Game Changer Episode 1: My Wife Maddie

Sorry this took me a couple days--I left right from our final to family Easter/sister-in-law mission homecoming festivities, but finally here's my video: http://youtu.be/qpEPi1jdWGA

Thanks for a great semester everybody!

Creative Project - Terror and Awe

Here is my creative project - Terror and Awe.

Stop Motion Videos: Jane Austen

Creative Project (Prototype) #2

Miracle of Memoirs: My Creative Project

Here is the video that I made for my creative project. I wrote the poem and edited the video, and the music is the song "The Letter that Never Came" by Thomas Newman. I've pasted the text of the poem below, if you want to read it separately. 

"This is the fear that chains us. The fear of forgetting what once was. The fear of memories slipping through the cracks.

Our world dances to the mantra “Make it new!” and time shakes the chain.

We sense the age of things the moment the new bursts onto the scene, and, like a strawberry that is barely too sweet or like an apple to oxygen, the newness fades with our attention. 

Yet we don’t want to forget these moments, however old and brown they may be. We are swept from them in the whirlwind of time. It frightens us to see them fly away so quickly, to leave us before they were ever really with us.

So we capture them, “For later,” we say. “When the time slows down.” And when that time comes we will hold the ghosts of these moments close and try to uncover their mysteries. We will force them to relive what they are a thousand times so we can pretend they never left us. 

With our cameras, and our pencils, and our keyboards, and our touch screens, we will make these moments our own.

So we can relive the past. On our own terms."

—Cara Gillespie 

Final Creative Project: Awe in Advertising

Here's the link to the playlist:

Awe in Advertising

Final Creative Project: Awe vs. Pragmatism

My Paper

My paper started with a passion for language. I recognized there was something very pleasing to me about certain combinations of words, certain sounds, certain imagery, and I desired to write a paper on the ability of language to bring us to awe.  My inspiration came from Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" which was the first piece of literature I ever read and came away with an overwhelming sense of awe -- at the images evoked, at the minimalism, at the fact that every word in the poem was acutely selected.  However, this felt extremely broad, and so I decided to shift toward another interest of mine that I felt could still allow me to incorporate my love for language.  I chose to focus on storytelling, and I planned a paper that would allow me to examine the influence and endurance of story throughout time, what elements have changed, what elements have stayed the same, and where awe has fit in with story in marking stories important and influential. I began to write about stories and their transcendent nature/influence when I came across a letter from my late father written to his brother.  The letter served for me as my first exposure to his "voice" and in sensing a significant connection with him which caused me to think about how literature is transcendent in the sense that it can bridge the gap between living and dead generations.  It also contained a book list of highly recommended books by him, and therefore served as a way of his parenting from the grave.  The letter meant so much to me that again, I started over, this time hoping to create a paper that would identify the inherent awe and transcendence of literature by using examples from my classmates' personal literary narratives. Ultimately , I wanted to show people how literature facilities the dead speaking to present generations, present generations speaking to dead ones, and present generations preparing to speak to the unborn.  My paper did do a lot of this, but I'm extremely bummed out that I did not have the time necessary to fully investigate the majority of sources I had originally obtained.  I am submitting it to Life Story Journal's reflections section.

Google Doc

Creative Project

Submitted! Journal of Games Criticism

I'm happy to announce that I submitted a version of my final paper to the Journal of Games Criticism.

Wohoo!

And Now It Is Gone

I couldn't remember how we were supposed to claim we submitted our papers.  I thought that the blog would probably be the safest approach.  My pictures aren't the best quality because I took them from my phone.  I am sorry for the inconvenience  Good luck with finals everyone!

Musicals! My Awe-some Journey (Somebody had to)

When I signed up for this class I was so intrigued by the title. Literature of Awe. A class about Literature and Awe sounds like it would be a fun class and it was. I thought starting off the semester with 2001:A Space Odyssey was a great way to so the many faces of awe. The book and certainly the movie had a little bit of everything. It had the terror, and the transcendent, the spectacle and the sublime.
However, I think when I really got into researching awe I found it often in religion. I wrote about a book called Believing in Christ  By Stephen Robinson and explored what I felt was awe.
As the semester went on we looked at the idea of awe in the every day. We had our wonder journals, which helped me see wonder in the world but in my mind awe was reserved for rare moments of transcendent feelings.
Once I figured out I wanted to write about those feelings, what I called Ultimate Awe, I wrote a blog post about Frozen. I had just seen the movie and had walked out with my mind racing over the possible implications of the movie. There was just so much more there than a talking snowman. As I thought about the themes and the issues in Frozen I began to think of other musicals. I thought about focusing my paper for the class on stage musicals.

My Journey Through Awe

When I started this class, I had no idea what it was going to entail. Throughout the semester, I feel like I've gone on this journey that has helped me truly understand what awe is.
The first thing that I did that helped me understand what brings me awe, was the list of 10 books that bring me awe. You can find it here. From there, I had to move beyond what brings me awe, into how awe can function and work. So I chose to write a post about The Yellow Wallpaper. A short story that has caused me to feel many different things over the course of my scholarly life, it finally helped me understand one of the many different ways that awe can work.
From here, I'm not really sure what happened. But something inspired me to start thinking about the awe of dance, and how that functions in literature and digital media. So I started to baby my idea, and grow it in different ways. Then I did my picture story thing. And that really helped me clarify my ideas, and figure out what I really wanted to talk about for my final project.
A few days later we did the digital media awe list, and that was really cool for me, to be able to explore a slightly different idea but still find ways in which it related to dance as well. One of my favorite awe inspiring example of digital media that relates to dance is still Thought of You, which is at the end of my list.
After this, my journey becomes pretty focused on my paper and prototype. I developed my creative side of my research first, and as a result, I had my prototype up before I had even started my paper, but my prototype helped me refine my ideas further, so it all worked out. And then I started researching for my paper. My list of sources came first, followed by what I had so far (but still nowhere near finished). My final draft is something that I'm quite pleased with (although it still wasn't finished), and since then, my paper has gotten even better.
My journey through awe has been unique and interesting. I have learned more about dance than I already knew, and I think that is what surprised me more than anything. It's been a wonderful journey. And at the end of my journey, I came out with a paper that I'm proud of.

The Journey to My Paper

The idea for my paper first began when Dr. Burton wanted us to start thinking about things that brought us awe. I had been reading a lot of memoirs lately, and had just recently taken some classes on non-fiction writing, so this type of writing was definitely on my mind. I started by writing posts like this about experiences in my own life where I experiences awe simply with basic life experience. Also, the fact that we were required to be keeping Wonder Journals got me thinking about the connection between writing out our life experience and living it.

As we delved more into the theory behind awe, I began thinking of life more in terms similar to the ideas presented in this post. I also started to realize that memoirs have always brought me a special type of awe because of the fact that they are about real life. I loved reading about the power of the human spirit and the nuances of human connection. I realized that one of the main reasons I read memoir was to inspire me of ways to redeem my own life in similar ways to the way authors of memoirs redeemed theirs. Looking back on my life, I sensed a trend of being more interested in reading memoirs during times of struggle in my life. They gave me hope that if obstacles of this size could be overcome, then my obstacles, which were much smaller in comparison, could be overcome as well.

Meanwhile, while all of this self-reflection was going on, my work in class continued. We made a list of the ten books that caused us to experience awe and I wrote a specific blog post on a special experience I had with a certain piece of literature in regard to awe. Each of these assignments caused me to realize that life and literature are inextricably linked, and that this link is most pronounced within memoir.

I started my idea for my paper based on the idea that the ordinary is the launching pad for awe and that this is the formula under which memoir operates. People don't like something and so they change it (ex: Eat, Pray, Love or Wild). However, the more help I received and the more I discussed my topic with others in the class, the more my perception of the real purpose of memoir evolved. My conferences with Dr. Burton were particularly helpful because he opened my eyes into just how deep the connection between memoir and awe could go. Dr. Burton helped me to realize that memoir is so much more than just taking off on a trip around the world because you hate your job and then writing a book about it. Memoir is a special kind of miracle in itself in which we can reshape and relive our own history.

At the beginning of the semester, I checked out a ton of memoirs and books on writing memoirs from the library. The more I delved into the sources, the more the ideas started to run wild. Assignments like the annotated bibliography were helpful in narrowing down the importance of each source.

As my paper progressed and I began pumping out drafts  and narrowing down potential audiences and then doing it again, my paper slowly started to take shape and I began zeroing in on the redemptive power of memoir over life and the ordinary. This idea became the basic thesis of my paper. I also received social proof from Lisa Roylance, a fellow English student who took a 495 class focused solely on memoir last semester, and read her paper and looked into many of her sources. Talking to her and reading her paper was a tremendous help.

Finally, after a long journey, I finished my paper and posted the final version and I feel like I should give credit to so many more people than myself on this final version. I've learned that it really does take a village to raise a paper. A good one, anyway. I only hope that my paper does justice to all of the amazing feedback, literature, and ideas I took in from the people that surround me.

How Videogames and Awe Met and Made a 15-Page Paper Together

The idea for my final paper actually came last semester as I was in Dr. Burton's digital culture class and looking forward to this semester's Literature of Awe class.When this semester started, I got a bit of a special head start on my paper as Dr. Burton gave me the awesome opportunity to present to the class a few games that I thought really inspired awe. In selecting games and moments to highlight, I really considered what about games can inspire awe, which I started to explore in a follow-up post to my presentation.

That led directly into outlining the specific attributes of games I thought created awe, then a list of emotions that videogames could bring at awe-inspiring levels perhaps better than any other medium. In putting together a post about different presentation formats, I came again to a video I had watched before by Chris Franklin about how technology influences the content of videogames. This led me back to the idea I had last semester, and when it came time to give a preliminary outline, I had two strong ideas, but ultimately, feedback from classmates led me to pick the second idea, which was the idea I had last semester. My paper went through some drafts, and the annotated bibliography really helped me gather some solid sources. I asked Chris Franklin for some feedback, but unfortunately never got any (yet). Finally, for my final draft I added a lot more specific treatment of awe itself via Burke and some psychological studies, which really helped define and drive my argument throughout the rest of the paper, which I refined in light of those additions.

I've never written a paper quite this long before, and I think it shows, but overall I'm happy with it and I do think I make some interesting points that add something significant to the study of videogames.

The Ups and Downs of My Paper

My paper went through some highs and a lot of lows, but to begin the story of how my paper transpired, I will outline how I got to my paper topic.  During Professor Burton's first few weeks of introducing us to the concept of awe, I realized that I found wonder and amazement through food.  I wrote a blog on food and discussed how it gave me energy and allowed me to further experience illumination.  From that moment I took interest in food's ability to create awe, which lead me to write about women's connection with food.

The Pecha Kucha project continued to inspire my interest in food.  After watching the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I knew that food inspired people to create.  In Jiro's eyes he did not view food as a source of survival; rather, he focused on foods transcending powers that could reach a higher power.  His ideas reminded me of the Romantic philosophers definition of language.  Like language, there are different levels of depth that come from food, but you have to find the source that allows food to produce its highest purpose or form.  These two blogs really affected how I began to look at food.

I knew what I wanted to say, but I still needed a venue to submit my paper to.  At first, I thought that I would never be able to find a journal solely focused on food, but after a lot of searching I found these venues.  I did include journals and conferences that did not focus on food, but I really wanted to submit my senior capstone to those venues dedicated to food and literature.  After researching the aims of each magazine, I decided to submit my research to Graze magazine.  Because I chose a magazine I decided that my paper would probably have a higher chance of being accepted if I wrote less than 15 pages.  My next step was to outline my paper and find scholarly sources and critcism.

After I started the process of constructing my paper, I decided to focus my creative project on women and their experiences with awe.  I decided to interview women at different stages of life, and see how food affected their experiences with awe and liberation.  After interviewing my grandmother, I developed a deeper connection to food.  Because of these interviews, I began to think about the problems of food, and how traditional gender roles could restrain women from reaching higher tiers of progression.  These thoughts lead to multiple drafts of my paper.  Although I began working on my paper, I still felt like I lacked direction.  Although +Amber Z gave me a lot of great direction, I still felt that my paper lacked a common thread.  I discussed concepts of Adam and Eve, literature, eating disorders, and feminism.  Even for a large paper, I tried covering too many concepts.

I hoped that by talking to enthusiasts and experts I would be able to refine my paper topics.  I did find the assignment to be both helpful and overwhelming.  I went to the Women's studies center. Although my ideas were welcomed with enthusiasm, they never got back to me.  Next, I went to the Women's Center on campus to find experts on food and its affects on women.  I found a lot of interesting information, which lead me to new articles to read and areas to research.  I also tried connecting to a few different teachers at BYU, Either I never received a response, or I decided that I would no longer focus on certain topics that they could have mentored me in.  I wrote two new drafts, and I tried reasearching and contacting Graze Magazine.

After writing these drafts I was finally able to meet with Professor Horrocks.  It was an enlightening and frigthening experience.  After discussing where my paper was headed, I realized I needed to rewrite my whole paper.  I had done so much research and developed so many ideas, but they didn't really say anything new.  Luckily I remembered other thoughts that I had, and, with Professor Horrocks help, I was able to develop an idea that would add something new to the conversaion of women and food.  I now realize that my decision to change my ideas so close to the paper's due date was a lot more work than I thought it would be.  Although I do feel like my ideas are stronger, I am not sure it my paper was as succesful as I hoped it could have been.          

Bridge between Pragmatism and Awe

Towards the beginning of our Literature of Awe course, I was pretty focused on the disconnect between a semester spent in pursuit of abstract awe and the practicality/pragmatics of daily life. I grappled with that disconnect in a few posts, like the one where I listed some of my top awe-inspiring works, and the one where I tried to capture the awe I feel when I'm playing outside. I also focused on the disconnect as I revised a paper for one of my editing classes, trying to reconcile my service as a missionary in the Philippines with the comparative superficiality of a potential editing career. In any case, the disconnect (whatever it was) was on my mind a lot during the first several weeks of the semester.

But more that just theorize abstractly about awe and feel frustrated by the supposed absence of practicality in my senior course, I also wanted to round out my English major by studying an author I'd always wanted to know better--William Wordsworth. He seemed to fit with awe. And it seemed like his work could serve as a lens to understand some awe and maybe make sense of some disconnect.

So many ads. So little time.

This is the story of how my paper came to be. I had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to write my paper about. The things that I was interested in didn't seem like they could be worked into a full-sized paper. It wasn't until we had to do our curating assignment that I really started to figure out that I wanted to write about awe in advertising. I started to notice a pattern in my gathering. I was drawn to the videos that were about humans. Basic human truths. Some of the things I picked up for that assignment were advertisements. At that point, I decided to see what I could do with ads.

I started researching and reading up on advertising. I went to Professor McKinlay in the communications department to ask him about my idea. Honestly, I didn't know very much about advertising, and so most of my work in the beginning was getting a handle on the subject. At that point, I gave my first creative prototype to the class in the form of a Powerpoint presentation.

My ideas continued to evolve with input from my classmates and Dr. Burton. I think it was +Amber who gave me the idea to look at spectacle and the making of awe in movies by recommending this TED talk to me. And +Shelly introduced me to the type of commercials that elicit awe through shocking images like the meth commercials. +Amber's post on propaganda helped me move into historical examples of eliciting awe from an audience, and Dr. Burton lent me a few books about the subject of propaganda and persusasion.

At that point I researched, wrote, and watched far too many hours of commercials trying to find the right ones for my paper. It was harder than I thought to find ads that fit within the categories I'd set up for myself. For instance, the length of commercials I was looking at originally were too long for most television spots. Maybe they were made for online-only viewing. But I picked a few that I thought worked well enough for a paper. And finding my venue really helped me move forward to the point where I could put out a finished product.

My creative project is still coming together, but it will be done by Saturday. I will probably just show those four ads that I used in my paper and the clips of me explaining some things via a youtube playlist.

It's been a great experience reaching outside of my comfort zone in this paper. I learned a lot about a subject that I probably would never have looked at. More valuable than that has been the experience of working as a team with my classmates as we all critiqued one another's work and made research suggestions. It was a good exercise, and it has been fun to see how everyone's papers and projects have evolved from the beginning of the class.

A Story on Discovering Awe in Reading

Now that I have what I am going to call a final draft of my paper, let me tell you about the journey.

The idea originally started when a discussion was brought up in my reading class about becoming a reader and all of the surrounding discussion. 

That sparked this post in which I explore what I thought the connection between reading and wonder may be 

Around this time, I read Louise Rosenblatt's work on  which kept me thinking in this direction and gave me more foundation things to draw on  

Finally I started tying all of my ideas together in my notecard assignment 

Interestingly, I have my own personal experience in there which I eventually come back to as a vital part of the direction I went 

Around this time, I also curated a list of ways people can get back into reading. This is also interesting because the focus of this list happened to be a major focus of my paper as well 

There for a while I was really lost with what direction to take

Essay Submitted!

I just finished formatting my final paper (who knew Chicago style was so similar to MLA?) and sent it in to Digital America, so now it's just a waiting game. As a teaser for my presentation on Saturday, I just wanted to post a couple of pictures for you to look at. And by a picture, I mean two pictures, one of which is real, and the other of which is a painting. One of the ideas I'll be talking about on Saturday is the almost indistinguishable line between reality and non-reality in the digital world. Anyway, that's all for now. Oh, and the answer after the jump break, just in case you were wondering.

Resolution: The World Makes Sense Again

This semester has been a really interesting one in terms of the progression of my research topic and my feelings toward it. I can honestly say that I've never had a semester that was so frustrating , but I've been able to push through and have come to a synthesis moment, to borrow the term from Hegel.

CC 2.0 Generic, Wikimedia Commons

I think one of my problems going into the paper for this class was that I came with so many topics that I wanted to address. Awe was and still is, in my mind, an interdisciplinary notion, and I think that biology, literary criticism, philosophy, psychology, and critical art theory all have important things to say about it. As I studied it more, though, I began to realize that I wasn't the only one having problems figuring out awe. The texts contradicted themselves, everyone used different words for the same things, and the works that seemed to be the most accurate in trying to define awe seemed to be the most abstract and vague and well. You might say that for about three months, I was pretty frustrated and had no idea what I was doing.

Discovering the Awe in Austen, the Journey

During the first few weeks of this course, I had no intentions of studying Jane Austen. I knew I'd have to pick a topic of study and I was sold on studying Wordsworth. In terms of awe, he is the first author to come to mind. So I read and reread his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" trying to determine my angle in. This post describes a passage from Wordsworth and how Jane Austen became involved. I received a some helpful social proof with this idea on Google +. Amber and Cara both responded to my question: What draws readers to Jane Austen. Both of their remarks backed up my connection to Wordsworth; Austen wrote about the everyday; she took the mundane and transformed it.

I imagine my very first thesis would have gone something like this: The Romantic poets didn't like the silly and inauthentic gothic novels of the era. Austen parodies these novels so she didn't like them either. That makes Austen a Romantic which somehow somewhere connects to awe.

My Awe Paper - Coming Full Cycle

I'm doing my final post a bit differently... I was using this table of contents as just a draft in Blogger to get quick access to previous posts, so I expanded it as my wrap up post to show how my paper came to be. Under the readmore I have organized a list of links to my previous posts with a brief explanation of what that post entails. It helped me see what posts were for my final paper, final project, and what had my curated content.

To read my finished product, "The Cycle of Awe" paper is here in a Google doc. Since my confirmed venue is 100 Dubliners, my paper will definitely be revised in the next couple months as I get more information on specific requirements for the conference (length especially, with more emphasis on Dubliners and cutting back my other paragraphs). Any suggestions would be great! But I am very happy with how this turned out for class, and did not want to chop down all my research when it had been so much fun putting together. Enjoy! And thanks for the help this semester. It was definitely the capstone to my BYU education.

Final Fantasy Paper--that's (final "fantasy paper,") not ("final fantasy" paper)

What started out as a simple idea of how Sanderson was awesome has expanded into whole new solid foundations.  Let's start at the beginning.
So my first main idea was how Sanderson used epiphany, and that that's what made his works so wonder-filled.  My wonder-kamen was all about that, and I received comments from my classmates on how I needed to give a backdrop of what epiphany really meant and how that dealt wit awe before I brought Sanderson into it and complicated matters.  So for my second version I talked more about the genre of fantasy and hard fantasy.  I showed this to someone outside of our class, and he gave me suggestions on how I could define certain words (like duex ex macina) and he really helped me clarify what I really wanted to say.

Wordsworth and Awe Final Draft

Here's a link to the final draft of my final English paper. It's 69 words over my venue's limit. It's about Wordsworth and Awe.

Final Draft: Awe Evolving

Well, after a long journey involving changing my entire premise no fewer than three times, my final paper is at last done. I'm not entirely sure that I understand awe a whole lot better than I did when I began, but I feel a lot more a peace with the place of awe in the digital world, and that's really valuable to me. I'll be posting the story of my paper tomorrow, so stay tuned, but until then, here's the final draft.

Awe Evolving: Transforming Notions of Awe in the Digital Age

Final Draft: The Miracle of Memoir: Redeeming Life and Reclaiming the Pieces

Here is the link to my final paper!

The Miracle of Memoir: Redeeming Life and Reclaiming the Pieces

And here is a link to a Word document version, if you need it. The formatting got a little messed up on the bottom in the crossover, which is why the link above is in pdf format.

My Road to Awe-some Terror

My road to the happy place where terror and awe meet began when I read Edmund Burke's argument about the sublime and terror. When he said that terror instigated the sublime, I questioned his idea. And then after lots of thought, I realized that the idea was attractive. Appealing. Beautiful. And it sucked me in like a whirlpool.

And to be honest, it still hasn't let me go.

I committed to the topic of terror and awe when I wrote the blog post, titled The Aw(e)-ful, and then began researching the ideas behind the relationship between awe and terror. To help with that, I explored society's fear of technology in my blog post, The Technological Terror. This helped me to narrow down what aspect of terror I wished to explore in my project.

When I talked with my friend at work about what literature has inspired awe for her, she raved about Cormac McCarthy's book The Road. And when she commented that the ending of the book left her hanging and wanting more, leaving her so awed that she just sat there, I decided to read it to see if I felt the same. The idea for my paper began as I read that book, as I traveled the road with the Man and the Boy. Looking at post-apocalyptic literature within the context of terror and awe gives the explanation for its popularity, and I chose to match Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon with The Road as a contrast. I began researching the ideas of terror, awe, and post-apocalyptic literature, which led me to further ideas and gave me the ability to start narrowing down my actual topic.

After creating my outline, I continued to change my thesis as I analyzed post-apocalyptic literature. Continuing to research my ideas along the way, I posted my annotated bibliography with a current thesis. After narrowing down my thesis, I posted my first rough draft of my paper, which lacked still my research and proof of my argument. Among my research I learned of Harvard professor, Sue Schopf, who I emailed in order to get social proof for my paper topic. Another 10 page draft of my paper prepared me to narrow down my argument, my thesis undergoing revision once more. Then, last week I posted my final draft. Within the week between my last draft and the final result of my paper, I decided to exclude Alas, Babylon from my paper and focus only on The Road.

I loved writing my paper. Here's my story of personal connection - Personal Connection to Terror. This idea of terror and awe still appeals to me - not only in literature but on all levels, as I hope that I can show through my creative project which will be finding a final revision soon this week.

Here's my final paper:

The Road to Awe Through Terror

Thanks, English 495 Paper for letting me explore my dark side and get comfortable with the attractive side of terror.

Jane Austen and the Rhetoric of Awe: Final Paper

Here is the link to my finished paper! Google docs decided it didn't like my page number on the right side so ignore its annoying left placement . . .

Final Draft: Awe in Advertising

Here it is!

Awe in Advertising

Final Draft of Dance Paper

The Language of Dance

            Dance is an art form that is full of awe; however, it’s different from other forms of awe. Dance may seem like a bit of a foreign thing to some people. “One of the basic problems is that understanding dance depends largely upon one’s experience with dance” (Ellfeldt 10). The complexities of dance are certainly less known by people than a different art form, like music. The vast majority of the human population has experienced some form of music at some point of their lives, and it’s something that is very important to our culture, unlike dance, which is a less understood or known art form. Because this form of art is more common, people know more about it, and are able to find more awe when they see something amazing done with music. To illustrate this point, I will use an example: when you listen to a concert pianist perform, you hear the way that the pianist blends the notes together and creates pleasing harmonies. In some cases, as the listener, you find the skill and practice that the pianist put into learning the piano to be incredible. While finding awe in a performance is vital, what’s more important is what that awe inspires people to do. Being impressed by the beauty and power of the piano can lead members of the audience to want to learn more about playing the piano, or about the mechanics of music. Awe inspires a desire to learn, and to become capable of being as talented or skilled as one can be. And as a learner becomes more proficient in their desired skill, in this case the piano, they gain a deeper understanding of the skills and technicality of the piano, and the work involved in becoming proficient at it. When this happens, they reach a state of amazement, where they marvel at their own abilities, and find meaning in the notes that they are now able to blend together and produce to inspire others to learn more about music. Awe in art is cyclical, and its effects branch out and affect a large number of people at a time. Furthermore, music is an art form that is able to completely rely on itself. Music is often paired with words, to add meaning to the lyrical beauty of it, but it can be just as awe-inspiring, or some would say even more awe-inspiring, on its own.

            Now that I’ve talked about music, I’m sure you’re wondering how this relates to dance. Allow me to explain. The awe that is found in dance functions much the same as it does in music. More often than not, an audience is left breathless by the beauty of a well-performed dance. There is a moment of collective pause between the final note and step of the dance, and the audience jumping to their feet in applause, where they take a second to absorb and appreciate what they just saw. “Because humans are multisensory, they act and watch or feel more often than they verbalize and listen. The dance medium often comes into play when there is a lack of verbal expression” (Hanna 4). Dance has an awe inherent in it that speaks to everybody. It has the power to inspire others to express themselves with their bodies, and explore the movements that their bodies are capable of making, without relying on the structure of words.  And just like music, once you delve into the world of dance and learn more of its complexities and learn more about the beauty that rests in each moment, you’re able to find more awe in dance as an art form and mode of expression. However, dance, more often than not, relies on music to bring it fully to life. Dance is a powerful art, because while it relies on music to give it more life and a beat to move to, it doesn’t rely on music for meaning.  Like Hanna says, dance is an art that relies on other mediums to add to the layers of it, but these other mediums do not define, they enrich by speaking to the human spirit on multiple levels. Another “affective function of dance is to provide an immediate and sensuous experience. The appeal of the processual, sequentially unfolding dance form, with its arresting, seductive essence, is made through all or some of the sensory modalities” (Hanna 26). An audience that experiences dance is able to have an experience that helps them to connect with that sensuality and arresting essence that speaks to the parts of us that are most human. “Dance is human thought and behavior performed by the human body for human purposes” (Hanna 5). The ability to awe and inspire an audience that the dancer is performing for requires proper thoughts and behaviors from within the dancer. Without the necessary emotions and thoughts from within the dancer, there isn’t as much awe and power in the performance.

I’ve talked about music, and I’ve talked about dance, but I haven’t yet talked about how one really understands dance. “Some people believe they have an intuitive understanding of dance. Lay people, social scientists, and even dancers often use the term dance with the vague and uncritical connotations of ordinary speech” (Hanna 17). After having danced for almost twenty years, I have an intuitive understanding of dance, but due to the sheer scope and breadth of dance, it’s nearly impossible for me to articulate that understanding into a definition. Because of this difficulty, most people are unaware of the complexity of dance. What most don’t understand about dance is that it is a language that is just as complex as French or German. It has different levels and aspects to it; they’re just different than those you would find in a spoken language.

“Dance is a whole complex of communication symbols, a vehicle for conceptualization. It may be a paralanguage, a semiotic system, like articulate speech, made up of signifiers that refer to things other than themselves. Substantively information necessary to maintain a society’s or group’s cultural patterns, to help it attain its goals, to adapt to its environment, to become integrated, or to change may be communicated. Dance may support or refute through repetition, augmentation, or illustration, linguistic, paralinguistic, or other nonverbal communicative modes. Obviously dance may not communicate in the same way to everyone” (Hanna 26).

Final Version of Tech, Awe, and Videogames Paper

Here it is! My final draft of my paper on the relationship between technology, awe, and videogames.

Find it here.

Thanks for reading!

Vetting Venues for Memoirs

1. Venue Research and Reading Report
In preparation for submitting to a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, I read "Crossing Boundaries: Authority, Knowledge, and Experience in the Autobiography Vida y sucesos de la monja alférez" by Sonia Pérez Villanueva and "Auto/biographical Ethics: The Case of The Shoebox" by Janet Elizabeth Marles. Both of these articles appeared in the Winter 2013 issue, Volume 20, Number 2.

2. Venue Title and Sponsoring Organization

The title of the journal is a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. It is published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with support from the University of West Georgia, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayazuex, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

3. Call for Papers and Dates
This is the link to their page detailing their submissions process. They accept submissions all year, but because they utilize a vigorous peer-review process, it can take them anywhere from 6 to 8 months to respond to the author, which is a pretty long time. They publish two issues per year, one in the summer and one in the winter. I think my paper would be a good candidate for the winter issue.

4. Topic
My paper will be a good candidate for this journal because they look for scholarly essays regarding autobiography and biography studies, and memoir is a facet of autobiography. They said that they especially like papers that cross genres, and I think my paper does this to an extent. Essays also need to have theoretical framework, which, thanks to the awe component, my paper has. There self-description is that they are "a journal of scholarship dedicated to expanding the discourse on life narrative in all its diverse forms," which I think fits with my paper pretty well.

5. Length
The suggested length for essays is between 7,500 and 12,000 words, including all notes and Works Cited pages.

6. Formatting
All essays must follow the MLA format, as well as adhere to the complete a/b: Auto/Biography Studies style guide. I also must remove any identifying information from my essay so the peer review can be completely blind.The essay must also be submitted with a cover letter and a brief abstract. The process is pretty intense, I hope I'm academic enough for it!

7. Tone and Rhetorical Approach
The tone of the journal definitely seems to be academic, obviously, but there is also an element of human interest given the subject matter. Because the journal is basically studying writing about life itself, there is definitely a more human and personal feel to the journal and the publications than there is in other academic journals of its type.

8. Social Media
I found this site about the managing editor of the journal, who is also apparently a PhD candidate for English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Also, here is a link to the Facebook page for the journal, which I liked on my own Facebook page.

9. Mentors
I liked the Facebook page, but I haven't been able to find anything about them on Twitter. And the Facebook page is pretty limited in its information. I'll keep looking into it though.

Advertising venue information

1. Venue Research and Reading Report
   In preparation for writing my paper, I skimmed over these articles from the journal: "Classic Campaigns - “You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d” The Orange Man Commercial," "There Are No Ugly Women, Only Lazy Ones": Taiwanese Women's Social Comparison with Mediated Beauty Images," "Dance in Advertising: The Silent Persuader," and "Reading Grotesque Images in Advertising: a Re-inquiry."
2. Venue Title and Sponsoring Organization
   The title for the journal is "Advertising and Society Review." It is published by the Advertising Educational Foundation.
3. Call for Papers and Dates (for submission, and for event/publication) I couldn't find a submission deadline. The submissions guidelines simply ask for papers to be emailed to the editor of the journal, so I'm guessing they take submissions year-round. It is published quarterly online.
4. The link to the page: Advertising and Society Review
5. Topic
   This magazine "is the first scholarly journal devoted entirely to advertising and its relationship to society, culture, history, and the economy." I've looked over the other articles on the website, and it seems like my topic fits within this description.
6. Length
   There isn't a specified length, but it looks like most articles fall between 5,000 and 9,000 words. I'll shoot for about 5,000.
7. Formatting
   The paper needs to be in a word document and formatted according to The Chicago Manual of Style's humanities style. The articles generally have over 20 or 30 sources each, which might be more than I'm using, but oh well. The submission guidelines ask that video material is submitted as MPEG files.
8. Tone & Rhetorical Approach
   The articles are generally formal and don't mention the author or the author's perspective. However, a few of the articles include anecdotes to introduce the topic or illustrate a point.
9. Social Media
   I couldn't find them on twitter, google+, or facebook. I also couldn't find any hashtags about them.

Vetting Perspective Venue for my paper on Sanderson and Awe

1. Venue Research and Reading Report
   "In preparation for submitting to Criterion magazine, I skimmed the following two articles : "Magnifying the Works of God," and "This Earth, Hot like Burning Coals."     Benzan, Sarah. "This Earth, Hot like Burning Coals." Criterion (2013): 2012. Provo: BYU Press. Print.  Lassetter, Katherine. "Magnifying the Works of God." Criterion (2013): 2012. Provo: BYU Press. Print. 
2. Venue Title and Sponsoring Organization
   This is not a conference and there is no supporting organization (except, perhaps, BYU).  Here is the web page for their home page: Criterion Home Page.
3. Call for Papers and Dates (for submission, and for event/publication)
   The link to the page: Due date for Paper. The date is April 25, 2014.

Cycles of Awe - Venue Research

One venue I have chosen is the 100 Dubliners Conference. Below the readmore you can see the research I've put into picking this venue for my final paper. I may have to revise my paper to keep to the topic (if my proposal is accepted) but because my paper is long enough for this venue and the potential children's venues I'm still researching, I think the editing would be simple enough so my paper could be split to work for both.

Venue for Graze Magazine

Venue Research and Reading Report
I am preparing to send my paper to Graze Magazine, but because it is a private magazine they only had limited pages to browse. The pages that I was able to access were short stories and photos. I did email them about length and qualifications for a literary essay, but I still haven't received a response. I did find an interview with the co-founders, and read about the submission section on Graze's website.

Venue Title and Sponsoring Organization
Graze Magazine.

Call for Papers and Dates (for submission, and for event/publication)
The next volume will be published in October and the final written submissions are due June 20th.

Topic
I feel my paper topic would be appropriate for this venue because my piece discusses the effect of food on women. My paper discusses cultural and societal problems surronding food and women. In the interview with the co-founders they stated, 

 Food is something that appears so frequently in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and we wanted to provide a forum for thinking about literature through that lens—for seeing how food is working in the literature and how it's helping us understand the characters and situations, the history, and the experiences that we're presenting in Graze.

Q: Aside from word count and form, what do you look for when you're weeding through submissions? How do you know a piece is perfect for Graze?
Cyndi: I think the same way that you know that a good dish at a restaurant is the most delicious thing. It's sort of like, you take a bite and it surprises you, but it's also very familiar at the same time. It kind of feels like a perfect storm where we say, "Yes! This is exactly what we wanted.” 

I feel that my idea is edgy and goes with the direction of the magazine.

Length

It states online that the maximum is 5,000 words, but I feel that I would have a better shot if it was a shorter paper.  I think 12 pages should be my maximum.
Formatting
Like I stated earlier I emailed them, but I still haven't received a response.  The only examples I found were the short stories, and illustrations.  I am hoping to hear from them soon.  I do know that the co-founders are on LinkedIn so I may try that way.  I also searched twitter and sent out a tweet to possibly find more information on formatting.

Tone & Rhetorical Approach
I found that they had a Facebook page, but since I don't have Facebook I didn't find it to be the msot useful page.  I did use Twitter and I sent out a tweet to @Grazemagazine for more information on publishing my paper.  Earlier I sent out an email and didn't receive a response, but I got a response to my tweet.  That was exciting, and I am going to write them another email.  They are using hastags like #issuefive, but besides that they don't use too many hashtags. 
Identify the tone and rhetorical approach of your target venue. Refer to examples in the articles or abstracts that you read.
Social Media
Jenna Stemple
Anothony Todd- he is actually the associate editor, but it is good to know and now I can tweet him if they don't respond to my email.

Austen: Vetting my Venue

In preparation for submitting to JASNA's Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, I read the following two articles:

• Lenckos, Elizabeth. "From Sublime Abbey to Picturesque Parsonage: The Aesthetics of   Northanger Abbey and The Mysteries of Udolpho." Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. No. 32. 105-114: 2010.
• Bander, Elaine. "Neither Sex, Money, nor Power: Why Elizabeth Finally Says "Yes!'" Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. No. 34. 25-41: 2012.

Sponsoring Organization

Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal is sponsored by the Jane Austen Society of North America

Call for Papers

This link will take you to the page where they give instructions on how to submit papers. On another page, they specify that their print journal is published in June, and their online journal in December. I have not found a specific date they require submissions, so hopefully mine would be in time for the June publication. submission instructions

Topic

My topic is appropriate for this venue because it specifically interacts with Austen's texts and provides new insights to the reading of those texts. The two papers I read dealt with specific Austen texts and interpretations of those texts.

Wordsworth and Awe Full Draft/ Full Creative Project/ Paper Audience Update

Here’s a full draft of my final paper. I’m unsatisfied, but there’s still a week to revise and 100 words of fudge room before the 2750-word conference cap.

Here’s a link to the dance portion. The audio isn't working this morning, but it was last night. I'll fix that. I still need to sit down and express at least a few of the million ways the dance and the paper relate. I’ll start by putting in a little video description.

Here’s an audience update:

New version of my paper

New version of my paper

+Amber Z this is the newer version of my paper.  I am wanting to know if you think it is cohesive and where I need to bring it together more.  I still need to work out the introduction and conclusion.  Also does my section on Like Water for Chocolate make sense?  Thanks!

Venue Researching for Evolution of Awe

Venue Research and Reading Report
In preparation for submitting to Digital America, I read the following two articles:

Murakami, Kenta. "The Demise of net.art: A Look at Artifacts Past." Digital America. 21 Oct 2013. Web. Accessed 8 April 2014.
Connor, Kayleigh. "The Male Domain: Exclusion of Women in Video Games." Digital America. 30 Jan 2014. Web. Accessed 8 April 2014. 

Venue Title and Sponsoring Organization
Digital America is an interdisciplinary journal open to everyone from undergraduate to PhD. It is funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the University of Richmond

English Journal Vetted

Venue Research and Reading Report
I looked at pieces from the Continuous Becoming: Moving toward Mastery column of the English Journal. The English Journal has columns on certain topics that they run and I feel that my piece fits into the theme well. I could actually only find two pieces, so I am not sure if it is a newer column or something that they don't get a lot of submissions to.

Call for Papers and Dates (for submission, and for event/publication)
They accept submissions to the column year round. This is good because I felt like ti was easier to tailor my paper to rather than looking at a narrow topic.

Topic
I interpreted the call to be anything that helps teachers to become better teachers. With that, I geared my paper towards how teachers and how I have reawakened awe in my reading.

Length
The word count is 1200-2000. My paper is a little long; and after looking at the submissions, that is good I think because I could easily cut things that wouldn't work with the column like some of my discussion on efferent vs aesthetic.

Formatting
Some pieces seem to have in text citations where others do not. All of the articles do have sub headings breaking everything up.

Tone & Rhetorical Approach
I am actually glad I had looked at articles from the English Journal before and was familiar with the tone because everything takes a very personal tone. The whole point is how you have worked out things and sharing your experiences with other teachers. This is something that I worked into my paper and the approach I took from pretty much the beginning. I reworked my first two paragraphs to fit and they could perhaps use more work.

Social Media
NCTE does have social media accounts. They seem to just be doing a lot of reposting. I think the right approach would be to look up specific people. There is a weekly #NCTEchat, but I don't know if it would be rude to interrupt.

------------------------------

After classes today, I actually think the Utah CTE Journal would probably be a better approach. Or maybe not better but alternative. It is reviewed and edited by BYU students often and all of our professors coordinate it. Not that the actual English Journal isn't an option, the Utah journal is a little less strict, has less submissions, take more of what they can get sort of thing I think.


I still think my paper is a good fit for the article above, I just realize I am a preservice teacher and don't know how that would look to them when they want teachers. Perhaps I would need to wait to submit until say I sign papers with my district and then I am legit hahah I also think my paper could be strengthen for the venues by having real world experience as related to teaching to write in


HUZZAHH!

Memoirs + Awe Rough Draft

Here is my rough draft of my paper. It doesn't look very good or even really make a lot of sense right now, but I've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work with compiling quotes and outlining my new ideas about where I want to take it, which will become more apparent as I work on writing them out this week. The work I do this week will consist of organizing and fleshing out the final pages of the paper. Also, the formatting might be off because of the transfer of formats.

Fantasy, Awe, Sanderson, and Paper version 1.0

Yes, it is a thing of beauty.  I still have many more quotes which I want to incorporate into this paper, but don't know where yet.  I'm putting this on the blog as is because it's almost midnight.  My version 2.0 will be even better, incorporating new quotes, elaborating on points, and polishing up the paper.

If any of you are interested in reading or skimming my paper, I have created a link:

Portal to my Epic Fantasy Paper about Epic Fantasy and Brandon Sanderson

I still need to make it a bit longer too.  Enjoy!

Erin's Rough Draft as of 4/7/14

Here's my rough draft. It's kind of like a compilation of everything that I want to say. And this week will be a great week full of editing. But I finally have everything in there I think, even though it might not make any sense.

The Next Step: Food and Women

My Rough Draft
The next step
This has been a difficult process.  I am having an issue on what is important and how to connect my ideas.  I recognize that I have a lot of block quotes which is probably something I need to change.  I am still struggling connecting my ideas.  I wrote a whole new introduction, which I feel will help my ideas to flow. My number one focus is working on my introduction.  I have used the texts to express ideas, but I am not sure how well they go together.  I am still going to work on that this entire week.  I changed how many pages my essay is because I am publishing it to a magazine.  I am having a hard time knowing what the magazine is looking for beccause they have a limited view on their magazine.  Most of the things I read were stories and not articles.  I am going to continue to search for other volumes to know what they are looking for.  Last week I did email them to share my idea and see if it was a good fit.  I still haven't heard a response, but I will continue to search.  If not I will look at the other venues I had previously selected.  If there any any suggestions, or comments, as to what works or doesn't work, please let me know!  Thanks.

The Evolution of Awe

Well, I'm at just over 4,800 words so far for my paper. I've left some wiggle room, as my publication venues allow for submissions of a maximum of 5,000 words. In any case, I'm finally to a premise that I can get behind, and while it doesn't have the same direction or social implications as my previous topics, I think it's a good direction for my research. Here's my thesis, and the link to the paper itself is below that.

THESIS: We are experiencing a transformation of the way in which we experience awe, and while we necessarily move toward an understanding of awe that is not only more abstract in some ways but in other regards less real, our capacity to experience awe remains the same as we actively implement modern technologies in creating awe. As society evolves to be able to meditate upon increasingly complex social, artistic, and philosophical values and issues, so also must our modes of expression and conveyance necessarily take on abstraction as a way of accommodating the ever-complicating human narrative.

Rough draft of the paper

  

First Full Videogame, Tech, Awe Paper Draft

Yay! I made it to 15 pages! Go here to see my latest iteration of my paper:

Find it here.

Some improvements this time around is much more real theoretical background about awe, that really helped point my paper, actually. I also added more specific treatments of individual games, and actually wrapped everything up in a conclusion with a big "So what" section.

Yay!

Cycles of Awe - Paper and Project Final Updates

Final Paper Update: Here's my draft of my paper. Any comments and feedback would be brilliant. I don't know what my limit is exactly because the 100 Dubliners conference does not have any information about length, and the Journal for Children's Literature typically has submissions around ten pages long.

Next Steps for Paper:

1. Working on finalizing my thesis to a strong, coherent statement (which in turn will greatly help solidifying my currently sappy conclusion)
2. Editing and revising transitions between paragraphs
3. Editing and revising in general to fit the paragraphs together cohesively (especially the cycle of awe paragraph, intro and conclusion)
4. Filling out and developing my Dubliners and Psychoanalysis sections. Definitely. But I think with what I have so far, it would be great to get feedback on the following question before I finalize my paper and ideas.
5. Main questions
• Does it make sense?
• Is there enough research to support conclusions?
• Is there too much babble about Romantic ideas in between thesis driven paragraphs?
• Do I need more evidence from the text?
• What points are weak?
• Is it too much theory and not enough concrete evidence?
• Do I keep the hero's journey idea? If I do, I need to integrate the ideas in the paragraphs more or create another section to talk about that specifically. Which would be better?
• Do I need to keep the psychology aspects? Should I add more to the psychology?

Final Project Update: I have my three poems completed. With comments on the blog post and outside of class from peers, it seems like I need something to unify the poems together with my paper to make a stronger connection between the two. I'm working on a fourth poem now, like an introductory poem that explains how the poems fit together as well as how they connect to my research in my final paper. When I finish that tomorrow, I will put the completed four poems together and share them on Google+, my personal blog, and twitter too. Using appropriate hashtags and taking advantage of the following I have in these places, hopefully it will generate some more interest and comments on my poems and paper. I will upload the poems and make them look nice, but also use links back to my paper draft and final paper too. It may be useful to find avenues that have poems published in online communities. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Jane Austen Complete Draft

I have a complete draft!
Austen and the Rhetoric of Awe

Things I plan to work on:

1. It's a tad too long (I can't exceed 3,500 words) so I need to cut some
2. One spot still needs a few quotes. I need to go find them
3. My conclusion is wimpy
4. My thesis might not actually fit my paper
5. Making sure everything actually makes sense

Any feedback would be very welcome. Thanks!

Reading + Awe Finished Draft! Finally!

I have "finished"!!!!!

I can't tell you my relief right now. Even though all last night while I was working on it how much I feel like my paper is flawed and horrible.

I think I should have picked a different topic from the beginning. Maybe something more focused and grounded on specific literature.

I think that it would have been helpful if most of our study would have been focused in literature and how awe was evoked in literature rather than definitions of awe. That would have given the right focus for our papers and made it easier.

Yes.

Here is my target audience:

English Journal Columns: Continuous Becoming: Moving toward Mastery 

Editors: Victoria P. Hankey and Dawn L. Ryan

Mastery in teaching is not a destination; it is a principle that guides professionals toward continuous improvement. Good teaching is never static. In this dynamic profession, educators are responsible for meeting the needs of students whose futures are yet to be defined. The best teachers never stop being students themselves, and each teacher’s professional journey is unique. The common thread is the guidance we can offer one another.
        Learning to teach well begins with the desire to make a difference for students. That desire often gets lost in the realities of classroom life. There is no roadmap to mastery.
        This column invites novices, veterans, and everyone in between to share significant experiences that have enhanced their craft. What has made you a better teacher? How do you stay invested? How do you project professionalism in this era of high scrutiny? What professional options exist for growth, leadership, and advancement in education? How do you cultivate relationships to obtain the support you need?
        The goal is to offer suggestions, ideas, and experiences to help teachers discover their own roadmaps toward mastery.
        Please send submissions of 1,200–2,000 words to Victoria.Hankey@bvsd.org. Inquiries and suggestions for future columns are also welcome.

While I know my paper is way far from perfect and really quite horrible in my mind.
I am glad that I figured it out and found and end for it
Because there for a while I was just not going to finish it

Here it is! 

I also have the intentions that it will be edited and revised over the next week too. So that should help!

Memoirs + Social Proof

I got in touch with Lisa Roylance and she sent me a copy of the paper she presented at the recent BYU English Symposium titled "The Importance of Memory Holes in Memoir." Not only will the paper itself be a great resource, but Lisa will also be great to bounce ideas off of and take advice from. Her paper is very interesting, and her list of references has a lot of sources that I think I may end up using in my final paper. I'm really excited to have found someone else researching along similar veins!

Here's a quote from the end of her paper:

"Memoir reminds me of the inevitable imperfections that I have. It brings me to more questions than answers sometimes, more spaces to look at and patches to sew. I’m the only one that can do it, though. I am the doctor looking at my past and living in my present, and both are full of mistakes. I am the patient wanting to learn and find healing from the cuts and scrapes of my past. That, I believe, is the true power of honest memoir – allowing the reader to find their own past filled with holes and “I don’t know’s” to peer at the light caught in a drop just as it dangles from the web" (Royalnce 15).

Iteration of Pragmatism/Awe Dance

Mary and I outlined the rest of the dance tonight, and did a little clip of each of our parts. Of course, watching a dance is much more accessible than reading a scholarly paper, so I think the dance is generating interest in my ideas among a wider audience. I plan on filming the dance next week; I'll do one version with a voiceover that will narrate ties to my paper, and one version that stands alone with just the music. Thoughts?

Dance Sequence

Food Review

The assignment to speak to enthusiasts and experts in our field has been difficult, but it has also been very rewarding.  I am posting this a little late because I just got out of an interview with Genevieve Pierce, who works at the Women's Center at BYU.  Genevieve is a Dietetics major at BYU and was able to help me find more information about eating disorders and food as a coping mechanism.  Through this interview she gave me great ideas to continue studying about.  For example, she discussed the idea of mindful eating, which helps people reconnect with food by getting back to the basics of scent and taste.  She also shared with me that the Center for Change in Orem, which helps women with eating disorders, only has group meals in order to take the focus off of the individual, and help one another through a group setting.  This information has helped me find new avenues to study.  As we spoke different workers also gave me other suggestions of books or websites that may help me with this project.  LaNae Valentine, director of the Women's services, happened to be there while I was talking to Geneviece, and she asked me to send her my paper to possibly get published in their next magazine.  I didn't even think of this forum for publishing.  It was a great experience.

I also got in contact with the Women's studies here on campus.  The lady I spoke to was very interested in my paper topic, and said she would find people for me to talk to.  I haven't been able to set up an appointment yet, but she said she could find professors that would be able to help me with this specific topic.  I have also emailed other professors that may be helpful.  I may even try to find a Old Testament professor who could help with my theory on Eve.  All in all this was a great experience.    

Social Proof for Reclaiming Awe

Over the past couple of days, I've been attempting to reach out to communities and specialists that might be able to offer some insight on awe in the world of digital art. 

I started with a few communities of digital artists on Google+, and I posted something akin to the following in each:

I'm currently researching the concept of awe in various forms of digital art. Do you as digital creators feel that digitally native works of art differ from more traditional forms in their ability to produce awe in the viewer? Certainly, the digital medium facilitates a broader range of awe-inspiring subject matter, but does it provide for the same quality of awe as would, for example, looking at a painting or watching a play over seeing an image online or watching a 3D reproduction of the same play?
I'm not sure that there is a right answer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter in any case! Thanks!

I haven't heard back from anyone on my posts as of yet, but I hope that I'll get some responses over the next few days. I think I'll also post something to the Thinkers community, as I've have good success getting responses from them in the past.

I also wrote to Jeffrey Davis, a writer for Psychology Today who maintains a blog called "Tracking Wonder." The letter I sent is included below:

Erin's Attempt for Social Proof

I emailed Dr. Sue Schopf, a Harvard professor in the English department who recently taught a class there centered around post-apocalyptic literature and films.

Here is the email:

Dr. Schopf, 

My name is Erin McMullin, and I'm a graduating senior at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English. The highlight of my semester has been the opportunity to take an English degree capstone class - a class that is entirely focused on the concept of awe. And as part of that class, I have been studying and writing abut the relationship between awe and terror, according to Edmund Burke's treatise on the sublime, specifically how that relates to post-apocalyptic literature. 

I was wondering if you would mind taking the time to answer a few of my questions concerning post-apocalyptic literature and how that reflects society's condition and its anxieties today. I read that you recently taught an entire course at Harvard on post-apocalyptic literature and films, and I'm curious to hear your opinion concerning a few specific angles. 

Do you believe that post-apocalyptic literature has found a recent popularity because it reflects fears or anxieties of society today? And if so,why? Why do you think that, despite the terror and fear portrayed in the literature and films, this genre is still successful?

I'm specifically focusing on Cormac McCarthy's The Road. How do you think that this book specifically reflects anxieties relating to historic atomic bombs and/or the threat of nuclear attacks? 

I am arguing in my paper that post-apocalyptic literature explores question of what is right or wrong, especially in an extreme circumstance, and how it comments on today's condition of mankind. What do you think about this? And do you think that society realizes that post-apocalyptic literature does this? 

I appreciate your time and consideration! 

Two querys, by Andrew, on the project and the paper

Two letters:

Sent: A letter to Seth, who works at Mayday Games game company.