9/30 Questions

• The most immediate aspect of the film that would be considered expressionistic would be the set that the film was filmed on. It is very non-realistic, with a lot of sharp angles that would not be seen in regular architecture. It also is used to create an emotion, or to use a better word, an expression. The emotion of this movie is a lot more of a focus than the realism. Another aspect would be the plot itself. It's not very straightforward or even all that based in reality (until the end, possibly), nor is it told in a linear fashion.
• The police, bureaucrats and office workers were not depicted very kindly in the movie. They looked outlandish, surreal, and violent - almost evil in a sense.
• Francis' room seems almost normal in comparison to the rest of the sets featured in the film. A lot of the surreal visuals are not present during the scenes shot in that room. It also seemed like there were more shadows in it. In contrast, Dr. Caligari's office was much brighter, and was a lot more surreally shaped.
• The town was all kinds of crazy. I really liked the set design - it sort of reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. I wonder if Burton was inspired by a lot of Expressionism? I wouldn't be surprised. It was dark, spooky, yet beautiful in its own ways.
• In a very literal sense, as this all potentially took place in the mind of Francis, so psychology and how Francis' (and possibly other members of the cast) mind works is probably the focal point of a lot of discussion revolving around this film.
• As I mentioned in the previous answer, the twist ending is that Francis is in the asylum as a patient, along with the people he is telling his story to. I think the ending was awesome, and the way it left me with a bunch of questions was really cool. I like movies that leave a little bit open to interpretation, and I like how this movie ended just as bizarrely as it ran.
• This movie was released in 1920, right after World War I. A lot of the bureaucrats were painted in a bad light because the writers and director of the film were probably providing a reaction to Germany's treatment by its military during World War I.

9/28 Questions

• Kafkaesque, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is an adjective that describes something as of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially :  having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality.
• Last night, I had a dream that was very Kafkaesque, not only because I had no idea what was going on and nothing made sense, but mostly because I turned into a large beetle.
• It was very Kafkaesque in the sense that I didn't really see the point in the story. It didn't tell me much about the time period, it didn't really give much insight into the main character or even the supporting case, and it didn't really seem complex as much as it seemed...boring. Once the Stoker brought Karl into the room with all the people, things did start getting out of hand, but by then I just wasn't involved with the story and I couldn't find a reason to care. I don't know if it was Kafka's writing itself, or maybe that it was a bad translation, but none of it interested me.
• I've read Kafka before; in high school, we were assigned The Metamorphosis. And I hated it. Mostly, I'm not a fan of his work because I'm not really a fan of expressionist works in general, but in particular, his work just seems needlessly strange and disconnected from reality. He seems to be one of the most critically acclaimed authors of the early 20th century, and while I can respect and understand that, it just really isn't my cup of tea.
  
  Kafka is also known for a story called The Trial, which was published, like much of Kafka's work, posthumously. It is the story of a man who is arrested for a reason he nor the reader ever learns. I don't know much about the story.
• The largest event that happened during Kafka's lifetime was World War I, and I feel that a lot of Kafka's work is influenced heavily by the horrors of this war. A lot of themes he wrote on were isolation and disconnect from family, which were common themes at these times.

9/23 Questions

• The Ringstraße is a street in Vienna which served as a sort of cultural and artistic center for the city, and today has a very strong connection to the Secession.
• The Secession was a movement in art that broke away from the traditional art school so they could practice new ideas in art. Their motto is , to paraphrase, that each era has its own style. The building, also titled the Secession, opened in 1899, the same year of Johann Strauß's death.
• Klimt was respected by much of the bourgeois. Many women of that class considered it to be a sign of their status to be painted by him.
• Gustav Mahler was the director of the Viennese Opera during its Golden Period.
• There were around 700 coffee shops in 1904. They provided and continue to provide meeting places for the citizens.
• At this time, the Jews were starting to really experience anti-semitism. It was nowhere near the extreme it would be by World War II, but it was still prevalent enough to make life harder for those of Jewish descent.
• Knowing that most of Freud's work has been more or less debunked by modern psychology made me read through his interpretations with great caution. However, a lot of it made sense. He put a lot of real-life context into many elements of a dream, such as where he was living at the time and who he was associating with. Many people do have dreams like this, so it makes sense.
• I find the analysis pretty grounded in reality, as opposed to a sort of representational and/or abstract thing that many people try to use to interpret dreams these days (For example, according to dreamstop.com, dreaming of the sun could potentially mean blessings). I kind of like that, but at the same time, I felt like there was much less focus on analyzing the dreams themselves.
• I do feel that this text is important because keeping a scientific record keeps us moving forward, and it is still a pretty interesting theory to consider when trying to explain our own dreams.
• I honestly cannot remember most to all of my dreams, so unfortunately, I cannot analyze a recent one using Freud's methods. I'll have to write down a dream the next time I wake up. And even when I do, rarely do I remember these dreams in such detail.

9/14 Questions

• The relation to the Reformation and the Thirty Years War was that the reformation started the unease that led to the war. When anti-remormers began to take power in 1618, the Thirty Years War began.
• Individuals like Martin Luther helped lead the way to the Enlightenment because they waere brave enough to question the church, the people who held the most authority and power in the entire Holy Roman Empire, committing acts never really seen before. It sort of started a "monkey see monkey do" attitude, which led to people learning for themselves and trying to make themselves better and smarter.
• Kant explains enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity" in the very first sentence he writes. He then continues to describe enlightenment as, in much simpler terms, to use the brain you have and the knowledge you've gained.
• Personally, I think he means that he lived in an age where we were presented with the choice to be enlightened men and women.  Kant seemed to believe that people willingly remained ignorant or blissfully unaware of their own immaturity. He states that Mankind has not yet reached the stage where enlightenment can be reached without outside help - so basically he thinks we have to force people to do their own thing.
• He thinks tolerance is arrogant, and that one person does not have complete say on what is right and what is wrong.
• The parable of the ring reflects a lot of the enlightenment because it presented characters who were thinking on their own and debating rather than just doing what they were told.
• The crusades were happening, so it was only natural to have the Ring parable set there.
• Each of the rings represents one of the three big monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It takes place in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is a massively important city and sort of the center of all three of those monotheistic religions.