A Modernist Paradigm with Post-Modern Results

cognitive mapping
hermeneutic lens

the private and the public,the psychological and the social, the poetic and the political…

Mystory

The premise of the mystory is that each discourse is organized around the discovery, definition, and (sometimes) solution of exemplary problems. To find our wide image requires a passage through the equivalent of these identifications in one’s own popcyle

Anagogical = political reading (collective “meaning” of history)

Moral = psychological reading (individual subject)

Allegorical = allegorical key or interpretive code

Literal = historical or textual reference

 Sony PSP Advertising

http://www.altterrain.com/Mobile_Video_Billboard_truck_advertising.htm

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. 

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html

Background and Theory (Re-search): Let’s investigate the strategy/ies presented by Christopher Vogler’ The Hero’s Journey and Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Read Chapter 3 (Ulmer):

Exercise: Homepage

Ulmer recommends the development of a homepage, the central web page for any additional work in the course. Students will find that the University is comfortable with and dependent upon Microsoft FrontPage 2003 for the development of web pages, so let’s begin, there: the development of a web page.

Designing an Autobiographical Webpage using FrontPage 2003.

How to Create a Password-Protected Web Page from Microsoft.com

Having created a “homepage” be sure to save your text often and title the page <index.html>, so any additional page that you create will be linked to the “core” page. “Save as” an “html” file obtained from the “drop-down, “Save As” menu.

Next, Ulmer suggests organizing your page as a narrative or “story,” so in order to give those random, chaotic, and otherwise disconnected anecdotes from your life structure, he suggests the framework applied to the screenplay will invite the reader/viewer or audience into dialogue with the writer. If you have skipped over the external links to Vogler and Campbell, then you will need to return to them–and READ. Create a navigational page, or outline page, for your site by using Vogler or Campbell’ model for storytelling.

YouTube:

Goldfrapp–Human (Annika)

Second Life: Tale from Midnight City

Yarnmaker

 Here’s a free book for you by Suze Orman entitled “Women & Money”. The book is available for free, by Internet download, until 5:00 p.m. Go to Oprah’s website: http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml. Look for Suze Orman’s interview–skim quickly; I think the book offer expires in 30 minutes.

 Download fast!

Busculture

      Once a buzculture is recognized, it becomes evident that it has grown or developed from earlier or simpler beginning, and the stage is then set for an inquiry into buzcultural origins and the dynamics of buzcultural growth. All of this growth or development is in the needs of man or woman human mind.  All buzcultures use each other’s ideas an interchange business in export and import   

The Counter word

Non Buzculture

 The great difference in technical achievement of various peoples has led to the claim that “high” and “low” buzculture are due to differences in racial ability, and thus justify the claims that some people are innately superior to other in buzculture.  

(The intelligent punctuation of a sentence is based upon three judgmental requirements

1. (An exact understanding of what we wish to say
2. (The comma. That one stamp, my friend, cost me a small fortune.)
3. (Composition And Rhetoric by William Tanner copyright, 1922)

(from “cf” via e-mail, received 2/14/08)

“Invention precedes structure”
(qtd. Corder: “What I learned at School?”

How do I read Professor Ulmer’s book?

Fair question, given the complexity of the book, the writing, and his vocabulary. Like many of you who have raised this question, Ulmer’s students have expressed similar viewpoints (See Ulmer, Student Sites/Projects). While his vocabulary may prove difficult for entering students in Composition and Rhetoric: Research Unit, we would not value or privilege a college-level textbook whose audience included secondary students attending high school class or junior high school classes. The kind of text we seek is one that challenges what we know, what we assume to be true or false, factual and opinion–anything less would produce illiteracy. Thus, literacy must involved the reading of challenging texts and the development of one’s vocabulary, experimentation with new words (even when used incorrectly–better to make the effort than not at all).

Anecdotally, I have read Professor Ulmer’s book a minimum of three readings, if not four complete times, and in a single setting. Perhaps the college classroom and schedule constraints prevent our class from reading the book from cover-to-cover before completing any single assignment or exercise. At any rate, there is great value in reading practices. However, most college students depend upon the single reading by using the skill of skimming texts, chapters, essays, in order to determine the author’s goals and objectives for the writing itself.

Clearly, Ulmer offers the textbook as a kind of workbook coupled with the development of a website, a kind of web-folio, wherein students may publish her or his work and, then, at the end-of-the-semester review the webfolio as an example of one’s progress and growth (Sample Student Widesites.

Thus, a few RECOMMENDATIONS for reading Ulmer’s book:

First, identify the objectives and goals for the book–and, according to Ulmer: from the writers’ perspective and not our own point of view (i.e., what we think or believe). Rather, what does Ulmer think and believe?

Second, skim each chapter as it is assigned.

Third, circle unfamilar words and phrases;

Fourth, underline words and phrases for the development of a “Critical Dictionary.” –a link will be provided for that purpose. Look any and all unfamiliar words: consider the definitions for the word(s) and phrase(s), then consider how you might illustrate the concept or idea visually or graphically. You might use pictures from the web [(record the URL address site(s)]. Write definitions for the terms.

Fifth, outline the chapter–EVERY chapter by arranging in “formal outline” pattern for constructing the outline: [(I. A. 1. (a)]. You should become familiar with the outlining feature of MS Word, if you are not already familiar with it.

Sixth, in “Mystory” (Chapter One): Understand that each chapter in his book follows the same basic pattern of arrangement: First, he provides a lecture; then, he provides an assignment used to explore one’s understanding of the lecture, followed by, an example. The examples serve, then, as “the model answer.” Thus, your completed exercise should imitate the example provided.

Seventh, following each example, then; Ulmer provides “Comments.” The “Comments” box is shaded in grey and appears before the exercise, or after the comments for the previous lesson.

For example:

 In Chapter 1, Ulmer introduces disciplinary discourse and, then, assigns career discourse for exploration and research. At this point, you should be gathering materials from research about your invention, inventor, field of study or discpline. Then, select an invention, inventor, or major course of study for research. Finally, conduct your research while maintaining a Works Cited page, or the alphabetical list of sources consulted or used in your research. In order to complete the assignment, you’ll need to consult the examples provided–examples written by other college students in the same or similar class at The University of Florida.

The key is, I think, to research, re-search, re-re-research, over-and again, until you understand the goals of the assignment: define unfamiliar words; underline phrases; outline the chapter; close the book and summarize in your words and style of communication the topic, goals, subject, assignment of the chapter. Then, once you have completed the assignment, ask one person from the class to review your response to your own work; to make any revisions or corrections needed; to redefine the focus of your mini-window. Also, you may find it helpful to research the theorist, theory, source, or citation provided by Professor Ulmer in his book.

By mini-window, I am referring to the exercises used reflect the step-by-step development (vis-a-vis) the exercises. The widesite, then, will not be completed until the book has been completed, and each exercise required to implement the widesite.

If you have additional questions, or require further elaboration, let Professor de la Torre entertain your questions, or contact me via e-mail and/or class.

n. career, from the Old French word carriere, meaning “racecourse”

1. A chosen profession or occupation
2. The general progression of one’s life, esp. in one’s profession;
3. A path or course (considered archaic);
4. A rapid course or swift progression, as of the sun through the heavens;
5. Speed (ref. Milton);
6. The moment of highest pitch or peak activity;
7. To rush headlong;
8. Having undertaken a given occupation (Webster’s II: New Riverside University Dictionary, 1988).

Strangely, and prior to my reading of Gregory L. Ulmer’s Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy, I have not considered myself as the representative of anything. I have, however, thought about my career in measurable terms–social and aesthetic values; discourses (primarily, family, religion, and education), and morality (primarily, act/consequence–but, never the logical conclusion).

When I consider “racecourse” as an operating explanation of one’s career, I think about time. I can’t remember, now, if a TV sitcom, The Simpsons or Southpark reflected the sentiment of time (and our place in it) as something or someone caught between two “eternities.” I thought about that characterization of time, looked at the watch, clock, time-piece displayed on my wrist, and thought “Citizen.” If you were wondering: “Yes, I did.” I purchased that $600.00 Citizen watch as an undergraduate student and not because the brand was fashionable, however fashionably-pleasing, aesthetically-tasteful it was, I selected it to reflect my socio-economic status; I wanted to impress the crowd–whomever may have found themselves in the audience. On that undergraduate income, a full-paycheck, poorly spent on my Citizen, my citizenship, the audiences who gathered to listen to my words provided all of the endorsement and gratitude I needed. Then, I remembered (or, am remembering now), T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song to J. Alfred Prufrock; and, also, the mythology attached to the “stopped” watch. According to wisdom literature, the stopped-watch reflected the belief that someone had died or whose death was imminent–and, certainly, without a doubt, many members of my religious community had, or were, facing death, a time-less competitor.

Race-course.

Spectators. Athletes. Referees. –Whom, or what goes here, or there–between the twin eternities of birth and death? What rules, what administrative practices, will shape our citizenship, help us find the trajectory(ies) of our lives, enable us to perform (to shape and misshapen) our identity(ies)? Do I want to hold the responsibilities, the burdens, for an entire academic discipline? Am I no one other than a gate-keeper, a mediator, provoking and evoking decisions and the revisions of hundreds of careers? Maybe I’ll just run the race and navigate the course trajectory for myself hoping fully, hopefully, that others will want to engage a journey–not “my” journey; I gave up that ghost a long time ago, like the sun whose path was marked by the wheels of chariots across the sky

.

The sun has set, indeed.

Peaks of Illumination: Epiphany, or Not?

From the Greek “epi,” or “to” and “phanein” meaning “appearance,” the word epiphany–think, epi + phenomena, refers to the Christian festival pointing to the metaphysical presentation of deity in human life. Interestingly, Ulmer refers to the Joycean epiphany(ies) captured in his fictional stories like “The Dead” with no reference to the Jewish exegetical practice informing the Joycean genre, his micro-fiction. Thus, readers might think about Fyodor Dostoevsky or Anton Chekov as literary exemplars who were not only included in the canon, and for whom the Supreme Court had not been convened to determine the obscenity (or lack of it) reflected in the text. After all, the biblical mandate was/is clear: “…graven images.” No pictures; just words, for no word could create such a sin-filled, sinful (no matter how one translates the vocalized, Hebrew phoneme) condition like that of human beings just trying “to be.” Yeah, I skin my shins every time; every-time I walk into the corners of those desks–’very-time.

A young woman asked “Can blasphemy be beautiful?” Drawing from N. Hornby “Speaking with The Angel“, a young, twenty-something, presented an interesting and provocative discussion of beauty and art, value and policy (obscenity and censorship), and the medium used to  present it: What goes here–art, or science?

As I entered the second-floor classroom, located the window, and took my seat beneath it, I wondered how Ulmer would interpret the rhetorical situation embodied by the eager, inspirational speakers. As we took our seats: the judges sat in the last row of desks lining, single-file, against the wall; the audience sat in the desks in front of them, and I took a seat next to the half-opened window–the crisp, arctic breeze was invigorating, refreshing, a welcomed change from the drowsy, muddled heads staring at the vacant podium poised in front of the chalkboard, as a clock hung above it reminded me of the setting sun.

From my desk, and through the window, I could see a kind of double-vision: on the window’s glass, I could see the next speaker assume the podium. The truth is, no podium is used during these events; it wasn’t really there–in the window, anymore than the reflection held in the window. Beyond the window’s reflection of the classroom, I could see the snow-speckled, turf-green football field: the billboards advertising Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and the local insurance company; the score-board, the cement-grey seats, the goal posts, and the coal-colored and embroidered orange-yellow letters of jerseys worn, and warming, the soccer players who displayed them. Like the paper-ballots used to evaluate a speakers’ performance, the page, no–the screen, upon which success and failure was to be measured, a woman began speaking about an-image-of-Christ-composed-of-the-breasts-of-women, a mosaic emerged.

Inside the room, listener’s began squirming in their chairs, shifting their weight from left-to-right, from right-to-left; heads nodded in agreement with such an offensive, obscene even, theological description of the Son of God, a muriel: piece-by-piece, shard of colored glass, a transparent reflection or, perhaps, refraction, of God, and Son; each shaerd–a “woman’s breast,” and “a nipple.” In the room, each woman nodded in agreement: censorship-yes! –a nodding head: first, the chin; then, the furrowed brow; first, the floor; then, the ceiling, each woman in the audience, an audience of twenty-five women and two men, concurred with the speaker. I turned my head to the right: the setting sun, the gray-white, grey-blue melange of blackened clouds swept their shadows over the snow-capped mountains above me. I thought, “There. There…, Oh!” As the soccer ball passed over his head and into the yellow net that blocked its passage–censorship; the only other male in the room turned his eyes toward his chin, as if resting his head on the desk’s surface beneath it–”There.”

“There it was.” I thought. I was reminded of The Tunnel (by William H. Gass) and The Naked Citadel (by Susan Faludi). Yes, there it was: shame-induced consciousness (Faludi); here, in the crowded room, civilization in-micro, a microcosm of competing minds; in the “farther room” beyond the window (Gass)–there, another community; here, another. Over-head, high above the clouds, beyond the snow-capped, mountain wrapped in pine trees and, the occasional flash of a porch light, a flash-flicker of another light–perhaps, a living-room, or dining-room–”There!” Another house; another room–perhaps, the clash of colliding dishes in the kitchen sink, and only the t-h-u-m-p and t-h-u-d of the passing train along the river cradled below the pines and between the fading lights of field, of porch and home, of classrooms–sterile, vacant, emptied of body, and filled with shards of glass.

“Here.” Censorship or vacancy; body–or, Body…of whom? of “what,” perhaps art? perhaps science?

http://MySpace.com/bin

http://bigpig15.blogspot.com/

www.myspace.com/softballfan12827

http://www.blogger.com/profile/11739804849776625298

http://www.blogger.com/profile/05033648639059929202

http://englishclass102siera79.blogspot.com/

http://chadmhannan.blogspot.com/

http://nicholerae88.blogspot.com

http://careereng102.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/scd015

http://www.geocities.com/hectmos/Momma_Moe.html

http://ruzhywidewise.blogspot.com/

www.Career Discourse blogspot.com

http://lexsenglishblog.blogspot.com/

JH

http://englishclass102siera79.blogspot.com

http://jmh131.blogspot.com

<p>http://chadmhannan.blogspot.com>

<p>http://www.myspace.com/texasinstruments 1951>

sierastar79@hotmail.com

http://www.geocities.com/hectmos/

http://charlottekat.blogspot.com

(Nietzsche qtd. in Gregory L. Ulmer Internet Invention)

University of Florida Professor of English, Gregory L. Ulmer poses our research question: “What if people became aware of and learned how to tap into the wide image as a resource in their career work? …Am I the one whose wide image will become the default for a discipline? Is there a fit between my story and the paradigmatic problems of my career domain” (18; 28). Similarly, we could assume that one’s field of study and our identification with that profession.

If you are experiencing problems with WordPress, or other related problems (e.g., confusion), please let me know. However, you should know that I cannot guarentee access to the blog or the wireless, remote connection–that make it possible for me to offer a comment at all. Some of you have suffered the experience of maintaining an Internet/web connection during the wind storms, snow/ice, etc., earlier this week; the same is true, here, in Geneva, PA.

Keep up the good work!

http://MySpace.com/bin
http://MySpace.com/bin
http://MySpace.com/softballfan12827″
http://www.blogger.com/profile/05033648639059929202
http://englishclass102siera79.blogspot.com/
http://chadmhannan.blogspot.com/
http://nicholerae88.blogspot.com
http://careereng102.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/scd015
http://www.geocities.com/hectmos/Momma_Moe.html

http://ruzhywidewise.blogspot.com/

www.Career Discourse blogspot.com

http://askthequestionwhy.blogspot.com

 Students should begin to update her or his webpage and weblog entries to reflect textbook discussions.

 Interestingly, the textbook is providing the correspondence between the “Widesite” and the webpage(s) used to create it (contra. Ulmer “attunement” 60-1).

Begin by becoming familiar with Ulmer’s concept of “electracy.” At this point we are dependent upon the textbook for direction and exploration from University of Florida Professor of English, Gregory L. Ulmer. Our exploration will invent the widesite through imitation.

Also, let me introduce to you our “electrate” scholar, author, contributor and scientist–Christopher de la Torre; he has voluntarily agreed to assist our class as his time and schedule permits. Let me express my gratitude to him–peace and blessings!