Presentations Day 2

The Alchemist vs. The Road

The Alchemist
Some group members were saying the same things as others during the presentation which made it seem as though they didn't spend any time working on the project as a group. The summary and plot parts of the presentation were pretty much the same thing being said by two different people. There were a lot of references to a "personal legend" but there wasn't much explanation on what exactly that means. The book sounds like it is very straightforward and rather uninteresting and I can't say from this presentation that I am inclined at all to read it.

The Road
One thing for sure is that starting off a presentation that is aimed to promote a book by saying that it can be really boring at times is not a very effective sales tactic. The summary was very dry and lacking in energy. The book itself did sound interesting, it was just presented in a very dull way. After the summary was finished, the rest of the presentation was actually quite good. The story sounds like it would be a good read for the class and would generate plenty of conversations during discussion.

Overall vote for the day, The Road had better presentation and seems to be the better of the two books for the class.

Presentations Day 1

Alright, one day of presentations down, two to go. As far as the presentations went today, I would have to say that No Country For Old Men was the better of the two. This has nothing to do with the fact that I was in the group and think that if I say that I liked this one better then we will get a better grade, but rather that the first group didn't seem to put a whole lot of effort into the assignment. The group that presented Candy essentially did a book report on it rather than try to suggest that it has any value in a classroom. Personally I think the review that they gave of the book made it sound like a simple sex and drugs book that has no deeper value and will therefore never read it. The presentation on NCFOM however addressed the potential of the book for classroom discussion. Final score for the day, NCFOM wins both best presentation and the book that I would rather see in the next class.

Fight Club

When I had heard about Fight Club before, I never found any desire to see it because I thought of it as simply a straightforward fight movie which had no interest to me. After seeing it for this class, it has to be one of the most %^&*ed up movies I have ever seen. I still liked it, but it was certainly a trip. I noticed early on in the movie that other than the scene where Tyler steals the car at the airport, nobody reacts to him except for the real Tyler. At first I thought that was a bit weird, but of course as the movie progressed it made perfect sense. As for Tyler's comment about the moment with no distinction or great battles, it was kind of true at the time. There really wasn't anything spectacular going on in the world at the end of the 90's, and there wasn't a foreseeable war either. Of course now this is definitely a time of distinction with the Iraq war, history being made by black men leading the country and winning the super bowl... stuff like that.