Integrating Fragments

In Constructing Knowledge, Dobrin sites Louise Weatherby Phelps…

“The third and fourth characteristics listed in Phelp’s model concentrate on the idea that we cannot assume that “Readers aim for coherent experiences of all texts” (pg 56)

This sheds some new light on my thoughts about hypertext and coherence. I’ve made the assumption that every time a person comes to a text, they are looking for total coherence. So when I began thinking about how to create hypertext documents, and how to teach students to make hypertext documents, I was coming from the perspective that all readers/audience expect a text (digital or otherwise) to be completely coherent. I was thinking that in trying to create coherent hypertextual documents, we need to find methods and tools that will allow us to create documents that are transparent, that are totally coherent to the reader.

Phelps (whose work was actually instrumental for helping me learn about coherence in the first place!) points out here that my underlying assumption is not necessarily true for all readers. I need to come back to this, to spend more time thinking about how this sheds a different light on my ideas. Off the top of my head, though, it ties back into what I was talking about with folksonomies have the potential, through lack of coherence and confusion, to lead to new insight and potentially new knowledge. For example, if I look up all the sites/pictures/words/whatever that people have tagged “rose” and I come across a picture of a cloud, I may get confused as to why someone would give that cloud picture such a tag. But through looking for that connection, for trying to find coherence between the two (to Me) disparate entities that I might have new insight into, say, the nature of clouds. So in this case lack of coherence leads to new insight.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t care about whether our digital texts make sense or not, rather I see Phelp’s as complicating the issue and of providing another perspective to consider in my explorations of hypertext.

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It all started because I wanted to play with Wordle. Actually it’s all John’s fault (just kidding John!) He mentioned the site in his blog and it looked like something worth exploring ‘cos tagging is one of my interests.

Anyway, something had gone wrong with my operating system and I wasn’t able to access anything using Java. To make a long and painful story short, 4 calls to Applecare, 3 reinstalls of OS X, and 2 visits to the local Apple ‘genius bar’ (and by local I mean an hour’s drive away) later, I am now sitting here trying to reset all my program preferences and re-find all my bookmarked sites, etc.

Not what I really need to be doing tonight. *sigh*

But at least I can play with Wordle now!

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…you start to analyze your children’s speech patterns!

This realization came to me as I sat at the dinner table and listened to a comment from my 8yr old son. He claimed that there was a Pokemon creature named “Bacon.” When his disbelieving sister asked him to explain, he said that actually it was called Bajon, but that bajon (pronounced b’-HAN) and bacon (pronounced BA-con) were almost the same.

My reaction was, “oh, that’s a conclusion based on literacy, not orality.” The two words visually look the same because there is only one letter difference between them, but their pronunciation (well, as Noah pronounced them) wasn’t similar at all. Noah made his association based on his ability to read the words, not based on their phonetic sounds.

(BTW, I LOVE this orality/literacy stuff and don’t really think you can read too much Havelock, even though he comes off as really pompous at times! However it made for a catchy title.)

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Was mucking about and came across this, an Animated Bayeux Tapestry. If you are a medievalist/rhet & comp hybrid like me, (and even if you aren’t), you will find this a great blend of old technology (embroidery-as-record) and new (kind of self-evident!)

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Came across this quote while reading today, and it struck my fancy. Perhaps I like it because somewhere in the back of my mind I am mulling over my “maps of the internet” paper, and so when anything interesting and map related comes along I stick a red flag by it. Anyway, here it is. It’s from The Politics of History by H. Zinn.

To be ‘objective’ in writing history, for example, is as pointless as trying to draw a map which shows everything–or even samples of everything–on a piece of terrain. No map can show all of the elements in that terrain, nor should it if it is to serve efficiently a present purpose, to take us toward some goal. Therefore, different maps are constructed, depending on the aim of the mapmaker. Each map, including what is essential to its purpose, excluding the irrelevant, can be accused of ‘partiality.’ But it is exactly in being partial that it is most true to its particular present job. A map fails us not when it is untrue to the abstract universal of total inclusiveness, but when it is untrue to the only realm in which truth has meaning–some present human need.

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Ever since this phenomenon came to my attention through the Snakes on a Plane (SOAP) internet craze I have been interested in what I can only think to call viral fan fiction. Except it’s not really ‘fiction’, rather pictures. Viral fan pictures? Viral fan art? I haven’t found a term I like, nor come across someone else’s term for it.

Basically it is where a fan creates a photoshop-modified picture of something to do with a cultural production (movie, TV series, etc). This picture then gets taken up by other fans who themselves modify the picture, and when enough of them have done this it takes off like a viral internet phenomenon.

For example…

This is a snapshot from a Dr Who episode. It was posted on the Dr Who Forum asking about the picture on the wall behind the actors.

Another fan doctored it and came up with this…

A few other posters then started to post their versions. Many of them were modified in ways that would really be appreciated by other Dr Who fans.

In this respect they mirror those made by the SOAP fans ie the new versions were made primarily for other Dr Who fans. However some that were made went beyond the mere Whovian audience and added elements that were of the larger culture, ie the elements added could be appreciated by those not so familiar with Dr Who.

Whats interesting to me about all of this is that the texts created make a statement of some kind. Often the bits added are clever and insightful, or at the very least meant to refer to some shared piece of Whovian lore. In this sense they make a statement to the other fans.

I guess I haven’t really explained why this is so interesting to me, or rather, why anyone else should be interested. But it ties in (for me) to the way our students already use technology to make rhetorical texts, to make texts that are aimed at an audience, and that have a clear purpose in mind, that convey a clear message. That’s what is so fascinating about the SOAP phenomenon. And if we can find a way to tap into that skill, and that creative and rhetorical energy, in our assignments and our teaching, i think we would have a really powerful teaching tool.

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Today’s adventure in rhetorical readings is Constructing Knowledges by Sidney Dobrin. In the first chapter he makes reference to my very favorite cartoon strip of all time. I think I have posted this before. But whether I have or not, enjoy (again?).

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It’s the countdown to the season finale of Doctor Who (only 3 days away) and it feels like Saturday will never come! The wait is made all the more interminably long because I am wading through Murphy’s A Short History of Writing Instruction from Ancient Greece to Modern America.

So in a vain attempt to speed up time, and as an act of blatant procrastination, I have found myself hanging out on The Doctor Who Forum more than usual this week. It’s kind of like how when your tooth hurts; you can’t help playing with it with your tongue, even though the more you mess with it the worse it gets. Reading all the posts of other poor souls who can’t wait for the time to pass only makes my own misery worse, but I can’t keep away!

One thing I’ve come to realize is an over abundance of the use of the term “squee.” It took me a while to figure out exactly what this means, but apparently it is an ‘urban slang’ word that, according to The Urban Dictionary is a

verb: To squeal with glee; from a combination of the two words; the sound of an excited fangirl

Now I’m not sure about it strictly being used by ‘fangirls’ ‘cos the forum is full of squees by fans of all genders and persuasions. And for some reason this word has struck my fancy in a way that no other newly coined word has.

Perhaps it’s that it just sounds great to say; perhaps because it’s part of the discourse of the Whovian community and by making the word a part of my lexicon I am interpolating myself into that community (Ha! How’s that for an academic analysis!); or perhaps it’s the only word I have found to express the sheer agony/delight of waiting another 3 days until the finale “Journey’s End”!

Squeeeeee!

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No, I haven’t been purposely hunting down feminist rhetoric, but I am coming across it as I continue to plow through “survey of the field through history” type stuff. This time it is Helene Cixous stuff–Laugh of the Medusa

What struck me was Cixous’ insistence upon feminine writing (ecriture feminine) as non-linear, non-hierarchical. That’s not the first time I’ve come across female writers who see their work, see feminine writing as non-linear.

This strikes a chord with me because of my interest in the non-linearity of hypertext. I’m sure I can’t be the first to see a connection between ‘ecriture feminine’ and hypertext. What the exact properties of ‘nonlinear’ feminine writing are I have to sit and parse out more fully, and then see how (if?) they line up with the characteristics of hypertext. However I don’t have time to really chew on this one…not yet at least. After October and the QEs I will. In the meantime, though, I thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone else knew of work being done on this connection.

Anyone?

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