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Writing Project 4

“that was than and this is now..”

A novel can be defined as something new and not resembling something formerly known or used and or something original or striking especially in conception or style. Today, the more traditional novel, one that is bound with pages in-between and a summary on the back is no longer the only form of a novel. Today, one can read a novel via the computer or internet. However the question here is, is reading something on the computer or online as successful as reading it with the physical properties most reader die for such as such as the pages, smell of a new book, and being able to put a book mark in the book and walk away and come back to it whenever you want. Sven Birkerts, the author of the Gutenburg Elegies, would strongly disagree in saying that one can not get the same experience from a monitor than reading from a book. Is technology making society dumber? A novel does not have to be linear.

In the Gutenberg Elegies, Sven Birkerts makes focus on the topic of the technology and his concerns with stepping forward into the new electronic millennium. For Birkerts, he believes that “screen and book may exhibit the same string of words, but the assumptions that underlie their significance are entirely different depending on whether we are staring at a book or a circuit generated text.” Focus on section with unfinished mess page 157 and 158

messy.

Computer processing the difference between process and product

Random add ins:

Summarize:

His opinion:

Coda

Technology is the easy way out-making pact with the devil

We don’t want to work

Advancements are shallow

“lateral connections”

Easy

World wide

Social/collective

Unfinished mess-pw body parts

We are all going to be stupid because of technology

If we don’t have books we don’t have intelligence

Shelley Jackson

: Messy writer -once you learn, with PW girl you don’t know when to stop

Over the last couple of decades, society has grown to see many film productions which have been based on the legendary 1817 novel “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley. However, numerous of these film productions of Frankenstein have unfortunately ignored the general themes of the novel and not follow closely to Shelly’s original text. many Frankenstein spin-offs do not portray the monster accurately, and instead cause the audience to feel no sympathy for the monster. However, in the 1994 film production title “ Mary Shellys Frankenstein” stays true to the storyline and themes of the novel. In this re-telling of the novel, the film interprets the text by accurately displaying the good and bad qualities in monster as well as Victor Frankenstein.

What is the primary interpretation or “thesis” of this film in its re-telling or remediation of the Frankenstein story? No good could come out of playing the role of god

What does it emphasize in its version of Frankenstein? Good and bad in both monter and frankestein

What 1 or 2 aspects of this film (again, as a film, a different medium than a print novel) do you read as significant in how the film uses/interprets/remediates the novel?

Paragraph two: good in monster  (scene at cottage)

Paragraph three: bad in monster

Chelsea Simpson

English

February 2009

Paradise Lost Book Ten vs. Frankenstein

Intertextuality can be described as various relationships that a given text may have within other works of literature. There are several styles of intersexuality that can be placed within writings which include “anagram, allusion, adaptation, translation, parody, pastiche, [and] imitation.” Authors include these separate writings into their own usually to convey a significant message or emphasize a point. Intertexuality aids the reader in understanding the meaning of the work.

Mary Shelly, the author of the 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, uses intertexuality in her writing when she references a quote from Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost was and still is an especially famous series of writings that were published in the mid 1600’s. The author of the twelve books was a man named John Milton. Milton’s series was based around the biblical reference to Adam and Eve, as well as God the father and Satan. In Frankenstein, she incorporates the general ideas and principles from Paradise Lost as well as creates her own vision of Paradise Lost in the novel. Thus, Shelley’s usage of Paradise Lost may classify as intertextual adaptation. In Frankenstein, she incorporates the general ideas and principles from Paradise Lost as well as creates her own vision of Paradise Lost in the novel. Shelly uses the biblical reference to Adam and eve to convey and reinstate the themes of creation, gate keeping of knowledge, and darkness.

The first reference to Paradise Lost in Frankenstein is revealed in the beginning of the novel, thus introducing the reader to the dual-concepts of creation. On the title page, Shelley quotes an excerpt from Paradise Lost: “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mold me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to Promote Me?”(-Paradise Lost [X.74-75]). This quote generates sympathy for not only Adam; Gods creation, but also for the Monster that was the creation of Viktor Frankenstein. Though one may not pay a great deal of attention to this quote at first, creation is a chief theme in novel. The theme of creation is demonstrated throughout Frankenstein. In chapter five when Victor’s creation came to life, Paradise Lost is once more referenced. In this version of creation, Victor plays the role of God because he too creates life. But unlike in the story of the creation of Man, Victor abandons the life he created as soon as the Monster is able to draw his first breath.

In the biblical reference to Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, God creates The Human and later Woman as his companion and only one thing of them: they were not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. However, the serpent entices Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. At once they are instantly endowed with all knowledge which is what God did not want them to process. Here is where the theme of gate keeping knowledge comes in to play. Seconds after Victor creates the monster he runs from the building, leaving the monster with no learn from. In the biblical version of creation, God was the gatekeeper of knowledge. He did not bestow knowledge upon his creation. In Frankenstein, Victor simply deprived his creature of knowledge by fleeing upon his creation. Both the biblical human and Frankenstein’s monster where born into the wholly ignorant; oblivious and therefore innocent. But where Adam and Eve where placed in a paradise, the world the monster was born in to was a dystopia.

The theme of darkness is prominent throughout both Frankenstein and Paradise Lost. After reading line 720-866 from Paradise Lost, book ten, one could clearly see that the passage is overwhelmed with darkness. Milton uses words such as misery, death, horrid, dreadful, and gloom to express emotion. Several lines after the quote “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mold me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to Promote Me.” The word darkness in this quotation is particularly relevant in both Frankenstein and Paradise Lost book ten. There is another quote that Shelly did not include in her novel but sounds very much like something either Frankenstein or the Monster would say. The quote is “Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out to deathless pain? How gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be Insensible!” Death is tragically common theme in Frankenstein, whether it was natural or caused by the hands of the Monster. Victor Frankenstein is especially tormented by death, as it was by his hands the creature was created and it was the creature that was killing members of Victor’s family.

For my paper I decided to write about two main evernts that happened in my life.  In the first paragraph I will explain my thoughts on reading and how it has shaped me into the person that I am today.  The second paragraph will be about how when I was younger I felt like I had to compete with my sister when reading. I was very young and when she was starting to be able to rea, I still could’t.  I wanted to read not because I like to, it was because I felt like I had to. My third paragraph will be about an ancident that happened to me in high school.  I will explain how it had a negative impact on my life as a reader.  Lastly, in the fourth paragraph I will tie the to together and explain how  I believe that these are the two main readons I do not like to read.  I will tell how not likeing to read has already effected me as a college student.