My Reactions to Video Games as a Literacy/Arkham City

An interview with my brother on video game strategies can be accessed here

Oh and here’s an alternate ending to the game!

            Inspired by the linguist James Paul Gee’s studies in observing video games as a learning style, I decided to conduct my own research on this particular matter.  Like Gee, I found that playing video games, especially by myself, is particularly difficult.  As Gee describes the experience, it is both frustrating and life enhancing (Gee 3).  He also discovered that gamers enjoy a challenge.  What makes a worthwhile game is in fact the learning principles, making video games a process.  Marx calls this the “creativity of capitalism” (Gee 4).  It is amusing how in school, if a subject is long and challenging, students aren’t enthused to learn, but it works just the opposite when learning a video game.  Gee acknowledges this type of learning as the best in cognitive science. 

            Studying Gee’s work last semester in a literacy acquisition class, I learned that he is focuses mostly on social discourse.  How we learn is all through our previous experiences with those who share a common social and cultural group (Gee 6).  Therefore, any specific way in which we think is connected to our identity.  Gee also relates “real life” to a massive player game such a World of WarCraft because of the interaction of multiple identities and in which we view the world (Gee 7). 

How does this all relate to learning through video games?  Learning is not general, as mentioned through our social experiences that develop our identity, but it is specific.  We learn how to play a certain type of game (shooter game, fighting game, adventure game) and we associate games that are similar to figure them out.  Gee also mentions that the subtopics we learn are specific types of “games”; they all have their own vocabulary, tools, and values as well as their own specific way of learning them.

One way in which gamers familiarize themselves with the game is through reading material.  Go figure, in order to play something that seems like it is all controls and graphics, we need to understand them through literary materials.  Growing up watching my brother play all sorts of games, his favorite were usually the fighting games such as Mortal Kombat (which in turn became my favorite) as well as adventure games that ranged from Area 51 to Resident Evil to Jurassic Park.  I also remember my brother going to the supermarket to pick up the latest edition of a gamer’s magazine called Tips and Tricks.  Today, there’s other resources through social media where strategies about the game are shared.  Gee mentions even the schoolyard being a trading ground for the game Pokémon (definitely remember that!)

A website that has been particularly helpful is http://www.ign.com/wikis/batman-arkham-city/General_Tips.  If I didn’t have someone to guide me, using the internet source is a great alternative to learn the game.  The game contains a few different modes such as Detective Mode which allows Batman to see his surroundings through a special lens where enemies and interactive environments are highlighted in an orange color.  This mode tells me how many enemies there are, whether or not they are armed, and information about the enemy.  It is particularly helpful if I am stuck somewhere.  It can tell me if there’s a special way out.  

Some of these games are a remediation.  TV shows are created from video games and vice versa, as well as movies or comic book series.  The game that I examined for my research: Batman: Arkham City is derived from the comic book or perhaps it came soon after the latest Batman trilogy came to an end (my favorite of all the Batman genres).  Being a huge fan of the movies, the comics, as well as growing up with the cartoon, I was indeed intrigued to play.  Plus, the game got very good reviews.  Good reviews mean that the game is challenging and long, two features that avid gamers look for. 

Gee explains that there are two reasons to examine literacy more broadly other than in the reading and writing aspect.  Firstly, besides from language as a communication system, images, symbols, graphs, artifacts, and many other visual symbols are noteworthy (Gee 17).  Secondly, both words and images are more oftentimes combined.  This is proven to be true when playing the game Batman: Arkham City.  While playing, there are symbols above attackers’ heads that indicate I have to get ready to block which is also indicated as a symbol for me as the green triangle button.  Entering doors, I am signaled to hit “x”.  I suppose too that Batman’s weaponry that is displayed when hitting “select” is an example of artifacts that I can choose from in order to help me complete a mission. 

Not being a video gamer, I put the video game’s setting on easy so I can leisurely learn the game.  When beginning the game, there is a background story to follow about Dr. Strange and how he is the man in charge of Arkham City.  The scenes are very movie-like, with subtitles on the bottom of the screen.  Before I am Batman, I am Catwoman, fighting off thieves in order to get to a safe, because Selena or Catwoman is characterized as a crafty thief herself.  As I fight off the villains, there are pop-ups telling me what buttons to hit in order to fight them off.  After they are all on the ground, I have to locate the safe in the room.  For me, I was not clear where in the room to go.  Though the room is small, I felt as if I had to do a little exploring.  When I found the safe (after a minute), there is an icon that pops up telling me to hit “x” in order to open the safe.  This was only the first few minutes of the game and I realized there was a lot to figure out on my own.  Luckily, the suggestions to hit what button facilitated this process. I’m sure because I had it on an easy level, that I was assisted with these clues.

            To note more about the first few minutes of the game, I am viewing the game in a different point of view, Catwoman, before I am the main character, Batman.  I wonder why the creators of the game decided to do this.  It is interesting to be these players who are different genders and different roles in the game.  Perhaps the designer had in mind that the player needs to see the two outlooks because their stories do intertwine.  There is a romance between these two characters who are viewed in an opposing manner.  We view Catwoman as a villain, but Batman as a hero.  Yet, he does come to her rescue at times in the game.  Perhaps too, they both have an “alias” as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.  As I continued to play, there were more short movie-like segments showcasing the relationship between Batman and Catwoman.  As it seems, Batman is helping Catwoman in some way since she is not favorable by other villains such as Two-Face. 

 The first few minutes of the game also have video game credits as one would see in a TV series.  The last time I really played video games, I remember the credits being at the end of the game, when it was all over and you won.  I suppose the creators decided that instead of waiting until the several weeks it can take to complete a game, the creators are known from the start.

            From being Catwoman, I am Bruce Wayne, captured by those who know my alias, Batman.  I am locked and chained in a room and have to find a way to escape.  The screen keeps telling me to go left.  How can I go left?  I’m stuck.  I play around with the directional controls.  At points, I’m staring down at the floor, seeing my surroundings through Bruce Wayne’s eyes.  Finally, I understand by hitting left several times that I’m supposed to knock myself over onto the ground to break the chair or break the way I’m tied up.  To relate this to a literacy approach, perhaps I am rereading over and over again the direction I am given in order to make clarity. 

From the room where I was chained up in confinement, I am walking through a sea of inmates. I have to fight some of them off, being facilitated again by the buttons that I am told to hit in order to create special moves. Trying to find a way to escape from the prison, I do the same as I did as Catwoman, I explore the room.  This time, the room is bigger, so it is harder to determine where I am supposed to go.  I decide to walk down a hall of prisoners to find the exit.  Once I am out of the prison, I am suited up as Batman and I now have more exploring to do with the entire city. 

I feel the most difficult part of the game thus far is figuring out where I am going and for what purpose.  As I continue to play, there are new buttons to hit that are designated for a certain reason.  Hitting R1, I am able to shoot my batclaw and climb buildings.  But again, where am I going?  I finally realize that at the top of the screen are directions.  There is a Riddler symbol (?) that I must follow.  The directions guide me to the location I am supposed to find.  It was not an easy task to figure out the building or the people I am supposed to discover.  The city seems like a huge playground for me to jump from one spot to another.  I figured out by playing around how to glide, how to dive, how the climb up, how to duck, how to hang off buildings.  These are tools that I will need to understand how to use for the rest of the game.  So even if it took me a while to find where my next action scene is to take place, I needed the time to play around to discover the controls that are the basics of how to work the game.

Another researcher that has worked with Gee to understand video games as a type of literacy are Mary Leigh Morbey and Carolyn Steele in their essay titled, “Student Mastery in Metamodal Learning Environments: Moving beyond Multimodal Literacy”.  They mention that strategies learned in video games cannot be found within the confinements of the classroom.  Young people between the ages of thirteen and thirty are spending an average spend about 40 hours a week with interactive, Internet-based gaming (Morbey and Steele). 

When I finally arrived at the building I’m supposed to enter, I had to go through halls once again to find Two-Face talking to his crew.  I’m supposed to approach a gunman from behind to sneak attack him during Two-Face’s speech. 

I notice when I’m being attacked or approached by an opponent who is about to attack me, there is a symbol above their head that either looks like waves or lightning.  This is called the counter-act cue.  This tells me to prepare to act.  To relate this to a literacy approach, it’s as if I am being prompted.  We see prompts in classroom discussions when we are prompted to answer.  Reading material, we could be prompted or hinted to what is to come next. As a strategy, teachers will oftentimes ask at the end of a chapter, “What do you think will happen next?” Instead of seeing something such as this in the video game, we need to act fast instead of dwell upon, “What should I do next?”  Opposed to reading where we have as much time as we like to think, there are times in a video game where we have to react fast.  I think this is an excellent learning strategy to think on your feet and look alive.  Some opponents will sneak behind me, I have to immediately turn around to fight them off. 

Through my understanding of the video game, I definitely could not get past certain areas.  After I entered the building and fought off the villains, I had to scan the room to figure out where a gunshot came from.  At the top of the screen in bold green lettering was a suggestion, “Level Up!”  with the select button next to it.  I had no idea what this meant exactly.  Batman kept saying that he needed a certain suit/gear to scan the room.  When clicking “select”, there were numerous things to select from.  I connected from the type of gear Batman was talking about, which suit to select.  When I finally had the suit, I had to hold down on L2 to get an x-ray vision of the room.  I discovered the gunshot, but what do I do from there?  I got so frustrated on what to do next that I killed myself by jumping into the acid pool.  On a literacy level, this is when the learner gives up due to lack of comprehension.

This was the first time playing the game.  The next time I play, I want to see what happens if I change the difficulty level.  Will the suggestions on the screen not appear?  Will I die faster? With questions such as these, I am utilizing the strategy of asking myself questions and perhaps predicting what the outcome could be.  I lasted over an hour the first time playing, but it is because I spent most of my time trying to navigate the city which seemed like my own personal jungle gym to play around with.  Changing the level in reading terms would be to read a piece of literature with more complex vocabulary or with literary elements that may be difficult to decode. 

Playing the game such as this is almost like reading the comic book, except I now have auditory functions and characters are alive. It is like watching a movie, but I don’t have time to drift off to think of other matters; I have to concentrate on what I need to accomplish.  I am acting in the movie instead. 

When continuing with the game, I had my brother, someone who is proficient with the game and level that I’m on, help me out.  He instructed me with where I should go and how to use the two controls that direct the camera and the way I move.  This, for me, was one of the most challenging things when learning how to play a video game.  My brother was a good teacher though and did not get too frustrated with my new learning ability. 

From the level where I gave up and jumped in the acid pool, my brother showed me how to get out of the room and find the door that lead me out.  Without my brother’s help, I don’t think I would have found it on my own.  I thought I looked all over for a way out, but apparently, nothing I did was working.  To relate this to literacy, when one is learning how to read or make strategies for themselves in order to comprehend the literary work, sometimes assistance or modeling is needed.  How does one find their way on their own?  A teacher or someone who has the necessary experience can show a learner how to navigate in order to gain some success.

With the site, there is more information about how to deal with the aggressor’s counter-act cues which lets the player know when Batman can subdue an attacking enemy and prevent damage to himself.  I’ve only experienced the counter-act color (the squiggly lightning lines above the aggressor’s head) to be blue.  But there is also red, green, and yellow.  For instance, green suggests that the aggressor is on the ground and is ready to be finished off. 

One of the best tips my brother gave me was when on a perch, use the controls to view down on my enemies.  As simple as this concept may seem, I did not use it when I was on my own.  The IGN website suggests in a certain sequence with Mr. Freeze:

“The first step to this process is finding a nice high position on top of a vantage point or rooftop where you can easily see your two enemies. Next is to temporarily eliminate one of the enemies this is best done with the use of the freeze blast given to you by Mr. Freeze, it can be accessed by double tapping the right trigger. Now press “X” to glide click the other enemy, press and hold “RT” and the bat symbol above their head will begin to turn yellow. Once your attack is fully charged you will take out the enemy as soon as you hit them. The final step is to casually walk up to the other frozen enemy, who should still be frozen, and perform an ice smash takedown by pressing the “Y” button.”

I did not get up to this level yet, but reading and investigating this site, I can use it in order to complete that eventual level. 

            This game has a plot to it, characterization, symbols, that undeniably make it a literary piece except in a new remediation, a video game.  The IGN site also has mini-movies about the enemies. For example, Hugo Strange Trailer.  These trailers tell the player more about the characters that are not mentioned within the game itself.  Here are a few more trailers on the characters: The Riddler, The Penguin, and The Joker and Harley Quinn.  The videos, like the video game, is so transparent with its almost life-like features.  It makes the whole adventure of Batman that much more exciting.  You can even listen to the soundtrack to the video game , like a movie. The soundtrack gives the game a vibe that some levels are more difficult than others.  In other words, it sets the mood or tone of the video game, similar to how an author’s voice and style does the same effect in a novel. 

            I have gained so much insight with my new skill of video games.   I feel that Batman: Arkham City was not only a challenge, but an exciting video game to play.  It’s like when a child is first starting to read, especially on their own, a teacher or parent will hand them something that is entertaining to hold their interest while learning.  As of this week, one of my classmates introduced me to a spin-off or a remix of WarCraft called ClassCraft.  I feel as though this is an excellent example as video games as a literacy.  Students are separated into teams and they need to strategize in order to succeed in the game.  This could be an effective way to learn and agrees with Gee’s thesis that video games are not a “waste of time”. 

Works Cited:

ClassCraft http://www.classcraft.com/en/

Gee, James Paul.  What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.  Palgrave Macmillian.  New York, NY: 2007.

IGN http://www.ign.com/wikis/batman-arkham-city/General_Tips

Morbey, M.L. and Steele, C.  “Student Mastery in Metamodal Learning Environments: Moving Beyond Multimodal Literacy.”  Multimodal Literacies and Emerging Genres.  University of Pittsburgh Press.  Pittsburgh, PA: 2013.

                Remixing, as I have come to understand from class discussions, is not just derived from music as a medium, but multiple mediums.  It is how we can take an original copy of any sort of medium and turn it into our own critique of the matter.  A new product is thus created.  For instance, Lessig’s Remix mentions a college friend who excelled in writing.  He did so by incorporating quotes into his works.  So, he took original pieces, or in this case phrases, and turned it into his own original work.

                Musically, I enjoy it when an artist from one genre remixes the work of an artist from a totally different genre.  As of this week, our discussions about Beyoncé as a cyborg by the definition of Donna Haraway have lead us into how her newest track has been remixed by many.  To my surprise, James Blake, a musician who is from the electronic genre, took Beyoncé’s track and remixed it to produce a totally different sound, but it of course incorporates the original work.  James Blake incorporates “ghosts” into his track based on Beyoncé’s voice or “Ooo”ing.  It’s a very interesting piece which is basically inspired by Beyoncé’s track rather than being a cover, which I feel anyone can do.  What James Blake comes up with is his own take on “Drunk in Love” which takes out the lyrics and focuses on the energy or the sexy feel of the song.

                Aside from music, art of many forms can be remixed.  Remixing is not the same as remediation.  Although I believe it is understandable how the two can easily be confused.  Both are “re-do”s.  Remediation redoes media.  One form of media is transformed into a new type of media.  Poems or songs can be revived into a painting or vice versa.  As noted in Bolter’s and Grusin’s book, Remediation: Understanding New Media, the clearest examples of digital hypermedia comes from music production and presentation.   Music was originally about the live performance and sounding “live”, but as time went on, it was more about the recording.  So, James Blake’s music would not have come into existence if there wasn’t a period in music history where the aim was to make the sound electronic or find various forms to play with the medium of sound and music.  So, for this example of remediation, music has gone from on stage to off.  There are even music documentaries made.  The one I am most excited about that comes out this coming week on On Demand and iTunes is my favorite band, The National.  The documentary is called, “Mistaken for Strangers”.  It’s about how two brothers, one a rock star and the other a roadie, are on tour together, but out in the “real world” no one would know they are related.  It showcases the brother of the rock star and his feelings on being in the shadow.  I cannot wait.  Thus, music is transformed from on stage to recording to a video documentary that can be found not only in exclusive theatres (Los Angeles, California), but through access of Cablevision and iTunes, TV or computer.

                Remixing, on the other hand, is not transforming into a whole new media, but rather editing an existing medium to be completely on its own (the same type of medium).  It is meant to change or improve the original.  The most alternative example I have come across is graffiti.  Artists interact and become inspired by their surrounding environment.  Graffiti allows the public to have certain images on a building.  Artists manipulate the surface or wall to display their own critique.  Banksy uses graffiti to bring social and political messages, oftentimes with dark humor.  Taking an environment and twisting it to make one’s own message would be remixing.  Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop would be an example of remediation, turning art to a video source of media.

Go figure that “It will rot your brain!” isn’t necessarily true.  Gee studies a six year old child to observe how he makes connections when playing video games such as Pikmin.  Reading Gee and knowing his previous works, he is big into social discourse.  His claim is that people are literate in a domain if they can recognize and/or produce meanings within the domain.

Gee makes excellent points comparing video games to any kind of fictional story.  There are characters, a problem/conflict to solve, an objective, the everlasting theme of good verses evil.  But the one thing that video games have that a novel doesn’t contain is motivation.  How many books motivate you to try again and do better in the very same environment?

The six year old is learning to strategize and become a problem solver who does not see mistakes as errors but as opportunities for reflection and learning.  We see this many times in the educational field.  Or, at least, we should. Do we get opportunities to find a new way to solve a problem?  I believe this is a sort of intelligence if one can find a different outlet to get a desired result.  A teacher would most certainly be proud!

Gee observes that this young child is learning in a variety of ways.  A game like Pikrim encourages the child to explore, to test out a hypothesis, to take a risk, to persist past the failure, and to have the positive mindset to figure out what went wrong and try to do it better.  Sounds like a scientific theory, but it’s a “brain rotting” video game!

Learning actively and critically is what we expect from our educational systems, but it is seen in video games.  Players are learning to experience the world in a new way; collaboate with a new affinity group; developing resources fotr future learning in the semiotic domain; learning how to think about semiotic domains as design spaces.  Two things help the player in achieving this learning style: internal design and semiotic domains.  Internal design encourages metareflective thinking about the design.  Semiotic domains connects to other semiotic domains such as knowledge of a domain can be a good precursor of learning a new one.

So, how do you learn best?  Gee emphasizes that humans learn, think, and solve problems by reflecting on previous experiences in the world.  Human thinking is deeply rooted in an embodied experience of the world.  To illustrate, people have experiences, store these experiences, and finally make connections or associations among them.  Same holds true when the six year old plays Pikrim and observes the world around him and repeats the same scenery and challenges several times until mastery.

What video games have influenced you?  What game took a long time to master the skill?  Did you have to get a cheat magazine to figure out special moves?  My brother was very big into video games and would show me how to do special moves or enter certain rooms (domains) because he read the gamers’ magazine.  But, you got to be quick! 

Assessing the benefits and the challenges of a multimodal text, I arrive at the conclusion that it is more advantageous than not. As a forthcoming teacher, especially one who will strive to incorporate writing techniques within the classroom setting, involving a new and refreshing approach to rhetoric text without means of a computer is worth considering.
In Shipka’s critique, “Including, but Not Limited to, the Digital Composing Multimodal Texts”, she examines how students react to this particular method of a multimodal composition. Shipka notes that this type of framework entails students to attend to how language mediates communicative practice when combined with immobile representational systems. Within this task at hand, students record their target goal for their work and illustrate how the choices and strategies they utilized throughout the process either assisted or drastically altered their goals.
Considering Shipka’s two students, Katie and Adam, both needed a considerable amount of time to figure out the way they wanted to take on the task. Both were frustrated trying to figure out how to approach the multimodal assignment. One of the better suggestions was towards Katie. Shipka recommended to create a history about all the histories she did not attempt, meaning all of her false starts and stops. The brilliant idea proved to be solid and sound. Katie’s project was a wastebasket with all her crumpled up ideas on paper. The trash can was written all over (inside and out) with inspirational quotes and phrases such as, “Don’t give up.” I admire the idea that allows students this kind of freedom to break away from a typed document. I find it to be incredibly artistic with this outside the box approach.
Cordova elaborates on what it means to have a multimodality type of literacy with his essay, “Invention, Ethos, and New Media in the Rhetoric Classroom.” Meaning making, which is traditionally rhetoric, is stressed as not a linear system, but progressively more multimodal and interactive because of digital encounters. Cordova highlights three interrelated themes: ethos as a dwelling place can improve a pedagogy of multiliteracies inclined toward the practical side of designing redeeming social futures; relationships that bring to life the New London Group’s understanding of design of cultural society; a storyboard to enhance students’ understanding of multimodality.
Storyboards aim to rethink the meaning of being literate. As Cordova notes, technological modernization shapes our performance of life as well as learning. With this such technology, students construct an across-the-board visual representation of a narrative. These students benefit because they are given the opportunity to literally visualize instead of thinking as their assignment in a linear fashion. It also emphasizes the fragmentary nature of texts as well as the significance of the articulations drawn through each frame of the project. Additionally, it offers a scope of interpretation.
Although the storyboard may produce challenges, it still is an exceptional way to express oneself. Such challenges include: more coaching time in and out of the classroom as well as technological troubles. Yet, it gives a critical understanding of composition. As an up and coming ESL teacher, I know that storyboards are an excellent mode to learn a language. This can apply to native English speakers learning a second language. Listening and observing the way one produces a language is a supreme example of a revolutionary approaching to learning in addition to a new teaching method. Thus, if this is a remarkable tool for language, it is also noteworthy for literacy.

Continuing Donna Haraway’s concepts of a cybertype, Lisa Nakamura examines how race, ethnicity, and identity have been reshaped through cyberspace.  Haraway is quoted that she does not “know of any time in history when there was greater need for political unity to confront effectively the dominations of ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘sexuality’, and ‘class’. “

                Nakamura states that the Internet is a part of a complexity of multimedia globalization.  Western civilization, as referenced in an advertisement in the New York Times, has moved inside media.  We have substituted direct contact with people and nature for replicated versions on TV that are sponsored by major corporations.  This has spread globally and now has severe effects on cultural diversity.  The Internet produces a mental retraining that all cultures are alike.  Thus, it kills cultural diversity.

                Does the Internet create a monoculture?

                Chapter 2 asks if it is truthful to say no one can tell what race you are on the Internet.  Ideally, the Internet does not discriminate.  Even though we are hidden in cyberspace, race does show up in the language users employ.  Being a student of Stony Brook’s MA TESOL program, I have observed how those from countries such as South Korea and China use the English language.  But even if these internet users aren’t a second language learner, there are characteristics that are present within rhetoric that can shape one’s identity.

                Have you seen MTV’s show Catfish?  To explain the show, ‘lovers’ meet on chartrooms or Facebook and never get to talk to this person on the phone or see the person because of various excuses.  Sometimes, actually oftentimes, many people are duped on their once thought ‘lover’s’ identity.  Instead of being a female, they are male.  Instead of being a model, they are an overweight hermit (though that sounds funny, it’s the truth of the matter on the show).  So, people make assumptions about who they are speaking to on the Internet.  How do these imposters do it?  How do they convince the other party that they are who they claim to be?  In order to do this, they must manipulate their own language.  They must get inside the head of how they want to be perceived.  They would never reveal how they would normally get across their language.  Language identifies us.  Additionally, not only is language a way to dupe, but images as well.  Users get a hold of a whole different avatar to reel in their ‘bait’. 

                Another note that fascinated me is the default whiteness.  If one does not claim a race, they are then considered white.  There is much talk about identity tourism which is travel opportunities within cyberspace.  Thus, reconstituting what is travel.  One of the dangers of this type of travel is that it reduces nonwhite identity positions to a mask to hide behind.  One of the reasons nonwhite identities want to claim no race at all, which in turn defaults them as white, is simply stereotyping.  These identities want to be free from such assumptions.  With light to LambdaMOO, it is absurd to ask everyone to comply with real life standards.  It’s fantasy.  The diversification of roles opens up a thought-provoking detachment of race from the body and essentially questioning race as a category. 

                Why is race a choice in these fantasy games? If choosing a different race than one’s own, what are the negative elements one can face?  What other reasons do people choose a different identity aside from dodging stereotypes?  Do people do it to attract other identities in cyberspace (think Catfish)?

Cyborgs and Women

Haraway’s social-political article about cyborgs examines how biotechnology constructs our bodies in a male bias with innocence being violated.  Thus, Haraway creates a stir in many women who can be referred to as cyber feminists who seek alliance between machinery, new technology, and women.  She emphasizes that there is an optical illusion between science fiction and social reality.  People opposed to cyborgs, Haraway describes, aren’t as adaptable; cyborgs are at the purest form.  She continues that cyborgs are as difficult to sense materially as they are politically.  Haraway, who is a professor of the history of consciousness, says this invisibility is deadly cyborgs are about simulation.  The connection between human modern day realities and technology is so intimate that it is difficult to determine where we end as humans and begin as machines.

Cyborgs are oftentimes associated with fantasy, science fiction.  Yet, they have been around for about fifty years plus.  The first cyborg was a lab rat with a tiny osmotic pump that injected precisely controlled doses of chemicals implanted into its body.  Currently, we are very prone to cyborgs.  My own father can be considered a cyborg with having two replaced knees.  Haraway considers cyborgs to be, “information machines.”

“Wired: You are Cyborg”, an article by Hari Kunzro, breaks down Haraway’s scholarly language into applicable terms.  Kunzro even admits that Haraway’s concepts are indeed complicated.  Everyday there are interactions between humans and machines.  I’m doing it now as I type on my laptop; watch a movie on the flat screen TV; and at my side, my iPhone which is constantly informing me about e-mail, texts, and social media.  I will even count the light in the room as a technology, because it is.  Inside our bodies are networks with man-made materials like pharmaceutical drugs or products from agribusiness.

Haraway describes the world of feminism as complex.  She is not a feminist who seeks to be in unity with Mother Nature.  Instead, she searches a different kind of world filled with technological advances.  A cyborg, a hybrid of animal and machine, throws away many beliefs about nature and culture.  That belief is that if something is natural, it is unable to be changed.  For women, we are supposed to be naturally the weaker sex.  The notion of cyborgs is in opposition to what is natural.  Instead, we are constructed beings.  Haraway notes that is it politically wrong to label recent movements that women have in politics as ‘radical feminism’, “Feminist practice is the construction of this form of consciousness; that is, the self-knowledge of a self-who-is-not.” 

What are Haraway’s main concerns with technology and feminism?  She believes that they are encoded in technology, but not in a rhetorical sense.  There is cohabitation between many forms of sciences and cultures as well as organisms and machines.  Haraway, although aware of the complexity of the matter at hand, believes this concept is anything but abstract.  Haraway concludes,

It is an imagination of a feminist speaking in tongues to strike fear into the circuits of the supersavers of the new right. It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, space stories. Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

                Though we are complicated organisms, we are not bound by this ‘natural’ identity of sex.  We are constructed to be any identity we choose.

Questions to Consider:

1.       What is your take on Haraway’s essay about having a fractured identity as a female cyborg?  Are cyborgs really created through a male bias?  Defend your stance.

2.       Haraway mentions many aspects: culture, politics, and gender. How do they interweave in technology?

3.       Give your own example of a cyborg and state your opinion on how Haraway’s notion of feminism is righted or wronged.

                Remediation is the concept of borrowing or “repurposing” materials.  Today, we can access older materials through the Internet.  Transparency remains the main goal when concerning remediation.  Ideally, there shouldn’t be a difference between the experience of seeing a painting in person and on the computer screen.  Years ago, our technology was not as visually credible.  The images were grainy and not true to the colors.  As we advanced, we have come closer to this particular goal.  A new medium can try to absorb the older medium entirely.  With many films trying to repurpose digital technology, the goal is to make the computer disappear in order to absorb the older medium.

                We can borrow materials and make them into a new medium entirely.  Those that read “Alfred Profrock,” by T.S. Eliot related the poem to Salvatore Dahli’s Persistence of Memory painting.  Others related it to Hootie and the Blowfish’s song “Time”.  However, the painting and the song do not take over the poem by T.S. Eliot.  Each medium works on its own even if they relate to or inspire one another.  We see this many of time how one medium gives inspiration to the next.  Many paintings throughout history depict passages from the bible.  Paintings such as Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam to John Milton created the epic, Paradise Lost, both based on the biblical passage about Adam and Eve.  Remediation has been in effect for a very long time.  Furthermore, no medium can function independently and establish its own separate and purified space of cultural meaning.  As the aphorism goes, life imitates art.  The same applies to the concept of remediation.  The media comes from somewhere.  Thus, all media remediate the real. 

                One of the most popular form of remediation we see today is the Twilight series.  The novel series which turned to film is repurposed from the classic Braum Stoker’s novel Dracula.   Over the years, Braum Stoker’s novel has been borrowed in a multitude of ways or in this case, media.  From the novel, comes the earliest silent film, Nosferatu.  In the 1990s, Anne Rice wrote the novel, Interview with the Vampire, which turned into the film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.  Twilight inspired and made a pathway for many television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vampire Diaries and True Blood.  Each media has its own depiction of what vampires are like.  Many stick to the characterization that vampires are romantic.  There are also video games that are produced from this particular genre.  Would there even be a vampire genre if nothing was ever produced from the classic novel by Braum Stoker?  Can each of the media that is produced (television, film, novel, video game) stand on its own?  Does each medium absorb the older one?  One does not need to even look to the older version to understand what makes up a vampire.  Many qualities transcend. 

                From the old such as a novel or poem (any text), many times that particular media is transformed into an entirely new one dealing with technology (film, television, computer images).  With an array of media as our learning tools, we have many opportunities to study both language as well as literature.

One of the most inspiring aspects of the internet is how it keeps everyone connected and how it is ceaselessly reinventing itself.   Anyone with means of communication via a computer can alter or change our world which exists in the vast cyberspace.  New ideas constantly arise.  A fifth of those ideas are published by amateurs.

For instance, YouTube is a site that is created by amateur videographers.  It is not a requirement to be an expert film director on this particular site.  Anyone can post anything and within a matter of time, it can be viewed by millions (depending on how it reaches audiences).  Additionally, this site changes television.  Music videos are no longer seen by watching them on MTV, VH1, or FUSE.  Who watches music videos on television anymore?  It doesn’t exist.  The internet, YouTube, is presenting any music video you ever wanted to view within a click.

Other aspects of the internet are created by a community of people who only need access to a computer.  Wikipedia is where these communities come together.  It is our encyclopedia, our informational system, our brains coming together of what we know of the world.  There is a chance by all to edit the information.  It can be altered by anyone.  This can be perceived in two different ways.   One, we hold the power to distribute valid information.  Two, we hold too much power and may mislead and deceive our online community.

One of the many cynical points about the internet is being wired by the government.  This topic is still hot today, knowing that our own lives are being surveyed, mostly by owning an iPhone that contains the internet at hand.  Within the web article, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”, John Perry Barlow understands the online community as a non-physical matter.  Therefore, we should not be governed.  We, the internet, do not have a government.  He states that property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to those of the internet since all of those concepts are dependent on being of a physical matter.  We are of the grand continuous space.  There is no government in space.  How can it control something so massive?  Cyberspace cannot be maintained.  It was meant for expressive ideas.  It is meant as a community of people sharing their thoughts which were never meant to be shut down.  Everyone is entitled to convey their point of view on varying matters.

The internet is our brave new connected world.  Anyone can become a publisher.  Though this idea is freeing and inspiring, can we be limited?  Knowing we are monitored by what we say on the internet, can this bring us harm?  Once an idea is posted, it is forever swallowed into cyberspace.  One in three of us (or maybe higher since the BBC series took place years ago) are on Facebook.  Through this site, we are constantly in reach of one another.  We have the site connected to our iPhones through an app.  We can be viewed 24 hours a day.  Our ideas and sharing of many kinds of media can be a refreshing way to understand one another’s lives.

So, with so many constructive and revolutionizing concepts, how can we go wrong?  Have we learned that too much knowledge may lead to hazardous consequences?  Could it end up in the wrong hands?  Or are we advancing as a whole?  The internet has become our world where we consume products, share ideas, find where we are going, watch or listen to any source of entertainment, and constantly learn.  If the internet provided us with three square meals, there would be no reason to leave it behind.

Currently, I am a graduate student in the MA TESOL program who will be obtaining an advanced certificate in teaching writing at Stony Brook University.  Writing has always been a passion of mine that I hold dearly to my heart.  For the most part, I enjoy writing that displays a sense of humor, whether it be light or dark.

My hopes are high about my upcoming future.   Eventually, perhaps I will publish something worth reading.  Tutoring English since 2008, I take the most pleasure in showing my students how to write essays and stories in a well developed manner.  The most important part of being a good writer is revisions revisions revisions.  Additionally, I want to build up my resume and take advantage of the teaching writing practicum for Fall 2014.

When I am not tutoring or going to school, I sub for three school districts; I travel; I swim; I indulge in fashion and food; I learn about other languages and cultures; I dance; I take pleasure in music and art.  I go to many many shows.  My latest hobby is hooping and practicing to be an amazing hoop dancer.