Texts talk to each other (I feel like these readings had so much going on!)

I agree that the value of texts are shifting, especially when it comes to how texts or “snip-its” are talking to each other. Just look at some of the classes in the Lit department this semester!

For example:

 Lit 438: Literature Unbound, taught by Professor Thomas is a course built around the connections between different materials across media. In the class we have talked about the connections between material like a film and a graphic novel and how they are talking to each other, and at the same time have their own “process”.  We connect the pieces through “action” “genre” and whatever other references they might have in common. The entire class is built around these “connections”.

Personally, I like the idea of re-inventing something by connecting it to another piece, or by making two different things “talk” to each other. A good example of this is a mash up.

I think that the most interesting part of the readings for today, and the class discussions is the concept of the Processes:

We tend to think about writing as a process—as an end goal to be achieved. We will have a masterpiece at the end. (when it’s done, it’s done---there is no fixing it or changing it. Etc) In that sense the writing always has a product. Professor Downs explained this best as the book becomes the fixed end goal of the piece.

However, todays reading are suggesting that we think about these things as a Process in the sense that there is no clear ending, there can be revised, adapted, and reworked into a continually changing text. The example that is woven in and out of Kole’s piece is Wikipedia, where the text can be changed by many people at any time (and in turn adapts what we think of authorship, but that was better discussed in the Johnson article).

The easiest way to understand Process is through the Sphinx. This sculpture was designed to be a “finished product”, but through the constant influences of time and weather on the Sphinx, it has adapted and changed, even after the understood “final” creation has been made.

Personally, I think a good way to explain the process is to look at memes:

The first image is a photograph of a child. This alone is its own text

The next “author” of the piece took the image and adapted it with words.

And then I took this meme and changed what it was saying to say something else. 

In other words, this text is constantly evolving.