The Nature of Literature

Literature is such a interesting thing and can be all types of things depending on how we look at it.  As I read the reading I was able to explore and think about what literature is and all the different types I am exposed to in my life.

1. Literature as the 'foregrounding of language'

      Before I was typing this blog up, I began talking to my family about these natures of literature and with this first one, if there were any poems that any of them had memorized.  All 3 of my brothers automatically started saying, "Humpty Dumpty sat a wall... " 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the King's horses, And all the King's men 

Coudln't put Humpty together again. 

Even though this is so short and not that deep, each of us learn it when we are little and could probably recite it at anytime. We have this memorized and it is because of the words and sound patterns within.   Culler talks about how readers notice the sound patterns as well as linguistic patterns.  They look at the rhymes and are able to remember things because of those 2 things. He mentions that the rhyme is what makes the readers recognize the rhythm and remember these words.  As my brothers recited this nursery rhyme and rereading this, I realized that it is the rhyming that makes them remember the story. I don't think they would remember the story of an egg word for word if it wasn't put together with words that rhymed. 

2. Literature as the integration of language

      As I was thinking about this one I was having a hard time finding one that I thought fit, and then I did it!! The slogan for the American Egg Association, “The Incredible Edible Egg”.  They made a jingle and it is easy to remember.  The words incredible and edible sound very similar and edible is found within incredible.  The slogan has harmony and works well together as a whole.  I think it is a great example of integration, and if you listen to the jingle you won’t forget the catchy tune that they put these great words to!!

3. Literature as fiction

       The Chronicles of Narnia are a great example of literature as fiction.  There are so many people that know the story of the Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, but interpret them differently.  This story can be taken as a fantasy, literally, or symbolically.  People can look at it and just take away what happened with no symbolic representation or you can see it in another way.  Many people see it in a religious way and think that certain characters and situations represent things that they believe religiously.

4. Literature as aesthetic object

     As I thought about this one, I thought a song about our country fit perfect.  It is a composition of words that bridges the gap between the material and spiritual worlds. As you read the words you can see how we praise this land, how we think it is so beautiful.  It crosses gaps in a lot of aspects and allows us to view it how we want.  We can view it as beautiful if we love this country and think it gives praise. 

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

5. Literature as inter-textual or self-reflexive construct

     As I read about this nature of literature, I took it as works that are made possible by other works before them. It is a story that came about because of something that was brought about before it.  The main example I could think of for this is Wicked, probably because I love the play.  But the book, "The Wizard of Oz" was written and after because of it's story, Wicked was able to come about.  The story of Wicked is tied in with things from the Wizard of Oz and answers a lot of questions about the Wizard of Oz.  These two stories are tied together, the relate and answer questions within the other story.

One problem - Hackers

This past week I read an article in Businessweek about LinkedIn and how they are suing unknown people for making fake accounts and gaining a lot of valuable information out of the website.  From the article, this is a really big deal in every social media website and they all suffer from people making multiple fake accounts.  People create thousands of fake accounts hoping to scam people and gain information about real people who are trying to use the site for a good purpose.  This is a problem that social media companies do not want to be dealing with.

The crazy thing about these hackers, is that most of them know the rules of the sites and are able to push to the very limits before anyone notices.  They can gain all this information that LinkedIn gathered in a long process and in a legit way in a short amount of time, and then trick and deceive people.  The people behind these fake accounts know what they are doing and are really good at it.  They do it very slowly so nobody knows it and over time gain a ton of accounts.  The LinkedIn issue started last spring, and the company is just getting around to sue these unknown hackers.  

LinkedIn could possibly win this case, as we have seen sites like Facebook and Craigslist win recent battles, but LinkedIn doesn't even know who they are up against.  To me, it sounds pretty hard to win a case that you don't even know who you are going against.  

I see this as not only a problem to the sites, but to the public people as well. People are making fake accounts all over and adding others who they may or may not know.  They are affecting people who connect with these fake accounts and think that they are real people.  They could also be affecting those if they duplicate names of accounts that are already made.  This is something I have seen on quite a few social media sites.  For example, on Twitter, there are fake accounts for a lot of people.  You look at somebody famous and there are quite a few accounts for that person. They try doing things like the "official account" or other ways to make sure you know it is the real person, but it still is influencing how people view them and what they think of them.

I have known some people who make fake Facebook accounts to spy on people or see what people are doing that they used to date or know in someway or another. I think social media is a very powerful tool and allows us to connect to so many people in so many different ways, but as well, the fake account/hacker issue is not a good one.  It is making some of these networks fake, not reliable, and misleading.  If the companies of social media can limit this and find a way to stop these hackers, we will all be better off!!

Networking Power

Networking is so powerful and can make a huge impact on everything in life, whether it is just in our individual lives or in big companies and organizations.  After reading the assigned reading I couldn't stop thinking about all the networks I have in my life and how I am connected to so many people.  I have gotten jobs, set up on dates, and been given sports opportunities because of people I know.  Everyone in life is like that.  Because of the networks we have in our own lives, we are able to expand into other networks and gain opportunities that we otherwise wouldn't have.

I found it so interesting when it said, "Power does not reside in institutions, not even in the state or in large corporations.  It is located in the networks that structure society." It is the things between the systems that are so powerful.  It is the people that connect within the different corporations that make things so powerful.

Networking is everything.  I have always heard that is about who you know, and it truly is.  Especially in this day and age everyone seems to be connected in someway or another. A couple semesters ago, I was in a career class just to fill credits and it was all about networking. All we did was get to know people and meet people.  For our midterm, we had to memorize everyone's name.  We learned the whole semester about how important it is to know people and make those connections. 

Social media is changing these networks and how we socially interact.  On Facebook, you can find people because of mutual friends that you have.  If you look someone up, you can find out who you both know.  The person you may have thought was a stranger is actually tied to you by someone. You are in a network together.  On LinkedIn, You can see how people are connected to you.  It shows you who you can introduce you to somebody else.  On Twitter and Instagram, you can follow whoever you want. You can become part of somebody's network.  You can find out what they are doing and get their updates at anytime.  It is crazy that we can all be so involved in everyone's lives and have these networks.  In the past couple years they have become so much more powerful because they are so dominant on the Internet and so easy to access with tablets and smartphones.  The power is with the people.  What we do and what we say to the people we know is what will get us where we want to go.  The more people we know, the more opportunities we are allowing ourselves.  Networking is the key.