Final project

Here is the link to my final project. This has been a great class and I learned a lot. It has challenged me technologically. I hope you enjoy.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~lstallin/Backstory.html

Electronic Literature

I am learning to appreciate electronic literature more, but am still not completely sold on it. I think there will always be a need for the written literature. I feel it is still easier to hold the literature in your hand and read it. I printed off the electronic literature for the readings this week and read the printed copy rather than read it on the computer screen. After looking at a computer screen all day at work the last thing I want to do is read the newspaper or a book on the computer when I get home. I think reading on the computer screen is more taxing on the eyes than reading a printed copy. Staring at the computer is hard on the eyes. I think I shall continue reading the printed copy of literature.

Final project

I am leaning towards doing another interactive fiction for my final project. I really love to write, that's where my strength lies. The real challenge will be setting up the different links or branches. I didn't work on that aspect of my group project and do not know how to do that. But, I will learn.

Group project response

We viewed the group projects on class last night and I enjoyed all of them. I liked the poems and pictures and concept of Allison's and Virginia's. The fake myspace pages project was really neat...to think of creating fake profiles and havethem interconnect was a great idea, and interesting. I also enjoyed the interactive text game that the boys did, that was creative and looks like it took some time and hard work. And last, but not least, I liked the hiphop website that was created. That is something that a lot of people can use, and if possible should be kept up and running. I do realize that that would be a lot of work though! I think everyone came up with creative ideas, no two were alike and that a lot of work and time was put into the projects. Great job everyone!

group project

http://mason.gmu.edu/~kzuiker/title.html

Group project

My group project team consists of Elizabeth Counter, Adeela Rasool, Kerri Zuiker and myself. I am thankful that I got to work with these girls for they are far more computer literate than I and were able to work out the website part while I could concentrate more on the creative writing aspect. We worked well together and I would enjoy working with them again if the opportunity arose. We did a choose your adventure story. I hope everyone enjoys it.

What is a narrative?

To me, a narrative is an explanation or summary of a story. It is a brief snapshot of the overall picture and a foretelling of what is to come. You should learn from it. I like the idea of reading a book, and the story progressing in a linear fashion. Cybertext does not necesarily allow this. It is non-linear. However, cybertext can be considered a narrative, because it does inform and you are reading and learning. It is just a different form of narrative. You can jump to different parts of a story, as evidenced by Joyce's Twelve Blue. In Aarseth's work on Ergodic Literature, he explains that the reader is powerless in the unfolding of a narrative. That is true in the case of cybertext or reading a book. You only have as much power as the author allows. In cybertext, links allow you to read forward, and not in sequential order, but I believe you can lose meaning by reading out of order like that. So, I say all this to say that a narrative is an informative piece of writing, regardless of the format or style. Again, I prefer to read books. My eyes are less tired, and it is less taxing on my brain!!

More on Electronic Literature

I am still trying to wrap my head around the notion of reading electronic literature versus traditional literature. I understand the concept and the options associated with electronic literature. You can jump all over the story by clicking on links and you can read the story in whatever order you want. But, why would you not want to read the story chronologically? Or in order? This could just be me, but I don't like to read things that are jumbled. I like order. So, I still prefer traditional reading to the online reading, but am trying to keep an open mind and try new things. I guarantee I would not have read any electronic literature had it not been for my class. 12 Blue by Michael Joyce was disturbing and the lighting on the page made it difficult to read. It did not make sense. And the poem about the body was equally as disturbing. This was by Shelly Jackson. Granted, you can click on body parts and read about those specific parts, but then another link will take you to another little story. It is a series of stories about body parts that don't make a lot of sense. The common thread is that they are all body parts. I do like the interactive fictions better than the straight text.

My remix project

This project was interesting, to say the least. I fumbled my way through it, but wish I had a better, or more creative presentation. The project was to remix something that had already been created. Well, I have written numerous poems over the years and thought it would be interesting to remix one and see what happened. I used the website languageisavirus.com to remix my masterpiece. The original poem was written about traffic in the Northern VA area and when I went to the website and pasted my text into the "cut-up machine", it completely changed the wording around and gave my peom a new spin. I don't think that the words made sense in the manner in which they were rearranged, but it read like you would imagine traffic to be. You would read and it would flow for a minute and then it would stop abruptly, then move along again and then stop. It was stop and go, nonsensical and frustrating. An interesting view of traffic in Northern VA, eh?

Photo and Video Credit

THE VIDEO AND PHOTO ON MY WEBSITE CAN BE FOUND THROUGH THE INTERNET ARCHIVE AND ARE LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTABLE LICENSE.

Comment on remix project

I enjoyed the remix projects I viewed last week in class. I liked all of them, but the remix that Owen did on Scrooge was really good, neat and interesting. Maybe one day I can be technologically savvy and create such an item. He remixed the famous movie, "Scrooge" and did 2 voiceovers. He scripted it himself and it was funny. I could tell that he put a lot of work into this project. It was interesting to see Scrooge in his opinion/version. It was neat to see the way the character's lips moved in sync with what he dubbed in. Someone who has never seen "Scrooge" may not have know the difference! (just kidding) Anyway, he did a great job and it was creative.

Ideas for remix project

I have some poetry that I have written that I want to remix. I may do some as collage text, and I may utilize the website, www.languageisavirus.com to do some remixing. It will be interesting to see what one of my poems will be like in the remixed version. I have some tributes that I have written also that I may remix. Will it change the meaning significantly? I may not use one of my tributes if that is the case, because I wouldn't want to disrepect the person for whom the tribute was written. I have several poems to choose from that I wrote last year. Some are abstract and may be better remixed. I don't think I will venture into adding music to the project, I am not quite ready for that yet...baby steps! I think it will be an interesting project.

Copyright and Fair Use

What can I say about copyright and fair use? I do find it necessary to copyright your work, otherwise you may be plagiarized. I have actually been plagiarized, and it is not a pleasant feeling. I was enraged. Now, it was not a novel, or anything like that. It was an article in my church newsletter, but it was my work, nonetheless. I had given a copy of my article to another reporter on staff and she was to give it to the Editor for me. I did not know that she had been asked to cover the same event. Well, she took my work, changed a few words, added her name and submitted it for publishing. The Editor happened to be a good friend of mine and she showed me an advance copy of the newsletter with both articles. When I saw what the other reporter had done I asked that my article be removed, but the Editor refused. She said that people knew my style of writing (which was very different from the other reporter's) and that the other reporter would be the one shamed. I agreed and let the publication run as is. It taught me a lesson about copyright and who you can trust...or not! I wrote a play several years ago, this I had copyrighted. So, it is important to respect the laws of copyright and check into fair use before you copy someone else's work. They have worked very hard to produce this and may not want to share it with you.

On Electronic Literature

I viewed "Red Riding Hood", which I thought would be similar to the children's classic. I suppose it was in a dark way. The music that accompanied the story was very dark, and I didn't like the repetitiveness. The premise of the story was there and the cartoon characters were cute, but I didn't care for having to click to move the story along. Although in traditional reading, you do have to turn pages! I am somewhat old school when it comes to technology and prefer the traditional way of reading literature, or anything for that matter. I believe that I comprehend better when I am reading a book versus looking at the commputer screen. And there were no words, so it was like watching a movie. You lose something when you are watching versus reading. I do anyway. When books are made into movies they always have to leave something from the book out or the movie would be too long. The movie is a translation of the book, as was the case here. While I did enjoy the movie and watching the characters interact, I prefer the traditional way of reading. This could be because I have not fully grasped technology with all of my being. You can do almost everything on the Internet these days, but some things I just prefer to do the old fashioned way. Reading is one of them.

Creative and non fiction writing

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