Obligatory Blog POST

This is an obligation, an obligation relating to the numerical statistics of the collection of posts upon this blog. Now that number is better balanced even though it has been neglected in the past and most likely will be in the near future as well. Enjoy the obligation while it lasts blog, enjoy it.

Editing in Lit Genius

To me, the Genius website seems to be extremely similar to a wiki except it is solely focused on poetry, lyrics and other forms of literature. Along with this, it has all of the aspects of a summary website such as schmoop. The only difference being that this, like a wiki, is edited and contributed to by its users. I was tasked with editing a newly added poem in the Lit section of the site. First, of course, you must make an account, and then you can edit whatever you want. I went about starting off the description to Mina Loy's "Brancusi's Golden Bird." Having never used the site before, I had no clue where to begin, and the suggestions were much too brief to be useful. I decided to go to another, well edited piece to find out. I gathered the basics quite quickly before I decided what to add. I figured the poem had to be about something extremely precise considering its title and googled it to find out what. As I suspected, it was indeed about a specific item, a sculpture to be precise. Brancusi's "Golden Bird" just like the title said. I added this to the description, gave a brief summary of who Brancusi was and added a picture of the sculpture being described. I then gave a link to the Art institute where the picture was taken along with a link to a Wikipedia page about Brancusi. All in all, the process of contributing is extremely easy, user friendly, and accessible.

Here's Genius.com if you want to check it out.

The Power of Fandoms in Today's Media

Reading the introduction chapter to Henry Jenkins' Convergence Culture got my mind firing on the brief mention of fandoms and fan made content in today's media, and the effect that is created by it. Jenkins' focus was mainly on the issues that fan-made content creates for a company and the fight with or against it. He mentions how much power the consumer now has on this subject, but he never really explains the effect this can have on the media. It was almost inconceivable a few decades ago to think that obsessed fans of a certain show, book series, etc. could actually have any great effect on how it progressed or changed over time.  Today though, again and again fans do end up changing the canon of a fictional universe, not directly, but indirectly. Most companies realize that to keep fans they have to continue to appeal to them and provide them what they want. Although a company cannot completely take one of their fans opinions, ideas, and work due to copyright issues, they can use the basis of them or at least the idea behind them. For the most part, producers of today's media creations will view this content, at least to a minor degree, sometimes more. If enough fans have the same opinion on what they want from it or how they want the canon of a certain character to be, etc., there will be adaptions made, solely for the reason to keep current fans and gain more. Take an ongoing show for example. Say this show is released this year and the first season becomes so popular that it spawns a fandom of adequate size. These fans discuss it, make content from it, etc. About a half a year to a year later, the second season comes out and already, you can begin to see the show adapting to the fans it has gained. Season after season is released and with every one more and more of the fandom's influence can be seen as it and the show grows. For the most part, this is a good thing. More money is made by the company that produces the show as they gain more fans along with an increase in support and moral, and the fans are serviced by seeing what they want on the show. This influence by and adaption for the fans can and often does go too far though. Companies don't know when to stop adding these services to the fans, and fans often don't know when to stop demanding until it's already too late. Although fans want to see their influence in a show, they also enjoy the show for the same reason they originally did. That can easily be lost when this happens. A show that is literally all a service to its fans is definitely not a good thing. Fans realize this too when the show loses the appeal it once had because of what they have turned it into.

Intro to Literature Project

I recently finished a project for my intro to literature class. When we were discussing the short novella, "The Ugliest Pilgrim," my professor, Scott Richardson, briefly mentioned writing a fanfiction of the story where the main character, Violet, becomes a serial killer due to her strange obsession with wanting others' beauty or specific parts of them to enhance herself. I decided to do exactly that for my project.

My Project

You may have read this story in one of your previous college/high school courses, but if not, I'd recommend reading it before my project, due to the fact that it changes its ending. I would link a pdf of the story, but that seems rather hard to come by. I'm sure if you do some searching you can find it though.

Power in Our Pockets

Today, smartphones seem as though they are a must in our continuously advancing technological world, but not too long ago, they didn't even exist. Smartphones have completely changed the way we live, how we view the world, and even how we run our day to day lives. Smartphones give an individual so much power, along with powering groups as well. With the device that today, seems so simple to us, we can access practically endless information on the web. This information gathering could be spurred by a conversation, seeing or hearing about something we want to learn more about, etc. We can use apps to scan or investigate an item, a song, and so much more, that then tells us what we have scanned or links us to a website. We can use our smartphone as a translator, a flashlight, a radio, a computer, a television, and so much more. It's like an incredibly advanced Swiss Army Knife. Then there is the social aspect. We use smartphones to not only connect to others through telephone calls and texting, but through social media, video chatting, email, and other messaging systems. We can use our phones to tell people where we are, what we are doing, or simply give others our thoughts at that moment. We can use our phones to hold important meetings, private discussions, or simply to joke around with a friend/friends and maybe share a few funny pictures and gifs. An item that we take for granted today, an item that costs anywhere from around $300-$600 more or less, would have been absolutely unimaginable, priceless, and even magical in previous decades. It's amazing to think how much we can do today with a device that we can easily slip into our pockets (not so much if you a girl. Those pockets are tiny). Just think about fitting all those tools and information into your pocket if smartphones didn't exist, if tablets didn't exist, if computers didn't exist. It would take an entire warehouse to store all of that.