I revised the essday by taking points from both essays I feel could be joined together and switching more of my views from essay one because it wads done back in February.  My views on electronic reading as you can see from when you read my essay have changed.

I feel I achieved my goal of making this essay not be repetitive like essay four.

I believe I achieved in proving that Birkert and Graff views should change slightly  because of these electronic texts do what they think they can’t do.  I feel the goal I made in the beginning of the class to improve my thesis statements and organization of my information I have improved on.

As a writer I know feel more prepared to writing essays whether its on a book, movie or comparing things I feel this class has prepared me.  I will continue to work on my writing for the next coming years at WAC and feel you can never stop improving.  I think expanding my vocabulary will make my essay flow better  like in the final project.  I will continue to work on my thesis statements and organizing my thoughts.

The ability to read is something that is learned.  To master it and think at high analytical levels requires thousands of hours of practice.  This past semester I have read interactive electronic texts named, “All Roads” and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers.” They have allowed me to quickly realize how useful programs are in ensuring that I am thoroughly engaged and absorbed in the text so I can comprehend, as much as possible, what I am reading.  They have changed my original opinion on electronic texts altogether.   I now believe that they can be even more effective than novels or textbooks in engaging readers as they evolve with technology.

Reading novels and studying from textbooks are very important components in developing one’s mind and learning new things.  Although everyone has their own opinion, everyone can surely agree that novels and textbooks have had a positive effect on their lives as a reader.  Before I “read” “All Roads” and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” I agreed with Birkerts that reading electronic texts is not the same experience as reading a novel or a textbook.  I also agreed with Graff’s opinion that reading something you enjoy that doesn’t have to be for academics as long as you can engage with it is better for you than something you can’t engage with.  Therefore, “All Roads” and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” has changed my opinion on electronic texts so that I consider them to be as powerful a tool as printed novels.

Birkerts believes that “books” were meant to be printed only on paper and not evolve with technology.  Although I think that books should still be published, digital reading technologies like Kindle and the new Ipad keep technology growing.  “Books” will necessarily have to evolve along with such technology.  There certainly is nothing “wrong” with reading a story on the Internet.  This opinion is in direct opposition to Sven Birkerts’ old-fashioned view.  I think his views on reading are very biased and antiquated.  His views were the result of his needs to get away from his family and recover from the loss of a love.  I have never used books to escape problems.  Sports have always been my outlet to relieve stress.  Although my opinion may seem biased to some, I do think that reading books and writing are effective ways to work the mind and relieve stress.  However, that does not imply that these modalities cannot continue to evolve.  If sports can evolve over the years why aren’t “books” allowed the same privilege?  Everything has evolved because of technology.  Birkerts seems to forget that the first books originated from ancient Chinese technology resulting from the creation of paper and the printing process.  It seems only natural that books will evolve into other “forms” in this never ending process.

Birkerts states that you cannot engage with electronic texts like you can with printed text because electronic text is distracting and disengages the reader.  Books do have a unique soul and charm.  With continuous use they bend.  They crease.  They rip.  They develop dog ears.  They stain.  They gather written notes and highlighting.  They become door stops.  Each has a unique history formed from its use. No doubt they can be engaging and absorbing.   However, “All Roads” and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” also engage you and both have potential to engage to an even higher level.  Frankly, I found “All Roads” to be better than reading a novel because it forced me to stay focused in order to comprehend fully what I was reading.  Reading novels has allowed me to expand my mind and has been an important part of my life – just as Birkerts feels.  But electronic readings, like “All Roads,” made me a better and more avid reader.  It engaged me and helped me understand and was a very positive experience.

Birkerts states that electronic texts are distractions that cause difficulty in “reading between the lines.”  However, I feel Birkerts does not properly analyze some of the stories he includes in “The Gutenberg Elegies” because he is so predisposed to bias against electronic media.  If he wasn’t biased he would realize that a good piece of writing (text) doesn’t necessarily have to be produced only in the form of a printed novel in order to engage the reader.  Today it can come from electronic text interfaced with a program that does everything a book does but more.  One example of his countering what someone else says, without expanding his mind with other electronic texts besides the readings he has found on Google, occurs in chapter eight: Into the Electronic Millennium.  Here an ex-professor is selling Birkerts all of his books because he thinks the world is moving away from printed text.  Although I partially disagree with the ex-professor in that print is currently a thing of the past, I do agree with him that electronic text is a change that will eventually take over printed text.  Right now it is not always a good way to read because much of it is shallow and a distraction.  The ex-professor says to Birkerts at the end of his speech:

“Many educators say that our students are less and less able to read, or analyze, or write with clarity and purpose.  Who can blame the students?  Everything they meet with in the world around them gives the signal: That was then, and electronic communications are now.” [p. 119 Birkerts]

I feel this quote would support “All Roads” in that it is using technology to engage the reader into the electronic text in order to understand it.  However, Birkerts clearly is against electronic text and feels it is a distraction to the reader.  I disagree with Birkerts and feel texts like “All Roads” are equivalent to, or better than, a novel because it has additional features that add to the simple reading experience.

Gerald Graff argues that students should be able to read and write about anything as long as they are engaged in the task.  I feel his opinion might change if “All Roads and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” were required in his class.  Graff says: “If a student cannot get interested in Mill’s On Liberty but will read Sports Illustrated or Vogue or the hip hop magazine Source with absorption, this is a strong argument for assigning the magazines over the classic.”[p. 128 Graff] I feel this is not a compelling argument if you are trying to develop a student’s mind as broadly as possible and develop his or her thoughts to be more than that could be expected from short articles that lack the depth of a novel or textbook.  This is where “All Roads and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” are effective in engaging the reader and making him or her want to read the interactive text because they understand what is happening in the piece.

Gerald Graff ends his “Hidden Intellectualism” chapter with some very powerful thoughts that I think would change if works like “All Roads” were to enter his classroom.  Graff says “Give me the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue of Source over the student who writes a lifeless explication of Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology.”[p.128 Graff] If the reader were to engage with Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology as much as with an issue of Source, he or she could probably write that “sharply argued, socially acute analysis” that he refers to. The keys are relaxed engagement and absorption.  What if he or she is an English major and Hamlet is a required reading that they are obligated to write an engaging essay on?  Should this be their excuse to not write a great essay?  Unless college and university administrators and professors agree to Graff’s electronic texts like “All Roads” are the next best solution to engage the reluctant and skeptical reader.

Reading is one of the most powerful ways to develop the mind.   To fully understand and appreciate a work you should be engaged, immersed, and absorbed.  There may be no way to make you fully engage and understand what you are reading, but powerful tools and technological advances like “All Roads” and “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” could be used increasingly to help you, as a student to grow, as a reader.  Tools like these will undoubtedly have a dramatic impact in the classrooms and people around the world in the years to come.  Future technological improvements in glare reduction, font size and style choice, lighting, size, durability, ease of use, functionality, speed, and appearance will become the equivalent of the dog ears of the printed novel.

“All Roads” is an electronic text that, I feel, forces the reader to engage in the text in order to read it.  Unlike other plain electronic texts like stories found on Internet search engines, this case of electronic text is a legitimate text one could read in school.  In my opinion, this electronic text is a great way to engage the reader in that if you do not follow closely to what’s going on, you have no idea how to get to the next part.  Obviously this also works against you in that if you don’t understand what is happening you cannot get the next text to read.  Birkerts feels electronic text is a distraction that prevents you from engaging and “reading between the lines.”  “All Roads,” however not only forces you to engage but allows you to “read between the lines” by asking questions.  ”All Roads” is not simply text that you read electronically, it is interactive text in which you type commands (words) in order to get to the next text.  What separates distracting ordinary electronic text from “All Roads” is that “All Roads” is read with a program that is used to interact between the reader and the text, which in this case forces you to engage and read the whole story in order to fully understand what is happening.

Birkerts states many points to support his opinion that electronic texts are distractions and make it difficult to “read between the lines” to find the author’s intent.  However, I feel Birkerts does not properly analyze some of the stories he includes in “The Gutenberg Elegies” because he is so biased against electronic media.  If he wasn’t biased he would realize that a good piece of writing (text) doesn’t necessarily have to be produced only in the form of a printed novel in order to engage the reader.  Today it can come from electronic text interfaced with a program that does everything a book does but more.  One example of his countering what someone else says occurs in chapter eight: Into the Electronic Millennium, where an ex-professor is selling Birkerts all his books because he thinks the world is moving away from printed text.  Although I partially disagree with the ex-professor in that print is currently a thing of the past.  I do agree with him that electronic text is a change that will eventually take over printed text.  Right now it is not always a good way to read because much of it is shallow and a distraction.  The ex-professor says to Birkerts at the end of his speech:

“Many educators say that our students are less and less able to read, or analyze, or write with clarity and purpose.  Who can blame the students?  Everything they meet with in the world around them gives the signal: That was then, and electronic communications are now.” [p. 119 Birkerts]

I feel this quote would support “All Roads” in that it is using technology to engage the reader into the electronic text in order to understand it.  However, Birkerts clearly is against electronic text and feels it is a distraction to the reader.

I agree with Birkerts that some electronic text can be distracting.  However, not all-electronic text is distracting but some is actually engaging.  “All Roads” forces you to engage in order to understand what is going on and make the story flow.  Although it is my opinion that “All Roads” engages the reader that doesn’t mean that all electronic texts engage all readers.  However, not every text printed engages like Birkerts claims.  I feel that Birkerts needs to accept progress.  Just as books evolved from ancient scrolls, electronic technology is evolving.  Examples such as “All Roads” prove it is a great way to engage a reader.

Birkerts is very big on you becoming part of the story and being able to “read between the lines” of a novel to truly understand it.  He wants you to engage yourself as the following quote shows:

“If feat is too difficult, spend some time with a novel from the period.  Read between the lines and reconstruct.  Move through the sequence of a character’s day and then juxtapose the images and sensations you find with those in the life of the average urban or suburban dweller today.” [p. 120 Birkerts]

Birkerts feels you can’t get the same thing from a printed book as electronic text.  However, “All Roads” gives you much more and Birkerts would have to reanalyze his thoughts and opinions.  If he were to read “All Roads” not only would be able to “read between the lines” but he would also be able ask the electronic text questions.  So if Birkerts were to analyze “All Roads” this quote from “The Gutenberg Elegies” would also go with my electronic text in that you not only can “read between the lines” but you can ask questions to the program to clarify things and command it to do certain things.  The author is giving “All Roads” a “soul” by making it a program.  It is not just paper with text – it is text that talks back to you on your command.  Wouldn’t it be easier and more engaging to read a book and be able to ask the author what he means in a specific part?  You obviously can’t do this, so wouldn’t the next best thing be to “communicate” with the text and find out details to help you understand the point the author is trying to make?  I think so.

The argument I anticipate against “All Roads” is “well if the reader’s confused and is stuck on a part of “All Roads”, how can he move on?”  My answer is “you can’t.”  Do you always continue to read a novel when you’re confused and don’t understand something?   You shouldn’t if you don’t clearly know what is happening.  The genius of “All Roads” is that it forces you to understand what is currently happening in the story in order to move on.  This is a great technique that forces the reader to engage more fully.

In the end, I feel Birkerts is guilty of shallow thinking and biased against electronic texts.  “All Roads” is an electronic text he should support because his points against all forms of electronic texts for the most part are actually supported in “All Roads.”  The only exception is that you can’t physically touch paper, which contains the text.  I feel strongly that “All Roads” is a legitimate text that could be studied in school because it does more than printed text could ever do to engage the reader.

“Many educators say that our students are less and less able to read, or analyze, or write with clarity and purpose.  Who can blame the students?  Everything they meet with in the world around them gives the signal: That was then, and electronic communications are now.” [p. 119 Birkerts]

I feel this quote in Birkerts would support my electronic text in that it is using technology to engage the reader into the electronic text in order to understand it.

“If feat is to difficult, spend some time with a novel from the period.  Read between the lines and reconstruct.  Move through the sequence of a character’s day and then juxtapose the images and sensations you find with those in the life of the average urban or suburban dweller today.” [p. 120 Birkerts]

I feel this quote from Birkert’s would also go with my electronic text in that my text has the author’s soul represented by the program in that it talks back to you and interacts.  Allowing you to read between the lines and get a clear picture I feel.

The argument I anticipate is well if the readers confused and is stuck how can he move on.  My answer is he can’t, however do you continue to read a novel when your confused and don’t understand it.  Well you shouldn’t or else you don’t know what is happening.  So “All Roads” forces you to understand what is happening and what to do.

“Venice. The tight winding alleys and long dirty canals. Easy to become lost here, where every street emerges somewhere unexpected. In the central square a scaffold has been erected for your neck, and if only you can escape for long enough you might survive, but in this city all roads lead back to Piazza San Marco and the Hanging Clock.”

Right after reading the description I new it would be a book where I have to discover the text with key words or I will become lost in the text.  I quickly became lost the first time but caught on quickly.  The electronic book I felt had a soul of it’s own that was given by the Author.  The text would actually talk back to me unlike a book.  It would ask me questions which would make me think and engage me more into the text.  I feel this was helpful in that I had to concentrate in order to move on and couldn’t just space off while reading.

What I also found interesting is this electronic text is a big puzzle/maze without my help however I quickly become lost in the maze until I am helped out by the soul of the text which helps me stay on track.  I found “All Roads” to be a great way to engage me as a reader and make sure I am actually understanding what is happening in the text or I can’t move on in a way that makes sense.

The monster (Reaper) created in Blade 2 turns out to be not perfect which results in his Father/creator (Eli Damaskinos) lying to him and leaving him out to die similarly to how Victor, in Frankenstein, ran away from his Monster and left it to fend for itself.  In Blade 2 there is a scene where the vampire is strapped to a table – just like the Monster in Frankenstein is strapped to the table during its creation (being brought to life).  Blade is immune to sunlight’s lethal effect and because of this his blood is being drained so the head vampire can use it and his limbs to make the ultimate breed of vampires that will also be resistant to sunlight.  This is almost identical to the creation scene in Frankenstein where Victor has his creation strapped to a table and is bringing him to life with the energy from lightening.  The difference is that in Blade 2 the head vampire is taking the blood from Blade to make his new creation.  While Blade is in the room that he is soon to be strapped down in, we get to see the new Monsters (who are yellow in small tubes stacked up in the middle of the room) that Eli Damaskinos is planning to make with Blade’s blood.  These yellow Monsters could be a cross reference to the lab in Frankenstein where Victor creates his Monster and as its big yellow eyes open it frightens Victor and causes him to run away.  Blade is not happy when he sees what Eli Damaskinos is trying to make and what they will ultimately be capable of.

“With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” (p. 53)

This quote from the novel Frankenstein is interpreted in Blade 2 when Blade is strapped down and the needles are sucking his blood with the head vampire watching.  I think the movie is translating creating life to taking it away to make a new stronger creature and is not thinking of anyone else – just like when Victor wasn’t thinking and made the monster using dead peoples’ limbs without thinking of the consequences until after he created it.

Eli Damaskinos wasn’t thinking when he transformed his son into a Reaper (Jared Nomak) and sets up a group to hunt him.  Towards the end of the movie the Reaper kills his Father (Eli Damaskinos) and his sister Nyssa for payback – just like how the Monster in Frankenstein kills almost all of Victor’s family and friends to make him suffer and then Victor himself dies in the search of the Monster that he vowed to kill after his wife’s death from the Monster.

The movie continues with Blade battling and killing the Reaper (Jared Nomak) by finding his weak spot under his arm by passing the bone around the monsters heart and into it.  However, when he is stabbed he says “Strange … It hurts, it hurts no more” (as he pushes the blade in more) because he has gotten his revenge in the killing of both his father and his sister.  Again, this has a parallel to when Victor dies in Frankenstein. In “Walton later Writings”, Walton hears the monster justification/remorse for the death of Victor (his father/creature) in the room on the boat that Victor dies in and then exiles himself on the North Pole away from civilization.

Blade 2 interprets some of the text/ideas in the novel Frankenstein, but in it’s own ways that are similar.  Even though the Monster is created near the beginning of Frankenstein, just like in the movie Blade 2, we never see the monster actually created in Blade 2 but see the process of trying to make a new and stronger one at the end of the movie.  The ending of Blade 2, where Blade is strapped to the table and is getting his blood sucked with the new creatures that Eli Damaskinos is trying to make perfect, I feel is directly linked to when Victor, in Frankenstein, has his Monster strapped down on a table and is putting all the dead limbs together; also towards the middle of the novel when Victor agrees to make a new monster and then decides to and destroy the new monster he is making for his original one.

Blade 2 interprets Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein in many ways – especially the ending.  The stories aren’t exactly the same but the strong theme of betrayal and the Monster getting back at his father/creature in Frankenstein are expressed within Blade 2 with a twist of a hero living at the end.

Blade 2 interprets Frankenstein in many similar ways but changes stuff up like there are 2 races vampires and humans and a third one is created.  Blade 2 has a lot more back stabbing but in the end almost everyone dies except Blade.  The ending scene is Blade holding Nyssa in his arms who helped him out and dies.  Blade and Nyysa loved each other although Nyssa is the daughter of Damaskinos who she betrays because he locks Blade up.

Blade killing Nomak puts a end to the creation and is the last one standing and will continue to have to fight vampires but one less creature to deal with.

Victor is scared of his own creation and runs away from it and stays in the courtyard for the night.  The quote from the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explains what Victor is feeling and that he is scared, lonely and in a frantic state of mind; this is why he can’t sit still.  He doesn’t know what to do and feels the best thing he can do is walk but he is paranoid and keeps looking over his shoulder.  I think Victor is looking for anyone to talk to; he is confused about what he has done.  When Henry Clerval spots him he is clearly relieved and says, “Nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval; his presence brought back to my thoughts my father, Elizabeth…” (Shelly 56).  The reason for Shelly putting in the Coleridge text is to explain what Victor is feeling through another texts’ words.  Victor is in a frightened state of mind and by Shelly using this quote it makes more sense because Victor can barely think; let alone speak.

Victor feels very guilty for having creating the monster.  It is clear he is guilty when he is creating the monster because he doesn’t talk to anyone about it and is paranoid.  After looking more into The Rime of the Ancient Mariner it seems the Mariner is alone much like Victor although Victor is at college and misses his family and his love while the Mariner is left alone and alive to be tormented for the sin he committed.  This is why Shelly put this quote.  It explains what Victor is feeling since the Mariner had very similar feelings.  The fifth line from the Coleridge text, ”Because he knows a frightful fiend,” I feel explains the first line “Like one who, on a lonely road,” in that part of the reason he is walking alone is because he is afraid and in fear and has no one to go to.  This is why the next paragraph, when Henry appears, he is relieved because it takes his mind off things and what he has done.

This quote can also be thought of, as Shelly foreshadowing what will happen later on in that most of Victor’s friends are dead because of his actions just like the Mariner’s shipmates.  The Mariner’s shipmates are all killed by Death (a skeleton) and the “Night-mare Life-in-Death” (a deathly-pale woman) from a game of dice they play on the crew’s souls.  The Mariner killed albatross (a Christian soul), who guided him and his crew when they were lost at sea.  The Mariner is kept alive to suffer alone because he killed the Albatross, which the Life-in-Death feels is worse than being killed.  Even though Victor doesn’t kill anyone, he creates life by putting together a bunch of body parts, which in some religions itself would be a sin.  Victor realizes what he has done after he has created the Monster and this very likely could be the reason why he goes crazy.  Shelly puts this quote in because the Mariner also committed a sin and is then left alone as the consequence for his sin.  One of the reasons Victor created the Monster was because he was alone.   However, by the end of the book most of Victor’s friends are murdered by his own creation and he feels responsible for their deaths because they are in revenge for how he treated the monster.  In the Ten Commandments the Bible says “Thou Shall Not Kill” and Victor feels responsible for the deaths because they were done in revenge to make him suffer. In the end Victor is more alone than he was at the beginning.  The main reason I think this inter-textual is significant is for what it means in that it is a foreshadowing for what Victor has done and his punishment ultimately is just like the Mariners.

Chapter 15 after the Monster reads Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Werter, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost he thinks the fiction books are real like a child would.  Even though the Monster does not look like a child and is smarter than a young child he still wasn’t tault what is real and what is not.  His plan to introduce himself to De Lancy because he is blind I thought was briliant.  A child would’nt of thought of this; this is when I began to think of the monster as a Adult who thinks but lacks some common sense because he wasn’t brought up in a family.  Thats all he wants is a family and is crushed when he is scared off by the others and vows torevenge against all humans.

Even though Victor killied a human he still shows he is nice by saving the girl.  After he confesses to Victor and Victor agrees to make him a female monster and he will hide away with her the monster seems like a harmless confused person who just wants to be accepted.  Victor relizes later however by creating a female monster the chance of her agreeing to live far away in a jungle are slim.  The monster can’t seem to get anything he wants and no one will accept him.  It’s a lose lose situation for the Monster and Victor.  After Victor decides not to make the new Monster I feel for the rest of the novel he will always be looking over his shoulder.  The monster vowed to get him back and we know what he is capible of and I think wants to make Victor suffer.

Victor Frankenstein childhood seems pretty normal at a young age.  In chapter one he talks about his early childhood and growing up and what he went through.  Chapter two really goes with chapter one.  What really caught my eye is how Victor is sent away to school when he is 17 to University of Ingolstadt.

We then are introduced to Elizabeth who the Frankenstein family adopts.  Victors mother though wants him to marry her.

What really caught my eye is how Victor treats the monster.  The monster seems like a nice genuine thing although his eyes are weird as the story says.  Victor treats him wrong.  Chapter 11 when Frankenstein and the Monster talk I feel is important.  The monster talks to Victor about what he has discovered.  It’s like a Father talking to his son.  The monster is very curious about humans and watches what they do.  He starts to learn the basic of there language.  I found this odd however how he evolves so quickly and is able to learn the basic language and becomes nice and stops stealing food and instead helps them out by giving them wood.  I feel if humans gave him a chance they would see how nice he is.  His father Victor never gave him a chance and he realizes it.