Research Blog #1:

The Initial Jump

"Adventurer, Your Journey Awaits!"

After fall and winter quarter, we have finally approached the biggest assignment of the year: the HumCore Research paper. Of course, we've been told before-hand that we are expected to end the course with this research paper (and that it would be a culmulative of what we have learned and experienced over the past months in HumCore), so I am excited for this. And for me, I feel as if I have some personal vendeta I need to address with this assignment.

During my sophmore year, my English teacher also assigned us a research paper as a major project for the class. And thus, the collective agony and pain of the project pushed us onwards. Funny enough, we also went through a similar process of picking our individual primary sources to write about (though it was limited to American novels), searching through a multitude of scholarly source, and countless peer reviews. As fate would have it, these skills my teacher beat into us definitely came in handy for our HumCore coursework. I chose The History of Love as my primary source and I instantly fell in love with the story, but while I enjoyed analyzing and discussing my findings with my peers peers, I struggled a lot with the writing part, and that ultimately ended up biting me back when grades came out. Reading this 10 page amalgamation now makes me want to beat myself up, rip the paper up, and burn it with fire, but luckily for you the whole paper is provided below for your viewing pleasure.

Copy of Research Paper Final Draft.pdf

My research paper on The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

Now it's understandable that I'm always going to dislike the writing I did when I was younger. It meant that I improved and polished my writing over time, and now I'm a better writer. I still feel a lack of confidence my writing skills, but the current Humanities course has definitely pushed me to experiment and expand my writing style. The work we've done over this course has definitely prepared us for this research project, so let's proceed with confidence! I'm excited to look back on my website and old paper after we complete the research paper and see how far I've come from my old Sophmore self.

Favorite Unit So Far?

I enjoyed most of the units provided over the course of this program, but I there were some that stood out for me. In the fall, I loved the discussions about The Conference of the Birds. Philosophical thought intrigued me and since I'm not really a religious or spiritual person myself, it really satiated my curiosity. I didn't become a spiritual or religious follower at the end, but It definitely gave me a better understanding of why people have faith in religious and spiritual practices.

During winter quarter, I thouroughly enjoyed Professir Amiran's lectures about the psychoanalysis approach and surrealist art movement. It particularly piqued my interest since I'm interested in the psychological aspects of humanities, and I could utilize my own understanding of Freud as a PSCI major. Although I did disagree with a lot of the things he said, and disagree with many of Freud's theories, his analysis and incorporation of Freudian ideology was very interesting and "out there" compared to the other lectures.

For the spring quarter, I am most excited for the lecture about Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. This is mostly derived from my own interests in Studio Ghibli films, and their influence over my own childhood. Growing up, I loved to watch My Neighbor Totoro, and I always wished to be wisked away to the countryside to have my own adventures.

The Son of Man, by René Magritte

The Conference of the Birds, by Farid ud-Din Attar

My Neighbor Totoro, by Hayao Miyazaki

UCI Library's Pre-Search

UCI Library's Humanities Core Research Process Tutorial

To help with the paper, the HumCore program has provided us a fun tutorial to help map out the research process. It was an interesting walkthrough on different ways to begin a research paper, and it taught many different ways to find relevant sources that may connect to your primary source. It provides a good guideline for planning and finding different pieces of information that can be relevant to a specific topic or idea and it did give me some ideas on how to figure out some sourceing issues (which I talk more about in the next section). While I have some experience with research papers (though fairly limited), this is a great resource that provides a good plan for scouting out sources after primary source analysis.

Sources? Films, Games, and Animations

Since this research project is upon us now, what am I going to write about? When I first began this website at the beginning of the year, I did have a film in mind for the research paper (Jojo Rabbit). I wanted to revisit the topic of the Holocaust—sharing a similarity with the paper I mentioned before, but after reviewing the prompt again and thinking back to the different mediums covered over the course of this program, I came up with two more possible sources for this research paper (Devotion and Belle). While it is exagerated to say these sources changed my life dramatically, their narratives, visuals, and soundtracks left everlasting impressions on me and my beliefs. And these are some sources that I would be invested in for the research paper. Below I've listed the three possible sources I can use for this paper, a couple of ideas/pieces of information, and trailers for each.

1) JoJo Rabbit (2019), directed by Taika Waititi

The first source that I imagined for my research paper

I loved the way the film conveyed its dark themes through a comedic lens
Similar to the The History of Love, Jojo Rabbit focuses on the Holocaust, but through a child's perspective.
Some things to focus on
- How the movie portrays this child's world in a grim reality
- The treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, and the stories of the people who tried to rebel against Hitler
- The change of Jojo's character over the course of the movies
Some connections between this source and the course content:
- The child's perspective ("transitional objects") (Amiran)
- Social Darwinism/social science as a means to "animalize" people (Imada)

Jojo Rabbit, Official Trailer from FOX Searchlight on Youtube

2) Devotion (2019), created by Red Candle Games

A psychological horror game created by Red Candle Games, a Tawainese game company

The horror aspect hooked me in (I enjoy watching horror movies and streams of horor games), but the story and music ultimately won me over
Deals with themes of mental disorders, cultural stigma with disorders, family dynamics, cults, etc
Perhaps a focus on:
- The game's representation of Tawainese culture and mental disorders (specifically anxiety and depression)
- How the game creatively uses animals and storytelling to depict the experience of mental illness
- How they shine a light on the treatment of the mentally ill in asian culture
Initially connections between coursework and source:
- Marie de France's Fables indicates what Marie considered "normal" or "natural" for Medieval society (the social structure and "normative" constructs) (Davis)
- Freakshows "animalizing" non-whites and mental disabilities (Imada),

Devotion, Game trailer from Red Candle's Youtube channel

3) Belle (2020), directed by Momoru Hosoda

A Japanese animated film created by Hosoda that combines a mix of 2D and 3D animation with some influence from Beauty and the Beast

Enjoyed the music immensly; initially I didn't like the narrative at first, but it won me over at the end
Themes of family, sacrifice, trauma, internet/media in the 21st century
Some key details to focus on:
- Representation of online identity (specifically the anonymity behind it) and media's portrayal
- How the movie represents online identity (and by extension our real idenitty or "true self") with a combination of animal and human characteristics
- The idea of sacrifice and love as something that makes us human
Connections between material and course:
- Surrealist/psychoanalytic concepts, conscious vs. unconscious (Amiran)
- Oral traditions as a means of communication and history (Imada)

Belle, English dubbed trailer from GKids Films on Youtube

Though I initially wanted to write about Jojo Rabbit for my research paper, I find that Devotion and Belle are also really interesting choices. But the biggest issue for them is the lack of scholarly discourse about these sources since they were published quite recently. Since one is a game and the other is a Japanese animated film, there is probably not as much scholarly interest in them compared to Jojo Rabbit. Additionally, each source completely differ in the way they convey their content (live-action, game, and animation respectively). Since they do differ greatly in their techniques, it is mostly their stories and messages that I'm particularly interested in. They share significant narratives that spoke to me, and they have their own significance in my own life as pieces of media that influenced the way I think about the world.

For now, I'm still scouting out the final source I want to focus on for the research paper. I am excited to see where it takes me. Perhaps it will be a stressful and arduous journey to the end, but I know it will be well-worth it once I complete this project, take a step back, and look at how far I've come since the beginning of the school year.

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