Technology has changed many things, including poetry and how it is presented. J.R. Carpenter takes advantage of the internet to present her work.
“Many DHTML and javascripts were injured during the making of this web site. I used HomeSite 4.0. Dreamweaver plotted the timelines. All other code credits remain intact inside the source code.” (Carpenter)
She certainly respects the technology and thinks it is alive because it makes her work live in such an interesting way! The codes are like cells in a body, if the cells are damaged or infected in someway the organism the cell creates dies. If her work was corrupted by an evil hacker or a virus her poetry would die.
Things are literally moving around on the screen while reading Cape Cod. Things are also changing on screen on “and by islands”. It is really easy to miss something, especially if you do not scroll the whole way or you click somewhere or forget to click somewhere. It changes things and you will miss a part- possibly and important part of the message the poet is trying to convey.
For instance, if I click on the top of England and then on other parts of the island a new part of the poem appears. You can miss part of the poem if you do not click a certain part of the British Isles. Frustrating indeed… Confusing and nauseating.
It’s a different way to tell a story… Creative use of technology? Yes- A for effort. Did it convey the message effectively? – No, it’s distracting and confusing… a failure in that category in my opinion. For me to get the TRUE effect of this I would almost need the star map thing from the Star Wars Jedi Temple.
Being able to see and click on the islands all separately and clicking on parts of the island that would have “click” points which would show parts of the poem would be helpful. Also seeing the map as a whole instead of having to scroll up and down would leave me less anxious about missing something!
What would Dickinson do? Hmmm, I ask this because I studied and did a project on Dickinson in the previous summer session. There are many critics that said that Dickinson’s poems were not meant for the page… were they meant for the internet or for future made up technology that I bring into my blog?
Emily Dickinson as a ninja/superhero… she needs a light saber!
Note: Images are not my own. Thanks Google!
You gave her project an F for conveying the message effectively? But what is the message exactly? What goals are we after in this project? You refer to the true effect as an accurate mapping and encyclopedia like database like the Jedi thing, but are you so sure that is what Carpenter is after? She states on the actual map that “islands are literal metaphors. Topical islands are in a time zone of their own. They are paragraphs. They separate the text from the reader’s finger’s. Isolated writing is always journalistic. The castaway desperately scans the horizon” and the title IS “and by islands I mean paragraphs.” It seems like your assessment of her cartographic efficacy neglects the title and her metaphoric aim at commenting on writing through this project. How are paragraphs like islands and how does this affect what we see in the map?
Upon first review, yes I would have given her an F for failing to convey the message in an inaccessible way. The message was there but difficult to navigate. I feel if I took the time to do this project I would have gotten the A for creativity but an F for it being unclear and confusing. It would have averaged out to be a C. These are the complications that come with grading creative projects especially when the instructor is unfamiliar with the medium used.
However, upon learning more about this in class today and hearing what everyone else said along with looking at the sources, this project makes more sense. However, it still seriously makes me nauseated. I feel like I’m riding a spinning ride when I look at it. I don’t know why…
Also, while I can’t change how I felt last night… Now, I do not think a grade can be assigned to this work. It’s too easy and quick to assign a letter or number to something like this. It deserves a better more complex reaction.
I personally do not think that paragraphs are like islands unless they are written by different people. For example, in an essay written by one person the paragraphs are not islands. They are interconnected, where as islands are single unconnected pieces of land surrounded by water.