Literary Kinds

I am posting in support of some of the specific examples and ideas that were brought up in class.  I REALLY want to read things I haven't read before, so I don't have suggestions of my own, but some of the suggestions I heard sounded cool to me.  My favorite idea was the "international villains" concept, but I also liked the detective ideas.  I would be interested in reading the following:

original Sherlock Holmes + modern adaptations and detective stories of various mediums

Persepolis

Neil Gaiman graphic novels

Class opened with a discussion about how we felt our papers and the public comments Anne left for us.  When asked, Anne admitted that it was a different commenting style for her because she wasn't changing the grammar and style of every single sentence.  Instead, she spent more time on the ideas presented in the papers.  Though the class was largely silent, those who did speak up seemed to prefer the online comments to handwritten comments.  However, there was some dissent from students seeking more assistance with improving their writing, not just their ability to make an argument.

 Like TPB1988, I too think it is a smart idea to include a classic novel, a graphic novel, and a movie. I really believe that having these three distinct modes will allow us to compare and contrast what aspects actually categorize and distinguish differences between the types when dealing with the same theme or idea. Personally, I am interested in following the development of a mystery. I think the usage of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful example for us to study because it allows us to trace the concept's evolution from classic novel to graphic novel to movie form. Since in our discussion of blogs we focused on what categorizes things, what differences shape distinctions between categories, it is an easy shift from first half to second half of the semester.

 Our group's intent was to incorporate a variety of literary kinds in order to satisfy the different interests expressed through other students's online posts. It was obvious that many other groups also wanted to achieve the same thing. The proposal we came up with questioned how time travel gets handled in different forms and how this travel influences the identity of main characters. We were also curious in exploring other questions: how technological and platform changes affect the same topic (time and travel), how the placement of a reader in time effects the novel, continuing questions of platform vs. genre, and how does one's identity change with time. 

reading through everyones posts, it occured to me that everyone seems to be primarily concerned with what medium we should be using for the second half of the semster. while this is important, i think we shouldnt forget about what it is we're trying to explore

talking about blogs has brought up a lot of different questions in class, questions related to identity - who do you create an ientity for? when does this change? does it change?

the idea of building oneself id also an important one - do we have hard wiring or are we told that we do? how much does this affect our lives? how do we build ourselves and what do we use as a base?

 As many others have said, I'd like to stick with this exploration of the new(ish) medium that is the internet.  Looking at different genres on this platform is fascinating to me, and I propose that the next genre we tackle is the database.  The Walt Whitman archive we read about is an idea... I think the study of this genre  and this medium would be beneficial in that it would show everyone new things that are being formed in the world.  Enough of this old stuff!  I have loved this class and the opportunity it has given me to investigate new and developing ways of publishing texts, and while I do love novels, I'm sure we all have had plenty of exposure to them in previous English classes.

 I agree with TPB1988's opinion that "it would be a shame to return to the routine of a stereotypical English class." I've definitely enjoyed the uncharacteristically light reading requirements for the class thus far, but I'm pretty sure that most of us weren't given the opportunity in high schools or in other more "focused" literature classes to really study and analyze how the internet is quickly becoming a server for academic work, information, and just the formation of communities in general via blogging. A few months ago I met and chatted over coffee with a former editor for a publishing firm, and he warned me that print medium is taking a backseat to the media and technology.

come dynamic textbooks; see Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

For the second half of the semester, I think it would be really interesting to look at fan fiction as an "emerging" genre.  I use the quotation marks because Professor Taylor once had us read a work for class that was a continuation of Chaucer's notoriously-unfinished Canterbury Tales, and doesn't that count as a work of fan fiction?  There are also additional Sherlock Holmes mysteries, suspiciously not written by Sir Conan Doyle and Pride