FSEM - Road Trips

Weeks 1-7 reading and vocab

Orientation Week:

My Favorite Restaurant Served Gas

Kiese Laymon

A story from Laymon’s childhood about a restaurant at a gas station that he and his grandmother, and her boyfriend would go to on Friday nights in Forest, Mississippi. It discussed the culture of his life as a child and how it differs from his life now in New York and with a partner who was raised up north rather than the deep south. It discusses topics such as racism and class differences in society today.

Week 1:

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O’Connor

This story is about a family making a trip to Florida. There is a grandmother, her son, Bailey, his wife, their two children, June Star and John Wesley, and lastly a baby that the wife holds. The grandmother does not want to go to Florida; she would rather go to Tennessee to see her friends, and she throws a huge fit and decides to bring her cat, Pitty Sings, along for the trip and talks about a murderous bandit who just escaped prison. She complains the whole way there while Bailey drives. During the trip, they pass Toomsboro, and the grandma tells the kids about a plantation she knew there, and gets excited and convinces them they want to see it, and Bailey turns around, and the grandma takes them on a dirt road. Pitty Sings jumps on Bailey’s shoulders, causing them to crash and flip the car. The grandma freaks out that they crashed, and then the bandit and two other guys come along and help them until the grandma proclaims that she recognizes the bandit, and eventually he kills them all but the grandma, the very last. 

On The Road

Kerouac

This is a story about a man named Sal Paradise whose wife just divorced him, and then he meets an interesting dude named Dean. Dean has a girlfriend named Marylou. They live with Sal for a while, but they break up after a fight because Dean wants to settle down, and Marylou doesn’t want to and doesn’t care. Dean meets one of Sal’s friends, they hit it off, and leave for Denver. Sal gets depressed, then leaves Chicago for Denver with fifty bucks, goes the wrong way, wastes a lot of money, and then turns around and tries again. He meets a lot of interesting people while hitchhiking to Denver and then makes it there eventually. First singular male road trip- as road trips were seen as for families or couples. 

Spontaneous Bop prosody

a writing technique coined by Allen Ginsberg for Jack Kerouac's style of spontaneous prose, which uses the rhythm and improvisational energy of bebop jazz to capture a stream of consciousness

The Beats

Jack Kerouac was a central figure in the Beat Generation, a group of post-WWII writers who rejected materialism and celebrated spontaneity, non-conformity, and freedom. His novel *On the Road* brought the Beat Generation to a broader audience and became an iconic work for the movement.

Week 2:

Shitty First Drafts

Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott brilliantly writes about first drafts that are completely “incoherent, hideous” and most notably “shitty.” She admits that even professional writers sit at their desks in despair, with fear in their eyes, hoping that God will somehow send them a message that will help them write their next story. However, feelings of fear and desperation often felt during a writer’s first attempt to begin his or her master-piece-in-the-making are exactly what they need in order to write well (in the end). In order to end up with good second drafts and fantastic third drafts, successful writers must practically vomit out their ideas on paper (sorry to be so graphic). According to Anne, the first draft is the “child’s draft,” where you let all of your thoughts flow on the papers in every directions since no one is going to see this draft. After going back and revising your first draft, you must begin to structure and alter your writing accordingly. Your third draft requires that you really focus on your purpose, voice, grammar while considering your audience in order to make sure it flows well for the reader. It’s not until you’ve written an embarrassingly hideous first draft that you can polish your writing in order to send your message to your reader both clearly and effectively.

Flaming Iguanas

Erika Lopez

This road trip story is about a woman named Tomato Rodriguez who accidentally kills her neighbor’s cat Snowball while trying to learn how to ride a motorcycle. She doesn’t take accountability for it and instead becomes close to her neighbor, Magdalena. Tomato convinces her to go on a road trip with her across the country on motorcycles. Tomato does not like her and ends up telling her she killed Snowball, and Magdalena leaves her on her own. Tomato continues her road trip and prays to Snowball as if the cat were a god. Her father dies while she is on this trip, and now she feels completely alone. She uses this road trip to find a purpose in her life. 

Week 4:

The structure of Hollywood Film Making

Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin

This basically just criticizes Classical Hollywood films and talks about how American films are just viewed as Classical Hollywood but there are more films in America than just those.

Cars is a Drive Down a Lonely Highway

Manohla Dargis

This is basically just a deep dive of the 3 Cars movies and calling them all hypermasculine and just going into depth on certain connections made throughout the movie and today’s time period. 

Classical Hollywood

These films normally have a climax and a resolution. Linear narrative, one thing leads to another. Clear-cut protagonist and antagonist. Timeframe is based on the 30s to 50s.

Ideology

A shared cultural value and belief.

shot

a picture or a movie clip of someone, something, or an object

Mise-en-scene

Means anything placed in front of the camera. Clothes, costume, makeup, and lighting.

long shot

Can see the whole subject clearly and some background

Extreme long shot

When the subject is a speck

3-point-lighting

Backlight, fill, and key light. Key lighting is the brighter one; without it or less of it, the scene is darker.

High Key Lighting

Very bright and even

Low Key Lighting

darker, more intimate, shows shadows

Pan vs. Tilt

Pan is when the camera moves side to side, and Tilt is when the camera moves up and down.

Tracking shot

When an object or person is followed in a scene by the camera

Zoom

When the focal lens distance changes inside the camera, so a zoom in or zoom out

Continuity editing/ invisible style

Gives the best view of the actions, very clear cuts, and unnoticeable edits.

Match on action

When actions starts in one shot and is carried over into another shot

Eyeline Match

When a subject is looking off the camera and it is what they are looking at

Graphic Match

Two shots are linked together due to visual similarities. Like one shape turning into something else of that same shape.

Jump cut

violates the 30-degree rule, which says there has to be a 30-degree difference between each shot. These are shots over a time frame we don’t know, causing confusion. The actor or the actions basically cut, and then and new action of that same scene is happening just with the actor doing something different.

Diegetic/ non-diegetic

Diegetic is when the character can hear a sound, and so can the audience. Non-diegetic is where only the audience can hear the sound. 

Montage

Editing technique. Editing to show time passing. A compressed process of time.

Hollywood Reniassance

In the 1960s, directors started to make a different type of film, with less stereotypical, predictable endings. Movies no longer had to have a happy ending or be as clean and buttoned-up. A new expression of film.

Medium Long shot

From the knees to the top of the head

editing

relationship and flow between shots

medium shot

waist up

medium close up

shoulders to top of head

close up

just the face, object, or body part up close, such as the head or hand, with maybe a little blurred background.

Extreme close up

Just a body part or object, nothing else, such as the eye.

Week 5:

Taking Off and The New Shape of Motion from Populuxe 

Thomas Hine

Taking Off is about how the economy took off after World War II, specifically 1954-1964,  when citizens could finally afford luxury items again instead of paying for the war. Everything was very colorful and new. 

The New Shape of Motion is about how cars changed in the 50s through the 60s, and how they weren’t just about taking someone from point A to point B; they were about style and class now.

Populuxe

an optimistic, futuristic consumer culture and aesthetic from the 1950s and 1960s that combined "popular" and "luxury" to create a mass-market style with a sense of opulence

Week 7:

Coast to Coast: Route 20 Anthology

poems

A collection of poems about Route 20 that goes through Geneva.

axial

relating to, forming, or characteristic of an axis, or situated on, along, or in the direction of an axis. It can be used to describe a central or pivotal element within a text, or a line of thought, plot, or character development that runs through the core of the story. For example, one could discuss the "axial" role of a character who is central to all events, or the "axial" themes that provide the story's main structure. 

picturesque

means to be visually charming or striking, like a painting, creating detailed, vivid mental images. It often describes landscapes or scenes that possess a particular kind of beauty, one that is a mix of the "beautiful" (orderly, harmonious) and the "sublime" (grand, overwhelming), favoring elements like roughness, variety, and irregularity over perfect symmetry. The term can also be used more broadly to describe any vividly descriptive or striking quality in writing, speech, or appearance. 

transverse roads

unexpected or unconventional paths that intersect and disrupt the main, linear narrative. They symbolize moments of decision, transition, and exploration, diverging from a character's predetermined course. 

French vs. English garden design

French gardens are formal, symmetrical, and highly structured, emphasizing geometric shapes and ordered layouts, while English gardens are informal, naturalistic, and romantic, designed to blend with the landscape and featuring winding paths and diverse plantings. The primary distinction is between the French garden's controlled, structured aesthetic versus the English garden's relaxed, romantic, and natural look. 

parkway

a scenic, landscaped road, often within a park or connecting to one, where commercial and heavy vehicles are typically restricted

vernacular

refers to the native, everyday, or informal speech and language of a specific region, community, or group, as opposed to formal or literary language. It also describes a characteristic way of expression within a particular context, such as vernacular architecture, which utilizes local materials and traditions, or the vernacular in a written work, which refers to its informal, easily understandable style. 

Road layers

asphalt

trolley train

concrete

brick

wheelmarks

dirt

Haudensaunee

A native tribe that started New York and Route 20

Tin Lizze

The first affordable American car was made by Ford

Blue Highways

The main highways used to be red on maps, and the blue roads were everything else basically back roads.