Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Final Essay #1: The Various Mediums of Moby Dick and the Internet

The very format of Moby Dick can be directly related to the diverse  mediums of content available online. Moby Dick has a reputation of being hard to get through as some have asked the question, "Is Moby Dick an analogy for reading Moby Dick?" The difficulties in reading the text come from the diverse forms of text presented in the text.

In the first part of the work, we experience a plot-driven narrative by Ishmael that proves rather traditional and engaging. However, when readers hit Chapter 32, whale cetology becomes rather dry and disengaging. The plot is suspended and the pages drag through tedious details of the variety of whale species. Once readers hit chapter 37, Ahab has a sort of soliloquy, as does Starbuck in Chapter 38. Then, Chapter 40 presents a full-blown song, sang by the Pequod's crew, as if the text were suddenly a script for a musical.

How does one interpret the text through each of its various forms: narrative, encyclopedia-esque, theater script, etc.?

The text must be read with an innovative thought process, even like a puzzle. Each of the different portions of the text offer different types of information in terms of thematic content, informational content, as well as characterization. We can interpret the text most efficiently as we put these different pieces together and create larger meaning from the different strengths the various formats provide.

Likewise, the Internet is full of various mediums that help us to efficiently interpret text if we will simply use the various mediums together. Online, we are presented with many different platforms that perform different functions: email, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, video, audio, journalism, curation tools, etc. The list could go on and on.

The internet is becoming increasingly relevant to our culture. But it's influence as a tool can only be found if we navigate the various mediums and platforms mentioned above. Just like our reading of Moby Dick, we are only successful in the digital realm if we take into account all of the different online platforms.

 For example, we use curation tools to gather and organize our literary findings. We use social media  such as Facebook and Twitter to initiate topic-centered conversations with relevant and knowledgeable audiences. We can look at visual content such as videos or illustrative adaptations of text to enhance our perspective on the primary work.

+Kristen Reber is a great example of this as she has connected with a skilled editor to launch her website. She has also crowdsourced information about the term "ERM" through Facebook. She documented her process of launching the website on her blog, where she has gained ideas and feedback from peers. Additionally, she conducted a photo shoot to add visual effect and appeal to the purpose of her website. Kristen's use of various forms of digital media has been extremely successful because of the variety of digital resources she has compiled to create a fascinating project.

Moby Dick helps us to make sense of digital culture as it teaches us that many forms of text and presentation are essential to capturing a greater depth within our online experience.

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