Essay on Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass
Look at the “Final Essay Project – Draft 1” assignment for directions on the topic focus. As you discuss your proposed topic, include as much detail as you can (at this juncture). Essentially, this is your pitch to your “editor.” You’ll need to describe the focus of the project, why your readers will be interested in it, how your project is original, how you plan to conduct the research, and what exactly you will try to analyze as you pursue the project.
Use the following questions to help develop your prospectus:
What is your original, focused topic? How will it add to the ideas/theories/conversations started by (at least one of) the text(s) from class?
What is your guiding question to prompt your research/fieldwork? Or, what claim (assertion/hypothesis) do you think you will make about this topic?
What is your purpose in writing about this subject? Why are you interested in it?
Why might this discussion matter to others?
What is at stake in exploring this idea/focus? What do you think you can explore
here that is interesting and original to your essay? How are you going to do something that hasn’t already been done by another writer (at least, to your knowledge)?
Additional questions you might consider:
What is interesting, curious, or significant about this topic? What do you want to figure out?
What have others already said/written about your proposed subject/topic? How do you suppose you will be situated in this “conversation”?
What types of sources do you know you will incorporate into your essay? How do you plan on pursuing further sources (evidence) for your topic?
Visual rhetorical messages can be observed in a plethora of platforms and ways. This particular paper delves into the Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass that was created by producer Mike Flanagan – who is recognized for his supernatural horror works. Midnight Mass was released in 2021, and the series traced the lives of a small old town that suddenly experiences various miracles and mysteries. What is additionally appealing to the plot of the series was its visual representation of the town, which was located in the fictional Crockett Island. The characters also offer a distinct visual appeal that can be interpreted through various lenses. George Lakoff’s “Anna Nicole on the Brain” looked into the step-by-step process of character-building, especially to clearly understand the predicaments of a politicized entity. Lakoff’s perspectives about the need for a moral balance can be applied in the visual rhetoric of Midnight Mass. In this miniseries, there was the need to establish some type of moral compass through the visual representation of the Catholic Church and how the characters treated their religious devotion.
