Humbug! Hoaxes in Literature and Culture.

“Look closely, because the closer you think you are, the less you will actually see.”

In short the movie Now You See Me is about the Horsemen who are real-time magicians under investigation for a series of bank robberies. When analyzing this sentence, you get a sense of someone speaking directly to you, just as you would if you were to attend a show, such as a circus or magic show. One where the performer is directly interacting with their audience, unlike a movie where actors purely interact with each other. You can see this as it states ‘you’ multiple times. The use of “…look closely…” acts as an imperative statement, giving direct orders to the audience. This is also reflective of the movie as throughout the movie the four Horsemen are telling their audience what to do, while in the bigger picture there is someone giving them orders as well as portraying the fact that throughout the movie it is the  Four Horsemen who seem to be in control of the situations and the audience. This sentence shows some confusion lining up with the theme of the movie, as you are constantly in search of what is happening, but never really aware until the end. The confusion comes from the sentence which states “…look closely…closer…less you will…see…” This acts almost as opposites as the closer you get to something, the more you would expect to see and understand. However, this sentence is stating that doing this will have the exact opposite effect, which is unexpected and hence leaves the audience wanting more in order to understand why this particular act will be so different from what we would expect. The sentence contains numerous commas, which creates pauses in the sentence and makes you anticipate the next phrase being said without too long a pause such as a full stop. This almost highlights the context and aim of the whole movie where the magicians never just leave the audience hanging but keep them constantly engaged, with slight pauses.

Since Von Kempelen’s discovery was failed to be seen as a hoax by scientists, what does this tell us about science? What effects does the press have on the believability of a hoax Poe is attempting to debunk? How did the time period in which this was written play a role in Poe’s argument?

1. How does the medium of documentary film effect how sucsessful the overall hoax is?

2. The line between reality and perception can be blurry through the lens of a camera, how did the director utilize this principle?

3. When The Blair Witch Project came out in theaters many left thinking they had just seen a legitimate first hand account of non-fiction. What about the film made many people believe this?

1. What did the character Frank Abagnale Jr. implement to be so successful as an impersonator and how does it tie in with hoaxes?

2. Would the inspiration behind his impersonations and check fraud give question as to whether Abagnale’s act was a humbug or a hoax? Would the intensions change any of that?

3. How much of a hand did the acting and directing play into making this such a successful movie that fully grasped the audience?

1. What affect did the time period in which “A Modest Proposal” was written have on its believability and the outrage about the paper?
2. How did the structure and literary tactics of each paragraph contribute to the believability of the paper?
3. What elements of “A Modest Proposal” give away the fact that it is satire?

Three research questions for my paper on “A modest proposal”

1. What relevant historical information would enrich the understanding of Swifts work?
2. How is this a hoax and why did Swift write it as such?
3. How was his work received by the population after it was published? Did they see through the Hoax?

What tactics does the screenwriter use to fool the audience into thinking the wizard of oz is real?

What effect is the director achieving by starting the film in black and white, but ending with color?

How does the battle of good vs evil add to the effectiveness of the hoax?

How does this hoax reflect an overarching theme of mankind vs. nature?

How does the subject of aviation discussed in this story reflect popular interest at the time?

Why would Poe choose to write a story so similar to the Great Moon Hoax and publish it in the same newspaper?

When I read my hoax, it was hard to tell if it could be classified as such, due to the consideration that it did not appear to be written with the intention to deceive. Therefore, I came to question, is this a myth? A wives tale? My three questions, then, are:

1) How is this a hoax

2)How, if at all, did the author tend to deceive the audience and why?

3) What made this hoax believable and unbelievable?

“It’s not the same on film is it? I mean, you know it’s real, but it’s like looking through the lens gives you some sort of protection from what’s on the other side.”

This stream of consciousness starts with a rhetorical and vague question. The use of the word “It” to start and end the question is vague and mysterious. “It” is something that is broad and general where the viewer doesn’t really know if it is a pronoun or noun. The medium is film brought up which is an important component throughout the story. The question he poses is rhetoric as he quickly follows it up with a statement. The sentence starts with “I mean” giving a sense that he is trying to answer the question he posed. The next part is interesting in how he is literally trying to convince himself out of accepting reality. He goes on to say “you know it’s real, but…”. Following the statement with the word “but” shows hesitation and an internalized doubt. He goes on to say “looking through the lens gives you some sort of protection from what’s on the other side.” This is interesting in how the writer chose pronouns because even though he is saying “you” he is talking about his own fears of reality. This line is encompassing of a major theme in Blair Witch Projects, which is the separation between the first hand account of the characters with the audience by the separation of a camera lens. The camera acts as something that skews and distorts reality, which ironically is touched on in the quote above. It is almost like the director is leaving breadcrumbs through nuanced dialog to indicate that the Blair Witch Projects are a hoax and not reality.