Manifestos Are Hard

In keeping with my tradition of complaining about all the work I have to do in this class, I thought I'd spend some time discussing the rough draft of my manifesto. I really didn't know where to start with this one. I've never written anything close to a manifesto, unless you count message board rants. It's just weird--all your academic life you're told that you have to write argumentative essays in a particular way. You have to have an introduction that introduces your claim in the form of an argumentative thesis, you then have to create a body of evidence for this claim, usually backed by textual evidence or outside sources. You know, that sort of thing. Here I'm just like, "Hey, this is what I think about some stuff you probably don't care about". I don't know, I just hope I didn't misinterpret the spirit of the manifesto.

The hardest part of this assignment for me was finding something that I care enough about to write a five page rant about it. I mean, I can rant with the best of them, but I need motivation and focus. I also wanted to stay away from the typical "Hey, comics are art, too!" line. In that sense, I've probably somewhat failed since much of what I've written thus far revolves around that very subject. Oh well, can't win them all, I suppose.

I've also started V for Vendetta. I watched the movie fairly recently and it's not terribly surprising to see a large number of differences between the film and the original comic. I thought the movie was pretty good, but so far I'd say that the comic trumps it. The movie particularly alters the role of Evey Hammond. Don't get me wrong--I love Natalie Portman and I think she did a great job in the movie. But she can't play a sixteen year old girl anymore and the movie had to be altered to reflect that. I'll have to reserve my judgment until after I finish the comic, though. I'm told that the ending differs significantly from the movie.