JessicaKrehlik

Mrs. Popov: I vowed to wear mourning to my grave and not to see the light of day...Do you hear me? May his departed spirit see how much I love him...Yes, I know, it's no mystery to you that he was often mean to me, cruew...and even unfaithful, but I shall remain true to the grave and show him I know how to love. There, beyond the grave, he will see me as I was before his death...

--Chekov, in Roberts, pg 385

Really? I couldn't believe what I was reading. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. She's gotta be insane. I can understand mourning for the loss of a loved one, but vowing to never see the light of day again? Come on, let's get serious now. I don't know of anyone who loves me who would actually condone this sort of behavior while they are still alive, so what makes it okay to do it after they die?

She needs a reality check. She's really hurting the image of her husband by vowing to never get over his death, because even though he was cruel to here, if he really loved her, he'd want her to be happy--he'd want her to move on.

EL 237

Because writers of poems, plays, and stories are usually not systematic philosophers, it is not appropriate to go "message hunting" as though their works contained nothing but ideas. Indeed, there is great benefit and pleasure to be derived from just savoring a work--following the patterns of narrative and conflict, getting to like the characters, understanding the work's implications and suggestions, and listening to the sounds of the author's words, to name only a few of the reasons for which literature is treasured.

--Roberst, pg.120

Thank you Roberts! Finally a text book that I agree with me. In high school, nothing drove me crazier than my teachers' incessant pestering over finding the theme of a story. I'm not saying that it's not important to find theme, but sometimes it's nice to just read the book as it is and enjoy the characters without digging too deeply. I guess this is why I'm a journalism major and not an English Lit major (Of course, I'm also a journalism major because I love writing articles and all that jazz, but you get what I mean). Like Roberts said, some writers don't write their stories with an ideal theme in mind. We, the readers, discover them later on. I can't remember who it was--I'll link to it later, but earlier in the semester, one of my peers talked about how once a piece of literature is released into the wild, it is now property of the readers, not the author. I feel like way too much emphasis is placed on finding the theme. I know that sometimes I end up really frustrated when I can't think up a theme within a reasonable amount of time. It makes me feel like I'm a failure as an English major because I can't figure out a theme that's staring at me, smacking me in the face. Or, sometimes, I'll feel like I'm making completely ridiculous and off-the-wall assumptions in order to form a theme.

EL237

You can't see me. I'm there in the shadows, crouched down on the roof above you, dangling on the ledge below you. Maybe you know I'm nearby. Maybe you're afraid for your life. You should be. Because by the time you realize where I am, you'll be dead.

On wired.com, I found myself drawn to the article about Assassin's Creed II. In this article, the author of the review blended links into the story. One was a previous review of the original Assassin's Creed. Another was a link to a character analysis of the protagonist of the original game, Altair. For a gamer like me, I really appreciate the links, especially because I'm familiar with the game. However, those who haven't played Assassin's Creed before, these links are also very useful. The first link shows why the first game failed. Maybe I'm just partial, because I love videogames, but I really enjoyed this article, and thought the use of links really added to the content of the review.

EL 227

"180 tons of recyclables are picked up from Tuscon residents each day."

The multimedia presenation about recycling was pretty interesting. I liked that the arizona star blended different types of multimedia. They didn't rely solely on video--they offered literature as well. Furthermore, they gave a few links to read further into the subject if necessary. I'll admit that I don't normally recycle--I'm lazy I guess, but for people like me, who really don't pay much attention to recycling, these short videos were very useful. However, I as a little annoyed that they didn't have a link to return to the main menu where users origially chose to either follow the path of garbage or the path of recycled material. It makes me think back to EL236--Writing for the Internet. In that class, I learned the importance of giving my users all of the links necessary to successfully navigate through a website. Like I said, I thought this multimedia presentation was useful, but still lacked in its mobility.

EL227