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'We have heard of such a God, but have not paid much attention to it. How believe you, Ergamenes?' 'In Jesus Christ, the son of God,' replied Reuel solemnly. 'O Ergamenes, your belief shall be ours; we have no will but yours. Deign to teach your subjects.'

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— Of One Blood, Pauline Hopkins, Chapter XIV (132)

 This mirrors the belief of Jesus bringing salvation to believers of Him, and mirrors older passages in the bible when people have rejected older religions to follow Christianity. I realize why Hopkins might have employed The Holy Trinity into her story. The obvious is that Reuel is a symbolization of the son of God, but beyond that is the Last Supper when Jesus’ own blood and body, The Eucharist, was offered as a sacrifice amongst the Apostles, before the crucifixion. 

(via cpassons)

I was actually going to make a post about this same quote. Interesting interpretation; however, I viewed this is in a different way. I saw this as Hopkins’ way of demonstrating Christian missionaries in Africa. The people seemed to have mindlessly switch their religion, and some may view this as what missionaries do. Here, Reuel could be seen as a fairly successful missionary; he simply mentioned his belief in Jesus Christ and then an entire civilization agreed to follow; however, the people are following Reuel, not Jesus—which would make him an unsuccessful missionary. Those are just a few random thoughts during my reading. I guess they don’t really go anywhere, but I definitely got a ‘missions’ feel when I read that quote. 

(via sumwalker9)

Now that I think about it, the 'missions' approach makes a lot more sense, especially in the argument Hopkins makes when it comes to the ideologies religion, sociology, and science. It definitely applies a historical perspective. Great observation!

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Big-Picture Question: Orwell's 1984

“How can propaganda in Orwell’s 1984 be relevant with today’s social media?”

The more I am researching Orwell, the further I am getting away from algorithms. There may be some grammatical sequencing in public discourse, either written or oral, but I find Orwell is more interested in the tricks of propaganda. The 2+2=5 represents the 'dumbing down' of language of the city Oceania to make the citizens more blinded to the actual truths. Having read one of his essays that I find quite fascinating, I would be hard-pressed to believe Orwell would have a different view on the usage of the English language in today's technological society. That is where my essay is at for now, in a nutshell. It's nothing much, but maybe enough to get me on the right track.

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'We have heard of such a God, but have not paid much attention to it. How believe you, Ergamenes?' 'In Jesus Christ, the son of God,' replied Reuel solemnly. 'O Ergamenes, your belief shall be ours; we have no will but yours. Deign to teach your subjects.'

-- Of One Blood, Pauline Hopkins, Chapter XIV (132)

It is quite interesting to note that Pauline Hopkins brought in the Holy Trinity in context when ancient Ethiopian religions were of topic in a conversation, and that immediately, since Reuel has been seen as the chosen leader, the higher powers of Telessar decided to adopt his beliefs of the Son of God into their kingdom. This mirrors the belief of Jesus bringing salvation to believers of Him, and mirrors older passages in the bible when people have rejected older religions to follow Christianity. I realize why Hopkins might have employed The Holy Trinity into her story. The obvious is that Reuel is a symbolization of the son of God, but beyond that is the Last Supper when Jesus' own blood and body, The Eucharist, was offered as a sacrifice amongst the Apostles, before the crucifixion. Blood is a unifying element in the backdrops of the conversation. It is also interesting to notice the influence Reuel has upon a civilization who has stood in wait for his arrival. It makes me wonder, then, what great sacrifice the prodigal son Ergamenes (Reuel) will make in favor of the people of Telassar. Is there more meaning within the title?

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Mineral is the storage place of memory, the principle of creativity, resources, stories, and symbolism. It is the elemental energy that allows us to remember, to communicate with one another, to express our feelings. In Dagara physiology, our bones, not the brain, are the storage place of memory. To the indigenous person, mineral is also equivalent to stone. As they say, the bones of the earth are the stones and rocks we see. To know the true story of our earth, including the story of ourselves, is to listen to the rocks. They are conduits through which earth passes information on to us.

-- Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa (p. 177)

This excerpt was taken from Chapter 8 entitled "Dagara Cosmology and Ritual." As stated in class before, I noticed a lot of connections between with this text that would help compliment my understanding on reading Pauline Hopkins' Of One Blood. I was deeply surprised and fascinated on how some of content in Somé's work can also allude to previous discussions we have had on the body and nature being a medium for information. To think of our bones as a receptor of information makes incredible sense. I remember my grandmother telling me, when I was much younger, of a bike accident she had when she was a young kid, and what triggered her memory of the incident was a shock of pain in her leg. She mentioned how older people feel all of the major injuries they have had when they were younger. That even when we get old to the point that our minds go, our bodies will gladly remind us of some pasts through the aches and pains we may be feeling that have otherwise been engraved. What message I got was that our minds may forget things, but our bodies (more specifically our bones) won't. It's kind of like the bones are a moving slate that holds memory of the past through the impressions it collects and stores, much like how rocks provide a recorded timeline on the shifts of Earth. If that is the case, then maybe our skin and muscle may very well be the Freudian "Mystical Writing Pad" and the bones the slate that contain the underlying impressions.

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Where are we now? Where are heading?

The Algorithmic Heartbeat in George Orwell’s 1985, Seen Through a Looking Glass in 1949, and From a Lens in 2013

     Over the past 150 years the world has experienced the largest wave of technological advancements through media, and at the turn of the 20th century sparked a stream of endless literary works that focused on positive Utopian societies. It wasn’t, however, until 1949 when George Orwell turned the table around, and unleashed his last written work 1984, as political commentary/satire that focused on a bleak future for society under a totalitarian rule. I would like to focus on the media venue of mass-communication: telescreens, censorship, and newspapers – for the story’s case, under the influence of Big Brother. It is no wonder why the future would look bleak from the perspective of a writer in 1949, especially seeing how Orwell wrote essays on the impact of the nuclear bomb and other social concerns. I would like to explore the ground-breaking media technologies of 1949 up to 1984, and what had inspired Orwell to put light on these issues. I want to explore how the passage of the past few decades have both complimented, more than contradicted, his viewpoints, and see how a single algorithm has "mushroom-clouded" into such a broad venue for media mass-communication to this day.

     The questions that can circulate 1984 can seem endless. The questions I have regard an infusion of history, technology, and sociology. Some of them I have vague answers for, but I would especially like to delve deeper into what would possess an author to forge a story such as this. How can technology be seen as a plight, when it is normally regarded as a wonder? What social issues inspired Orwell to write this story at the time? How may this story mirror the public’s preconceptions about the future from the perspective of one who is at the end of a decade? Noticing that while 1949 marks the year before the end of a decade, and that the year 1984 marks a year before reaching half a decade, is there such a coincidence? In that case, is that why—prior knowledge of history aside—Orwell chose to write the equation as 2+2=5 (4 for 1984, and 5 digits (half a decade) equals 9)? Or does the algorithmic process of taking one from 5 makes 4 plus 4 plus the removed 1 brings a total of 9, or 8 subtracted from 9 equals 1, or 9 minus 5 equals 1 plus 4 equals 5, mirror the invention of the first algorithmic processing machine, the Z3, released in 1941, 8 years prior to the publication of 1984? [Here is the real mindblower: Karkarmar’s algorithm, a system for solving linear programming problems was later discovered in Orwell's 1984, revolutionizing computer programming, was created by Narendra Karmarkar, who worked where else, but AT&T.] With all of this in mind, did Orwell just write propaganda, or did he somehow see the big picture of where society was heading? What does Orwell expect readers to absorb from the context? What inventions seemed revolutionary for the time? In what ways has "1984" impacted the real world? Are there any implications of these fears present in today’s media? Are algorithms the real heartbeat of society today? As I said, the questions can seem endless.

     I have been browsing for resources to enhance my research, so far I have narrowed it down to a couple of sites. George-Orwell.org, while not a very comprehensive site, provides essays that may help one to get into the mind, or perspective, of George Orwell. Upon browsing, I stumbled across inventor Konrad Zuse, who invented the very first program-controlled computing machines, as documented on the Konrad Zuse Internet Archive (it states here that he invented the Z3, the first successful program-controlled computer in 1941, which may have what helped gear Orwell into the concept of the telescreen—a mixture of a television, telephone, and computer). I also came upon a website on Narendra Karmarkar. Since this would be a meaty topic, I know I will have to limit my scope, so I want to focus on a couple of sections documented in 1984 where Orwell took a glimpse into the future, find what innovations manifested from 1949-1984 that may have corresponded with these episodes, and see how we can still see the implications to this day. My hunt for resources is not yet over. I hope that the endeavor would be a successful, as ideas for more resources come to mind over the course of the next week or so.

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Raymond Loewy: How his designs defined the modern era

The Studebaker Avanti, Shell Oil logo, and Sears Coldspot refrigerator were all the creations of the iconic industrial designer, Raymond Loewy, whose work spanned 70 years and is honored today by a Google Doodle.

It's as if Fate (or the great System or Machine of corporation capitalism through media) that determined we would be discussing Railroads, Telegraphs, and Newspapers on the 120th birthday of Raymond Loewy, "The Father of Industrial Design," about which we still use today: from gas station logos that direct us toward the havens where we fill up or vehicles in order to get to class on time, to Coca-Cola vending machines that have saved us from insanity on the restless nights spent on homework, thus making completing assignments with enough energy a possibility). Or, it could just be an incredible coincide... Of course, I would have never found that out if it hadn't been for the marvelous invention of Google.

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Chopin's "Story" of a Time in its Essence, Predating Social Networking

The first paragraph should always serve as a throttle that kick-starts the gears of the mechanism of a great story. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” does just that by effectively providing social commentary on social media at a time when the internet was a rare Dystopiatic fantasy, at the brink of a tragedy, and in the heart of the story. It focuses not on the news that Mrs. Mallard husband has mortally departed, but how she has “received” the startling news. There is a lot of word-of-mouth amidst the social community, conversations with “messages” composed “broken sentences” and containing “veiled hints” at the true source of the otherwise adulterated fact. Her source was from a friend of Mrs. Mallard’s husband who received “intelligence” of the matter where else but at a “newspaper office” (current times Twitter and Facebook, or even Yahoo!News or Associated Press), and did not have the news come to hear in a formal matter and privately (as from law enforcement), but that his death had been publicized. Taken aback, Mrs. Mallard could only find a moment of solace when looking out into the world from within her caged confinement through a “window”; it was outside where she noticed “life” apparent, outside of her cage, where she noticed nothing else but the faint notes of “sparrows twittering.” The deep enrichment in the subtleties is why I have always loved Chopin’s works.

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Then it was that, above all, she felt how much she had missed in the gaps and blanks and absent answers--how much she had to dispense with: it was black darkness now, save for this little wild red flare. So much that she saw and possessed. She wanted no detail, no fact--she wanted no nearer vision of discovery or shame (189).

In the Cage, Herman Melville

These two lines stuck out the most in my reading of the last sections of the story. Especially the word 'black darkness'. Is not darkness dark enough? But pitch black, where the most minute is detail is neglected (or deprived) from the sensory of the eyes. Psychologically, however, the blackness could represent the dark abyss of the mysterious realm subconscious. Likewise the slate onto which thoughts and ideas are constructed begins as a void of nothingness. "Gaps and blanks and absent answers" can be seen as preconceptions on which the telegrapher banked her convictions; they had once been justified and validated by her. The preconceptions and ideas are the paint that we brush (or spill) upon the easel, and ignorance is the paint thinner that takes away the factual constructs of the image (ideas). The black darkness can also be conceived as the ink within a telegraph that imprints messages (factual or opinionated) upon the ribbon. In modern times, blackness can be the binary domain, and the red flare be the coding of the binary domain. "She wanted no detail, no fact... shame" is the philosophy of many who dabble with the contents in a binary domain: a webpage editor/designer selects what he/she deems most fit for the audience, while members of a social network try so hard to prove themselves (indicate their strengths more frequently than their weaknesses). There is nothing wrong with pride, as it is a human condition, but facing, acknowledging, and admitting shame is quite a feat that is worth all action.

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Herman Melville’s Typee (1846) is a narrative I have been wanting to read, and this project has re-kindled the aspiration. I picked the book up years ago, as it stuck out as a total mystery, the mystery itself has continued to cloud my mind by its riddles all throughout this not-so-read project, but I hope to arrive to some revelation by tying in a handful of specific words. Using Wordl and Voyant tools, I have arrived at even more complexities, leaving me more perplexed than I had begun. There are just so many words that contrast each other that orchestrate a symphony of nature through the senses. Through excavating the contents of the story, I have come to the conclusion that the sea-faring adventurous narrative Typee may very well contain such a simple theme of life through procreation and demise.

The word “side” frequents almost twice that as “fruit” (at 89), but the most noteworthy stems are the words “resident,” “residents,” and “president,” all of which appears only once. “Companion” makes an appearance 55 times; “appearance” manifests 49 times, while “disappearance” crops up in 8 instances. The most incredulous word that begged my attention was “operation” which had appeared 38 times.

The most specific words are the odd words that manifest on the page, screaming for attention: fruit, side, companions, operation, and appearance. The interesting thing about “fruit” is not only that it appears 41 times in the text, but its antonym, “fruitless,” appears only once.  Fruit can be symbolic for reproduction, but it can also symbolize a new beginning, while “fruitless” counteracts in fruition—a meaning to an end. Life begins on a track that leads up to a great finale.

The term “companion” is obviously an essential counterpart for procreation, but a companion can likewise drag one to its end. There is a balancer in relations—whether it be intimacy or mere friendship—that can sway one’s journey to life or death. Friendships born, fade, and die. “Companion” can also be seen as a conjoined unity of a body of people to form one single society, which cultivates into a civilization. And a civilization needs an authoritative figure, say “president” in order to instill law and order. The president can also be seen as one ruling body, or spiritually one God, who reigns over all “residents”: those who exist under the laws of nature. Even though presidents are elected, a divine figure requires a collective community that agrees to worship the entity.

“Appearance” is the one differentiating factor that physically separates and individualizes each part of a community—the people within—to ensure that a true, and not synthetically identical, civilization exists. “Appearance” can also play a part in construction—whether that be of a civilization, or a story—and its contrast “disappearance” which breaks apart civilization and the contexts of stories into fine, minute particles. “Disappearance” can also symbolize death, which is the destination of life from which “appearance” is born. Or new technologies come and fade, as newer inventions come to dominate older means. Basically, there is a sort of naked revelation when one civilization encounters another civilization, when the contents (ideas/values/technologies/moralities) are laid bare, from which the contents are manipulated in some way (either through war, delegation, or trade) by which older trends die out with the instillation of newer (whether that be innovative or interwoven) ideologies are converged--or structured--into one agreeable unit.

All of these intricacies are part of a whole, symbiotic “operation” on the sustenance of life, the growth of a society, the age of a civilization, leading to a great cultural demise, and the rebirth of a new community from the ashes of an older civilization. It is the heart about which the civilized world--humanity--evolves through the progression of existence. It may be of the great scheme of fate, where beginnings lead to new ends, from which newer beginnings blossom in an endless chain—the only evidences lay in the artifacts left behind. But the artifacts are trivial in relation with Typee, as the evidences of ages past truly exist through ancestry, and the descendants of ancestors who are part of age-old bloodlines, containing the beliefs and values about which particular societies are based. The protagonist may come to the savages as a complete stranger, but the interaction between people of separate cultures could very well be the birth of a new aspect of civilization, while the demise of particular customs or beliefs. 

I have never read any of Melville's works (shame on me), but this story may very well mark my first step toward reading his works. I just see a lot that can be drawn and analyzed from Typee that could easily transcends these preconceptions. I could not find myself investing the time appropriate to delve into the pages of the text, as it would make for a great stand-alone summer reading.

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Out of the immensity of her knowledge of the life of the world there bloomed on these occasions only a specific remembrance that it was regarded in that region, in August and September, as rather pleasant just to be caught for something or other in passing through town. Somebody was always passing and somebody might catch somebody else. (James 158)

- In the Cage, Henry James

The female telegrapher pays a visit to her supposed home town, when she happens upon an individual that has won her fascination. However, the "town" can, by today's standards--or even at the time of the story--be regarded as a collective community; like a circuit board, amassed by wiring, through which fleeting conversations zip to-and-fro through mass-communication. The circuit board for the time can be part of a telegraph machine, but by these standards it could be considered as a social network, a vestibule where people are free to enter and share there minds through the exchange of conversation. What we have today is just an evolution from the telegraph. It is all obvious, but the evidences were always there.

I am going to throw in the topic of video games. One may wonder what does video games have anything to do with Henry James. I feel it is quite suitable a topic if one explores the evolution of PC games. PC games began at some time long ago (around the time of Atari 2600, Amiga 64, and Intellevision (I don't know if anyone has heard of these systems)). The pioneer games were text-based adventures that required the player to type in commands, and the system would respond. There was nothing but words at the time: input was taken, and feedback was returned from the main system. So people really had to use their imaginations to remember landmarks, or they would forever be lost. Years later came the first multiplayer game, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) game was developed called Colossal Cave Adventure in 1975, which served as a network game that hosted a dungeon master, and had composed of a group of players who would engage in a text-based adventure. It wasn't until 1987, however, when MUD first went online in 1980. These were just the beginnings that evolved into what we have now with MMORPGs, XBOX Live, Steam, PSNetwork, etc. Now there are literally thousands of games that support online gaming.

This may seem like nonsense, especially in context of literature, but it is quite revolutionary, and something that James would probably find a little intriguing. If one peels away the layering of the online games, the participants of massive online games are basically doing the same thing as a telegrapher once had: punch in codes through clicking buttons (as Professor Carey demonstrated about clicking switches on and off whic activated commands), manipulating the "conversation" of games either through dialogue or through action sequences, within a numeric binary domain that produces visual -- pixelated -- responses in a dead space that is otherwise enlivened by an engaged community. Bluetooth headsets are now even utilized to enhance the conversation. For the most part, by astronomical calculations, most people who participate in online gaming do interact with complete strangers (of whom they bank the utmost trust) to accomplish a single goal. When the engagement is done, and the statistics/results are documented, a new match with completely different strangers begins, leading to other genuine circumstances. There are online games that can host tens of thousands of individuals at one match, per server, which accommodate message logs. It makes like fleeting conversations amidst a public domain (whether that be a chat room, blog, or even something so physical as a train station or shopping mall). It is quite extraordinary to see the legions of people interacting with one game, using thousands of devices all at one time, and how the streaming is seamless. Like an ocean of technology electronically charged through wiring.

What really encompasses the whole experience of mass communication in the way at which the world runs today cannot be better quoted, or summed up, than "Somebody was always catching and somebody might catch someone else (James 148)." Of course James didn't predict what was to come, but he kept a very close eye of what was constructing around him. It all began with a telegraph.

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Her eye for types amounted nevertheless to genius...those she hated...positive possession...instinct of observation and detection.....vicious feeling of mastery and power...guilty secrets in her pocket...knowing so much more about them than what they would want to care...she would have liked to betray, to trip up, to bring down with words altered and fatal...personal hostility...lightest signs..accidents of tone and manner...instantly to feel.

--Henry James In the Cage (130)

Henry James uses many sensations that toy with the cravings of senses as a sort of game over the Unknown's persona. The drive she has for accomplishment--that in which to manipulate conversation--lacks any sense of morality. It is like she is an author hunched over a typewriter, having at play with a story that has been written and re-written for the 100th time. It isn't so much in perfection of the delivery, as it is perfection in the alterations of the words in the story. On another note, It seems as if her desire for being mastermind over communication so much that, by her having an obsession so powerful, it dehumanizes her--makes her more human than human. It is not to say she is a sociopath, but to characterize her as a walking, talking telegraph; or that her job has had such an impression upon herself, that she has mentally transformed into calculating all things, or paying strict attention to functions (or types) and play counter. Maybe she can be seen an an attachment, or extension, of the communication processes, which is like a game of chess, where everyone is mastermind, playing the next hand with the pieces left to their avail. Maybe the "types" are defined social tropes. Whatever the case, James has me completely intrigued and bewildered. He clearly epitomizes what is cleverly described, as he masterfully chooses the perfect words to relay a flawless message on communication.

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TELEGRAPH: A GATEWAY TO COMMUNICATION

I am going to be brief. It is my understanding that the telegraph is defined as "a system for transmitting messages from a distance along a wire, esp. one creating signals by making and breaking an electrical connection." Communication is the focal point in Henry James In the Cage (1958). The protagonist has similarities--if not uncanny--to that of a telegraph. Her function in the office is to literally "count words as numberless as the sands of a sea, the words of the telegram thrust, from morning to night" (James 119). Beyond that, her role in the story seems to take place as an objective surveyor to the conversations of the people surrounding her. A quick analogy could be made with her role as a telegrapher with today's role in mass-communication: the internet, especially in terms of social networking. We spoke about Facebook last class, which I feel provides an excellent stage for this novel. I keep picturing the protagonist in this time, that her role might be one as a surveyor/administrator over Facebook (a nexus where thoughts and ideas from a collective community are made, by which people are sadly defined by their shared thoughts (likes/dislikes) in the community). Instead of counting words, the protagonist might have taken on the task of screening conversations, counting select keywords amassed by those conversations, and filtered the content to her superiors. It is also from this viewpoint where she would be able to really take a broad perspective on society. The "cage" may be the internet, or binary domain. So, in other words, Facebook can be easily seen as a digital telegraph for modern times. That is all.

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The Spaces of Frames within Frames: Beautifying Property through Distinctiveness

There were instances in The House of the Seven Gables in which paintings imposed on the unraveling of the story. Even though the paintings made brief, if not only seldom, appearances, their presences seemed as a foreboding force, drilling into the hearts and souls of the readers. The paintings contained pasts histories that structured the destiny for those people affiliated with the mansion. The paintings accumulated the full identity of not only the members of the Pyncheon family (and those whose lives they have touched), but also characterized The House of the Seven Gables as one property sanctioned amongst a community. No matter the differences between the Pyncheons and the Maules, who they are and the actions they pursue also structure the town of which the mansion was raised.

The inclusion of the paintings in the story was enigmatic. It wasn’t until after much consideration was made when a definite conclusion could be made that the paintings were vital, if Hawthorne desired to craft the house into a living, breathable prototype of human condition. Residences are adorned with visual art to enliven an atmosphere that would best represent the occupant. It can be anywhere from paintings to pictures, sculptures, or even electronic entertainment devices, which equates to home decoration. It does not even go so much as what the decoration looks like, so much as where it is also placed. The filtering of light and shadow, along with angular perception, effect the reception of the home – the atmosphere.

Paintings (or even pictures) are composed of elements that form a structured and formative, contained within the boundaries of a frame. There is no limit as to what sort of image a frame can hold; just as with decorating one’s home, there are measurements of design (shapes, sizes, colors, tints, shading, lighting, strokes, etc.) that must be applied in the most exact applications to provide the most profound effect that best reflects the artist (or owner) of the work. If the most precise way to define a painting is by describing it is as a property within a frame that has been decorated, then the property of The House of Seven Gables can just as well take on the same responsibilities as the painting. The house is a vicinity of boundaries, framed, which is decorated (or even manipulated) to create its own atmosphere. On a more macroscopic level, the actual property of the house is a frame amongst other frames (properties) that build up a town, which is contained within a framed county, which is within a framed state, which makes a framed country. With each frame come different materials and ways to adorn or model the boundaries (for a home there are gardens, a city are parks and infrastructures), which all provide its own definitive atmosphere different from the rest. There are countless things to which paintings and framing can be applied. Whatever space onto which humans can create, is contained within a frame, restricted by its boundaries and defined by its contents.

Whether or not Hawthorne intended for people to determine frames in this matter, it is very interesting that something as simple as paintings that provides a fleeting images that are otherwise ignored by most passerbies can mirror society through as simple as decorating one’s own home.

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Close Reading: The View on Mortality--possible extension through media

Nathaniel Hawthorne provides some overlapping perspectives -- in Chapter XI: The Arched Window, and Chapter XII: The Daguerreotypist -- of two men from two different generations, and their stance on the shifting presence of mortality.

The elder Clifford is suspended atop the cold, dark, and lifeless house of the seven gables, looking down upon the energetic, younger generation in celebration of life. Clifford speculates the conglomeration, "by its remoteness, it melts all petty personalities, of which it is made up, into one broad mass of existence--one great life--one collected body of mankind, with a vast, homogenous spirit animating it" (118). Clifford comes to realize his own status by proclaiming the only thing to which there is an inevitable is "the final great remedy--death" (119). One stark episode chronicles Clifford approaching an epiphany to which he once was unaware, by which he declares his own existence, "We are ghosts! We have no right among human beings--no right anywhere, but in this old house, which has a curse on it, and which therefore we are doomed to haunt" (121). Clifford's final summation is that the house, and ultimately death itself, is a means to an end: a destination to which old age is quickly ushering Clifford, even against his own will.

The topic regarding 'rights' of human past has a haunting permanence in Holgrave's own observation over morality. Although just as melancholy, Holgrave's perception does hold onto a glint of some hope. Rather it be the nature of him being a daguerreotypist and his conception on the lasting effect of photography through preservation, Halgrove refuses to accept that the end is just that. His view on death has more ambivalence when compared to Clifford's beliefs, "We must be dead ourselves, before we can begin to have our proper influence on the world, which will then be no longer our world, but the world of another generation, with which we will have no shadow of a right to interfere" (128). Holgrave also implicates that new media overlaps (and is likewise derived from) older media to form one solitary and unified product as he criticizes skepticism by uttering, "His error lay, in supposing that this age, more than any past or future one, is destined to see the tattered garments of Antiquity exchanged for a new suit, instead of gradually renewing themselves by patchwork" (128). Holgrave concludes in the same sentiment as Clifford, that the house of seven gables may very well be stuck in the past, in its old ways, and dying, instead of living and thriving through innovation. For Holgrave remarks, "I ought to have said, too, that we live in Dead Men's houses; as for instance in this house of the seven gables. The house, in my view, is expressive of that odious and abominable Past, with all its bad influences" (128).

Even though the past may be contained in a solitary vessel (the house of the seven gables), there can be some agreement made with Holgrave's sentiment in that such containment is unnatural. Even though death may very well be inevitable, so are the impressions made by humans, and denying any contributions only deprives the grander processes of societal innovation.

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Screencast Reflection: Railroads and the Making of Modern America

The presentation for “Railroads and the Making of Modern America” was quite an experience. It was the first time I have ever made an online video presentation. There were a couple of setbacks that caused some inconsistencies in the overall presentation, but it launched better than I had expected. Preparation summed for the hardest part, as many technical issues – especially with horrendous Java – were predominant. Framing the outline of the presentation was commonplace with previous presentations, but what was most satisfying was actually writing a script, which encourages further creativity and freedom of expression.  The script provided a great guiding tool, showing what contents had been covered, highlighting the next succeeding steps to take, and providing prompts to enhance the delivery. By having the presentation recorded, I was able to review and edit my presentation in select areas that needed improvement.

Screenr is a convenient tool for making quick 5-minute videos. At first, I was afraid that it would be pretty complicated, and instead amounted to providing the least amount of hassle. The inclusion of a pause feature really helped with approximating intervals of frames that captured the presentation. I was also instantly intrigued by the way one could frame the recording window to fill up an entire (or even any fraction) webpage. By using Screenr, I have gained a skill that can be used sometime in the future.

It was also interesting having visited the database, which seemed pretty advanced in delivering a great abundance of information. The biggest flaw fell in the organization of the website. It wasn’t so much that its content is too vast, but the navigation is far from straightforward (a total contrast to the metaphor of a railroad transit system). After all that is said, however, I am glad I chose this website. I, someone who likes to include a lot of examples to fit in a short amount of time, found great convenience in the website. There were various types of media available, and the database effectively served its purpose of demonstrating how quickly society has advanced through the use of railroads. I wouldn’t at all mind conducting a video presentation again, and would definitely favor a video presentation over an in-class presentation.

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Daguerreotypes were often called ‘a mirror with a memory’, and were named after their French inventor, Louis Jacques Daguerre. They were photos made on...

This link contains a very short article articulating the powers of a daguerreotype, but through having finished read the first chapter of The House the of Seven Gables (1851) I am confident that the domicile of dark design is symbolized as a daguerreotype. “Long lapse of mortal life… have passed within” containing “a result of artistic arrangement… would include a chain of events… would fill a longer series of duodecimos” (*books made from sheets folded to make twelve pages) that entails “a connection with the long past… how much of old material goes to make up the freshest novelty of human life” (5-6). The gaudy building is depicted as a foreboding haven by its exterior, and its interior containing even darker memories. The interior contains devices that correspond with the process of the daguerreotype and picture-making process. Outside of the fact that the mansion has been regarded as a “magic picture,” the residence contained within it a looking glass that “contained within its depths all the shapes that had been reflected there… had we the secret of that mirror, we would sit before it, and transfer its revelations to our page” and that just contemplating the object has been “a mesmeric process” (16-17), indicating that the looking glass has magical powers to capture, freeze, and frame images from the past that can be used in the present and renders its observers to a state of slight paralysis as they stop to scrutinize the artifact. Hawthorne even went so far as to define the estate as an “ill-gotten spoil” with “black stain of blood sunken deepen into it” which can (a) allude to the property as being a place haunted by its past through the predominant nature from encapsulated memories that shrouded its foundation (b) characterize the mansion as a daguerreotype, its blood (or life-sustaining liquid) being black, indicative of black ink, used to form impressions on blank paper to create photographic images.

I remember our discussion on how people approached the daguerreotype at first as a demonic, diabolical machine that froze appearances with ungodly magical powers – suggesting the man behind the camera, the artist, as the wizard. Matthew Maul, sole proprietor of the land that was stolen from him and onto which the House of Seven Gables was constructed, has been charged as being a witch, but Nathaniel Hawthorne takes an even more calculated approach to calling Maul ‘wizard’ through various frames, because his legacy has made him the artist, or man behind the camera. His son has sabotaged the foundation in such a way, that the flaws in the design would crop up through the transience of time. Even the structure of the first chapter takes on framing – an interconnectedness of small stories that draw up into one folio of a larger portfolio.

I also took special notice of this passage, “For thirty years past, neither town-record, nor grave-stone, nor the directory, nor the knowledge or memory of man bore any trace of Matthew Maul’s descendants” (20). For but a brief instance, I recalled the experience I had on our Screenr project, not really with the pains and sorrows of enduring defiant Java, but the whole experience of the archival  database presentation. We were inquiring dated records, finding information through directories that gave us digital artifacts, and basing our knowledge on those artifacts to determine which ones were more qualified to better suit the impact of our presentation. Beyond that, we were creating newer artifacts (our videos) that have been dated, stored in a directory from which our artifacts can be withdrawn sometime in the future, for other minds to speculate. Through our efforts, we have become the artists, or better yet metaphorical WIZARDS, the people behind the camera who utilizes the magical powers of the device and manipulate certain objects in order to capture, record, store, and suspend information in a miniscule lapse of time. Our videos were framed, expanding and decreasing the borders for the window to fit over the screen, and the end result is an immortal impression we made on a website. It is no wonder that Screenr is a digital portfolio where its contents can be copied or transferred to other digital portfolios (Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook) which, in essence, acts as portfolios themselves.

I can happily spend hours dissecting this chapter, but there are twenty more chapters that beg my attention. Nathaniel Hawthorne has impressed me six years ago when I first read The Birthmark, and this experience, so far, is going just as strong and is as fresh. Much like photos, his stories have survived the passing of time.

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Part Two (2/2) of Railroads and the Making of Modern America presentation