Croix Parler

[Croix]

I'd like to use this pace for miscellaneous matters that don't fit elsewhere

Thanks

Croix

[RunGirl]

Hi all,

Thanks for inviting me Croix! This looks like a good place to be. I'll do a little intro....Im a writer but also a drama, history and English teacher....oh and Japanese, which is my current job. I love reading, love the theatre and write for all different reasons. I also like to draw and use all kinds of media but I like aquarelle, acrylic and pen-and-ink. I'm originally South African but a LONG time Aussie citizen and spent ten years working in the Czech republic. My husband there was employed in quite a pivotal role in the film industry so I either spent months alone while he was in London or Budapest or St Petersburg or somewhere on a job.....or travelling with him. I learnt a lot about film in that time. I had terrible accident and after that our always-volatile marriage crumbled and I came back to Australia. I now have a wonderful partner who had been my best friend for 16 years previously. When I write I am fascinated with cycles (a bit of absurdism in there), coming of age stories and stories where people find out they are not who they always thought they were - or the reader find out that the book (character) can't be judged by its cover.

So that's me.....I've ready so many posts from different people here and you all seem so interesting and engaged so I can't wait to share in that.

best

RunGirl

[Croix]

Dear RunGirl~

Thanks for coming here and saying a little about yourself. Teaching drama, English, history and Japanese is quite a portfolio.

I taught computing for many years and that was hard enough - the saving grace from my point of view was there was always mathematically correct answer. I'm not sure of the equivalent in drama. I did a couple of semester drama an awful long time ago and found I appreciated the intellectual side of it but could not act for nuts 🙂

I don't know much about Japanese, or Japanese drama eihter, except perhaps where is spills over into the popular West, such things as Seven Samurai. This of course from my point of view was an introduction to the samurai/ninja genre, the earliest I remember being Akikusa Shintaro.

With drama, you mentioned in passing absurdism. I think earlier in this thread there is talk about a favorite of mine, Waiting for Godot.

Without having an artistic bone I don't manage to draw or paint, but I'd expect there are others here that do.

Thanks

Croix

[RunGirl]

Croix, the history of japan is complex especially as it changed so rapidly from feudal and agricultural to capitalistic and industrial. Japan closed itself off form the rest of the world for hundreds of years but allowed researchers to exit to various countries and pick up all they could. When the Americans finally came in with guns blazing demanding trade route , the Japanese were already well versed in their strategies and coped well. they conquered china and Korea and only lost wwII because of the brandnew invention of the H Bomb. All this happened so quickly. Ive written a short story based on one man's experience of it which I would like to turn into a screenplay

[RunGirl]

The biggest features of Japanese drama are quite unique....there is Kabuki, Noh and Anime. I won't go into details but you can Google them if you're interested

[RunGirl]

Hi Crois et al

Waiting for Godot is a fabulous play, as is Endgame. The Absurdism movement was and is often misunderstood but it is a dagger to the heart of society and its expectations and lack of proactivity.......almost by accident. My stories tend to have a more positive spin to the "cycle" but my book, "Showpony" does not....nor does the protagonist deserve it.

[Croix]

Dear RunGirl et al.~

I prefer Godot, Endgame is a little too bleak for some reason, perhaps because it is set in a a bare (well almost) room rather than outside. As someone who is getting older I'm not sure I'm comfortable thinking about Nagg and Nell's existence :[

Showpony from the title might suggest Michael Cain's Alfie, am I sort of on the right track? The protagonist there was left to rue his actions.

Croix

[RunGirl]

dear croix,

regrading the right or wrong answer when teaching..... yes...well the things that that get tricky with English and drama, and even history to some degree, which are subjective as opposed to objective marking, You have to rely on a set of (complex) criteria for subjective marking and make decisions guided by those. In creativity there is generally no specific right, only degrees of quality, but there is a wrong .....i have had students completely misinterpret the genre and flunk out badly

[Croix]

Dear RunGirl~

I've never though about the the subjective subjects having a 'wrong' though I guess now you point it out it certainly makes sense. I did tend to make a rod for my own back by including some essay or point-form questions in tests/exams. I personally really dislike answering t/f or multiple choice questions as I always had great difficulty in knowing what was wanted, a test of the language skills of the examiner as much as anything else.

With essays quality (as well as base knowledge) does play a great part as the logical thinking of the writer can come to the fore. Not the same as what you are talking about I suppose but maybe a parallel.

Anyway I don't have to do marking any more -Yay!

Croix

[RunGirl]

In Showpony, Ben Grainger is left a little bewildered but comes to the conclusion that his protege has simply made a bad decision. around him we have seen the stories of the women in his life unfold, and his crucial ones are still there for him, although he he has no idea or care of the the emotional storm they have been through. One has died and he has no die of the role he played in that. Ben simply traverses on.

[RunGirl]

Actually "Showpony" is seated on the play "Equitus"....I don't know if you know it.