Words of Innocence and Experience

The story of Batman has finally begun!

Similar to most superhero sagas made in recent years, “Batman Begins” kicks off with the heart wrenching event of little Bruce witnessing his parents’ death. The story goes on with how he struggles with finding his own identity and makes the difficult decision of being controlled by vengeance or compassion. As stated above, adding humanitarian elements in this particular genre of exciting action movies is nothing revolutionary. Still, “Batman Begins” manages to stand out among many others thanks to its believable, mature storytelling. No tear-jerking or provocative love scenes are abruptly inserted in the movie. Instead, the movie focuses on Bruce Wayne the person, how his personality is shaped, why he decided to be Batman, and how he copes with his two identities.

Moreover, the actors’ compelling performances contribute to the greatness of the movie. To be honest, I was at first doubtful of Christian Bale being Batman due to his not especially striking appearance. However, I am thoroughly convinced by his wonderful presentation and would now claim that he is the best actor ever to play Batman. There is a distinctive depth and mysterious temperament about Bale’s Batman. He livens the complexity in Batman’s behavior and composure and seems to have taken heed of every little nuance. I am particularly impressed by the little smile he puts on his lips at times. Sinisterness as well as intrigue really shines through the unique grin of his.

Besides Bale, both Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman play their characters extremely well and provide humor to lighten up the occasional over-seriousness. Liam Neeson is quite good as Ducard with his lean, noble profile, but his truly great height sometimes overpowers Batman. Or is the effect done deliberately? Katie Holmes’ part, compared with the brilliance of other actors, is somewhat weak as Bruce Wayne’s childhood sweetheart. But she is, for the most part, believable and true to the character.

No matter how good the story and the acting are, “Batman Begins” is an adventure movie which needs much excitement. Amazingly, the special effects and the fighting scenes are flawless. Stimulating scenes accompany the storyline throughout the movie, keeping the audience alert and interested. When seeing the movie in the theater, my mother is particularly impressed by the whole view of Gotham City, the special gear of Batman, and the thrilling action near the end of the movie, with Batman and Ducard on the fast running train; meanwhile, with Jim Gordon, a righteous officer in Gotham, attempting to blow off the drying machine that extracts the life-threatening, poisonous gas into Gotham.

In sum, “Batman Begins” rocks in every possible aspect of a superhero action movie. After watching the movie, the audience would feel not only satisfied with the entertainment the movie provides but also inspired by the highly intricate, emotive story of Bruce Wayne, Batman, businessman, and most importantly, a human being.

Highly recommended.

Having studied assiduously in order to enter good universities, most college students no longer take academic scores too seriously and seek various means to learn things apart from schoolwork. Still, students, in spite of everything, feel an iota of guilt over not dedicating themselves fully to studies, and teachers always reproach students for unsatisfactory academic achievements. Through personal observation and experience, I would declare that there is no need to feel sorry for not studying hard, as those who do so barely gain anything beneficial.

To begin with, students who do well on exams are usually intimidated either by classmates or by professors. With the assurance that good students know the answer to the questions being asked in class, professors, although do not always demand answers from the excellent students, would look at the latter with piercing eyes, expecting them to give the desired replies after other students have failed. In addition, when students do presentations and the time for questions arrives, they show no mercy in their classmates who have good academic records and always save the most challenging questions for them. Therefore, good students may possess intelligence and diligence, yet all other people treat these supposedly positive qualities with malice and incrimination.

Moreover, students who receive good grades are not rewarded handsomely enough. While some classmates take part time jobs and earn some pocket money to complement their daily expenses, studious students hope to obtain some extra money from scholarships to make certain that persevering in school work is profitable. Unfortunately, with the government cutting the amount of educational budget every year, the amount of money for scholarships has unsurprisingly becomes scarce, and they are usually reserved for students in certain departments. Thus, students in those “unpopular” departments work hard, but it seems that their effort is not appreciated.

The above grudges are the ill treatments that “good” students have to endure within the border of the campus. If the students who do well in class have a bright future and career awaiting them, all the sufferings in college would be worthwhile. However, it is not the case. According to Caroline Bird in her essay “College Is a Waste of Time and Money,” what college students study has little to do with their jobs in the future, especially “Majors in nontechnical fields report even less relationship between their studies and their jobs.” Consequently even if students do extremely well in their academic studies, what they are going to face after graduation is a whole new world which may bear little relationship with what they have learned at school. Whether they receive good grades at school or not, they are going to learn new things just like everyone else, and good academic performances do not grant them the upper hand in the competitive society at all.

Good records on transcripts may help students enter a highly acknowledged educational institute of a higher level, but they make little difference in job interviews. After all, it is the diploma that is desired, and every graduate would receive the same certificate, with good academic records or not. What would help college students gain an advantageous position in job seeking cannot be found in their text books. According to Dale Carnegie in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” “They (Adults) soon discovered that if one aspired to wear the captain’s cap and navigate the ship of business, personality and the ability to talk are more important than a knowledge of Latin verbs or a sheepskin from Harvard.” In brief, the capability to deal with people and present oneself to others is a crucial key to success, and for college students, such skills cannot be developed in class, but on other occasions. Sitting in front of the desk and reading about people is impossible to be more efficient than going out and actually having contact with them.

The opportunities to get along with people can be found in clubs, part-time jobs, and even romances, which professors have repeatedly warn students to stay away from since they are likely to claim the amount of time students should spend on studies. However, think about the ill treatments and the meager acknowledgement which excellent students are given, and the prospect of a successful career if students are willing to participate in activities and broaden their horizons. The choice is clear.

Nevertheless, saying that studying hard has no worth is incorrect. If some students truly take delight in what they study and are devoted to become scholars, having substantial knowledge in books would definitely wipe out the dark clouds over their future plans. As for normal students who would eventually set off to society and make a living from their job career or the business they might start on their own, it is better not to look upon receiving good grades as the sole goal while in college.

The real world is wide and treacherous, and restricting oneself to books just to accomplish satisfactory scholastic scores is not worthwhile. If students do so, neither would their endeavor be cherished nor would it be beneficial to future developments. College diploma has become a necessity in society, and spending the four years doing the right things is essential, and unfortunately doing well on exams is not included.

Last week was hellish, dare I say it. I had SIX exams to go through! I was on the verge of becoming mad on Thursday. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do the report on the “interface design” class on Thursday. As other groups were doing presentations, I prostrated on the desk to steal a nap while the teacher had her back to the whole class.

Around ten minutes later, I woke up, feeling slightly better from my fatigue. My gaze turned to the stage and I saw him. Honestly, he wasn’t good-looking and his clothes were sloppy. Yet from his feature, I saw some quasi-resemblence to Dave Gahan.

Yes, Dave Gahan from DM!

For a moment I couldn’t normally breathe. When his report was over, he returned to his seat in the back of the classroom. Therefore, everyone must pass by his seat if wanting to get out from the back door. I was truly fluttered when I got pass him. It was nice to see a “fake” Dave in that terrible week of mine. Hey, and Dave isn’t even my favorite in DM! What would happen if I see Martin or Alan? Or Sting? The list can go on…

Ever since I entered university, one grudge professors often lash out at students has been impossible for me to ignore—”Why don’t you read the papers?” “How come you know nothing about the news at all?” “Why don’t you do something meaningful in your free time, such as reading the newspapers?” Having heard the acquisitions repeatedly, students may have probably been too ashamed to give reasons which account for their unwillingness to read newspapers, or rather, “formal” newspapers.

For one thing, according to a survey conducted by The China Times, a prominent publisher here in Taiwan, the average age of newspaper readers is thirty-seven. Does it mean that one of the reasons that college students do not read papers nowadays is that they have yet reached the age to appreciate it? Although the answer is unlikely, the survey does evidence a worrying phenomenon that formal newspapers are losing its number of readers. Most people might believe that the trend only takes place in Taiwan, yet various proofs are in place to show that other countries have their share of similar tendency.

Newspapers have long been categorized into two types: quality papers and tabloids. Always considered vulgar, tabloids suffer from extremely bad reputation. Thus, it really struck me when I learned that tabloids sell far more copies than quality papers universally. New York Times, whose reports and articles are highly recognized, is a well-known publisher in the city of New York; nevertheless, New York Post, a tabloid in the same city, attracts much more readers on a daily basis. The situation is similar in Britain, where the Sun, the first tabloid published in the world, is much more popular than the Times or the Guardian.

Likewise, students in Taiwan do read papers and even purchase them occasionally, but what I usually see in the hands of the passenger sitting next to me on the bus is Apple Daily, yet another tabloid in Taiwan. Due to its notoriety, some of its readers refuse to admit buying it. When professor interrogate that why students do not read newspapers, some students may be murmuring under their breath: “Yes, I read papers. I read Apple Daily and I’m never going to tell you that.” Tabloids are guilty pleasures of the common people, yet it takes courage for educated people to scan them in the light of day.

As stated above, tabloids are vile, meaningless, and shallow, but their appeal to people is immense. To begin with, there are more pictures on tabloids than on quality papers. Obviously, pictures are more pleasant for the eye than endless lines of words jostling to the margin. USA Today, a publisher in America, used to be caught between the qualifications of tabloids and newspapers, yet its sale has been on the rise since the number of pictures multiplied.

The proportion of pictures is not the main reason for tabloids’ massive popularity. Eroticism, discords, and violence whose sinister qualities draw people in, fill the headlines of tabloids. The Sun, for instance, dedicated its second page to a scantily-clad girl every day. There is no particular reason which explains why the girl is there, and no one asks because too much sanity would ruin the beauty. Apple Daily may have copied the feature, and girls in swimming suits appear in various pages out of nowhere. As a female, it would be nice if there were some provocative male pictures as well. As for violence, bloody snapshots taken from an accident or pictures of people fighting are blatantly placed in the front page of Apple Daily. While some people would be frightened by such undisguised sanguinary pictures, quite a few people would be thrilled by the sheer ferocity.

With jaw-dropping content every day, no wonder tabloids are more appealing to people. Conversely, what appears on quality papers, particularly on the headlines, are overly serious. After all, the human world is complex and tedious matters such as politics are indispensable in society. A whole page of political analysis would suffice to either bore or annoy the reader to a great extent.

Taiwanese readers are especially disillusioned by worldly affairs, so the corresponding section cannot escape the fate of shrinking in quality papers. Considering the source of international news, it is obvious to see the reason for its unpopularity. Most of the international news which shows up in newspapers is translated from CNN or BBC, both news media well-known for their professionalism, or tediousness. If one is displeased with local politics, let alone the fact that s/he may enjoy reading the election in Britain or France. Also, Taiwan is rarely allowed to join worldly organization. Not a member, the new directions a certain institution is heading for means little to Taiwanese people. Another type of news likely to hit international headlines is severe accident or cruel atrocities. Then again, being accustomed to being isolated, no one cares about the disasters overseas as long as they have no influence on Taiwan.

The remaining sort of news which holds charm for the reader is local anecdotes. People here are oddly enchanted when reading about a maniac monk, little children of meager means, a murder case as a result of love triangle, or the funeral of a gangster. It is natural for people to have more interest in the things taking place in their own country, anyhow, and newspapers, tabloids or quality papers alike, are eager to print more local news. This way, people are more willing to read the papers and be informed of both positive and negative news, yet equally engaging.

Newspapers are not part of the daily commodity, and thus they needs to be entertaining enough to tempt the masses to buy them. The amusement tabloids grant its reader is clear, and of course, some people would still choose to read quality papers to increase knowledge. It happens that Taiwanese people are not zealous over international news. As a way of survival, local newspaper publishers tend not to include too much of it. Fortunately, with the Internet connection, it is fairly easy to keep on track of the news outside of Taiwan. Most people here would still have the partial phobia for grave international news, and there is nothing wrong with this preference and for local newspapers to cater to people’s desires.