Because J.K. Rowling pretty much taught us everything we've ever needed to know in life.
Accurate
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@sarahscereal
Because J.K. Rowling pretty much taught us everything we've ever needed to know in life.
Accurate
As if you needed another excuse to marathon Harry Potter this weekend...
go go go this is epic
Serial Project Reflection
I started the semester intending for my serial project to be a blog about The Mindy Project and New Girl. I'm a big fan of both shows and thought it would be interesting to compare the two and their respective narrative structures. My blog (@whenmindymeetsjess) was pretty successful and I garnered a lot of followers and notes pretty quickly. However, I quickly realized that this was a less interesting project than I had expected. Though the two shows definitely have a lot in common, a lot for the similarities and comparisons I was making were pretty superficial and, within two weeks, I was already finding my analyses getting pretty repetitive. So, I decided pretty quickly to switch projects.
I've always enjoyed reading lifestyle and food blogs and thought it would be fun to create my own. I'm a regular reader of the blog, The Londoner, and have also been following a couple student bloggers who are on the study abroad program I'm doing next fall. In addition, I had been intending to make a blog while studying abroad anyways and liked the idea of having a project that I could continue after the semester ended.
In terms of seriality, I was interested in looking at how blogs created narratives, not just within individual posts but also over the course of many posts or a long period of time. Though I have never personally interacted with or met the author of The Londoner, I have followed her blog since high school and, through this experience, have created a "character" and storyline that I implicitly associate with her. Even if it is not mentioned explicitly, I (and the rest of her readers) are able to follow her life, travels, romances, personal triumphs and failings. It's fascinating to see how real people and their lives can be serialized, and how we project our own experiences and thoughts onto them through these mediums.
My goal was to post weekly about my life at Duke, my travels, and other experiences worth sharing. Through this process, I also hoped to gain some insight about the world of non-fiction serialization and what it was like to have my life serialized.
In terms of the content and regularity of my posts, I definitely met my goals. I posted roughly once and week (if not more). Not surprisingly, many of my posts ended up being about food. Both Durham and Birmingham (my hometown) have really vibrant food scenes so I loved having an excuse to explore them (and brag about them). However, I also included several posts about my future plans, family and friends, and travel.
In terms of serialization, though, I don't think I gained much insight into what it would be like to have my life serialized. For starters, I think I would need to have a much larger following in order to really experience what this would be like. I only have a handful of people who follow my blog and none of them have left any comments on any of my posts. Meanwhile, the author of The Londoner and other popular real-world series (for example, The Bachelor) are under constant scrutiny by outsiders, readers, and viewers. I definitely think this a huge part of the experience and completely changes the name of the game. In addition, I don't think I have enough posts to have really captured my life fully or accurately. In order to have the full experience of serialization, I think I would need to post more regularly and/or over a longer period of time. This would create a much fuller narrative, rather than just the individual posts strung together.
However, I definitely plan on continuing this blog as I study abroad and travel in the next year. As I post more (and hopefully gain more followers), I expect to gain a better sense of what this kind of serialization is like. In any case, I have really enjoyed blogging and using it as a way to communicate with others and chronicle my own experiences for future reference. I'm really glad I took on this project and am exciting about continuing it indefinitely.
Good work, Gloria Steinem.
If Men Could Menstruate by Gloria Steinem 1978
possibly the greatest thing Ive ever read
In the spirit of tonight's lecture!!
I've been getting a bit spoiled by the Durham food scene... I'm really over eating on campus, even though I have close to a 1,000 food points still left to spend in the next two weeks. But in any c...
My most recent blawg post about Geer Street Garden!
Bombingham and Mr. President
The other day, I caught wind of a new AMC production called Bombingham. The show description reads: “The fragile peace in present-day Birmingham, Alabama is shattered when a murderer from 1963 is discovered and buried demons from the Civil Rights Era resurface."
My blood immediately started to boil. As a Birmingham native, I'm used to having my hometown and state associated with its nasty legacy of civil rights violations and I am quick to recognize the problems Alabama continues to face regarding race relations and equality. However, I'm also incredibly proud of my city. It has made tremendous progress and is completely unlike the stereotypes I have encountered from my peers at Duke. I won't pretend it's perfect, but I will tell anyone who listens what an open-minded, diverse and vibrant community I was fortunate enough to be raised in.
To me, Bombingham (the name, the description, and the fact that it is set in present day Birmingham) seems to ignore and discredit the huge leaps and bounds my city has made in the last 50 years. Without having seen an episode, the show seems completely out of touch with reality and my own experiences in Birmingham. I was (and still am) furious about the implications Bombingham might have on my city's reputation, future, and economy.
Upon discovering the existence of this show, I proceeded to engage in a very long-winded rant to my friend, Bekah, who was unlucky enough to be my captive audience at this time. She sympathized and compared it to her distaste for shows like Scandal and House of Cards, which are set in her hometown of Washington D.C. In her opinion, these shows discredited the jobs of our President, lawmakers, and, in turn, her community as a whole. I had never considered either of these shows (two of my favorites) in that context, but realized that was likely some validity to that statement. Regardless of whether the depiction of the President or government in either show is even remotely accurate, it still calls both real-world institutions into question.
In any case, this conversation has definitely made me think about the role TV and media can play on the real world. Though I doubt Scandal will cause the world to spontaneously suspect that Barak Obama has murdered a Supreme Court Justice or that Bombingham will cause Birmingham to revert to the '60s, there are undoubtedly ways that these shows might affect these realities. I won't deny the fact that HOC and Scandal have made me considered, albeit hypothetically, about duplicitous behavior our government officials might secretly be engaged in.
While reading the Times article titled “The Boy Who Lived Forever,” I was especially drawn in by the copyright issues surrounding Fanfiction. As someone who loves music and particularly appreciates remixing and mashups, I saw several parallels between the worlds of music and fanfiction. When...
I definitely agree with this perspective on fanfiction and copyright issues. As I wrote in my blog post, most fanfiction is completely different and distinct from the works they are based off of. I think they are an interesting way to expand on the universes, characters and stories created by the original authors. They can be incredibly innovative and unique and should not be dismissed simply because draw off of others' work. The parallels to the music industry are definitely relevant and I like your comparison of the two a lot.
-Sarah
I have never participated in writing fanfiction, and I am not fully sure how I feel about it. As Jamison describes, it involves fans engaging in “illicit, unsanctioned interactions” with other author’s characters/stories, doing things that the authors couldn’t or wouldn’t do with them. I...
Mariana, I think your take on this is really interesting, though I tend to disagree. While a lot of fanfiction seems to be about changing the plot of a story to include something fans wish was included or how they wish it turned out, some of it is more about expanding the world of the original work without altering any of the original plot. That's definitely not the case for all fanfiction, though. I've already said my opinion during discussion today and in my own post, but I would also add that I don't know if you can really make an argument against fanfiction simply because it wasn't how the story was "meant to be written". Any kind of art or media leaves room for interpretation by the reader or viewer. And, as evidenced by J.K. Rowling's recent statements, what was "meant to be written" can evolve and be debated. I really liked your post though and you raised a lot of really interesting and thought-provoking points.
-Sarah
The Boy Who Lived Forever
I've never followed fanfiction consistently, but I've always been a little bit fascinated by it. It's something I keep forgetting exists, and then I rediscover it and am baffled by the density, complexity, and enormity of these communities. In part due to my participation in this course, and also due to a curiosity about what exactly the little girl I babysit has been talking about each week, I tried to (briefly) delve into the world of Harry Potter fanfictions before this class.
In his article, "The Boy Who Lived Forever," Grossman poses the question, "Does fanfiction transform, or does it merely imitate?". Based off of my limited experience with this genre, I would argue that fanfiction definitely transforms the works they are based off of and that the legal case against them is very weak. As I explored the Harry Potter fanfiction community, the diversity of these works was immediately apparent. Some were only a few hundred words long, while others rivaled the length of an actual Harry Potter book. Some were so poorly written that they were almost unreadable, while others were clearly executed by experienced writers. And, of course, the content covered every plotline, romantic pairing, and "alternate universe" imaginable.
However, nothing I came across blatantly copied the original work. If a story used the original Harry Potter plotlines, the author would generally extrapolate on a particular character or aspect of the story in a way that made it their own. It was more common for these stories to have significantly altered or entirely new plotlines, including those in different universes or realities. I also noticed a lot that included either entirely new characters or would take minor characters from the book and develop them further.
Importantly, fanfiction writers are not financially profiting from these works and I don't think the existence of fanfiction threatens the original authors' "means of livelihood", as Orson Scott Card argued they did. If anything, I think these communities amplify the original works' popularity and success. Though fanfictions use the original characters and plots, I don't think anyone would read them in lieu of the primary work. If authors are concerned about their livelihood, they should allow or even encourage the existence of these communities.
This blog would not be complete without at least one post about Monuts Donuts, one of my favorite places in Durham. It opened up earlier last year and quickly became a favorite among Duke students ...
My newest blog post on Monuts Donuts!!
Nymphadora Tonks
Nymphadora Tonks throughout the Harry Potter series
I want adventure in the great wide somewhere.
“Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.”