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.

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.

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!

Cycles of Awe Social Proof

So far I have sent emails to The International James Joyce Foundation and The James Joyce Scholar's Collection asking input on the Dubliners aspects of my paper. I have not received responses from them yet, but here is part of the email I sent to them asking for their scholarship.

Cycles of Awe Project: Prototype Three

I have my three poems completed. I plan on putting them on my own personal blog (my personal angle) and on Google+ with tags specific to my topic. Hopefully this generates interest and responses from relevant and interested online communities. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Cycles of Awe Audiences

Audiences for my scholarship and targeted outlets for my final paper. Hopefully these are good sources to go after. If anyone else has any ideas for people/scholars/venues looking for topics concerning children's classic literature (namely Peter Pan and Alice and Wonderland), as well as Dubliners, or the psychology of awe would be great.

Cycles of Awe Bibiography

(sorry this post is so late. I'm doing massive catch up after a long two weeks)

Working Thesis
People experience cycles of awe (similar to how characters experience the hero's journey [ps thank you +Greg for the comment about the heroic journey]) for two reasons: first, to return to personal sources of awe because of their psychology, as these sources provides for a spiritual enlightenment, comfort, or resolution; second, whether accidentally or purposefully, these cycles continue because people become stuck in an ever circling loop without ever reaching an enlightened, comforted, or resolved state.

Cycles in Awe Project: Prototype Two

My work in progress!

I mentioned at the bottom of this post how I changed my poetry format from my original ideas to a roundel poem. I would like to do maybe three poems (one for each book I'm studying) that incorporate the ideas I'll be discussing in my final paper (cycles of awe). I'm not sure this is working the way I want, or where to take it next. The poem has not been edited yet, but here is my first draft for the first poem about Alice visiting Wonderland. Let me know what you think. I'm hoping the poem talking about Alice cycling back to Wonderland, which ultimately leads to her becoming self aware, can be like the Dancing Dissertation videos we watched; the poem should be a small representation of what my paper discusses, just as the dancing dissertations tried to tell the main ideas of the dissertation.

Cycle One

Is it a wonder? She calls it Wonderland.
Curious and enthralled she wanders under
spells of caterpillar "who's?," Cheshire "where's?." And
is it a wonder

that one so young would cycle back to plunder
the cakes, rich teas, red queens, strange things odd yet grand?
She goes for fun but finds herself asunder;

madness would split her self in half. Yet she stands
anew. Sane. Tolerant. Aware. Her blunders
from asking "who I am" she can now withstand.
Is it a wonder?

Cycles of Awe Treatment

Treatment of Final Paper: Click through for the Google Doc. Basically I will be examining the psychology of awe and how people go through cycles of awe as children or as adults, how we encounter awe differently, and what happens when we have an "awe moment" but do nothing with it.

Prospective Venue: I haven't found anything that exactly correlates with what I'm writing about, but I think I could swing my paper for these potential venues.

1. http://www.cfplist.com/ has a lot of options for current calls for paper. I highly encourage all of you to take a look if you're having problems finding venues.
2. Scottish Studies is interested in readings of Peter Pan and perpetual childhood. Since I will be looking at Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan in terms of perpetual awe and childhood, I think it could be interested in at least some aspects of my paper.
3. SF/F Now is interested in exploring the current research into the fantastic and the ways in which fantasy and "the weird" grapple with and illuminate social issues. Since I will be talking about Wonderland and Neverland and why these places are sources in which children return to, I could talk about the social contexts of why people return to fantastical or "weird places" as sources of development or escape.
4. 100 Dubliners invites any paper on Dubliners (since it's the 100 anniversary of the book) which is brilliant since a good portion of my paper will be analyzing several of the short stories contained in Dubliners.
5. Previous post for possible venues is another collection of places I could look to for other venues if previous ones don't work.

What's Next: I need to start getting concrete details and proof for my points. Quotes, more analysis, maybe even more secondary sources that look at the psychology of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Dubliners. I also need to make sure that my outline works and isn't just a list with too much explanation that loses the reader.

**side note: I think for my creative project I might do a roundel poem because those are a bit easier to write compared to reverse poetry or palindrome poetry. Same ideas will apply to this style of poem as they wound have with those other poetry forms as I mentioned in my comments to Tara and Greg.

Project Prototype One

Creative Commons License 2.0
Road to Neverland by imsad

My final paper will be examining the psychology of awe and the cycles of it. Why do we turn back to the same sources of awe (like Alice to Wonderland or Peter Pan to Neverland)? Do we get caught in a cycle of experiencing an awe moment, then returning to the mundane (like the people in Dubliners)? I want to incorporate these cycles, and have decided to take one, two, or all of the options below as my final project.

Option 1: Mirrored or Palindrome Poetry

In case you don't remember, a palindrome is a word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same forward or backward. In a mirrored or palindrome poem, the words read the same backwards or forwards like in these two examples. I could try this and incorporate the books I'm going to explore as the subject.

Option 2: Reverse Poetry
Where reading a reverse poem, one direction tells one meaning, then reading it backwards tells another message. Just last week a teenager's reverse poem went viral on twitter. It would be brilliant to tell something about the cycles of awe reading negatively one way, then positively the next. I just have to really practice this style of poem.

Option 3: Circle Poetry
There are a couple different variations of circle poetry. There is visual poetry where I could write poems in circles or circular styles. This book contains one variation of visual circle poetry. It's very simple. This blog section is dedicated to another style, though some of these poems I have a hard time understanding. Another aspect to circular poetry includes repeating first and last lines, or coming back to the same places in the start and finish. I'd like to be able to do that too.

I could put these poems online with specific labels or tags under the creative commons license to give people access to them. Or I could write one of these poems and make a simple YouTube video to cultivate my ideas there too. Any thoughts would be great on how I could get these poems out there. Or if you have any idea of a specific audience to target that would be great too.

Venues for Me

I'm researching cycles of awe and the psychology of awe. I'm still deciding exactly which stories I will look at, which avenue I'll take, etc. I do know I want to look into James Joyce's idea of epiphany, possibly Alice and Wonderland, and psychoanalysis/psychology. Here's what I've found so far.

1. The James Joyce Center. I found this website by searching #jamesjoyce on Twitter. This organization has reading groups, a blog, and a curated list of useful links to other resources concerning James Joyce and his works. This will help me find niche communities talking about the epiphany concept in Joyce's Dubliners, as well as bring me to other websites dedicated to facts about him and calls for papers.
2. The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures. I found this website by following several links from an initial site I found by Google searching "James Joyce call for papers." It has an entire list of call for papers that could be potential sources to submit final paper. It also has a section for research related to Irish studies that can lead to more communities talking about Joyce works.
3. James Joyce Quarterly Blog. After searching "James Joyce call for papers" on Google, I also found this blog that has plenty of updates on upcoming Joyce-related activities and CFP. Again, this will help me enter the discussion of Joyce works and his idea of the epiphany.
4. The Evolution of Wonderland. This website is dedicated to interpretations of the book Alice in Wonderland. It includes a post about psychoanalysis of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. This will help me think in terms of psychology of awe, which I want to explore in my final paper. I found this website by searching "psychoanalysis Freud" in Google.
5. Association for Psychological Science. I searched "awe in psychology" in Google+ and found several people linking articles from this association. The article that the link provided goes to talks about awe and psychology. This will be helpful in my research on the psychology related to awe, why there are cycles of awe, and why we return to these moments. It will help me find articles and journals by people who know more about psychology than I do.

Propaganda

When we had to search quick, accessible ways to tell serious information, I had a hard time finding creative ways people do that. Then I thought of propaganda. Both of those are effective means by which to tell a message. And there could be very little directly telling us what to think too.

Below are three decently known WWII propaganda posters. Though they do not say what the problem is with "someone talking" or "loose lips" directly, the art portrays the message. Talking about the navy (and other military departments) would provide opportunities for the enemy to hear and use that information to their advantage. The connotation suggests speaking is dangerous. Even without the accessibility of the internet, these posters stuck up all over cities were enough to get the message across the entire nation.

It may not be awe-inspiring, but as I research cycles of awe and the psychology behind it, I find it interesting that we cycle ideas or effective means of communication. Brian Moore (work shown below) took these old WWII propaganda posters and parodied them to be effective propaganda posters for today's time. He came back to the original sources of well known propaganda posters and used them again. What does that say about the new posters? Do you find it effective? What would have changed in terms of the message if he had just created new propaganda posters? I think because the idea of propaganda is heavily tied into WWII posters, that feeling is echoed in the new posters. Parody of old propaganda posters automatically brings a certain connotation to the new ideas being presented in Moore's work.

Posters, whether propaganda or not, must convey or sell a message immediately. Minimalist posters present an idea or message with minimal images or text. Billboards must be structured so that a passerby can see the message quickly. We cycle back to posters to tell a message because it can be effective and accessible.

Psychoanalyzing Awe

Psychoanalytic theory takes the psychology of people and puts it into literature. Whether you are looking at the author, the characters, or the reader, psychological analyses of people will help us understand the text and the people involved with a text. Understanding the psyche is key in understanding awe; more specifically, it will help us understand how one becomes susceptible to experiencing and re-experiencing awe by what they experience in reading or within life.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud Iceburg Model for the State of Mind
Wikipedia Creative Commons License

Psychological or psychoanalytic theory and criticism is based on Freud's analysis of the human psyche. There are three different models for analyzing the human psyche (Cowles):

1. The Dynamic Model: examines the relationship and interactions between the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious mindset; it looks at how what we are unaware of affects what we are aware of and vice versa.
2. The Economic Model: focuses on the relationship between the pleasure principle (the unconscious seeking/getting instant gratification) and the reality principle (the conscious deciding what is realistically available/obtainable).
3. The Topographical Model: looks at the interaction between the id (unrepressed, pure desire), the superego (the hyperactive conscience controlling us via morality and social norms), and the ego (the intermediary which keeps both the id and superego under control).

Humility in Awe

When we experience humility in awe, we take a moment to think about things we cannot fully understand. The complexity of life and death can often humble us or bring us to stand on a threshold of things we do not fully comprehend. This idea is evident in James Joyce's Dubliners short story "The Dead."

Towards the end of the short story, Gabriel Conroy goes to a hotel with his wife hoping to share a romantic night together. He recalls an entire list of memories of their past that, for him, are some of the most important moments in their relationship. When Gretta (his wife) emotionally recounts the story of a former and deceased love interest, it's clear to Gabriel that his marriage hasn't been what he might have wished. In this sobering moment, he thinks about the dead and their ties to the living.

"Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes... His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling."

James Joyce calls this "the epiphany" - the moment when a character goes through something that becomes manifest, or there is a deep realization that changes their self or world view (awe too as been associated with a transcendent moment, a spiritual or secular realization moment). Where Gabriel had earlier made a division between the past of the dead and the present of the living, he now humbles himself and recognizes the lines between life and death are blurred. He sees himself "flickering" in the place where the living and dead meet. Michael Furey's memory lives on in Gretta's life. As Gabriel looks out of the window at the snow, Joyce continues to blur the lines between life and death.

Creative Commons 2.0 License
Dean Molyneaux / geograph.ie
Ballynahinch, City Republic of Ireland

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight... It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

Joyce uses this epiphany moment for the character as an epiphany moment (or a humbling-awe experience) for readers as well. Furey's grave is being covered in snow, just as the snow covers those living. Life and death is "covered in snow," but the difference is this: will we be remembered after death? We are humbled to think that the memory of someone dead could be stronger than the memory of someone alive.

This reminds me of +Jane Packard's research on awe vs pragmatism. She discusses how Wordsworth wrote his poetry in "awe-land." His experiences with awe are in literature and daffodils where pragmatism and death are the end of awe. Joyce blurs the lines of life and death, exploring the idea that death can provide more life because of living memories (like Furey's life in Gretta's memories), where our pragmatic lives can become mundane and perhaps meaningless (like Gabriel's life).

Being an Altruistic Scholar for Janae

I don't know all that much about food. So when I see Janae's posts on awe in food (this post and presentation post), all I can think is this clip from Ratatouille:

Then I decided I would do some additional research on the idea that food can create awe. I've at least learned to appreciate food more, and definitely marvel at those who dedicate their time and efforts to studying and understanding health and/or culinary arts.

1. Natural Health

Janae had a Google+ update talking about juicing vegetables and fruits. There I mentioned a little about the properties of honey. This article lists more than 80 uses for honey as a DIY product. Natural foods have demonstrated over and over their healthy and revitalizing qualities. Eating healthy means our bodies will be healthy. The fact that the natural earth provides what can sustain human health is quite awe-inspiring.

2. Culinary Arts

Glasses made from fish scales by Erik de Laurens

The amount of time and dedication behind not only making food, but then having it look presentable can be awe-inspiring. There is a lot of creativity, patience, and skill. If 90% of restaurants fail in their first year, no wonder those that survive are impressive. There are plenty of cooking shows with chefs who do challenges under "x" time constraint. To be able to know food and its composition, the tastes and power behind each taste, which flavors go together and which don't, etc all off the top of your head and then be able to cook it perfectly AND make it look good is incredible. Then you have artists like these designers who take the presentation side of food and make it into another type of art.

3. Science

The science behind the human body is something we are still exploring. Taste is associated with smell. There are ten thousand taste buds on your tongue. Our sense of taste protects us from unsafe foods. The human body's chemistry is fascinating. This entire website is based on research done by Jeannine Delwiche, Ph.D on taste and smell.

I suppose my biggest question now is how can we reach a state of the sublime when thinking about food? Has it become such an instinct part of survival that we can't appreciate or reverence it? Maybe we should be considering the health, art, and science of food like we would think of an artwork inspiring awe or the question of endless space would inspire awe.

Maybe there is the "fear of the sublime" in food too. Food can be apart of health, regeneration, art, science, and a whole manner of good things. But we've come to undervalue it. When I watch a documentary like Super Size Me, or see on the news how there are plenty of people without proper nutrition (or any food at all), and others living off food stamps, it makes you wonder how much we take away the value of food by eating whatever we want all the time. There are medical conditions like obesity, anorexia, or bulimia where food becomes something terrifying instead of reviving. So food can be a source of awe, but it can also be the cause of a lot of terrifying awe.

Hope this helps at least a little, +Janae Rivera! Even if its only use is to give you some other things to think about when writing your paper. Good luck!

Listening to Awe

I've looked a bit at how music inspires awe earlier in the semester and created an awe playlist on ?Youtube of just songs. I'd like to look at sound in more than just songs though. What is it about the auditory that inspires awe? What happens when we combine listening with other senses? Let's see.

Welcome to Night Vale Official Logo
by Rob Wilson

1. Reading vs Hearing From 2:04-3:07, the following quote is spoken in this Welcome to Night Vale episode: "In response to our town's steadily-declining tourism industry, the Night Vale Tourism Board addressed our town's complete lack of appealing destinations - like uncensored art museums, hotels with door locks, and snake-free restaurants. NVTB Executive Director Madeline LeFleur said some travelers think they need to 'see things, like monuments, or the majesty of nature, or spectacular musicals, or eat regional/cultural foods in order to have a good time on vacation. But they don't!' 'You don't need attractions to have a good time!' she added. 'Just use your imagination! In fact, come to Night Vale, where 'we will show you fun in a handful of dust,' as the new NVTB slogan says."

Reading the quote alone can inspire awe. The words itself could be a definition of awe ("you don't need attractions to have [an awe-inspiring experience]"). What happens, though, when you listen to the soft voice of Cecil? Welcome to Night Vale often has dangerous things happen to the city, but the soft voice of the radio host seems undisturbed by what we may find disturbing. It's almost ironic. Or perhaps it's a juxtaposition emphasizing the dangerous/serious with calm. What does the soft hearing do to the serious reading? Does it add to the awe? Can you have irony in awe?

Reiterating Awe (Presentation)

(if you want to go beyond the index cards, click the links for text support, sound effects, and visuals)

Wordsworth believed in sublimity in experience (like his revisit to Tintern Abbey).

Today, preconceptions of awe restrict the terms in which one can experience awe. It's
seen as a singular, extraordinary moment; it's a one time event found mind-blowing,
terrifying, transcendent, or existential.

Awe can be defined by these preconceptions of course, but this singular moment is
only the first tier of awe we can experience. As we open ourselves to developing awe,
we can re-experience it on a second and third tier level.

Reiterating Awe

In my first few posts and some Google+ updates, I've talked about movies, music, and art inspiring awe. It seems though that there is something about nostalgia and tiers of awe that have popped up in comment discussions on these posts and updates. What does that mean?

In my tutorial meeting, Dr Burton suggesting looking at reiterating awe, or how different forms of content can revisit moments of awe. So I wrote a bit about it in my wonder journal. Then I opened up this Google+ discussion asking "Reiterating awe? Tiers of awe? Theories?" Here are the responses I got:

Catching Me

Wikipedia Images Creative Commons

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my military childhood was like, and how my parents were stationed in different countries from me, and all that military brat kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth... I'm not going to tell you my whole life or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around freshman year of high school just before I got pretty run-down and had to start reading books to take it easy and not think about life so much.

I had people telling me all the time in high school, telling me how when they were in college it was the happiest days of their lives, and giving me a lot of advice for the future and all. Boy, did they depress me! I don't mean any of them were bad people or anything. They weren't. But you don't have to be a bad guy to depress somebody - you can be a good guy and do it. All you have to do to depress somebody is give them a lot of phony advice about the future while you're working your boring jobs that weren't your dream jobs. That's all you have to do. I don't know. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad listening to them if they didn't look so sad. They all look so sad when they think people aren't looking. The whole time they put on a good show, tell you everything is good and all, that the world is at your door step or something. I can't explain. I just didn't like anything that people were telling me.

"You don't like anything that's happening." It made me even more depressed when I thought about that.

"Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Don't say that." Why did you say that to me?  Of course I like some things...

Elements of Awe

We can have awe looking at a painting, reading a book, listening to music, watching a movie, etc. Is it awe because of the completed project or image itself, or is it a combination of elements that creates an entire experience of awe?

I've got a basic idea of this question (perhaps a rough thesis for my final paper) or what the combination of elements are that function in creating awe. Here's a rough draft of the three elements of creating awe I wrote in my writing journal last Friday:

1. The Idea

Wikipedia Images Creative Commons

This is the starting point before anything can be created. After +Paul Bills presentation on the video games, I had to tell my roommate about the game Brothers. I commented on his blog post about how just the idea of the mechanics and lessons taught in Brothers was enough to awe my roommate when I told her about it. She didn't witness what happened, but it captured awe nonetheless. Paul replied saying it was like "the moment in 2001 when the ape-man first realizes he can swing the bone as a club." The idea sparks awe. It ignites the potential to create an awe inspiring work.



2. The Senses

Infinite Dreams by artist Rhads

To experience awe we have to at least see it, smell it, taste it, touch it, hear it, or think it. A picture is visually-intensive. I posted a link to some incredible pictures on Google+ here. Paul, +Andrew Perazzo, and +Erin McMullin seemed to find a sense of awe in them too. Erin said "he takes the simple and mundane and makes it great." I've discussed the hearing sense in some more detail here, where I had a lot of input on what songs inspired awe from Paul, Andrew, and +Jane Packard. So it's clear elements of awe can individually create awe. But what about in a movie that combines visual, script, and sound?


3. Combination
I'm still developing this idea so bear with me. I think many people (especially English majors and book-lovers) too often discredit movies by saying "it isn't as good as the book." Movies are not intended to "be the book." It's a movie. It is meant to recreate awe from a book with a new perspective for the book-reader, and to express awe to those unexposed to said book. I've done some research on how movie makers are recreating awe. Check out here and here (embedded video), and comment with your ideas!

Talking about the movie Apollo 13, special effects supervisor Rob Legato took people's memories of the actual spaceship's launch to emulate it in the movie. He combined the awe felt by different people to create his own scene. This new scene, scientifically inaccurate to what an actual launch would entail, created a new sense of awe because of the combined memories of people. The nostalgia was there; the graphics were there; the cinematography was there. These efforts recreated awe in a new light.

I think if you take single elements you can have feelings of awe. If combined, though, imagine the potential for these elements to create or recreate something even bigger. What do you think?