About

This blog was developed for my electronic literacy class, and is used to explore the principles discussed in the various texts we have read throughout the semester. Through my posts I will attempt to connect the different texts to create an overarching concept that applies to electronic and print literature. I think it is always important to look at how literature can be interpreted in different ways, and to attempt to find out how the structure of literature can influence interpretation. This blog is my attempt to connect print and electronic literature in a way that shows how the concepts of Calvino can be applied to any type of literature.

I believe in learning through doing, and this is my chance to learn about different forms of technology use in the classroom by using it myself. I hope to be able to use this knowledge and incorporate it into my own classroom. Using technology and literature together can make reading a more entertaining experience for all involved. My goal as a teacher is to get students motivated to read, and to get them to make their own judgments about a text.

Learning

Creating a learning screen is something that I have never done before, but I feel that it is a very effective way of gaining a higher understanding of a subject like electronic literature. I think that the learning screen is perfect for a topic like this because it directly involves the component of technology, which is absolutely essential for electronic literature. The learning screen also makes it easy to use images alongside text. Images can often express ideas much better than words, and finding images online and linking them to a blog or website is much easier than incorporating images into a formal research paper. The experience of creating a learning screen is also beneficial for revising, as it can be edited at any time. This allows the student to go back and make changes without having to completely revise a paper and reprint it. The changes are made immediately, and can be seen by people all around the world.

I have written many research papers, and I am very familiar with that format. It was difficult for me to get into the groove of creating a learning screen, but once I figured it out there were no major problems. This experience has opened my eyes to the importance of using technology in the classroom to add variety and to help students learn in a way that suits them. Many students may have a lot of trouble writing a formal research paper, but they may be able to post online more efficiently than their teacher. Finding a student's strength area and using it to benefit them makes learning more fun and engaging. A learning screen allows a student to put some of their personality behind their work, as there are many different blog layouts and settings that make each blog or webpage unique. The creative aspect of the research paper is still present, but the form is more flexible and allows for even more creativity. I think that while a research paper is still a good way to explore a subject, learning screens enable a new way of thinking about and presenting information that can be useful when talking about a subject that is harder to pin down. This experience has opened my eyes to the world of technology in the classroom, and I plan on using some of what we have learned this semester in my own classroom.

Aesthetics

For my visualization of Haroun and the Sea of Stories I have chosen an image of colored water. I chose this image because I felt that it fit in well with the overall message of the story. When I thought about the main point of the story, I kept coming back to the importance of the ocean to storytelling, and how all of the people in the novel worked together to stop Khattam-Shud from destroying the ocean. All of the characters in the novel are extremely different from one another, but they are willing to work together to save their world from destruction. This made me think of how different colors can blend together to make something beautiful. I think that this image reflects the diversity present in the story, as well as the importance of the ocean, which is the most important place in the story. Without the storytelling waters, there will be no stories to tell, which would change the world forever, and make it a much more negative place. I also chose this image of water because it has a mystical quality to it. If you look at the image long enough, you begin to question whether or not it is really water at all, or something completely different. This represents the different worlds present in the novel, and how Haroun and his father are able to go in between them. I think that for such a complex novel, there needs to be a complex representation that is also simple at the same time. This picture is so complex because of the different colors of the water and how the light plays off of them, but at the same time it is extremely simple. Water is one of the most basic elements of life, and without it no one could survive. The storytelling waters are absolutely essential to Haroun's world, which is why I think this image works perfectly.

When I chose to use Haroun and the Sea of Stories as my book for this project, I did so because of the different ways it related to the principles discussed in Calvino's memos. I think the book relates to the principle of lightness in the way that the book reads. The language is simple and light, which makes the overall story seem light as well. The story is also happy, even when the situations the characters are in become dangerous. This overall happiness helps create a light atmosphere when reading the story. I feel that the principle of quickness is found in the novel in the way that the story is delivered. There are no points in the story where the plot lags to explain places or events in great detail. This keeps the story moving quickly, and makes the point of the story more evident. There is also a rhythmic feeling to the story, which is a trait that Calvino identified with the principle of quickness. Calvino's third principle of exactitude can be seen in the novel by the way that it is constructed. The novel takes the reader on a journey, and is planned out into the structure of a story that a storyteller might tell to an audience. The images used in the story are also clear and memorable, which helps pull the reader into the story. Visibility is the principle that I found the most important to the novel. The images used in the story are very creative, and make the reader wonder where they came from. The fact that the images are created by combining real people and places with the imagination of the author makes the story extremely complex. This requires the reader to dig deep to find the true meaning of all the images in the text. The complex images in the text also tie in with the multiplicity of the text. By pulling in different images and contexts, Rushdie created a novel that works as a sort of hyper-novel.

Online

When looking for online representations of Haroun and the Sea of Stories I noticed that the only sites I could find were ones trying to sell the text. While sites like Amazon give some information and reviews about the text, there is little information that can help make the book more interesting for the reader. There are also a few websites that have notes on the book, but they are more for college students trying to avoid reading the book, instead of an electronic version of the text. Salman Rushdie has several pages on publisher websites, but there is nothing that shows a digital representation of the text.

I think that this text needs a much better online reference point for readers. There is currently nothing that shows how this book can be interpreted into a piece of electronic literature. By creating a website that incorporates the text with images, sounds, and other effects, the text could become more interactive and entertaining for the reader. Rushdie's book is already very interesting to read, but reluctant readers may still be unwilling to read a book if it is nothing but blocks of text on a page. Having an electronic representation of this text would make it easier for reluctant readers to become interested in the story, and would help the book reach a larger audience. Rushdie has published his book in many different languages, and it would be much easier to have some sort of translation tool on a web version of the text instead of having to find a copy of the book in a different language.

I think that the piece "The Jew's Daughter" is a great example of how Haroun and the Sea of Stories can be converted into a piece of electronic literature. While reading, the story seems to gradually evolve, which matches well with the way each click causes the text to change in "The Jew's Daughter." I also think that, while it is somewhat simplistic, the online version of Briar Rose is a good example of how this text could be adapted for internet use. A series of images could be created to represent the different characters and places in the book, which would help make the story come to life for the reader. While there is not an online representation of this work at this time, I hope that in the near future there is a way to make the book more accessible and more interesting for readers all over the world.

Context

For the second portion of my project I have selected the book Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. This book is about a young boy named Haroun Khalifa who is the son of a storyteller. His father can no longer tell stories the way he used to, which leads to Haroun trying to find out why this change has occurred. This leads Haroun on an adventure into a strange world that revolves around the telling of stories. The land is in danger of being destroyed by Khattam-Shud, who wants to destroy the Ocean of the Streams of Story. This is where all of the stories come from, and the world could not exist in the same way without them. Haroun and his new friends work together to defeat Khattam-Shud and save the ocean from destruction.

I chose this book because I felt like it would fit well into the world of electronic literature. This book is unlike anything I have ever read, and it entices and confuses the reader at the same time. This is what I think electronic literature is meant for, because using technology allows for greater understanding of a text that would normally be difficult to read. The text itself isn't difficult, but the underlying messages and the strange words make it harder to read than a standard novel. Rushdie packs the novel full of references to real life events, but this can go unnoticed by the reader if they are not watching for such references. I read this book while taking a class in world literature, and my professor did a good job of explaining all of the references embedded in the story. While the text was entertaining in and of itself, I enjoyed it much more when I understood what the real life places and events hinted at in the story were.

I think this book is a great example of how the different memos presented by Calvino can be incorporated into literature. Rushdie uses different techniques of delivery than other writers, and is able to hold the attention of the reader. This book is the only one I could think of that can relate to each one of Calvino's memos in some way. The book's close resemblance to Calvino's memos, the ease with which it could be incorporated into electronic literature, and the personal connections that I made with the book are all reasons why I chose this book for the second half of my project.