He sat at the computer, completely still, lost in concentration, his thick black glasses hiding any glimpse of expression which may have passed across his face. His fingers seemed to be permanently rooted in the keyboard, limbs of an old wise tree, studying his surroundings, and taking in nature. His great trunk, and all of his branches sat still for what seemed to be an eternity as he remained completely consumed by his work. As I studied this great tree further, I observed his moss colored sweater which covered most of his trunk, and the brown leaves that sat upon his head, still as the branches they grew on.

I observed this man, longing for a movement, a twitch, a hair flip, anything, and it felt as though I would have to sit there, taking in his stillness for an eternity. Suddenly, a movement, a turn to the woman next to him and the beginnings of a conversation. As he spoke his hands quickly flung everywhere, fireworks exploding with excitement at his every word, I was in awe. It seemed uncharacteristic of such an old wise tree to be filled with such excitement and movement. However, after a few moments of conversation, he returned to his work, stone cold and still, completely serious once again. It was then that I realized I had chosen quite a peculiar subject, one of many dimmensions, but only two of which I had witnessed, I longed to sit there longer and observed this man, but suddenly he stood, collected his things, and left.

Although this man left before I could fully observed the spectrum of his behavior, I got a feeling for his personality. This man is a dedicated and wise student, swayed only by the companionship of his friends, but focused completely on work. He is reminiscent of an old tree, or nature, because of his nearly unbreakable concentration. A fascinating creature, I couldn't fully define him, but was intruiged at his dedication and concentration.

What a beautiful day to...stalk?

As I sat down in the Axxin Library on Monday, I found myself twitching with anxiousness, nervous about the assignment at hand. That day our teacher had given us the strange assignment of stalking some one throughout our classtime there. There were many things I was nervous about, what if the person realizes I'm watching them? What if people see me staring and writing and know what I'm up to? Stalking is illegal, afterall. However, as I began the assignment I realized, much to my dismay, that stalking wasn't very difficult at all, it's just a little creepy.
My first order of business was finding myself an attractive object of focus, one which I wouldn't mind staring at for an hour, and began my work. I studied his every move, every flip of the hair or hand gesture was noted, I became completely dedicated to my work. All was going well, until my subject left, and I was left with only a memory to complete my observations with.

After the completion of the assignment, I found it to be enjoyable and insightful, but it still resonated a feeling of creepiness in me. I couldn't help but feel wierd over the fact that I studied some one for nearly an hour and recorded their every move, unbeknownst to them. Despite the slight tang of guilt over my first stalking experience, it helped me to learn to better study my subjects before writing. To make my characters more complete and human like, by studying the everyday activities of an average human step by step, and while it was very informative, I doubt I'll be compelled to try stalking again.

Stitch Bitch Response

What was Shelley Jackson's intention in making this text so confusing and impossible to disect? Not only do I find myself lost in understanding who the Stitch Bitch is, but I was completely lost in her comparison of a hypertext to a human body. Writing is in no way reminiscent of human anatomy, it is, however similar to nature. Writing can flow over the page or screen, picking up speed much like a river. It may reveal hidden layers, similar to a rose or a flower which can be rid of excess petals. It may also sway a reader's opinion, like a breeze blowing through an empty forest. A comparison of writing to the dissected parts of the human anatomy, however, is not a satisfactory comparison in my opinion. Her intentions of this metaphor, to reiterate the fact that her hypertext can easily be dissected, merely brings morbid and gruesome images of a dissected human body at a crime scene to mind.

Questions for Shelley Jackson

1. What is the definition of a hypertext?

2. Does the stitch bitch have any relation to Shelley Jackson?

3. Who is the stitch bitch?

4. What is the point of this text?

5. Why does it appear as though she is speaking to a specific crowd in the beginning of the text?

6. Does Shelley Jackson really believe that digital writing is more valuable than a novel which you can hold in your hands?

"Litany" response

In the poem "Litany", I believe that Billy Collins is commenting on a love gone bad in a humorous and entertaining way. It is clear that he is not regarding a current love when he states "maybe even the pigeon on the general's head" comparing his object of attention to a bird which is defecating on a statue. It is neither flattering nor humorous to be compared to feces, and so it is apparent that Billy Collins is in no way seeking to flatter his subject of interest. This poet also uses his poem in order to show his audience the stupidity of the nonsensical language which is commonly present in poems of this nature. Shakespearean-like sonnets and other poems from that time period seek to flatter women by comparing them to nonsensical things in order to metaphorically describe their beauty. When Billy Collins shows these outrageous comparisons in a humorous light it becomes easy to see the absurdity of this concept. It is outrageous to think that girls actually fell for these half-witted compliments and less than genuine comparisons in their time.

In my opinion "Litany" is a very successful poem. It easily expresses its opinion on the poems which it is intended to mock with use of absurd comparisons and overly flowery language. He mimicks his object of mockery almost flawlessly, while adding an element of bitterness and humor. Billy Collins not only makes his audience laugh during the poem, but also shows us how poetry has evolved and reiterates the absurdity of the poetic language that was utilized by poets of the past.

"Litany" Questions

1. Is there any significance in the objects you chose to compare your love to?

2. Why did you bring yourself into the poem?

3. Are you trying to flatter your love or insult her?

4. Why did you choose more flattering comparisons for yourself than your love?

5. Could this poem be describing a love turned sour?

6. Is this poem a result of some bitterness that you have against those who are blissfully in love?

The end of literature as we know it?

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

I do not believe novels will ever be considered something of the past. While it is fully possible that a computer dependent society would abandon tangible things in favor of an internet based world, the experience of holding a book in your hand, and reading something that will not irreversibly damage your eyes is a much more personal, and realistic way of reading than staring at a glowing computer screen for hours on end, while following an entire story or novel. While I do admitt that I have completely fallen into the trend of living our lives through technology there are still some things that exist in the real world which I consider to be of value. The enjoyment of a hand held book happens to be one of them. I do not believe that humans will one day prefer scrolling down a web page to follow their favorite character's lives rather than turn the pages of a novel. There are many advantages to holding and reading a book such as the fact that you can stop partially through and go back to the exact page where you left off. On a website one would be stuck scrolling for an eternity, trying to find their last place. Also, authors sometimes lay out books a specific way, so it looks a certain way, and will be read accordingly. Websites would compltely mess up the way an author decides they would like their page to look, and this may take away from the intensity of the written lines. All in all there is nothing that could overrun the experience of holding this adventure in your hands as you read page to page. I do not believe the internet will ever cause the book to become extinct. There will always be people who appreciate and enjoy the real thing rather than an internet simulated version of something, and I happen to be one of those people.

Jonathan Lethem's "The ecstasy of influence" part 2

In his work, "The ecstacy of influence", Jonathan Lethem points out the staggering amount of artistic borrowing that is present in today's world. He opens the mind of an oblivious audience to the reality which is modern day art, and mentions countless respected and well known works which are nothing more than a blatant act of plagiarism. This realization is very disturbing to me. Its troubling that the great minds of today are nothing more than the great minds of yesterday, casting originality to the wind and abandoning all hopes of creativity. Why do artists no longer take pride in an original idea or work? Do they not feel that it is a necessity for those words, stories, or clips of music to belong to the artist who had given these things life?

When Lethem says, "Art is sourced. Apprentices graze in the field of culture." it may seem as though he is encouraging the act of plagiarism. I do not believe that this is his intention. Artist should graze in the field of culture, they should take inspiration from anything and everything around them. However, a very thin line is drawn between being influenced and stealing another's words. Influence is something that makes an impact and affects the way your art looks, sounds, feels, etc. Plagiarism is when an artist steals whole pieces of another's work in order to better themselves and achieve popularity, without granting the original creator credit. To me, this process which our modern day artists are all too familiar with is repulsive and disappointing. Theft should never be accepted by a society, whether it be material objects, or words off of a page. These supposed artists are doing nothing but stealing from the creations which others worked on for countless hours which will never be regained, instead of taking the time to create beauty and meaningfulness on their own.

Lethem believes that this obsession with plagiarism is a crippling act which is causing artists everywhere a disadvantage. I believe this is because it is starving our culture or originality, and encourage artists in our present day culture to do the same. It is crippling the creative minds in our world because those who borrow often find more success riding on the coattails of those before them. This acceptance of plagiarism is causing the great and fresh ideas in our society to starve and die, falling secondhand to those who take the easy way out. When Lethem concludes his work he states "But the truth is that with artists pulling on one side and corporations pulling on the other, the loser is the collective public imagination from which we were nourished in the first place, and whose existence as the ultimate repository of our offerings makes the work worth doing in the first place." I believe he has reached the decision that while many artists who borrow are publicly sucessful and are supported due to the money they bring in to their economic backers, this support is crippling our society. We are creating a society which is starved of fresh ideas and creativity. The people of today's world have accepted imagination as nothing more but the reuse of great ideas. But, unfortunately, through this unoriginality and borrowing of ideas the public has supported these theives in their quest for money and fame. But we must begin urging these artists to create, believe, and be original, before our culture becomes starved of originality and true artistic genious.

Mark Twain's advice

Mark Twain is often regarded as one of the greatest American writers of his time. His brilliant and innovative ideas of writing are still relevant and are often used by modern writers to this day. http://editorialengine.com/?p=808 shows a list of quotes from Twain, detailing his opinion and methods in writing. These quotes are all shockingly futuristic and ahead of their time, which proves that this man knew good writing, across all boundaries. Some of these quotes are even relevant to digital writing and blogging.
My personal favorite quote of Twain's featured on this website is "To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself… Anybody can have ideas–the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph." I like this quote because it is staggeringly true. I often go back into my papers and repeatedly change around sentences to make them work. More often than not, I remain dissatisfied with the sentences I have formed and eventually abandon hope of rearranging them to my liking. I believe the most difficult task that we, as writers, have is making our work flow, making every sentence sound like a melody. When I write I aim for every sentence to have a rhythm and a feel, and I hardly ever find myself achieving my goal. This applies to blogging because a blog is a public piece of writing which is put onto the internet for others to enjoy. In my opinion not many people would want to read a rambling entry, with nothing to say. But if the writer of the blog can keep their sentences flowing without rambling, it will spark the interest of those following that blog, and a return of an admiring audience is the true definition of success for a writer.
Another quote of his that I particularly enjoyed was "We write frankly and fearlessly but then we “modify” before we print." This quote holds true in a modern age moreso than most of the others because now that computers are common in a household, it has become gradually easier to edit and reshape a work before it is officially printed or posted to a website. With things like spellcheck, a synonym finder, and a grammatical editor built right in to Microsoft Word, editing has become a much simpler task and is utilized much more than it has ever been before. But aside from the helping hand of Microsoft, the computer has made it easier to revise a work of literature with just a click of the mouse and a few key strokes. In modern day America a work is almost never printed without some form of editing or revision taking place first. This quote is also becoming a little less true as time goes on however, because the internet has given writers a feeling of invincibility and invisibility. Due to the feeling that most digital writers have of hiding behind their computer, people have become more fearless in their writing and feel less of a need to censor themselves and edit their ideas. It has become a norm to write outrageous and scandalous things on the internet because writers are able to hide behind usernames much like Mark Twain used a psuedonym.
In conclusion these quotes by Mark Twain further prove that this man was way before his time and that his styles of writing will never go out of style. He had an original and brilliant way of writing and shared his knowledge of language with those around him. We can learn much from this late writer and his lessons, and should all take into heart this revolutionary man's techniques and suggestions in order to better our writing whether it be handwritten or digital.