the hardest part about the first paper was trying to find an argument to make. i could come up with arguments for each specific quote and tie one to another so that slowly the argument would change, but i found myself arguing different–though not conflicting–themes throughout the paper. another part i found difficult was deciding which passages would best support my point and which seemed like they would help but were really just ‘white noise.’ hahahahaha not funny. but really, there wasn’t conflicting information but an overwhelming amount of it.
the length of the paper surprised me. i felt like i was going to have touble even writing three pages but almost up to four pages there were still many passages i could have used to develope each theme further and even argue new ones. i was alsosurprised how the same information–such as the white packaging or the supermarket being sealed–could be used to argue different ideas and the layers that could e found within the text.
I’m finding myself posting similar comments on these. Oops. It was difficult trying to decide from the sheer volume of information which items were most appropriate. There are a lot of elements which seem like they could be taken in different directions, and that was also tricky. Yep.
I think that the supermarket wins as the “power haunt” with the most psychic data and sources of data to decode. The labels and packaging seemed to be playing into that theme of decoding a lot, but there were so many passages dealing with the way in which the supermarket serves as a source of comfort and fullness for consumers.
I thought it was funny how shopping at the supermarket and at the mall actually seemed to be a good thing for a short moment in both cases in that they seemed to bring Babette, Jack, and their family together.
alllllsoooo…..how does using the internet to communicate to people in the same room as us relate to the post-modern condition and mass-communication and the lack of interpersonal communication?
Very good question about typing on keyboards to communicate with people who are in the very same room as you. Culturally-speaking, it’s definitely postmodern, something like the “bowling alone” problem that a number of sociologists have researched.
Pedagogically-speaking, though, I think it can be quite valuable. I’m actually privileging the written word over the spoken here — a very modernist thing to do. And the reason why is because I like having a permanent record, a document that we can pause over, turn over in our minds more carefully than an ephemeral conversation, and even, as I’m doing here, come back to much later.
I’m not saying that we could hold an entire class over the blog, but in short bursts, I do think we can do something online that would be harder to do in person, even when we’re already in person.
This would be a very interesting discussion to continue…either online, or maybe even in class.