Alexander

Male

Job

Money

Strength

Sports

Videogames

Building shit

Making sure the house stays together

Some-what-in-charge

Grills

Lawn

Female

Babies

Elementary Teachers

Clean

Some-what-in-charge

Soccer-mom

Treats

Cooks

Garden

The author points out that there is an over saturation of male writings in the class room as opposed to female writings. I call BS. Frankenstein? Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? All written by women all very popular among teens in school. Maybe not Frankenstein.

I found the article very dry and did not agree with most of it. Throughout the reading I wanted to kill myself with a plastic butter knife. The author, Jonathan Alexander, should just turn in his man card now because not even most women are that feministic. Yes, I bet it’s great that over the past couple decades women and men have begun composing works with a feminist background, but in the end, doe it even matter? A story is a story and an article is an article. It shouldn’t matter how they are written and who wrote them. All that shouldn’t even be a secondary concern. It should be a concern at all. I will never understand the inner workings of a feminist’s mind, nor do I want to. This is just awful. I feel like I am developing a slight tumor just by trying to get into Jonathan’s mind set. I can’t.  

Henson IWA

In the Jim Henson videos, it makes a point to show the slight sexism shown in Greek mythology.

Most of the plot derives from a Greek King not being able to have a son but many daughters. This is a problem as he needs a son to continue his family name. Unfortunately he gets a prophecy that his daughter will have a son and that he would be killed by his own grandson. After the boy, Perseus, is born, the king casts him and his mother away to be someone else’s problem. Perseus’s mother then gets engaged to someone who is quite frankly what some people would call a jackass. To stop the weeding, Perseus must get the head of the Gorgon, Medusa. To achieve his goal he gets the help of the gods and teases some old blind ladies for information (what a jerk, I know!) Long story short- He kills the gorgon and uses the head to turn his would-be step father to stone. He also kills his grandfather.

I liked how the story was told and the way the dog kept interrupting to mimic questions children ask during stories. It added to the effect of storytelling that kids can easily relate to. The production value of the show was also very good. No shitty acting to be found for the most part.

Peer Review

Overall, I liked your paper, especially the layout of it. It made it very easy to read. There were a few problems however. The first paragraph is very misleading with the subject matter as you mention the Hong Kong Study Circle twice and the music scene only once. You also fail to show the other types of music available on campus. Your paper also lacks a proper synthesis as you only introduce Swales in the opening, which leads to another problem: You assume that your audience knows about Swales. Be sure to show his credentials and why you are using him as a source.

There aren’t many problems with the paper and I don’t have the time or the willpower to point out everything great about it but one slight annoyance was how you thought you needed to use every response to every question from every interview. It would be better to just use the best answers for each question.

Every time you used AMC, I immediately wanted to stop reading and watch Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead. But I did like how you pointed out what it meant right away.

The thing I said about introducing Swales also goes for Gee. Why is he an authority? Pretend I don’t know he is.

The overall paper is nicely written and well organized. Just make sure to clean up the few things that aren’t up to par and your paper will be much better.

Gee

“All of us acquire at least one initial discourse”

The initial discourse is how you first familiarize with the world. Usually this is our families or schoolmates in elementary school.

“Dominant groups often apply constant ‘tests’ of fluency in specific discourses”

This makes sense as people generally hate it when people pretend to know of something they don’t. I hate it when people talk about something and get everything wrong. “Halo is about a robot that fights aliens and saves people” No, he is not a robot, he is human.

“Not all discourses involve reading or writing”

This is very true. Discourse communities can be anywhere. They could involve anything that groups of people could talk about. There are communities that play video games, in which case would involve little writing and little reading. Same would happen with sports teams or fishermen and the like.

“Mushfaking has to do with something lesser when the real thing is unavailable.”

People do this all the time. I remember in grade school using the lid to a pudding cup as a spoon because I couldn’t get a real one due to my excessive laziness at the time. Sometimes in communities you have to do this in order to make due with what you have. Like in the discourse community of Machinima (using video games to make movies) you have to make do with the tools the developer gives you, which is why Halo is a popular machinima platform because of its theater mode which was born from the popular machinima “Red vs Blue”.  The creator used to just sit there with a character that wasn’t holding a weapon to make it look like an actual camera, which once theater mode was introduced into Halo 3, was no longer an issue.

Swales

 “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common goals”

This quote is pretty straight forward. Swales means that discourse communities have a specific set of “end games” to reach or at least a set of “check points” For each community, this can be different. The goals can be anything from changing to world or to simply winning the next game.

“A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members”

This quote is slightly harder to decipher, but it means that each community has its own mean of communication be it forums, phone calls, or just a pregame lobby of a video game.

“A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback”

Everything is constantly changing, including discourse communities. You need a way to get out word of new changes. What was true once could be false soon. Earth is no longer flat nor is it the center of the universe. Who decides the change? People; people who notice problems, then find ways to fix them. This quote means that the communities use its participants to garner information for what changes would be welcome and what changes are not welcome.

“A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.”

This one is a doozey. Basically every group has their own ways of doing something. Gamers wouldn’t solve certain instances the same way action figure collectors would. It is all relative to the groups you are from or belong to. There is a proper and improper way to do something. Like with gaming, there is a proper strategy to winning in Runescape PvP and a wrong way.

“A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.”

Simply, there are people who know a lot about what the discourse community surrounds and can input relevant content and information towards conversation 

Outline

Synthesis Discourse Community

There are many layers to the discourse community of Halo fans. You have the “Pros”(People who play only ranked multiplayer all day every day!) , People who play the game for the story of the campaigns, and casuals who only play the multiplayer, but not to the same extent as the pros. In terms of the “campaigners”, many of them don’t just keep the narrative to the actual game but extend their knowledge of the Halo universe by immersing themselves into the books. I fall under that category. For the most part, I am actually a reputable source of information when it comes to the first five Halo books on the old Halo forums (before they were moved late in 2011).

When Halo: Reach was announced in 2008, a lot of campaigners jumped for joy at the thought of playing the beginning of the war as described in Halo: The Fall of Reach, which is the first book written and takes place just before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. From a campaigner’s perspective however, the game was very disappointing in terms of story as it didn’t follow the book at all! It only even shows two of the characters in the book (Captain Keyes and Dr. Halsey). Fan cried out in honor of the Halo canon to which was answered with re-writes of the original books with slight variations made to fit the new fiction. 

With the Halo Community, there is a clear ranking system of seniority and moderators. Having been exposed to Halo since 2003, I rank pretty high on the seniority level. People also can use their ranks in-game to show their seniority. In Halo: Reach, even though I don’t play many ranked games, my BPR (Battle Percentage Ranking) is very high at 93 out of 100 and gives me some sway when strategies are being discussed on various maps. Like how it is not a good idea to try and snipe directly from the sniper tower as it is too obvious on the map Ascension.

Halo is a genuine community that I belong to and I could talk about it for hours.

Personal Seuss Story

I was introduced to Seuss at a very young age. It probably started much earlier than I can actually remember, but the defining moment came when I was three and it was around Christmas time. My mom showed me the red and green cover of the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I have seen the 30 minute show before and loved it, but now I have the book to reference. After my mom read it to me, I began noticing the plethora of Seuss books we actually owned (which turned out to be a lot, actually). Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, Oh, the Places You Will Go, and many more; I grew up reading those books with my parents. I moved from Seuss to Shel Silverstein around the time I was eight and from there started reading short chapter books like Scooby-Doo and Captain Underpants. I will always remember that I started reading with rhyme and that it started with a green Who who didn’t like Christmas. The books taught me many things about literacy using many tools, such as repetition and theme. All the stories had a neat and unique theme to them. Green Eggs and Ham teaches you to try new things, while The Lorax has a deeper meaning behind it, such as protecting the environment. Not only did Dr, Seuss help my literacy, he also brought up simple life lessons and pseudo-social change.

Seuss Intro

Alright you boys, alright you girls

It’s time to discuss where learning unfurls.

Thinking back, as long as I could remember

Yes even back to my first December

There was one author who stood above the rest

You might even say that he was the best.

From how the books were written

To how they were read

Dr. Seuss Knew how to stick in your head

He used clever plots and clever themes

All nestled away

In neat rhyme schemes. 

Take heed, in fact

For what we will discuss

is why Seuss left a deep impression on us.

With characters here and words he would tinker

Seuss put great joy in making a kid into a thinker.

What sticks with us still is not the words or the book

But the message behind.

There, that’s the hook.

Though the books were for kids

The parents weren’t left out

For with him

A great message always came about

Relevant today, as ever they could be

His stories have aged like The Great Gatsby

The reason he is so great isn’t hard to conceive

One of his messages was just to believe.

As I read his stories, not only did I learn

But more knowledge and creativity were always yearned.

Horton Hears a Who

Green Eggs and Ham

Yertle The Turtle

And even the Grinch too!

All have shaped how we learn today

Simply by being there when it was time

To hit the hay.

Seuss help kids all over the place

Get comfortable with words at a nice slow pace

Even if you are a big as an Elephant

Or as small as a Who

Dr. Seuss knew you could read it

He believed in you!

You know who we are

And you know where we stand

Dr. Seuss influenced literacy all over the land.

You cannot deny

No, you won’t even dare

No other childrens’ authors even compare

Time is short, yes, don’t be bitter

Let’s move on now, to the good Dr.’s Twitter. 

CRAP

                I chose this picture because the message makes itself clear to the viewer almost instantly. First you see the phone, then you notice the scorch marks and immediately, you start looking for answers in the corner. "Oh! It's  an ad for Tobasco sauce! I get it; The phone is burnt because of how hot the sauce is!" The use of red, which is associated with the color of the sauce, was also a good choice for the editor and designer of the poster. Overall I think this is a very effective ad for those who like really hot sauce.

Baron

“I found that I had become so used to composing virtual prose at a keyboard that I could no longer draft anything coherent directly onto paper.”

I know what he means by this. I suffer through the same thing but with animation. I used to love drawing, but now that I am proficient in 3D animation, I find it as the most tedious thing someone can make me do. I hate how to make a drawing move you have to redraw everything in the picture. Stupid. I like being able to just move something when I want and only having to move that piece.

“Each new literacy technology begins with a restricted communication function and is available only to a small number of initiates.”

This makes sense because people are a skeptical breed. We like what we know. When someone comes up with a new revolutionary idea, we are very weary of it until it is tried and tried again.

“While brave new literacy technologies offer new opportunities for producing and manipulating text, they also present new opportunities for fraud.”

This is very true. Before the wide use of “copy and paste”, Plagiarism was very time consuming and not worth the risk of getting caught. It took just as long to write someone else’s ideas as to jot down your own. The internet also helps by pooling in a bunch of resources to choose from to rip material from. I had an entire five page paper in high school that was completely plagiarized.  It was a health project and no one used their own work. I literally cut and paste three full wiki articles and I received a 92% on it. (I would not do this again.)

“Humanists have long been considered out of the technology loop”

I’d have to go with a “you don’t say!” here. The name implies that they feel that humans should be more organic in their actions and less artificial.  The term usually applies to the people who use more technology than say, the Amish,   but would never dream of pushing our technology further. They’re like Grandparents. They’ll use a cell phone, a TV, and remotes, but a computer might just be pushing it.

“It is true that some well-known writers have rejected new-fangledness”

As a child of the internet and computer age, I find this hard to believe, but I am sure that there are some older writers that prefer the good ol’ days of type writing or even pencil. Thoreau believed that telegraphs were unnecessary due to the fact that there is nothing that Maine would ever need to communicate to Texas. Well, time as proved that wrong on many occasions and shows us that new technologies can create new problems, but also solve old. 

“The telephone was initially received as an interesting but impractical technology for communication”

It’s funny how looking back into the history of an everyday object can shock you. You’d think that everyone would have been initially on board for something like a telephone because everyone today uses one. I bet you cannot name a single person that you personally know that has never used the phone at least once in their lives. Funny how perspective changes over time.

Hooks

Hooks talks about how difficult it was for her to write her autobiography the way she originally wanted because she could never get into the creative mindset necessary to do so. For a while she talked about  how she tried to subdue a part of herself because she thought that that part of her was holding her back. She realized though, that the only thing holding her back was herself. After she let that part of her through, she found that writing was much easier in the mindset that she had as a child.

1.      She meant that she wanted to keep the uneducated/too young version of herself out of the story as she felt that she didn’t want the memories so much as she wanted the feeling evoked be each memory and she felt that the part of her was holding her back and she wanted to rid herself of it. However, she wasn’t able to write well until she let that side out.

2.      Bio-mythography is the invention of memories to make up for lost details in your past. She says herself that there is a particular memory that she isn’t even sure actually happened, so yes. She does have this in her story.

3.      Hooks uses the image of a memory to frame her writing. She goes through each memory and gets as many details down as possible. I go through others’ writings, find quotes, and expand on those quotes. It’s worked pretty well so far.

AEI1:

            It shows that she is partially afraid of showing a certain part of her in her writings, which makes me view her as kind of afraid. You should embrace every part of yourself as an enhancement. Only then will it work as one. You can’t expect to write great unless you put all of yourself into your writing.

Brandt

“Sponsors seemed a fitting term for those who turned up typically in people’s memories of literacy learning.”

            This quote makes sense to me as when I think back to my early reading days, I remember my mom always reading me the old Dr. Seuss books. “Green Eggs and Ham” was always a favorite of mine.  My mom also bought me two books filled with Shel Silverstein poetry and short stories. I’ve read everything in both multiple times. I’ve grown up loving rhymes and childish stories. I still love the more abstract artwork used to illustrate the books as well.

“Throughout their lives, affluent people from high caste racial groups have multiple and redundant contacts with powerful literary sponsors as a part of their economic privileges.”

            You can see with this quote that there are many aspects of life (in America) made specifically for English speaking Americans. Sure there are some children’s shows that teach basics of Spanish,  like Dora the Explorer, but even shows like that are more geared towards teaching English speakers how to speak Spanish and would be no use to someone with Spanish as their first language.  

There is a quote about the raising literary standards in society today. It states that a lot of the times jobs can disappear because of changing technologies like computers and phones. Like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. Bucket loses his job at the toothpaste factory because of machines being more productive.

An interesting way to put it.

As I was stumbling around the internet, I came across a story written in a very peculiar way. I thought it was interesting so I've decided to post it here. I do not claim authorship of this story. It's what the author describes as a "Self-Referential Story" which I think is a great concept to those who like a more robust way of writing. You get no information to what the story holds at all in the first paragraph, but if I were to grade this creative arc, I'd give it an A for sheer originality. Self-Referential Story

Peer Review

I read "Due Tomorrow, Do tomorrow"
I liked the way the essay was easily relate-able. The author used  examples from his/her experiences as a student to back up his points and used his sources well.

What he/she could have done better was to better explain two of the kinds of procrastinators. The "Mind Game" and "Undefined Worker" could have been explained better. The difference between the two is not explained very well.

There are many sentences in the paper that make no sense how they are written.

There are a few paragraphs that should be moved around, or removed all together, as they are completely irrelevant.

It would be a good idea to state why you are quoting someone. What are their qualifications?

Over all, I thought the paper was decent at best. B-

Paper Intro Paragraph

Proper comma use is very important in your work. If you think about it, a comma can save your life. It means the difference between “Let’s eat Marc” and “Let’s eat, Marc”. One of the statements would end in an enjoyable night out with a friend, and the other with cannibalism. Commas not only help keep from getting caught in an awkward situation, but they also help break up otherwise long sentences. Could you imagine a world like this that had no commas periods or parenthesis? All of the sentences would look like the previous one and be very confusing to read. There are some times though in my writing where I am not fully sure of myself if I need a comma or not. Sometimes you see it before the word “but” because you are writing an extension of the statement, but other times you wouldn’t use it, like in front of “and” in most cases.

Ben Yagoda, from the NY Times, had much to say on the subject. He clarifies a certain situation in which the comma is mistakenly used. “If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. I’m referring to a student’s writing a sentence like: I went to see the movie, “Midnight in Paris” with my friend, Jessie. There is a comma after “movie,” after “friend” and, sometimes, comma after “Paris” as well. None are correct — unless “Midnight in Paris” is the only movie in the world and Jessie is the writer’s only friend. Otherwise, the punctuation should be: I went to see the movie “Midnight in Paris” with my friend Jessie.”

Jane Straus, author of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, makes some of the less debatable uses for the comma easier to understand. In one instance in her website, she points out a common spot for comma splices where a semi-colon would be better suited for use. “A comma splice is an error caused by joining two strong clauses with only a comma instead of separating the clauses with a conjunction, a semicolon, or a period. A run-on sentence, which is incorrect, is created by joining two strong clauses without any punctuation.”

There is much debate if when and where a comma is appropriate for use, but everyone agrees that it is important to use one.

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/the-most-comma-mistakes/

Bernhardt

Question 4:

                I’ve never really thought about it. Why do we have to write essays that follow specific formats? Does it make it easier for teachers to skim through or to actually read in a less tedious manner? I don’t really know what the answer is, but I would guess it has something to do with keeping writings in a more uniform manner that is more easily graded. This is really the first time I thought about this question and now I am thinking up different ways to write essays, but then maybe it helps students keep up with word count or page count without getting points docked for making letters too big or having too much space in-between everything.

AEI1:

                Actually, senior year in High School, I had one English “multigenre” project in which I had to make three separate pieces of media to write about a certain topic. I actually played “Judge Turpin” in Sweeney Todd that year for my school, so I chose that show as my topic. I chose to re-edit an animation to show facts about the show’s origin as it played as one of the forms of media, I also was able to use the poster for the actual show (because I was the one who designed it) as my second form. And my third was a fake newspaper article I wrote up from the perspective of the police that show up at the end of the show. It was very different and, since I had control over literally everything, fun too!

Copyright note: The only thing here that I do not own, is the song in the video. Everything else is my own original work. The song rights belong to Steven Sondheim and the company responsible for this particular recording.

Porter

In his article, James Porter talks about intertextuality. He basically argues that almost nothing is original and that writers always take something else from someone else to, hopefully, enhance their work. He says this mainly because he’s right. Jefferson borrowed a lot of phrases and ideas for the Declaration of Independence from British works. This goes along with the hunter/gatherer theory as “gathering” information to enhance your text.

You can get help with writing from multiple sources, be it books or people or even videos.

I thought the reading was interesting to see put in writing the fact that almost nothing is original anymore because, yea, it’s mostly been done before.

Question 4:

                I always thought writing was critiqued based on multiple factors, like style and voice. I’ve never considered “acceptability” in the equation, which makes sense now that I think about it. My writing is always evaluated on form, hardly ever content.

Question 5:

                Porter was defending his claim that you can’t escape others’ work in your own writing by using many quotes and ideas from other writers. You can get a good idea of this just with his citation list.

AEI 1:

I’ve already used the Brittany Spears Pepsi commercial as a reference, but I am going to use it again. They pretty much took the idea from the movie “Gladiator”, which took its ideas from history.

MM:

                I picture writers now as putting down their own ideas while using others’ to help sew it all together. This could be a good way to write research papers, if that’s not what we already do.

King

I thought Stephen King’s article was the best simply because I went in already knowing some of his works (Misery, Maximum Overdrive, and more). Familiarity with an author definitely holds some sway when it comes to opinions. I like how in the article he basically invited you into his own little world for what was happening at the time he was writing the article, which I really enjoyed.

Elbow

GRTR:

On Facebook, I tend to be more blunt on how I put my observations and I tend to be more mischievous online than in real life. From my profile, people are probably able to tell that I enjoy musicals, Photoshop, animation, and messing with friends. Which is actually pretty spot on, if I do say so myself (I do).

Q1:

                I define voice as how you read a paper, book, or article. It’s what is doing the actual reading in your head. It’s the sound you hear in your thoughts as you read. Elbow see’s it more as the author’s personal touches to their work and how they write. Others might say that voice is just the overall tone of the writing, be it dry or exciting.

Q2:

                The way I see it, if a paper seems voiceless, then all it does is lose the attention of the reader.

The more personality a paper shows, the more interesting the read will be. Elbow believes that you can’t accurately display information using voice. I have to disagree. Just look at McCloud’s article. It’s the only one I actually enjoyed reading, and I also understood it better than the other articles because of the voice and style he used to write it.

AEI1:

                Sincerity and resonance means really meaning and believing in what you are writing to the point where it leaves an impression on the reader. If you struggle with it, you might have chosen the wrong topic to write about if you don’t trust your own writings.

  

Connecting:

                I feel that voice is very useful in papers as it helps readers relate to what is being said in a paper and thus keeps things more interesting. I agree with Elbow on this one. It’s not some myth. It’s really and truly there.

Sarah Allen

In her article in Readings on Writings, Sarah Allen discusses the difference between professional work and student work and how she deals with less-than-enthusiastic writers in her class and her past experiences with other well known writers. It attempts to show writers in a new light as regular people, not as the person who “skips giddily to the computer”.

This article coincides with the article by Berkenkotter as she wrote about some difficulties some writers might have if circumstances are different from their normal atmospheres.  Sarah writes how one colleague of hers had a paper rejected for being “poorly written” just as Murray was unable to produce a good article for Jack and Jill Magazine.

I thought this article was interesting because I feel that everyone is guilty of assuming that all writers enjoy writing and it is clear to me that Sarah does not enjoy it. I liked her hint that having other people edit your paper can be considered plagiarism,  a fact previously unknown to me. I do agree with her how we shouldn’t just assume that a group of people likes something just because they are good at it.

Murray Berkenkotter

Question 1

Murray seems to have a decently standard process for writing. He has to sit in his spot next to the window or he can’t write as effectively as he wished to. He also carries a tape recorder with him to “think out loud”. I can relate to always sitting in the same spot while writing, as I do the same thing. I have to be at my desk to write effectively.

Question 3:

Berkenkotter discovered that even the most talented of writers, if pulled out of their comfort zone, will not be as effective as a writer due to being out of their norm. She also learned that it took a lot more time to write an article than she originally thought.

AEI:

       I consider myself a one draft kind of guy. I hate revising. Maybe it’s a bad habit that needs to be broken, but the fact remains that I would rather just revise as I go than revise after writing a paper. Most of my time goes into the writing of the paper and very little goes anywhere else. I might outline my points before I start, but that is the extent of that. The amount of editing I do is basically what I catch as I reread the paper for the final time before printing.

MM: I learned from this article that a normal work space can help keep your mind regular and focused on the task at hand.

Eric Nylund

Eric Nylund is most famous for writing video game tie-in novels like the award winning Halo: Fall of Reach and Crimson Skies.

I actually went to his website and found a blog post that spells out exactly what he does to prepare a novel. He usually starts a new novel while waiting to hear back from publishers on nearly finished titles.

He starts with collecting notes from a plethora of sources to base his work on and when he feels he has a story worth telling, he fills in a simple version of the story arc and begins making note cards with chapter notes, which are then assembled in order to create the best possible flow. Once that is done, he starts his chapter outlines and claims the rest of the book will take care of itself.

Source

Berger

Before you read:

If I were to draw a picture of a woman, she would probably face forward as to get more details in. She probably would be the only object in the picture, as I am a lazy artist when it comes to pen and paper. I like digital art more.  I would consider her nude, I guess maybe? I don’t really draw much.

Question 2:

            You see women all the time in beer and pop commercials. Like the Brittany Spears Pepsi ad. Well, these items are meant to be used to sell products. What sell products better than anything? Sex. Now, I am by no means a feminist, because men are just as exploited as women, but we notice the women more for obvious reasons. As I was saying though, women are used more and more to persuade someone to do something or buy some product via ads. It’s pretty much been that way since the mid 70’s.   

Question 4:

            The audience is college students either taking an art class or English class as he delves into details of how nudes and naked paintings started and discusses the difference between the two.

Question 5:

            The “other” means a member of the opposite sex from the one depicted in a portrait. The presence of which is designed to flatter a man, which is what Berger essentially said in his writing.

AEI 1:

            I think automatically to the statue of David. I am sure there were a few generations between David (1501 AD) and a few paintings that Berger showcased. I do believe that the gap has some play in on it, though I can’t put into words what effect the gap actually would have on how each are viewed.

MM:

            I believe what the article was trying to accomplish was giving us an idea on perspective and how people will get different messages from writings as they do for artworks.          

McLoud

Marc Nie 9/10/12

Eng 1510

Before you read:

 My favorite character has always been Spider-Man. Maybe it’s the mask, maybe it’s the abstract powers, or maybe it’s just the idea that some kid with no extraordinary abilities prior can do something great with just a little boost that draws me towards him. The simple fact that he struggles daily with deciding who he actually wants to be is also another aspect about him that I really enjoy.

A scene of Spider-Man that I decided to animate myself

Question 2:

            I think McCloud chose very wisely when choosing the format. Not only was it more interesting to read, but since he was talking about imagery and how we see some more abstract images, it helps that he actually used images to describe the subject matter. Had he just used text, I would probably still be reading, or giving up on that, trying to find the answer in the reading without actually having done the reading.

Question 3:

            What McCloud was getting at was that if the narrator had more detail, we would be more interested in the design and details of his character rather than what the character was saying. I agree that characters are supposed to be filled in with you. You are supposed to see yourself as a character. I leave out the word cartoon because it also applies to live action. The reason I say this is because my friends and I always have the tendency to recast almost every show/movie we see with our group of friends based on personalities. After the casting is complete, we generally see ourselves as the characters we were assigned in the show/movie.

AEI 4:

            The concept of the mask is interesting. What he is implying is that we use our faces to show what we are feeling, which we do. Being able to show how you feel with just a quick glance is an amazing ability, but in some instances can be quite unwanted.  With this it can be hard to hide who you really are from others, or it can be quite easy depending on the circumstance. Without my mask, I would still be able to perceive others, but I don’t think they would be able to perceive me because I don’t have a face in this situation. It’s kind of hard to get over that little detail, I feel.

Summary:

            I really liked this “article”. I thought it was unique and interesting the way it was put together. McCloud used the comic book style to his advantage since he was writing on imagery and perception. He wrote about how humans see themselves in almost everything we create, and how we put ourselves into the shoes of some created characters base on how simple they may look. He proved his points by using pictures of objects that ended up looking like they had a face. He states that no matter how hard we try, we will always see two dots and a line as a standard face. I find this amazing.

            

Test Post

This is just a test. Nothing to see here, move along. Seriously. Move along. Just making sure everything works. Enjoy this picture of Deadpool: