The Count of Monte Cristo part 3

This is the final and last segment of the Monte Cristo series. Our last task before our mini-book club was disbanded was to present our findings in a way that would be interesting for others. None of us in the group are particularly tech savvy but this digital civilization class has really given us a lot of fun opportunities to stretch ourselves and use the incredible new tools that are available to us in the 21st century. Since you can't get much more 21st century than YouTube, that's where we decided to focus our efforts. 
Andrew, Kurt and I got together after class and recorded ourselves on my computer (MacBook 17'', Photobooth/iMovie) discussing the things we had learned from the book.

Kurt mentioned how much more sense the book made because we understood the time and style it was written in better. The Count of Monte Cristo exemplifies all the Romantic ideals. Isolationism and Nature; Edmond Dantes is a Sailor, out in the elements alone with only his shipmates and is happy. He get betrayed by 'society', in this case his neighbor Caderousse, the ship's supercargo Danglars and Fernand a neighbor/distant relative/crush of Mercedes, Dantes' fiance. Dantes gets thrown into jail, physical isolation. He eventually pairs with another prisoner in an adjacent cell and is educated. Dantes is able to escape and is now physically reunited with society but emotionally and intellectually isolated because of his revenge.

The Romantic definition of true love is different than the romance definition of true love. One explanation is because Alexander Dumas was very influenced by Shakespeare's plays he probably wanted to build on the Romeo and Juliet type of love. Where only true love is expressed by a willingness to die for your beloved, or if your beloved dies then there is no more reason to live or life in general.

Andrew was impressed by the use of 'medicine' and drugs in the story.  I think this is reflective of the Romantic time period. The time period is in the middle of the industrial revolution with many new inventions and advances in technology and medicine. It makes sense that The Count of Monte Cristo, a mysterious and educated man would have a solution to sleep well through the use of new drugs.

Putting our movie online was an interesting and enlightening process. After recording our discussion, I went home and got on YouTube. The YouTube process was surprisingly simple.
Step 1- Save your video. (you can also save it in an editor like iMovie to add music and pictures) be sure to save it in a size that is convenient for the internet ie bigger files load more slowly. 
Step 2- If you don't already have an account click 'Create New Account'
Step 3- Fill out some basic information, like email and username
Step 4- Click 'upload'
Step 5- Select your video file from your harddrive.
Finished!

Our movie turned out great but for some reason the last little bit was cut off and the sound quality is low. Next time we will either get an external microphone, a different room or sit closer to the computer. Besides that, it was a great experience and I will feel much more comfortable and competent about uploading movies and project to the internet and YouTube.



Sorry DIGG is getting in the way...