"We are still asking the question."

The Electric Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla

At the end of Marco Tempest's story, he says "'Tell me, what will man do when the forests disappear, and the coal deposits are exhausted?' Tesla thought he had the answer. We are still asking the question."

Marco Tempest is a magician who in this instance, uses an amazing set of illusions and interactions with them to tell the story of Nikola Tesla. He outlined the number of patents and inventions that he had to his name (over 700!), such as radio, wireless telegraphy, remote control, robotics, and even x-ray tech. He does note, however, that after such great success, it didn't last. Tesla had an image for the world that he was inspired to create, where the poor were not humiliated by the rich and where people thought of the future and the next steps possible for science and humanity. I think that this was the most profound point of Tempest's story.

The story begins with his birth and then moves to his astounding brain power, outlining not only how incredibly intelligent Tesla was, but how he was able to construct his ideas and inventions inside his mind, what Tempest says could have been a form of synesthesia. He then connected the story of Nikola Tesla to himself, telling an interjected story about how Tesla became a showman to show the public that the volts he would need to pursue his idea of the alternating current were safe, praising the magic of science.

Tempest creates an illusion to illustrate the life of Tesla and the ideas he's presenting, even taking of the persona of Tesla at points, making him speak directly to the audience. This creates a more personal connection with the audience which helps them to empathize with him as a person, not just an out of reach part of history. When discussing his grand ideas, inventions, and aspirations he uses rising, inspirational music and speaks excitedly, wrapping the audience up into the feeling. He's attempting to make the audience be excited as well and understand just how great Tesla was. However, when it begins to look into how Tesla's career began to fall a bit, his ideas were discarded and finally died with the amazing ideas he had lost forever, the music was sadder, and there was more dejected injections from Tesla's character, and he speaks about the great loss of knowledge and image the world suffered with his dismissal. Here Tempest is trying to make them see Tesla as he does and feel the same loss.

Tempest is an illusionist, and while many would consider what he does a hoax or just generally believe him to be unreliable, he shares that trait in common with Tesla. He uses that common outlet to connect with Tesla, and finds him an inspiration worth sharing. He uses a lot of quotes of Tesla's and isn't really portraying much of an opinion most of the presentation. He also, if you think about it, has no reason what-so-ever to lie. He wants to portray as much information about Tesla as he possibly can, and for that I think that he is a credible source. While he may not be the traditional scholar we've learned to trust, what he does, how he has researched, and his own expertise makes him just as valuable a source as any other.

While attempting to portray to the audience how important Nikola Tesla was to our society today and how his ideas should serve as inspiration for future development, Tempest describes the genius of Tesla throughout his [this is where my blog deleted the next four paragraphs, so it's gonna be nowhere near as brilliant as it was, sorry] brilliant imagination, negating his need to make plans and prototypes and instead build the finished product. He also described his over 700 patents, how crucial his inventions where and are, and how they are still pertinent today. Having the showmanship in common with Tesla and his personal connection and enthusiasm for the subject does create some bias in that regard, but his passion doesn't make it so that he's giving false or overly exaggerated information, so his reasoning is still sound. His persuasiveness, the presentation manner and the amount of evidence given is all strong and sound, even when describing his downfall. 

Personally, this TED talk was really interesting to me, not only because I found the content interesting, but because I found the quotes provided by Tesla really inspirational. I chose this talk because I thought that the points brought up were very important. I'm not sure how to phrase it, but I think that the message the Tempest was trying to convey was amazingly important for all manner of people to hear. I also connected with this talk as an aspiring scientist, finding inspiration in his ideals and what he was working for. I think that some of the story-telling used in this talk relates to what we've begun to talk about in class concerning identity. Tempest is an illusionist, that’s what connects him to Tesla. Tesla used the illusion to make his science appear more appealing, giving it another face essentially. He created another identity for the millions of volts he needed in order to make it more acceptable for the public. In his shows, Tesla also introduced a duality in his work, making it both science, hard facts, tangible experimentation, as well as magic, intangible, fantastical, and unfathomable. As Tesla put it, “the magic of science.”

[I had so many other ideas and it was phrased more effectively before, the internet sucks.]

The dedication and admiration that Tesla had for his work and what he was working for, ("Everything I did, I did for mankind") should be an inspiration, for if this man, so many years ago, dreamed of a more equal future with its problems solved and science working for the betterment of all could see it, we should too. Tesla and his ideas and hard work are underrated. Tempest is trying to communicate how important it is for us to expand upon Tesla’s ideas and ideals. I think he’s hoping that at least the people in his audience will take something away from his presentation and be inspired to think about the difference that they can make.

Double Indemnity and Women in the 1940s

A number of the shots of Stanwyck's character are done from over Neff's shoulder, though some are also done facing Neff with her speaking to him over his shoulder from behind. This last angle especially promotes to view that she is guiding him and pushing him into doing what she wants, and because she is so much shorter and has to look up at Neff, she maintains this manipulative position while simultaneously appearing helpless and small. If the shots aren't head on, they're done from a lower position looking up at her, giving her the appearance of power and looming over her surroundings, but only when Neff isn't in the picture. She's shot predominantly in close ups, though she wears dark glasses most places to cover her appearance, adding to the shifty need to hide who she is and what she's doing. She's also most frequently shot in dark areas, hiding in shadow though entirely at ease, as though she belongs there. This darkness and play with shadows also speaks to the intended image of her being one of deceit, manipulation, and hidden purpose.

In the film noir movie Double Indemnity Barbara Stanwyck plays a character named Phyllis Dietrichson, a woman who plans to murder her husband and claim the insurance money using the insurance salesman to do it. Fred MacMurray plays the salesman Walter Neff, who is pulled into Phyllis's murderous plot by promises of love and tricky, manipulative plays by the seemingly innocent and desperate woman. She serves as the femme fatale that was so widely portrayed in films of this sort during the 1940s, and the visual representation and personality of her character greatly support the intended image of both the character as well as women in general at the time of the movie's release.

The character Phyllis Dietrichson is not in any way a good, likable, or moral person. The audience, if not Walter Neff, can see through the flimsy veil of helplessness and see that she actually is trying to get close to Neff in order to use him for something. The movie reveals that not only had she plotted and helped in the execution of her husband so that she could make- off with the insurance money, but that she was totally at ease with the sin and had done it before in order to marry into the money she has by killing her husbands late wife. She's frequently spiteful and her manipulative tendencies make it difficult to see her as anything but an antagonist in the story.

During Phyllis's interactions with Walter Neff she uses a variety of tactics to get Neff to agree with her and do things for her. Initially she shows interest in him and in order to gain his trust she "confides" in him about the abuse she receives at the hands of her husband. She uses this pathos, the promise of love and helplessness of her situation, in order to convince Neff to help her get rid of him as well as set up accident insurance so she can claim the money. After they are involved in the plot she uses her own sense of logic to keep him in the deal, telling him that they've gone too far and they can't turn back. She continues this false affection and desperation and, therefore, continues to control Neff. When Neff thinks of backing out or turning on her she fluctuates between being helpless and needing him and being spiteful and snotty towards him, trying to simultaneously bully and coax him into submission and continuing to be useful to her.

A lot can be told about how women were viewed in the 1940s from this film and others like it. The femme fatale idea as well as how and why Stanwyck's character achieved her goals shows that they saw women as materialistic and manipulative people, willing to do anything and feign love in order to get what they want, swindling people out of their money and minds. Those poor innocent men.... This is obviously quite negative, and if I might say, possibly evidence of the insecurity of this male dominated area and others on the part of the men when women had been proving far more capable than many wanted to believe. Oh my gosh! This whole half of our species we've been putting down is actually capable of the same sort of work we are! Better demonize them as quickly as possible. Not as though they stepped up to help out while we we've been fighting wars and junk....