Smores

I didn't realize how badly I'd been slipping in the blogging department. In my defense, I've been making some decent progress in my writing though :)

But, I'm not being academic this morning. I've been looking online at houses, because I am begging God to sell ours, but I know I can't look in person until I've got an offer on this house, so I look online. It's a terrible waste of time.

Over the weekend, we went camping with friends. 16 adults, 12 children-- a little chaotic, but fun. We've been doing this for a couple of years, so it's fun watching the kids get older and more get added to the mix each year. We've made making Smores a fine art form. I'm wondering if there's a way to publish a smore cookbook.

The newest creation of the weekend was a 2-18 MC coconut samoa pie-- 2 coconut marshmellows, 18 squares of milk chocolate, a samoa girl scout cookie, cooked between 2 graham crackers in a hobo pie maker. (No one took the time to add up the calorie intake of that bad boy.)

The biggest hit is our traditional 2-3 MC PB -- 2 marshmellows, 3 squares of milk chocolate, a Peanut Butter cup-- all smashed between 2 graham crackers.

Ah, but since calories and sugar count when not sitting in front of a fire, I should probably quit thinking about smores and go back to writing my disseration.

Fall is coming

Today I ordered my textbooks for fall. I've decided to mix up my syllabus. I'm using all new books-- except for the one on tutoring, but that doesn't count. I've also decided to use a Children's Lit book for my novel this semester. I don't usually do that, but I really want to teach this book, so I've decided to give it a try. I'm teaching Ellen Levine's _Catch a Tiger by the Toe_. It's such a great book. I think it will fit with the theme of my course as I'm looking at media and people's responses to it for my dissertation-- that can't help but creep into my course theme too. I've taught books I needed to read for my research before, but this is the first time I'm really putting some of it in my syllabus. I just got tired of teaching the same stuff, and I don't have time to be researching other stuff, so this is what's going in. Now to structure the syllabus.

Collective Intelligence

Ever since I read Jenkins' book Convergence Culture, I have wanted to read Levy's Collective Intelligence, and I havent' made the time. I've been trying to write-- I had to read Harry Potter-- putting the house up for sale. Well, now, I'm finally reading it, and it's really interesting.

Jenkins uses his ideas of knowledge-- that the knowledge space is a valuable one and that it in and of itself is a position of power, but the thing that is striking me so far in Levy-- and I'm not that far into it, is Levy's position on the other. For him, there is no "other" there are only people who possess knowledge that we don't have that we should try to get. I think his ideas are much more idealistic, where Jenkins is probably more realistic. I think Jenkins is more based on subject research and Levy is more based on theory. But, as someone who doesn't want to fill out 7 million pieces of IRB paperwork, I appreciate the idealistic theory-- In a realistic sense, I see how Levy's theory is reflected in children's literature. When authors are trying to accomplish the blending of others, they often use a polyphonic text to attempt to disguise didactic moments. They are trying to live out Levy's vision.

Oh, if only there was more time in a day.

PJ Hoffmaster

We have decided that camping trips need to at least be for long weekends. This weekend we went out to PJ Hoffmaster, in Muskegon, MI to go camping. It is a great park. All of these tall trees, an awesome beach, we were there with great friends. It was a fantastic weekend, but when you consider all of the set up work and the tear down work, it's longer than the time you're actually away-- so we've decided camping trips need to be a little longer-- or we have to do it more often so that we better know what we're doing :)

Hoffmaster is a great place though, if you're looking to camp. The lots were really big, so it was great-- plus the back of our campsite was this hill that went down to a creek that ran into Lake Michigan, so the kids had plenty of space to play away from the road-- not that they weren't tempted of course.

But, now, it's time to get back to the daily grind.

Harry Potter burn out

I haven't been writing on my blog as much because I've been too busy reading everyone else's blog. But now, I am tired of reading about people's opinion of Harry Potter. As a fan, it's easy to jump into the obsession, and to get excited about things that she has done. As a scholar, I'm amazed at some of the "obvious" things I noticed that other scholars are asking about-- but maybe that's the people who speed read through the text. I can't believe how many people I've seen ask who the baby is in King's Cross Station and why it's beyond help. It's the exact same imagery she used in GF to describe Voldermort-- she could have copied and pasted for how similar it seemed.

The one thing I feel like people are really missing is that she is a brilliant business woman. She has not gone from living on welfare to being the richest woman in England by happenstance-- nor by the simple fact that she's written a few good books. She listens to critics, she markets ideas, and she incorporates enough popular culture to make sure her books are selling. Sure, she hopes that they become classics-- she would love to ride the royalty train until she dies, but she has made sure to invest in them while they are hot-- she is making sure they contain components that will sell millions of copies now. Fans are excited she's going to write an encyclopedia about the characters, non-fans think she is beating a dead horse, others think she's just looking to make a buck-- She's created immediacy-- people have to know what is happening to these characters. People have to know more than Harry married Ginny and they had 3 kids. Maybe it will be overkill, but it will add to her fortune, and enough people will love it. Is it the best literary move, who knows-- does it encroach on the idea of a writerly work instead of a readerly work-- yes. The point is, she's attached to Harry, and she's having difficulty, like many of her fans, letting go-- and so she's going to make a few more millions off of the letting go process. Like I said, she's a brilliant business woman.

Not Ready

I am not ready for fall. I do not like all of the back to school commercials. The chick who does the Art Van commercials who says Back to School are parent's 3 favorite words does not know me.

Don't misunderstand me. I like my job. I love teaching. I'm just not ready. I still have so many things on my summer project to-do list, and now I'm being reminded that I have to create my fall to-do list, and I'm not ready to do that. It is still July-- can't I cling to summer at least for one more week?

Yesterday I had meetings on campus-- That made me realize how much I have to do. I'm thinking about mixing up my syllabus this fall, which means I need to review textbooks, and if I'm going to do that, I should have ordered them weeks ago, which of course I didn't do. But, my students seem to like the books I use, so that makes me want to keep things sort of the same-- why mess up something that works-- although I would like to make sure I'm keeping things fresh. But, I don't want to reinvent the wheel-- I need to be finishing my disseration. I think I need to come up with a couple of new, good assignments-- then it would seem fresh... hmmm...

Deathly Hallows

Spoilers Ahead.

I liked book 7-- It has its cheesy moments, but one cannot forget that her largest following is children, and there are certain "must haves" for them. I do most of my analysis thinking for young adults-- and I think that many young adult readers are going to find some of her must haves a little cheesy as well, but she is trying to appeal to an audience age range that is incredibly broad. I could also argue that theorists, like CS Lewis, say that authors should write without thinking about audience-- they should write what they want to say-- and I agree with that. Also, when you consider the idea of the death of the audience, that implies the story needs to go where the story needs to go, without consideration of the author's feelings-- and to that I also agree-- which is why I think the moments when Rowling forces the story to meet the must haves, it gets a little cheesy, but I don't fault the woman for doing it-- I don't know that I would want letters from parents telling me that I'd scared their child for life by killing off their hero.

So-- I'm glad she took the story where it needed to go-- I'm glad she followed all of the gothic tendencies that she's put in the book and she made Harry a horcrux-- I thought it was an important must have, that for Voldermort to die, the piece that lived inside Harry had to die. As a fan, I'm glad that she used the Elder wand to kill the piece of Voldermort without killing Harry. It made the story more complex and interesting to know that these complicated levels of magic that most people didn't know did exist.

I liked the talking/message bearing Patronus-- I think she borrowed that from Pullman's witches-- their deamons could go away from them and carry messages-- this is a way a piece of Rowling's witches and wizards can send themselves places.

For me, the book had a apocalyptic type of feel-- it almost felt like the Left Behind books-- there's a small remnant of chosen people who will fight and be victorious, even though the odds are against them.

Anyway, I enjoyed it-- I'm both sad and glad that it's over. I'm interested to see what happens to the fan culture now-- if they will continue to write fan fiction that fills in the 19 years between the end of the story and the epilogue, or if that will have finished it off-- I'm curious to know if Rowling will be badgered into writing another book--which I don't think will meet up the the regular series standards-- who's Harry's opponent going to be-- Draco? And a story about a kid who has been a hero trying to make a normal life for himself isn't going to ring true-- it will be cheesy. So, I'm interested to see.

FYI-- my favorite line from the book "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH" (736).

Censorship

When is censorship ok? Should people be responsible to self-censor? If we're always concerned with self-censoring does that limit our freedom of speech?

I think my response to both the second 2 questions is yes. People self-censor all of the time. They do it at work, with people they don't know, at job interviews-- so why shouldn't they do it when they are writing-- at least for publication.

More later.

Order of the Phoenix

I finally got to see Order of the Phoenix last night. It was interesting-- this is the first time I've reread the book right before going to see the film, and I finished 5 again Sat night and then saw the movie last night. usually i see the film and then go back and check out the book-- I liked doing it in reverse, although I wonder if it took out some of the enjoyment of the movie-- even as I was telling my husband some of the things they left out, i realized why most of them were gone-- special effects, budget, non-essential elements of the story-- and then there were some things that seem like it would have taken no effort to have left them in... Plus, I can't help but wonder how the film, especially some of the changed ending statements, will fit in with book 7-- Does Rowling make them change things that wouldn't be true to the books? Overall though, I think the new director did a good job.

Fan vs Academic

I'm a fan of Harry Potter. I like reading the books. I like watching the movies. I like to make assumptions on my own. I do not like to engage in debates about what is going to happen-- I enjoy hearing theory, but I like to see how the stories unfold and see if my ideas were at all correctly induced.

As an academic who looks at media-- I feel like I should at least lurk on all of these debates. I should see how people are behaving. I should distance myself from what I think and listen to what everyone else thinks. It's much harder to do this summer than I thought it would be.

I am curious to see where Rowling is going to take us next week. I think she has a lot of possibilities, and I think it will be interesting to see which things she takes into consideration. If she's being loyal to her child audience, Harry will not die-- she will want good to triumph without punishment. If she is loyal to her gothic tendencies, then Harry will be the final horcrux, which would be the ultimate in doubling of the abject, and he's toast. There's a reason that people are making predictions and wondering what will happen. There's also a reason there's proof for all of this-- Rowling is more clever than people often give her credit for-- she has left herself multiple pathways for getting out of this maze-- which one will she take?

the writing process

I think the writing process is an interesting concept. We teach students to remember that writing is a process-- that it's not supposed to happen in one afternoon-- that you want to brainstorm and then write and then think about it and revise and rewrite. And when you're doing professional writing, you can revise something forever. The thing no one says about the process is how inprecise it is. I seem to have days where I can really write-- I can produce text on a page. Then I have other days where I can't focus the swirling thoughts in my head for anything. I really appreciate the days I can write. And I am thankful for deadlines, because they keep me motivated to keep writing even if I might have met my personal goal for the day.

Motherhood

I love being a mom. I don't say that with the everyone should be a mom attitude-- because I know that it's not for everyone. There was a time when I wasn't sure that it was for me. And there are times now, when I'm writing and my daughter wakes up and it doesn't matter that I'm in the middle of a good thought and then it takes me forever to find that thought again, that I wish she would do things a little bit more my way. But, I really appreciate the perspective she brings to life. She laughs so easily. She finds adventure in such simple things. Today she has been walking around the house with a green plastic bowl on her head. And she is so proud of herself that she can put it on her head and take it off her head all by herself. Being a mom is great. It reminds me to reward small accomplishments-- like maybe picking back up where I left off when she woke up for lunch.

Holistic Doctor

I've started taking my daughter to a holistic doctor. I think I'm liking the results, but the suppliments he's prescribed seem to be interfering with her sleep. This isn't working so well for me. I need my sleep at night, and I need her to nap during the day so that I can work on my dissertation. She had started wheezing, and I didn't want to take her to the regular doctor, because I didn't want her to get put on steroids. The holistic doctor says she has an oat sensitivity, so no more cheerios. We're surviving through that-- although I miss making us pancakes in the morning-- and I can't make them for myself and not for her. That would just be cruel. Right now I'm listening to her move around in her bed, not sleeping, and I wonder, is it the lack of oat, or is it the idiots who keep shooting off noisy firecrackers that don't do anything but boom.

"The" Media

Media is plural-- which means, there cannot be "the" media. So, when people talk about media they need to start being more specific. Are they talking about broadcast media? Even then-- what types of broadcasting-- educational, entertainment, the list goes on.

So much gets blamed on "the" media. It's really not that simple.

Should people spend so much time caring about Paris Hilton and what she's wearing and what she's doing? I don't think so, but someone does, so information about her is spread all over the world. Would celebrities be so thin if they weren't constantly being gawked at in the tabloid newspapers and on entertainment television--probably not. So, does that make media bad-- no.

Media is a tricky thing-- like so many others-- it does good and it does bad-- people need to realize that.

Best Children's Books

I see lists and ideas for best children's books-- but I think that's too broad of a category. Even best boy books or best books for the decade. These are books that are people's favorites. They are books that somehow have stayed in print. What books we love as children is always subjective. What do those books remind us of-- what world to they help us to imagine?

I have my favorite books-- that I can remember the plot of and that I want to return to-- for me, those are best books. But, I realize that someone else's best and my best will never be the same.

Nothing Academic

This morning I spent some time reading Toddler Wise, because my daughter is fast becoming a toddler. She amazes me with how fast she can get places, and how autonomous her thinking has become. She's a pretty amazing little person. Today she was making me smile because she spent quite a long time trying to put her shoe on backwards-- she watches how I hold it to put it on her foot, and she doesn't fully realize it works like that because I'm coming from a different angle. The crazy thing is, I know she'll be putting on her own shoes before I know it.

good vs. bad

I'm pretty sure I blogged about Stephen Johnson when I first read his text-- I think because it's such a great reminder of what has to be considered when evaluating literature.

I think it is striking me so profoundly again because of my dislike of Pullman.

Johnson challenges his readers to not think of good and bad literature as a moral evaluation-- he wants people to consider if it is cognitively stimulating. While the degree of cognitive stimulation might be subjective, it is much less subjective than morals.

I think I've been careful to deem my dislike of Pullman to be based on my morals-- not his ability to cognitively challenge his readers. But, I need to remember not to say his books are bad-- they are not poorly written--

Readers always want to say if a book is good or bad, so Johnson is a good reminder to define terminology before evaluating a text.

synergy

Putting things together. I think that's the hardest and most important aspect of writing this dissertation-- how do all of these things fit together-- then, how does their fitting together make them stronger than they are individually.

I read different things and I know they fit together. I recognize that something great could be done with them, but then I lose what that great thing is-- sometimes I feel like I see the shadow of what lurks, but when I whip around the corner to catch it, it's gone.

Sometimes, it's the hunt that is fun. It's fun to try to figure out what I'm saying-- where this project is taking me. Sometimes the hunt is frustrating-- I just want it all to fall into place and be easy. Overall, though, I think I'm glad it's not easy-- I wouldn't be proud of myself when I'm finished if it was too easy-- now I know that I am truly earning my degree.

writer's block

I am having the hardest time getting back into the writing groove. I know that I need to write. I know that I need to finish my dissertation. I even know a lot of what I want to say, but I am having a difficult time getting moving. I've spent my writing time for the last 2 days reading what I've written and tweaking little things. Hopefully now I'll be ready to create new text.

Inanimate Alice

I am pretty geeked about Inanimate Alice. It is an online story. It is way cooler than an e-book, because you interact with the story. Plus it has pictures and music. I am too tired this morning-- i shouldn't be allowed to put my advertisement for Alice out until it is more articulate. Right now I want everyone to read Alice so it will gain popularity.

Why is Alice cool?
In McLuhan's terms-- she is a cool medium because the viewer has to do something to participate with her. The viewer has to click the arrows to move the plot along. Plus, certain images have to be clicked to get the full experience of the story.

In non-theoretical language--she is a cool medium because she engages the senses. The viewer is hearing a soundtrack to her life in addition to reading her story and viewing images that represent her. Also, the images are a mixture of moving images and still images, so the viewer cannot just assume a means of interpretation. An additional element is the game. As the episodes become more advanced, there are puzzles that Alice creates that the viewer must solve. These keep the viewer engaged as well.

So, I would encourage you to go visit Inanimate Alice. You'll enjoy your time.
http://www.inanimatealice.com

Done with Pullman

So, I spent the end of last week and the weekend at the Children's Literature Association Conference. It was great, highly motivating to get myself on track. I'll write more about what I learned later.

At this time, I want to write about Phillip Pullman. I brought the 2nd and 3rd books to read while on the plane. After reading the second I thought I might not finish the series. Then after reading some of Pullman's belief system, I realized that I'm done with Pullman.

I want to say this-- I do think that Pullman is a quality writer. I think that he comes up with good, complex plots that successfully entertain readers. I think that he uses fantasy the way it was meant to be used--to take us to the place beyond disbelief-- his worlds are similar and yet fantastic-- His work is the uncanny.

But--he is all that he says he hates about C.S. Lewis. He fills his work with propaganda against God more fully than Lewis fills the Narnia series with messages that are pro-God. His vengeful attitude towards God goes beyond trying to get a reader to think that there is a possibility that there is no God-- rather, he believes that God should be attacked-- that he can be attacked, and that is the mindset he takes up in his text. I think that is quite a dangerous position to assume.

On a different note-- I am also annoyed that Lyra's thoughts are in this well thought out language, but when she opens her mouth she cannot state a grammatically correct sentence. If she has truly been around scholars for her entire life, she would have more eloquent speech-- or at least her vocal speech would match the language of her thoughts.

So, all of that to say-- I am done with Phillip Pullman.

Golden Compass wrap up

Yesterday I got interrupted, so I thought I'd finish talking about the Golden Compass today.

I'd always been hesitent to read the text because of Pullman's name for people's soul- it seems too close to the Biblical demon-- and he even quotes from Paradise Lost at the beginning and alter's the Bible to mention daemons. So, it's not like he chose the name unaware. However, daemon's do not do what demon's do-- I still can't help but wonder about the name.

If I choose to get passed that, I think it is a "good" book. (value judgments are so dangerous). I think it's an interesting concept, to always have a part of yourself that you can communicate with-- it makes me feel better about talking to myself. I also enjoy seeing how the daemon's act when the kids are drinking or the adults are kissing-- Do the daemon's get to enjoy the fun of those acts more than the people? Pullman gives the reader plenty to think about, that's for sure. Now I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

Golden Compass Part 2

So, I finished Pullman's book-- and I have to say that it picks up tremendously after page 100. But, that's a long time to take to get into a children's book.

I realize this ties into the idea that kids are more expectant readers now than they used to be. This book is no simple plot. It also does not follow a straight line trajectory. There is mystery, intrigue-- and not a clear line between good and evil.

hosed laptop

I've had my faithful laptop for over 3 years. I have written the majority of my academic work on my faithful laptop for the past 3 years. All of the work that I've done on my dissertation is on my faithful laptop. Now all of a sudden, the laptop is no longer faithful. It doesn't want to start. I'm not a big fan of that. I was having motivational issues anyway. Now with my laptop not working I'm tempted to read more research rather than write, but I've got to write to truly process what I'm reading.

Here's to hoping that it can get fixed. Quickly.

Golden Compass Part 1

I am finally reading _The Golden Compass_ by Phillip Pullman. I was supposed to read it 2 years ago, and I didn't have time, so I didn't read it. But, now that there's a movie coming out and it's getting some internet buzz I figured I had better read it.

I think it is interesting because it is one of those books that both adults and children read--it often gets found in both sections of bookstores and libraries-- but now I am curious about the child readers--it starts really slowly and there's a lot of description. These are not bad things--and they add to the depth of the book. But, do kids have to be avid readers before they will pick up and enjoy this series or can this be a starting point for them. I think this book fits into my conclusion that kids expect more from a book--this story could not be overly simplified--but I am curious to see what they leave in and cut for the film.

More comments forthcoming as I finish the book.

House Quizzes

I took the quiz at
http://www.quizilla.com/users/incendio-avis/quizzes/Your%20Hogwarts%20House%20(Harry%20Potter)/

to see what Hogwarts house I belonged in and it was the Raven-puff house-- that I'm a mix between the two.

Then I took the quiz at
http://www.personalitylab.org/tests/ccq_hogwarts.htm

and there I was Hufflepuff with a close placement to Gryfindor.

I think it's interesting how many quizzes a person can take to find out where they belong. When I did my google search there were actually quite a few options available to me.

I know that it doesn't actually matter-- and that it is all fiction-- but it's important to me that I didn't get placed into Syltherin.

for sale

Yesterday we put our house up for sale. I can't believe how much work that is. I feel like it has taken the majority of my effort for the last week--especially the last 5 days. I'm really enjoying the clean house, but I'm looking forward to getting back to academic work.

video game theory

Kids play video games. There are then 2 schools of thought about these kids-- they are doing a good thing for themselves or they are doing a bad thing for themselves. The kids don't care--they just keep playing video games.

The initial good--it improves hand eye coordination.
The initial bad--it makes kids lazy--ie stop playing outside.

A later good--it helps kids learn to gather collective intelligence.
A later bad--it desensitizes kids to violence.

Geoff Sirc asked me what's the big deal about video game theory? What does it have to do with literature?

This is a good question--one that I realize I have to answer. I know it has nothing to do with the first-- I don't care about kids hand eye coordination, and although no one will come out and say it--if all kids do is read, they can become "lazy" just as effectively as they can with video games.

I think the real question is why is collective intelligence something we want? Why is it good? Why is it important? Why is it better than individual intelligence?

lunch with Sirc

Time flies way too fast-- it's already Thursday and I'm just now really trying to think about the questions Geoff Sirc asked me at lunch last Friday.

I was spouting that I think collective intelligence is so great--and that when kids participate in it that they learn so much. And his question was along the lines of-- but what are they really learning?

Cheat codes for video games-- well this keeps them from having to problem solve to get there themselves-- is that actually good? I remember being a kid, before the Internet, following the higher level codes my sister would achieve in video games and then not knowing how to survive in those levels because I hadn't earned the right to be there. Is this what we want kids to learn.

They learn how to work together--they learn that together they can gain more knowledge than they can apart. But does it really work like that-- or do the hard workers do all of the work and the lazy kids just mooch off of them?

The thing that I think is most beneficial in collective intelligence with children is that they learn how to articulate their ideas to multiple audiences. They learn how to share what they are discovering, and they learn how to synthesize their knowledge with other bits of knowledge that are out there. They aren't just stringing facts together so they can tell someone they know all of this stuff--instead they are seeing that their knowledge is a piece of a much bigger puzzle. Collective intelligence makes its participants global learners--participants have to understand that there is always more knowledge to be gleaned.

moving

we've decided it's time to move. i knew this day was coming, my husband has wanted to move since he bought this house, but it's a good little house in a good little neighborhood.

there's a part of me that wants to move, and of course, a part of me that just wants to stay put. the part of me that wants to stay put is the academic. the realtor came by yesterday and gave us tips on making the place more sellable-- one thing that's got to go-- my basement workstation. i am sitting here, working on my laptop for potentially one of the last mornings-- my ugly table has to go.

the good side to moving is that it is forcing me to go through the stacks and stacks of papers that i've accumulated over the last couple of years through my aversion to filing. This is motivating me to throw a lot of dead trees away. Don't worry-- I'm recycling what I can.

IRB

So, I decided that I wanted to add some real student perspectives to my dissertation-- I thought it would be good to say what real children think instead of just assuming what they think-- that sounds reasonable to me. So, I mention this to someone and they tell me to be sure I get my human subject research paperwork submitted. I don't want to do human subject research-- I want to send out an anonymous survey to find out if kids read books and talk about them with their friends-- but apparently that's what human subject research is. To me, human subject research somehow violates the human- that is why you need permission to do it-- but I guess I'm wrong--

Don't misunderstand me-- I know that the kids I want to survey are human. I just thought that since I would never meet them and since they're not telling me their names that it would be anonymous in and of itself. But, I guess it's not. Since I know what school they attend, the IRB people think I could figure out which survey matches up with which kid.

So, today I get to fill out pages and pages of paperwork. When I found out about all of the paperwork, my initial response was to leave out the survey, but I think that would do my project a disservice-- so, I'll let you know how the paper pushing goes.

Fridge Farm

I made one of my C & W outcomes that I was going to try to post to my blog everyday-- which for me means every weekday-- so now, here I am today-- with all sorts of stuff to work on and do-- and I should have academic thoughts to process on my blog, but I'm going to talk about my daughter's fridge farm.

My daughter got 3, count them 1, 2, 3 Leapfrog Fridge Farms for her first birthday last week. Now, this is a gift that I was hoping that she would get-- she's played with it at other people's house, and she really seems to like it, so I thought she would enjoy it. And she does. She loves to pull the pieces off of the fridge. And she likes to put the pieces in her mouth and crawl around the kitchen. She likes to push the pieces as high as she can reach on her tippy toes so that she can't get them back down. And she LOVES to push the Farmer Tag banjo playing button so that I get to listen to more banjo music than I've ever heard in my life. Even as I type this my brain is serenading me with "You made a match" and Old Suzanna on an alternating player despite the fact that my daughter is sleeping and the fridge is silent.

I don't say this to discourage someone from acquiring the Fridge Farm-- it's a fun toy-- and my daughter loves it. I guess I write this to explain to myself why I feel like I'm two different people sometimes. I can sit at a conference and glean knowledge and resolve to be a better teacher, student, director-- and then I come home, and I have this wonderful little girl who doesn't care about how many books I read, or articles I publish, or blog posts I complete. She cares if her picture pops up on the laptop screen. She cares if I tickle her when I read the sounds in Mr. Brown can Moo, can you?

This past year has been a lesson in convergence for me-- how do I converge mommy with scholar? I wish there were a how to here.

Computers and Writing 2007

This week I've been attending the Computers and Writing Conference at Wayne State University. I learned some important things there this weekend.
1. I've got to be better at writing my blog-- if I want to really do this-- use this space, I've got to write more often.
2. I've got to be better about reading other people's blogs-- if I think part of what is good about blogging is the blogging community, then I need to join that community.
3. It's important to talk about your projects with people because they ask questions that you realize you have to be careful to answer. On Thursday I sat with Geoffrey Sirc at lunch and he made me think-- more on that later.
4. I've got to get writing-- If I'm ever going to accomplish any of my goals that involves putting ideas onto paper.

I knew I would get stuff out of the conference, but I got more out of it than I thought I would, so that's cool-- now the challenge will be to live up to what I think I learned.

Safety

Today my thoughts and prayers are with the English Department staff at Virginia Tech. They are also with the families of the many victims.

Safety is such an ironic thing. Silly things like ritual and familiarity make us feel safe, and a massacure thousands of miles away can make us feel unsafe. I work at an urban college--people always ask me if it's safe here, and I say yes. There are usually plenty of people around. There is a good police presence on campus. I feel safe when walking on campus, when working in my office, when teaching in the classroom. My guess is that the people at VaTech felt safe. My prayer is for the students who are scared and wondering what to do next. I pray that God would comfort and direct them and allow them to feel secure again.

Diversity

Yesterday I went to yet another conference on diversity. This one was geared mainly at people who work in support services on our college campus. I am so sick of talking about diversity. Don't get me wrong-- I think that diversity is important, and I think it adds a dimension to our campus that enhances experiences and broadens perspectives. But, I am sick of talking about it. I was sitting in a room where the population was at least 75% black females. That's not very diverse. And I'm listening to everyone say how they want to make sure that the minority students on campus know about and feel welcome in their offices. Good, but shouldn't the goal as a support service to make sure all students know about and feel welcome in an office? It seems like if a campus has a diverse student body-- which our campus does-- this semester I have students who consider three different countries home-- then if the support service seeks to support all aspects of the student body, by default, that support service will have a diverse customer base.

I think diversity is an asset. But, I am tired of people making it political. At the conference, the afternoon speaker implied that good, liberal people care about diversity. So, does that mean that conservative people don't care. Or that conservative people are bad? Or is it just the bad liberals who don't care? Or is it that like me, people are tired of having everything labeled and defined to the point of nausea.

A diverse student body helps students realize that stereotypes don't work. It makes students realize that certain situations always create a common ground regardless of the student's personal background. And, hopefully it makes students realize that diversity is more than an issue of color-- we can be diverse from one another in so many aspects of life-- and that is why diversity is important. To teach and to remember that no matter the similarities, we all have differences, and more importantly that despite our differences, we usually have similarities.

Too Busy

I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd written on my blog. I'm going to try to write more and use this again as a processing space. Somehow, it seems like I have to write a message like this first.

New Semester, New Plans

I can't believe it's already 2007. It's crazy how fast time flies. This semester I'm looking forward to working with my students on tutoring at the writing center. I'm also looking forward to making some progress on my dissertation. We'll see how it all goes.

Children's Literature is not Baby Formula

Children's Literature is not Baby Formula is currently the title of my dissertation-- we'll see if I want to keep this title and if I'm allowed to keep this title, but as I'm reading about people's views of popular culture, I'm realizing that not only is pop culture considered less than high culture, it's considered to be culture in its simplest form--already broken down so it's easy to digest. Sort of like baby formula.

The argument that some (I realize I need to figure out who all the somes are) make is that popular culture is what is left over after high culture has decided what it wants to claim. But it can't be that simple. I keep thinking of the old proverb-- what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular-- but, sometimes it is. Sometimes something that is well done can be appreciated as well.

Stuart Hall argues that people need to be more discriminating in their views of culture. That not all high culture is good, while not all popular culture is bad. I think this is really important when it comes to thinking about Children's Literature. There seem to be 2 schools of thought when it comes to children's literature-- those who think all children's literature is a pre-digested form of literature-- that none of it is as good as high culture literature, and those who think that there are high culture children's books and popular culture children's books. In reality, I think I fall in the second category--but I want to challenge myself, and others, to think beyond the 2 divisions of high culture and popular culture. Because, I see well-done popular books getting bypassed in the high culture division, and that drives me crazy. The most obvious example of this is Harry Potter. Because the Harry Potter books are so popular, they don't seem to get nominated for some book awards that they might deserve. On behalf of the librarians who make those decisions, I understand why-- the librarians hope to bring to attention well done books that might not get the attention they deserve, and Harry Potter already gets his fair share of attention. But, Rowling also deserves some credit for her style of writing. Although, it's not the book awards that jump out at me the most with the Potter series, it's the films. The fourth Potter film was nominated for several Oscars-- of which it won none, and not because it didn't deserve to win, but because Oscars seem to go only to films that are not popular. The Potter books sometimes seem like an overdone example, but because of their popularity, they are one that people understand.

There are some children's and young adult books that are better than others. But, it doesn't take a Newberry award to determine that, just as it doesn't take a Pulitzer or Nobel prize in literature to determine if an adult fiction book is of the highest quality.

I don't want to turn my dissertation into an argument that says Children's Literature is a true form of literature. But I also don't want to give in to the idea that what is good isn't' popular and what is popular isn't good.

Culture and Children's Literature

I'm trying to think about how culture is in children's literature. I am thinking about all the new young adult texts that reference television and technology. YA authors are aware that their readers live in a world outside of books, and they want to reference that world.

BUT...

YA authors are also trying to reshape culture. Now culture is a complex word-- it doesn't have one simple definition-- for starters there is high culture, mass culture, and popular culture. But, what I think YA fiction is attempting to do is to alter popular culture. It is circular though-- there are ways culture is influencing the YA text.

But in regards to literature influencing culture--For kids-- peer pressure has always been an issue spoken about-- one child behaves as another leads him/her to do. So, now, books want to change that. Books like When Zachary Beaver Comes to Town tell you to be nice to the fat kid. Freak The Mighty teaches to be nice to the disabled. Hoot teaches kids to honor the environment. Monster tells you to not give in to peer pressure. Somehow it's not the same didactic lesson that showed up in the nineteenth century. In the books, it's not the adults telling the kids how to live-- it's kids telling other kids how to live. It's almost like there is a high culture among children. Children's high culture is living up to a higher standard than popular children's culture. Children's high culture calls YA readers to care about the environment, to realize that brain is more powerful than brawn. It's a subculture of children who are aware of things their parents weren't aware of in their youth.

Popular Culture

"A second way of defining popular culture is to suggest that it is the culture which is left over after we have decided what is high culture." This quote is from John Storey's Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, pg 5.

As I seek to figure out why popular culture is such an integral part of Children's literature, this quote strikes me as a missing piece to the puzzle.

Children are a valuable part of society. Without them, society, in essence, would end. On one hand children are privledged--If we pay attention to all the advertising dollars spent on telling parents what their children need and telling children what they must have, then we know that children are privledged. On the other hand, children are neglected. When we look at how many hours children spend a day in day care, we can realize that children often are missing a consistent foundational example.

Grey's Anatomy this week, a father says, "I went soft. I quit being a father when he needed a father the most." Talking about after divorce.

Storey uses Raymond Williams to define culture as one of 3 things.
A means to refer to "a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development"
A means to suggest "A particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group"
A means to describe "The works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity"

Storey feels that popular culture must be one of the last 2. I disagree when it comes to children. Although they are the second definition, I think they are because they are attempting to be the first. Children spend some time with adults. They spend time with their parents, but they spend more time with one another. Therefore, while they are told which things to value intellectually, spiritually, and aesthetically, they must as young adults decide for themselves which things they will value. So, they often make these decisions as a group, a population. Young adults often decide that they don't need what others have deemed high culture. They do not need to privledge the same things other's privledge. Young adults will choose to show intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development through their own media, and right now those media are often related to the internet. Young adult authors realize this. They understand that instead of using high culture intertextual examples in their texts, they should use the lessons learned from media as a means to convey meaning.

boycott kroger

I know that I usually write about academic things, but today I am mad at Kroger. I like Mexican food, it might even be my favorite. So, last night I decided that I wanted to make tacos. So after I prepared my dinner I opened up a new jar of Kroger brand salsa. I didn't look at the jar. I didn't check the date-- I just opened the jar and put salsa on my taco-- well, the salsa was rancid. Yep== the nastiest stuff on earth. so, now I check the date-- Dec 2007. I think Sept 2006 falls within that time frame. So, I go up to Kroger to take back my nasty salsa, and the customer service rep acts like I'm the biggest inconvience in her day. I mean it's not an inconvience to have my dinner ruined. It's not an inconvience to have to drive up to Kroger in the rain. I've always been a fan of Kroger-- but not anymore. At least not my Kroger. I'm not giving them another dime of my business.

Click Here

Denise Vega wrote a young adult novel called Click Here. It brings new light to the ideas of intertextuality. These are the ideas of intertextuality that I hope to explore. I want to look at how culture is a text and how children's literature references that text.

Click Here is about a girl who loves computers. She wants to design a webpage, so she does. It's almost like a glorified blog-- she keeps her diary on this webpage. She practices using code and she creates tabs to go from one page to another. But, her webpage is private. She doesn't intend for it to be published. SPOILER ALERT... When she accidentally publishes her webpage, it wreaks havoc on her life. Then the intertextuality strengthens because she compares herself to Harriet the Spy.

The aspect of the book that I find interesting is Erin's, the protagonist, interest in technology. She joins the computer club and helps other kids create a school webpage. Vega sprinkles technological jargon throughout the text, creating an intertextuality that expects the reader to understand my space culture.

I'm looking forward to exploring these ideas further.

Too Long

Wow-- it's been too long since I've written on here. I had a baby. That somehow distracts from things like blogs. I'm happy to say that i'm starting to think about children's books again though.

TTYL

This week I realized that although I keep this blog and I do other online work, I'm not quite as online savvy as I thought. I was at the library and saw ttyl by Lauren Myracle and decided to check it out. The first thing I had to figure out was what IM phrase does ttyl stand for-- I believe it's talk to ya later. I could be wrong. This entire book is written in IM format-- the different fonts, the shortcut words, the fragmented thought...

When I think about children's literature, I realize that it cannot help but to be linked to popular culture. While the genre of realistic fiction shows this the most obviously, all of the genre's of children's literature have some connection to what is happening in modern times. There is always a degree of intertextuality that cannot be avoided between what is being written for the child reader and what is going on in pop culture.

ttyl on one had dates itself because the characters watch television shows like Kim Possible and That 70's Show. They make fun of younger siblings who watch 7th Heaven and Lizzie McGuire. But, the book also shows classic school curriculum-- one character is reading The Great Gatsby for her English class.

The thing that strikes me the most about the novel is that it is written entirely as IM posts. Novels that were unique used to be written as letters or journal entries, but now media has become a tie in. The novel talks about the girls hanging out at school, sending email, talking on the phone, spending the night at one another's homes, but the text only occurs in IM, and the girls decide "some things r easier to talk about over the computer" (208). Now, media isn't just a supplement to a person's life. It is an element of that person's life. This book does not show media as a means to an end-- it is the end in and of itself.

Although I didn't think this was the most interesting book I've ever read, the plot was a little too predictable, the formatting fascinates me.

but, g2g, l8r

Winn Dixie

I read Because of Winn Dixie yesterday. I wasn't really planning on reading it, but I had a lot of time in waiting rooms, so I got it finished.

It's interesting when I think about it in terms of criticism. The book has a nice enough story to it-- kids seem to like it, but I guess I'm fascinated by some of the critical elements.

One is gaps-- Gloria Dump is called a witch, but she isn't-- the characters say there is no such thing as witches. But why do they think she's a witch in the first place. What has she done to scare the children before Opal arrives on the scene and shows that she's so nice?

One is stereotypes-- Boys and girls don't get along, but then at the end they become friends-- but nothing happens to make the friendship at all seem natural. Opal's mom has left and she misses her. That's a crucial theme to the book, but she leaves because she doesn't like being a preacher's wife and she drinks. It just all seems a bit contrived.

Then there is the dog--If this dog is so great, why has he been neglected? Why isn't anyone looking for a well behaved dog that smiles?

intertextuality

I read N.E. Bode's book _The Anybodies_ this weekend. It's a creative story. The thing I'm most interested in is it's intertextuality. It matches up with Maria Nikoljelavia's ideas about intertextuality. The author expects the reader to have read a certain number of classics in order to fully get everything out of the book. But, Bode does list off all of the books he references on his webpage, and that seems to minimize the effect somehow.

The things I don't like about the book--It is too obviously set up for a sequel and the author interrupts the story why too often to talk about himself. He doesn't do the nineteenth century dear reader bit, but he reminds the reader too often that this is a book and how this is fantasy and it differs from reality. To me that seems like a bit of intertexutality in and of itself.

Criticism and Intent

Brian Alderson-- back in the late 60's said that when people evaluate children's literature they shouldn't care about children-- that although the evaluation would lack the influence of the intended audience and the authorial intention, it would remain non-subjective.

I disagree.

I don't think there can be non-subjective criticisms of literature. There can be objective evaluation-- Something is awkward, it doesn't flow, it is full of grammatical errors, the plot doesn't make sense. These things can be objectively determined. Criticism though, I believe, always has a bias. I am looking for the political undertone, the gender/class issues, the moral lesson. I'm not saying this is wrong-- and sometimes a message-- especially a moral message in a work for children seems obvious, but I think disregarding the child and disregarding the author's intent is not a way to be objective when looking at children's literature.

Dumbing Down Children?

It's interesting to me-- Stephen Johnson in _Everything Bad is Good for You_ talks about how so many people think that because kids play video games instead of reading books that we are dumbing kids down. He argues that that is not in fact the case-- but rather that video games bring about a higher level of thinking that kids participate in. Anne MacLeod in _American Childhood_ discusses how the books of the 50s and 60s encouraged girls to be content with their lives. She looks at American culture of the 50s and how for the first time teenagers had some of their own freedoms and were becoming their own culture and how that during that time they were marrying younger than ever before.

So, this is what I find interesting... If anything, it is the books of the 50s and 60s that are dumbing children down-- the books that no one censors because there is no violence and no controversy-- unless marrying young is considered "dangerous." These books show people going to school and going to college and living the American dream of mediocrity. Contemporary texts show students competing--striving to overcome the system--not being content with their lives the way they are. Or if the character is passive, that is considered a weakness.

Now I wonder, what is true dumbing down? Is it writing things in a particular way? Is it thinking about something in a particular way? Or, is it a perception of what this world should be like?

Children's Literature

It's been a while since I've posted anything-- not that I haven't been reading or thinking about stuff, but now isn't the time to catch all of that up.

Jack Zipes, and others--Beverly Lyon Clark, like to point out that there is no such thing as Children's Literature. Children's Literature should be literature by children for children. But, children aren't published writers. I think this is an interesting thought because I've been questioned when saying that I want to do childist criticism-- but really that's what people who look at books who are written by adults with child protagonists are doing. We cannot regress to the status of child again-- so we don't really know how children will perceive a certain text-- and good writers for children don't write thinking only a child will read the book. So, I think looking at the role of the child in the book is a good way to discuss what has popularly been termed children's literature.

In a different direction-- although related-- Zipes also says that children can't produce their own culture--they can only respond to things adults create for them-- but I think that is starting to change. In music now, there are kids singing, doing remakes of popular songs, on CD's. This is kids doing art for kids-- but it is still controlled by adults--who gets to decide which music is being played, listened to, recorded-- who decides which kid gets to make an album-- that is still adults. Whether or not we like it, adults control the culture of children. Maybe that is why teenagers like the web so much-- it gives them an opportunity to write their own story. Just a thought.

Huck Finn

Is the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a book for children or a book for adults? It's the story of a child, but it uses questionable language and it exposes children to inappropriate things, and so it gets put in this middle place of questioning.

I find this middle place fascinating-- I applaud Samuel Clemens for not saying, oh, kids might read this book I had better... Although in the mid-nineteenth century few novelists concerned themselves with a child reader.

Susan Honeyman, in her text Elusive Childhood, talks about authors who give children adult characteristics and adults child-like characteristics, and she comments on how adult it is of Huck to sympathize with Jim when he misses his family. Huck thinks "I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks do for their'n." This statement is supposed to be this great commentary on race. Mature Huck, through Jim, learns to see people as equals. I think something is missing here though-- Jim is a good guy. Jim loves his wife and children. This is not something that Huck has seen before. There are no references to him having a mother. His father is MIA most of the time, and when he is around, he's quite abusive. I would think that Huck would see Jim's love for his family as an anomoly instead of as an equalizer.

Books for children are not just this place to say-- this is a story about kids-- or story telling how kids should behave. Books for children provide places for analysis. Why do critics always jump to race issues when discussing Huck? Huck introduces us to a number of character types, and these introductions provide us a different glimpse of culture than we might have caught before.

Technology as Text

We read technology. We might not know how to read HTML code or binary computer languages, but we still read technology. If we know codes, we can read them; they are a text. They are almost an informational how-to manual. When we don't know the codes that make technology behave as it does, we still are reading technology.

What does it mean when someone keeps a blog? What is he/she doing?

A blog is a web-log. This web-log can be analyzed just as easily as letters or a journal, except there are more things to take into consideration.

Reading technology is no longer just about the text. Don't get me wrong, the text matters, but it cannot reign supreme in the message. Technology takes away a private audience. It also reveals things about the users and the creators that add to the message of the text.

We read technology-- we do it every day-- we just sometimes miss a part of the message.

Subjectivity and Semiotic Discourse

James Paul Gee in his book What Video Games can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy spends a lot of time talking about the semiotic discourses of video games-- how gammers have a vocabulary onto themselves and how different games create different discourses, but that video games are extremely collaborative-- more than might initially meet the eye.

Robyn McCullum in her book Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction addresses subjectivity and intersubjectivity while looking at psychological theory. She says, "BakhtinÂ’s ideas about language acquisition are pertinent to the analysis of novels which represent the movement out of solipsism as taking place within a context which is culturally and/or linguistically alien and which depict characters appropriating and assimilating the discourses of others" (104).

McCullum's quote brings me back to Gee and semiotic discourse. Adolescents understand one another--whether in books or in real life-- but they do so by developing their own discourse. They don't need academic discourse or their parent's discourse-- they use the discourse of video games, of instant messenger, of... Being an adolescent has always had an element of adapting to someone else's discourse. Now though, the discourse often results from new media rather than traditional media-- however, we know the language of technology is lasting, while constantly evolving, because it does appear in print.

Hoodwinked

Last night I went to see Hoodwinked, and I thought it was boring. I liked the premise of the movie, and I was looking forward to seeing it, and then it wasn't what I expected. My first thoughts were that it just wasn't that funny, but I don't know that fairy tales are supposed to be funny.

Right now I'm reading Stephen Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You and in it he says "Much has been written bout the dexterity with which the creators of these recent films [cartoons for children] build distinct layers of information into their plots, dialogues, and visual effects, creating a kind of hybrid form that dazzles children without boring grownups." And I realized that this was my problem with the movie.

The premise of Hoodwinked is that there is always more than one side to the story, so we get the story of Little Red Riding Hood from 4 perspectives trying to figure out who the real bad guy is. This sounds like it will have some layers of information. It looks like it will require the audience to do a little problem solving. And it does. But the key word is little. It's obvious pretty early on who the real bad guy is-- of course it can't be the wolf--that wouldn't be original. It can't be the little girl-- that would go against the audience. It can't be the Granny because that would upset the political correctness of the film. So, that leaves the woodsman or an outside character.

I know that Hoodwinked is aimed at a child audience vs. an adult audience, but that doesn't mean that the movie needs to be so simple that adults are bored. Toy Story and Finding Nemo remain appropriate for children but still use cultural references that make the story more entertaining for adults. Hoodwinked has some of that-- when the wolf is talking to the evil character, he makes a few references to typical evil characters-- but they are all stereotypical aspects that any child would understand from watching any Saturday morning cartoons.

Children's literature is trying to break stereotypes. Children's film and video games is striving to adhere to the multi-layered narrative that our culture now appreciates. So, I'm disappointed when movies like Hoodwinked come out, because I feel that it falls short of what it could have done.

New Post

I realize that it has been a long time since I've posted anything to my blog. I've been busy reading and thinking about what other people think rather than thinking what I think. On one hand it's nice to realize that I'm increasing my knowledge base. On the other hand, I know that education is not about simply knowing what other people think. I have to think about what they think and use it to create my own thoughts.

I've got a couple of projects brewing in my mind though, and that is fun.

Fantasy and Science

I just finished reading Chet Raymo's article "Dr. Seuss and Dr. Einstein" where he discusses the connection between science and fantasy in children's literature. I find this really interesting because I realize the similarities between science and hypertextual thinking.

Raymo believes that children's fantasy is a good precursor to science because it teaches children to think out of the box-- to be creative in the connections they draw--to believe that the unseen can still exist.

If this is true, then either fantasy is also a good precursor for computer programming or computer knowledge is also a good precursor for science. Maybe this isn't an either or situation-- maybe it's both.

Hypertext is great for the hyperactive mind. Thus the common prefix hyper. Hypertext does a couple of things for its readers-- it allows them to break off and look at things they're interested in, and it allows them to trail off to a new direction when they are no longer interested in their current path. Fantasy does not allow the reader to go wherever he/she pleases. But, it does take the reader off the beaten path.

I think there is more of a connection between children's literature and technology than simply video games and movies that are made about books for children. Children's fantasy and technology are both attempting to shape the way children think.

Margaret Atwood and Censorship

Margaret Atwood writes a creative take on censorship in a group of readings about children's literature called Only Connect. There will always be people who censor stuff-- it's the American way. Although we have the freedom to do whatever we want, it's our duty to try to take that freedom away from others-- at least it often appears that way when people censor books. Not that I think all books are appropriate, but I don't think that is a decision that should be made by a special interest group.

Anyway, off of my opinion and back to Atwood.

I thought I would include part of her article below.

There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest.

Forest? Forest is passe, I mean, I've had it with all the wilderness stuff. It's not a right image of our society, today. Let's have some urban for a change.

There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs.

That's better. But I have to seriously query this word poor.

But she was poor!

Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn't she?

Yes.

Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor.

But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace--

Atwood goes on to completely destroy, because of censorship, the entire beginning of Cinderella. This also makes me think of composition because these are some comments we might make to students who are writing composition-- we want good details-- but creative writing has to leave a place for the fairy tale.

I'm a geek

I can't decide if I'm a total geek or if I just like to use one aspect of teaching or learning to procrastinate from another. I am building a website for the English course I will be teaching. I'm excited to be able to do this. I think it will be beneficial to have. So, am I a geek that I would rather be working on this website than out doing other things during my Christmas break? Possibly. Or, am I just a procrastinator because I should be reading, cleaning, or the like?

Gruesome Santa

You have to wonder about things like this. A family in New York is making a statement about all that has gone wrong with Christmas. Read the news story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051214/ap_on_re_us/slasher_santa

I'm not sure this is the best option. Don't get me wrong-- as a student/teacher, this is not "the most wonderful time of the year." And I agree that it is really easy to forget why we celebrate Chirstmas in the first place. But I'm not sure having Santa killing the toys really shows that Christmas has gotten to commercial. Santa exists because of the toys-- he is the reason Christmas is shop keepers favorite time of the year.

Addition on Plagiarism

If you want to successfully plagiarize-- at least pick a topic that you are interested in. If you pick a topic that completely goes against your personality, then it will get noticed as odd.

The Process

I have to wonder, what makes someone a good writer? And I have to believe that a part of it is natural and a part of it is practice.

It's always interesting to see someone who has practiced themselves into expertise because it is something he/she wants to master. I think of 2 people I know who play the piano. You can hand either or them a difficult piece of music and both would be able to play it, but one would make it sound so much more meaningful than the other.

Whenever I read about writers going through the writing process, it seems that they follow very similar patterns. They set aside a specific time of day to write. They set themselves up a distraction free environment. But, they also set aside a relatively short amount of time for themselves to do writing. "Good" writers have patterns that they follow. Is it the patterns that make them good? I don't think so-- I think it's the practice that led to the pattern being established. They try different things-- they practice, and the see what works the best and then go with it.

Too often I think writing becomes peoples after rather than priority. All of the research on being a successful student/ business person emphasizes structure. It also all stresses the importance of knowing which tasks are priorities and which can be dismissed. I really like Jack G****'s Energy Performace study which talks about the importance of energy management vs. time management. Often we have time to do so much more than we do, but we don't have the mental energy to follow through.

I think poor writers forget about the necessary mental energy for doing good writing. Maybe good writing is a matter of instinct-- when we have the energy we should prioritize the activity.

I'm not sure, but I know that when I feel like my writing sucks I can't quit-- rather I have to look at it is an opportunity to continue to practice so that hopefully in 20 years I can see that my writing has improved.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Peter Hunt, in his book Criticism, Theory, and Children's Literature, answers the question "Why Study Children's Literature? by saying "Because it is important and because it is fun." Roald Dahl wants to remind people of that. His official website contains both important information and fun.

http://www.roalddahl.com/

Tim Burton recently adapted Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to film. Some people say this is a remake of the Gene Wilder film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-- which was also based off of Dahl's book. But Burton's film is not a remake of the old movie-- it is a new interpretation of the text.

Film is funny like that-- it becomes an entity all to its own, and because there are so many remakes in film, viewers often forget to consider that there might be another source-- unless it's Shakespeare. There are numerous movie versions of Hamlet, and no one thinks that they are remakes of each other-- people know they are interpretations of the play. So, the new Charlie in the Chocolate Factory is following in the footsteps of Shakespeare-- it is not a movie remake-- it is a new adaption of the text.
Johnny Depp stars in this movie as the infamous Willy Wonka, and he raises the level of quirkiness within the film.

People say that this adaption of the text is much closer to the book than the Wilder version, and in some ways it is. It allows Wonka to say some of the rude things he says in the book, but it adds something to the book that I believe is a result of J.K. Rowlings. It adds reality to fantasy.

Dahl considered this book a fantasy. Although it starts with poor Charlie and his suspiciously nice family, everything that takes place in the factory could not possibly be real. Yet, in the film version, Wonka keeps having flashbacks to his childhood to explain to the audience why he is as quirky as he is.

Fantasy is losing some of its elements of imagination, because there has to be some realism. Yet, Dahl didn't want to create realism. We don't really want to think about a family so poor that they can only afford Cabbage Soup-- or where 4 Grandparents share one bed-- that's just not entertaining.

Dahl wants his audience to see Charlie's luck. Burton wants to add this didactic element of taking care of one's family and the importance of loving people who are in your life. I don't disapprove of Burton's message, I just don't think it's Dahl's.

So, why study Children's Lit-- because it is important-- and it is fun. It is important to look at what people do to Children's stories to try to accomplish their own agenda. And, it's fun to allow yourself to imagine the impossible every now and then.

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is an interesting book. On one hand it gives the reader an interesting place to discuss ethics and civics and how culture affects things. On the other hand, some elements of it are so predictable.

Today, though, the thing that interests me is that there is a game related to the book on the Nobel prize website.

http://nobelprize.org/literature/educational/golding/

The game, although fun, is pretty simplistic. I guess I find that ironic due to the website it's found on. If this game were found on a high school or junior high teacher resource page, I would understand it. But, the game is found on the Nobel Prize site. The Nobel prize asks more from its winners than just a simple plot, and yet all the game does is ask the player to match up symbols and answer really simplistic questions.

Now, I just need someone to create a game that simplifies literary theory. Match up the symbol with the theorist-- a couch for Freud, a magnifying glass for Derrida...

Thanksgiving and Composition

Write a 5 paragraph essay discussing why you're thankful.
Write a thank you note to someone for something they have done for you.
Write a narrative essay about a time you thought about being thankful.
Write why you're thankful to live in the United States/Canada/fill in the blank.
Write why your'e thankful you've had the opportunity to get to know _________.

Thanksgiving seems to be this time for stock journal writing topics. Not that we shouldn't take time to be thankful and think about the good things that are in our lives. It's easy to be critical and take simple things for granted-- I believe that. But, I don't think forcing everyone to write about it is the way to make it effective.

I think gratitude has to be a choice. We have to want to be thankful. As we approach the holidays, sometimes all we can say is "Daddy I want another pony." Maybe we should write about that-- oh wait, we do-- we write out Christmas lists and letters to Santa.

Tis the season for writing-- somehow though, it just doesn't seem right.

Intertextuality

I'm currently reading "Children's Literature comes of Age" and the last chapter is on intertextuality, and the author, Nikolajeva, discusses how intertextuality is different that comparative analysis. She says both look at works in juxtaposition, but that comparative literature looks more at influence and intertextuality looks more at meaning. However, then she proceeds to "do" intertextual criticism by looking at how books. meanings have influenced other books' meanings. I feel like something is missing.

If we really want to look at something in juxtaposition and we want to find similarities within the texts, it seems we should be able to do that with any types of texts. We shouldn't have to limit ourselves to genres that would have influenced themselves. For me, intertextuality should look like more of a hypertext connection. These two works that have nothing in common have so much in common because of this kenotype. But if something is a true kenotype then we have to compare works that wouldn't necessarily have had influence on one another. Sometimes I think influence is a point of connection, but with intertextuality, the newness results from how the connected items might be used differently through time. In Hansel and Gretel candy is used to draw the children to the wicked witch. In The Chocolate War, candy is used to symbolize the evil manipulative powers that be. It is no longer a "special" thing to see candy, but candy still works to manipulate behavior. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, candy manipulates behavior, but can we label Willie Wonka evil? Finally, in Harry Potter, candy is the symbol of Dumbeldore, the positive headmaster. This same symbol exists but it works differently-- Were any of these works influenced by others, possibly, but we don't see that influence as a model.

Tips for Successful Plagiarism

I know that some students are very successful at plagiarism, but some are quite lousy, so I thought I'd spend some time today to point out ways to improve at plagiarism.

1. If you are buying a paper, you should maybe take it to a tutoring center and have them help you revise it. This way you can make sure it has some of your voice. Although be sure not to tell the people at the center that you bought the paper-- that could come back to bite you in the butt. Also, make sure you know what the paper is saying before you take it to the center. If you don't understand it then they will know you bought it.

That leads me to point number 2.
2. Make sure you can understand the paper that you are turning in. If it uses words that you don't know, you should look them up. Sometimes a teacher will ask you what a word means that is used in the paper if he/she suspects that you're plagiarizing. If you know what all the words mean-- especially when they are subjects of whole paragraphs-- you are less apt to be suspected of cheating.

3. Make sure the assignment you turn in matches the assignment that was assigned. If you are supposed to turn in a cause and effect paper on a current event, you shouldn't turn in a cause and effect paper on the civil war. Any war that was fought over 100 years ago no longer qualifies as a current event. There are different ways to make sure your plagiarized work matches your actual assignment. You can pay or coerce someone into doing your homework for you. If he/she sees the assignment, then he'll know what to write. You can type the assignment into google. Sometimes if a school has a standardized curriculum, there are people from your school willing to sell old homework. Or you can look around to make sure that the paper you buy is close to the assignment.

3b. Point 3 is especially true when you are assigned summaries. If you plagiarize a summary, you want to double check that you are plagiarizing the correct work. Sometimes authors write works on similar themes, and it can become tricky to keep track of which story you are supposed to be looking at. Excerpts from stories can be problematic as well. You want to be sure that your summary does not include details from the longer work if you were only supposed to read the abbreviated form.

4. Make sure that there isn't too big of a jump in your writing style from assignments you have done yourself to assignments you are plagiarizing. The most effective plagiarism is done when all works are plagiarized from the same source, then you are less likely to be suspected. Although, unless you are paying someone to do your homework, it is difficult to maintain that sort of consistency. It is important that work you plagiarize sound like you. Otherwise, a teacher might request to see drafts so that he/she can believe that your writing has actually improved that much vs. it being what it is, plagiarism.

Well, I know there are probably other tips out there, but I thought these would get you started.

Happy Cheating, and if you get caught-- you deserve it.

Innovation

As teachers, I think we all strive to be innovative in some way. We want our class to stand out as something interesting. Yet sometimes, innovation is met with resistance. Students who do not know what to do with choice. I'm a big advocate for choice-- you can do this or that. You can present your information this way or that way. Selfishly, I do this for me. I can't stand reading 20-50 versions of the same paper on the same topic. So, I give students choice. But, I am finding that choice demands more instruction. I have to explain all sorts of scenarios-- but then that takes away from innovation. I don't want to imagine out the scenario for you-- I want you to imagine up a scenario for me.

I think innovation is important. I think showing students that the traditional way isn't the only way is valuable. I also think choice is important. So, I guess I need to accept the complications that occur through the process.

Collaboration

Collaboration is an interesting thing. This weekend I was working on a collaborative project with friends, and we were discussing how much better the work that we were doing becomes when we gather input from others than when we simply work alone.

This made me begin to think about syllabus design. This winter I'm teaching a service learning course, and I believe that part of service learning comes from the discussions of what we learn. This is making me think about restructuring my syllabus-- I think I want to have my students do their service in pairs.

I still believe it is important to have some individual work in a composition classroom, and I know that some students really despise group work. Yet, I think that if they have a partner throughout for their service project that they will be able to understand the project more fully. I also think it will build up their security in working in a service environment to have someone with them rather than attempting to conquer it all alone.

Maybe I should talk with someone about this.

Audience and Argument

This morning I was talking with my students about argument, and we began to discuss audience, and the more I think about it, the more relevant to everything it seems.

This morning I woke up to discover that Detroit reelected its mayor yesterday. I'm not sure I think that the best move, but I am not actually a city resident, so I didn't get to vote. I don't know that it's the worst move, but I know it means things won't change. The reason I think about this in connection with audience is I can't help but wonder who campaign ads were geared towards. It seemed at the end that it became an issue of electing the lesser of 2 evils. Logical reasoning got brushed aside by both parties, and that disheartens me.

Argument becomes this vague ideal that allows people to prove points effectively, and marketing departments have taken away any necessary appeals to logic and apply only to desire and emotion. So, this makes me wonder how to convey the importance of logic to students. How do I demonstrate to students the necessity of logic when everything around them dictates that logic just doesn't matter any more. I guess we apply logic to advertisements. Why do marketing execs know that they will get more business by appealing to emotion?

Syllabus and adventure

There are several things that I really enjoy about teaching. I enjoy working with students. I enjoy discussing ideas and seeing where those discussions might lead. I enjoy helping people see things from a different perspective than what they might be used to. But there are a couple of things I don't enjoy about teaching-- grading papers and writing a syllabus.

Syllabus writing is a funny thing-- initially it's exciting-- you can try new ideas out and see how you want them to go together. But then, it's overwhelming-- planning the entire semester at once opens up a lot of possibilities-- what if the students want to do this or that.

When I was a kid, there were choose your own adventure books. If you want Amy to stay on the island go to page 55. If you want Amy to try to swim off the island turn to page 110. Now, with hypertext, choose your own adventure becomes a click vs. a turn. The reader has to just go to the new place; he/she can't read all of the options and choose the best one after the fact.

This makes me wish I could write a choose your own adventure syllabus. If you want to do a project on literacy, click here, and the page opens up to the assignment that the student would do-- read something-- create an ethnography. If you want to do a project on culture, click here, and the page opens up to an assignment about television-- watch this-- read that-- write a script for a news segment on how television portrays American culture. Do you just want an easy A with no work-- that page opens up to an error message-- page not available.

But, we don't write choose your own adventure syllabi-- instead we put the disclaimer at the top that we, the teacher, maintain the right to amend the syllabus at any given moment-- and most of the time, because we don't want to do the planning involved, keep the syllabus the same. Sometimes we learn something new in the course of the semester-- or something really important happens-- and we change it up. So I guess we choose the adventure.

Freak the Mighty

Rod Philbrick's book Freak the Mighty took me a little by surprise, although I don't know that it should have.

Young adult coming of age fiction seems to be always either circular or linear. Either normalcy is returned or a journey begins. In Freak, both and neither happen. Max is the character who achieves a coming of age, and while he is at home throughout the majority of the text, his return to school and "normal" would make it seem to be a circular journey. But, Max is anything but normal at the end of the text. He is doing things that he would have never done before; he is beginning to learn things for himself. He has made a linear journey. But then, this is a coming of age text-- of course he has made a discovery about himself. If he hadn't, then the story wouldn't accomplish anything. One difference in this text is that Max's physical journey in no way parallels his psychological journey, and that confounds typical labels. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy must make a physical journey while she is discovering herself-- therefore, her journey is circular. Max on the other hand, always needs someone else's help to make any type of physical journey in the text. Freak tells him where to go while they are Freak the Mighty-- His dad tells him where to go when he is being kidnapped, and Freak is the one who saves him from a near death experience. Although Max is taking a journey with Freak, it isn't until Freak dies that Max truly matures. So, I guess if I have to choose a label, this text has a linear journey. The reader knows that Max has turned a corner and is ready to go on a quest, but the reader isn't sure if Max will successfully complete his quest alone.

Dr. Seuss

I have an obsession with Dr. Seuss. So many people think that he's just writing silly stories, but I think people often miss how much can be found in a Dr. Seuss tale. I mean there is originality with all the newly created language. Plus there is fantastic rhythm that can force you to repeat lines against your will. In addition, Dr. Seuss forces you to address prejudice. I mean just think about Green Eggs and Ham, he won't eat them just because they are not normal. And then Sam I am encourages him to see things from a different point of view.

When we talk to students about learning, especially in a non-traditional format, I sometimes think we are a little like Sam-- we have to go on and on about how great something is, but it really doesn't matter what kind of a song and dance we do. Until students are willing to try something for themselves, they will never know if they like Green Eggs and Ham or not.

Dr. Seuss encourages fun. His books are happy, although slightly didactic at times. Regardless, kids love them. I don't know why more adults don't go back to that mindset. If we have fun with learning, it's just that, more fun.

Pictures

I've decided that I want to attempt to post a picture to my blog. I think that would make it more interesting. I was told that it was easy to do, but I never paid enough attention to realize that it was just a matter of pushing the add image choice in the tool bar.

This fun knowledge of technology will make this project more interesting. At least I think so :)

So, does anyone care to guess where this is?

Ella Minnow Pea

A friend gave me this book by Mark Dunn for my birthday a couple of years ago, and I remember looking at the cover, (which my version has a picture of a minnow-- there are many different versions-- the economics of book publishing) and thinking what a strange name for a child. Then I read it aloud-- L-M-N-O-P-- now it has caught my attention. I sat down and read the book shortly after receiving it. I deemed it a clever little story. There is a town that exists as a tribute to a man who wrote a sentence that uses every letter in the alphabet. (There are several such sentences in the book to prove it is not as daring as a feat as initially assumed.) So, the town builds a statue to the man that has the sentence on it. Well, the statue is getting old, and some of the letters are falling off. So the town council decided that since the letters are falling off, that must be the town founder telling the people that they should no longer use those letters. So, as the town must quit using letters, so must the author, and the letters disappear from the text. Now the book becomes this linguistic challenge.

Upon first reading the book, I thought it was a fun play on words-- it gives a decent challenge. But now, as I revisit it, I can't help but wonder what else it might be saying. I think of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and how it stands against tradition. As educators, I don't think we can just stand against tradition as a means of being innovative. But, we should question edicts to find out why they exist. If I was told I couldn't use the letter q again, it might not be worth the fight (although I think the principle of it would make it so) but if I was told the letter a was off limits-- well, it just wouldn't work.

When we think about standards and expectations, I think it is more important to consider what they are standards off. What is the reason behind their existence? What is their purpose? We shouldn't just eliminate ideas because something symbolic happened. But, we shouldn't just exist based on the symbolic either.

Just some thoughts.

Tutoring

I'm interested in seeing the different student responses to tutoring. I work in a tutoring center, and I used to work for 2 different tutoring centers, and I've seen numerous different responses. Some students latch on to a tutor. They begin to feel that they cannot function on their own. Then a tutor has to sort of break a dependence because a tutee can't get tutored forever. Some students defend their intelligence. They are so defensive that they can't actually get any help. Others are so hostile that they too cannot receive help. And then there are ideal students. They know they have something intelligent to say but that they could improve. They try to learn something new each time they come so that eventually they will no longer need to see a tutor. This makes me wonder what the role of the tutor is. How does a tutor help a student see that seeking help is not necessarily a weakness? How does a tutor help a student get the most out of what they are learning without creating a dependence? I'm sure some of it has to do with personality and enabling, but I'm also sure that a tutoring center's mission statement has to play a part as well.

Some tutoring centers want their students to be dependent because they want the income generated from returning students. Other centers are free, so they want independent students so that they can serve as many people as possible.

I think it is important to work to help students become independent learners. If people are willing to try new things and willing to take risks, their work becomes much more interesting.

Writing in a Visual Age

This textbook sucks! I'm writing a review right now, and I keep trying to be objective about what I say, but the more time I spend with this book, the worse I think it is.

I think the concept behind the book is great. Students should use more visuals when they write. I think it would be great for students to use meaningful pictures to highlight their texts. I also think it would be great if more teachers would appreciate that. Really, the only thing a teacher would have to do would be to change page length requirements to word requirements-- and tell students to include pictures/charts and so on.

I really don't have an issue with the idea of the book; it's the execution. It has all these charts-- they are so busy that you don't know which things are important and it took me too long to figure out why the pages were colored the way they are. Also, the questions it asks are really leading. It doesn't ask students to think freely about something-- it guides them-- this isn't analysis-- it's barely a step above reading comprehension. Plus it's section divisions are useless. The first half of the book is just writing styles. All of the useful information about the visual is in the second half of the book, but the authors spent more time gathering information for the first half.

It's probably unprofessional to spout off like this about how annoying this book is. I'm sure there will be loads of instructors who use it and love it and think it is so innovative, but I find it really difficult to follow, and I think the creative aspect of it is extremely limited.

Harry Potter Rocks!

I got in my car at lunch today, and there was some guy on the radio talking about the evils of Harry Potter. He was ragging on parents who read Harry Potter with their kids, saying that he does things with his kids too, but that means that he doesn't let them do drugs, drink alcohol, or read Harry Potter. Since when does reading anything equate with letting an 8 year old do drugs or drink?????? The guy was trying to market anti-Potter crap to pass out for Halloween. I can't help but see the irony here-- How can you boycott Harry Potter (about witches and wizards) and support Halloween (again about witches and wizards). I'm just not sure.

I, as you can probably tell from my heading, am a big supporter of Harry Potter. I have read all of the books. I had my copy of book 6 reserved 3 months in advance, and I had it read within 4 days. And I was slow. I can't wait for the next movie to come out on November 18. I will make my husband go with me that weekend to see it. He already knows and is looking forward to this.

So, why do I like Harry Potter so much? For the same reason I chose to go into Children's Lit in the first place. There is so much to dissect and look at in children's fiction, and it is all frequently overlooked. People look at a children's book and they say-- oh it's a nice story about this or that. They don't evaluate it the same way they would evaluate an adult text. Although a text geared at children might use a simpler vocabulary or a simpler plot line, doesn't mean that there aren't other literary elements to the text. The Harry Potter series has complex characters who change and evolve. And it places characters in moral dilemmas that force them to think about more than just the obvious right and wrong. Although it is fantasy, it makes a statement about cultural criticism-- it creates a culture of its own-- and that culture is not a utopia-- it has ethics and civil situations. People can glean far more from the text than merely a good plot. I enjoy the novels, but the exciting plot is not the primary reason why.

Alright-- now that I've defended Harry Potter in this "public" place, maybe I can get some work done :)

James Berlin

James Berlin's text about reinventing English studies is making me think-- especially as so many schools want to discontinue basic writing. It's interesting to me, because at the university, I've met far more people who claim to be Marxist in thinking or at least democratic in thinking than anywhere else. And yet, it is often these same people that want to make sure that education remains a priviledge. We can't have anyone getting into university-- that would be wrong. No, we need to keep the gates closed to the university. We shouldn't let anyone in who won't be able to successfully complete what they set out to do. I mean I understand competitive programs. I also realize that it is unfair to flood the market with ill-qualified job candidates. I even understand the idea of supply and demand and wanting to be able to have more demand before there is too much supply, but I don't think that is Marxist or democratic thinking. I think that is capitalist thinking. I don't think all students enter the university equally, and I don't think they should all be placed in the same classes. I do think they should all have the same expectations. We can't lower standards for less qualified students, but I'm not sure we should shut them out either.

odd behavior

Today I was in the bathroom at the library-- and I couldn't wash my hands because their were two girls washing their feet. in the sink. I'm not sure why it's appropriate to wash your feet in the sink in the bathroom in the library. I'm also not sure why you would not let people wash their hands. but, this is Wayne State-- people do strange things.

Academic Responsibility

I can't help but wonder where the line is on academic responsibility. When does that responsibility cross over to civic responsibility. If a student doesn't want to do his/her homework that shouldn't matter to the instructor, right? But then, what does the instructor do if the student's homework involves other students. This semester I'm teaching a service learning course, so if my students don't do their homework and serve, they are cheating others out of something. Other people are counting on their work.

I don't think people feel very responsible these days. People just want to do what they want to do-- they don't care about what other people think. I also don't think it's the place of a composition class to teach cultural ettiquette. I know that I put a heavy weight on my students grades if they don't behave responsibly, but I don't want to have to do that.

I guess maybe that's the difference between college and jobs-- you can get fired for a bad work ethic-- in college, it just means you don't get an A.