No more books?

6) Will novels eventually be considered to be something of the past?

Will books soon be a thing of the past? With the technological age that we live in, it's not that improbable that books could soon be forgotten in the future. Every day advances are made to make the world we live in more virtual. With computers getting smaller and smaller, to the point where they are nearly as small as books, reading a novel online really isn't that inconvenient. I mean, who writes with a pen and paper anymore? Nearly our entire writing class is done through computers. These blogs, most of our essays, homework assignments, are all done virtually. It's so easy to quickly access information through the Internet that going out to the bookstore to buy a book just seems silly. Why should I pay 10$ for a book at Barns and Nobel, when I could read the same book for free online? It's a no-brainer. Novels will soon be a thing of the past.

I'm sorry Ms.Jackson, are you fo real?

I have to admit, I did not read every line of this "Stitch Bitch" essay, article, hypertext or whatever it's supposed to be. I was pretty much confused the whole time, skipping around trying to find meaning of something in this text. The only conclusion I've really come to is that maybe the whole point of hypertext is that it doesn't have to make any sense. I don't think that there was any true beginning or end and it didn't flow like a story you'd read in a book. Hypertext doesn't give boundaries to the writer like a novel does, which allows for a lot of creativity. Do I like hypertexts? Yes. Did I enjoy reading "Stitch Bitch"? Not at all.

Questions for Ms. Jackson

1. WHO IS SHELLEY JACKSON?
2. What do you mean by the phrase, "We don't think what we think we think"?
3. By reading the first sentence of each paragraph, could the reader fully understand what the essay is about?
4. What is hyertext?
5. Is there any structure to this essay?
6. What is the true meaning behind all this text?

The Dog Whisperer

I have to admit that this essay was very enjoyable to read. It kept my attention throughout the whole story and the encounters Cesar goes through were very interesting. It's had to imagine that someone who understood dogs so well, couldn't even understand his own wife. Cesar fully understood how to have a healthy relationship with dogs, through "exercise, discipline, and affection", but was blind when it came to having a healthy relationship with his wife. Cesar also talks about how presence is everything when trying to train a dog.

Posture, tone, attitude are all parts of making your presence know to the canine. However, can't these same concepts be applied to human-human relations? When someone is in a bad mood, you can see it in their body language and hear it in the tone of their voice. Not only do our words have meanings, but our actions and body language do too.

Stalking?

Stalking someone for the first time was something very new to me. I had never stalked anyone before and, to be honest, it felt creepy watching someone from a distance. This exercise did however teach me that in order to fully understand the subject at hand, you must look at all the details. At first, I started out making the basic observaions; what my subject was wearing, what he was doing, who he was talking to. Then from these observations I was able to make inferences. One thing I noticed was my subject was constantly tapping his feet like he was nervous or in a rush. Then I asked myself, "why would this person be so nervously typing a paper?". From this question, and the other details i garnered from stalking this person, I almost created a story around him. He was constantly tapping his feet and moving around because he was going to be late for a class and needed to finish his paper. There was only minutes remaining and he was so focused on the computer screen, nothing distracted him from accomplishing the task at hand.
I took all the details and observations I made and turned them into something more. I feel like when when we are going through the process of writing a paper, the same process must occur. You choose a subject and begin writing about the things you know. The next step is to create and make inferences. From these inferences we ask ourselves questions which creates more ideas. When we write it's not only important to write what we know, but also to ask questions and create.

Billy Collins pt.2

1. Are you mocking the previous artist's work with your recreation?

I feel like Billy Collins is mocking the original poet with his recreation. The original poet used descriptions like, "you are the bread in the knife", which doesn't really make sense. Billy Collins goes on to use other descriptions like, " You are the white apron of the baker", which seems to poke fun at the original author. I feel like there is no deeper meaning to the metaphors and descriptions Billy Collins uses, rather he is showing that anything can be used to described someone, even though the descriptions make no sense.

Questions for Billy Collins "LItany"

1. Are you mocking the previous artist's work with your recreation?
2. How could someone possible be the bread in the knife, but not the pine scented air?
3. Is there a deeper meaning to what the original author meant by the wine in the goblet?
4. By recreating this poem, aren't you mocking middle age love poems?
5. Who is Litany and what is her significance towards the author?
6. Is this poem re-written by Billy Collins an example of plagiarism?

Lethem's Article Response

I believe there is a fine line between plagiarism and influence. Lethem knows that intertextuality exists in literature, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Plagiarism is taking some one's work and claiming it as your own, which is unacceptable. Influencing or inspiring is much different. Artists and writers will always be influencing each other to create even better pieces of work. When books are made into movies, the movie producer isn't stealing the author's work. Instead, the author inspired the movie producer to create a visual presentation of the book. Society has always progressed by taking past ideas and creations and improving on them. With literature, author's will always be influenced by past authors and their works.

Mark Twain response

You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.Letter to Orion Clemens, 23 March 1878

This quote really grabbed my attention. Mark Twain compares adjectives to God's thunder and lightning. Adjectives, which are powerful and descriptive words, should be used sparingly. When they are used, they need to grab the reader's attention immediately. Powerful adjectives should almost scare the reader, making them hide under their beds. If they are used too often, adjectives become boring and go overlooked. If thunder and lightning happened all the time, they wouldn't be exciting, just boring occurrences. Adjectives act the same way. If used too often they don't startle the reader, they just become another word in the sentence.

AT&T Commercial response

When I first watched the commercial, my thoughts were that it was just another advertisement for a phone with navigation built into it. However, after reading some of the other blogs and thinking about more thoroughly, I've come to realize there was a bigger underlying tone about the whole commercial. The real target audience wasn't for adults, it was for younger kids. Kids between the ages of 8-18 probably watch more TV then all other age groups which is why AT&T used two young children in their commercial. They are in a big city and lost, which is a huge concern for any parent, but luckily they have the AT&T phone to help guide them home. If I were a parent who works full time, this would be something that my child would have to own. If you're going to buy your kid a cell phone, when not just pay the extra cash so they can have the navigation system? We are in the modern technological age and it seems like every kid has a cell phone. It's kind of ridiculous.

My first blog

So here I am at Hofstra, and I'm blogging. Writing online makes me feel uncomfortable because everyone and anyone can see what I'm writing. It's like walking into class late and everyone looks at you like you have two heads. It just makes you feel uncomfortable. At the same time, it's pretty cool to be able to share my thoughts with the world. Some people may even enjoy reading my blogs. I actually find it entertaining reading other people's blogs. Its interesting to see what they are thinking or how they feel about a certain subject. So far I'm not enjoying writing my own personal blog. Im sure if I were writing about something more interesting to me, like basketball or the color red, then this blog would be easier for me to write. I do find this site very interesting and I like the freedom blogging gives me as a writer. We'll see how my other blogs turn out, this is just the first one.