Thesis
·
Set up of Moby Dick
o
Play sections
§
Chapter 36 ‘ENTER AHAB’
§
Chapter 38 and 39 monologues by starbuck and
stubb
o
Nonfiction
§
Talking about whaling
§
Chapter 32 all about classifications, hunting,
etc
§
Chapter 68 about whales and observations
o
Allegory
§
Story with symbols to represent abstract ideas
§
Captain Ahab is what
§
Moby Dick is god
§
Defining whiteness (Chapter Whiteness)
§
Pg 273 bottom half of paragraph about blubber
names give meaning
§
Pg 119 a novel about novels
o
Myth
§
Passed on story in a culture to explain
something difficult to understand
o
Epic
§
Deep connection between humanity and nature
§
Attempting to work with and harness nature
§
We’ve mastered light and dark
·
What do different forms mean?
o
We want meaning
o
We want connection
o
Lyotard The Sublime and the Avant Garde
§
The possibility of nothing happening is often
associated with a feeling of anxiety
o
Natural perspective changes meaning too
§
This is all about
widening YOUR perspective and reading books written from different
perspectives. For example, if you’re a middle to upper class white American
male, you might read a book from the perspective of a poverty-stricken single
mother or a gay person struggling with his or her identity, and vice-versa. You
don’t have to read an “issue” book about these things (though it definitely can
be), you could choose a science fiction book that just so happens to have a
non-normative main character. It’s pretty flexible, because this read is all
about expanding YOUR boundaries. I’m all for diversity, but sometimes we forget
that depends on who WE are. So if you’re NOT a white, middle-class, straight,
American male, then feel free to read from that perspective as well.
·
How digital formats have changed interpretation
of novels
o
Moby Dick Twitter Account
§
Positives
·
Comedic relief stirring interest in novel
·
Philosophical outlook with just quotes
·
Quick quotes to pike interest in book itself
·
Quick way to start thinking like Ishmael would
§
Negatives
·
No understanding of the novel
·
No characterization
·
No cohesive material
·
No reference numbers to where quotes are in the
novel
o
Moby Dick Emoticon book
§
Positive
·
Fun
·
Gets people interested
·
Publicity for an old, classic book
§
Negative
·
Too digital?
·
Distracting
·
Confusing – not everyone can read emoticons, not
even tech savvy users of the internet
·
Intent of book could just be to entertain
(positive or negative?)
o
Moby Dick pictures
§
Positives
·
Visualize the novel
·
Quotes and page number to reference picture and
what’s happening
·
Places pictures in our heads instead of letting
us create our own images
§
Negative
·
Distracting
·
Pictures are too abstract to go with the quotes
of the novel
·
Inaccuracies of the picture to what is actually
happening in the novel
o
Moby Dick movies
§
Positive
·
Visualization
·
Gives life to words
·
Gives better characterization and storyline as
compared to other forms of Moby Dick
§
Negative
·
A movie producer/director’s interpretation
involved in making a film
·
Book to film inaccuracies
·
Cutting scenes possible
o
Moby Dick blog
§
Positive
·
Gives a modern take on story
·
Potentially adds personality to Ishmael as it is
from his perspective/writing style
·
A quicker reading of text?
o
Debatable because each blog post zooms in on
parts of one chapter, and is modified for a modern reading and not direct
quotations
·
Quick links to allusions and terminology in the
text – leads to more reading of the text
·
A link to the full text provides the accuracy
·
Responses from viewers to respond to text and
add their impute, discussion of text
§
Negative
·
Room for interpretation error on the creator’s
part
·
May leave out parts of book readers may find
important like a film may cut out scenes
·
Content vs Form
o
Understanding Media
§
The impact of media goes beyond the content
·
The impact of newspaper is not the news, but the
fact there is news where there was none before
§
Media is a sense overpowering other senses so we
don’t notice – therefore we embrace media and accept it as a part of us
o
Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big
Social Data by Lev Manovich
§
Surface data for broad things
§
Humanities fields – small deep data
·
Used for books, film
·
At present time, we don’t have to split the two
·
Pg 462 “the rise of social media…new approach to
study
o
Don’t have to pick between data size and depth
§
small narrow data in humanities
·
you read a book and analyze that
§
Big data in humanities
·
Finding trends and word usage 1000s of books
·
What we consider to be text
o
Comments on articles online
o
Is it a book? Chapter? 1000 books? What’s the
text
§
The visual is changing
·
So big data is changing
o
Digital vs print
§
www.digitalculture.org/about
·
developing
open platforms that make openness part of the scholarly peer review process
·
establishing
a model for press-library collaboration at Michigan and elsewhere
·
showcasing
and extending Michigan’s leading role in the development of digital resources
·
encouraging
and participating in a national dialogue about the future of scholarly
communication
·
What does it mean for humanities today?
o
Authors and publishers perspective
§
Just as content changes in new forms, writers
and publishers must change to accommodate new forms of publishing work
§
Audience is changing to digital
§
How we create and curate content
§
What it does to change form?
·
Let the readers take what they want from your
publications
·
It’s different for everyone anyway
·
New media gives new light to your work and
publications
·
New forms of study, new ways to read
·
The purpose of writing is to give meaning –
meaning doesn’t go away just because it’s in a new format, it just changes how
something might be interpreted
o
Comments to
consider
§
The point of
putting something into a new form is to change the meaning. The reason
that we utilize novel forms of expression is to get people to think about old
ideas in new ways, and there's nothing wrong with that. Books and other works
of creativity are non-static modes of expression; they are intended not for the
author but for an audience, and as that audience changes, so must the book and
its inherent meaning. That's what allows a 150-year-old book to remain relevant
in a modern setting.
§
Form is extremely
important, though I think we have to weigh the costs and benefits from each
shift in form. For example--What do we lose by shortening something so complex,
but what do we gain by making it more accessible?
§
In a written
book, there is no room for comments or social proofing, whereas a blog invites
feedback. Maybe a blog version of Moby Dick would include some insightful
reviews of what goes on in the story from readers, other sailors, etc. I can
imagine some of the comments to Ishmael's posts saying something like,
"Jump ship and join the Rachel; Ahab sounds like a loon."
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