I was really inspired by Dr. Burton's challenge for us to find a real audience to gear our eBook to, not just the hypothetical one that English students usually write to. I love how Amy has been moving her work towards a real audience by means such as contacting illustrators and posting comments on the English Teachers' Chatboard. I hope that our eBook can add something legitimate to a real audience like hers.
In my mind, Goodreads is a built-in forum that has exactly what we need: lay people (not professors or teachers or book publishers) who are significantly interested in literature, and who are at least technologically literate. However, to my frustration, as I have searched Goodreads for groups that may be interested in our work, the closest thing I can find is other university classes like ours who seem to have created similar projects. Most groups on Goodreads are very informal and they aren't always very active either.
The closest thing I can find is a group that wants to critically discuss world literature, but their emphasis is on books written between 1800 and 1910, a category which only a few of our class's books fall into. I also searched for LDS readerships, but the books most of them seem to be reading are romance novels and fluffy happy contemporary stories...not exactly what we are looking for.
Short of Goodreads, I know that our class also discussed English teachers as a potential readership...but that is so very specific. I think it would be so much more exciting to find people who are just interested in writing and reading, not just in passing a course or teaching one. However, the more research I do, the more convinced I become that such a group does not exist, at least not cohesively. I think that in all practicality, despite how hard we have tried to avoid it, our class may be destined to write to another hypothetical audience--in other words, a nonexistent one.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
How are eBooks consumed?
Our class is moving towards creating an eBook, and I'm interested in what devices are most commonly used in consuming them. I am struggling to find any statistics on this, but here are the devices that can be used to read eBooks:
Kindle
Nook
iPad
iPhone
Mac/PC
Android Tablets
Kobo Touch
Sony touch-screen
The price range for new, full-priced Kindles and Nooks ranges around $150 and iPads are significantly more expensive. The screen sizes range from 5 to 10 inches. I had never heard of the Kobo Touch or Sony touch-screen before, but apparently they're doing all right on the market, being purchased by more technologically-savvy individuals than myself...
Interestingly, the states rated highest in eBook consumption are Alaska, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Virginia. Perhaps these states, where populations are less centralized, rely more on the internet and less on physically shopping for books because they have less access to conveniently located bookstores. It's nice to know that our fellow Utahns are a potential audience for us, I guess...
Kindle
Nook
iPad
iPhone
Mac/PC
Android Tablets
Kobo Touch
Sony touch-screen
The price range for new, full-priced Kindles and Nooks ranges around $150 and iPads are significantly more expensive. The screen sizes range from 5 to 10 inches. I had never heard of the Kobo Touch or Sony touch-screen before, but apparently they're doing all right on the market, being purchased by more technologically-savvy individuals than myself...
Interestingly, the states rated highest in eBook consumption are Alaska, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Virginia. Perhaps these states, where populations are less centralized, rely more on the internet and less on physically shopping for books because they have less access to conveniently located bookstores. It's nice to know that our fellow Utahns are a potential audience for us, I guess...
Friday, May 27, 2011
Helping Matt Harrison
My purpose is to search the MLA International Database to find new literary approaches Matt can take to Ender's Game, especially in the context of his interest in visual/other media interpretations of the work.
MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the contains dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series, and 1,000 book publishers.
I searched the MLA database for phrases such as "Ender's Game online," "Ender's Game illustration," and finally just "Ender's Game." After looking through a couple of interesting results I found one that focused on the different characters Ender and Bean in the novel.
Doyle, Christine. "Orson Scott Card's Ender and Bean: The Exceptional Child as Hero." Children's Literature in Education: An International Quarterly 35.4 (2004): 301-318.
The article focuses on how Card's concept of the gifted child changes over the course of fourteen years that elapsed between writing the first novel and writing Ender's Shadow. It also discusses what specific aspects of "giftedness" are important to Card in his novels.
I thought that it would be interesting to research how different points of view are represented in such formats as the comic book. and other visual text. Ender and Bean are very different characters, but as this article points out, their gifts are very similar, making them each valuable soldiers in the Enderverse. I think it would be fascinating to research how different points of view are developed through illustration, especially when the plot of the two books Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are so similar that the plot development in illustration would be almost identical.
MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the contains dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series, and 1,000 book publishers.
I searched the MLA database for phrases such as "Ender's Game online," "Ender's Game illustration," and finally just "Ender's Game." After looking through a couple of interesting results I found one that focused on the different characters Ender and Bean in the novel.
Doyle, Christine. "Orson Scott Card's Ender and Bean: The Exceptional Child as Hero." Children's Literature in Education: An International Quarterly 35.4 (2004): 301-318.
The article focuses on how Card's concept of the gifted child changes over the course of fourteen years that elapsed between writing the first novel and writing Ender's Shadow. It also discusses what specific aspects of "giftedness" are important to Card in his novels.
I thought that it would be interesting to research how different points of view are represented in such formats as the comic book. and other visual text. Ender and Bean are very different characters, but as this article points out, their gifts are very similar, making them each valuable soldiers in the Enderverse. I think it would be fascinating to research how different points of view are developed through illustration, especially when the plot of the two books Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are so similar that the plot development in illustration would be almost identical.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature: Escher and Borges
My purpose is to search the MLA International Bibliography to find a connection between reputed artwork and Jorge Luis Borges' work.
MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the contains dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series, and 1,000 book publishers.
I searched the MLA International Bibliography with the term "Borges art." I came up with 49 hits. Some of them had nothing to do with Borges and some of them had nothing to do with art, but I eventually found a fascinating article in a 2001 edition of the Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature that compares Escher's art to Borges' literature.
Parker, Allene M. "Drawing Borges: A Two-Part Invention on the Labyrinths of Jorge Luis Borges and M. C. Escher." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55.2 (2001): 11-23
Parker uses the definition of "labyrinth" (a maze with only one opening that serves as both entrance and exit) to connect the work of Escher and Borges. In Escher's work, impossible visual loops are formed (for instance, two hands drawing each other), while in Borges' work, the solution to his literary puzzles often only reemphasizes the inexplicable nature of the problem.
I'm thinking of submitting a proposal to the DPLA project that argues that artwork should be linked to/incorporated with the literature that is digitized. Articles like these illustrate the rich intellectual interconnectedness of artwork and literature and offer proof for the argument that they should be presented together for maximum impact of both art forms.
MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the contains dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series, and 1,000 book publishers.
I searched the MLA International Bibliography with the term "Borges art." I came up with 49 hits. Some of them had nothing to do with Borges and some of them had nothing to do with art, but I eventually found a fascinating article in a 2001 edition of the Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature that compares Escher's art to Borges' literature.
Parker, Allene M. "Drawing Borges: A Two-Part Invention on the Labyrinths of Jorge Luis Borges and M. C. Escher." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55.2 (2001): 11-23
Parker uses the definition of "labyrinth" (a maze with only one opening that serves as both entrance and exit) to connect the work of Escher and Borges. In Escher's work, impossible visual loops are formed (for instance, two hands drawing each other), while in Borges' work, the solution to his literary puzzles often only reemphasizes the inexplicable nature of the problem.
I'm thinking of submitting a proposal to the DPLA project that argues that artwork should be linked to/incorporated with the literature that is digitized. Articles like these illustrate the rich intellectual interconnectedness of artwork and literature and offer proof for the argument that they should be presented together for maximum impact of both art forms.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Quest Continued: Google > Lib.byu.edu
Ah. How utterly unsurprising. Google has offered me a starting place and an avenue of research--and it only to a matter of seconds. Last month, an cultural center in Buenos Aires exhibited the work of one Alfredo Ghierra, who has done a series of ink drawings based on Borges' fictional works. The drawings are incredible! Here's one:
http://www.multiplefilms.com/news/
Unfortunately, most of the information on this artist is in Spanish, so I'm not even sure which short story this illustration is supposed to represent. (Curse you, "Document is too large for Google to translate" error.) But how cool that Google was even able to translate enough web pages from Spanish to English for me to figure our that this guy had an exhibition of this work last month!
Google, you have pwned BYU's online catalog. Which is part depressing and part cool. Now to try to contact someone who knows about this and perhaps also speaks English...
The Quest...
In my quest to find pertinent material for my tentative Borges-and-art project, I'm using the BYU online catalog..and for the first time, JSTOR! (A little tardy, I know, but better late than never). Here's the faithfully documented process of my first search.
I reviewed all of the databases the BYU catalog has for English Literature, figuring out what content they included. I couldn't decide on any to rule out except for Gender Watch, which, sadly, is probably the one I'm most interested in from a non-project standpoint. I searched all of the other databases.
I came up with 23,150 hits when I searched these databases for "Borges." That is SO much more information than I was anticipating. Borges is a big figure in Latin American literature, but he's nothing compared to many other authors--in fact, a lot of people haven't even heard of him. So I was overwhelmed with the volume of information.
To try to filter this information, I clicked on "sort by year." People have been creating artwork based on literature for a long time, but I'm not sure they have been writing about that artwork for very long, so I thought that maybe more recent hits would be more likely to be relevant. Then I sort of realized that my problem was not the currency of the issue; my search phrase had just been really, really broad. So I changed the phrase to "borges artwork."
Unsurprisingly, this greatly limited the number of results I had. Some of them actually had nothing to do with either art or Borges, so I'm not sure why they came up; I also had some strange hits, such as one that tried to explain Borges figuratively as a Conceptualist artist (Conceptualism being a visual-arts term in this context), and another hit that discussed homosexual tourists in Argentina. I found some generic articles on how putting art in the library can make reading come alive; basically, I found nothing.
So my conclusion is that in all likelihood, no one has ever done a serious study of artwork based on Borges' work. I guess that's not surprising...on to Google! I will be interested to see if perhaps Google can offer me a better starting place...
I reviewed all of the databases the BYU catalog has for English Literature, figuring out what content they included. I couldn't decide on any to rule out except for Gender Watch, which, sadly, is probably the one I'm most interested in from a non-project standpoint. I searched all of the other databases.
I came up with 23,150 hits when I searched these databases for "Borges." That is SO much more information than I was anticipating. Borges is a big figure in Latin American literature, but he's nothing compared to many other authors--in fact, a lot of people haven't even heard of him. So I was overwhelmed with the volume of information.
To try to filter this information, I clicked on "sort by year." People have been creating artwork based on literature for a long time, but I'm not sure they have been writing about that artwork for very long, so I thought that maybe more recent hits would be more likely to be relevant. Then I sort of realized that my problem was not the currency of the issue; my search phrase had just been really, really broad. So I changed the phrase to "borges artwork."
Unsurprisingly, this greatly limited the number of results I had. Some of them actually had nothing to do with either art or Borges, so I'm not sure why they came up; I also had some strange hits, such as one that tried to explain Borges figuratively as a Conceptualist artist (Conceptualism being a visual-arts term in this context), and another hit that discussed homosexual tourists in Argentina. I found some generic articles on how putting art in the library can make reading come alive; basically, I found nothing.
So my conclusion is that in all likelihood, no one has ever done a serious study of artwork based on Borges' work. I guess that's not surprising...on to Google! I will be interested to see if perhaps Google can offer me a better starting place...
Saturday, May 21, 2011
The Art of Interpretation
Ok--this is something I'm very excited about, but I'm kind of nervous too...this may be a terrible idea, but...
We learn about all kinds of literary interpretation, but one kind of interpretation that I love the most is artistic interpretation. That is, using the visual arts to interpret literature and vice versa. An example of this is Anne Sexton's interpretation of Vincent Van Gogh's painting Starry Night. I had this poem, as well as a poster of the painting, above my bed for a long time:
We learn about all kinds of literary interpretation, but one kind of interpretation that I love the most is artistic interpretation. That is, using the visual arts to interpret literature and vice versa. An example of this is Anne Sexton's interpretation of Vincent Van Gogh's painting Starry Night. I had this poem, as well as a poster of the painting, above my bed for a long time:
Starry Night by Anne Sexton:
The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.
It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.
Now, I know that there are tons of paintings and sketches and other artistic interpretations of Borges' short stories. I would love to compare and analyze some of this artwork in the context of it being its own kind of literary analysis. I can also look into whether intellectual property rights come into play here--for instance, has anyone ever taken a piece of art (based on Borges) with a creative commons license and remixed it? I may not be able to find anything, but I am willing to look into it....
Friday, May 20, 2011
Axaxaxas mlö
One thing I love about Borges is that because he is a writer of short stories--and because those short stories are many in number--he can create his own reality. Let me explain.
In any one book, the author can create a world the way he/she wants to. Tolkien created whole languages, not to mention many different creatures, humanoid species, and physical landscapes. He created his own rules for his particular world. Every writer of fiction--arguably every writer, period--creates his own worlds.
What is unique about Borges is that he creates his own reality. He has different worlds in each of his stories. Some worlds are just like ours. In others, the worlds are governed by secretive elite groups; in others, the physical world itself is just one big library, etc. But connecting between these worlds are common themes and common entities.
In any one book, the author can create a world the way he/she wants to. Tolkien created whole languages, not to mention many different creatures, humanoid species, and physical landscapes. He created his own rules for his particular world. Every writer of fiction--arguably every writer, period--creates his own worlds.
What is unique about Borges is that he creates his own reality. He has different worlds in each of his stories. Some worlds are just like ours. In others, the worlds are governed by secretive elite groups; in others, the physical world itself is just one big library, etc. But connecting between these worlds are common themes and common entities.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Other Reliable Connections
So I have decided to read Borges in a number of different formats. I borrowed the physical book from the BYU library, and then I also read the short stories online on different websites. What I like about the websites (like this one, for instance) is that they often have supplemental material. Sometimes there are links to footnotes; in one case, the website offers an illustration of a complicated description that Borges gives in "The Library of Babel." The illustration really helped me understand what Borges was talking about.
These are great tools, but I have found that my library book has been just as good a source of supplemental material as these websites. How? you may ask. Ah, this physical book has something which these websites does not: the scribbled annotations of a previous reader(s). Once in class, Dr. Burton said, "Are you one of these? Who leaves traces of your literary gleanings?" meaning, Do you scribble in the margins of your books? Well, someone who used this book before me definitely did leave traces of his literary gleanings. And they are fascinating.
These are great tools, but I have found that my library book has been just as good a source of supplemental material as these websites. How? you may ask. Ah, this physical book has something which these websites does not: the scribbled annotations of a previous reader(s). Once in class, Dr. Burton said, "Are you one of these? Who leaves traces of your literary gleanings?" meaning, Do you scribble in the margins of your books? Well, someone who used this book before me definitely did leave traces of his literary gleanings. And they are fascinating.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Reliable Connections
As I work on Borges, I'm also trying to find other people out there who are interested in Borges in order to fulfill the "connect" part of our curriculum. At first, I thought I should look towards professionals: schoolteachers, professors, translators, etc. I still think that these are valuable sources of information. However, I have realized that there is a whole other branch of people out there interested in Borges.
I started by contacting the individual on goodreads who created the Borges interest group (yes, one does exist!!). This is a guy whose profile says he lives in India and whose profile picture makes me think of the main character from 10,000 BC. This is not someone I'd normally initiate contact with! I asked him if he knew of any good forums of discussion for Borges. He a) actually answered back and b) recommended a really cool website that has discussion forums where yes, people are talking about Borges online! I was shocked that this existed, because I have looked hard for that very thing without success. (Ahimaaz, if you are reading this, thank you!)
This website has interviews with Borgesian translators, quotes from those who were personally familiar with Borges, and recommendations of good film adaptations of Borges' work. What startled me was when I saw people leaving comments like, "This quote is delicious." That's a Rachaelism! I have found my own kind! They exist online and I have found them! What's amazing to me is that I didn't find them through a library or professional source. It was through a random guy on goodreads. My faith in the internet is restored...
I started by contacting the individual on goodreads who created the Borges interest group (yes, one does exist!!). This is a guy whose profile says he lives in India and whose profile picture makes me think of the main character from 10,000 BC. This is not someone I'd normally initiate contact with! I asked him if he knew of any good forums of discussion for Borges. He a) actually answered back and b) recommended a really cool website that has discussion forums where yes, people are talking about Borges online! I was shocked that this existed, because I have looked hard for that very thing without success. (Ahimaaz, if you are reading this, thank you!)
This website has interviews with Borgesian translators, quotes from those who were personally familiar with Borges, and recommendations of good film adaptations of Borges' work. What startled me was when I saw people leaving comments like, "This quote is delicious." That's a Rachaelism! I have found my own kind! They exist online and I have found them! What's amazing to me is that I didn't find them through a library or professional source. It was through a random guy on goodreads. My faith in the internet is restored...
Monday, May 16, 2011
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (continued)
Summary of last blog:
Borges' short story "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is about a make-believe world that starts making inroads into reality. For instance, the strange objects made of materials not found on Earth (but which are found on the planet Tlon) start showing up on Earth. Also, people on Earth start speaking the language of Tlon, and they also start believing the same things that make-believe people on make-believe Tlon believe. It alarms the speaker of the story that these things are happening. He blames it on the general willingness of humans to believe in anything that seems orderly.
In my last blog, I also mentioned a particular philosopher whose ideas have particular bearing on this story. To continue:
Borges' short story "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is about a make-believe world that starts making inroads into reality. For instance, the strange objects made of materials not found on Earth (but which are found on the planet Tlon) start showing up on Earth. Also, people on Earth start speaking the language of Tlon, and they also start believing the same things that make-believe people on make-believe Tlon believe. It alarms the speaker of the story that these things are happening. He blames it on the general willingness of humans to believe in anything that seems orderly.
In my last blog, I also mentioned a particular philosopher whose ideas have particular bearing on this story. To continue:
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
My personal philosophy on reading Borges: If you want to have the socks blown off your mind, start at the beginning and read forwards. If you want to understand what he's writing, start at the end (where he usually puts his punch lines) and read backwards. This philosophy holds pretty well for Borges' short story Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.
Read beginning to end, the story is about a man who discovers obscure references to the land of Uqbar (said to be in Asia Minor) in a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica. The encyclopedia turns out to be a falsification, but the man is enchanted with the idea of this land. In the encyclopedia article, the area of Tlon (a sort of subdivision of Uqbar) is mentioned.
Through the course of the story, the man starts to see more references to Uqbar, but even more to Tlon, which takes on a larger meaning to him. The "subdivision" of Tlon is referred to in other ways in other encyclopedias the man finds, and ultimately Tlon becomes a whole planet in his mind.
The story involves a secret society, called Orbis Tertius (which means Third World, I believe). This society is discovered to be the author of the encyclopedia of Tlon; apparently, for centuries the society had been creating this fictitious world, which includes its own language and epistemologies and sciences.
Read beginning to end, the story is about a man who discovers obscure references to the land of Uqbar (said to be in Asia Minor) in a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica. The encyclopedia turns out to be a falsification, but the man is enchanted with the idea of this land. In the encyclopedia article, the area of Tlon (a sort of subdivision of Uqbar) is mentioned.
Through the course of the story, the man starts to see more references to Uqbar, but even more to Tlon, which takes on a larger meaning to him. The "subdivision" of Tlon is referred to in other ways in other encyclopedias the man finds, and ultimately Tlon becomes a whole planet in his mind.
The story involves a secret society, called Orbis Tertius (which means Third World, I believe). This society is discovered to be the author of the encyclopedia of Tlon; apparently, for centuries the society had been creating this fictitious world, which includes its own language and epistemologies and sciences.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Remix
Yesterday in class we discussed the concept of remix, which in this class' context is means to take material that has a creative commons license (or theoretically any content) and reworking parts of it to make it partly the original creator's creation and partly one's own creation. Dr. Burton shared the example of his own work, which has been co-opted and in some cases changed slightly by other people to use in their own contexts.
Two other examples that caught my interest were Dartmouth's reworking of Milton's Paradise Lost to make it more user-friendly by inserting annotations; and Michael R. Collings' The Nephiad, which is an epic poem based on First and Second Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The second counts as a remix, if I understand correctly, not because it is changing the original, but because it is recapturing the content in another format. I personally love epic poems--but I'm a little worried that if I read the Nephiad, I will have a hard time taking it seriously. It is based on sacred text, after all, and I'm not sure that that should be tinkered with. Then again, it could be an inspiring recounting of the Book of Mormon events.
It's escapades like this, though, that make me nervous: the creators of the controversial show South Park have made a Broadway Musical based on contemporary LDS culture. It's not based on the Book of Mormon, so I'm not sure that it actually fits under the category of remixing; however, it does bring to bear some important issues about copyrighting and intellectual property. The Book of Mormon is in the public domain, so even if they wanted to make a musical based on it, there would be no legal restrictions against it...do I care about that? Yes. A small anti-democratic part of me wants to take away their right to create content like that...
Two other examples that caught my interest were Dartmouth's reworking of Milton's Paradise Lost to make it more user-friendly by inserting annotations; and Michael R. Collings' The Nephiad, which is an epic poem based on First and Second Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The second counts as a remix, if I understand correctly, not because it is changing the original, but because it is recapturing the content in another format. I personally love epic poems--but I'm a little worried that if I read the Nephiad, I will have a hard time taking it seriously. It is based on sacred text, after all, and I'm not sure that that should be tinkered with. Then again, it could be an inspiring recounting of the Book of Mormon events.
It's escapades like this, though, that make me nervous: the creators of the controversial show South Park have made a Broadway Musical based on contemporary LDS culture. It's not based on the Book of Mormon, so I'm not sure that it actually fits under the category of remixing; however, it does bring to bear some important issues about copyrighting and intellectual property. The Book of Mormon is in the public domain, so even if they wanted to make a musical based on it, there would be no legal restrictions against it...do I care about that? Yes. A small anti-democratic part of me wants to take away their right to create content like that...
Friday, May 13, 2011
Borges, Finally!
Borges' work is delicious, a composite of fragmented dreams, a bold assertion of possible realities, a verdict on human nature, a portmanteau of diverging theories--and often, completely up to interpretation. My burning question is this: Which is better, to understand Borges through strictly one's own lens of interpretation, or to go to other authorities and editorials in one's quest to understand Borges?
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Suggestions please?
I am fascinated by my digital culture book, but I am also starting to brainstorm ways in which I can connect and create with regards to my chosen piece of literature, Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges.
I have discovered that there is a Borges institute in Pittsburgh, and they had a colloquium in March about his work. One speaker in particular piqued my interest; her name is Evelyn Fishburn. She is a professor emeritus of Latin American Literary Studies at the London Metropolitan University. I want to contact her about her work, but I have no idea if she would respond...has anyone ever had success contacting a "high-up" before? Tips/stories/thoughts would be appreciated :)
I have discovered that there is a Borges institute in Pittsburgh, and they had a colloquium in March about his work. One speaker in particular piqued my interest; her name is Evelyn Fishburn. She is a professor emeritus of Latin American Literary Studies at the London Metropolitan University. I want to contact her about her work, but I have no idea if she would respond...has anyone ever had success contacting a "high-up" before? Tips/stories/thoughts would be appreciated :)
The Wisdom of Crowds
Yes, it's a very interesting premise: groups of individuals working independently for a solution will come up, as a whole, with the right answer more often than one expert or even a few experts can. This applies, Surowiecki claims, in very diverse matters--from correctly guessing the outcome of a horse race, for instance, to finding sunken submarines. If you have a group of people who each have a little bit of knowledge, their collective knowledge will be enormous.
But how exactly does this apply to me? What crowds am I a part of? According to Surowiecki in a Q&A session, a crowd is "really any group of people who can act collectively to make decisions and solve problems." (The full Q&A session is here.) Here's my first brainstormed list of "crowds" I belong to:
English 295
My roommates
My ward/FHE
My study groups
The people I work with
This seemed kind of boring, so I waxed creative:
Frisbee-playing groups
Y-hiking groups
Professor-bashing groups in the halls outside of class
My siblings
The crowd at my apartment deciding which movie to watch on a Friday night
And the list goes on...but what does it matter that I belong to these groups? Is it possible, as Surowiecki postulates, that if the group of riled-up young adults in my apartment on Friday night--instead of forming a mobocracy and caving to group pressure when deciding which movie to watch--actually cast private votes of which movie to watch, we might end up watching something halfway interesting like Dead Poets' Society instead of something idiotic like Shrek? Is it possible that wisdom can be found in my crowds? It's an interesting thought.
But how exactly does this apply to me? What crowds am I a part of? According to Surowiecki in a Q&A session, a crowd is "really any group of people who can act collectively to make decisions and solve problems." (The full Q&A session is here.) Here's my first brainstormed list of "crowds" I belong to:
English 295
My roommates
My ward/FHE
My study groups
The people I work with
This seemed kind of boring, so I waxed creative:
Frisbee-playing groups
Y-hiking groups
Professor-bashing groups in the halls outside of class
My siblings
The crowd at my apartment deciding which movie to watch on a Friday night
And the list goes on...but what does it matter that I belong to these groups? Is it possible, as Surowiecki postulates, that if the group of riled-up young adults in my apartment on Friday night--instead of forming a mobocracy and caving to group pressure when deciding which movie to watch--actually cast private votes of which movie to watch, we might end up watching something halfway interesting like Dead Poets' Society instead of something idiotic like Shrek? Is it possible that wisdom can be found in my crowds? It's an interesting thought.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Rainbows End's End, Continued
3. As we discuss in this class the correlation between form and function, I couldn't help but think about Vinge's own form and how it sometimes distracted from the function of creating a good novel. I can't remember which of my classmates commented on this (help on this?), but the constant talk about "wearables" ended up really distracting me. I am not the most technologically savvy person, and that's with present-day technology, so so much futuristic technology boggled my mind. Also, there was a whole chapter on "no user-serviceable parts within," which I think was supposed to be a metaphor about how disconnected the average human being had become from the actual mechanics of the technology he/she was using, but I'm not really sure I got it 100%...anyway, I think the techno-babble hindered me somewhat from understanding Vinge's messages.
4. The ending was so close to perfect...and then it suddenly wasn't. For a few wonderful pages, Robert Gu has reconciled himself to the loss of his gift of poetry. He was content to be able to communicate well with his family and peers, to successfully "network" on various levels. However, at the very end, he begins to believe that he may yet have his poetic gift restored, and the very last words of the novel are his thought, "What if I can have it all?" I was so disappointed when I read that. The novel had seemed to be a good and accurate depiction of the pros and cons of an increasingly digitized world--I don't think that in reality, we really can have it all, and this seemed to be well-reflected in the novel--but then that redeeming realism sort of dissipated into happily-ever-after un-realism....I mean, I like happily-ever-afters, but I think that novels that reflect truth are more powerful.
4. The ending was so close to perfect...and then it suddenly wasn't. For a few wonderful pages, Robert Gu has reconciled himself to the loss of his gift of poetry. He was content to be able to communicate well with his family and peers, to successfully "network" on various levels. However, at the very end, he begins to believe that he may yet have his poetic gift restored, and the very last words of the novel are his thought, "What if I can have it all?" I was so disappointed when I read that. The novel had seemed to be a good and accurate depiction of the pros and cons of an increasingly digitized world--I don't think that in reality, we really can have it all, and this seemed to be well-reflected in the novel--but then that redeeming realism sort of dissipated into happily-ever-after un-realism....I mean, I like happily-ever-afters, but I think that novels that reflect truth are more powerful.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Rainbows End's End
1) Good story, as far as futuristic techno-thrillers go. Rainbows End has basic plotline, character development, interesting setting, etc. Basic story: check, check, check.
2) This genre is not my usual cup of herbal tea, but I think I learned a lot from stretching out onto a new literary limb. For one thing, I have changed my mind about sci-fi's sameness with the fantasy genre. While both have to come up with new and impossible things and names and settings, and while both are unrestricted by the limits of reality, I think that sci-fi is more of a commentary on the way the world is already and may become.
More to follow...
2) This genre is not my usual cup of herbal tea, but I think I learned a lot from stretching out onto a new literary limb. For one thing, I have changed my mind about sci-fi's sameness with the fantasy genre. While both have to come up with new and impossible things and names and settings, and while both are unrestricted by the limits of reality, I think that sci-fi is more of a commentary on the way the world is already and may become.
More to follow...
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Phenomenology
The way I think of reading text on a page as different from reading text on a screen is this: One is more quantitative (real pages have numbers, and pages have bulk in your hands, and it really feels like I'm making progress when I'm reading them) and the other is more qualitative (on a screen, everything flows together in my head).
Phenomenology: the way in which one perceives and interprets events and one's relationship to them in contrast both to one's objective responses to stimuli and to any inferred unconscious motivation for one's behavior (Dictionary.com)
In other words, the way in which we experience experience.
Poetry, Aug., 1994, Vol.164, p.267 -267 [Peer Reviewed Journal]
Phenomenology: the way in which one perceives and interprets events and one's relationship to them in contrast both to one's objective responses to stimuli and to any inferred unconscious motivation for one's behavior (Dictionary.com)
In other words, the way in which we experience experience.
Poetry, Aug., 1994, Vol.164, p.267 -267 [Peer Reviewed Journal]
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Fahrenheit 451 in Rainbows End
Page 128 in my hardback edition, Robert Gu is complaining about the shredding machine that is destroying the physical books he wanted so badly to read:
"Will somebody please explain this madness to me? There may be nothing burning, but this does seem like Fahrenheit 451."
First--ironically enough--finding this passage to blog about it would have been a lot faster if I could have pressed Ctrl + F on a computer. That's the first thing that went through my head as I leafed through my book.
Second--What a profound connection. Nothing was burning, but a culture of physical book reading was being destroyed by a faster, cheaper process.
Third--I am inclined to believe that the reading of hardback books will continue in the face of digitization, just as embroidery and crochet have survived in the face of the sewing machine and home-cooked meals have survived in the face of restaurants and fast food. There is something irreplaceable about a book.
And yet, at the same time, it would have been so much easier to press Ctrl + F...
"Will somebody please explain this madness to me? There may be nothing burning, but this does seem like Fahrenheit 451."
First--ironically enough--finding this passage to blog about it would have been a lot faster if I could have pressed Ctrl + F on a computer. That's the first thing that went through my head as I leafed through my book.
Second--What a profound connection. Nothing was burning, but a culture of physical book reading was being destroyed by a faster, cheaper process.
Third--I am inclined to believe that the reading of hardback books will continue in the face of digitization, just as embroidery and crochet have survived in the face of the sewing machine and home-cooked meals have survived in the face of restaurants and fast food. There is something irreplaceable about a book.
And yet, at the same time, it would have been so much easier to press Ctrl + F...
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