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.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
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!
Wohoo!
And Now It Is Gone
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
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.
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.
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.
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