Orgies of Feeling

In Elizabeth Anker's text, Orgies of Feeling, melodrama animates the description of politics in her eyes and also “melodrama directly competes with Jeremiad, a perennially popular genre in American culture patterned on biblical lamentations of the prophets, which offers strident moral critique degraded society, and prophecies’ that society will collapse if it continues down its wayward path.”  9/11 is a topic of interest throughout her text and different points of view are explained. Anker considers both sides of the political spectrum. One opinionated view described is imperialism, and putting blame on America itself for the terrors of 9/11 and how if we weren’t involved with foreign affairs and terrorism then it wouldn’t have been our liability. Another view is that the freedom we have in this county influenced terror attacks due to the way some of the freedoms go against certain religious ways, for example, sexuality.  Jerry Falwell says “you helped this happen” to all of the gays, abortionists and feminists and that they helped this happen in their ways of trying to secularize America. I do not agree with either side of the political spectrum exemplified in Orgies of Feeling, but I can understand how someone from an outside point of view may try to justify those reasons, however, I still do not feel that America is to blame for these attacks nor were they “asking for it”.

Research Source

One source I intend on using is the actual film Titanic. My essay topic is how music plays an effect into the melodrama and the effect it has on the audience. Although this is a film rather than a book or article, it is just as meaningful. The music played throughout this almost 4 hour long film has an effect bigger than the usual melodrama. Some of the last people alive before the sinking of the ship dedicate the rest of their lives to music to play to help set the mood of the passengers on the ship and try and calm them down as much as possible. This is a useful source to use because aside from the violinists dedicated to their music, other background music is played all throughout the film that justifies the mood of the characters and then takes its toll on the audience. This source is helpful in shaping my argument for my essay about the role music plays in melodramas and the wide range of effects it has on the audience. The information is reliable and there are many people that can agree with the emotional affect given by the music in this film.

Potential Research Essay

Titanic has been my all time favorite movie for as long as I can remember, and that’s why I am considering using it as my research topic for my melodrama research paper. I remember having sleepovers with my older cousins and be given no choice but to watch titanic every time. My love for it grew to as much as theirs and I eventually ended up stealing the duo VCR pack for myself.  For my research paper I plan on talking about the different melodramatic aspects such as the lighting, the music, and the effect on the audience. The music plays a big part in this movie; sometimes being the thing that brings out my emotions for certain parts even more drastically than they would have been without it. Being a story about two lovers from two completely different social class levels, and set aside from the main conflict of the ship sinking, conflict arose often and with the death of a protagonist Jack, the movie was even more melodramatic. Seeing this show more times than I can count, it never gets old and I am excited to be able to write a paper about it and see what this paper can bring about.