Yes, forrestunifreak, it is symbolic, but to truly understand it, one
must first understand exactly what the prompt means to AP students. The
prompt is the set of instructions that you must respond to when writing
essays. The prompt is iron-clad. The prompt is not to be trifled with.
It is your creed, your code, your guiding light in the AP test. When
you sit down in the AP test to write those essay, you must read the
prompt, pick it apart, understand its depths, and go from there. In
short, you -must- follow the prompt. That above all is drilled into AP
English students from the get-go. Essays which do not follow the prompt
are dismissed as chaff, drivel unworthy of even a numbered score. They
are zero. Nothing. And so, one must learn the prompt, follow its ways
and paths through all the twists and turns that it may take you, until
your goal is achieved: an essay that is on-topic and brilliant. As for
the symbolism, it is essential to understand the meaning of the video.
I won't explain it, for art cannot be explained (for example, a poem,
whose meaning cannot be thought through, but must be felt). However,
some pointers: think of what exactly is being said through certain
things, such as the fact that the prompt is armored, or that Thomas
follows the prompt while adding his own style, or that he loses sight
of the prompt near the end, but pulls it back together, or the fact
that he never actually catches the prompt, but instead catches -up- to
it, and then rides parallel with it. Much meaning is contained in this
video, so I say, bravo Thomas. I actually didn't have that much to do
with the video, other than riding in it and subitting it to Google
Video.
P.S. I hope you do not feel I am talking down to you. I tend to adopt a
tongue-in-cheek overblown pedantic tone when discussing art because it
amuses me, and keeps me from getting to stuffily academic.
--
subsonic87
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
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