Roxanne » Personal experiences/Compost

bad reading

ccarter3 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:47:04 +0000

Bad reading is a new concept I have been trying to develop. Traditionally how people read is to think in linear terms. To put together different parts of a story. The elements of the story, such as plot and theme, all connect to send one message. Bad reading could be a different form of reading. It could be the preferred style of reading that those who struggle with reading could enjoy and succeed at doing. Bad reading could be taking each part of a story in, registering it, and then taking away a specific message (but only from that section of the story). When you read “badly” your not putting together all the different parts of the story and creating one central theme, message, or even story. Bad reading could be reading a novel and deciding to read it like a collection of stories, poetry, or prose. Each section could have an individual message that speaks to the reader. One could read even just to enjoy the language and not even registering the meaning of the work. One word could spark a thought and take a reader into their stream of consciousness and the reader could lose their identity and sense of self, an experience that Shelley Jackson praises.

compost final essay

ccarter3 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:47:29 +0000

My final project idea is to combine my first and last essay.

My first essay has to deal with personal experiences with reading and how that shapes ones attitude towards reading. My last essay was about the challenges I had while reading Patchwork Girl because of its drastic difference from the traditional form of a novel. I also wanted to expand upon other associations with reading, the original topic of my first essay, and maybe talk about how associations could inhibit or promote the reading of Patchwork Girl. I was thinking of possibly interviewing someone who has read Patchwork Girl who doesn’t personally enjoy reading and see if the difficulties I had while reading Patchwork Girl were because of my associations with reading. My last essay I wanted to expand on the concept of “bad reading” and possibly relate that to associations with reading. Maybe people who don’t enjoy reading and had a bad experience reading as a child and their views of Patchwork Girl were positive because it was so different from the dreaded books they had to read in previous English classes.

These are my initial thoughts about my final project.

ideas

-possibly going to interview Meaghan because she doesn’t particularly enjoy reading so she may have preferred reading Patchwork Girl to reading a more traditional novel. This would support the theories from my first essay that childhood experiences shape one’s attitude towards reading and that those associations could also shape the type of reading that people enjoy or dislike. I had a difficult time with Patchwork Girl, as expressed in my last essay, because I enjoy reading and the more traditional form of a novel is what I enjoy reading and am attracted to. The associations formed from one’s childhood change one’s view of technological literature. Another example of why this is true is Birkerts personal opinion of literature and technology. (He describes his personal experience with the computer interface and reading from the screen. He extrememly dislikes it because he is so passionate about reading and books, and that passion came from his childhood experiences ,as explained in my first essay.)

Bad reading

-expand upon this concept

-how this relates to how people read today

-bad readers of the traditional forms of texts enjoy the newer literature that is presented with more technologicial tools

-bad reading is thinking in spatial terms and without organization

-Shelley Jackson could be considered a bad reader because she thinks chaotically and her personal attitudes about reading could have spawned from her experiences reading as a child. I could maybe do a little research on her background to see if this theory holds true.

Schizophrenic Writing

ccarter3 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:23:36 +0000

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Schizophrenic Writing

Caitlin Carter

English 101

Professor Meehan

November 21, 2008

Hypertext and technologically influenced literature has a schizophrenic style making the message of the work incoherent and unaccomplished. The work is unaccomplished because it lacks a theme, plot, and a narrator. Particular aspects of the work, such as the storymap layout, the disjointed sentences and boxes, are obscure and incomprehensible. The material aspect of the story overwhelms the work.

Schizophrenia “is a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements.” Patchwork Girl is a schizophrenic work, as described by Shelley Jackson in Stitch Bitch. The work is schizophrenic because the organization of the story is inconsistent. The web mapping is difficult to navigate and challenging to understand. The links are continuous, but the cyclical layout is frustrating to use. Traversing through the layout was difficult in addition to the overall challenge of the new medium; these components distract the reader from the actual content in the novel. I was unable to find a plot, a narrator, or a main character in the story due to the constant interruptions of clicking on links, getting lost in the web work, and rereading the same material that appears as I pass through the material.

One can click on the boxes and several links will appear for the reader to choose from; the reader decides what pathway to take when reading the story. The links that appear are connected to the previous box or link in some way, but there isn’t always a coherent and logical pattern that the appearing links follow.

Reading in this manner seems uneven and jagged. The only logical way I found to read Patchwork Girl was through the outline view, where the different links are presented in a list.

Even this method became confusing and difficult, for the links under each category, such as the bad dream section, were unsound and illogical. I feel that the work is insubstantial and its reputation as a measurable work is derived from its innovative material but the overall focus of the work is absent. As Birkerts says “we are taken most by the look of it all-the compact, crisp, high-resolution design that inspires confidence.” The flashy materiality of the work overwhelms the reader, preventing her from grasping the deeper meaning of the novel.

A specific part in Patchwork Girl that I find particularly taxing to read is the bad dream section under designs, where the author lists random thoughts. The writing in this section is a list of random phrases or words, such as “peek a boo” and “puss in the corner,” that have no relation to one another. This section was written as if the main character was dreaming disjointed thoughts. I understand why the author listed the bad dreams in choppy syntax; the writing is metaphoric for the literal scarring of the female monster and the monster’s coarse destroyed body. I feel that the metaphor overwhelms the work, distracting the reader from ever comprehending the deeper aspects of the story, like an overall theme or message.

In my opinion the most important parts of reading are the overall message, theme, and plot of the work. When I read I want to be carried by the story, whereas the point of Patchwork Girl is keep the reader aware of reality. Birkerts view of literature is similar to mine where Jackson specifically wrote Patchwork Girl to contradict the normal perception of the reading experience. Jackson’s view of reading is that one should lose themselves in the work to think beyond self image. Jackson wants to “invent a new kind of self” that “changes directions easily, sheds parts and assimilate new ones.” This relates to the schizophrenic manner of the work. Jackson wants inconsistency in people’s selves; she expresses that view in Patchwork Girl. She wants to go against the life advice received to “focus, choose, specialize,” so she writes a work that opposes all of these things. Birkerts believes that losing individuality while reading is damaging to the person and degrades the work as a whole. Birkerts believes “the soul is that part of us that smelts meaning and tries to derive a sense of purpose from experience.” So if a work doesn’t have a meaning and can’t nourish the soul with purpose, it is a failure. I agree with Birkerts in that a work of literature should send a message to the reader and make her think about life and what the message of that work means to her. In Patchwork Girl, I could not find a message and so I believe the work was not accomplished.

The work, in my opinion, was not accomplished based on my perceptions of what a novel is supposed to accomplish. The way a novel is read is in a linear manner with a clear narrator, plot, and theme. Patchwork Girl does not clearly present any of these key components in the story. Some may call this work bad writing, but maybe it calls for a bad reading. What I mean by bad reading is that when a person reads the work they should think in incoherent terms; they should think of each box as an individual story with an individual message. A person should think of the work as a networking system, where each different box is communicating a different message. The work should be read in spatial terms and the work shouldn’t be read in traditional linear terms, but in a sporadic method. Reading the book in traditional terms, the work fails as a whole with the lack of organization, plot, theme, and narration.

Essay rough draft

ccarter3 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:45:41 +0000

Rough draft:

Hypertext and technologically influenced literature has a schizophrenic style making the message of the work incoherent and unaccomplished.

Schizophrenia “is a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements.” Patchwork Girl is a schizophrenic work, as described by Shelley Jackson herself in Stitch Bitch. The work is schizophrenic because the organization of the work is inconsistent. The web mapping is difficult to navigate and challenging to understand. The links are continuous, but the cyclical layout is frustrating to use. Not only is the work itself difficult to use but the overall challenge distracts the reader from the overall message of the story. I was unable to find a plot, a narrator, or a main character in the story because I kept getting distracted by the constant interruptions of clicking on links, getting lost in the web work, and rereading the same material that appears.

Navigating through the work is complicated and time consuming. The first image the reader sees is the story map of the work. In the story map there is a picture of various boxes with several different topics. One can click on the boxes and several links will appear for the reader to choose from; the reader decides what pathway to take when reading the story. The links that appear are connected to the previous box or link in some way, but there isn’t always a coherent and logical pattern that the appearing links follow. Reading in this manner seems uneven and jagged. The only logical way I found to read Patchwork Girl was through the outline view, where the different links are presented in a list. Even this method became confusing and difficult for the links under each category, such as the bad dream section, were unsound and illogical.

A specific part in Patchwork Girl, that I find particularly taxing to read, is the bad dream section under designs; where the author lists random thoughts. The writing in this section is a list of random phrases or words such as “peek a boo” and “puss in the corner” that have no relation to one another. This section was written as if the main character was dreaming random thoughts. I understand why the author listed the bad dreams in choppy syntax; the writing is metaphoric for the literal scarring of the female monster and the monster’s course destroyed body. Although I feel that the metaphor overwhelms the work, distracting the reader from ever comprehending the deeper aspects of the story, like an overall theme or message.

In my opinion the most important part of reading is the overall message, theme, and plot of the work. When I read I want to be carried by the story where the point of Patchwork Girl is keep the reader aware of reality. Birkerts view of literature is similar to mine where Jackson specifically wrote Patchwork Girl to contradict the normal perception of the reading experience. Jackson’s view of reading is that one should lose themselves in the work to think beyond self image. Birkerts believes that losing individuality while reading is damaging to the person and degrades the work as a whole. I agree with Birkerts in that a work of literature should send a message to the reader and make them think about life and what the message of that work means to them. In Patchwork Girl, I could not find a message and so I believe the work was not accomplished.

The work in my opinion was not accomplished based on my perceptions of what a novel is supposed to accomplish. The way a novel is read is in a linear manner with a clear narrator, plot, and theme. Patchwork Girl does not clearly present any of these key components in the story. Some may call this work bad writing, but maybe it calls for a bad reading. What I mean by bad reading is that when a person reads the work they should think in incoherent terms; they should think of each box as an individual story with an individual message. A person should think of the work as a networking system, where each different box is communicating a different message. The work should be read in spatial terms and the work shouldn’t be read in traditional linear terms, but in a sporadic method. Reading the book in traditional terms, the work fails as a whole with the lack of organization, plot, theme, and narration.

Tagged: literature, patchwork girl, schizophrenia, techonology, web

Jackson “Stitch Bitch” and Birkerts view on identity

ccarter3 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:55:19 +0000

Hypertext

-Shelley Jackson’s “Stitch Bitch” —”Hypertext is schizophrenic: you can’t tell what’s the original and what’s the reference.”

Schizophrenia–(from dictionary.com)——

Also called dementia praecox. a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.

-a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements

I feel like the reading in patchwork girl is schizophrenic because there is no organization and i find it extremely difficult to navigate with the web mapping and the spatial reading necessary to comprehend the work. The web layout and the links are very challenging and I get stuck and frustrated at certain points in the work, taking away from the message of the story.

Stitch Bitch–”The self may have no clear boundaries, but do we want to lose track altogether? I don’t want to lose the self, only to strip it of its claim to naturalness, its compulsion to protect its boundaries, its obsession with wholeness and its fear of infection. I would like to invent a new kind of self.”

-Jackson’s view of self is that when one reads a work they should lose their self and be challenged when reading. The message of the work isn’t so much what its specifically saying in the novel but what you find out of the story and how you read the work yourself.

-Birkerts view of the self is that reading is more about finding your identity, taking the message of the novel and reading what that means to you. Birkerts believes that you lose your identity through the use of technology and that losing yourself is a bad thing. Both Birkerts and Jackson agree that technology means losing yourself, but Jackson thinks that is an important and new concept. A technology and literature hybrid means “waning of private self.”

I personally agree with Birkerts I like to read a book and find a message in it that I can relate to myself. I want to be able to connect with a book and understand a plot and a story line, which I feel patchwork girl is lacking. This could be a bias, for I greatly enjoy reading and when I read I am expecting to be taken away from reality in a novel.

possible Thesis: Hypertext and computer reading is schizophrenic and without a clear message in the work I feel the work does not accomplish anything.

-Specific parts of patchwork girl: The work’s layout as a whole is confusing and not easily navigable. The bad dream section especially seems very difficult to understand. The writing is incoherent and schizophrenic, so I feel it is unsuccessful at accomplishing anything. I understand why Jackson wrote the work the way she did (different parts of patchwork girl can be metaphorically expressed through the different links in the work and again in the incoherent rambling in the bad dream section; there are many different pieces just as patchwork girl is made from many different pieces) but i feel that the work is overwhelmed by metaphors and is just not focused enough on a specific theme or message.

Bad reading/Bad writing

-My personal experience with patchwork girl was frustrating and challenging, but maybe that is because I have certain expectations from a work I read. This work was written with a schizophrenic style, maybe that calls for a kind of “bad reading”. Maybe the work would be better read in bits and scraps, just as how it was written. Then a message can be taken and the work can be read as the reader sees fit. One can lose the concept that a greater whole must always be necessary in the work, maybe the work is meant to be read as just a list of messages that one can apply to life later.

Tagged: hypertext, identity, patchwork girl, private, schizophrenia, self

the fountain vs. frankenstein

ccarter3 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:33:17 +0000

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Opening scene in the film. Direct quote from the bible

“Therefore, the Lord God banished Adam and Even from the garden of Eden and place a flaming sword to protect the tree of life.”

Genesis 3:24

–Very similar to Frankenstein’s message that the tree of knowledge is forbidden and that its secrets of life are to remain mysterious. Adam and Eve in The Fountain are the characters Tom and Izzi who cannot experience a life of love due to nature’s hold over life. This is very similar to the plot of Frankenstein for Elizabeth and Victor cannot be together because Victor’s creation, the monster, kills Elizabeth and destroys any chance for Victor to live a life of love with Elizabeth.

Imagery used in this scene shows the tree of knowledge, also symbolizing the fountain of youth and the man’s lover. It’s protected in a transparent bubble. Imagery reveals that the tree of knowledge is protected and untouchable. Repetitive images of this in the movie. Also the tree is floating in space which is often referred to as the Heavens, another example of divine power; this makes the secret of knowledge seem even more unattainable.

go here for the view of the opening scene of the fountain.

Compost Film Frankenstein vs. Other Films

ccarter3 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:36:48 +0000

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Themes/Topics of Frankenstein:

· Nature vs Man

· Creation/Recreation

Other films that relate to Frankenstein:

· The Fountain

o A main idea of in The Fountain is the idea of recreation or reincarnation. In The Fountain two people in love are reincarnated three times but each time they are together their love suffers a tragedy. In Frankenstein, Victor recreates Elizabeth as an awful ugly being and she commits suicide and leaves Victor anyway. In The Fountain there are three separate times when the two people are in love but are torn away from each other through circumstances beyond their control.

o Another central concept in the film, The Fountain, is the fountain of youth and the search for its discovery. The fountain of youth is found in the film but the results desired are either found too late or has undesired consequences, the founder drinks the sap from a tree (the sap supposedly the fountain of youth), and the man turns into a flower bush. In Frankenstein Victor does discover the secret to life, creation or recreation, but his discovery has undesired consequences; first the creatures are monstrous and second they do not behave as he wishes them too. The monster behaves horribly uncivilized and Elizabeth commits suicide once she realizes what she has become.

· Time Machine

o The main characters in the film the Time Machine and in the film Frankenstein both want to recreate life. In Time Machine the man builds a time machine so that he can relive the moment his girlfriend dies and change it, but each time he goes back and avoids death one way the woman dies another way. A message that man cannot change fate through the use of technology. This is similar to how Victor recreates Elizabeth because she is reborn but not as she way and she only goes to kill herself entirely, by incineration.

Tagged: creation, fountain of youth, nature, technology

The Psychology Behind Reading-writingproject#1

ccarter3 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:15:42 +0000

The Psychology Behind Reading

By: Caitlin Carter

English 101 Professor Meehan 9/11/2008

MWF class

Autobiographical literature reveals deep insights into an author’s character. While reading The Gutenberg Elegies, I began to ponder whether one’s childhood experiences shape future behavior and attitudes. Birkerts, the author, expresses his deep emotional attachment towards reading in many of his excerpts. He is a troubled individual I theorize his conflicts evolved from experiences during adolescence. My childhood memories with my mother have indeed shaped my adoration for reading. Therefore, I strongly believe childhood experiences shape one’s attitude towards reading.

Birkerts spent much of his youth reading for “pleasure” (35). He read in “isolation” describing the reading as “a private resonance, a daydream,” and more descriptively “a moveable feast” (35). This deep attachment to reading evolved from his need for “a refuge” (35). The overbearing personality and “strictness” of Birkerts’s father created Birkerts’s complex attitude towards reading. Birkerts’s father’s opinion was that “doing [was] prized over thinking” and reading was considered a “feminine” act (38). Birkerts’s mother, on the other hand, praised reading. Like Birkerts’s “she read for pleasure, company, for escape,” and “there was never a time when she did not have one book going” (38). Birkerts’s attitude towards literature is now disjointed, due to the conflicting attitudes from both guardians.

Birkerts passion for reading grew as he aged. Reading was a “dreamy sensuousness” and the pages he viewed were “tantalizing” (35). His urge to consume every book was a “direct outgrowth of a love of reading” (34). Birkerts uses strong emotional diction to convey his desire to read; this view of literature seems very straightforward. You may not think this man has a conflicted attitude towards reading. I disagree. As I read The Gutenberg Elegies I observed many oddities in Birkerts statements about literature. When Birkerts describes his occupation as “a book reviewer” he describes the job as “that thing [he] so confidently scorned” (33). This is a very strange statement for a literature lover to say; I hypothesize, though Birkerts loves literature, he feels embarrassed to have a literary occupation. Birkerts has an unconscious view that a career in literature is insufficient or even “feminine,” as Birkerts father would put (35).

Birkerts’s troubles with the written word were not rarities. When Birkerts was a young adult he decided to move to Maine with his girlfriend; the plan was for them to live in isolation and become excellent writers. A good idea in theory, but the plan was flawed. Birkerts could not write. Though Birkerts had no trouble “finding joy” in solitude while reading; writing was very challenging (39). Birkerts wrote some “terse openings for what [he] hoped might, with some coaxing, become stories,” but the attempt was futile (54). As Birkerts puts “the soothing futurity at the core of the fantasy was gone” (54). So what happened? It is my belief that Birkerts’s disturbed view of literature affected the way he wrote. Birkerts loved literature but could not have his dream profession; his parents raised him to have conflicting views of literature. Literature cannot fully consume Birkerts’s life because his subconscious replays his father’s voice every time he begins to write; reading and writing are what one does when “all other options have been exhausted” (38).

Like Birkerts, I believe that my personal attitude towards reading was shaped by my childhood experiences with my family. During my formative years, I spent the long summers reading with my mother. On warm days, my mother and I would sunbathe for hours while we consumed literature. We would lay a soft blanket over the crisp grass and lay out all day reading. The environment was soothing and pleasurable. The memories I have of reading are images of warm wonderful sunrays, velvety blankets, cool lemonade, and closeness to my mother. This detailed moment left me with an undeniable passion for reading. The gratifying experience left me with a strong association of literature with nurturing and comfort. An incident from my childhood shaped my attitude towards reading for the rest of my life.

As I grew older my mother constantly pushed books into my view. She believed much the opposite of Birkerts’s father; her opinion was that books were a treasure trove to be discovered. Inside books is the knowledge one needs to grow, survive, and thrive. In today’s technological world literature is pushed to the background, while television, computers, and ipods are cherished. The reason I stuck to literature was the strong positive association I experienced while reading, and my mother forbade most electronic entertainment in the house. Thinking and reading was valued over observing a computer or television screen.

Another moment in my childhood that greatly shaped my attitude towards reading was in kindergarten. I still have the memory clear in my mind. It was any other day at my kindergarten center, Great Expectations; all the kids were sitting on the floor. In the classroom I had noticed very few books in the class, something I was not used to at home. I was sitting reading a Berenstein Bears book, when a classmate came over to tell me the lesson for the day was starting. Our lesson that day was supposed to be about reading; I was excited, considering there were few books in the classroom. We were learning the alphabet. I realized at that moment that I was much farther ahead in my reading abilities than many of the other students. I was proud of my aptitudes and I wanted to greater expand my knowledge that moment on. This was a very significant instant in time because I realized that I was the only one who enjoyed reading; most of the other children struggled to learn just the alphabet. I attributed my abilities to hours spent with my parents reading.

Your childhood molds your attitude toward reading. Birkerts’s passion for reading changed due to the contradictory attitudes of his guardians, while my fervor for reading derived from the time spent bonding with my mother. Parental influence can significantly change a person’s passion for a subject.

This work was completed in accordance of the honor code.

Self Evaluation: I believe in this essay my quotations, from The Gutenberg Elegies, were inserted correctly and used effectively. I also think the thesis of my essay was presented clearly and I had substantial evidence to convince the audience to agree with my point. Although, I think that my conclusion may have been weak because of the broad message inserted at the end. I am also a little unsure of two sentences I have inserted into my paper; the lines “We were learning the alphabet,” “Birkerts could not write,” and “I disagree,” were written deliberately to make these parts of my essay stand out, but I don’t know if this stylistic choice was effect.

Bibliography

Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. New York: Faber and Faber Inc., 1994

Essay Outline

ccarter3 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:16:10 +0000

Thesis: Childhood personal experiences shape one’s attitude towards reading.

outline:

Intro: include thesis talk about maybe personal feelings–what reading means to you—foreshadow birkerts childhood and how it relates to his feelings and finally an outside source(roomate or friend) and their feelings towards reading.

section 1:

my personal experience

—description of day in the summer (include personal feelings be very descriptive and elaborate; talk about the bonding with mom to lead into family influence)

—talk about family influence (mothers joy, grandmothers joy, sisters joy)

—connect to reading now and the enjoyment from reading (whether its school assigned ex wuthering heights and jane eyre) or reading on my own (twilight series, harry potter series

section 2: Birkerts

–talk about Birkerts childhood (conflicting views from his parents and his deep emotional attachment towards reading)

–talk about how that effected his views towards reading today (very conflicted, insecure with self (job position and other insecurities that led him towards failure in his life)

—-bring in evidence about move to maine with gf

—-talk about conflicts (social vs isolation)

—-maybe mention his influence on his daughter and how that may have shaped her view of reading (he hate beauty in the beast but allows her to watch it) -also beauty in the beast has multiple authors but he loves reading because essentially you are the author too because you are imagining the details of the story

section 3:

must interview someone

qs to ask: childhood experiences towards reading?

——-family influence on reading?

——-reading opinions today?

——-personal opinions towards my thesis (possibly add if they correspond to message of this essay)

Conclusion:

Notes

ccarter3 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:03:14 +0000

Thesis: Childhood personal experiences shape one’s attitude towards reading.

-connect to Birkerts childhood (father and mother had opposing viewpoints so he grew up with conflicted attitudes towards reading)

—–he doesn’t like social reading but he talks about what he read to other people(conflicting)

—–he greatly enjoys reading and writing but he feels embarassed to be an editor

—–he has identity problems because his father discouraged his love for reading while his mother encouraged it; this is why he doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life and why he raises his daughter with conflicting views (he hates disney but he allows her to love it

Family-my personal experiences

-talk about how my grandmother loved to read and passed that love to my mother which then translated into my love of readin

——-nature vs nurture (possible topic to talk about)

-don’t forget to interview one other person on their opinion of reading!!!!!!