"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.

Dubliners

This is the video that I found on you tube.

Mashing and Remixing

I was having a hard time deciding how I should read James Joyce's Dubliners. I wanted more than just a quick read. I began searching other blogs to see what others were saying about Dubliners but I still could not conclude any definite solution to my reading problem.

After thinking and searching I came across a you tube video that a few kids did for their english class. They had taken two stories, Araby and Eveline and created a video about both of these stories. They combined the stories into one. Although the changed some of the plot the main story remained the same. It was interesting to see their verison of the story. Fan fiction has always appealed to me so I tried to think how I could apply fan fiction to James Joyce. After that I started searching for stories that people had recreated about James Joyce. I was able to find another story about Araby that continued on after the boy left the market. I think it might be interesting to talk to the person who posted the story as well.

Fan fiction is a way for people to express how they feel about things that they have consumed. Almost as a way of understanding it. I think it would be interesting to look at Jame Joyce and his Dubliners and see how various people read his stories. Someone much older might read his stories very different than someone who is in High School. Just as someone in the United States might have an entirely different reading than someone who is in Ireland. How I am going to do this is by reading others' fan fictions as well as their blogs so I can get a personal insite to what Jame Joyce means to them.

I also think it might be interesting to learn more about James Joyce and what inspired him to write Dubliners.

Forum Reading

I am a fan of forums. I love going on and reading individuals comments on various subjects. However, the downfall of the forums is that they are very informal. Usually the discussions don't develop as deeply as I would like and graze the surface of most subjects that I am researching. But the main reason why I like forums is because it is a way to connect. I don't expect an in-depth discussion of James Joyce or Charles Dickens. The most I really expect to get is, "I really like this story" or "I was confused when. . .". Then someone will respond to those posts and the conversation goes on. What is appealing is the fact that it is a conversation. It is a way to casually bounce around your ideas and get your ideas out of your head. I find that as I post on forums that I can better formulate my thinking for more formal settings.

Sometimes I am surprised to find a pearl of knowledge. Someone's comment will have sparked an idea in my head or helped clarify an idea that was already forming. Searching through forums for these little 'pearls of knowledge' can be tedious but it is worth it, to me at least.

Right and Wrong

As I was thinking more about property rights and The Public Domain I was reminded of a discussion that James Boyle brought up. I have mentioned before in my blog about the creation process and how we build upon the past. It is important to use methods of consume to led to the create process. However, there are certain questions that must be brought to the consume process. James Boyle states that all creators, whether it is in music, art, science, or media, need incentive. If the incentive is gone then why would they want to create? The incentive is usually money.

If a book is just going to be published online, no charge, why would people want to purchase it? And if there are no sales then the author receives no royalties, and no incentive to create. Same goes with music and movies or even company logos. We need to have some rules and laws that regulate the use of ideas. However, that does bring up the other side of the argument of when it these laws taking it too far? A piece of art should be enjoyed by all, right? Just as books are meant to be read. We are moving towards being more digital. Books are more readily available online. There are sites such as fan fiction that people can publish their own stories but it is using someone else’s ideas.

Should this be allowed? How hard should the public push for a more digital culture? There needs to be a balance between the public domain and intellectual property. But where is that line? James Boyle makes some really good arguments and I am trying to filter through them all. I hope I made sense. What are everyone else’s thoughts?

How I Consume- Repost

I am reposting this post, because for some reason it didn't show up yesterday when I posted it. It was in my google reader but not on my blog wall... guess that goes to show how tempermental the internet can be sometimes. It is frustrating because I added a lot of links to this post too...now I have to start all over.

My post from yesterday:
After my meeting with Dr. Burton, my head was reeling with ideas. Since we talked a lot about fan fiction, he suggested to me that I could do more focus on that subject. I started thinking about they ways that I consume media. After I watch a movie or read a book I refer to fan fiction. It is a habit that I have developed.

For example, after I watch the movie Prince of Persia, I went to fanfiction.net (link to Prince of Persia fanfic). Sometimes I am curious just to see who has written stories about the movie I just watched, and I am interested to see how soon after the movie or tv show has aired do people start creating their stories. I do this for books too. I love the book True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and so i decided to see if anyone had written anything about it (Charlotte Doyle Stories). There were a few stories but not as many as had been for Prince of Persia. It is kind of fun to see what people like to write about and what people like to read as well.

Going to fan fiction has become a part of my consume process. I had not realized this until my meeting with Dr. Burton. I think it would be interesting to see how fan fiction has changed literature and the ways others read and consume.

User's Guide to Internet

In thinking about a collaborative project that our class could do, I tired to think of something that would be beneficial to a large group of people. I tried to think, before I was in this class, what I would like to have available. I know how to use the basic search engines, and I was aware of blogging and some social networks like facebook. Before this class that was the extent of my knowledge of the Internet. I never heard of Diigo or Goodreads. There is so many websites that can assist students and non-students alike.

My thought was to create a web page of some sort, or a document, that talks about various websites and how to use those sites. If we could explain the uses of Google Documents or why people should get Diigo accounts, I think it would open people's eyes to all that is out there in the digital world. Even talking about audio books and e-books and how one can get those books. It might be an interesting bit of information to spread to everyone else. Kind of like a user's guide to the Internet. I know that there are other networks and sites out there that I am not even aware of. Maybe it is too large of a project or too small, depends on where it is taken.

How I Consume

After my meeting with Dr Burton, my head was reeling with ideas. Since we talked a lot about Fan Fiction he suggested to me that I could do more focus on that. I started thinking about the ways that I consume media. After I watch a movie or read I book I refer to Fan Fiction. It is a habit that I have formed.

For example, after I watch the movie Prince of Persia I went to fanfiction.net (link to Prince of Persia fanfic). Sometimes I am curious just to see who has written stories about the movie I just watched and how soon after a particular movie has premiered do people start creating their stories. I do this for books too. I love the book True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and so I decided to see if anyone had written anything about it (Charlotte Doyle stories). There were a few stories but not as many as had been Prince of Persia. It is kind of fun to see what people like to write about and what people like to read.

Going to fanfiction has become part of my consume and I had not realized this until my meeting with Dr Burton. I think it would be interesting to see how fanfiction has changed literature and they way others read and consume.

Google Docs!

I was very proud of myself the other day because I created my very first Google Doc. I have used them before in class but I have never created one. I remember the first day that I opened a Google Doc and I thought it was the coolest invention. I was so enthralled by how you could actually see what someone else was writing while they were typing it! Now that I have a Google account I decided to create a Google Doc for my art history class (we have an exam today). I was very disappointed that no one had added anything almost 24 hours after posting it. I added a few more things and then closed it in disappointment. However, when I returned a few hours later it was almost entirely filled up. I was joyous. I guess I felt that it was my creation even though it was a compilation of everyone's thoughts.

After that I started thinking about sharing knowledge. That is exactly what we are supposed to be doing in college. Learning is not a solitary process. Although we might think that it is, its not. We can glean knowledge from the best of books but we really wouldn't have learned. Learning comes from others, from sharing. As we are sharing and connecting with others and the world around us our eyes are opened to a whole world of knowledge that books can't really contain. Sure they can try to capture what others can teach us but it just isn't the same. I think about the blog experiences that I have had in just the past week and I have learned more about a variety of topics that I don't think I would have learned from a book. Part of the creating process is being able to connect.

My Secret is Out!

After class yesterday I have been thinking about how I can apply the things that I have been reading more to myself. How I can move from consume to create. As I was thinking about these things and about the Public Domain I realized that I participate in a community that deals with the questions that the Public Domain deals with. My hobby I don't tell many people because it is a secret love of mine and I kept it a secret because then people will see how obsessive I really am. But I am sharing this and declaring my "nerdiness" proudly.

My secret obsession is Fan Fiction. For those of you who have not heard of Fan Fiction, let me explain. Fan Fiction can either refer to the actual website, fanfiction.net or a type of writing. The Fan Fiction website is dedicated to people who are unsatisfied with an ending to their favorite story or those who just don't want the story to end. Essentially, Fan Fiction is a what if scenario. Some people have actually published their Fan Fiction. Anyone can publish their story for everyone to enjoy. I am both an avid reader and writer of Fan Fiction. It is a great little community because you can then go and review stories that others have written and sometimes they check out the stories that you have written and return the favor. I have made several friends this way.

Now that my secret is out I will tell you how this relates to the Public Domain. In my last post I talked about building upon the past. The Public Domain is a discussion about what things are copy righted and what is the public domain. James Boyle's discussion is essentially about what can we say should be the public domain and what should be copy righted. In one chapter is talks about music and how artists often play off other songs and use ideas from other artists. That is essentially what is happening with the fanfiction website. People use ideas, like Harry Potter, and create their own story. For example, instead of Harry getting sorted into Gryffindor he is suddenly sorted into Slytherin. The author then explores how the story might have changed. There are a few authors who have asked not to allow their stories to be used in this manner and Fan Fiction has complied with their wishes.

Is it wrong to use someone else's ideas to create? When does it go too far?

Now the secret is out, I have realized that I participate in the very thing that James Boyle talks about.

Building on the Past

While I was reading the Public Domain by James Boyle a line really stuck out to me. He has been talking about the public domain and copyright laws. How these copyright laws are often hard to define. What do you decide people can recreate and what they cannot. James Boyle states that copyright laws do not "understand the need for future creators to build on the past." I have been thinking about that and other things that he has stated and it is a hard question to ask. What can people re-create and what must be left along because it has already been done? What is really original and what isn't?

He continues on by saying that the postmodern conclusion is that there is really nothing new "all creation is re-creation, that there is no such thing as originality, merely endless imitation." James Boyle agrees and disagrees with that statement. We imitate and re-create things that we have heard. Just look at the million videos that are posted online or the parody of videos (example the Friday, Friday song sung by Jessica Black).

I won't deny that we are just re-creating things that have already been created but sometimes the things that are being produced are appreciated more at certain times. Creation is all about timing. Returning to my art history class that I am in, certain art pieces were not widely liked until the artist had been dead for many years. Only then did people study is works and begin to imitate the things that he put in his creations. Like technology, art builds upon the past. We are always improving and striving to make something that is 'original' and different but what we are really doing is presenting the same information is a different, often, better way.

Thoughts?