Category: Reflections

Swimming through a Sea of Defiance contained links that were related or that were illustrations of the word.  I believe these contributed to the story.  The three most effective links was the photo of a sound wave, the photo of a man being yelled at and the photo of the bus crashing into the building both directly tied into the story and added emphasis.  The other links made no impact on me.  Although they represented the words, the connection was too far apart to make an impression on the story.

———————————————————————————————-

In Where There is No Story at All, the links are very random which mimick the structure and pace of the story.  So in that way the links work for the piece.  The best link in this piece is to the clock unlike any clock I have ever seen which really echoes the emphasis of time and urgency in the piece.  The other links were representations or advertisements which could be symbolic of the destractions the actual writer had in the piece.

In "From the Deep Dark Cells of Isolation", Bryan seemed to focus on linking to things that you wouldn’t first think of when reading the linked sentence.  For example, with the line "wait a minute here", he linked the word "minute" to the Minute Made website.  This strategy didn’t necessarily take away from the meaning or coherency of the incipit, but instead gave it some new meaning.  With most of the links, you had to stop and think for a second "why is he linking to this page?", but somehow still manages not to distract the reader enough to stop reading the incipit.  So overall, I think he did a good job making links that weren’t in fact direct links to what he was talking about and managed to make the reader think.

Wes seemed to employ a bit of a different strategy with most of his links by linking to images that directly related to what he was talking about.  An example from his incipit would be linking the word "Philadelphia" to an image of the Philadelphia skyline.  This approach seems to make the incipit a bit more coherent since it gives the reader a direct visual representation of what is going on in the story.  Similarly, it also gives the story a bit more meaning, since it can give the reader more of an idea of what the author had in mind when he was writing, leaving less guessing to do about visuals.

Most of the links are helpful in which it provides visuals to the words that we mentioned in the story.  There are links to a face on the side of the mountain, a singer yelling into another face, and the image of dough which all relate to the words use in the story.  The link to another story in the word Malbork are especially helpful and creative because the two stories seems to complement each other well.  However I do not get the the link made for "escape plan" and "alliance", maybe this two links try to convey the idea that the narrator has joined some political band that incite anger from most of the people in the town.  Overall, I think the links provide further explanation and meaning to the incipit instead of detracts from it. 

***Through visual aid or web sites that seem to have no relevance at all, I simply wanted to capture the significance of particular words or phrases of the story. The power of these words linked to a certain website, or images that may appear on screen lend to the development of a specific thought or emotion. In essence, I knew the right set of ten words that would not only capture the reader’s attention, but also capture the intriguing elements of the story. I also wanted to be funny, if just a little light hearted in the process. Readers will notice that I placed particular sites that are not exactly what one would expect in the process of reading the story.
*** Immediately, when you click on the word ketchup, you are taken to a site that pictures the image of a ketchup bottom. (I simply wanted the reader to have the image of a ketchup bottle in their mind…. Signifying that you are in, the reader is in, the character is in a diner). Secondly, the term diner takes the reader to the image of a 50s style diner. Again, I simply wanted to convey the scenery, set the stage for where I am telling the story. The term dealer is linked to the site for art dealers. This was simply ironic; funny, in a way, due to the illegal involvement of dealing that the character has been thrown into, and the obvious simple nature of dealing pieces of art work for galleries. Lastly- the lovely Camero link. I just wanted readers to have the image of the car the female character was in during the story. That’s all. Imagery was important to me- but a tone of sarcasm, perhaps an element of, “what in the world?” was also something that I wanted to bring in. Every aspect of the story works out well, I feel- I hope.   

      At the onset of my linking there were a few that I already had in my head for particular words.  I had ideas of what kinds of links I wanted to include.  Honestly, I meant to give it a darker comic edge but the final product ended up being a bit goofy.  A few of the words I knew I could find something interesting on, I typed in the actual word and a couple others I had the synchronizing idea in mind and typed in the word that it reminded me of. 

     I had alread chosen the bio-bay site which related to the word "glowing" in the text, or actually it just jumped to mind as perfect connection.  I love these images and it seemed to add something strange with a visual of the similie in the story.  Initially I was going to put an image of a cave, I had from Puerto Rico, behind the story but since I had just reformatted my computer I was currently denied the option.  So, the other obvious connection was either "chasm" or "dark seedy cave" and a link to a cave.  Since I had already used Vieques island off Puerto Rico I chose instead to type in the word stalagtites and found this appealing image. 

     I think the slightly less obvious connection was escape and a neat picture of barbed wire at Alcatraz.  I wanted to make it playful and interactive so I did add a couple of games, the first of which duck hunt may have been distracting so early on in the narrative.  The last word seems obvious I typed in sour, searched around for something kitchy and visually apealling, "Sour punch", and found a game within the site which seemed logical to link to as a impression of Sour. 
 

In starting to create the links I start by rereading my own incipit and try to brainstorm what type of image or idea I want to convey through the incipit.  With the list of words from out of the brainstorming I google to find the image or the word that convey the idea I am attempting to find.  Afterward, I realized that I am still short of ten links.  Therefore, I go back into the story and pick out random words from out of my story and google them and see what come up.  Some where helpful, some are more random that leads to completely different paths.  In summary some of the links are intentional, some are more untentional.

For the link to the word "daisy" is an intentional link.  I purposely picked that link because the summertime in the past for the narrator is seen as innocent and carefree, therefore, I link the word daisy to a website that will provide the meaning of the to the flower.  Daisy is a flower that usually symbolize innonce and loyal.  This link acts to enhance and reaffirm the idea of innocence in that paragraph.

Another of the link that I purposefully choose to put in the incipit toward the very end that linked to another classmates story.  The links can be a seem to be a continuation of the event of where my incipit has left off.  It can works to provide more background to the incipit.  The story addresses the issue of money and falsely accuse of a crime.  The girl in my incipit seem to have stolen something, it might be money, and somehow it might provide a better hint to why the girl is late and being pursued.

The link on the time "time" is more unintentional.  I was just serving the net and ran into the peanut gallery.  I found the website hilarious and want to incorporate it somehow into the story.  It so happen that at the section of the incipit it is a point of anxiousness and anticipation, however by clicking on the link, it is a complete juxtaposition to what the mood was in the story.  In a sense it provide a comical light to the incipit.  This link out of all the other beside the "baseball ticket" link detracts from the story.  It create more of a farce then enhance the story.

Finally, another of my link are to the painting by Munch, the scream.  This painting depicts pain and anguish, and that is the mood that I want to get across.  If the woman escape from the pursuers, she will causes the pursuers great pain and anguish whatever she took from them.

 

 

When turning my Calvino incipit into a hypertextual medium, for the most part I found a word in my piece and decided to google it.  When I came up with something I didn’t like or lost interest in it, I went to a different word.  Once I found something I did like, I stuck with it.  Only a few times did I try to put meaning into the word I was creating a link to.  Other times I tried to play off the words that I used, for example picking a picture or site that had an opposite meaning to the word. 

An example of this is when I chose to link the word "sliced" to a picture of sliced bread.  The meaning of the word in the context of the story had a very different meaning than the picture I linked it with.  Another example of playing off words and presenting another meaning to them is when I chose to link the word "sentence" to a web site on how to form sentences in Hungarian.  In the context of the story, "sentence" was referring to a jail-term.  My link to a picture of Cain and Abel is meant to reflect what the story was pretty much about — one brother killing another for his own personal gain.  (I think that’s what Cain and Abel was about).  I linked the name of the main characters’ brother — Cimbrian — with an artists’ rendering of Cain and Abel. 

For the Cain and Abel example, I feel as if I were successfully able to convey the message behind the story and what I was trying to get across.  It really is the only serious link I have in my piece — other than the two I linked to other’s incipits.  I tried to have those links have some meaning as well.  For example, I chose to link the word "sheild" to Jennifer Parker’s incipit entitled, "Cowering in the Darkest Chasms."  A character in the story was trying to hide from the Gorin gang, sheilding himself if you will from them and uncertain death.  I’m not sure if this would come across as clearly as maybe the Cain and Abel link, but it is what I was trying to convey. 

The general methodology for choosing the links were based on word association, word context, possible historical significance.  For example, I made a reference to German light armor, therefore I created a link for the word “armor” to a WWII Nazi Flag that was found on a Panzer tank; this is a logical translation.  Another step that I took was to take a word that multiple meanings.  I used “icebreaker” to describe a breaking of social silence; however, I made a link to a literal icebreaker: liquid mints(http://www.hersheys.com/icebreakers/).  I used another play on pop culture by making the word “captain” a link to Captain’s Morgans rum(http://www.captainmorgan.com/en-us/).  Lastly, I selected another student’s piece(http://mason.gmu.edu/~rford1/assignment_files/swimming.html) which mentioned the same town upon which my incipit was based as a connection.  This student’s piece is also associated with “defiance” which is an underlying theme in my own work.

If I had made all the links historical, a virtual footnote persay, then I think the piece would have been taken more seriously.  Due to the choices I made in selecting the links, I believe it made the work somewhat more creative, but in a much more comical way, which was not the original aim of the story upon its creation.  As a result, the reader will most likely be confused when a story with a serious and depressing backdrop has links to such trivial items.

Most of the links that I inserted into my Calvino "incipit" were done so to enhance the story.  I didn’t want the link to be completely pointless and have some incredibly vague connection.  Instead, I chose links that would give the viewer some sort of a visual image of the word of phrase I was linking to.  In the case of clasemates incipits that I linked to, each had either a common word or common idea between them.  I wanted a direct, clear relation to be found in what I was linking to.

Take my "yelling in my face" link for example.  The line from my incipit was "My eyes shot open, and I found a very large man in my face, yelling in my face, although my face wasn’t quite sure what he was yelling about."  Clearly, the link to yelling in my face has a very graphic example of someone yelling in another persons face, bringing a sort of visual enhancement to the story, making it feel a bit more intense.

With another link that I inserted, the "escape plan" link, I wanted the reader to see that "escape plan" can refer to more than just escaping from something.  The line from my incipit reads "Being stuck on a bus doesn’t afford many opportunities to devise an escape plan, I was stuck."  Obviously everyone knows what escaping from a bus is, and an image of a bus or of someone running or escaping wouldn’t add too much to the story, since it wouldn’t convey the point very well (that is, that the "I" wanted to escape but that he was stuck and couldn’t).  Instead, I chose to link to a wallpaper for a band "The Dillinger Escape Plan".

Another link that I included came in the sentence "This was good, since I no longer had a large, angry man trying to turn my head into what would resemble a lump of dough, swelling and taking on funny shapes."  With this link, I figured a visual image of a lump of dough being worked over by a pair of hands would be a great visual image to supplement the line of text.  My thought was that it would give readers a great idea of what I was aiming to get across with my writing.

The last link that I included in my incipit came in the last line and reads "And that is when all hell broke loose, or, I should say, all hell slammed into the front of a crowded building."  With this one, I wasn’t quite sure if readers would clearly get the point that I was referring to the bus hitting the front of a building, and so I wanted to visually represent that with an image.  Like a lot of my links, I was aiming to add visual stimulation to the story.

So did my links work?  I think that most of, if not all of them, worked fairly well.  I was mainly trying to convey a meaningful addition to the story, giving the reader another tool in enhancing what they were reading, beyond their own imagination.  Some of my links were a bit more vague, but I feel that they all make sense if you take at least some time to think about them.

 

The methodology that i used to choose my links was fairly simple.  First i looked at words within my text that i thought would be interesting or eye appealing to search.  Once I had chosen my words, i googled them and checked the outcomes for the one i felt was best.  I guess i wanted them to be as simple as they could be so they would be appealing to every person that experienced them.  My favorite link is the one for the word Philadelphia; for this link i chose to like a picture of the city skyline becuase it is where much of my family is located and the Philadelphia skyline brings back fond memories.  For September i chose to link a picture of a space image of the Pentagon after 9-11; i did this because when most people think of 9-11 they think of New York, I feel that the Pentagon should be remembered just as much.  For the word drive i linked the BMW website, their slogan has been "the ultimate driving machine" for many years and it was the first thing that popped into my head as i was doing this project, plus i love the cars.  For the word puppy I linked a picture of a Newfoundland Dog because this is my absolute favority dog in teh world and i hope to get one soon, and picture was just so damn cute.  I feel i was very successful in my project, i was not trying to get tricky or deep, i was just trying to show some good images and express some of my loves into the project, and, honestly, i simply wanted to complete it in a reasonable amount of time!!