Fluxus

Fluxus was extremely interesting to me because when I think of art I think of paintings, sculptures, music, dance, things like that. Fluxus was something completely different and it almost makes me wonder how it can be art. Fluxus art is annoying and irritating to the human eye and leaves a person fatigued. How can something that does that be called art? I thought art is supposed to be calming, something you can look at and interpret. Fluxus seems like the complete opposite. Besides that, I am open to seeing and learning new things. I do think this is a new innovative way to call something art.

Fan Fiction

While reading the theories on lost, the first thing I thought of was, "Wow, I do the same thing with the show I watch weekly." It is crazy how one can get so "obsessed" with a show. With our culture today, it's not just with shows. It's everything! People are constantly checking to see what new fashions are out, what certain celebs, what people thought of a good movie or a certain book, or even sports. People feed off of these theories as if the characters are real (Lost theories). I thought this was a creative way to incorporate another form of literature into our class. It is something everyone can relate to, because there is at least one thing in everyone's lives that they are intrigued, obsessed or interested in.

Lost

I have never watched an episode of Lost before, so having this as an assignment gave me a reason to! I have friends that are overly obsessed with this show, so it was nice to see what the hype was all about. Because of never seeing it before, it was nice to see it in that perspective. I didn't know the history in each of the characters, so I was able to focus on just those particular episodes. It was also very interesting to see how both the episodes coincided with each other. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't while watching each episode. I don't know if that is because I have not see previous episodes or if that's what the director was going for. Was he trying to make the suspense come from what was real or what wasn't?

The Activist and Calvino

After finishing the second half of "The Activist" I was still left just as confused and lost as I was in the first part of the book. My questions were not answered what-so-ever, which made me upset. I was left with no closure and overall, it was one of worst books I've read. I was very unsatisfied. However, I did think that Calvino made a good point in his writing about how some people may be too shy to really tell how they feel and reading gives them this chance to speak out. I thought that correlated a lot with "The Activist" and what was going on in the minds of the characters.

The Activist

After reading the first part of "The Activist" I was really confused and had no idea what was going on. However, it kept me intrigued because I wanted to end my confusion. They way it was written was a lot different like the other passages we have read. Throughout the reading, I noticed that Gladman changed the way she used text. I thought it was interesting to see how there are many forms of text one can use. I would like to know the reason behind to why she uses all these different forms. Is it to keep the reader interested? Or is it because she wanted to experiment herself. It made me more interested to see how it will end.

Perec and Matthews

After reading Matthews excerpt, it gave me a much better understanding of the Oulipo and how it really must have been to write an entire book without a certain letter. In the last class I had to do an exercise where I had to write what I did in the morning without using the vowel "e". I couldn't even get past the first sentence without be stuck. It makes it that much harder to believe that Perec did a whole book with this type of structure. Reading the book, I found myself getting more distracted because I wanted to prove him wrong and find an "e". Because of that, I lost track of what I was reading, and I felt like I lost the plot and what the whole basis of the book was about. It made me curious and wanting to know if Perec had an idea that this was going to happen with his readers.

A Void & Lipograms

The reading of "The Void" was not one of my favorites. It was so difficult to comprehend Perec's writing without the use of the letter "e." My first initial thought was, why would one want to do such a task? I'm sure many others have thought this same thing. Maybe it was because he wanted to see himself succeed in such a large and challenging task. Using lipograms in poems is more realistic, because poems are known more for their creative and challenging ways. Taking out the letter "e" made it seems like everything was more wordy. Like Perec had to find ways to go around what he really wanted to say because there was an "e" in the word or sentence. I give him a great deal of credit for doing a task like this.

Surrealism

Because of never watching "Lost" before when I watched the assigned episode, I confused. I didn't know what was real and what was surreal. One could tell that there were similarities with the episode and "The Invention of Morel" The whole show is incorporated with what is real and what is not. That is exactly what science fiction is entitled to do, so both the story and the episode a well job at bringing out the science fiction in the story. It was interesting to see how both the stories were set on an island. It makes it seem that many authors tend to think that an island is a place for one unable to tell what is real or not.

Short Stories 1

Short stories have always been my favorite form of literature. I love how they have a great deal of detail and information in such a short length. Authors of short stories have to invoke the reader right in the beginning, if not then the story fails. By attracting the readers attention right away, they have to use detail and show connections with characters. Walser, Kafka, and Melville do a wonderful job and completely these tasks. All three do a great job and giving their ordinary characters something remarkable happen to them. I liked the connection that they had in that area. It became more appealing to me because then I was able to see how each author wrote differently to show the same situations.

Things Fall Apart 2/28/2010

The first part of "Things Fall Apart" was a much easier read than the past passages we were assigned. It was something I was more used to reading and I was more interested throughout the first part. I really liked how culture was perceived; it showed that they continually change along with traditions. It was interesting to see how Chinua Achebe, showed this. It seemed as though he wanted to show that literature is the same way as cultures. In the first part of the book, once can tell that there are many different cultures and traditions. The main character Okonkwo tries to resist the changing of the traditions because he feels that people may look at his culture differently.

Emily Dickinson/Susan Howe

Susan Howe took on a completely different meaning of poetic form. With some sentences overlapping, and upside down, the poems needed to be looked at much closer. One can tell that she really likes to play around with the way poems are written and portrayed. She also really take the idea that poems often intertwine and overlap literally. It really gives the readers a chance to interpret what they fell the poem is saying. Even though I think that Howe was trying to show a innovative way to format a poem, I thought the structure of it sometimes took away from the meaning, and it became more distracting. I was left focusing more on how the words were written than what the words were actually.

The Pillow Book 2/2/2010

I began with reading Joseph Harris' book, because I felt that doing so would help with the other readings I was assigned. I found my way of critically reading because reading Harris' book had me envision the message that was being portrayed. his book had me thinking about "rewriting" in a different way. I understand the reasoning behind comparing and contrasting my ideas as I read. It gives an overall better understanding of the reading. It certainly helped me understand "The Pillow Book" and "S/Z" much better and it also had me more interested in the text. Overall, I think this book gave a good introduction to the semester to help dig deeper into the readings to make it easier to comprehend.

Fluxus Continued

The section of Higgins’ chapter entitled “Experience as Art” particularly struck me. Thinking of art as a physical experience seems to engage audience participation much more thoroughly. This also seems to be Higgins’ idea when she introduces The Happenings. The word “happen” itself evokes this feeling of physical time. The art occupies a space in the existence. I was interested in this idea of The Happenings, and in doing a little further research, I realized things like Flash Mob and Improv Everywhere fall into this Fluxus category of The Happenings. The idea of integrating art and life seamlessly is both engaging and beautiful. It forcefully immerses society into art, causing people to surround themselves with it. While it seems as though forcing art upon people would counteract their appreciation of it, what better way to be exposed to different art forms than to be fully enveloped in it.

Fluxus

I will have to agree with many of my classmates and say that before this class I had never heard of the term Fluxus. I was surprised at this because I had taken a lot of art classes in high school and never once had I heard this term. I did however study the 60s and 70s art movements and we did concentrate on some Andy Warhol pieces. I think it's very interesting how art in general evokes certain emotions in certain people and to others it could just be a canvas with paint hanging on a wall or a chair sitting in the middle of a room. The idea that art is sort of whatever you make it, ties directly into all the discussions we've had this semester on the concept of "what is literature" this concept intrigued me so much that I decided to do my creative project on it and I'm glad that the discussions of fluxus art are tying in so nicely with that concept.

Fluxus

Like many others, I had never heard of the term Fluxus before. It was interesting to learn more about this art form. Higgins says that Fluxus was a popular movement in the 1960s and 1970s so I was excited to read about it since the 1960s are my favorite decade and I think that some of the most inspirational art came of that decade. Higgins said that abstract expressionism was a sort of performance that was dedicated to exploring day-to-day reality. The little things that happen every day are the most important because they are normally things that no one pays attention to. The fact that these artists brought these images forward is intriguing.

Fluxus Pt. 2

While reading Chapter 3 of Higgins' piece on Fluxus, I found the definition of the movement very intriguing. It was stated that the art is not so different from the reality, and they evoke one another. The art, however, can't exist in every place as the reality can. Fluxus art can be called art because it is pinned down to a single place (whether that be physical place or space in time or anything that can be pinpointed).

It's a very strange concept to be able to name something as art, and have it be art. The example of the rubber-band ball being either a rubber-band ball or a piece of art, depending on the context and the labelling, relates to the discussions we have in our class. In the beginning of the semester, we tried to label 'literature' and had a very hard time coming to a consensus. Throughout the semester, we've been challenged with the same type of definition questions and we never find a particular conclusion. Fluxus reminds me that art, specifically, exists naturally and an artist can simply be the person that records it or believes in its beauty.

Fluxus

While reading through this, just as a lot of you all stated, the idea of an exact definition of art keeps coming back up. It makes me think of Andy Warhol and his pieces. Some people say he is stealing something which is copy written and making it into something his own and taking credit for it. Others would call it art. Some people would say that his films are nothing and worthless, a waste of time. Others would call it art. I think that idea comes through out these fluxus pieces. Where is the line drawn, what is art and what is not art? What is the potential of any ordinary object? Is everything around us art?

Fluxus Chap 3

The beginning of Chapter three briefly delves into how we perceive reality in art or art in reality. Again I think we are presented with the problem of how we determine what constitutes art and what does not, very much like our discussion of what is literature. I think part of what Fluxus does is confuse our own perception of art by taking what might be considered drab reality and transforming it into something one might consider art. After viewed the creatively altered object again in reality we have a different experience with it, we see it differently. Conversely, when we see art repeatedly in reality, we see it differently as well.

Ch.3

This chapter focused on the relationship between fluxus and other art forms, for instance, pop art, conceptual art, and happening art. Higgins shows that fluxus has influence in all of these art forms. "Philip Jackson argues that to experience as art is not the same as having an artificial experience; art, after all, is itself a form of reality."I found this quote really interesting, and thought provoking. It goes along with the whole idea of the fluxus form of art is a way of experiencing the art and how it ultimately becomes a part of our reality. You can see this filter through in these other art forms. For one, in pop art Andy Warhol painted and screen printed every day objects and people, like soup cans and Marylyn Monroe.

Fluxus ch.3

Chapter 3 about Fluxus explored the relationship, as Higgins mentioned, “between Fluxus and three other major movements of the 1960s and 1970s: Happenings, conceptual art, and pop art” (105). Each movement has its own uniqueness however, they also have similarities. Both Fluxus and Happenings were described by Kaprow as “avant-garde lifelike art” (108). With conceptual art, Fluxus artists produced some of the first conceptual arts such as the Event scores. In addition, pop art like Fluxus challenged the idea of original art works. But as Higgins has explained, Fluxus has influenced these other movements however, it has gained no recognition for its influence. This form of art is unique. For example, the Blink video clip that we watched in class wasn’t creative, but it did have a purpose. As I was starring at the screen, my eyes soon started to blink everything the white screen flashed and then my eyes would stop blinking when the black screen showed up. This piece dealt with the viewers perception and how his/her eyes were registering the image. The Fluxus art works are weird, but unlike the art we’re normally used to.

Chapter 3

For this week we were asked to look at Chapter 3 of Hannah Higgin's book. I found that Chapter 3 was pretty similar to the first chapter we looked at for Monday, but instead of focusing on the film aspect of Fluxus, it took a look at objects in general. After reading this article it gave me a better understanding of a museum I went to in high school. I went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on a film trip and pretty much everything that was in the place confused me because I didn't really see it as art. One example of the type of art that was present in the museum was a kid's chair with a box of tissues on top of it. At the time I just thought it was ridiculous that something like that could be considered art, but after reading these chapters on Fluxus, it's interesting to look back and see that we all have different interpretations of what art is. The Fluxus movement to me seems like the artists live by the concept that anything in the world can be art if you interpret it to be art, which I find to be a rather intriguing idea.

Chapter 3

"Fluxus experiences sensitize the perceiver to the life world by creating a special place--called art--for the sensitization to occur" p3. I thought this sentence helped to embody what the Fluxus movement does. The different experiences that are intended to come out of a Fluxus piece of art show the subject something new in the world. Anything that is new or creative can be called art. Fluxus does that by stimulating the mind and body in unconventional ways. Instead of an individual experience art by simply reading with their eyes, or hearing with their ears, the person finds art in the physical presence of the piece. Like the installation described in chapter three, the art is there in front of you, it is intended to be touched an experienced, as opposed to art in a museum. People are supposed to derive their own interpretation from the art, and come away with something totally unique.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 on Fluxus seemed very similar to chapter 1 to me. The only major difference I found was that chapter 3 focused more on the performance aspect of Fluxus, while chapter 1 focused more on the films and objects like “Blink” and the Fluxkits. What confuses me about Fluxus is that they consider ordinary objects to be art. If ordinary objects can be art, then everything can have artistic potential. So, if everything can be art, then is art special anymore? Is there an artistic performance, or is everything artistic? Everything being artistic is almost the same as nothing being artistic. It brings back the question of what exactly is art, and who should make that decision, the artist or the critic?

chapter 3

For today, we had to read Chapter 3 of Hannah Higgins. Going off of what the first chapter was about, how art is seen differently and in different perspectives by everybody. It is interesting to read about how since everybody has their own interpretation on what art is it makes for a whole different illusion. They talk about how the people in this chapter are doing different things, such as wrapping people in tin foil, but this is not what happens in real world. A lot of people would see this as fun or kind of prank like to see what people would do but a lot of people appreciate art since they consider these pranks as something different and art like.

Hannah Higgins Chapter 3

I was under the impression after the first chapter, that the discussion of more modern works such as Fluxus might return to a somewhat sane practice of artistic expression, however it is evident that I was mistaken. The Fluxus movement remains completely unorthodox and to what many would describe as abnormal, however this time it includes actions of wrapping people in tin foil and driving them around and depositing them in Grand Central Station, and on the following day they are hung inverted in trees with a muslin bag covering them. This so-called art seems to be more like a public prank on the entirety of the surrounding populace and on the traditional members of the art appreciating community.

Fluxus

The concept of Fluxus art is completely new to me. Reading Higgins’ chapter from Fluxus Experience opened me up to a form of art I had never even heard of. After looking a little further into this art form, I realized the growing popularity of this movement and people’s dedication to Fluxus. The piece entitled Flickers Higgins described was incredibly fascinating. As art is generally perceived by sight, the artist tested its audience’s physical sight. Fluxus artists seem to use the limitations of our senses against us, forcing us to really become involved in the piece rather than just looking at it.

Fluxus

The Fluxus group I found was rather interesting. Creating art the way they did showed the uniqueness in the art. It was interesting to see how art was created through testing an individual’s visual perception not on the outside but rather on the side with the optical nerves. Also, I found interesting that Fluxus artists create the work but the audience completes the work as mentioned by Higgins. It seems as though the Fluxus group does a lot of art that pertains to how it is perceived through the visual sense, but as Higgins also points out, “Fluxux works are made to be seen, as in Fluxpost (Smiles), they are often also intended to be felt” (31). This form of art definitely proves itself to be anti-art and jabs at the ideas and seriousness that modern art portrayed itself to be.

Fluxus

Fluxus combines life and art. Hannah Higgins describes some of the works from the Fluxus period that exhibit this quality. For instance, the films such as Blink force the physical eye to become exhausted. This type of art forces its way into life, making it hard to separate the two. Because the eye cannot fight against this reaction, it involuntarily becomes part of the piece. Fluxus emphasizes the sensory involvement in experiencing art.

Fluxus finger boxes show the use of tactile perception by forcing the viewer to trust that the contents inside the box are not harmful. By putting your finger in the mystery of the box, you have the life experience of surprise. Shadow boxes made in the Fluxus period collect things from life and organize them in a way that involves the part of the viewer that is attached to the everyday.

Fluxus

I was very enlightened after reading Fluxus by Hannah Higgins. Before today I never knew what Fluxus was nor have I even heard the term before. It apparently has made a dent in peoples’ views on art and I’m surprised so many of us have never come across it. After reading the first couple of pages, I had to look up a video because I really wanted to see how fluxfilms create this optical experience Higgins talks about. With just a couple of clips, I can see how the eyes grow fatigued… it’s hard to keep up with all the flashing blobs. It reminds me a lot of being in a car or on a train and passing by trees and other slim objects (which is apparently where Brion Gysin came up with this). If you just look at a tree only as you pass it, it looks less like a tree and more like a blob. Usually, this makes me very dizzy and fatigued because there’s no way my eyes and mind can keep up with the pace of the objects we zoom past. I also found the fluxkits interesting and I would love to see one in person. It’s different, to me, how fluxus art redefines “specialness." Fluxus is very special and it is so intriguing how it gives new meaning to what we “see” because of its combination of the visual and the optical.

Fluxus

I like the idea of seeing as a subjective, physical exercise with limitations. The eye can only see so much, in fact very little considering the entire electromagnetic spectrum. I like it because it accounts for the variability of perspective and reality. It does not attempt to restrict a grey world with black and white borders. Of course, the perfect irony here is that Flicker accomplishes its goal using black and white frames. While reading the article I couldn't help but be reminded of Bejamin's piece on mechanical reproduction.

Fluxus

This week we are reading part for the book Fluxus Experience by Hannah Higgins. I was interested to read this because I did not know what fluxus even meant before reading this. I was a bit confused at first when I read this but then got into the flow of things. I liked that while reading this it made me think about different art that i have seen before and how i could look at it differently. I really like the idea of the fluxus because it makes the experience of seeing art more enjoyable. I feel like this is more of my kind of art and way of thinking through a lot of things because it lets my mind go and experience different things than if it were more structured. I am interested in seeing what we are going to talk about and do on Monday after reading this because I really liked this idea of a sort of unconventional art.

Fluxus

Fluxus work seems like a real innovated way to look at art and literature. I feel like most artists will agree when I suggest that their main goal is to evoke some sort of emotion either within themselves or within others that view their work. In some way you are experiencing their work but not as involved as fluxus works. It seems like the artists really want their viewers to truly experience their work, which makes for a more intimate relationship between artist and viewer. I feel like the fluxus artists/workers just want you to view things in a different perspective, almost more of a bodily experience, or more physical. I'd like to see one of those videos, either "Flicker" or "Eyeblink", it would be an experience to say the least.

Fluxus

I feel like many other ideas, concepts, approaches to literature we have learned about this semester, Fluxus art is a whole new world to me. Like many people, art to me has been a painting, photograph, or sculpture. And then there are the arts like acting, dancing, music, etc. The reading for Monday challenged me to look at art forms in a whole new perspective. This kind of art gives somewhat of a competition or change to the viewers' senses. It is very odd to think of art having a physical effect. Usually art is something that someone sees and then interprets, there isn't much physical action involved. In one of the pieces of art described, it irritated and confused the human eye. That confused me because I don't understand how someone could enjoy art that is painful. An example of the painful art is the "Flux Smile Machine." That definitely didn't sound to fun. How is someone supposed to enjoy art when they are in pain? This idea of Fluxus art is very different from what we have been talking about in class so I am interested to find out what ideas will come up in discussion.

Fluxus

This week we were asked to read Hannah Higgin's first chapter in her book "Fluxus." This is the first time I had ever heard of the art movement, Fluxus, and after reading it I found it rather intriguing. It was intriguing because the artists in this movement decided to use different perspectives of what art should be. Instead of using just pictures, paintings and sculptures, they used flashing images to interpret their art. I found this interesting because in Higgin's piece she talks about how the artwork of the Fluxus artist's often left people feeling fatigued, so instead of an emotional connection to a piece like museum users often feel, they leave with a feeling of a physical connection. While reading this I couldn't help but think back to an Episode of Lost, where the others used the concept of the Flickr on Karl, leaving him to be fatigued and confused, just like Higgin's claims Fluxus does to viewers.

Flauxus

This week we had to read Flauxus by Hannah Higgins. After I started to read it, I realized that I started to look at art in a different way. When I look at art in a normal museum, I think of sculptures and different paintings or pictures. When I think of Flauxs art, I think of it as a having a physical effect on the person looking at it rather than an emotional attachment or connection. I feel like this was a very interesting piece to read because I was able to think of art differently then I did before. But, I did have a hard time connecting this book to something else that we’ve read in class so far this semester. The only thing I could really find was early on in the semester when we read about art and how people look at it and how everybody has their own interpretations.

Fluxus

In this weeks readings I learned about the art movement known as Fluxus. I thought this group took a very interesting perspective towards art. Instead of using literature at its most basic form like most of the material we have looked at so far, the Fluxus movement uses art in a three dimensional way. I thought it was interesting how the videos that were described in the chapter were designed to irritate or confuse the human eye. I think this is an interesting way of invoking emotion from a piece of art. So far this semester I have focused on reading and writing primarily. This Fluxus movement is completely different from what I have grown accustomed too. I think it is important to value all types of art, and learn to appreciate them for what they are. There is a lot to learn from movements such as the Fluxus. They were challenging patrons to interpret the work whether it was a picture, piece of literature, or rapidly flashing movie.

Fluxus

In the first chapter of “Fluxus” by Hannah Higgins, a variety of work pertaining to movement known as Fluxus are mentioned. Many if not all of these involve something that distorts the audiences senses in some manner. The first of which were films known as “Eyeblink” and “Flicker” which purposely exhausted the optic nerve and muscles surrounding the eye. Another form was the invention of glasses that contained needles on the lenses facing inward to skewer the retina of any potential wearer. In addition to these sadistic innovations, a “Flux Smile Machine” was created and when placed in one’s mouth it “pinches the soft flesh of the inner cheek, gouges the gums, binds the lips, flattens the tongue; it scrapes against the enamel of the users’ teeth and sits awkwardly in the mouth”. Perhaps it is my own emotions affecting my judgment, but these forms of “art” seem more like torture, and are highly revolting.

Fluxus

Reading the first chapter on Fluxus forced me to look at art from a different perspective. I normally think of art as a painting or sculpture in a museum, but Fluxus art seems to be different. Paintings and sculptures can have an emotional effect on the viewer, but it seems that Fluxus art has a physical effect on the viewer/participant. The line between artist and participant is blurred. Fluxus art reminded me of the Children’s Museum. There they have different things to touch and play with and experience, which is in stark contrast to an “adult” museum. Why is it that children are constantly exploring their world and adults are content to just look at something in a photograph?

Fan Fiction

Ask anyone in my family. When I get obsessed with something, I. Get. Obsessed. Normally for me it is anything with rock music. If I hear a song, not only do I look up the song, I look up the lyrics and their meanings, I look up the band information, and I look up videos. In a way, when I look at lyrics, I look at them the same as the fans of Lost do. They take small lines or pieces of a scene and try to tie it to the whole storyline. I look at lyrics and try to figure out the overall meaning of the song. I don't start blogs about them but there are sites that I'll write on like songmeanings.net. I think there needs to be a certain amount of obsession and passion in our lives.

Fan Fiction

I found it very interesting to browse through the fan sites for the TV show "Lost". I can honestly say that besides the two episodes we were required to watch for class, I have never watched the show. While I was viewing the episodes I realized that there is a lot more to the show than what I had previously expected. I remember when the show first came out and took the country by storm. I'm not quite sure why I did not watch the show, because I certainly do not boycott television by any means. Perhaps I was just to busy at the time to being watching another time consuming program. Whenever I talk to someone about "Lost" the first thing they say to me is that in order to understand it you have to watch every episode from the beginning. I think this can be a good and bad aspect to a program, or even a piece of literature for that matter. I think it is important that a story encompasses the viewer/reader but also comes at an easily accessible form. I think it would take a lot of persuasion now for me to go back and start watching the series. There is a certain turn-off element to a series that needs to be watched in its entirety, especially one so long and time consuming. However, I can understand why the die hard fans are so enveloped in the show.

Fans

To me, it is no surprise how influential Lost has been on its viewers and how dedicated they are to the show. Lost is much different than the "usual" television drama series; it plays with your mind and perspective on reality. Some people are lost in books, some in movies, and others in television series. No matter what you become lost in, most people have the same sort of dedication and/or obsession. I think it has to do with peoples’ necessity to know things. Some people will do just about anything to get an answer, to know everything about everyone, no matter how unimportant. Why do we do this though? Where is this obsession stemming from?

Fan Fiction

I was pretty interested when looking on the fan sites for Lost. I honestly can say before this class I never watched an episode or had any desire to watch the show. I guess I'm one of those people that if I don't start watching a show at the beginning I have a hard time trying to get into it in the middle or end. It was interesting to read my classmates blogs before me, and one thing that really stood out to me was that one of them had mentioned not really being obsessed with anything but than really thinking about it and realizing they check the gossip sites and various other sites daily. I had the same thought thinking wow how can these people be soooo into a show. Then I took a moment and realized that I am on my phone ALL the time, I check my email and especially facebook probably 50 times a day. I guess I can't really judge people for being so into a show when I myself have my own vices. I think as a human being it is good to form connections with people or even shows, but I start to worry when people start to bring that show into real life and they have a hard time accepting that it doesn't translate.

Fan Fiction

First off, I did not want to read very far into the fan sites for Lost for the fact of there were spoiler alerts all over and I honestly and starting to get hooked on Lost! I didn't really read very far into the parts that had spoiler alerts, but from what I did read, it is almost as if these people escape into another world when they are thinking about Lost. It reminds me of in the beginning of the semester, a lot of people had shared that they like a good book because the reader can "escape" into it. I hadn't really thought about it that way for a television series until I looked at these pieces. This could totally be an outlet or escape for a lot of people. I thought it was neat to see that connection between a good book and this television series.

Paranoia

I was particularly interested in the differences between fan hobby and fan life. To question whether fan analysis or fan participation in art is trite play or serious creative activity is a corollary of the division between academic and popular culture. Again we are asked to draw a line, but where? Considering Lost, I think we have to concede that fandom influences, albeit perhaps latently, the show's progression. Writers, especially screen writers, must examine their audience. But as writers, they cannot sacrifice their creative vision for the show to appease a fickle crowd. Where do you draw that line? How much do you compromise?

Fan Fiction and Saper

Reading through Lost's fan sites wasn't anything necessarily surprising to me, since I've been exposed to fan obsession for as long as I can remember. That in and of itself is an interesting topic, but it's for another time. The way I understand sites and fan logic such as that which surrounds Lost is that it starts as something different and less intense than it ends up as. I understand being a fan of something. I understand believing characters and having a flicker of hope that they exist, in some form, somewhere. I think what happens is a snowball effect. Saper explains that fan fiction started as a way to converse about science fiction, and gradually became more about the fans themselves. With momentum and increasing popularity, fictional stories become obsessions.

People love to connect. Even when people say that the increase in social networking over the Internet leads to impersonal interaction, it still allows for people to make relationships, and many of them. So it makes sense that people cling to characters that are either like themselves, unlike themselves, or in situations they can relate to. I don't think obsessive fans are necessarily trying to find an escape from real life, but allowing themselves to give in completely to imagination. I don't think it is a completely healthy habit, and it is somewhat perplexing the degrees to which fans take their research, but it is not an idea that completely baffles me.

Lost fan site and Saper

After looking at the Lost fan site and reading Craig Saper’s “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic,” it was interesting to see how fans react to certain things that interests them. Some devote their lives to studying and understanding a topic that it almost seems to be a “reality” for them. I find it weird how some people would tell “crazy fans” to get a life, but this thing that they have become so engulfed in is their life. The fan stories become a story in of itself. I think that fans become so absorbed into a certain text because it provides them with a world in which they can control. Sometimes fan input can change a story and how it plays out. It’s also interesting how an actor/actress’s role can be used to portray that individual in real life although it may not be true. Fandom, as for anything else, can have its good side and its bad.

Fan Fiction

While reading the various submissions of fan fiction on the “Lost” message board, my initial thoughts were ones of “Thank God I haven’t become that obsessed with anything”. But that’s a complete lie. I’m entirely guilty of checking the gossip sites and various websites dedicated to potential spoilers of my favorite shows next episode. As a culture, we become especially fascinated with the lives we never had but always wanted. When we watch these shows, whether they be trashy melodramas or surreal sci-fi’s, we can’t help but think “Well, if I were there, this is what I would have done”. The development of fan fiction allows the fangirls and fanboys in all of us to release all of our obsessive fascinations. The increasing popularity of fan fiction feeds into our desire to be a part of these alternate “realities”. As Saper mentions in “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic”, these shows we fantasize over have become symbiotically related to the fan fiction dedicated to them. What better way to please fans than give them exactly what they request. Fan fiction becomes less of an obsessive outlet and more of a set of possibilities.

Fan Fiction

This week we looked at two episodes of Lost and were asked to read Craig Saper's essay "A Fan's Paranoid Logic," as well as some fan forums. After reading Saper's essay I immediately thought about comic con and all of the other conventions that occur and it made me think about how devoted people can be towards the shows, movies, etc. in which they read or watch. It got me thinking about how many people may just be devoted fans, but there are always those select few who take their fandom to an extreme, people such as stalkers. This week has been really interesting for me because I am a fan of Lost, but also because I am learning about fan culture and it's relationship to the television industry right now in another class. In an article I read for that class it talked about Lost and how it uses the obscured television strategy. This strategy is the one in which writers and producers expect viewers and fans to come up with their own ideas. This is where reading the fan forums comes in, because these forums allow fans to communicate with one another, as well as the show creators, about their ideas of what is happening on the island or what they think should become a storyline. Before taking my Television Studies course I never really thought that creators and writers looked at fan forums, but after reading articles and from the discussions in class, I've learned that a lot of times they do listen. This just makes me wonder if any of the situations on Lost have come up because of fan ideas.

Fan Fiction

Nowadays it seems like practically everyone is a fan of something. The extent to which a person goes with being a fan is what sets them apart. There are fans and then there are those hardcore 100% devoted fans. I know I have and I'm sure everyone can say they are guilty of laughing at some of these fans who seem to be more obsessed with these celebrities, movies, TV shows, etc. I have never heard of fan fiction before so it was interesting reading all the fan theories on Lost fan sites. Because of these fan sites, fans are able to write their own unique versions of the show they love so much. Lost obviously has a huge fan base which we can tell from because of its success. Lost is one of those shows that has to be watched religiously for everything to make sense, now like other shows where each episode is totally different from the one before.

Fan Fiction

This week we are focusing on the series 'Lost' and watched a few episodes for monday and now we read an article about fans. The article by Saper was interesting because of the topic. I am interested in the fandom of different things and actually wrote a paper about it a couple years ago. I found it interesting how different fans of different things behave in different ways. Also it is interesting how fans have changed their behaviors over the years. Fans have become more accustomed to knowing more and more about their given artist or celebrity because of the internet and how easy it is to get information about almost anything. Fan culture changes in every group and depending on the group you can have many different opinions about things. It was interesting reading some of the fan theories and questions becuase I followed Lost for a few seasons but haven't kept up on it and I liked reading the different opinions and crazy questions people had. I am interested to see what we will talk about next class because there are many different ways to look at the fandom of Lost.

Fan Ficton

The Craig Saper except was interesting. I feel like I've heard of Ray Johnson once before but I had no idea who he was. He sounds interesting. I thought what he said about super fans was interesting, and what the line between fan and artist is. I think that people just get so wrapped up in celebrity or other artists lives that they start believing it is their own. I also thought that the whole idea of a fan was a market ploy. It makes total sense, I never thought of it before. One of the "Lost" discussions I read was about the Desmond episodes and how his time travel/ slip of consciousness works. It pretty much discussed everything we talked about in class.

Lost and Saper

This week we had to read Craig Saper’s essay “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic.” This essay is about Ray Johnson, an instigator of fan followings. After reading this essay, I thought about all of the other obsessed fans that are followers and behave inappropriately. When I compare this essay to real life, I think about how all of the other extreme fans would probably do these actions as well. Watching the rest of the Lost episodes still confused me because I don’t really know all of the characters. I believe if I was an “extreme fan” then I’d be following all of the characters and know their background. It is difficult to watch a television show without knowing anything about it.

Lost and A Fan's Paranoid Logic

Reading “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic” touches on the idea of the celebrity and the fan. The celebrity is put on a pedestal while the fan looks up in admiration. But these lines can be blurred as Ray Johnson did in his mailings. The normal person became the artist. I saw this same concept in the “Lost” fan sites. By writing these theories, the fans in essence became the writers of their own version of “Lost,” and by posting them on the site other fans could read this alternate ending to the TV show and respond to it. This allows the reader to take part in the series, which could possibly be why there is such a large “Lost” following. As it says in “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic,” “the distinction between artists and speculators blurs not because of the open-endlessness of interpretation, but because of the effort to build in interactive gamelike structures of discovery and play” (36). It is a game for people to try and guess what will happen in the end.

Lost

'The Constant' and 'The Variable' brought up the idea of intricacy for me. I became very aware of the ability of visual modes of production like television and film to intertwine multiple plots. These episodes even allow for multiple time periods to be accessed without confusion. If I had seen all of the episodes beforehand and in between, I'd have less of a problem understanding what was happening. Having visuals allows the viewer to bridge gaps without needing detailed explanations. The viewer can simply see the changes in a person's appearance or setting to comprehend that there was a time shift.

I also was very aware of the reliance of this show on fan loyalty. In order for the audience to connect with Lost at all, they have to keep track of it. This is not a show like The Office or something that can be watched out of order and context. Lost's success and direction is based on the assumption that the fans will tune in every single week. Because the ratings remained high throughout the show proves that audiences knew the characters and the plot enough to believe in them and understand them.

Lost

While watching these two episodes of Lost “The Constant” and “The Variable” I was as captivated as I was confused. The entanglement of people and events was especially confusing from one episode to the other because I haven’t watched the other seasons or the episodes in between. However, the themes of consciousness and reality seem like they’re pretty dominant in the entire series; it is difficult to tell what is real and if people are conscious or not when events are happening. When I started to think about it, I realized that Lost was initially a written text before it became a television show. Knowing this, I wonder how different reading Lost would be from watching it. You know the quote: “You gotta see it to believe it?” Well I can only imagine how much harder it would be to distinguish the reality (consciousness) of the plot from unreality without the visuals of the show. When your imagination is responsible for determining the realities of events, the possibilities are so much broader.

Lost and Saper

Extremism of fans over a television show, novel or film is usually something that is laughed at or dismissed without further thought by the masses today. However what goes into such a following is deserving of much more than a mere glossing over. Craig Saper in his essay “A Fan’s Paranoid Logic” informs the reader about the instigator of fan followings, Ray Johnson. His life was one of interesting occurrences and odd practices which concluded with his suicide which some over-evaluated and found numerical and mathematical references. I found this difficult to accept and cannot agree with his abnormal behavior, which makes all other dedicated fans seem as if they too will be prone to such actions.

"Lost" Episodes

I’m glad I’m not completely alone when it comes to being, well, lost while watching “Lost”. While I’m not really up to date on all of the character’s backgrounds and story lines, I was still able to appreciate the concept of the episodes. After watching the last episode for class, I went into watching “Lost” with this notion of “science-fiction” in mind. Since the other episode dealt with the idea of consciousness, a concept I find very interesting, I hope that these episodes would follow a similar suit. With an idea like time travel, creators can get a little to fantastical and far-fetched for my liking; however, “Lost” seems to do a good job of creating these surreal scenarios in a very tangible manner.

Lost Epidodes

I've alway been pretty interested in Lost, but I've never had the time to devote to it to properly appreciate it. But whenever I watch an episode i'm always impressed with the complexity of each episode. There is a storyline and then so much more going on. Episodes of lost are such a rich text, especially the episodes "The Constant" and "The Variable" that we watched for class this week. The questio. Of time travel is so interesting to think about. In episodes of lost you don't really know if what you are watching actually happened. I think how we percieve time is kinda like that. How do we know what is real and happening right now? What is consciousness?

Lost

I’ve never seen an episode of Lost so I felt lost when I was watching this because I had no idea who everybody was and what their “background” was. I felt like these two episodes were good but then again, I don’t know what is “good” for the TV show Lost. . I’ve connected these two episodes a lot with The Inventions of Morel. It was interesting to watch these two episodes because I was watching it from a point where I didn’t know what was going on instead of watching it from the perspective of knowing every character. I’m excited to see what perspective this TV show is going to take on time travel.

Lost

Initially when I was watching Lost, I was super confused. I ended up finding a link on the website where it was playing the episode with extra information about what was happening at the bottom. It was extremely helpful! It kept explaining the connections between the things, people or places in Lost with important things that have happened in history. Lost started making MUCH more sense when I found this out. I feel like we were told to watch this to see the infinite possibilities that can be all intertwining and overlapping in one piece of literature all at the same time. It must have taken an extreme amount of brain power to put together only one episode of lost, let alone multiple seasons.

Lost

I have never seen an episode of Lost before, which makes me feel like I'm just about the only person in the world who hasn't. Many of my friends really like the show and every once in awhile I'll hear them talking about how good it is. I have always wanted to see an episode, but have never gotten around to it, so I was excited to find out we would be watching Lost for class. I found the similarities between Lost and "The Invention of Morel" very interesting and they became very obvious after awhile. The episodes we watched both centered around the theme of time travel. It was kind of nice how even though I have never seen an episode before, these episodes had a way of filling me in on what I had been missing. In "The Constant" I liked the connections that were made between the flashbacks and what was happening in the present. I'm interested in discussing these episodes in class this week.

Lost

I started watching Lost this year after my friend convinced me to. Therefore, when I learned that part of our assignment would be to watch some episodes from the show, I was really excited. I didn't know that "The Invention of Morel" was what some of Lost was based off of but now every time I watch Lost, I can't help but see some of the parallels the two have. Looking at the episodes "The Constant" and "The Variable," we see this idea of time travel and illusions. In "The Constant," we as viewers are taken on a journey with Desmond, through his flashbacks and having watched the show, this episode cleared up some questions I had about Desmond, but if I wasn't a regular viewer, I think the thing that would strike me the most about this episode is the idea destiny and its relationship to time. In "The Variable," we are taken on a journey through Faraday's perspective and once again we see that destiny and time play a key role with one another. This got me thinking back to "The Invention of Morel," because it made me look at the machine that supposedly created images of these people and how the fugitive believed them to be real. This led me to be even more confused about Lost because having seen a lot of the episodes you are never sure what will happen or even if by the end of the series, what we saw actually occurred. I am definitely looking forward to discussion this week and reading the fan fiction to see what some other perspectives may pop up.

Lost

The two episodes of lost were really great, I've never watched the show religiously so it is interesting to watch specific episodes that tie in together without knowing what is all going on. I think it kind of helps not knowing what is going on because you can focus more on one single problem instead of the five hundred other problems I hear that go on in this show. The whole idea of time travel is an interesting topic in on of itself. I feel like Faraday should have never existed at all if his mother killed him 30 years prior. All be it I have no clue about the rules and regulations behind time travel. I'm real interested to see what fan ficton is written about these episodes. I'm sure people have taken some intriguing perspectives on this.

Lost

I love 'Lost' so I was particularly excited for this week because we get to watch a few episodes and talk about it. I love that it can take the most simple topic of being stranded on an island and get the viewer so into the story. I love the suspense that the series has and when you watch it you just have to keep watching because you want to know what happens next. In the episodes that we watched for this week the idea of time travel and free will are put to the test and presented in an interesting way. Before watching these from class I had watched them when they first were on TV and it was interesting the different things that I thought about and noticed the first time watching it and watching it again. I thought a lot more about the ideas of time and the interesting connections of these episodes and The Inventions of Morel.

"The Constant" and "The Variable"

The popular TV series “Lost” is known for its ability to confuse and disorient its viewers by introducing twists and hard to comprehend plot elements in a fashion that seems random to anyone who has not viewed the episodes regularly. I am one of such people, and upon viewing episode 5 from season 4 titled “The Constant” and episode 14 from season 5 titled “The Variable” I can admit that I am thoroughly baffled. The idea of time travel as well as destiny is certainly something that is hard to wrap one’s mind around, and “Lost” does a fine job of construing any further thought processes. Nevertheless, such entertainment is a fine example of events that spurn discussion in which I am thrilled to be a part of and look forward to in the upcoming class.

Lost: "The Constant" and "The Variable"

I haven’t really been following “Lost,” but watching these two episodes pique my interest. I did find some parts a bit difficult to follow because I hadn’t seen some of the previous episodes that they were referring to, but I think that the episodes do stand on their own very well. I liked how in “The Constant” they connected things between the flashbacks and present time (Desmond talking on the phone, using the sink, etc.) This gave the effect of time not being linear but moving in multiple directions at once. In “The Variable” I found the flashbacks to be a bit more haphazard possibly because I could not grasp which time was the present.

Lost episodes

This week we are watching episodes of Lost, particularly season 4 episode 5 “The Constant” and season 5 episode 14 “The Variable.” These episodes were very interesting considering that I haven’t been keeping up with the TV show. The thing that fascinates me is that even though I haven’t been watching the previous seasons or episodes, the episodes that we watched did a good job in filling me in on what was going on. Lost is a great show that does well in building suspense and makes the viewers want to watch more to know what is going to happen to the characters. At times it was hard to tell if what the characters were seeing was actually real, similar to that of the character in The Invention of Morel. The story seems complex, but I guess that’s what makes it so exciting.

Variable Constants

Lost, in general, questions if we have free will or if free will is an illusion. These two episodes focus specifically on the same idea in another context, which is time travel. Farhaday in particular struggles with question of changing what already happened. Of course changing the past or the future depends on perspective and how that perspective will shift as the survivors attempts to alter, or not alter, the past. What is interesting is how quickly everyone forgets their own perspective, their own choices. Sawyer is most upset when Jack and Kate return. He forgot about the choices they all can make.

The Activist cont.

I enjoyed "The Activist". I liked how it was written and I liked the possible outcomes of America it brought up. It really reminded me of an pre "1984" condition. What America would be like before a total totalitarian takeover. Although I was confused as to what the group was doing, were they just protesting, like a march, or were they doing a more active protest? I would assume it was more active seeing as everyone was nervous beforehand. The Calvino speech was good as well. I liked when he was talking about everyone trying to find something human in political literature. I also thought it was interesting that the 1968 hippies didn't like the passiveness of political literature and they wanted to take a more pro-active role.

The Activist

The second half of The Activist seemed almost more confusing than the first half. The format seemed to change a little; towards the end, the poetry made it difficult to determine who was narrarting/thinking and when. Also, there were short prashes with periods at the end and statements with question marks-it all made it sort of hard to follow. By the end of the book, I was so caught up in trying to figure out who was narrating that I couldn't tell you what was going on and/or the purpose of this book. I think the paranoia that disturbed the activists so much was twisted into the book so much that even the reader becomes paranoid trying to establish what is real vs. unreal. Finally, I noticed that the missing bridge that was the focal point of the first half of the book faded and turned into missing towers-the towers and the President's declare on war reminded me of 9.11.

The Activist and Calvino

I feel like every piece that I read this semester breaks all previous views of what I understood and was taught literature to be. After reading The Activist as well as everyone's blog posts, and the Calvino piece, I really feel like maybe society just expects too much from an author. I know I say it a lot, but everything that I think about I relate it to autism. What if the author intended the reader to not following what they were writing? What if the author knows that what they are writing only makes sense to them in their head and they're okay with that? A lot of times with autistic people, they just don't think about things the way most people do. It is different and they are just okay with that. Why can't most readers just accept a piece the way it is?

The Activist and Calvino

I felt as though the second half of The Activist did not clarify a whole lot for me from the first part. It seemed to be even more confusing or maybe just complex. I found it hard to follow the dialogue and know who was speaking. However, there was a part from Italo Calvino’s reading where he says that what the society demands of writers today is for them to speak out and voice their opinions and concerns rather than keeping it silent. In correlation of this idea to the book, the activists in the book were trying to voice their opinions and take action, but as Calvino said it’s keeping ones voice low while using modest and doubtful tones that will make everyone hear what he/she has to say. The activists were so caught up in taking action and voicing themselves that paranoia and fear could have possibly led to the demise of their plan, but as the speaker in the last chapter mentioned, they shouldn’t take action and maybe just forget about their plan. Truthfully, I’m still somewhat confused about the bridge.

The Activist & Calvino

Unfortunately, after reading the second half of The Activist I was still left confused. I felt that the second part wasn't any clearer than the first, which I was hoping would be the coincidence. Part of the reason I was left confused was because I still had so many questions left unanswered. The ending didn't ever give the answer to my questions and it certainly didn't give any closure. Although the novel was confusing, I guess it was a good read in that I was able to read a form that I am not familiar with. Calvino's piece was interesting to me though. He showed the relationship between politics and literature, which I strongly feel are two totally different things. I did agree with his argument that literature gives a voice to the people who are possibly too shy or don't feel like speaking out loud. After reading his piece it did make me think more in depth about the relationship between literature and politics.

The Activist 2

After completing this book I was left with many questions. in class on Monday we discussed how the book was written, and how that had an affect on the way we perceive the story as readers/writers. It seems that in the second portion of the book Gladman takes on a more formal writing style, as opposed to the first half where she inserts news articles, and thoughts. I really enjoyed how the author made it seem as if the reader was inside the minds of the characters. When the words were italicized I imagined them being said and repeated in the head of a particular activist. I think this book was able to create a lot of suspense, confusion, and anxiety in me. I enjoy when a piece of literature has the power to take me through so many different emotions, but still hold my attention. I come away from The Activist wondering if there was ever really a bridge, what the hell that map was up to, and if this book has any ties with the attacks on 9/11. I could be entirely wrong but towards the end of the book I thought that the disaster the activists kept referencing could have been the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The Activist and Calvino

This English class seems to be coinciding perfectly with my creative writing class as in today’s class we were discussing Italo Calvino and his work with constraint based writing. When I saw the title of Calvino’s excerpt, I was expecting a different, more politically aggressive tone to his writing. However, in “Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature”, Calvino addresses the fact that he tends to place literature and politics in completely separate categories. While I am able to acknowledge social commentary in literature when I see it, I generally tend to think of literature as being simply literary and politics and political and the two to not be completely intertwined. Something Calvino said that really struck me was “Politics, like literature, must above all know itself and distrust itself” (100). In order to progress, we must know and understand our flaws in both literature and politics. Innovation only happens when we understand what is impeding growth.

The Activist part 2

This week we are reading the novel The Activist by Renee Gladman. This novel is interesting because it is all about paranoia and perspective. The thought of a bridge or not is the main subject of the book, but this does not begin to describe the differences in perspective in this story. I found this book interesting because it actually kind of made scence to me because of all the paranoia. I found myself thinking about all the paranoia that people have about different things in real life. Also I thought about the different perspectives that were given in the book and I found them very helpful because without the use of changing up the perspective and how the book is written the author would not have gotten her point across. I thought that the other reading we had to do for today was good at bringing the idea of politics and literature and how they affect each other. I am interested to see how others liked the book.

The Activist and Calvino

The second part of Renee Gladman's novel, "The Activist," was still pretty confusing to me, but that is also why I was so intrigued by it. The way in which she wrote the novel drew me in right away because it was written in a format that I have never seen in a novel before and it made it an interesting and compelling way to write the story she was trying to tell. It was interesting to see the way in which the novel turned by the end of the story as well because the activists turn away from their war on the administration to turning inward and creating a war with each other. While reading this I felt as though what Gladman was doing with her novel was illustrating a metaphor of the current situation in the U.S, while also taking a look at situations in which a government has their own agenda and civil liberties are at stake. While reading the Calvino excerpt, “Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature," he talks about the relationship between literature and politics. This was interesting to me because I never really thought of those two things going together but after reading "The Activist," it should how complex of a relationship they can have because literature represents a form of free speech and expression to me. It gives a voice to those that never chose to speak up or are never heard. Gladman illustrated this in her novel by allowing everyone in the book to have a voice, which in away was confusing but looking more closely at it I noticed that it really just illustrates our world today and all of the different opinions and beliefs that arise everyday in different situations.

The Activist and Calvino

The second part of “The Activist” was not much clearer to me than the first part had been. I did understand more about the journalist though, and how she was searching for answers to what really happened. The ending was also different from most of the stories I have read. It did not really give a sense of closure to the story at all. Was the bridge destroyed? Was there even a bridge? Why was the map changing? What did the note say? The story seems to bring up more questions than it answers, which can be the same thing that happens when someone looks deeper into an event, especially when trying to piece together conflicting views. “Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature” was a bit more straightforward. It showed the complex relationship between politics and literature and how literature can give a voice to people who would otherwise be without one. It seemed like “The Activist” tried to give everyone a voice, but in doing so created this confusing web of accounts of the situation.

Calvino and The Activist

Today we had to read part of “The Activist” and Calvino. When reading “The Activist” I found that Renee Gladman linked politics and literature together when she writes in a way that the readers get the story through thoughts and conversations of others. This is a different kind of writing because you don’t usually read novels that are written like this. What interested me was when Calvino stated that literature and politics are linked together. Personally, I see politics and literature as two completely different things. I think its interesting that these two pieces connected in such a way that I don’t think connect.

Political Uses of Literature

I felt the essay resonated particularly well within our contemporary society when the person heard is often the loudest and the value of what they are saying is more or less ignored. The idea that the strength of language comes from its modesty, its ability to travel beneath the radar is refreshing in that reason, true reason can be heard below all the platitudes. Frankly, I've never seriously considered the political implications of literature before this essay. I always knew those implications existed, but I never gave them more than a passing glance. I suppose I felt the two did not belong together.

The Activist

The Activist by Renee Gladman, was a suprise to me when I first opened up the cover. I hadn't thought that the book would be written in such a different format from the other books we had read in class. The reading itself was simple due to the way the book was composed, however, trying to understand everything that Gladman is trying to say in the book, is where it becomes difficult. I had to re read things a few times to try and understand the meaning and even then sometimes I wasn't quite sure. It was helpful to discuss what we had read in groups during todays class, and what other people thought about the book and how they interperated the writing. I also enjoyed discussing the ideas of paranoia and perspective both in the text and in comparing the text to the clip we watched in class.

The Activist and Calvino

Literature and politics seem to me to be two separate entities that interact in a very limited fashion. Italo Calvino states that both are linked and affect each other frequently. An instance of such a connection is Renee Gladman’s novel “The Activist” in which she creates her writing in terms of only receiving the story through the thoughts, actions, and conversations of the characters. This element only emphasizes the high level of political charge present through the opinions and emotions of the protagonists. In my reading of Gladman’s book however, I found it difficult to think along the same lines as the characters due to differences in political opinion.

The Activist

I really like the almost truncated nature of the activist. It reads like a news statement, especially the beginning. That style I think asks a lot the reader, it trusts the reader's ability to connect narrative sections with little or no contextual help. Thus the reader must be actively engaged in the text and reading becomes an active engagement, not merely a passive activity. That active engagement requires the reader to develop a political perspective within the piece. Their opinion of the writing and the book in general will change depending on their political bias.

The Activist

I really enjoyed reading the first half of The Activist. I liked how the story was written in a poetic format, it makes the story interesting and easy to follow. I think any other format would have taken away from this story. I also noticed how every other chapter seems to switch format and some have page numbers where others don't. I'm interested to see if this has a purpose in the plot of the story and how it relates. So far, the story reminds me of The Invention of Morel and that story where the guy turns into a beetle because of the relationships between dreams and reality. It is really difficult to tell what is reality in this book not only in the narrator's situations but also in the argument about the bridge; I'm interested to see how the story ends.

The Activist

This week we had to read the first half of “The Activist” by Renee Gladman. The beginning was really weird for me because I was totally lost and confused and had no idea what was going on. In a way though, this made me want to keep reading because I didn’t want to be lost and confused anymore, I wanted to know what was going on and what was happening. This book, I felt, was written in a really weird way. It went from being conversational and then switched to something else. It was interesting that we were able to view the dialogue through the thoughts of the protagonist. I’m excited to keep on reading the rest of the book because I don’t really know where it’ll go in the end.

The Activist and New Narrative

I loved the way that The Activist was written. The void of having numbered pages in such an odd way was so interesting! It reminded me of the book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime which is written in the mind of an autistic child. He numbers the pages according to his love for prime numbers. It also slightly reminded of my creative project, which also had to deal with the thoughts of autistic children. I like things that vary from the status quo, just like this piece. I feel like that is what really brings the reader in for wanting more. When something is unusual, we take note, it is human nature. I look forward to what the rest of this book has to offer.

The Activist and New Narritive

The Activist was really interesting to me, really, the whole new narrative concept is interesting. I like how the story is written almost like a poem but not really. I also like that it has a plot and story line to it, with thought provoking ideas on politics and society. The poem like structure makes it a lot easier to read too, makes you feel more accomplished as you go along. I found it interesting that the whole new narrative wave is taking place in one specific area. I'm sure it's expanded to other parts of the country but I thought it was interesting that it was so concentrated to one part of the country. I guess it makes sense though.

New Narrative and The Activist

The structure of Renee Gladman’s The Activist is really what initially drew my attention to the book. The short fragmented thoughts accompanied by the block paragraphs on unnumbered pages are a vastly different take on the traditional novel. So far in the reading, the feeling of time is very disjointed. I get the impression that the unnumbered pages are happening simultaneously but separate from the thoughts of the narrator. Also, having large chunks of pages with no numbers really plays with my personal sense of time when reading.
The article accompanying the reading talks about the movement of the New Narrative. It seems to emphasis the socio-cultural aspects of literature and the active involvement of the audience in the piece they are writing. This theme seemed cohesive with Gladman’s in The Activist as she seemed to be writing in a matter that incorporated the audience into the piece.

The Activist & New Narrative

Like many other people, after reading the first half of Renee Gladman's book I was left feeling a little confused. Not only was I confused after reading it but I even started off the novel being confused. I found it kind of funny though because this confusion was the thing that kept me wanting to read more. When I got confused about something I just wanted to keep reading to see if I could figure it out. This idea of the new narrative that is displayed in The Activist is a new concept to me. Unlike many other stories the reader is only getting information through thoughts and dialogue. The author is only sharing parts. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this style of writing. Sometimes it's very interesting and puzzle-like but sometimes it's frustrating to me because I just want to flat out know the details. Hopefully in discussing in class and finishing the novel all of my confusion will be cleared up.

The Activist

This week we were asked to read the first half of Renee Gladman's "The Activist." At first, like other classmates, I was rather confused about what exactly was happening. The confusion I felt though was also what intrigued me about the story because it kept me turning the pages to try and decipher what exactly was going on within the work. Another aspect that kept me thoroughly engaged was the constantly changing texts. The book is a clear example of what experimenting with form can look like. With one chapter being conversational and the next looking as though a newspaper was cut up. This book to me seems like it is somewhat a critique of political reality shown through distorted newspaper prose. The man question so far seems to be whether or not a city bridge has been bombed and destroyed or not. The first feeling I got from this book was that of paranoia and it seemed to me like all of the text dealt with perceptions instead of evidence. Overall I'm very interested in seeing where this story will end up.

The Activist and New Narrative

The writing style emphasized by the New Narrative movement and evident in Renee Gladman’s novel “The Activist” serves as an unorthodox method of informing the reader of the storyline. Instead of using text to describe the setting, the audience is only allowed to view dialogue and the thoughts of the protagonist. This serves to not only distort the typical manner of reading, but also make the work seem like a detective novel with the author only sharing parts of the plot to keep them guessing. I found the style to be interesting, but also rather limited due to the vague or nonexistent description of scenes or locations of the main character.

The Activist

The Activist by Renee Gladman has a unique structure to how it was written. Reading it was rather easy; however, I wasn’t able to follow everything that they were talking about so I had to reread certain parts. This reminds me of how news stories are written. As soon as a news worthy event breaks, journalists try to report it and get the story out as fast as they can, hence the quick read. The dialogue was hard to differentiate who was speaking. What I found also interesting was how each chapter was distinguishable by the way it was written. The “Top of the Hour” chapter was written like a newspaper with excerpts pulled out. On the other hand, the chapter titled “Interrogation” was more conversational. Overall, I’m interested to see where the story will take us.

The Activist

After reading the first portion of this book I was left feeling confused. At first it seemed as is the author was writing from a stream of consciousness standpoint. However, as I continued to read it seemed like the text was continuously shifting. I think this is an interesting way of writing because it kept me in engaged in the text in order to follow the story. From what I have gathered regarding the story is the narrator was persuaded to place a bomb mechanism under a bridge. Apparently at the end of the first half of the book the narrator has been captured and is being interrogated by the secret service. I feel confused about the text because of how it shifts stylistically. Like I said before, this has its pros and cons. I like it because I am continuously engaged in the text, but also have a hard time following the story because of all the different ways it is being told.

The Activist

This week we are reading a new book called The Activist by Renee Gladman. Before reading this book I had no idea what it was about and so I just went into it blindly. I think that this was probably a good thing because it made me get into the story more. Even though it was a bit confusing I think I followed the storyline pretty well. I understood the different points and views of people and was able to follow the changes in people talking and figuring out the situation. I am interested to see how the other people in class react to this book because it is much different than the others we have read. This book jumped around a lot and will probably confuse many of the people in class. Even though it was a short read it was complicated because of the jumps and twists of the way it is presented.

The Activist

The first half of “The Activist” by Renee Gladman was a fast section to read, but it was not a fast section to understand. It skips from the city to the interrogation room to the activists to journalists’ commentary, which made it a bit difficult for me to understand what exactly was going on. After thinking about it for a while, I began to wonder if all the confusion in the book was done intentionally. The reader not knowing what is going on mirrors the people in the book not knowing what is going on. This seems to be some kind of criticism of our own society, where no one is sure who to believe and what is true and who is fighting who.

Flarf/conceptual art

As of right now, conceptual art is my favorite thing we have discussed so far. It just amazes me to see these works of art, and I was sitting and thinking "how come I didn't think of that?" It made me think of what I would do for a conceptual art piece, but I just kept thinking of things that have already been done. And then that made me think of my problem with the words creativity and inspiration. I believe they are total paradoxes and don't really exist, but then I had another thought. I finally came to the conclusion that true inspiration is all about spontaneity and anything after is just imitation. An extreme example I discussed with group was me picking up my laptop and throwing it against the wall. No explanation, just an action. If anyone else threw something it would just be coping my action and not really being creative or inspired. Back to conceptual art though, I like how it ties back in with the idea of restraints. To be a conceptual artist you have "think outside the box" while at the exact same time your art is the box. Meaning the art you make has that ordinary feel, but the whole thing was planned to be like that. So like a novel like A Void in itself is like a piece of conceptual art. Perec writes a novel, not so uncommon, but the added element of the missing E makes it a piece of work. It's so interesting and completely complex to try and think of new conceptual piece.


This is my attempt at a flarf poem

English-Japanese (Kanji) translation for moist, fleshy fruit
ChaCha has the answer to this question:
You can do this with a lighter or match. ...
36 Hippocrates concludes that as a result of their excessively moist complexion
You wouldn't expect to find a large, fleshy, moist mushroom in the middle of the desert.

Flarf, Arf, Arf, Arf! (Part 3)

Flarf, Arf, Arf, Arf! (Part 3)

New Narrative

I had mixed feelings on the first half of Renee Gladman's The Activist. I really liked the short paragraphs about the bridge and whatever state is happened to be in but I wasn't fond of the parts trying to figure out whether they were dreaming, on drugs, or what. The manipulation of the media was what really intrigued me about the bridge sections and how people will lie just to prove their own point. As a whole I liked the form of the new narrative a lot and how it blends story telling with poetry.

Flarf

So I didn't really understand how I was supposed to compose this assignment but now that we discussed it in class I now get it...

Bitches be crazy..

Any female that has more emotional problems than Latoya Jackson.

He leaned in and said 'Son, Bitches is Crazy.'

As time passed, I've realized the wisdom of this simple phrase.

When the ladies in my life start displaying ...

When we demand social justice, women are often called a crazy bitch.

Just goes to show you conservative men lack both imagination and decent comeback lines. ...

SHE DID WHAT?! Share your encounters with crazy bitches.

Flarf is Dionysus. Conceptual Writing is Apollo. by Kenneth Goldsmith : Poetry Magazine [article/magazine]

Flarf is Dionysus. Conceptual Writing is Apollo. by Kenneth Goldsmith : Poetry Magazine [article/magazine]

Flarf

These pieces were very interesting. I thought that the language in the K. Salem Mohammed pieces were really cool. I liked the deer poems a lot, and it seems fitting being in Wisconsin and reading a poem about deer. I thought that the "My Angie Dickinson" was interesting too, another intriguing thing especially after reading "My Emily Dickinson". The "The Anger Scale" piece really seemed like a poem to me, but still conceptual as well. I enjoyed the K. Salem Mohammed pieces the best, they were the most entertaining to read.

Crusty Bodyparts

Activity 2 - Observing the Physical Characteristics of Ol' Crusty
crust-ah: crusty body parts (any and all body parts)
dumb-ah: an idiot
freak-ah: a freak
big-ah: a fat person
ah ass suffix southern words dirtah ...
My question, Dear Crusty, is: Why do people name certain, ahem, fun body parts and not other, more mundane parts?
... is pretty much wasted energy because our beauty will fade, we will get old and crusty, body parts will fail and then the body will die. ...

Flarf

I thought that the Conceptualists were kind of out there but the Flarfs are pretty crazy. I really enjoyed Gary Sullivan's "Original Flarf." It seemed like his poem "Mm-Hmm" was just all the things rolling around in his head. I think it's a lot harder to write those things down than people think. I really liked the google poems we had to write. They are like the modern Dada poems of our time. It's fun to play around with things you find and make them into something else.

Gorgeous Waste

Gorgeous Blue Waste Can is for Cool Offices Only

Best Green Home Tips... Down with Hoarding... Gorgeous Waste of Time

Reduce waste, gorgeous Karma

Royal Waste of Gorgeous Visuals!

waste not, want not.

....what a waste of time....

Flarf

Interesting. At some point the words seem to just lose meaning and I feel like I'm struggling to invent it on the fly from contrasting symbols.

"Uxoricidal Thunderstorm"

the murder of one's wife ... a reference to Franklin's experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm ...By the way, I wonder how many folks out there have ever seen the
rinsable carbophilous edriasteroidea standpat eulamellibranch uxoricidal ugsomeness

Flarf

I love the randomness that is happening in a lot of the pieces everyone put together! I also enjoyed that same feeling for the readings for today. When I initially had looked up the words wet and back together into Google, a few things came up that I was not exactly expecting. This is what I had gotten out of it:
Wetback:
Those crazy Valley People,
Journey across the wet waters.
So rude, those wild coyotes!
They get in your way
and are an extreme nuisance to all Americans.

But really, what is it?
Why it is the moist gunk which appears in the corner of your eye after a long nights rest.

I loved that even doing something so simple like what we did with Google, it can still pull up something other than what was initially thought of, random.

Flarf

I really enjoyed the readings for today. The poems seem so randomly put together that you really have to think about what the author had in mind while creating them. As we talked about on Monday, “uncreative” writing really requires an understanding of the author’s process and initial ideas. I definitely believe, however, that flarf is not “uncreative;” it’s most definitely a creative form of art that allows the author to combine both his ideas with other peoples’ to develop something new with completely different, totally abstract, plural meanings.
Here’s the poem I put together…
The Crazy Suburban Mom

When I was a little bit younger
Teenage problems
Stay at home
I can through prayer
Teenage problems
Tackle the remote
Teenage problems
One hip mom
Put a piece of masking tape
on the bottom of her shoe
Sounds like you've caught on to the most important part of the problem
Slippery slope, this parenting gig
You have the right attitude
Have you tried a good chiropractor?

Flarf

This week we are focusing on conceptualism and for Wednesday’s class we are taking a look at flarf poetry. I think that this form of poetry is very interesting because it is not like the usual poems that we may be use to. It definitely presents the readers with a different way of looking at poetry and how to interpret it. The uniqueness of its form is simple yet fun and creates a opportunity for the imagination to illustrate the images. Flarf poems unlike the traditional rhyming poems that I am use to, has less of a ring to the ears but it is still present.

Here is one of that I created:

Thoughtless imaginations!
The slipstream of thoughtless thoughts...
Deep into the depths
of many people
A serious oversight
And the wonder is that they persistently cling to this futile hope
Saying hurtful things
although it revolves around machines
versus purely his imagination
wordless poet.

Flarf

I have worked with flarf a lot previously and it has become one of my favorite forms of writing. I really appreciate the creativity that comes out in it even though it is a fairly passive form of writing. Its constraints and methods are really interesting to me because they are so culturally relevant and you don't have to be afraid of anything when you do it. These are a couple of flarf poems I wrote in the past:

SAY NO TO CONDOMS

Nancy puts on body lotion all over her pregnant belly
Just punch her in the stomach instead, a gas pipe
Doctors believed at first that it was a penis
that made a sound described as a “wounded moose
although they determined later that it was a small trunk, through which the baby could breathe




Your Heart Belongs To Jesus, But Your Ass Belongs To Me

Once aloft, the actual meat in the murder sandwich is fairly straightforward
for starters when flaccid it always appears shriveled
Slurping and licking all the cum out like
When I was zombie
Molestation is a pastime adopted by
Japanese, Michael Jackson
so was Hello Kitty

Flarf

Coincidentally, we talked about Flarf in my creative writing class today. I had never heard of this genre of writing until this past week, and now I’m on Flarf overload. As stated in the reading, Gary Sullivan devised this style of writing more of a joke than a creative outlet. He intentionally tried to make the worst, most nonsensical poem, and, well, he succeeded. While I do find it mostly hilarious that he actually submitted his satirical poem, I find it really hard to wrap my head around the idea of people’s dedication to the creation of this work. I’ll admit, it’s funny and pretty enjoyable to concoct my own Flarf poetry. But I don’t know what purpose it really serves other than this self-serving one. The irony of the whole thing is probably what impedes me from digging too far into it: making something “creative” out of someone else’s creation. Nonetheless, they can be fun to read. During my creative writing class, we made a list of 10 different Google search phrases and then wrote down a couple lines of the results. The following is the Flarf poem I came up with that is devised of about 85% direct quotes from the list of search terms and results. Enjoy.

Mama says don’t drink the Kool-Aid
when I stop and go for a drive
With your pants on the ground
and your head held high,
you will go to sleep or I
will put you to sleep.
Mama says don’t drag your butt on the ground
with your shirt of nails and your potty pants.
Mama says just say no to their rainbow of flavors
an overloaded scolding.
Mama says have a glass of shut up.

Flarf, Arf, Arf, Arf! (Part 2)

Flarf, Arf, Arf, Arf! (Part 2)

Flarf

Knowing the processes involved altered my relationship with the text. Before knowing I think I was less interested in the absurdity and humor than after knowing. I didn't take the text less seriously, rather, with the first piece I think the poems became more grave somehow, more dark. I also noticed the odd trend of sexual words being thrown into the search result vomit produced by google. This gave the poems and google, an unsettling perverse quality. Political notes resound throughout the poems as well. It would be really fascinating to discover how Google's algorithms operate in the processes described by the authors.

Here is my poem:

Marry, Fuck, or Kill Sarah Palin - Grimace

On a more spiritual note:

Sarah Palin vs Raptor Jesus? VOTE NOW!

I would chose Raptor Jesus over Sarah Palin

Any day we should violate McCain’s true

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