Today's seminar was taken by a different lecturer - Warwick Frost. He's a really interesting lecturer and I found myself concentrating nearly the whole seminar!
Anyway, we spoke firstly about the Australian Outback and it's use and portrayal in films. The main theme was the fact that there is really no definition for what the Outback actually is. As Warwick said, it's a very subjective concept, and can probably be interpreted in many ways. I'm really glad that we talked about the fact that the Outback is not the same as 'The Bush'... because I sometimes get annoyed when people think they are the same thing. Mostly because they are total opposites in environmental terms. Maybe the only thing similar they have in common is the distance from urban areas.
I also thought it was amazing that so many films set in the outback had such a similar premise: a visitor to the outback (though generally not just a tourist, and usually someone foreign than Australian) comes in search of something/someone etc, had adventures/gets into some danger in the Outback, and then leaves a different person/transformed from their bad habits. This type of film must be popular if so many have used basically the same structure to the movie.
The idea of the Outback being an experience that could be 'life changing' is another concept that seems a little bit silly at first, but the more you think about it, the more potential it has to conjure those feelings in people. Through many of the films that are set in the Outback, it seems as though there is almost a guarantee that you will have a life changing experience if you travel out there. In his book on his Australian travels, Bill Bryson talks about Uluru, and how connected he felt with the rock when he finally saw it with his own eyes. The feeling that he describes isn't quite as extreme as 'life changing', but it still shows a certain gain from being there.
I think, maybe instead of being life changing, the Outback might fit more into the category of 'the sublime', just from what I've read in Alain De Botton's The Art of Travel. It sorta seems as if the vast, empty, but oddly beautiful landscape would fit well within the category of the sublime, though I don't know enough about the concept to be sure.
In regards to Western films: they're not really the type of films that I'm attracted to or would enjoy too much. I also think that it's interesting that many of the westerns have very similar recurring themes... Sometimes I wonder if fans ever get sick of the same types of scenes or scenery shown. Although I guess when you think of romantic comedies or dramas, they tend to also have recurring themes, or structures, and have a few main locations that they are set in, and I continuously enjoy watching them.
Anyway, that'll do for now... Pretty sure I only have 2 more posts to do for this subject. At the moment, it's heads down, bums up trying to get the assignments done in good time. I really don't want to be stressing right up until the last minute, although at the moment I seem to be going at a good pace to have plenty of time for fixing last minute details and everything. I already know the result of one subject this semester, which is 77 overall, one I'm fairly happy with. Hopefully I can do just as well in the rest of them... Fingers crossed!
xox
