The Worth of a Project

Group projects are hard.

I think that at some point in every person’s life, they’ve had one of those group projects that make them never want to work with another person ever again. When I was told at the beginning of this semester that I would be working with the rest of my nine-person class to create an ebook about digital literature together, I agreed on the outside, but on the inside I was cringing.

A whole semester for a group project… I was definitely prepared for the worst.

At first I think it was difficult, everyone had their own ideas of what should and shouldn’t be included, how it should be formatted, who was in charge of what, as well as so many other issues. But as we began to actually communicate with each other and realize the importance of (the dreaded) peer editing process, we began to learn and grow together as a class instead of trying to learn individually, which would have failed. While it stretched us all, the fact that we had to rely on and help each other ultimately created unison throughout our ebook while still maintaining each individual identity and opinions. The work wasn't always evenly distributed, and this did cause some issues, but we had some kick butt people who really took their work into stride even when they were overwhelmed. This project never would have worked though if each of us hadn't buckled down and opened ourselves up to criticism and critique from our professor but also each other.

My class' whole purpose was to create an ebook about studying literature in the digital age. In some ways our project helped me with this concept, and in other ways I felt it took away from it. While our ebook as a whole definitely shows ways that digital literary study can be furthered, I did feel as though we focused so much on individual aspects of this concept that I barely actually got to put these theories into use. But I do believe that this ebook will be able to help me, as well as others, as we make the transition from classic literary studies to digital literary studies. And I don’t believe that it’s a “one or the other” situation, I think it is possible that both digital and classic can work hand in hand if we let them.

For myself, this project taught me the value of letting others read my work. I hate sharing my work before I believe it's perfect, and this forced me to. I learned that some situations require me to work with others, and this made me take interest in their works as well. And I also learned that my opinion can matter out there with this new turn of the digital age.

So what began as a social nightmare in my eyes, ended as a project well worth my time that taught me not only about digiliteracy, but also the value of a group project done well.

One and the Same.

My semester of literary studies is quickly coming to an end. My class has studied everything from poetry, to plays, to literature online, and everything in between. We’ve sort of gone through everything in our quest to learn about the importance of literature both classically and digitally. This class was my first class I’ve taken that is actually required for being an English major, and some days it really made me question my life decisions concerning being in this major.

The beginning of the class started with jumping from different forms of literature each week. Nonfiction, fiction, poetry, plays, etc.. – you name it, we did it. And all the while we were beginning our journey into using and finding this literature online. There were two big pieces of work that really stood out to me. The really big one was when we read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. We spent a lot of time on this one, and I think it sticks out to me so much because of the amount of time I personally spent with it. I had to fully read and analyze this book, and it was very difficult for me to get into. This was sort of my gateway book into online literature though, as the difficulty of it and the analysis I had to make of it took me right into the heart of the Internet for help. It was during my studies of this book that I first really entered into Goodreads and discovered how reviews work and how a book can connect me with other people. In fact, there was a particular review that really stood out to me and helped me understand why this book matters. When I read that review, I decided to follow the man who wrote it, and since I’ve become so enraptured by his other reviews and have become in new books simply because of his high opinions of them. It was because of this section that my ideas began to form for my chapters about both reviews and Goodreads for my class’ semester ebook we would soon be writing.

My other big work of literature that really stood out to me during this class was during our poetry unit. This was in the beginning of the semester before we had really delved into the online world. So while I was finding and reading poetry online, I was also focusing on the more traditional poetry such as Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This poem showed me the ways of traditional literature analyses and how to compare the ways in which an analysis must be made. This was quite a challenge for me as I hadn’t before done a formal analysis in this way. We also had to write our own sonnet during this portion of our studies. While struggling with my rhythm and wording of my own poem, I began to feel a connection with these other poems I had been trying so hard to understand. I found beauty in them that before I hadn’t seen, and I developed a deeper appreciation for the authors and the pains they went through to bring us their words.

I could probably go on forever about what works I used and how they helped and frustrated me, but that would get old quite fast. This semester and the class ebook project have taught me so much about the importance of classic literature as well as its introduction into the digital age. Classic literary analysis is still valid, and I would hate to ever lose that part of literature or understanding. But after this semester, I do believe that working with the more social and online aspects of literature are now becoming just as important as the classic. It opens more doors and ideas than before, and allows people to actually connect to these books and people and authors in ways that have never been seen before. It's becoming almost impossible to have literature without including the digital in some way. They're becoming one and the same.

Literature is changing. And to keep it alive it must be allowed to change and grow as the world continues to change and grow.

Social Bibliography

For the chapters in my class' ebook that I'm working on, I've been missing one key element: research. Because of this, our professor ran us through a few different ways of gathering research for this particular project, and that includes a whole lot more than just traditional scholarly sources! So here's my working bibliography for some of the digging I've done. For the sake of my research and not wanting to totally overwhelm myself, I decided that on the social networks area I would focus my research through Twitter. Obviously there's much more out there in the realm of social networking, but sometimes it's best to focus on one thing at a time!

Harry Potter and the Magic of the Internet

Tweethis: “It’s difficult to navigate literature through digital platforms, but it’s possible to feel at home in this new world.”

Social Graph:
Talking to my mom: It's goes in spurts, she used Goodreads it more in the beginning, but not so much now. She forgets she's on it, and usually just checks it when she gets a notification of someone joining or specific activity on there. If there was a link to it in her sight more she would use it more. Maybe more frequent notifications in her email, or being connected more with the social media she already uses would help her remember it.
This seems to be a general thing that needs to be addressed. I've also sent out a few messages to some family and friends about their usage of Goodreads, but people are kind of a pain sometimes and don't always respond when I actually need them to respond. So naturally I threatened to kill them if they don't answer.

New Media: In light of new media, I went to youtube which is blessed with a plethora of tutorials on how to use Goodreads! One of the most helpful was this one that really outlined the basics. There was also this one that is interviewing the Director of Author Marketing and Community Manager for Goodreads on the use of Goodreads for authors.

Social Networks: In this realm, I think the most helpful resource on Twitter is Goodread's own personal twitter: https://twitter.com/goodreads
When people have questions for them, they respond with answers or links to help people out. This makes it much more personable for the user and is a good way for people to not feel so disconnected from the fact that Goodreads is digital.

Traditional Scholarly Sources:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/07419050810949986



The Language of Reviews

Tweethis: How to use book reviews on different Ebook platforms, and why they're important.

Social Graph: I reached out to an author that I've known for a few years, Julie Wright, and asked her of the importance of online reviews. This is what she told me: "I believe online reviews are important because they allow people to make educated decisions on their reading material. If a person has a friend they trust to lead them well in their literature choices, being able to follow that friend on goodreads and see their reviews might steer them toward books they might otherwise have never noticed. As an author, reviews are a blessing and a curse. A good constructive critique of a book can help an author grow in their craft. But sometimes reviewers use the review process to snark on novels in an effort to entertain their own followers, instead of informing their followers. For an author reading such a review, nothing positive is gained. A bad review can make it hard for an author to get into the emotional headspace they need to create their new book because the author is so depressed. A good review can make it hard for an author to get into the emotional headspace they need to create their new book because they are so elated. In other words: Reviews are important and good for readers and *can* be good for authors because they can gain them new readers. But authors have no business reading reviews of their books. They need to be writing new ones instead of obsessing over works no longer in their control. (it would be nice if I took my own advice and never read my reviews)"

New Media: Interestingly enough, I've discovered that the main topic with online reviews right now revolves around self publishing and the way that reviews help it move forward. I can you some of that information in lieu of why reviews are important, but I also need more than that. It's been a little frustrating, because almost all I can find on reviews are about getting more reviews for books, even on youtube all I could find were tutorials for either how to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon, or how to get more reviews. I also found some videos of people reenacting reviews they found interesting which did provide for some entertainment.. I searched for podcasts on this, but all I found were reviews for specific books. I did find this thread on Goodreads, but it is a bit outdated as the last posts were in 2012. However, I also found this bloggish thing about reviews that I really liked from last year. I'm going to keep looking.. there has to be relevant new media somewhere.

Social Networks: When searching Twitter in respect of Amazon and Goodreads reviews, there's most obviously the personal Twitters for Amazon and Goodreads, and then there's author's promoting their books with reviews, as well as people connecting the reviews they've done through these platforms on different books. Not necessarily through Twitter, but on Goodreads I found a Goodreads group that links both together for all people, as well as there's a conversation thread on there for people to link their own personal Twitters together. It's advertised as a place for indie authors and readers, to help both out, as well as discussing problems people have had with reviews on Amazon as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/100482-genre-specific-review-groups


Traditional Scholarly Sources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923608000754

Overwhelmed and Excited

I've been having a bit of an overwhelming experience all of a sudden. My class is working on an Ebook together about literature in the digital age. Specifically, using the Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindle platforms. I felt all was going well, and then today I found out that my chapters pretty much need to be done (or at least in rough draft form) in the next couple of weeks. Uhhh what? At that news my brain shut down, and all my ideas for my chapters scattered at the thought of actually being used.

I guess in my mind writing my chapters has been a far off experience. Something I could do later.
Yet here it is.
Now.

So today I took a nap, drank some hot chocolate, and decided to pull myself together and figure this thing out. And to figure it out, I delved more into the academic side of what I'm working on. The personal aspect of it is always the easiest, so why not start with the hardest part first?

So I'm working on two chapters, and I've actually chosen to use a different book for each. And doing research for them is quite a contrasting experience!

My first chapter I'm working on is about how to write a good review for each different platform, as well as the impact that these reviews have and how they work differently. And for this, I'm using the book "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. I'm comparing the way there's different "languages" in the book (animal speaking, people speaking, element speaking) to the way different people use reviews, as well as the different "reviews" of her life that the main character receives when she's a princess as well as when she's under cover so to say. Now this was a bit more difficult research for me as this isn't a super well known book, or fairy tale that it's based upon. I was able to find a lot of information on the author herself (who's an amazing woman who you should definitely check out), but not much on the book itself or why it matters. Which to me, makes this sort of a fun project because I actually get to create something myself!

And then my other chapter I'm working on is finding a way to make our online presence of worth, as well as finding our place and becoming more comfortable in this strange world we're referring to as the digiliteracy world. And guess what? Surprise! I'm actually using a whole series to help me along in this topic, one that many people already feel at home in. And that's the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling. And doing research for this one was VASTLY different because Harry Potter is so well known that there's pretty much something out there comparing this series to almost anything. While this means it's very relevant for the point I'm trying to make, it also created a new level of anxiety because there's so much information I just don't even know where to start, or what is actually relevant to my cause, as well as the overall cause of our Ebook..

Both "The Goose Girl" and "Harry Potter" are pretty personal books for me that I grew up with, and thus at the age of 21 this also means that these books grew up while the internet has also been growing up. There's been a lot of growing up in the digital age, and the literary age, and I'm sure there's a lot more growing up to be. Which is why I'm actually getting pretty excited (although intimidated) about doing my portion for these things because I've grown up with all these changes, and I'm excited to see the way that what I know and the knowledge I've gained will affect the digiliterature world in the future.

It may be bold to say that my ideas will change the world, but hey, you never know.

A Work in Progress

Organizing my own thoughts is difficult enough, but organizing the thoughts of my entire class into a rough draft table of contents BEFORE anything has actually been written other than a few rogue thoughts seems near impossible! Even since my last post, we've actually been reassigned to write not just one, but two chapters!
So to those of you that are investigating our class' progress on our Ebook, bear with me! And to my classmates, sorry if I totally misread your thoughts or missed something! But here we go!

Section 1: The Digiliterary World

Saren - Finding a Home in the Digiliterary World
The digiliterary world is intimidating, but it's possible to feel at home in a strange new world.

Shelby- Owning the Internet
The internet creates ease for mislead ownership

Meghan- Magic Libraries
Ebook libraries are on the rise, how does this ease affect reading habits of all?

Nathan- Old vs. New
The digital world is documenting the past, but losing accurate information.

Section 2- Content

Saren- Reviewing Reviews
What does it take to make a good review on different platforms, and why does it matter?

Leah- Finding New Love in Old Titles
The availability of content on Amazon and Goodreads allows people to re-explore classic works.

Emily: New Beliefs
Amazon and Goodreads gives so much information, but there is a way to understand it all.  

Section 3- Social Reading

Meghan- Social Obedience
Learning the social "rules" of Goodreads can maximize user experience.

Lauren- Lonely Companionship
Increasing and decreasing the social sphere through electronic reading.

Lauren- Preserving Connections
With everything becoming digitally stored, personal connections deepen.

Shelby- Finding Safety
Reading socially doesn't have to be dangerous if done correctly.

Section 4- Online Identity

Nathan- The Man Behind the Mask
Internet identities allow a more honest outlook from the user when discussing literature.

Jenna- Finding Ourselves Online
Our identity online can impact our credibility.

Obviously my titles/descriptions need work, and I need more even sections, but hey, it's a start! I definitely think that there needs to be a bigger focus on the way that these things affect the academic world, as that's what we've been learning about, as well as using the Kindle itself. Granted, some of our chapters may cover the Kindle in some ways that we just don't know yet because we haven't written them yet.

Changes and Beginnings

If you aren't aware, this blog is actually a premise to prepare us (the students) to create a semester long project of a collaborative eBook about using literature in the digital age. If you'd like a basic summary of our goals, go here.

So in an earlier blog post about Harry Potter I was talking about how near and dear that series is to me, and it was my original plan to use that as my book to relate to my adventures into the digiliterary (yes, I did just create that word..) world. BUT I actually decided to take a bit of a different route, and use another book that's been highly personal to me called "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale.

Although I've changed directions, that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to write about dear Harry! Literally everything in my life can be compared to "Harry Potter."

Quick summary of "The Goose Girl:" There's a quiet crowned princess named Ani who's father dies and her mom decided to give her crown to one of her siblings instead and send Ani off to another kingdom to wed their prince. Oh, and she can talk to animals. Which apparently isn't normal. On her trip to the kingdom her lady in waiting overthrows her and then runs to the prince pretending to be Ani. Ani takes a job as a goose girl trying to figure out how to get back her position, and she sits back quietly until she finds out her own kingdom is going to be under attack and so she rushes in to save the day. And there's a prince disguised as a guard who falls in love with goose girl Ani thrown into the midst. 

I didn't do the plot justice at all, but I'll tell you that you need to read it!

And if this sounds like a fairy tale, it's because it's actually an adaptation of a fairy tale called, go figure, The Goose Girl. 

So what ways can I tie this book my digiliterary immersion? Well so far I just have a couple of ideas, but I'm always open for suggestions!

1: The digiliterary age is (for many) a new and strange land, sort of like Ani going to the foreign land to wed a prince. While most of us won't be using the digiliterary land to wed a prince, it is hard to find a way to feel comfortable and find our place within and how to make our presence of worth. This is like Ani finding her place in a new land and finding a way to become her best self through this. Side note, this was also Hale's debut novel, so it's like she was finding her way through a new land. As well as this became a comforting book for me that came to feel like another home.

2. The main platforms we've been working with is Goodreads and Amazon. Through my own experiences, I've been seeing the way that different reviews work between these two platforms, as well as makes a good review. As a princess, Ani has different "reviews" coming from people from all walks of life. When she's under cover as a goose girl, she ends up hearing a very different side of these reviews. I'm not sure exactly how to tie this together, but I think I'm onto something!

3. Okay, when I said a couple of idea, I literally meant a couple. So now we're here. I'm going to try to keep brainstorming, but it's a start!

So pray tell, thoughts on these ideas? Any different thoughts? 

More Than Just a Platform

We've entered into a strange new territory in the land of bibliophiles, and that's the territory that's become known as the digital age.
There's those that love it, and those that hate it, and those that are in between. But no matter a person's feelings about this fast approaching shift into the digital age of reading, it's coming regardless.

In Lisa Nakamura's work “Words with Friends': Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads," she talks about the fact that while the devices we use to read aren't nearly as important to what we're reading. For the same reason you aren't going to go to someone else's house to look at the bookshelf and ask what their books are sitting on, you're going to look at the books for the sake of figuring out who this person is and what it is they're reading or have read.

Books have always been a topic of socializing, they're one of those situations where you imagine little old ladies in rockers having a book club, or even judging your closest friends when you see a risque book on their shelf. This social aspect of reading has sort of died though as reading has become more digital for more people, but with rising platforms such as the ever growing Goodreads there's become a whole new level of book socialization.

Nakamura brings to light the way that Goodreads mimics a person's actual bookshelf. Providing a place for people to document what they've read, or hope to read, in both the real and virtual world. And while it brings this place of reading sanctuary so that people can remember these books, it also invites friends that you already know, or people with similar interests, into your virtual bookshelf to interact with what you already know and recommend books that would go along with that.

This has become the beginning of a new age where you can socialize and meet people based on favorite books and interests that you otherwise wouldn't have. You can even have book club meetings on there, or being a discussion on a topic you want feedback on. You can even roleplay with other people in your book "fandom." In my own exploration I actually found a Harry Potter roleplay group
where you could earn your house points and everything! When I was a kid, I just picked up a stick as a wand and chased others around shouting spells. But I guess this works too!

Goodreads has created a huge place for readers of all types and all levels to come together and state their opinions and make new friends. I've found that even people that don't agree with my views doesn't mean I don't find their views fascinating. For a site that I thought I would never seriously use, I've found I'm using it more than most all others. In fact I discovered today that when I start typing in for Google, my browser has started going straight to Goodreads first because it's becoming such a huge part of my life!

While this has obviously brought new cards to the table where you virtually never even have to socialize in real life (an introverts dream), there is the problem about how much is too much. The digital reading age is an intimidating thing, and if done correctly it can help create a new world between authors and readers that has yet to be explored. Our job as "Webbies" is to explore this world, and help it continue progressing in a healthy way. We need to explore what we're being offered and help the progression into this new era progress smoothly and safely.

There's a whole new world to be explored, and we don't even have to leave the planet to get there.

Oh if Neil Armstrong could see us now.

A Psychological Connection

As of recently, I've been delving into the world that is Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In my last post, which you can view here, I discussed the way that a double narrative and shift in time affects the way that the reader takes in the novel.
This time, however, I'm going to be getting a bit more into the psychological aspect of the novel, and the way that it affects the way the reader actually connects with this particular work. Because of this, this post is also going to be a much more personal analysis.

Jacques Lacan.
Just look at that head of hair. 

To do so I first need to explain a theory about a dead French dude named Jacques Lacan who created this thing called the Lacanian Theory. (How would it be to become famous enough that you get a theory named after you?) To sum his theory up, he believes that the moment you begin to recognize yourself in the mirror is the moment you go in search of what your identity actually is. And so when you're reading a book,  you automatically seek out different parts of that book that can apply to what your life is as a whole. Follow me there? So basically when you find all this hidden symbolism in the book that you think was obviously written just for you (when it really wasn't) you're supporting Lacan's theory.

Now onto Heart of Darkness!

One of the most common ways to work through this novel is by looking between the symbolism and the characters throughout. For the sake of length, I'm just going to discuss the narrators and the thought itself of the darkness.

We obviously have our main character/ narrator Marlow, who goes on his dark journey through the Congo in search of an Ivory trader. Strangely enough, as I was reading the novel I actually didn't connect all that much with Marlow. He wasn't much to me, he simply was. The character in this novel that I mirrored the most actually turned out to be the unknown narrator that would just occasionally throw something out there explaining the way that he was hearing and seeing the tale from Marlow. In my own life, I can be a very quiet listener. I don't often jump into conversations, and if someone else is telling a story, often the only time I'll speak up is when necessary. Because of this, this unknown narrator became part of my identity as I took in the book.

Me, pondering the existence
 of a book inside of me.

Then there's the symbolism of the darkness. What does it mean? What did Conrad intend it to mean? Is it a physical darkness? Mental? When looking at the symbolism of this and how I took it into my own life, I was also reminded of the reader response theory. This states that the reader basically becomes the author of the work in a different way. So although the darkness came to mean the darkness of the heart to me, perhaps Conrad meant it in a totally different way, and perhaps someone else who has read this novel painted the darkness in their mind in a completely different way. But because of my reader response to the darkness, I absorbed this symbolism into the person that I am, and the way that the book will impact me is strongly based upon this.

When talking about the psychology of Heart of Darkness, it can be difficult because it becomes a very subjective subject. My responses vastly alter the way that the book is mirrored in my life, in the same way it would be vastly different from the way the book would be mirrored in another person's life. There are so many different ways to view Conrad's work, but if you take the time to dive into it, you're likely to find parts that contribute to you as a person.

So tell me, what part of you is mirrored back when reading Heart of Darkness?

A Whole New World

Today I entered into a strange new world.
A world where people tell other people what they think of a book and think their opinion will matter.
And the strange thing is, somehow these complete stranger's opinions actually matter to other complete strangers.
I entered into the world of book reviews.

Today I was reviewing the book I've recently finished called Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. And writing a review on both Goodreads and Amazon is actually quite a bit more difficult than I anticipated!

I read reviews. I pondered. I stared questioningly at a rating system based on five stars. Yet, I was still at a loss. These two platforms are connected, yet still so different and strange. They both offered varying reviews of this book I read. Some reviews I agreed on, and others made me question what I believed. Some were so outlandish that I wondered how these people function on a normal basis, and others were so thoughtful and insightful that I became intrigued in the writer of the review, that led to possible people stalking, following their reviews, and even friending a couple of whom I became so taken by. (I've still yet to hear back from a couple of them. They're probably sitting at home wondering who this strange girl is that their only connection to is a book that's well over 100 years old)

I learned that reviews should be informative of basic things to expect from the novel, as well as opinions on why or why not these are important. I learned that while opinions are much needed in a review, they should still be respectful whether or not the work was liked. Just because Joseph Conrad isn't alive to read it doesn't mean he can't come haunt you for pulling personal attacks on him. And plus when you just say you hated it with no reasoning or backup, you sort of end up sounding like an idiot and your review helps absolutely no one. And I also learned that sometimes people like to post a review as long as the novel. 

And then it came my turn.

I came to certain conclusions about how to handle my reviews. One of them being that although Goodreads and Amazon are connected, they actually do serve very different purposes.

Amazon is sort of like giving to charity. You really get nothing back from it, unless of course you just find immense satisfaction from ranting or praising at intense levels. You're basically just providing a short opinion to help others make a decision about whether they should buy this book. Because of this, I ended up giving my review on Amazon a shorter review, and a higher rating as to encourage others that this book does have something to offer.

But on the flip side, Goodreads is a social act where others can give back to you by engaging you in a discussion based on what you've said in your review. They also take your rating to base recommendations for future reading upon. Because of this, I left a longer review, and a slightly lower rating. While I appreciated reading the book, I don't totally fancy Goodreads recommending me to others that are so much like it. But I left a longer review as a way to (hopefully) still encourage others to read it, while giving backup to why it's an important book without me necessarily loving it. I'm also hoping that there will be interaction on my review, and that others will find it helpful (or not) and give me opinions on how I could better improve my experience with the book.

Overall, I believe that no matter where the review is being posted, it should still be informative, without being overbearing. And while it should be personal, it shouldn't personally destroy the author or the work.

Narrating Time

Joseph Conrad's brief novel Heart of Darkness may not look like much at first glance, but with some further delving into the story, it becomes a fast paced journey through an unknown territory.

This story is about a seaman named Marlow who is narrating his previous journey through uncharted Africa in search of an ivory trader named Mr. Kutz to the men aboard the ship the Nellie alongside him. Marlow's journey is documented by an outside source and unknown narrator who occasionally brings information about Marlow himself or what's been going on as the story is being told. However, much of the journey is told by Marlow himself.

This anonymous narrator is quickly forgotten after the first few pages of the novel when Marlow takes over. One of the most clear turning points is when the narrator shifts to Marlow mid paragraph here,

"We looked on, waiting patiently- there was nothing else to do till the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when he said, in a hesitating voice, "I suppose you fellows remember I did once turn fresh-water sailor for a bit," that we knew we were fated, before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of Marlow's inconclusive experiences."

This double narrative creates an interesting span in time. Marlow is taking the reader, as well as the men aboard the ship, on his journey with him. And as he's recounting the tale it's easy to get lost and forget that he's actually on board telling the tale, and not living it out at that moment.

As Marlow's journey progresses, there's an occasion quick shift back to the present time with the other seamen where something is clarified in the story or new information is presented by Marlow or the narrator. This jolt back to reality often feels strange and unprecedented as the reader is made to feel comfortable in the past, then suddenly is reminded of the harshness of the present.

In the end, Marlow says that after his timely journey, he was a changed man and had difficulty relating back into the world of civilization.

In today's evolving digital age, many people become engrossed in the digital world in the way the reader and the seamen become engrossed in Marlow's tale. They become lost.

While the internet is an engrossing place full of wonders and unknown territory, it's easy for someone to lose track of time while absorbed in the alternate world. As though taking a long journey, these people can lose themselves if they don't exercise caution. And when someone becomes lost on their journey through the internet, it's a difficult journey for them when they're jolted suddenly back into the realm of the real and immediate world.

Even when becoming lost in a good thing, such as spending hours on Amazon looking for a new book, or cyber stalking this killer new author you've found on Goodreads, it's important to remember the need to take a step back and not totally lose yourself while learning to navigate this strange new world.

Navigating the Darkness

It's easy to get the plot of the book, a seaman named Marlow is telling of his travels through Africa. But for the life of me, as much as I read the book, I couldn't understand the allure of the book. This is when I decided to jump into the reviews and discussions a little earlier than I anticipated, and this is the moment I began connecting Marlow's strange journey to my strange journey in this unexplored area of the internet.

Connecting to other people through a book started out as an intimidating prospect. And on the flip side, connecting to the book through other people seemed even near impossible.

So when we were told to read the book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad and use it to connect to others on the Amazon, Kindle, and Goodreads platform, I was about ready to have a heart attack.
Reading has always been a highly personal endeavor for me. Many times, I wouldn't even discuss something I read with someone like my mom. The book had become too personal, the characters were mine, and it was as though the author had become a dear personal friend. And in my mind, if I talked to someone else about these things, they would lose their value to me.

However, once I decided to overcome this and really take this assignment seriously, I was surprised to find that these other people whom I've never even met helped to drastically change the way I was connecting with the book as well as finding a new way to think about what it was I was reading at the time.

Suddenly the characters in the book were taking on new life. Other's opinions of the themes of the book made me begin to think about what was really being said behind the words, and the appreciation that this community had for this piece of literature made me even more curious as to what Marlow would do or say next. On the Kindle itself I was able to look at the most popularly highlighted quotes, many of which I would have never thought to deem important. But seeing the importance of these quotes to others created a wonder as to why they were important, and what made them so important to such a vast amount of people.

My mind started to wander, looking for new themes, or wondering what would have changed if maybe Conrad had changed even one little character trait in the mysterious Marlow, or made him take a different path. And the funny thing is, others had these same views! The views people were sharing was saying so much about them individually, until I felt as though I came to become friends with not only the author, but also the people who felt so strongly about his work as well. It was almost like finding a mutual friend that brought us together.

"They were men enough to face the darkness." -Marlow

Thanks, Marlow, I am man enough to face this darkness that is the internet.