Meeting the Learning Outcomes

(Sorry this is late, took longer to create it then I thought it would)

For English 295 I believe that both the class and myself met the learning outcomes for this class. Here is a link to Dr. Burton's blog page for our class's learning outcomes. I liked the format that Bri used when discussing meeting the learning outcomes so that is the format I am going to follow as well.

So how did I and the class meet the learning outcomes for this semester?

Consume:

At first it was hard to understand exactly the mediums or ways I was supposed to 'consume'. I wasn't sure what really constituted as consume either. It wasn't until I met with Dr. Burton a few weeks into the semester that I realized that I was consuming and creating and connecting all at once. How I was doing this was fan-fiction. Reading fan-fiction has been a big part of my consume process (link to my blog about it). Whenever I would read a book I would immediately go onto fan-fiction to see what had been written about the characters. There were discussions you could join as well. It was fun to see the different interpretations.

Another way I consumed literature was trying my hand at reading James Joyce's Dubliners online as well. Although I found it more difficult to read I still took away something. (Link to my blog about reading online). I also started reading blogs as part of my consume. I found quite a few blogs that helped me in my understanding of James Joyce. (Link to my Blogs of Understanding). I also started reading forums and discussions on Goodreads and various other sites. (Goodreads discussion, and forums discussions blog). I also had fun bookmarking articles that I wanted to read or look at through Diigo. (Link to my diigo) I know other people in the class also had fun with reading blogs and discussions. Some even were able to consume on Twitter.

Create:

Well I think by making this blog as other people in class we participated in the creation process. But not only making this blog but commenting on other blogs and participating in making our eBook. (link to our Ebook) By involving ourselves in group discussions or forums we participated in creating.

Also when we made a collaborative google doc was also our class creating. I have made since many google docs and shared them with my classmates for study guides (blog about google docs)

Going back to fan-fiction that is also part of creation. Although I don't have anything as of yet that I am publishing on fan-fiction I still created some stories. I attempted to recreate the story of "The Sisters" from Dubliners as well as trying my hand at creating my own story of Rainbows End. (I hoped to have it finished and published by now but....things got a little busy. One day).

Connect:

Just as consumption and creating are linked so is connect. By reaching out and consuming blogs and forums and then commenting we are connecting with those people. Also our Webinar is a form of connecting. It was really hard contacting people and letting them know about our Webinar, especially if they were people I did not know. It was difficult to go outside my box and actually contact other people through their blogs but I think I made some valuable connections. I made some friends on Goodreads and discovered a whole world through blogs.

I was already connecting through fan-fiction through the reviews I sent people and discussions I participated in. One thing that was really great was I was able to connect with Jude Mai who allowed me to use part of her story in my eBook chapter to help make my point about fan-fiction being a great source for literary criticism.

Here is a link to my blog about fan-fiction which participates in all three of these outcomes.

Through all of this I think the class and myself fulfilled the outcomes for this class. It was a great semester and I really learned a lot. I am now changed when it comes to doing research. I can no longer think of research as simply going to the library. Research involves much more than that. It involves consumption of all sorts of mediums:blogs, books, forums, Goodreads, discussions, Diigo, articles, and fan-fiction. Research also involves our own creating and connecting to the world around us. If we can't really do that then we haven't really participated in research.

Webinar!!

Come join my English 295 class for our webinar that we will be hosting. It talks all out our free eBook that we will be making available to the public soon. This is what we have been doing this semester, working up to this point!

Whew! Editing

Whew! I think that is what most are thinking now that we have our eBook almost completed. I know I was feeling the heat last week. When I was thinking about the editing that needed to be done on Wednesday I had to surprise a gulp. But that part is done!

My brother got married last Friday and so my family was in town. I was trying to juggle spending time with family and managing three other classes and final projects. It was no easy task but I did it. I don't think I would have accomplished all I did without technology.

Wednesday night after my classes and the bridal shower for my sister-in-law, and a surprise visit to the hospital (my sister had broken her foot) I bunkered down to do some editing. Nyssa had already sent me several of her edits to look over and I needed to start the manuscripts that she assigned me. I stayed up until I could not longer think straight. The next day I headed to grandparents. Luckily they had internet so I continued to work on my editing.

Unfortunately I didn't get finished with all the editing by the time I went to my other grandparents (they didn't have an internet). I finished the edits but I had no way of getting them to the proper individuals. I resolved to not worry about it until the following day (the wedding day). It was one crazy filled day but I managed to send off the edits that were needed and then returned to my family to enjoy their company.

All of this wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for technology. Before starting our editing we needed to get the author's permission that they had their final copy ready. I was stuck at the hospital thinking about all the editing I could be doing but I didn't have my computer nor a way to contact the authors. Then my mother pulled out her new phone and told me she had internet. I was able to get online and contact all the authors I was editing.

Once I got home I was able to start on the manuscripts. We used track changes in word which is really great to see what you have deleted or added, plus the editor can add comments to the author. It was really great since our edits were going through two people so that the previous person could see what had already been done. One thing that really helped me was showing the paper in the 'final stage' which enabled me to see the document with all the editing accepted. I was able to go back and forth looking at the final copy to the edited copy catching some mistakes.

My mother's phone came in handy again on Friday when we were traveling back from Salt Lake. I was able to access my email and stay in touch with the editing team in a quick and efficient way.

It was great working with Nyssa and Aly. Nyssa would send me her edits and I would then send it to the author. I would edit the manuscipts I was assigned and then send them to Aly. One thing that I think might have been easier in this whole process was making myself more available. It was really hard when I was without interent. I could check my email but I was unable to send the documents that I had edited.

This was the editing process for creating our eBook. If you want more narratives or a different narrative on the editing process check our Nyssa's and Aly's blog.

Being Out There

Earlier I was really excited because I found my blog while searching for other blogs. Well Sam pointed out that I had MapLoco on my page. I had originally thought the only purpose of this widget was to show who was viewing my page currently and where they were. I had no idea that I could click on it and actually find out how many people had visited my site, when and where they were at.

To my utter surprise I found that more people are looking at this blog than I had originally thought. It makes me reevaluate the things that I have written (also makes me want to go back and fix somethings). I didn't know I had such a wide audience. Really the only people I thought would look at this blog were people in class, how wrong was I? I think that might change how I post...meaning I might give more explanation for some of the things I have posted.

Within the past month here are the locations and numbers for visits:

Today

Atascadero, CA 1
Provo, UT, 78
South Jordan, UT 1
Salt Lake City, UT 39
New York, NY 1
Austin, TX 1

Other places that people are from that have visited my site:
Peru, Hillsboro, United States, Canada, India, Ecuador, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom

Stepping Over Joyce's Paralysis: Evolution of Secondary Sources

My Final Paper

“The Sisters”

“There was no hope for me this time: it was my third stroke. Night after night I knew I was not long for this world. I kept waiting for the boy to come but he never did. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t; I couldn’t.
My mind was clear; almost as it had been before the incident. I believed it was God’s way of saying he forgave me; I wanted it to be. What I had done warranted no forgiveness.
When Father O’Rourke left is when I felt the peace, the clarity. It was when I knew I was not long for this world. I hoped heaven would receive me.”

Wait . . . stop . . . this is not James Joyce’s story! The short story “The Sisters” from the collection Dubliners is actually told from the point of view of an unnamed boy. This boy had become friends with a priest, Father Flynn who had just passed away.
The boy had been waiting for his death but after the death the boy was didn’t know how to deal with the passing. This boy “wished to go in and look at him but [he] had not the courage to knock.”

The story is unique because Joyce does not give us all the information and leaves it to the audience to make conclusions. Parts of conversations are left unfinished and we are left guessing what was meant. An example is in the last line when Eliza, one of Father Flynn’s sisters, says “Wide-awake and laughing-like to himself. . . . So then, of course, when they say that, that made them think that there was something gone wrong with him. . . .”

So if this is the real story where does this other story come from? It is not written by James Joyce but by me. It is what we call fan fiction. There is a website dedicated to stories such as these, fanfiction.net. It is a site that people can recreate their own story based on another tale.

Researching in the digital age has changed rapidly over the last few years. The reason? It is because there are so many resources and information that we can look at by just using the Internet. Because of mediums like blogs, forums, and fan fiction literary criticism is moving towards more informal sources. Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social and are just as legitimate as scholarly sources.

At the Start

During my research of James Joyce and his book Dubliners I did not restrict myself to just the library. I had many forms to gather my information. I would read blogs, go on forums, join discussions, and read fan fiction.

These may not seem like official scholarly sources and these sources teachers usually don’t accept when writing a formal research paper. Yet, these sources I was able to find out the same information, if not more, about James Joyce and Dubliners as if I had used official scholarly sources.

Maybe in formal writing secondary sources have remained relatively the same but informal secondary sources have sprung up everywhere today changing the ways that we do research and interpret works. People are writing blogs or joining forums to discuss the books that they have been reading. They are not scholars but some of them make the same points that scholarly papers do.

We research and write to understand. When we read we try to interpret and understand the words on the page (or that we have listened to). In order to understand we research, whether it is informal or formal. After we have done research we then try to create or write. By following this process our thoughts are able to mature and grow.

Informal Research

In my research I was able to contact several people about their readings of James Joyce. I felt like this was very useful in my research. One blog I came across was from a woman who actually lives in Ireland. It was interesting to see that her perspective on Dubliners changed as she spent more time in Ireland. She noted, just as James Joyce did, that people in Ireland do experience a sort of paralysis or at least a loyalty to their country and a reluctance to leave it.

Another blog Die Zeitschrift focus on the character of Father Flynn and notices that he has a “[desire] to confess something.” As I was reading this blog my eyes opened a little to Father Flynn’s little secret. I had been, at first, confused about the story of “The Sisters”. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Conversations were confusing and facts were missing.

Once I read the blog I went on a search to find more about Father Flynn and this sin that he believed he committed that caused him to be “sitting up by himself in the dark in his confession-box, wide-awake and laughing-like softly to himself.”

One website, The Modern World, wrote an article about Father Flynn and his ‘condition’. His symptoms suggested his crime was sexual perversion. He was driven mad by his own guilt and by the disease he contracted.

These sources are legitimate even if they don't have the stamp of scholarly attributes because they contribute. They contribute in an analytical and social ways. We are part of a big collaborative world and most information is within easy reach.

Formal Research

Just as I did informal research I was able to find information I needed from the approved scholarly sources. In an article by James Sullivan, he writes about a friend of James Joyce, Padraic Colum, who assisted the author in publishing Dubliners.

James Joyce wrote about things he knew. His characters were often based on people he knew and he didn't hide that fact. That was one of the reasons why it was so hard to publish Dubliners and some of his other works. For myself, I have a suspicion that the unnamed boy might be based a little on Joyce himself.

My reasoning is, after reading The Atlas of Literature, James Joyce went to Catholic school and learned lots. This priest, Father Flynn, is a representation of the Catholic Church. This little boy has learned so much from Father Flynn which is why he feels guilty of being free of him. I am not sure that James Joyce ever felt guilty about leaving the Catholic Church but he did acknowledge their help in his education. Just as the little boy becomes distant from his emotions, James Joyce has distanced himself from the church.

Another reason that he had a hard time getting his work published was because of the content. His stories were often a little inappropriate and made some people feel uncomfortable. James Joyce was creating something that had influenced his life, his time in Dublin. He was reproducing what he saw which is something we all do in an attempt at understanding.

Rob Tocalino remarks about James Joyce and his writing habits. James Joyce did not look kindly on the Dublin people. He wrote about situations and Dublin in a more negative light. Joyce believed that the people in Dublin were in a sort of paralysis, unable to really progress until they moved away from Dublin. The characters in his stories often wish to escape but few can really escape.

Fan Fiction

Just as I created the fan fiction about “The Sisters” to understand the story, we all participate in creation. I tried to put myself in the priest’s shoes. Tried to imagine what it would feel like to be dying. After reading some blogs and forums I was able to understand the character of Father Flynn.

I tried to imagine how he would be feeling right before his death. He would want redemption but after feeling guilty for so long he might think that forgiveness is beyond his reach. My version of the story may not be what James Joyce had intended but it allowed me to connect to the characters in a way that I had not before. It allowed for more interpretation.

As I was trying to find more fan fiction stories I came across Jude Mai’s story “James Joyce’s Araby Pastiche” which she wrote and posted to fictionpress.net.

“Araby” is about a boy who is infatuated with his friend’s sister. He has elevated her in his head and thinks being in love is this great thing. He is so head-over-hills that he offers to go to the bazaar, Araby, for her to get a gift. To him this market possess a “magical name” as if he is on a quest to some magical place for the one he loves. His illusion his shattered when he arrives and he realizes as the story closes that he is “a creature driven and derided by vanity.” The story drops off there and we are left to wonder about the boy and what happened to him afterwards. Did he go back to his crush? Did he grow out of his boyhood fantasies?

The story that I came across answers some of those questions that I had. In Jude Mai's story our young hero was just returning from Araby. As he was leaving the train station he spots the girl that he was infatuated with in the arms of another man.

She writes of the boy’s heart being crushed. But then at the end of her story the boy declares that it no longer matters because he is in love with someone else. I think it is an interesting take on the story of "Araby." The boy continues to go through these fleeting feelings for girls as if going to the bazaar had elicited no change in him.

These sites have enabled my reading of certain stories to alter and change. It gives the audience a fresh perspective on characters that they are familiar with and a chance to see how other people view and interpret the characters.

Nearing the End

Secondary sources whether they are informal or formal help us in our reading process. The secondary sources are evolving and moving away from the scholarly. The information that is shared on these sites are not taking away from knowledge but helping it to grow because of the many minds that are now able to share and exchange information.

When writing a research paper about James Joyce blogs may be helpful to refer to just as a fan fiction story. These informal sources are interpretations of the text just as an article and can be just as legitimate. Of course, informal sources cannot be the only source we use but a healthy mix of both will help with creating well-rounded paper.

Scholarly Works Cited

Sullivan, James P. "Padraic Colum's "James Joyce as a Young Man."" James Joyce Quarterly. Volume 45.3 (2008): 339-347. May 2008.

The Atlas of Literature. Ed. Malcolm Bradbury. London : New York : Don Mills, Ont.: London : De Agostini ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. by Stewart,, Tabori & Chang ; Don Mills, Ont. : Distributed in Canada by General Publishing Co, 1996. Print.

Tocalino, Rob. "James Joyce." Bookmarks 2011/05 2007: 14. Print.

Other Works Cited

Em, “Dubliners, by James Joyce.” C’est la Vie. January 9, 2011. Web. Retrieved May 23, 2011. http://emeire.wordpress.com/

Phillips, E. K. “’Dubliners’ by James Joyce.” Die Zeitschrift. June 1, 2011. Web. Retrieved June 6, 2011. http://zeitschrift.wordpress.com/

Steinberg, Faith. “’The Sisters’ and the Case of the Broken Chalice.” The Modern Word. 2002. Web. Retrieved May 23, 2011. http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/joyce_paper_steinberg.html

Fanfiction.net. Web. 2002

Fictionpress.com. Web. 2008

Tweethis

It was harder than I thought it was going to be making a "tweetable" thesis that Dr. Burton asked us to do.

First Try:

Because of mediums like blogs, forums, and fan fiction literary criticism is moving towards more informal sources. These informal secondary sources can be just as legitimate as scholarly sources. The evolution of secondary sources is changing just as our modes of interpretation and ways of reading the text is changing. Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social.

Second Try:

Because of mediums like blogs, forums, and fan fiction literary criticism is moving towards more informal sources. Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social and can be just as legitimate as scholarly sources

Final:

Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social and are just as legitimate as scholarly sources.

I'm Online!

I was searching more blogs about James Joyce and to my surprise my blog appeared. I wanted to find other blogs that had been discussing "The Sisters" apart from what I had already read. It was a surprising, happy moment when my blog was the very first one on the page. Just had to share that moment of excitment!

"The Sisters" By James Joyce: Evolution of Secondary Sources

As a side note, if anyone has a better title I am all ears.

“The Sisters”

“There was no hope for me this time: it was my third stroke. Night after night I knew I was not long for this world. I kept waiting for the boy to come but he never did. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t; I couldn’t.

My mind was; almost as clear as it had been before the incident. I believed it was God’s way of saying he forgave me; I wanted it to be. What I had done warranted no forgiveness. When Father O’Rourke left is when I felt the peace, the clarity in mind. It was when I knew I was not long for this world. I hoped heaven would receive me.”

Wait . . .stop . . . this is not James Joyce’s story! The short story “The Sisters” from the collection Dubliners is actually told from the point of view of an unnamed boy. This boy had been friends with a priest, Father Flynn who had just passed away. The boy had been waiting for his death but after the death the boy was didn’t know how to deal with death. He knew he was supposed to pay his respects but was afraid. The story is unique because Joyce does not give us all the information and leaves it to the audience to make conclusions.

So where does this other story come from? It is not written by James Joyce but by me. It is what we call fan fiction. There is a website dedicated to stories such as these, fanfiction.net. It is a site that people can recreate their own story based on another tale.

Researching in the digital age has changed rapidly over the last few years. The reason? It is because there are so many resources and information that we can look at by just using the Internet.

There are so many mediums to consume literature with and so many ways you can find and procure information about the literature you have read. It is not difficult to get online and type a question into the search engine. Within seconds your answer will appear and you will no longer be confused about the issue. Literary criticism is changing because of the digital age.

During my research of James Joyce and his book Dubliners I was no longer restricted just to the library. I had many forms to gather my information from. I would read blogs, go on forums, join discussions, and read fan fiction. These may not seem like official scholarly sources and these sources teachers usually don’t accept when writing a formal research paper.

Yet, these sources I was able to find out the same information, if not more, about James Joyce and Dubliners as if I had used official scholarly sources. The evolution of secondary sources is changing just as our modes of interpretation and ways of reading the text is changing. Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social.

Maybe in formal writing secondary sources have remained relatively the same but informal secondary sources have sprung up everywhere today. People are writing blogs or joining forums to discuss the books that they have been reading. They are not scholars but some of them make the same points that scholarly papers do.

In my research I was able to contact several people about their readings of James Joyce. I felt like this was very useful in my research. One blog I came across was from a woman who actually lives in Ireland. It was interesting to see that her perspective on Dubliners changed as she spent more time in Ireland. She noted, just as James Joyce did, that people in Ireland do experience a sort of paralysis or at least a loyalty to their country and a reluctance to leave it.

These informal secondary sources raise the question of whether or not they are legitimate. Knowledge is not limited to what is inside our head any longer or what is on paper. It is so easy to find the information that we need. These sources are legitimate even if they don't have the stamp of scholarly attributes because they contribute. They contribute in an analytical, and social ways. We are part of a big collaborative world and most information is within easy reach.

Just as I did informal research I was able to find information I needed from the approved scholarly sources. In an article by James Sullivan, he writes about a friend of James Joyce, Padraic Colum, who assisted the author in publishing Dubliners.

James Joyce wrote about things he knew. His characters were often based on people he knew and he didn't hide that fact. That was one of the reasons why it was so hard to publish Dubliners and some of his other works. Another reason that he had a hard time getting his work published was because of the content. His stories were often a little inappropriate and made some people feel uncomfortable. James Joyce was creating something that had influenced his life, his time in Dublin. He was reproducing what he saw which is something we all do in an attempt at understanding.

Rob Tocalino remarks about James Joyce and his writing habits. James Joyce did not look kindly on the Dublin people. He wrote about situations and Dublin in a more negative light. Joyce believed that the people in Dublin were in a sort of paralysis, unable to really progress until they moved away from Dublin. The characters in his stories often wish to escape but few can really escape.

These sources helped me understand James Joyce and his stories just as blogs and forums did. I enjoyed my reading more when I was reading blogs than when I was reading articles. The article seems dead. The person who published it, I could try to contact, but it might seem pointless. However, on blogs and forums contact is encouraged.

We research and write to understand. When we read we try to interpret and understand the words on the page (or that we have listened to). In order to understand we research, whether it is informal or formal. After we have done research we then try to create or write. By following this process our thoughts are able to mature and grow.

Just as I created the fan fiction about “The Sisters” to understand the story, we all participate in creation. I tried to put myself in the priest’s shoes. Tried to imagine what it would feel like to be dying. After reading some blogs and forums I realized that perhaps the priest was dying because of a disease he had contracted. My version of the story may not be what James Joyce had intended but it allowed me to connect to the characters in a way that I had not before.

Secondary sources whether they are informal or formal help us in our reading process. The secondary sources are evolving and moving away from the scholarly. The information that is shared on these sites are not taking away from knowledge but helping it to grow because of the many minds that are now able to share and exchange information.

When writing a research paper about James Joyce blogs may be helpful to refer to just as a fan fiction story. These informal sources are interpretations of the text just like an article.

Works Cited

Sullivan, James P. "Padraic Colum's "James Joyce as a Young Man."" James Joyce Quarterly. Volume 45.3 (2008): 339-347. May 2008.

Tocalino, Rob. "James Joyce." Bookmarks 2011/05 2007: 14. Print.

Em, “Dubliners, by James Joyce.” C’est la Vie. January 9, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2011. http://emeire.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/dubliners-by-james-joyce/#comment-1128.

The Change in Secondary Sources and Reading

I have heard it said that literary research is a way to put your thoughts down on paper to help them mature and grow. Well that is what my attempt right now it going to be so I apologize if my thoughts seemed scattered.

As I was thinking about the research I have been doing for James Joyce over the semester I realized a very important fact. Most of that research that I have done did not include very many ‘scholarly sources’. Until last week I don’t think I had gone to the BYU library’s website to look up anything. I was doing informal searches online.

My results I feel were just as good as if I were to look up more official sources. I came across several blogs and other websites that had put up their opinions and interpretations of James Joyce’s Dubliners.(The Chinese Jar, The Reading Life, Mr. Center's Wall)

Literary Criticism is changing because of the digital age. There are so many mediums to consume literature with and so many ways you can find and procure information about the literature you have read. It is not difficult to get online and type a question into the search engine. Within seconds your answer will appear and you will no longer be confused about the issue.

As I was searching for more information about what it meant to be Irish and more about James Joyce’s life I did not have a difficult time finding that information. There were sites dedicated to James Joyce (Ask About Ireland, Ask.com Classic Literature, The James Joyce Society, James Joyce Center. However, if I were to write a formal paper about James Joyce my teachers would not think a blog or some website was official enough to quote. I would then have to change my search and find what I was looking for in a more scholarly location, which always proved more difficult.

Maybe in formal writing secondary sources have remained relatively the same but secondary sources have sprung up everywhere today. People are writing blogs or joining forums to discuss the books that they have been reading. They are not scholars but some of them make the same points that a scholarly paper does. Secondary sources are changing from the formal to informal, from inactive to interactive, and from unsocial to social.

In my research I was able to contact several people about their readings of James Joyce. I felt like this was very useful in my research. One blog I came across was from a woman who actually lived in Ireland. It was interesting to see that her perspective on Dubliners changed as she spent more time in Ireland. She noted, just as James Joyce did, that people in Ireland do experience a sort of paralysis or at least a loyalty to their country and a reluctance to leave it. (C'est la Vie)

As we research our reading also changes. There are so many things that we can look at using the Internet. I found a video that incorporated two stories from Dubliners as well as someone’s creative story based on “Araby” (Link to Video, Link to story). After reading the story and watching the video I had a different perspective of the stories involved.

“Araby” is about a boy who is infatuated with his friend’s sister. He has elevated her in his head and thinks being in love is this great thing. He is so head-over-hills that he offers to go to the bazaar, Araby, for her to get a gift. To him this market possess a “magical name” as if he is on a quest to some magical place for the one he loves. His illusion his shattered when he arrives and he realizes as the story closes that he is “a creature driven and derided by vanity.” The story drops off there and we are left to wonder about the boy and what happened to him afterwards. Did he go back to his crush? Did he grow out of his boyhood fantasies?

The story that I came across a story about “Araby” answer some of those questions that I had. Jude Mai had written this story for an English class as an attempt to continue on the story. She had then published her story on a fan fiction website. Fanfiction.net or Fictionpress.net are two places that people can recreate or create their own story. These sites have enabled my reading of certain stories to alter and change. It gives the audience a fresh perspective on characters that they are familiar with and a chance to see how other people view and interpret the characters.

In Jude Mai's story our young hero was just returning from Araby. As he was leaving the train station he spots the girl that he was infatuated with in the arms of another man. Jude Mai writes of the boys heart being crushed. But then at the end of her story the boy declares that it no longer matters because he is in love with someone else. I think it is an interesting take on the story of "Araby." The boy continues to go through these fleeting feels for these girls as if going to the bazaar had elicited no change in him.

The evolution of secondary sources are changing our interpretations and reading of the text. Just as other forms or creation and recreation of those texts. Like Jude Mai's story has given me more to think about in the character of the boy, other sites have also answered questions and raised more questions. Knowledge is not limited to what is inside our head any longer. It is so easy to find the information that we need. The real question is are these sources legitimate? I believe that they are. They don't have the stamp of scholarly attributes but they still contribute. We are part of a big collaborative world and most information is within easy reach.

Dubliners

Dubliners by James Joyce

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There were stories that I enjoyed and stories that I did not get at all. James Joyce is an interesting and talented author. I love his work. As I tried to read Dubliners I tried to place myself in an Irishman's shoes. It was hard. I didn't really know the culture nor did I understand the time period. As I did some research I discovered more about James Joyce and in doing that I discovered more about the characters. Each story has layers of meaning. They can be applied to a variety of people.



I am not sure if I have a favorite in Dubliners but I have a few that continue to fascinate me and cause me to question its meaning. I really enjoyed "The Sisters", "Araby", and "Eveline". These stories were the ones that I wanted to know more about. At the end I was left with unanswered questions that caused me to go and look for the answers. If you are willing to take the time to understand James Joyce, you will learn a lot!



View all my reviews

Rainbow's End

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Although the ending left me hanging I think overall it was a pretty decent book. Sometimes I had a hard time picturing exactly what was going on so I was confused at some moments. However, I think that the ideas that are shared in Rainbows End are very important. I think we are facing some of the same issues today that Robert Gu is facing. We are all waking up from this almost coma into a world of change. We have so many different forms of consumption for literature that sometimes we forget what it means to read an 'actual book'. But then we also have to question what is reading? Does reading online count? Or does listening count? I think, perhaps, we will always have books but they may not be as readily available as they are today. Bookstores might disappear and we will be left with a virtual world much like Robert Gu's. We will need to adapt to the change or become obsolete.



View all my reviews

The Public Domain

The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Not necessarily the book that I would pick up to read for fun but it contained lots of useful and at times interesting information. I think that James Boyle does a great job in engaging the reader. I found the best way to read his book was not to read it from front to back but to just jump right in the center and bounce around from there. It might have been that I was reading it in an online version so my attention span was not the longest.



He made some very good points on the public domain and where we should draw the lines on intellectual property and when we should allow people to have creative freedom. I really enjoyed the spots when he discussed how we often build upon the past. Music artists, or stories, or really any other form of creative work almost always has built upon an idea from the past. We are borrowing all the time. It is just interesting to think how much to too much borrowing and when can we keep sharing that information?





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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I am not sure if I understood everything about the story. It was interesting to read and think about what it really means to be human. In the case of having a pet, does it really matter if the pet is real? Sometimes I feel that humans are less 'human' than androids could be. I think the question of what it means to be human is something that we constantly explore. As individuals we are striving to explore our own personality and identity. That is part of human nature. The fact that androids want to run away from their life seems to suggest that they possess human qualities as well but whether that means they are human or not is still left undecided. Philip K. Dick's world is not one that has easy answers. It is a very thought provoking book and for the most part I enjoyed it.



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Ebooks at BYU

I have been trying to figure out the usage of ebooks at BYU, who uses them, how often often, and the types of ebooks that are available. So far I have not had much success. I started by using the library chat feature. They referred me to an office in the library by giving me a number. I then ran into the problem of it being closed. So finally I was able to get a hold of this office and then they sent me over to someone else, Bill Lund? (not sure on the last name), who was in charge of computers and such. Well he was in a meeting and so I had to leave a message. I have not heard back from him yet, hopefully it will be before class.

Thinking about other ebooks that I have used for class on the BYU's library page, I know that BYU does have electronic books. Some books are not available to all students and you have to be apart of that college to use them (law). Also, some of the ebooks that are available only one person can be viewing it at a time. Which is much like a normal book. But the ebooks that I have come across are usually actual text books that have been made available in electronic format.

That is what I have to report, so far.

"The Sisters" By James Joyce

Summary of "The Sisters"

"The Sisters" (the text link) is the first story found in James Joyce's Dubliners. Giving you a brief summary of the story it is about a unnamed narrator, a boy. This boy had been great friends with a priest, Father Flynn. Father Flynn had just died. The boy had been waiting for his death. After his death the boy was trying to come to terms at losing his friend. This priest had taught the boy lots of great things but the boy was having trouble feeling sad. He missed his friend and yet he felt free now that he was dead. This story is unique because Joyce does not give us all the information. There are many details that are left out.

When I was finished with the story the only thing that I thought was, what? I was very confused. I wanted to know what happened to the priest that made him go crazy. I wanted to know about the little boy and what he thought about everything. We are let into his mind at the beginning of the story but as the tale progresses it becomes more of a third person story and we are told nothing of the boy's thoughts.


Anaylsis

After looking around online over the past few months on various blogs and other sites I thinking I can understand "The Sisters" a little more. It really helps that I have discovered more about James Joyce's past. (See Shocking Discovery, and James Joyce as Young Man, and Finding James Joyce blogs). Just as I mentioned in a previous blog, Paint on the Brain, there are symbols all over the place. It is just that way in this story. "The Sisters" could very well be James Joyce's own commentary of his disillusionment of the Catholic Church.
James Joyce went to Catholic school and learned lots. This priest, Father Flynn, is a representation of the Catholic Church. This little boy has learned so much from Father Flynn which is why he feels guilty of being free of him. I am not sure that James Joyce ever felt guilty about leaving the Catholic Church but he did acknowledge their help in his education. Just as the little boy becomes distant from his emotions, James Joyce has distanced himself from the church.

Now as I have been reading other opinions of "The Sisters" I have discovered a little secret about Father Flynn. I have mentioned before about the controversy surrounding the publication of Dubliners in both my Reading Views blog and James Joyce as a Young Man mentioned earlier.

Father Flynn's symptoms were apparently similar to someone having syphilis, which is a sexual transmitted disease, saying that Father Flynn had a less than honorable past. His sisters were taking about his deteriorating condition and how at one point he was found in the confession box laughing. These factors reveal that Father Flynn was a fallen man. James Joyce believed the Catholic Church to be fallen and that their teachings were deranged, which is exactly what Father Flynn became.
James Joyce seems to be frustrated with the paralysis that has taken hold of the Irish people, especially those in Dublin. He believes that people need to escape Dublin to really succeed in life but feels that most do not escape because they can't. Father Flynn in the last part of his life suffers actual paralysis and not figurative paralysis. In my blog Blogs of Understanding I mention how other's have noticed this paralysis or refusal to give up their beloved home.

Sorry that this blog ran kind of long. This story confused me the most and so I have been looking at it the most. The more I learn about James Joyce the more I understand the story.

James Joyce as a Young Man

1. Discovering James Joyce as a Young Man through Project Muse


2. I am using the database Project Muse to find more about James Joyce and his personality.


3. Project Muse is a site that I have used before but when I was searching on JOSTR and other sites they kept bringing me back here with the articles that I needed. Project MUSE has a collection of scholarly articles and journals from many different places.


4. I decided as I was looking at the other library resources, to look up James Joyce as a Young Man to try to understand who he was as a person.


5. Sullivan, James P. "Padraic Colum's "James Joyce as a Young Man."" James Joyce Quarterly. Volume 45.3 (2008): 339-347. May 2008


6. This article discussed a little bit about James Joyce's personality and development as a character. Padriac Colum worked with James Joyce and helped him get his work published. They struggled for a little bit to accomplish the publication.


7. James Joyce wrote about things that he knew. His characters were often based on people he knew and he sometimes didn't hide that fact. That was one of the reasons why it was so hard to publish Dubliners and some of his other works. Another reason that he had a hard time getting his work published was because of the content. His stories were often a little inappropriate and made some people feel uncomfortable. James Joyce was creating something that had influenced his life, his time in Dublin. He was reproducing what he saw which is something we all do in an attempt at understanding.

The Question of Artful Communication

1. Using Project Muse to link art and interpretation of text.
   
2. I am going to use this database in order to explore a little more of my research plan as well as Amy's. She has been looking at visual work as a way of consuming literature and how that affects an understanding and view of a work.
   
3. Project Muse is a database containing articles from different scholarly journals that are provided for the use of the public.
   
4. In the search engine I typed in "art as a means of intpretation and expression" and I came up with several links.
   
5. Stroud, Scott R. "John Dewey and the Question of Artful Communication." Philosophy and Rhetoric, Volume 41.2 (2008 ): 153-183. Project MUSE May 2011.
   
6. This article talks about art as a form of communication. It also discusses the use of art as a means of expressing what we have consumed.
   
7. I thought that this article was relvant to what Amy is kind of research as well as what I am researching. It is interesting to see how we do use art and other forms of creativity to communicate, not only our feelings but what we believe and view the world and what we have consumed.

E-books, creating our own

So after class on Wednesday I started thinking about my research topic and how I could tie that into creating an e-book. I was inspired by Amy and what she has been researching. I started thinking about visual art and how that affects our interpretations of different things that we consume. She talked about how when she saw some pictures of The Red Fern Grows that it brought different feelings or a different view on the written work. (Blog 1, Blog 2). Her research got me thinking about my own research and research that others have been doing in class.

We consume literature so many different ways. Each way that we consume literature we have a different reading or a different interpretation. Sometimes as we read we try to reproduce some of those thoughts by either making a blog, or creating a movie, drawing, or even writing your own version of the story. These are all ways that we consume and then understand what we have consumed.

The way that people reproduce what they have consumed affects their view of the material. If you look at fanfiction and other remixing. These forms are just another way of expressing their opinion and interpretation of a certain literature, video, etc. Then as others consume the product that someone else has created it then in turn changes and affects their views and interpretations.

It might be interesting, an a way that we can utilize all of our interest in the various things that we are reading to try and incorporate how we have consumed our literature, and how that has changed our reading of it. Some have used audio books, others have read from their kindle, or read the comic book version of the book. Each of these ways have produced a different insight. I know I am interested in exploring more about creative communication as a way of interpretation.

Finding the Life of James Joyce through LRC

1. Finding the Life of James Joyce through LRC
   
2. My purpose is to explore the LRC (Learning Resource Center), to look for more information on James Joyce and his life and history. I hope to be able to understand the man better in order to understand his writing
3. LRC (Learning Resource Center) contains a comprehensive and reliable online resources for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. It contains scholarly articles, reviews of books of all sorts substantive biographical essays, and full text of thousands of poems and short stories published in contemporary journals and magazines. Also it has overview of essays on thousands of books and literary topics and links to editorially selected websites on authors and their works, as well as pictures of well-known authors and audio interviews and reviews
4. I used the basic search engine by typing in James Joyce. I narrowed the search by unclicking all the content type to just biographies and then search for words just in people about or by. I found an article by Rob Tocalino, his article had graphics and so I clicked on that one. I was lead to a brief biographical sketch of James Joyce and all the of the novels and short stories that he had written.
5. Tocalino, Rob. "James Joyce." Bookmarks 2011/05 2007: 14. Print.
6. I discovered that James Joyce didn't really enjoy living in Dublin. Although he did not have a terrible history with his home town he was always disgusted with it. He was very smart and went to Catholic school. But by the age of sixteen he no longer wanted to be a member of the Catholic Church. He moved around a lot and lived off of odd jobs. He did not marry Nora (his wife) until much later in their life. A lot of the characters he used in his writings were based off of actual people that he knew. He lived in poverty for the end part of his life.
   
7. Because of the fact that Joyce did not look kindly on Dublin the people and situations that he wrote about are portrayed in a negative light. Joyce believed that the people in Dublin were in a sort of paralysis, unable to really progress or move out of this place that he despised. The characters in his stories often wish to escape but few can really escape. Those who leave often have better lives but they still hold onto Dublin, much like Joyce did. For someone who did not care for his home town he had a kind of intense obsession with it.
   

Shocking Discovery

As I was searching for someone to read about James Joyce's Dubliners I decided to look on WorldCat. I was trying to find an article or anything about the different kinds of viewpoints and perspectives that different people have when reading Dubliners. I found a book that looked promising but as I was clicking on the links I realized that I had to go and get it from the library. So I did. When I found the James Joyce section I found a few more books that looked interesting. I walked away from the library with four different books in my hands. James Joyce: New Perspectives; Joyce, Ireland, Britain; James Joyce's Dublin Houses; James Joyce and the Common Reader. After finding these books I decided to head over to the reference books to look at the Atlas of Literature, which was talked about during our library instruction the other day. As I was reading that book I realized how little I actually knew about James Joyce.

I knew a few facts about the guy but nothing really solid. What I had been focusing on my study and research was not too much about his life (even though I said I was going to start researching him). I had been focusing most of my research on other people's view of Dubliners and more of Irish history. What I found out from the small section about James Joyce shocked me.

In my mind most famous writers who are dead and long gone I sort of romanticize. In my mind I concoct this vision of what sort of person they are, and usually they are upstanding citizens who are really smart, they have a wonderful family and a perfect life. But really their lives are not perfect, whose is? The Atlas of Literature kept talking about James Joyce and his sketchy life. Apparently he was not the upstanding citizen that I thought him to be. He had an affair, tried to get his wife to cheat on him and seemed to live a kind of wild life. Although I don't know all of the facts since the section in the book didn't give too many details. But this reading really helped me to know where I need to go next.

I know this blog doesn't follow the assignment as it should but the next one. I just needed to get this out so that I may know what I first need to research instead of jumping right into the analysis of his stories, first I need to understand that author.

Blogs of Understanding

In my attempt to understand James Joyce and his Dubliners, I went on a search of Irish culture. I was able to scratch the surface to some of the problems and questions that I have had. I was reading a blog by Em, C'est la Vie! and although she is not a native of Ireland has been living there for a few years. She is also a teacher. She states that the first time she read Dubliners she didn't get that much out of it. But now that she has been living there she understand more of the culture. Her students could also relate to Dubliners. I sent her a message in hopes to understand more how she and her students could relate to the stories found in Dubliners. I hope to hear from her soon.

Her blog led me to another blog who didn't have as much success in relating herself to Dubliners. This blog I could relate more to because I myself couldn't understand some of the things that James Joyce was referring to. As I began to browse the web I ran across a great site about the Irish culture in 1904 (which was around the time Dubliners was published). After looking at this website I could understand a little more about the stories.

In the story Eveline (which I have mentioned previously) I had a hard time understanding why Eveline ran back to her father. It was clear to me that following Frank had more appeal. Her father didn't seem like a very nice person and would beat his kids. But after I read more about the culture I realized that it was perfectly fine for fathers to beat their children after the age of two. For us nowadays even spanking your children could be considered abuse and you could get in trouble for it. Also, after reading Em's blog I realized that the Irish people are very attached to their homeland. She mentioned how many Irish folk talk about leaving and want to leave (which is evident in Dubliners) and yet once they leave "they immediately find an Irish pub". Although this might be saying something about most people and their need to find something familiar. Leaving what you know is a scary thing and we never quite leave our home. After realizing this I could better understand why Eveline did not flee with her love but returned home to her father.

Reading Views

The discussions that I have tried to start online have pretty much failed. I have only gotten one response. I am going to keep trying with different people and sites. However, after not really getting much response this past week I decided to engage people around me as well as the book in different ways.

The first things I did was read some of Dubliners online. I found that is was difficult to read some of Joyce's stories online. When I read things online I find that my mind is not as focused. There are many distractions. I check my email or click on facebook a few times while I am reading. I also found that I skim more often when I am reading online. In short stories, skimming is never a good idea. Every line is important. The stories that I read online I had a harder time remembering what they were about.

After my experience reading online I decided to try listening to Dubliners. I couldn't find a free version of Dubliners to listen to so I had a roommate read some stories to me. I thought this was a good idea to engage with those around me. It was different to have someone read to you. She would use different voices for the dialogue as well as stopping to ask a question or say something about the text (which you don't get in the audio format). She said it was a little difficult to understand because of some of the words that were used. I am not sure if it is the culture or the time period that caused the different in word choice but it left both of us confused about certain points.

Later, as I was reading by myself, I tried to understand more about Dubliners. There was some controversy when Dubliners was first created. It was almost not published because of the themes and language that was used within its pages. There were a few stories that I could understand might offend people but for the majority I could not see what was so offensive. While I was thinking about this I tried to see why this would happen. I went to a family even this evening and when I was there my aunt and I started talking about the book. During our conversation I realized a little why people would be offended by some of the other stories. Dubliners is often described as a dissection of "dear dirty Dublin". Some individuals do not want to learn about the unpleasant parts of their neighborhood. They want to hear pleasant, happy stories. I felt that I had a small little break through by trying to understand the Irish people. I don't fully understand how they would Dubliners but I know I am on the right track.

Discussions

So far I have been trying to gauge other people's responses to James Joyce's Dubliners. I had posted on several sites in hopes that people will start talking about the book. I have created a discussion on Goodreads, a forum, and Yahoo Answers. I have also contacted some people on fanfiction. For each of these places I have asked people what they thought about Dubliners and if there were any stories that they could relate to and why. I hope to get some promising answers.

Spoiler Alert

For those of you who have not read Dubliners I thought I would give you a brief summary of the two stories that I mentioned in my earlier posts.

"Araby"- This story is about an unnamed boy (in the youtube video he is Seamus) who is infatuated with one of his friend's sister. He idealizes her and when he finally is able to talk to her he offers to go to Araby for her, a bazaar, and bring her back something. He is very excited and believes that this is a great mission he is on. When he arrives at the bazaar his idealized notions of love and things exotic are shattered. He kind of comes to reality and leaves the bazaar with nothing.

"Eveline"- This story is about a girl who lives with her father. Her mother has died and so has one of her brothers. Her other brother is out in the world. She has met a man, Frank, and he has promised to take her away from her home. (She is afraid that her father will beat her like he did with her brothers). However, before she leaves she hears an organ and it reminds her of the promise she made to her mother to take care of her father. As she is leaving with Frank she panics and realizes she can't go with him. She leaves, and exhibits no emotion on her face.

If I mention any more stories in my blog I will be sure to give you a brief summary so you may understand what I am talking about.

Adapting

In this world of change and adaptation we all need to be able to cope with those advances. If we don't then we often get left behind. Books companys and publishing companys are making books available online or on kindles, etc but that is not the only thing they are doing. Changing their book designs to attract a generation that is no longer focused on the classic literature but more popular literature. I just thought it was interesting that these covers have been redesigned. It kind of reflects the conversation I was having with Taylor before class. We were talking about the book lists that we all keep of to-reads. The list only seems to get longer instead of shorter. Often times, at least for me, when we sit down to read we don't want to pull out Crime and Punishment or Heart of Darkness but instead choose an easy book to read. We decide to read that Harry Potter book one more time or start the Hunger Games. As we often choose the more popular books, we can see the publishers trying to engage the ever changing culture.