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Perks of being a wallflower....

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Welcome folks I'm a Wallflower in case you can't tell I've [Wallflower talking]

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been charged with introducing you to the world of contemporary literature and in

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particular Stephen Chbosky 1999 novel The Perks of Being a

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Wallflower I am an expert on Shakespeare but no of course the Wallflower has to

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teach about the Wallflower book typical human discrimination personal complaints [Wallflower discussing novel]

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aside Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epic example of contemporary literature

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despite its name contemporary Lit doesn't refer to books that came out

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recently but it is a distinct genre with a unique perspective style and subject

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matter to understand contemporary lit we have to first understand postmodern [Postmodern literature definition appears]

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literature post-modernism can be described simply it's weird, like really

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weird it's like that kid in school who acts all wild all the time just to freak

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out the normies postmodern writers love to experiment and challenge our [Boy and girl experimenting and explosion occurs]

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assumptions about literature both in terms of its forms the way it's written

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and its content the stuff its talking about in particular postmodern

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literature critiques society's view of identity truth and even reality itself

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all been focusing instead on internal reflection major authors we consider

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post modernists include William Faulkner famous for his novels the sound and the [Novels by William Faulkner appear]

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fury, As I Lay Dying and a short story, A Rose for emily

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Vladimir Nabokov the ravishing Russian - wrote Lolita, Pale Fire and speak,

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memory and Kurt Vonnegut the legendary author of slaughterhouse-five, breakfast

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of champions and cat's cradle all of these guys are very different authors

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which shows you how diverse the genre is... contemporary Lit is diverse too but times

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a billion think about it this way before post-modernism deliberate establishment [Man climbs down a ladder]

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had built a wall around their idea of real literature it had to be coherent

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fit their cultural expectation and feature easy-to-digest moral values

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postmodernist demolished these standards with their wild literary experimentalism [Standards explodes]

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not only smashing the literary establishment but also launching a

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scathing critique of society at large now that the post modernist had broken

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the rules and gotten away with it a wider range of people could now enter [People entering literary world park]

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the literary world and it's these folks who championed contemporary literature

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some writers whose work has been described as contemporary lit include

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Jack Kerouac of on the road and the Dharma bums fame, Philip Roth who wrote

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goodbye Columbus, port noise complaint and American pastoral and Margaret

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Atwood the brilliant writer of the edible woman, The Handmaid's Tale and

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cat's eye..As far as defining traits goes, contemporary lit shares post-modernism [Two guys riding a rollercoaster]

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critique of society and is generally ironic taking it basically the hipster

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of literary genres and it is here in this lawless world of contemporary lit

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that perks of being a wallflower enters the scene the first thing you need to

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know is that Perks is an epistolary novel which means that it's written in [Epistolary novel definition appears]

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the form of letters our writer is a 15 year old kid named Charlie struggling to

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come to grips with a recent suicide of a close friend and the recipient of those

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letters well we're not sure and neither does Charlie he's never met his pen pal but

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heard from the grapevine that he or she is a nice person in an alternate [Mail van drives away]

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universe this is the beginning of a horror movie but not so in this case

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Charlie is a sweet shy kid so he's having trouble adapting to high school [Guys bullying Charlie at school]

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things get better when he befriends his English teacher bill as well as a nice

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classmate of his named Patrick - Patrick's sister, Sam who's Charlie sort of

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falls in love with hey a fifteen-year-old going to do what a

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fifteen-year-old is going to do these friendships open up Charlie's world in a

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big way over the course of school year Charlie has a first kiss with Sam, but in [Sam kisses Charlie]

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a totally platonic way of course he also deals with bullies experiments with

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drugs and drinking and becomes a die-hard devotee of Rocky Horror Picture

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Show a cult 70s musical film known for its rabid fan base Charlie also learns

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that Patrick is gay and having a secret relationship with Brad the star of the

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football team but Sam's a senior which means that [Sam graduating from school]

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she's graduating at the end of the year that deserves a thousand sad emoticons

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well Charlie helps her pack up for college they start talking about his

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feelings for her which are insanely obvious to everyone involved so they [Sam pushes Charlie down]

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start to get frisky which should be the greatest moment of Charlie's life thus

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far but instead causes him to freak out though he takes a nap to clear his mind

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and has a strange unsettling dream of his aunt Helen touching him like Sam did

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in an awful revelation he realizes that she had molested him when he was younger [Sam wakes up from a nap]

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after this awkward encounter Charlie goes into a catatonic state which

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despite his name cannot be cured by that sweet sweet tonic known as cats when [Boy stroking a cat]

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Charlie doesn't snap out of it his dad brings him to a hospital where he stays

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for two months he remains friends with Sam and Patrick and manages to forgive

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aunt Helen who knowing that she too was abused as a child she was caught up in a

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cycle of abuse and then for the last time he signs off with love always [Charlie signs off on piece of paper]

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Charlie one of the first things you'll notice about is how many

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pop-culture references there are in this thing which we can relate to the genre

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of contemporary literature although not all contemporary Lit references pop

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culture it's a fairly common technique in the genre probably the most prominent

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piece of pop culture in the novel is the Rocky Horror Picture Show you young uns [Wallflower discussing RockyHorror picture show]

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might not know about this musical masterpiece that is unless you caught

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the 2016 TV remake but it was legit cult phenomenon an underground hit..The film is

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known for its sexually charged humor glorious dance numbers and intense

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audience movement during the public screenings of this movie audience members

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both dressed up like the film's characters which is usually quite

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revealing and acting out scenes as they happen on-screen in many ways Rocky [People acting in Rocky Horror picture show]

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Horror fans created their own little community one that accepts everybody no

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matter how weird they are actually the weirder the better so you can understand

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why Rocky Horror become such a big part of Charlie's life over the course of the

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school year it's a place where he feels like he belongs it's a place where he [Bullies laughing at Charlie]

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knows that he won't be judged places like that are hard to find when you're

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in high school I can tell you that much another pop cultural touchstone and

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perks is the mixtape Charlie makes for Patrick a mixtape by the way is how

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people used to share music before Spotify and SoundCloud you crazy kids...

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anyway the tape is filled to the brim with [Person holding a mix tape]

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moody dark and sad music exactly what you'd expect from a hormone adult teen

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once again however we're shown how art can bring people together whether it's a

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musical film that celebrates individual weirdness and sexual expression or some

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sad song by the Smiths pop culture can bring us together and help build [People sitting on chairs watching a concert]

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communities which is no small task indeed the novel is also dense with

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juicy themes, friendship is a big one of course as we've already mentioned the

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novel uses pop culture emphasizes the theme of friendship especially

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because Charlie uses pop culture to bond with Patrick and Sam one of the books

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most iconic quotes about friendship comes as the trio is riding through a [Charlie, Patrick and Sam riding in a car]

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tunnel in a pickup truck when Charlie says in that moment I swear we were

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infinite we think this is a way of expressing how open Charlie has become

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since meeting Patrick and Sam and how he feels connected to a humanity that's

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larger than himself related to this theme of passivity which definitely

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applies to Charlie dude is less active than a rock because he's a shy kid [Charlie laying on a sofa]

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Charlie often buries himself in pop culture living vicariously through his

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favorite musicians and literary protagonist which shows the dark side of

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loving pop culture it can prevent you from experiencing the world but that's

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where friendship comes in even if Charlie is still the kid who stands at [Charlie in a corner at a school dance]

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the corner at school dances, he's found a group of friends who can make him

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comfortable Charlie seems to have a harder time with that where his family

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is concerned his parents aren't mean or anything, just sort of detached the same

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goes for his older sister Mary Elizabeth she's often so busy with her own teenage [Mary taking selfie pics]

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drama to help Charlie out with his in fact when Sam gives Charlie a hug he

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notes that his family never hugs each other the only one who did was aunt

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Helen which takes on an ominous connotations once we learned that she

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molested Charlie this revelation about aunt Helen is constantly foreshadowed

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throughout the story Charlie often gets flashing memories of

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her when he gets sexually excited obviously this is one of the most [Charlie kisses Sam and Aunt Helen appears]

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horrible things we can imagine yet Charlie somehow manages to forgive Helen

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but how? well part of it is that Charlie knows that aunt Helen too was molested

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when she was younger by a family friend that's the cycle of abuse thing we were

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talking about before take hope with her trauma

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Helen drank did drugs and like Charlie she ended up in the hospital but she [Helen laying on a hospital bed]

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also abused Charlie in the same way she was abused to us this is unforgivable

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but that Charlie find some way to actually forgive Helen shows his immense

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capacity for love and gives us hope that this particular cycle of abuse has been [Hammer smashes a clock]

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broken Charlie's repressed trauma causes him to

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feel a lot of sadness that he doesn't understand which isn't unusual for a

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teenager but is a bit extreme in this case ultimately charlie is unable to

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fully deal with his sadness until he makes peace with his memories of aunt [Charlie in a hospital bed and Aunt Helen's ghost appears]

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Helen and that requires him to re-experience them again in all their

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pain and terror as hard as it is however Charlie is making some very big very

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important first steps to a better life as much as it hurts now he'll be happy

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with his decision in the future so what did we learn from this journey into the

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land of wallflowers well we learned about contemporary literature a

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distinctly modern form of writing that's the little brother of post

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modernism, a genre that developed around the same time which places a stronger

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focus on straight-up weirdness the perk of being a wallflower is a classic [Re-record needed message appears]

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example of contemporary Lit with its use of irony references to pop culture and

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general critiques of society on top of that it's also deeply personal and

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deeply real account of the painful parts of growing up, of which there are plenty

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so now I've got to split there's a big Wallflower party coming up and Wallflower

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parties tend to get crazy hey don't believe everything you read we [Wallflower with plate of brownies and monster energy drink]

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wallflowers can party just as hard as the rest of them

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