My College Papers
This is it. Here is the place where you can find some of the papers that I have written over the years. Note that I said some. I have included what I consider to be my finer work. I’ve written some junk over the years; you won’t find it here (at least, I hope you don’t consider it junk). Below you will find links to various papers I've written. Aside from my lone short story, all the papers came from 1997-2000. In short, my college years.
STORIES
Snowball in Hell - - a short story I wrote in 1996 for my high school English class.
PAPERS
PAPERS ABOUT MOVIES
The Purple Rose of Cairo - - a 1998 paper on the 1985 Woody Allen film of the same name; Leonard Maltin gave it three and a half stars (the film, that is, not my paper; although, I have to admit, the paper is pretty damn good).
Rebel Without a Cause: A Co-Creation Paper - - a co-creation paper (i.e., a personal opinion paper), written in 1998, on the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause.
The Visual Style of GoodFellas - - a 1998 paper about the various visual motifs used in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film.
RoboCop - - a 1998 term paper about the 1987 Paul Verhoven film of the same name.
Double Indemnity: Strike While the Match is Hot - - a 1999 paper about the classic 1944 film noir Double Indemnity.
The Big Sleep: It's All About Bacall - - a 1999 paper comparing the novel The Big Sleep to the 1946 movie of the same name.
It's a Noir World After All: The Noirish Attributes in L.A. Confidential - - a 1999 term paper about the 1997 neo-noir film.
A Study of the Society in Soylent Green - - a 1999 paper about the futuristic society in Soylent Green, a cheesy movie from the 1970s. Unlike the above papers, this wasn't written for a film class but, rather, for a class about ethics.
PAPERS ABOUT TELEVISION
- - a term paper I wrote in 1997; the title says it all.
Television Should Get Smart - - a 1998 paper about that wonderful 1960s sitcom Get Smart and the fact that, at the time of the paper's writing, it wasn't shown on TV anymore.
From Amos to Cosby and Back Again: The Portrayal of African-Americans on Television - - a 1998 paper about how the black community has been portrayed on television since the 1950s.
Battle of the Treks: The Next Generation vs. Deep Space Nine - - a paper, written in 2000, comparing Star Trek: The Next Generation and its sister series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Sure to stir up controversy in the hearts of Trekkies and Trekkers everywhere.
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS
- - a 1998 paper about the family values in Shakespeare's classic King Lear.
Alison and the Wife of Bath - - a 1998 paper comparing the two female characters in "The Miller's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale," two tales in Gregory Chaucer's legendary literary masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales.
Tex Avery: Don't Heckle with his Heckling Hare - - a 1998 paper about animation pioneer Tex Avery and the situation that led to his leaving Warner Bros. Studios in 1941.
The House That Roone Built - - a 1999 paper reviewing a biography of Roone Arledge, the one-time president of ABC News.
How 1950s America Begat 1960s America - - a paper, written in 2000, about the profound influence America in the 1950s had on America in the 1960s.
How Atari Changed our Lives for the Better - - this essay, written in 2000, gives a brief history of the rise and fall of Atari, a pioneer of the home video game market.
For more of my writings about television, see my On TV with Mike Thompson page.
Send your comments on my works, be they positive or negative (I can take the criticism, folks), to mike9986@postmark.net.
LAST UPDATED: December 1, 2000. Loaded a bunch of previously written papers. Also renamed the page.
"Computer, this page bores me. Return me to the main page."
