find 2 pills marked in a bag, one would unlock his brain and give him the highest IQ one would give him 10,000,000 cash in his bank account by the next morning. This idea sounded really interesting but I was not sure how I would add any secondary characters or develop it beyond this, but I just continued to type and by the second sentence my new idea had changed. I kept the same character, the high school kid named Enzo, but made him the top high school running back in the country, and he was stressed about his college decision. This made for a much better story, and by the end I even put a mystical twist to his night of thinking. I was able to incorporate his father into the story as a character and also his fathers high school coach, who comes to him to give advice in the middle of the night, but what Enzo does not know at the time is that the man who visited him was actually not there, he was an angel, or ghost trying to lead him down the path that his heart wanted to go. I think that this story will appeal to peoples emotions in that they will feel bad for Enzo at first but towards the end of the story they will be glad he is making the right decision and also shocked that the man was not actually there, just a spirit sent to guide him.  I feel that I need to improve on my creative process and be more organized in my thinking, even though my thoughts were sporadic I feel that I could have been better at writing each thought down and piecing together a story that was a little lengthier and built up more to create more suspense for the reader. I would want to make sure that the readers felt like they had to keep reading and my story was reeling them in enough to where they did not lose focus on the sequence of events. The story I feel was overall successful, but If I had a chance to re do this assignment I think that I might add one more character and build into the idea that this man was a figment of his imagination or a spirit to come give him guidance so that It did not seem so abrupt at the end.

            This process taught me a lot about how difficult it is to be a writer, how easy it is to write 2 pages of a story and how fun it is to develop your own fictional tale. I can understand why writer enjoy it so much because it is almost like writing a movie on paper, I could vividly see my story developing in my head and it was a very enjoyable process.

Lea Clark

Professor Gilliand

Blog Post 4

Aesthetics is a part of philosophy that deals with art. It contains two subtopics, romanticism, and formalism. Romanticism is an attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, paintings, and music; dealing with emotions rather than just what you are seeing. Formalism is more focused on form rather than the meaning of the art. I think romanticism is more plausible than formalism. With romanticism you can go more into depth evaluating the work rather than only seeing it as an object.

Romanticism has more explanatory breadth because you can go more into depth with it. Not only seeing it as an object but also connecting emotionally.

Also romanticism has more explanatory depth. When you look at a piece of art romanticism allows you to see it in more in depth ways. You can see it as something you can connect to rather than just an abstract piece of art.

Formalism has more simplicity. Formalists see art as only an object; they don’t see meaning or anything more.

Romanticism is more conservative. For most people, when they look at art they always see the meaning behind it or it will remind them of something. Not many people see art only for what it looks like.

1. Romanticism and Formalism are the most plausible explanations of art.

2. Romanticism has much more explanatory breadth and depth, while formalism is more simplistic.

3.Therefore, romanticism is the best explanation for art.

Blog 4, Hunter Stokes

Hunter Stokes
Philosophy
December 3rd, 2014

This piece of Artwork is titled "The Persistence of Memory" Painted with Oil on canvas in 1931, and is currently in the Museum of modern art in New York City. As you can see in this particular painting, there are three clocks which appear to be melting due to heat or some other factor. There is also what appears to be a clock upside down on a table that is not melting , and is in perfect condition but is riddled with insects. in the distance there appears to be water and a rocky shoreline. On the table or wooden platform there is a tree with a branch supporting one of three melting clocks. The last visible image within the painting is a white object on the ground that is mysterious, but to my untrained eye seems to be a closed human eye with eyelashes and a nosed shape outline. The white object appears to me as half of a face melting onto the ground with a clock melting on top of it.
In the Legomenon Online Literary Journal & Magazine , K Shabi posted an interpretation of Salvador Dali's Painting 'The Persistence of Memory.' K Shabi basically wrote that Dali was painting an abstract dreamscape. This was intended to explain how time is irrelevant in dreams, therefore the clocks are melting away because they have no purpose in dream land. The picture is supposed to be a dipiction of how there is no concept of time while dreaming and that the clocks are vanishing since they are purposeless. The author writes that this is illustrating how some nights you fall asleep and then wake up thinking its about 3:00am but it is actually 8:00am and the day has begun. Shabi believes that it is impossible to keep time in your dreams and that is what this painting is an illustration of. Shabi also provides insight on the history of surrealist paintings and explains how some believe that the painting has to do with Einsteins theory of reletivity which would completely change the idea of the dream land. This would mean that the clocks represented how the old fashioned technology was withering away Post Einstein world, and how simple machines and wall clocks were primitive and eventually would vanish. This theory is consistent with the idea that Dali used ants as a symbol of decay and the ants were crawling all over one of the 4 pocket watches.

This insight provides fantastic Explanatory breadth because all parts of the Artwork are addressed except for the meaning of the desert but this could have little to no meaning and could just compliment the fact that the clocks are melting. All of the clocks are addressed and the face that the clocks are melting is also addressed. The author also talks about the white object on the ground and mentions that this landscape is in the desert, but does not explain why.

As for Explanatory Depth I believe that this author did a fantastic job because his insight gave me a very new and abstracted outlook on this painting that is actually one of my favorites. The author goes into great detail with two different theories and provides history and relates the painting to the surrealist movements and Dali's personal style and influence. The author did a fantastic job of going into detail with each aspect of the painting even being as surreal as it is.

The author has two theories that are both very insightful, yet simple. He explains them in such a way that is very easy to grasp even though surrealism is one of the hardest styles to interpret. This author captured the meaning of this painting with facts and history, and he also made it easy to follow as to avoid confusion.

As for conservatism, there really is no "modern" interpretation of this piece of artwork because artwork is subject to opinion, it is not culturally based or something that people make a general consensus about. it is debated and often disagreed upon because it is all in the eyes of the beholder.

There is Predictive Power or evidence that suggests that Dali has used ants in several other pieces to represent decay and withering away as he does in this piece with the ants crawling all over the clock that is on the wooden platform. This is consistent with his theory about Einstein and his Theory of Relativity.

The second theory that was stated about the connection of this piece of art and Einsteins theory of Relativity is the best interpretation of the Painting 'The Persistence of Memory'
Though it is a very complex theory it shows strength by having a great deal of explanatory breadth, depth, simplicity and also a great deal of Predictive Power which is hard to accomplish when interpreting such a surreal painting.
Therefore, The second theory is definitely the best interpretation of the painting ' The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dali.

-Hunter Stokes

Le'Shania  Anderson

Prof. Rex

Phil 100





         Irony of Negro Policeman 1981, Jean Basquiat a painting that looks very chaotic and very child like made with a mixture of crayons and paint. The painting looks very disconnected, by looking just at the painting and not reading the title or swiggles of words I couldn't really tell if the figure was a robot or a man. I came to the realization that was the intention. After connecting the time the painting was made and also including the race of the artist I understand that Basquiat was displaying how he felt about a black man choosing a career mostly white racist would occupy. With the word "pawn"  written on the picture and springs, wires in the man I also came to believe he felt the negro policeman wasn't doing only thing on his own freewill he was controlled by his white counterparts. After doing research on this piece Jean Basquiat wanted his painting to show his distance for a negro policeman because he couldn't see how as a African American why would they enforce rules that were meant to enslave them as well. I believe my interpretation is insightful because I was able to understand what the artist was displaying.

      This interpretation has explanatory breadth because it explains the robotic and disconnected man in the painting, Basquiat took the mentality of a negro policeman and made it an outward appearance.
      For explanatory depth of the artwork does elucidate a lot of detail, this interpretation is detailed because it explains the belief of one African American man about his fellow counterpart.
      For simplicity this painting interpretation didn't have only assumptions, It was a general point of view, an opinion. The only assumption was what the figure in the painting was.
      With conservatism the whole idea Basquiat had with this painting is in my opinion still a common belief many  blacks including a time when cops have been the reasons for many deaths.

1. Formalism is an interpretation of the meaning of the artwork Jean Basiquat, Irony of Negro Policeman
2. Though formalism is radical it has great deal of explanatory breadth and depth, and a moderate amount of simplicity
3. Therefore, formalism is a good interpretation of artwork Jean Basquat Irony of Negro Policeman

Blog Post 4

Orlando Edwards

Romanticism or Formalism

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of beauty and artistic taste. When looking at the studies of the philosophical foundation of the arts two main topics are discussed, Formalism and Romanticism. Formalism states that the purpose of art is to present formal beauty in a figurative, abstract manner or painting. In other words it represents forms that structure reality and guide behavior. Romanticism expresses the view that art is more than just rational elements, its also non rational emotions. Romanticism emphasizes inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual person.                                                                      

As part of the Explanatory breadth Romanticism explains more works of art because it goes onwards to non rational emotions. As for Formalism, it is limited to only rational elements. Beauty is too narrow aesthetic standard and should be sublime. Limiting it to rational elements is undermining the use and meaning of beauty. Expressing non rational emotions makes us as people aware of a mysterious transcendent reality. Deeper than the one to which we typically relate intuitive and rational knowledge.                                                                                          

  For explanatory depth the Romanticism theory elucidates it’s aspects in greater detail. There are many paintings in life which have a greater reason beyond its simple features. An example would be expressions on a person’s face inside of a painting. Famous pictures such as the ‘scream’, leaves questions to why is his mouth open. Making viewers aware of a mysterious transcendent reality that Formalism lacks to mention.                                                                                                           

As for a simplistic view, I do believe that Formalism has fewer parts than Romanticism. It excludes the non rational emotions which makes it much simpler to understand its theory. Gives an experience of a purely rational type of pleasure and proper attitude is disinterested.                                                  The perspective seen in modern day conservatism is Romanticism. It is seen more now than ever that Artists are leaving viewers puzzled with their creations. Leaving the viewers to discuss the meaning behind the creation as there is more than one meaning. Very mysterious meanings leave people to come to conclusions that vary with each person. Artists want viewers to think and process what is going on in their visuals, rather than it is something very simple and easy to understand.

1.      Romanticism and Formalism are the most plausible explanations of the philosophical foundation of the arts.

2.      Romanticism has much more explanatory breadth, explanatory depth, and conservatism, where as Formalism has a little more simplicity.

3.      Therefore, Romanticism is the best explanation of the philosophical foundation of the arts.

Aesthetics

Ashli Benbow
Professor Rex
December 2, 2014
Blog Post 4

 

Artwork

When asked to define the meaning of art all I can think of is emotion. Artwork is used to express a vision, a thought, a memory; which to me all means emotions. Art can be envisioned differently to each person, but I believe each artwork was created due to emotion. Like this artwork that was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1903 called “The Old Guitarist”. When arguing this statement there are two types of theories; Formalism and Romanticism. Formalism argues that the outward appearance (the beauty) is more important than the actual meaning of the art, while Romanticism argues that art is all about the emotion, the deeper meaning behind the appearance. Romanticism is more plausible because artwork is used as an emotional power, and that's the way artwork is not only created but viewed.

I think that when you look at art, you can't only look at how it's painted or how bright the colors are; there's more to it than how well it is painted. Art is used to emotionally connect to the viewer. In this Picasso painting you can see that it's a man with a guitar, but when you look deeper into the picture it's more than that. Picasso painted this picture when he found out that his dear friend had died. This picture represents the emotion he felt after hearing such news, based on Picasso's emotion he painted this picture for his friend. When I look at this, I suddenly feel emotional, I can feel his emotions through the picture. I can feel his sadness and pain, and because the colors are so dark, it makes the emotion feel so gloomy. Also, because he is holding the Guitar I also think of how much music can create such an impact on our feelings, how we think, and just overall. I think that because he is so sad he turned to his guitar to make him feel better or maybe the music he was playing made him feel so sad.

 Romanticism is more plausible because when I looked at this photo I was looking more into the emotions of the painting than the appearance. I do believe that you need formalism when defining artwork because you do have to look at the appearance to judge the emotion but at the same time the appearance does not make the artwork.

When it comes to explanatory breadth Romanticism explain more than Formalism. Formalism only looks at the outside appearance, it misses the inward part of the artwork.

With explanatory depth Romanticism has greater detail than Formalism because it talks about the outward and inward appearance, the deeper meaning of the artwork, while formalism just looks at the experience.

Formalism would describe simplicity more than Romanticism because formalism lacks of details, this is more complicated because you're only looking at one part and not looking into what the artwork means.  

Romanticism and Formalism would both use conservatism because it depends on your own belief.   

1. Romanticism is an interpretation of the meaning of artwork X.

2. Though Romanticism is radical, it has a great deal of explanatory breadth and depth, and a moderate amount of simplicity.

3. Therefore, Romanticism is a good interpretation of artwork X.

Adam Schwabacher

                What makes art a piece of art? Is it the type of thing that it is capturing or is it how creative the picture is? Art is a form of human expression, this is a way of how humans express their feelings or how the view a certain thing in the world. Other things that humans use to express themselves are music and poems. There are two theories that we use to identify art, which is called formalism and romanticism.  Formalism is a way to view art on what you see. Like for example when you look at Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night you see a night sky and houses. Romanticism is the way to view art and feel emotion to it.  I believe that in order to enjoy the full aspect of art to need to view it with a Romanticism type of aspect.

When you are able to use Romanticism it is easier to appreciate the arts. You are able to use feelings and emotions toward different types of art.  For example if you were to look this picture of a sad clown you would feel conflicted because of the fact that clowns are supposed to be happy. You could see a picture that he had been through a lot of stress or have seen horrible things. You are also kind of sad because of the fact that he is unhappy. Clowns are now for being happy and spreading there happiness to other people. As the audience you want the clown to be happy and silly but instead he is very depressed looking.  If you were to look this with a formalistic view the you would just see a sad clown and wouldn’t feel anything towards him.

                The explanatory breath in Romanticism is when you are enjoying the artwork and you can relate to it. Artist use this by having a hidden meaning in their work. If you look at with a formalist aspect you could never enjoy it as much because you are just looking at its physical appearance.

                Also Romanticism has more explanatory depth then formalism. Due to the fact when you are a formalist and you are just looking at other than having an emotional pull towered the artwork. An example of this is the Mona Lisa, rather than looking at this as just a sad women, you want to know why she is sad and what has happened in her life.

                In the since of simplicity formalism has more simplicity then romanticism. This is caused due to the fact you are not able to get the full effect of something just by looking at it. Unless you able to feel for the painting and enjoy both the emotional and physical characteristics in it then you will never appreciate it as much.

1.       Romanticism and Formalist are the best way to enjoy art

2.       Romanticism is known for more explanatory depth and breath, while formalism is known for more simplicity.

3.       Therefore Romanticism is the best way to enjoy the arts.