Category: Uncategorized
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Expecting the End at the Beginning
How do resolutions affect our enjoyment of stories? Can we be satisfied with stories with no end? These thoughts are explored in J. Yellowlees Douglas’ “How Do I stop This Thing?“. This text explores how breaks in linearity in hypertext media can allow for stories without end, or even stories with ends that users may…
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The Effects of Structure on Literature
In the book “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski, the author explores how the structure of text on a page can affect a story. While almost all novels utilize the same format, with paragraphs following each other to fill chapters, Danielewski strays from this dramatically. Whole passages can be seen crossed out, displayed backwards,…
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The Impermanence of Digital Media
If you erase a letter on a typed document, is there proof it was even there? With physical media, erasing something often still leaves a mark, or at least damages the material. However, the backspace key accomplishes something that we’ve never seen before: Full erasure of existence. With this revelation, the idea of lost media…
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Space Within Comics and Music
In Scott McCloud’s chapter titled “Blood in the Gutter”, he discusses how readers of comics fill in the gaps between panels. This draws the line between what is implied and explicit in the story, and the author must know their audience to properly create implications in stories that will be understood. McCloud specifically used the…
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Electric Revolutions
How does music evolve? Often times music undergoes dramatic changes alongside culture, but new technology can also influence how we experience and create music. Both of these factors were in play when the electric guitar was created and rose to popularity. While I have never played the guitar, many of my favorite bands incorporate it…
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To the Victor Goes the Writing
As discussed in Jan-Dirk Muller’s chapter “The Body of the Book”, the written word can immortalize information that would otherwise die with those that hold it. This can extend itself to immortalizing a version of a person, with their histories documented and able to stand the test of time. However, who gets to decide what…
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How Does the Medium of Literature Affect the Work Itself?
When we are conveying information, the medium that we choose to use alters the message itself. This is explained by Marshall McLuhan in the selected text “The Gutenberg Galaxy”. Within this writing, McLuhan describes how verse and poetry is often made to be spoken, but can also use affordances that the written word provides now…
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On the Origin of K
The letter ‘K’ holds an interesting spot in the English language, as it is often competing with more common ‘C’ and less used ‘Q’. As described by David Sacks in his book “Letter Perfect“, the letter has its root in Egyptian hieroglyphs, where it first resembled a hand. After centuries of adaptation and translations from…