Shakespearean Artwork (Blog Assignment 4)

I hope that midterms are going well for everyone!

I have to say that I agree with the argument in the readings: that text is really graphical and we become unaware of written history's origins. The Byron example is brilliant because, for me, the realization that those two versions of the same poem read completely differently based solely on the visual aspect.

They also brought up something that I noticed almost immediately: the punctuation. We hear everything we read in our head in some way. If we are reading something we find boring, the text drones on in our head. For questions, we always hear the inflection go up at the end of the sentence. Based on the visuals of how something is presented plays a huge part in how we read it: literature is in fact art.

My example of this would have to be Shakespearean works. At this point there are so many different versions of all of Shakespeare's works that there are many examples of visual versions and formats are for sure different that how Shakespeare originally wrote the script. I imagine that the originals covey much more emotion than the mass produced versions now. In some of the modern versions, the sonnets are formatted in a different way than the pieces of the text that are not in a sonnet form. However, as a script for the stage, the text can be kept in this format, or be written in traditional script form. Scripts are a different type of visual literature entirely. The fact that each line begins with a name, such as "Romeo: " brings to mind a view of a person speaking, perhaps even a person acting on a stage or in a film.

Another example that we could talk about is the formatting of digital text. In this blog alone, I could choose to change the font, the type size, alignment; I can italicize, bold, underline. The way I break up my paragraphs is also an entirely new way to make my text artistic. Of course none of the examples would be good examples without the text itself. The way the author writes also leads to how the formatting should be in the end.

~Meg~

“The words of language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images.” ~ Albert Einstein

Evolution of Conciousness (Blog Assignment 3)

Happy Thursday!

Out of the examples from Carmody's article, the one that I feel most exemplifies that "writing restructures consciousness" is that of the industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution, the invention of the printing press could have arguably had the same function that I am going to argue. Before even the printing press, having a book was something only for the extremely wealthy. Only those who had money could afford to be educated enough to read, so it limited the people who were able to read that text had to have the money to have a manuscript commissioned. The way that the printing press helped to spread books, even though they were still expensive, is similar to the way that the Greeks' written language of an alphabet with vowels propelled them to the top of the other ancient cultures. They were able to communicate in a new and more advanced way in comparison to the other cultures.

The printing press was an excellent invention for the spread of knowledge, and it may have minorly restructured consciousness, but it was only a step in the way that the industrial revolution achieved this. While the printing press could spread literacy to a larger audience than before its invention, the industrial revolution allowed a large majority of the world to be literate. The world today would not think in nearly the same way as if we were not literate. Without the industrial revolution's affect on widespread literacy, there would not be the digital literacy we have in this day and age, similar to the fact that without the printing press the industrial revolution would have not been as effective. It is a necessary chain of events.

As discussed in the previous reading, thinking without knowledge of literacy is completely different thinking. Being literate changed the way humans think, often visualizing words for objects. The industrial revolution was one of the tools that spread on a large scale the new type of consciousness that comes with literacy. We think based on what we read, we expand our vocabulary through reading, we express our thoughts and ideas through writing. The fact that we are literate is a defining concept in our culture for how we live our daily lives. I would call this consciousness.

~Meg~

“Change your language and you change your thoughts.” ~ Karl Albrecht

The Oral Odyssey (Blog Assignment 2)

Good afternoon/morning/evening!

I was completely fascinated with the entire progression of Homer's Illiad and Odyssey. The evolution of the story, and then the remediation of it makes perfect sense. We'll begin with the evolution: the oral story, or pieces of that story, being passed and refined from person to person. It changed and evolved as time passed and more people told the story and the poets themselves refined their story-telling technique. The evolution, I would argue, also includes the compilation of all of the little pieces of the story into the two final epics. It is an evolution, and not remediation, because the stories grew together in oral form, most likely, before they were written for the first time.

It was only eventually that the remediation occurred when one man (not to be sexist, it just would have been that way) compiled all the stories into two that we know as the Illiad and the Odyssey. This is remediation, and not an evolution, because of the compilation of all of the stories that had been passed verbally through generations into one solid text, that although reads like an oral poem, is slightly different. Over the years, the remediations of this text have continued, into illustrated stories, plays, and movies.

The discovery of this remediation by Milman Parry in the 1920s proves the difference between the evolution and the remediation, but also proves the evolution itself. This means that the fact that the story was originally oral and many different oral stories proves the evolution, while showing the written, and now visual, versions in itself proves the remediation itself. The remediation into the written version from the oral version allowed the story to continue to be heard, while many of the older oral tales died out. We are very lucky to have the original remediation in this case, or we would not have arguably the most famous story of our time.

~Meg~

"You all have to just hope that the person you're staying with isn't an axe murderer." - A Teacher about staying with strangers during the time of The Odyssey

Full Cast Remediation (Blog Assignment 1)

Hello!

I have been terribly sick, and I apologize profusely for the tardiness of this post, but it is finally up and readable. :] Also, I am feeling much better.

In class, I remember it being mentioned that a book on tape or CD is not true remediation. However, I have to disagree. In my opinion, although slightly outdated, a book on tape is an excellent example of remediation. I would argue that they are based on a certain type of audio books: full cast audio books. Without mentioning the book itself in the reading of it, the overall feel of the reading is more of a play using the words from the book. The cast itself brings the story to its audience in a completely different way then even one person reading the story (even if that person is the brilliant Jim Dale.) My memory of this experience comes from grade school, when I listened to Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff. Its hard to go back to a traditionally read audio book after hearing a large cast perform the same task in a new way.

One of my favourite statements from the reading we were given for class is:

"the new medium can remediate by trying to absorb the older medium entirely, so that the discontinuities between the two are minimized. The very act of remediation, however, ensures that the older medium cannot be entirely effaced; the new medium remains dependent on the older one in acknowledged and unacknowledged ways."

I appreciate this quote because it encapsulates the concept that we will always have our past in what we create in the future. Audio books are an example of this because they will always be part of something written before hand, they are not just improvised right onto the tape, CD, or MP3 that they are given to us in. And though copyrights require the book to be acknowledged on tape, it is for the reader to decide whether or not the author is worthy of our noticing.

Additionally, audio books with casts, specifically, aid in the human race's need for immediacy. They are a way in which to "read" without actually reading, and the cast provides a more real experience, another important aspect to this need. As I stated before, the author nearly disappears in books on tape, in order to create this realistic experience. The reading states the irony: "the artist's success at effacing his process, and thereby himself, became for trained viewers a mark of his skill and therefore his presence." In audio books, we no longer think about the author of the book; they have been erased, giving way for the story. However, if we as readers truly like the story, we will in turn give credit to the author and not to the person whose voice we hear.

~Meg~

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ~ Groucho Marx

About Me (Blog Assignment 0)

Hey all!

My name is Megan, but I often go by Meg. I am a third year DTC and French double major, and I'm working on minors in Film Studies, Professional Writing, and Fine Arts. I want to be in the film industry eventually, specifically I want to direct and produce movies.

I spent most of my childhood in Seattle, which is where I call home now when I'm not in Pullman, but I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. I also lived just outside of Chicago, Illinois where my little sister was born. I just have one sister and two cats...and saying it like that makes my sister sound like a pet.

At school, the Cougar Marching Band takes up a ton of my time. I'm with the band anywhere from 8 to 20 hours a week, more when we go on trips, and that doesn't include volleyball or basketball pep bands. I play the piccolo, which is like a mini flute. I only took 1.5 years of lessons before band because I like to sing way more than playing an instrument.

In my spare time (the little that i have)I listen to music, talk/hang out with my friends, bake, swim, read, write, and dance. I am obsessed with the Food Network, and I love to experiment with food. I would love to cook my way through Julia Child's cook book, like they do in the movie Julie and Julia. I also like teaching myself instruments. I am working on the guitar, and I have taught myself some piano. There is always music going, on my iPod or in my head.

That's a little about me. Its hard for me to tell what people want to know without them asking questions. But I am up for answering whatever anyone wants to know

~Meg~

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." ~ Judy Garland