Fighting the hot and cold...

That's right folks, I'm sick and have been for the past week or so. on Tuesday, I did not attend classes and slept for about 5 extra hours. it was glorious. However, I am pretty behind in my classes due to being out of town as well from Thursday till today. Making up all the work is not going to be fun, but I am getting better, so I guess thats worth it! :-)

Not going to English 201 both days means i missed all of the discussion!! oh no!! This makes my reading notes pretty difficult to produce. I am going to do the best i can with what i have and take a little different approach to my reading notes this week. Here goes nothin'.

--------

Both of the readings from last Tuesday were from N. Katherine Hayles. They were on new media and writing with different media. On page 72 of our reader, Hayles says "...how literature is changing under the impact of information technologies." I feel that is why this English course that i am taking is even relevant. As new media and new ways of creating information create endless possibilities, they too create endless ways of sharing knowledge. Literature is also allowed to be reshaped with these possibilities, and the history of literature is also affected as documents from all times are transfered to digital technologies.

On page 73 od our reader, Hayles brings up the concept of the "textimage" which is words and images together. This allows people to think in terms of an image instead of just a word. It creates a fusion of senses with reading the word at the same time the image appears. But the possibilities are only started at image as so many words and literary texts can be linked to sounds, videos, etc.

One thing that confused me was on page 74 of our reader as Hayle refers to technology as a person, saying that is "commits suicide." I think thats sort of scary, starting to think of technology as people.

I liked how Hayles continued with the image concept on page 74 of our reader. she discusses how a metaphor is an image, which also connects images to literature.

On page 75 of our reader, I found a similarity between Hayles and McLuhan. Hayles says "...the physical form of the literary artifact always affects what the words mean." This is just like saying the medium defines the message. How the message is delivered creates the consequence. Just like the train...it could be carrying coal or cows, what matters is that the train was invented and had a big impact on the economy.

To conclude, Hayles says ""Understanding literature as the interplay between form, content, and medium..." I think that is is completely true. With such a vast network with new possibilities, we as students must know how to understand literature as it connects with form, content, and medium.