Thursday, September 19, 2019

RR#6: 'The Man Who Couldn’t Dance' & Spencer, 57-72

Post your reading response to reading/s below. 

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  1. Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
  2. Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
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  4. Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.

14 comments:

  1. There are multiple forms of conflict and different ways to approach them. I like how there is the emphasis or a primary claim on page 60 of conflict. “Conflict is that which prevents a character from getting what he or she wants” There are external conflicts that can affect you directly or indirectly and the way Spencer explained it put it into a broader perspective for me on the type of directions I can take my conflicts. I am honestly more driven to internal conflicts and basing my characters around them. Personally for me, I can draw more action from internal conflicts than external actions. The reasoning for this meaning I can dig a deeper meaning and connection from it. In ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Dance” you can see there as a lot of internal conflict that they bring out in their dialogue with one another. All these small instances end up building one on top of another until we get to the main internal yet external conflict of Eric not being able to dance. To be honest, I forgot about the initial title of the play and was really confused as to why he randomly gets emotional about his inability to dance. This internal conflict and just weight on his shoulders brought out an external conflict between him and Gail that is now understandable to readers if there were to be any confusion as to what conflicts they have and what they are driven by specifically.

    -Faith Ortiz

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  2. Conflict has always been a part of stories. There isn’t a story/play out there without it. Although sometimes it may appear that there is no conflict, it is there. There are different types of conflict that can be used in a story. When I think of the word “Conflict”, I think about a problem in which characters fight over it to fix it. Spencer defines conflict as “that thing, or person, which prevents a character from getting what he or she wants”. When two characters want the same thing, there is no conflict present. External conflict involves two actions of two different characters. One character’s action could be another character’s conflict. When it comes to external conflict, there are two categories: Direct and Indirect.
    “The man who couldn’t dance” was an interesting play. At first I thought it was two friends. I thought it was weird for them to be in an attic. There is tension between Gail and Eric. They reveal how they used to be in a relationship. It is clear that Eric wants to be with Gail. Gail turns him down because she is now married and has a child with her new husband Fred. Eric has a date with him whom he doesn’t want to spend time with.
    -Juan Gloria

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  3. When Spencer talks about conflict in this chapter he is not talking to us about physical altercations. Conflict in a play format is called dramatic conflict. A character or a thing that stands in the way of the other character getting what he or she wants. In all good plays there should be some type of conflict inducing action from the actors. It is not emotionally based conflict. Also when you have characters wanting the same thing it is not a conflict.He goes on to say that inanimate objects may be used as conflicts, but since they cannot talk they are not best utilized in a live performance. Basically dramatic conflict is where 2 or more characters have differing wants and each character is trying to prevent the other from succeeding. Stuart goes on to break down conflict into 2 sub categories. 1. Direct External Conflict is when 2 characters want the same thing. 2. Internal external conflict is where 2 characters want separate things. Each ones desire prevents the other character from indirectly achieving their own. There is internal conflict which does not work well in live performances since the character must not speak about it out loud. He emphasizes wholeheartedly that an argument is not conflict.
    In "The Man Who Couldn't Dance" their is a conflict between Eric and Gail. It seems as though the baby and Eric's opinion about what goals he wants to accomplish are different than Gails. This is a couple who still love each other, but Gail decided to marry a man with similar interests, and have a baby. The baby is what breaks Eric's hard outer surface where he then explains to Gail how he feels about where they went wrong, and how he realizes that he might never have a family of his own. In the ending it seems as though that all Eric had to do was to open up to her like he did and things might have been different.
    Spiro Zagouris

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  5. Spencer shows that there are many different types of conflict and how they can influence a play’s story. I liked the example that he gives us about his own play where he wasn’t sure about the conflict. He says it’s boring even though there’s arguments because both of his characters wanted the same thing and got what they wanted. Spencer goes in depth on external and internal conflicts, by giving examples of each. Both external and internal problems have major impact for character development, but I like the idea of intertwining the two to make a story even more believable. In “The Man Who Couldn’t Dance” there is a lot of internal conflict that is going on between Gail and Eric. The playwright uses a lot of connections of their dialogue to showcase the conflicts going on within them and outwardly. I would perceive the external conflict as each other and their partners since they obviously still love each other but are in relationships. The internal conflict comes in when Eric begins to breakdown and reveal that he “can’t dance”, saying that he can’t easily blend in, since he is always himself. In Gail, I felt she was questioning if she is actually happy with her life. When the two begin to show each other, what’s affecting them inside they finally understand and seem to forgive each other.
    -Ruben Quintero

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  6. We all know that conflict can relate to a fight or argument; but not all conflict has to involve violence of any sort or a discussion. Spencer defines conflict as a thing or person that prevents a character from getting what he or she want which is known as “dramatic conflict” (pg. 58). Spencer also says that conflict is not emotion anymore than action is emotion (pg. 59). There are also other types of conflict such as external conflict which involves an object (pg. 59). For example, you are in a rush and there is something blocking your way then you have an external conflict. Spencer also mention direct and indirect external conflict which direct affects both characters and indirect affects one of the characters (pg. 59, 60). There is also internal conflict which is two action within one’s self that gives rise to a conflict (pg. 67). Internal conflict is what I believed happen in the ten-minute play The Man Who Couldn’t Dance. In the beginning of the play I was quite confused of what was going on. I was expecting the play to take place in a studio but it was infront of a crib admiring a baby, then they get into a whole discussion about their past. This is when the man finally told his ex that he couldn’t dance. To him not knowing how to dance made him feel as if it was the main problem between their relationship besides him not being able to work a decent job. He felt that dancing was the conflict in him not being with the love of his life and her being with another man. But the main conflict was him and his insecurities and not being able to speak his mind that made her leave. This play was very confusing at first but I really liked the outcome of how the conflict was resolved even if they did not end up together.

    -Valeria Garcia

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  7. Conflict is explained by Spencer in such a straightforward manner as representing the opposing force to a character getting what they want. He cites the internal vs. external mode of conflict, one applying to physical barriers and the other to emotional, mental, and even spiritual barriers, and even further breaks down the subcategories of external conflict as indirect and direct. Consider a boxing match. Two fighters who have trained to fight the other, are aware of being each other's enemy, and work directly against each other. Now, consider a security guard and a thief. The thief has no personal knowledge of a security guard and vice versa, but when confronted, the thief's goal would be to defend themselves and seek escape, while the guard's would be to stop the intruder. Differing actions separate these two forms of external conflict. Spencer also argues on what NOT to consider conflict. As a layman, I, too, have misunderstood conflict to mean a emotional peak between two characters. In fact, as a fiction writer, a part of me knew that conflict could equal many things but that emotional tension and angst is often a writer's easy-way-out. Fortunately, stopping a character from getting what they want in more ways than just the obvious is a challenge that will most likely breed creativity and see to it that writers diversify their skills.
    —Sandra Martinez

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  8. In life, if you want something more than likely you will have to work for it. Now have two people work for the same thing and now you have conflict. That was my view on conflict before I read this chapter. After reading this i now know that this is called "Direct external conflict" (Pg 62) I had an idea about the different conflicts a character or story can have but I was unaware of the terms.Now that I have a direct access to these terms, I may possibly revist this chapter a bit. I personally feel like I use conflict, of any sort, to develop my characters. But because I lean towards this direction I have to limit my conflicts in my characters. As Spencer said in Pg 70, you cant have an actor do multiple actions at once since it will be difficult two showcase these conflicts in a play, unlike a novel. Therefore, you shouldn't try to have all your characters in a play to have a conflict. Unless you only have two or three characters only. I learn every week that writing for plays differentiates from writing anything else. Its quite refreshing.
    -Abel Arredondo

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  9. In "the man who couldn't dance" I there is an internal conflict that is metaphorical paralleled with an external conflict. This being that Erics life has not amounted to anything which is then metaphorically paralleled with the fact that he doesn’t/can’t dance. For instance, (In page 86) Gail thinks that Eric, by choice, is taking an untraditional path in life and working in a farm to stand out and be different as opposed to how everyone else has conformed to the norm. This parallels with how Gail thinks Eric, by choice, won’t dance with her or anyone else. When in reality Eric can't dance. Which goes to show that everything about how Eric is viewed was a façade. It also shows that his life choices weren't really his choices but rather just the hands he was dealt. which becomes clear in page 89 when Eric says “I’m thirty-seven. I have done nothing but make myself more isolated, unavailable and unappealing.” Another thing that I really liked was the ending. I believe the dancing in the end was supposed to symbolically show that Eric will start taking his life into his own hands and probably take a turn for the best.
    - Eduardo Guerra

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  10. Spencer made some pretty good points and had understandable definitions and example which really helped me, as someone who is unfamiliar with this subject, a lot. I had always thought conflict to be something dramatic but on page 58, Spencer states, “Conflict is that thing (or person) which prevents a character from getting what he or she wants. That does make sense and I think I had known that but after reading it just made everything clearer on my understanding of conflict. I always thought conflict and having an argument was the same thing but on page 71, it states how conflict and arguments are not the same thing. After reading that section it made sense as to why they are not the same thing.
    In “The Man Who Couldn't Dance” there is a lot of arguing going on but the conflict is still evident. These people are still in love with each other but can't be together which shows the internal conflict within them by using dialogue. Throughout the play you can see and feel the tension rise until Eric breaks which leads to Gail also breaking. The internal conflict in Eric was his insecurities which he portrayed by stating he couldn't dance and for Gail it was wondering if she is actually happy with her life and Fred.
    -Rebecca Muniz

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  11. This entire chapter was kind of what I needed. I felt like I was following everything Spencer said. I loved the examples of internal conflict especially the one with Joe and Mike where Joe wants to make Mike cry but also wants the water that Mike is in possession of. The classic theatre examples like Romeo and Juliet as well Antigone really helped. It made me think of comedic movies where the main character shows in his actions his internal conflict. It seems like Jim Carey's best moments display this type of internal conflict like in Liar Liar with "the pen is blue" scene or in several scenes in "Yes Man." I found it culturally interesting as well that internal conflict is valued higher than the external. The West seems to care about the internal struggle of the individual over the needs of the collective in general.

    I also reminded me of scenes in superhero movies where the villain has one hand holding up a bus of kids and the other on the superhero's love interest. (I realized after I wrote it, this is straight up a scene from the first of the Toby Macguire Spiderman movies.) It made me consider adding a layer of internal conflict in my dialogue as well as the short story that I am writing for the Fiction workshop. Overall, I enjoyed the reading and play since it really made me rethink how I show my characters and their internal conflicts without breaking the fourth wall.

    - Ricardo Martinez Jr

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  12. With Chapter 4 I enjoyed knowing that conflict did not need to be the actual term of conflict. To me I always want that big blow up fight with arguments and throwing items I want it dramatic to say the least. But when Spencer says, “conflict is that which prevent a character from getting what he or she wants” (Pg. 59) it had me pause and think about what my character wants as is something stopping them from getting it. I enjoyed that he gave different types of conflicts one can use within their play to keep the reader interested.

    With the play I was able to see how the conflict were used to me it felt like there was many and the biggest one was Eric not staying or “dancing” with Gail he never fully was able to express himself and his fears. Eric used dancing as a way to explain that on pg 87 “they’re sharing and loving. I watch that. But my body fights it...”. It was heartbreaking play which I enjoyed because not everyone needs to be happy but, in the end, they do have a glimmer of happiness when they dance.

    Andi Rubalcava

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  13. A story isn’t important if there is no conflict in it. If a play, film, or novel had no conflict, no obstacle in its path, there wouldn’t be anything to see. People are entertained when the characters overcome conflict, whether it be a physical obstacle or one that’s external. Spencer defines conflict as being “that thing, or person, which prevents a character from getting what he or she wants”, and that can be applied to different sorts of conflict, such as external conflict which has both a direct and an indirect way of affecting the characters in the story. This is shown in "The Man Who Couldn't Dance" in which we read the conflict within Eric. The 10-minute play made me weep a bit by how well the writer wrote the conflict that Eric was having after knowing that he would never have a baby girl with Gail, nor ever love anyone else really, because of the person he is. Jason Katims does a marvelous job weaving the external conflict that goes through Eric and Gail in the relationship that they could have had. I thought it was great how Katims uses the inability of Eric being unable to dance as a way to show why he decided to let her go. Why he was the way he was. It’s brilliant.
    -Kimberly Villanueva

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