Katie Dickison

LBST 330

Sean Ashley/Josema Zamorano

October 22, 2018

                                                         Reading Response 3 

As “Arrival” opens you are introduced to a world which has recently been invaded by a species from another planet. It begins with a college linguistics professor being whisked away by a military commander to potentially communicate with aliens who have arrived on Earth; this communication between the species is crucial for the fact that they need to know what their purpose is on earth. A greater understanding is what they need to achieve. As you watch the film you are introduced to an array of characters that each bring their own approach to understanding. The military has one specific purpose; they want to know is if this alien species is going to be a threat to civilization, whereas the physicist wants to know how they got here, but it is the linguist who holds the key to a greater understanding. She is there so that she can communicate with the aliens. Her original purpose was to get a question answered for the military, but it turned into so much more because to achieve that you need to accomplish an advanced level of understanding just to be able to learn their language. Throughout the film, you see the struggle other countries around the world are facing in trying to figure out if they pose a danger or not. Each country goes by a different approach and ultimately fails and ends up making things worse. They have put a wall of defense up, while also trying to get their questions answered rather than opening up and allowing for the creation of understanding through a dialogue of the play. The linguist is the only person who has what it takes to get answers. She was never afraid of what the outcome was going to be. She left herself open and let them into her world and through that, she found the answers.

This is how I will choose to approach my research studies; I will always try to remain open and to not be afraid of the answers that I may find. I shouldn’t be afraid to have my beliefs questioned; I should be open to any and all possibilities of understanding. In looking back on my previous two revisions, my approach to research for upcoming tutorials and my grad project seems to be quite similar to what I had previously mentioned because at that point I somewhat already had an idea of how I was going to go about my research in analyzing it. I always knew that I would come into my research with some sort of bias and I know that there’s no way to avoid it. My bias is created out of experience and time and there’s no way to erase the past, the next best thing I can do is to acknowledge its presence and know what it is and what it will bring to the new information that I will come upon throughout this whole process. In terms of different topics for research, I still have a strong interest in looking into the society behind the art. A lot of people say that it’s the art that shapes a society, which there is a truth to, but to me, it is the other way around. I find people so fascinating; to know what makes them who they are and why they do certain things. Every individual is different, just like me, they see the world through a different light and with that they express themselves in different ways. Everybody needs an outlet, they need a way to express themselves. Art acts as an outlet for many people. It can be a reaction to what is going on around them; how they are affected by the world.

In conducting research for this particular project I know I’ll want to seek out the information that supports my argument because that is what I have done in the past and it makes the whole process a lot smoother for me. But in writing these responses to the different readings and videos I have come to the conclusion that I need to change my approach from past experiences. I no longer will seek out information to support my hypothesis. I will be open to any information on my topic and see it for what it is; to not try and mold it into what I want it to be. That’s the only way I will find truth in this whole process.