More Research!

Research is so important in any academic field, and it is going to be extremely important for our literary reading in the digital age project.  I am excited that we are going to start incorporating our research findings into our chapters.  In order to do this effectively, Dr. Burton asked us to create an annotated bibliography to keep track of our research.

Digitizing Classic Literature: A New Love Via Reconsumption

New media adaptions of classic literature are changing peoples’ views, and encouraging people to reconsume classic literature in its original form.  Online Platforms such as Goodreads are facilitating this bridge between new media and classic literary representations.

Social Graph: I am particularly interested to see how representations of classic literature in new media affect reconsumption of classic literature in different age groups.  I am assuming that different age groups will have different exposure to classic lit new media representations because different age groups tend to use different social networks and tend to use the internet for different amounts of time.  I have two teenage brothers in high school, and both have different interests.  I am thinking it would be an awesome idea to ask them about specific new media representations of classic lit, and how that has or hasn’t affected their desire to read more classic literature.  I also plan on asking my college roommates similar questions.  It also might be an excellent idea to post similar questions on my Facebook to attract adults who might be interested in the topic.

New Media: I think that classic lit representations in media are particularly important.  I don’t really think that many people can say that they’ve never watched a movie based off of classic literature.

Click here, here, here, and here to see some examples of what I am talking about!

Social Networks: Of course I am going to use Goodreads, but I also think that using Twitter is going to be super helpful.  Just browsing through Twitter with a search of "classic lit" has turned up with tons of results of people talking about new film adaptions of classic lit.  Click here to see what I am talking about. 

Traditional Scholarly Sources: Like I said above, I think that discussing literature in the realm of film is super important.  Click here to find an article that discusses that very subject.  

Dispelling Old Prejudices: The New Face of Libraries

The face of libraries are changing, and digital libraries allow for the user to become the “librarian.”

Social Graph: We’ve talked about this in class a lot, and I am planning on contacting some librarians at BYU and potentially at other colleges/universities.  I am also going to contact some “librarians” on Goodreads and ask them about what they do.  I can also pull on my own experience with Goodreads and libraries. 

New Media: I found a couple of great articles that talk about traditional libraries and digital libraries.  Click here, here, and here, to see what I am talking about. 

Social Networks: I am also planning on using Twitter as well for this chapter.  I've never been the biggest user of Twitter so I think now might be an awesome time to start! I typed in the two keywords "digital" and "librarians" and I found out that a lot of people are talking about these two subjects!

Traditional Scholarly Sources: This link here leads to an article that discusses digital librarians vs. traditional (print) librarians.  This article is obviously completely applicable to my chapter. 

eResearch for the eBook

When something is constantly on my mind, I constantly talk it through with friends and family. This eBook has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks. I talk to several people about it because it helps me get my ideas more firm. Where I struggle the most is through research, but as I did this assignment of creating an eBibliography I found that I haven't done as badly at researching as I thought. 

Escaping the Cinderella Complex through Self-Publishing

Amazon and Goodreads provide the ideal vehicle for a reader to become an author by giving the online users freedom to self-publish and advertise using the features that these digital platforms contain.

Social Graph:

I’ve actually talked to several of my friends about my chapter to see what they thought. A lot of my friends had never heard that authors could self-publish on Amazon. Before this project, I think I knew that you could, but not how. I think that makes this chapter especially important because people should be informed. I also talked to some friends that actually write on the side. A few of them had heard that they could self-publish and were really considering it.

As I’ve been writing this chapter and putting the class book into eBook format, I’ve had to learn even more about what goes into self-publishing. I think the experience I’m gaining by exploring how to put a book in eBook format gives me an advantage and a sort of authority on writing this chapter.

New Media:

There are a lot of sites that will put your book in eBook format for you. Unfortunately, most of them say “free to start” which basically means that “you can download your documents into our site, but to actually get it from us you must pay.”

There are also several eBooks on how to self-publish. I’ve used one that Amazon published called How to Self-Publish a Book on Amazon.com: Writing, Editing, Designing, Publishing, and Marketing.

Social Networks:

My mom uses Twitter a lot for her work so when I told her what I was writing about she immediately searched self-publishing articles on Twitter. She gave me quite a few. I actually used a quote for my chapter from this one. There are a lot of discussions out there about self-publishing.

Traditional Scholarly Sources:

I’m working on finding books about the history of self-publishing. I found an article somewhere about how self-publishing is the way it used to be done in the 19th century..I just need to find that article.

The Guardian: Winner of the Pulitzer prize

“America's Cinderella” by Jane Yolen

No Need to Cut Off Toes and Heels When You Have a Kindle Touch 

Unlike SparkNotes, the X-Ray feature creates an arsenal of contextual information about a story without damaging a reader’s ability to read and analyze a literary work on his or her own. This increases a reader’s desire to join the enriching world of the novel on the Kindle device.

Social Graph:

I have never met a single person that has not heard of SparkNotes. Even if they’ve never used it, I think it’s safe to assume that the majority of people that took high school English have heard of SparkNotes. The XRay feature is not as widespread. I’ve asked a few friends that have Kindles if they knew about the XRay feature and several have never known what that link lead to on the Kindle.

New Media:

There are android apps for SparkNotes now. This is worrisome in that students don’t even need to go out of their way to look up a book. They can easily access the cheat sheets on SparkNotes in the classroom for class discussions on their phones.

There are even more sites than SparkNotes too: Cliffs Notes, Schmoop, etc.

Social Networks:

Spark Notes’ tag line that it is the “Most Popular Study Guide” proves true as you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and even Vine. #SparkNotes, everybody.

There are several forums discussing the XRay feature on the Kindle.

Traditional Scholarly Sources:

“The Right Understanding: Teaching Literature in the Age of SparkNotes” by Alison Bach

Still working on finding more information here. I'm looking to find more books about the necessity of reading and analyzing literature. 

Social Network Fueled Research

We use social networks everyday.  Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. have become integral parts of our day-to-day lives.  When doing research we have unlimited access to so much information via search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.  But, we might be leaving out an important component when we exclusively turn to academic sources to give us the information that we seek.  Social resources can offer a wonderful insight, which is why our class is engaging in doing such research for our e-book project.  For our e-book project, we are focusing on platforms such as the Kindle, Amazon, and Goodreads and related components and how they are influencing our reading habits in daily life and education.

Dr. Burton created a bibliography Google Doc for us to use.  He helpfully laid out several social topics for us to look at and start researching in.  He told our class today that next to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine.  That really sparked my thought because I YouTube quite a lot of things.  I often turn to YouTube for help in explaining difficult school topics, audio books, and fun, entertainment-related things.  It only makes sense that we would use YouTube videos to obtain background and topic information for our e-book project.

I didn't have as much time to do research as I would've liked before I had to submit this post, but what I did find was promising.  I found several videos in which YouTube users compare print books and e-books, which is something that is super important and relavent to our topic.  Click here if you would like to see some of the search results that I found regarding e-book vs. print book.

I also found some videos on YouTube that will be particularly applicable to one of my chapters.  My first chapter has a heavy focus on Goodreads, an Amazon sister company.  Goodreads is a social networking site for readers, and it allows for readers to interact on many levels with books at the center of everything.  A simple search entry of "Goodreads" on YouTube resulted in many different users who related their feelings about the Goodreads site.  I haven't had time to look at it very much, but I plan on doing so before our next class on Wednesday morning.

Goodreads or it Didn't Happen.

This blog is currently on a quest to investigate further the future of the reading experience by diving deep into the worlds of Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindles. This quest starts here on this blog, is coordinated in our English class and will eventually result in an ebook of our own. We started our more intensive research this week, beginning with focusing on Goodreads. Check out this little snippet from an article by Lisa Nakamura called "Words with Friends: Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads."

"Goodreads user profiles feature virtual bookshelves to be displayed to friends, creating a bibliocentric as well as an egocentric network of public reading performance."

Now this idea right here could definitely have a place in our ebook. Nakamura goes on to comment,

"Facebook offers up our list of friends as visual evidence of our social graph, letting us create and display our connections, Goodreads foregrounds reading as a spectacle of collecting."

How true is that? See Facebook, Instagram, and all the other social networking sites have created this sense in many that part of the value of doing something is sharing it with others. Have you heard the new saying all the kids are using?

Now, as "egocentric" as Nakamura points out that this is, think about how this could be a positive thing when it applies to the world of reading. Would it be terrible if there was social pressure to read more? To read better books? To share your thoughts on what you're reading? I don't think so. I can even see this pressure starting to work on me as I have been exploring Goodreads. As I see what my peers are reading (and how much some of them are reading. Could you slow down Melanee? I can't keep up!) I feel an increased desire to read more and to share more. Is this in part because of some deep, self-centered desire fueled by the social networking phenomenon? I'm not sure. But I am surrendering to it. 

As Goodreads gains more traction I think that the social aspect of it could promote expanded reading habits for many different groups. I think channeling the power of social media in this way would be just slightly more significant than making people feel like they should post pictures of what they made for dinner. 

By Jove! Who is Mr. Kurtz?

While reading Heart of Darkness I felt as I had taken on the amazingly descriptive and symbolic journey written by Joseph Conrad. The main character Marlow is anxious to get sailing into what becomes quite a dark expedition as depicted in the title. He ventures into the African Congo unknowingly on a quest to merely converse with the infamous Mr. Kurtz that everyone seems to idolize and respect.

Marlow initially shows his interest in Kurtz by saying, “Tell me, pray, said I, who is this Mr. Kurtz?” to which it is uncovered that “He is a prodigy, he is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else.” 

Marlow presses forward through undesirable events during the voyage to speak with Kurtz and he ponders what it will be like to finally talk to him. At some points claiming he absolutely dislikes him and other times idolizing him and therefore, often contradicting himself.

In one unfortunate event the natives of the land attack his steamboat by the command of Kurtz, but Marlow not knowing the reasoning of the attack fears the loss of Mr. Kurtz. His distressed reaction to his possible death shows his devotion to him. Marlow like all the rest is devoutly loyal to Mr. Kurtz.

Finally the Marlow’s crew arrives to get Mr. Kurtz, and he comes across yet another fanatic for Kurtz, a Russian man. Marlow is not impressed with Kurtz fan club and thinks to himself, “I suppose it did not occur to him Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine.”

Marlow continues to uncover the cunningness of Kurtz ironically as the Russian man praises him. Marlow gathered that “the man filled his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions,” but he had not realized that he had the same exact impact on himself.

Kurtz encompasses what the heart of darkness is, egoistic, selfish, and inhumane. So many were loyal to the nightmare that is Mr. Kurtz who was only governed by his “monstrous passions.” In the end we uncover that Mr. Kurtz is nothing more than a calculating leader with high dreams to get rich and will take out anyone in the way. As it is stated in the novel, “your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others” such as the strength of Mr. Kurtz. Kurtz’s strength in eloquent speech made him feared and honored leading him to his power and also his death. His followers in unwavering loyalty glorified his strengths and looked upon his weaknesses as strengths as well for as they believed, “You can’t judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man.”

I feel as the social media platform is becoming just as persuasive and cunning as Mr. Kurtz although it won’t shoot you for “rebellion” it could lead to bullying and also a loss of a few “friends.” I am sure there is a symbolic Mr. Kurtz in almost all of our friend lists or in what is now trending, and just may even be receiving recognition they may not deserve. Just as Mr. Kurtz they are adorned with titles and praises from those surrounding them, and we may feel like we must accept them. Thus defying our own personal identity turning us into a Marlow, we become trapped in all the opinions, our own opinion varying too frequently. We may often find ourselves in the mix of social media in Marlow’s shoes in that “I (we) had been striving after something altogether without a substance.”

Instagram, and Tumblr, and Youtube! Oh, My!

Social media is like a Russian Matryoshka doll. At first look, it’s a pretty hand-painted wooden doll, but then you open it. Surprise, another pretty hand-painted wooden doll! And another and another. And the last one is so cute because it’s so tiny! (Oh, the joy of tiny things.) Every link we click is like opening that doll and finding something new.

Russian Matryoshka Doll
Image: link to {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll}