Every English class I’ve ever taken has been composed of writing essays on random topics and taken tests on various books. I’ve never had to put my writing skills to the test like I did in Remixing Little Brother part one and two. This class is geared to functionality: functionality of writing that is. I will likely never need to write a five-page paper in real life. I will never actually write anything with the rules and the constraints that the average English class applies. Writing is not supposed to have rules. Writing is purely supposed to convey the ideas of the writer in a way that can clearly and completely portray his or her that idea to the reader, whether that be through an essay, a website, or even a movie. There are no limits to writing, and trying to limit it is the most harmful thing a teacher can do. And that is what I liked most about this course. It was about showing us various ways of writing opposed to telling us that there is one correct way.
Remixing Little Brother was geared to the future, and that future is the Internet. Every school I have been to has sheltered its students from the Internet, requiring sources from books and blocking blogs on the school servers. This class truly embraced the future. Learning to make a hypertext is one of the most important skills I’ve taken from this course. Not only is my work more aesthetically pleasing, but it is more concise, and it directly links to my sources and background information, something an essay could never do. Hypertext can probably portray an idea or opinion better than any other written work, at least more efficiently. In addition to my written work, I can also support my opinion with videos and pictures, bringing my idea to life. The value of this skill is immeasurable.
In my Christian Tradition class, the first essay I wrote was about my personal religious stance. While I did enjoy writing this paper because religious philosophy interests me, it would have been infinitely more effective if it was a hypertext. I base a lot of my own religious philosophy on the arguments of others such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Rather than outlining the entire argument, just to get to what I take from it, with a hypertext I can give a brief description and provide a link either to another page written by me that the reader can choose to click on if interested or a link to another website with extensive information about the topic. A hypertext puts the control in the reader’s hands rather than the writer’s. The reader can read as much into a specific topic as her or she wants, making the work more efficient for all parties. If this paper had been a hypertext I could have also created a theme for my paper using the visuals, making the actual content more effective.
If I could remix a specific work, I would choose to remix The Great Gatsby. Before I read this book, I was told that it had a crazy, amazing ending. I did not find Gatsby’s murder particularly surprising or interesting. I would have liked to see Nick, the narrator/observer, be Gatsby. I think it would change the rest of the book for the better. This remix would only require an alternate ending, and it really would require full knowledge of the text. Gatsby is full of mystery in the text, and making him Nick would provide answers to all those questions. Gatsby’s love interest in the story is Daisy Buchannan, who is Nick’s cousin. This shows that they both have a strong connection to Daisy. It would just have to be a small plot twist at the end to show that love was not for a cousin but rather a lover.
Remixing Little Brother helped me to understand the text in so many different ways. If I had only read the book, I would take it much more literally than I do now. I would not look into what the characters represent, but rather just what they do. The whole book is an example of what Doctorow thinks could end up happening to the country in the future in light of the Patriot Act and other laws. Without remixing it, I would have only seen it as a series of events with no deeper meaning. I was able to get into Marcus’ head and put myself in his shoes through our various remixes on the text, providing me with in-depth knowledge on its deeper meanings and why Doctorow did certain things like making the main character a high school student. Making Marcus under eighteen years old meant that he had no say in who was in the very government that was controlling his life. The decisions other people made in who they elected to government positions affected him more than anyone. This is just one of many insights I would not have come across had I not remixed this text.
One of the biggest advantages that hypertexts have over linear essays is the ability to show every side of the argument. To write a compelling argumentative paper, it needs to have a “swagger” of sorts, which may require less information on the opposing view to make the thesis seem stronger. In a hypertext every side of an argument can be included in some fashion as long as one strong idea prevails. This can be done through external links or outer pages, just providing the reader with some insight on the opposing views, allowing the reader to have a full grasp of the argument, which lets him form an opinion of his own.
I am currently a finance major. In the world of finance, hypertexts and new media are everywhere. Every company worth its salt today has a website, most of which are extensive. While I probably won’t be the one designing said websites, the ability to make one and to truly understand their functions will be extremely useful. I could even create a website to convey one particular idea that I want to pitch to my superiors. Anything that can make my idea stand out above others (including videos or even comics) will help me to further my career.
In addition to all the new media I learned how to use, reading Little Brother was a very interesting and thought provoking exercise. While I strongly disagree with Doctorow’s position on this issue, reading this book made me pick a side. I had never thought about anything about this topic, even though it is extremely important. I don’t agree with some of the things Marcus did and believe lots of the story was exaggerated (even though it was supposed to be), but regardless, it made me think, which is more than I can say for most books I’ve read while I’ve been at Santa Clara.
The first quarter of this class really caught me off guard. Learning to make a website was a real struggle in the beginning. My first hypertext was extremely simple, but fun because it was about something that I’m extremely passionate about, sports. My second hypertext was modeled on Facebook. To be honest I kind of lucked into the idea. I am not a creative person in the least bit, but because I was writing about how Facebook distracts me, it seemed like a natural fit. The success of my second hypertext made it inevitable that my third would not live up to it. I was not very proud of the setup and didn’t want the quarter to end that way. But, I really did learn a lot in the actual nuts and bolts of making a website in the first quarter.
The second quarter was about taking what I learned in the first quarter and learning how I’d use those skills in real life. Each remix was just one example of how to analyze a text. I found that my ability to use Dreamweaver came back very quickly. The main thing I learned about making websites this quarter is that simplicity is key. You don’t need to have a bunch of fancy effects to make a website good. Making it simple is what makes it functional and not too distracting. I also particularly enjoyed writing about this topic. It was easy to get myself interested, which definitely helped my writing.
The final video project was one of the most grueling projects I’ve ever been a part of. My group must have put in upwards of twenty hours on it. I was probably present for sixteen or seventeen of those. Austin and I were in charge of editing and I had no idea what I signed up for. It easily took up half the time. I learned so much about what goes in to making a movie from this project. I legitimately look at movies differently now, because of all of the work I put in. Every member of my team was great. We all brought different skills to the table, which made it easy to assign tasks. Overall we worked very well together, and I’m very proud of our final product.
Before this class I knew the Internet was a very important tool. But, I had no idea how useful it really is. The Internet is clearly the future, and knowing how to use it will be vital to anyone in our generation’s success. The Internet connects everything. It is one large network, bringing together billions of articles and pages. Without taking this course I would definitely not be able to appreciate its magnificence. It is truly one of the revolutionary inventions in human history. Ignoring it would be a crime. Now I know how to take full advantage of it.
This class was probably the most demanding class I’ve ever taken. But, I’ve never been so proud of my final projects. Also, this is one class where I can easily see how this will help my future and how it’s relevant to my life. I am truly grateful that I took this course even though I definitely would not have said that a month ago. The skills I learned, I’m sure, will help me in my academic career as well as my professional career. I really appreciate everything I learned. Thank you Marc.