A Vampire Story by Craig Stoeckel

Response to the Kylie film clip from tutorial

The moon glistened off the pool at the air swam with humidity on a night that Kylie knew would see her life changed forever. She had led a charmed life and could only watch frustratingly as her control over her vampire clan was crashing down around her in Monte Carlo. The clan lieutenants were nestled safely inside the stronghold of the mansion, although deep down they all knew that against the famous slayer nowhere is safe.

Kylie knew that it was a slap in the face to her leadership that she was not inside. She could only think of Kevin Rudd and what it must have felt like when he was betrayed by those closest to him. Kylies did not feel the heat like humans do but looked longingly at the pool and decided to jump in, that will catch their attention she thought.

Kylie walked up to the diving board, trying to think of how to how to draw their attention. I will make out I am dead, an arrow through the heart and if they dare not come running, I will know that my power is lost. Kylie walked to the end of the diving board and fell face first into the water, floating on the surface with her arms spread wide. It was such a still night, Kylie knew she would have heard the door slide open and footsteps, however the deadly silence told her more than an cacophony of sound ever will.

Kylie climbed from the pool and walked straight towards the floor to ceiling windows, clearly seeing the men inside still discussing their plan. No had moved a muscle not even Carthage who she had sired first in 1275, saving him from death at the hands of the Roman invaders, and shared a bond with that she had thought was unbreakable. Her hands almost by a will of their own pulled at the hem of her dress and ripped it up over head, throwing it at the glass with all of her might. The wet dress smacked against the glass with a resounding thud.

Carthage looked up at her with a smirk on his face, making Kylie angrier than she thought possible for the undead. I have to get out here she decided and called upon her closest bodyguards and driver to head to the casino to blow off steam.

This is part 1 to a 3 part story with each part written by a different person

Reading Reflection #3 Interchapter V11 by Ernest Hemingway
Interchapter V11 is a short story from In our Time by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1925. The text describes a battle. The narrative point of view has been used to great effect to imagine the scene and the frame of mind (Moon 2007, 97). The central character I believe is the soldier who clings to life and hope in a mud soaked trench during an artillery bombardment. There was group discourse discussing how God to their reading viewpoint is the central character. The western front alone had more than 9,500km of trenches. He continually prays throughout the bombardment of his trench to Jesus to keep him alive. He promises that he will be stronger in his faith and tell everyone that Jesus is the only one that matters. The shelling moves on and the soldier assists in repairing the trench. He doesn’t mention his desperate prayers or promises to his troops or the prostitute he spends the following night with.
This short story follows a conventional plot structure (Moon 2007, 24). Beginning with the trench scene; the rising action of the shelling and the climax of the desperate battlefield prayers. The clean up and ending with the resolution of broken promises. Longman (Lecture, 2010) states that a short story can be widely varied but always a singular focus from which it derives its power of attaining and keeping the reader’s attention.
Reading and rereading this text encourages the reader to follow the traditional approach to character study and view the people as real and to hold them morally accountable for their actions. The way that I view these characters inclusive of my cultural and literary repertoire is of a man who grew up in western society, where religion does not play a big role in general affairs but is something you may turn to in desperation for we cannot say categorically that amazing events don’t occur and the use of legal brothels while frowned upon is certainly not illegal. The way that you view these characters plays a strong part in your personal reading position and your opinion of the soldier and the woman.
This story was written six years after the end of WW1 and the implied reader I believe is a returned serviceman. This short story I believe fills both theories of an implied reader as far as the narrator speaks to you as the reader in the reliving of memories and the target audience as discussed earlier is a returned serviceman. I encountered and read this story with a particular context, and within this context of my cultural background, life experiences and cultural discourse I have formed a large part of my life on. I am a returned serviceman and whilst I have not seen the horrors of trench warfare, I have seen innocent people die needlessly and soldiers on both sides die in battle. Opinions on the woman in the group reading were that she was marginalised and her only purpose is to satisfy the soldiers’ yearnings. We have seen in the media firsthand what happened at Abu Ghraib by soldiers of both sexes who had no release from their reality with cases of abuse and torture.
Hemingway emphasises the fact that he did not tell the woman, this implies quite truthfully that the women in the Villa Rossa were sounding boards for the men and played a large role that was not just of a sexual nature. However to a resistant reader, she would be seen only as a sexual object to satisfy the soldiers’ carnal needs in challenging dominant cultural beliefs (Moon 2007, 130)
My personal repertoire assisted in forming my dominant perspective that the soldier could not tell his fellow soldiers of his fears and emotions for worry of being ridiculed. A young soldier I knew died in Darwin on exercise from heat stroke when attempting a 15 kilometre pack march, due to the fact that he was intimidated to speak up and looking weak and unmanly. They also enabled me to believe that he did pray and promise a course of action to Jesus upon the proviso of living as I have actually made promises in prayer which have not been kept.
Moon (2007, 100) describes Polysemy as the words and symbols can have varied meanings. Polysemy has played a role in the text with survival delivered, and the sin of taking a prostitute after promising Jesus of his service upon survival. That ideology and the resultant hypocrisy could be the reason he does not tell anybody as much as his protection of his masculinity. The semiotic analysis of the Villa Rossa as a church and the prostitute as a priest is also hidden in the text. We assume he went upstairs to have sex, but that is based on our cultural beliefs. It is also believable that he went upstairs, collapsed in tears at the fact that he couldn’t bring himself to talk of his miracle.
The teaching strategies I would use for this story are think, pair and share about their views on the soldier and how the ending has impacted on those thoughts. Rewriting the text to having the soldier tells his fellow troops and not visiting the brothel and how that can form different opinions.

Jahn, Manfred. (1996). Windows of focalization: Deconstructing and reconstructing a narratological concept. Style, 30(2), 241-267. Retrieved September 16, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 10574822).

Jetnikoff, A. (2010). Lecture on Conventions and the Unconvential (with reference to genres and intertextuality). Sep 8th, Queensland University of Technology.

Kim, J.. (2008). A ROMANCE WITH NARRATIVE INQUIRY: Toward an Act of Narrative Theorizing. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 10(1/2), 251-267,304. Retrieved September 16, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1666787361).
Moon, B. (2007). Literary Terms, A Practical Glossary (2nd ed.). Western Australia: PK Print

I was trying to think of what goes through your mind in this situation and all I can think of is nothing and everything. You work out where the enemy is; the best way to attack and you are mindful of your ammo supply. It is only when you are trapped as the soldier finds himself in Interchapter V11 that you think of dying and only then do you pray to live.

Reading and Reflection#2 : The Good Corn

The Good Corn by H.E Bates is a short story concerning the characters Joe Mortimer, his wife Mrs Mortimer and a farm hand Elsie. It was only when I was writing the introductions and after careful rereading to make certain did I realise that a Christian name for Mrs Mortimer is never used, referred to as Mrs Mortimer or she. Moon (2007) refers to characters identities that are formed within our imagination through the authors’ use of text to describe their appearance, actions, thought and speech. It’s a sign of friendship and familiarity to use Christian names and is exactly what I feel after rereading that we are purposely kept aloof of Mrs Mortimer. This assists us in thinking of her as barren, depressed, and cold to the idea of intimacy with her husband. The name Elsie means “My God is a Vow” as stated by Behind the name (2010). I believe this name is quite apt and I refer to vows and values further into this reflection.
Mr Mortimer is also referred as Joe or simply Mortimer. Personally this fits in easily to my cultural knowledge and gender practices. Literacy Theorist Roland Barthes (1966) believes there are five key codes to any narrative text, among this list being the cultural code where the reader draws beliefs, values and ideas from the culture that you are assimilated with. I refer to my years in the defence force; a predominantly male institution where everyone is referred to by their surname. It was only the close work colleagues or friends whose Christian names I knew at all. My first read established my dominant view of gender classification and the sexual differences in the culture of The Good Corn and the portrayal of masculinity. This has not changed, perhaps they are to ingrained and I need to try and remove myself entirely to become more of a resistant reader. The main words used to describe Joe Mortimer in the class discussion were hard working, stoic, caring, and capable. All of these words form an idea of masculinity; Barthes notes that this is part of Character code. In group work we discussed how this morphs into identity and is inextricably linked to power with most famous men in history known mostly for their last name. Hitler, Mussolini, Macarthur, Ghandi, but it would be a mistake not to think that Joe is not used as well for power as indeed it is for all the Kings of England. Joe the Stoic could have very well been his title.
I must add though in fairness, the name Joe is also used in the text, in a group discussion we reflected on the way this made you feel empathy for his situation and character. The theorist Michel Foucault has put forward the notion that discourses operate along the lines of unwritten specifications about who can speak, what is spoken and the different matters that can be discussed. For example the dominant reading position that I and most of the class assumed after the first reading is formed after Mrs Mortimer tells Joe she is no good and he should have found someone else. She also states she wouldn’t mind if he would go to someone else. (Bates 1951, 5-6)

After workshop discussions and through reanalysing the text I now believe that the stories theme is about the two characters, one’s need for intimacy and how that can be separated from their loving relationship. The other characters desire for a child, this led to an opinion that it all worked out in the end regardless of the process as Mrs Mortimer did indeed gain a child.
This led us a group to analyse the text and how it affects our own values and attitudes tha we have gained from our social environment (Moon 2007, 164) Only one class member spoke of their religious beliefs that you should not have sex before marriage and then only with your husband or wife. I have concluded people reading this in 1951 certainly would have blamed Elsie for the affair. The blasé way in which the affair is glossed over certainly would be different as the values from their social environment were vastly different.
The teaching strategies I would employ for this text are role plays and the use of a Y chart to describe each character. In Blooms cognitive learning theory, the Y chart is at the highest level of thinking (Atherton, 2010). The Y chart will encourage the students to think about their reading practices, values and engage in healthy discourse with other members.

Reference List
Bates, H.E. (1951) The Good Corn. Reprinted in Reading Stories, 1990. Scarborough, WA: Chalkface Press.
ATHERTON J S (2010) Learning and Teaching; Bloom’s taxonomy [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm Accessed: 17 September 2010
Moon, B. (2007). Literary Terms, A Practical Glossary (2nd ed.). Western Australia: PK Print

Pledges, Vows and Pass this Note.

Pledges, Vows and Pass this Note was written by the Australian author Frank Moorhouse. Frank became a full time author in the 1970’s and won numerous awards including the Miles Franklin Literary Award. This short story was contained in the book Room Service written in 1985.
The traditionally culturally ascribed dominant representations of gender and their place in relationships are elements which are interwoven throughout the whole text. To be able to ascertain who was speaking by being there and listening to an oral conversation is the easiest way to understand text and connotations. In my initial reading I had to decide who was speaking, the context and the stage of their life purely from the text. It was upon rereading the story and really focusing on the narrative that dominant gender stereotypes stood out. If there is to be a text that we have discussed in class that has feminist criticism dripping off the page then I believe this is the one. Feminist critics have stated texts generally categorise women in four roles and this story covers three of those ranging from a dutiful daughter to bad woman to nurturing mother (Moon 2007, 43). The young girl, who insisted she be home by a certain hour, didn’t want to have sex and the sex should be special. These are themes commonly associated with females in a dominant reading, representing the beliefs predominant in western culture (Moon 2007, 129)
Group discussion led to a difference of opinion on who was speaking what lines.

The disagreements can be affected by the communication each reader is receiving from the text. Every person in my study group constructed meanings too the text based on the tools or the application of a reading practice they brought with them. The females read the story with a resistant view that challenged the cultural beliefs upon which the story is based (Moon 2007, 129). Upon rereading this text I found myself positioned in my gendered role as a male who has indeed passed a girl a note asking if she liked me. I have kissed a girl for the first time and had sex for the first time. My cultural repertoire is shaped from growing up in a western country where it is allowed and seen as cute when boys and girls blow kisses to each other. In some cultures and religions this story contrast seems completely sinful in fact can be punished by death. I have in my life seen a woman arrested and had her children removed for having coffee with a man in his house who wasn’t her husband.
I struggled firstly with the sequential way the text was structured. Upon rereading this text I noticed there is a lot of gender representation. Stereotyped representations of masculinity and femineity are pervasive in the text by the roles and identities the characters portray (Moon 2007, 57) Through the use of representation and narrative I saw a pair of underclass children/youths/adults in a 1950’s setting. I would see it differently if I was in a strict religion where such acts have and still do lead to death.
Upon rereading I thought of the interesting structure of the text and its impact on the level of enjoyment that I gained from the story. Point of view describes the various ways of narrating a story 1st, 2nd or 3rd person or omniscient. Focalisation is the technique allowing the narrative to be presented from a particular point of view (Manfred 1996, 241). This text is written in the 1st person but juxtaposing two points of view to emote contrasting feelings for each character.
The teaching strategy I would employ for this story is a character analysis. Questions would consist of what types of people are the characters, what parts of the story made you feel sympathy, anger, judgement for the characters and in what ways has society formed your opinions on the characters (Kim, J. 2008). The students would then form groups and share their findings.
I enjoyed this story, I recognise it for its predictable and redundant pattern that becomes clearer as you reread. I believe I do bring a level of resistant reading through life experience than only my dominant gender belief stipulates. My mother went through the same process just before I was born and after having twelve moves by the time I was 16 we did roam the world but not always at will.

Reference List
Jahn, Manfred. (1996). Windows of focalization: Deconstructing and reconstructing a narratological concept. Style, 30(2), 241-267. Retrieved September 16, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 10574822).

Kim, J. (2008). A ROMANCE WITH NARRATIVE INQUIRY: Toward an Act of Narrative Theorizing. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 10(1/2), 251-267,304. Retrieved September 16, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1666787361).
Moon, B. (2007). Literary Terms, A Practical Glossary (2nd ed.). Western Australia: PK Print