Archive for February 2008
“Vampires, Changelings, and Radical Mutant Teens”
O’Quinn, Elaine J. “Vampires, Changelings, and Radical Mutant Teens: What the Demons, Freaks, and Other Abominations of Young Adult Literature Can Teach Us About Youth.” The ALAN Review. Summer 2004. p. 50-56.
Some quotes:
“…who others expect them to be ” (p. 50).
“transgressors… Such judgements of the young are often imported into their reading habits as well as their personal characters” (p. 50).
“Young people, just like adults, read for many different reasons. They seak to know themselves better, know their world better, and know what it means to be a ‘better’ person” (p. 50).
“Adults who believe that adolescence is a time when the lens focused on the world must be adjusted to view life through the eyes of grown-up ‘truths’ rather than childhood ‘fictions’ find it difficult to take seriously teenage books that concern themselves with fantastical protagonists who are half woman, half animal; part man, part angel, or a pinch of human, and a dose of demon” (p. 51).
“…nudges acknowledgement of the blurred lines of identity that haunt us our entire lives” (p. 51).
“…learn to live in multiple worlds and multiple identities with an on-going consciousness of what that might mean. For young people., especially, such concerns are at the forefront of their daily experience. They do not seek to give up who they are, but rather to integrate their known sense of a developing self with the unknown self that pushes from the darkness” (p.51).
“…negotiating the inconsistencies…” (p. 51).
“…like Foucault, they intend to expose those truths as biased claims set in motion by those who stand to gain the most from them” (p. 52).
“…enthusiastic anomalies whose only desires are to know and be known” (p. 52).
“…active interpreters of their own lives whose ambiguous natures can sometimes overcome situations mean to fix them in place” (p. 52).
“…realize the fragility of identity and the difficulty involved in trying to hold on to it, even as they seek to question it” (p. 52).
“…passion and desire…” (p. 54).
“…what it means to have and use power over others; how to deal with profound feelings of alienation and loneliness; how to keep life energies from becoming excesses that ravage life itself; and, finally how to work through the other enduring existential questions that confront all humans, but are arriving for teens for the first time” (p. 54).
Add comment February 25, 2008
…And speaking of graphic novels
Kan, Kat. “The double dozen: Kat’s favorite graphic novels from a dozen years of Graphically Speaking.” VOYA. December 2006. pp. 396-399.
Azumanga Daioh, Vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma
Marvels by Kurt Busiek
Neotopia Color Manga, Vol. 1: The Enlightened Age by Rod Espinosa
Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
Assembly by Sherard Jackson
The Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka
Naruto, Vol. 1 by Masashi Kishimoto
Herobear and the Kid: Inheritance by Mike Kunkel
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1 by Hayao Myazaki
Barefoot Serpent by Scott Morse
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology by Jim Ottaviani
Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists by Jim Ottaviani
The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton
Usagi Yojimbo Book 12: Grasscutter by Stan Sakai
Age of Bronze, Vol. 1: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower
Little White Mouse Omnibus Edition by Paul Sizer
Moped Army by Paul Sizer
Bone, Vol. 1: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
Rose by Jeff Smith
The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbut
Goodbye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson
Rurouni Kenshin, Vol. 1 by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned by Judd Winick
Add comment February 22, 2008
“Core Collection: YA Reference Sources”
Ostergard, Maren and Shauna Yusko. “Core collection: YA references sources.” Booklist. 1 September, 2005. pp. 172-173.
Exploring the 800 section with young adults… (For my YA reference friends!)
What Do Young Adults Read Next?
Best Books for Young Adults
Authors and Artists for Young Adults
Roaring Reads for Reluctant Teen Readers
Characters from Young Adult Literature
Fiction Sequals for Readers
All Things Shakespeare
10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports, and Speeches
Lives and Works of Young Adult Authors
The New Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
1 comment February 22, 2008
“Reading Lessons: Graphic Novels 101″
Rudiger, Hollis Margaret. “Reading lessons: graphic novels 101.” The Horn Book Magazine. pp. 126-134.
In choosing to take a break from blogging about English 709, I decided to read and blog about articles which were read in my young adult literature class last summer. Ironically enough, the first article read, “Reading Lessons: Graphic Novels 101″ seemed to speak pretty closely to our Thursday evening class discussion.
Hmm… Sign from up above?
Hollis Margaret Rudiger discusses the idea of visual detail. Mmm… more specifically, “visual literacy.” But, before we can go there (meaning, before we get to the reader, let’s talk about the graphic novel writer. “A good visual storyteller creates suspense and anticipation through the artwork as much as, if not more than, through the text” (p. 127). In regards to the art, various vocabulary terms can be considered: panel, gutter.
When analyzing graphic novels, various questions can be asked, similar to when analyzing any other text. “What can we tell about the narrative content?” “What is the significance of the subtle differences between the top panoramic scene and the bottom one?” (p.129).
One complaint many new readers of graphic novels may have is that of getting confused by the panels. Rudiger addresses this up front, “Even as an avid reader of graphic novels, I sometimes need to reread the same panels a few different ways until it makes sense. That’s OK” (p. 131). Further, many readers of, shall I say, ‘normal’ English texts, often are confused in how to discuss a graphic novel. Well, throwing out words like metaphor, allusion, plot, and setting is a very good place to start. “…the same vocabulary [you] use to analyze narrative text could be used to analyze narrative pictures” (p. 134). In choosing to use these words to describe a visually narrative text, readers will begin to realize more and more that the images do not just supplement the story–they ARE the story!
Add comment February 22, 2008
More on Nakamura
As Nakamura expanded her ideas on race, identity, and women, using terms such as “First World” and “Fourth World” to further define and discuss (create?) Internet boundaries, I once again struggled with the seeming elusiveness of her text. While, she did discuss culturally relevant movies, I have to wonder how these movies directly relate to the Internet. As we discussed in class, movies (the camera) is from a male angle/perspective. How DOES Nakamura fit in as an observer? In watching those two films, she automatically places herself in the position of a male. So, can she even objectively discuss the films without positioning herself as a white male?
Further, identity, identity, identity. Just what is identity? What is my identity? As a female on the Internet, how do my random musings fit within the grand scheme of blogging, writing, and the World Wide Web. I am certainly limited in my technological experiences, preferring to send my computer to the oh-so-grand and EXPENSIVE Geek Squad. Also, my writing comes from the perspective of a female. Am I, by contributing to the Internet entering a male society, thus making the Internet just one part of my life, as compared to something through which I am able to create and express? Or, because the Internet is within the dominant male gaze, do I further define myself by putting my writing within this world, thus allowing men (and women) to observe. Read my writing. Count my spelling errors. Notice my split-infinitives. And think my avatar is just as hot and tempting as I am.
Elizabeth included a quote, which I would also like to leave you with, as I believe that it cannot be read over and over again quite enough: “The trope of transplantation does evoke a particularly American technique and discourse of dealing with differences: assimilation. Just as global capitol can effortlessly assimilate traffic in information, corporate and public identities, and the digital encoding that enables the eminent portability of these things, so too can the western male subject of the future incorporate racial difference.”
Hmm…
And one question that I find myself coming back to: How are young adults and their interactions on the Internet working within their identities? I guess more specifically, are young adult identities (and their view on their identities) different than adult views because of the Internet? Will they eventually become different? How can adults speak to children about their identity when most adults are not as technological or Internet savvy as most children? And the list could continue…
2 comments February 19, 2008
One of these pictures doesn’t belong…
Picture one here, is a result of collecting various images which have represented important stages of my life, as well as various family members. I am more a people picture taker than an object picture taker, and I am sure how that somehow represents the deep-seeded psychological need for love or something… Mom (Sally), sisters (Johanna and Gracie), Evan (from Vermont), future bride Amanda (best friend from college), Cousins (Jenny and Sarah; Brad, Cheryl, and Sarah) Sarah and a snake (camp picture), A picture taken while in graduate school (Johanna and her friend Aarika), and sheep! Yes, I was a 4-H nerd. All overlayed over two backgrounds that best represent my childhood years: my own backyard combined with my Grandma’s farm. The water playing=me, my sisters, and my cousin Michael (who passed away October 14, 2005). The hay bales/tractors=me getting in trouble for not helping and instead, taking pictures.
Picture two is all of the above but in TeChNiCoLoR!!!
2 comments February 14, 2008
Nak-Nak-Nakamura
Nakamura’s idea of “relative access to technologies of global media” (15) has been the most inspiring and engaging comment throughout what I have read so far. While the idea of race or lack of race as portrayed through the so-called white male gaze, has brought up many questions and even less answers for me, I find myself connecting most with this idea of access.
At this point, Nakamura has little to say about what cultures have access to the Internet. Though she does, as Elizabeth quotes, mention the idea of a “continuum of Internet access”. To this I say, yes, yes, yes! A thousand, million times yes! Even more important (or at the very least JUST AS important) as this idea of race interacting with our subject/object selves is that of access for those who do not have it. To make sweeping generalization (as it would seem that Nakamura does, while working out her definition of digitization and race) with little methodology to back it up is one thing entirely. But, to really consider who is ‘allowed’ to be on the Internet (based on financial reasons, religious, time, etc) is vitally important. I am thinking specifically of people with disabilities. Okay, I suppose if I am going to go ahead and be specific, I should just say it: my passion is working with college students with disabilities. Are physically, emotionally, and mentally handicapped college students given the same access to the Internet as those students who are ‘normal’? While accessibility standards would mandate such access, a lot of these access rules are still be considered. And, in fact, many colleges are still working under the idea of ‘accommodation’ (helping those with disabilities to reach their goals) vs accessibility (helping everyone to better reach their goals, including those with disabilities: i.e. the automatic doors).
I am not advocating a stubbornness towards those with disabilities, meaning that we only work on those issues of reconciliation. Rather, I am saying that working with people with disabilities and how they gain access to the Internet (whether they even have access to it at all) is just as important as working along side the ‘real life’ and visual/textual community to discuss and deconstruct they idea of racial identity.
Some questions which might speak to this idea: Are those with disabilities given fair access to the Internet? Is the access that is given to those with disabilities really accommodation or can it, in the long run, help everyone improve their Internet interactions? How can we continue to encourage the discussion of access for users with disabilities? How do we not assume that people with disabilities have everything they need? How can working with people with disabilities also help to synthesize racial reconciliation online? Are these questions to big? Are these questions to small? If I had a disability what questions would I be asking? Which answers would I need? If I was not Caucasian, which questions would I be asking? Which answers would I need? As a white, non-disabled person which questions do I need to be asking? What answers to I need? And the list goes on…
To end, I would like to leave with a quote from Kristi which I felt was beautifully stated and with which I am now trying to engage to the best of my abilities, “Refusing to even acknowledge how differences influences our lives is a violent act of erasure that ignores both people’s multiple and various ways of constructing their identities and roots of social injustice.”–Well said, Kristi!
1 comment February 14, 2008
I’m remembering…
* An engaging Vinge discussion
* All of the cool things I learned in Photoshop
* The Diet Pepsi that I drank that I think was stale (watch out for those school vending machines)
* Creating in my head what my Photoshop picture would turn out to be (and now being pleasently surprised that it really didn’t turn out half bad).
* Wondering if there is a way that I can do one of these blog posts on my phone in all text just to say that I did.
Add comment February 5, 2008
“Content Analysis: Counting What You (Think You) See”
Research Question: What activities do 12-18 year old readers engage in?
I am choosing to utilize the content analysis in response to this picture because the other happenin’ side of my degree utilizes amazing cataloging (or what Rose refers to as ‘coding’) skills. While this may seem like a simple analysis, in retrospect, it is a bit more difficult than it seems. Rose mentions the coding categories on page 60, stating that the utilized in analyzing the images must be:
* exhaustive
* exclusive
&
* enlightening
Further they must be valid (connect between text, context, and code) and replicable (clearly defined so that researches at different times and places would be able to code the image in exactly the same way). Engaging each of these factors when analyzing a picture can be difficult, especially when one is using the codes for the purpose of cateloging an image within a library collection.
The reason I chose this picture is because my Photoshop image was definitely more feminine. Although, this picture has a girl in it… so… well, yeah, that would attract 12-18 year old boys, right?
4 Steps to Content Analysis
Step 1: Find Your Image CHECK!
(Note: Rose discusses the idea of analyzing multiple images. In order to do so, the images must be representative and significant. In order to ensure those two qualities, sampling strategies might include random, stratified, systematic, and cluster. Which ever one is chosen will depend on the research question: What activities do 12-18 year old male readers engage in?).
Step 2: Devising your categories for coding.
While I am currently only working with one image, I am able to imagine some codes based on further pictures which might be put into this selection. Also, I would need to be sure to include codes which speak to my research question.
That said… here are some c-c-codes based on this list provided on pages 60-61:
1. in front of picture (location)
2. woman and picture (unit of article organization)
3. no smile (smiling in the photograph)
4. women (gender of adults depicted)
5. 20-30 (age of those depicted): although, if I wanted to market this for my 12-18 year old audience could I fib on the age??? Hmmm??
6. walking briskly (aggressive activity)
7. no action (activity level of main foreground figures)
8. standing and looking (activity type of main foreground figures)
9. looking left (camera gaze of main person photographed)
10. drawing behind (surroundings of people photographed)
11. one (group size)
12. middle class, paints with stain, artist (wealth indicators in photograph)
13. white (skin color)
14. casual, paints with stain (dress style)
15. straight on (point from which camera perceives main figures).
Other codes which I might choose to include: color of photograph, body position, time of day… etc. Of course, if I were actually cataloging this picture, I would also include information about the picture such as the artist. However, because content analysis is simply about the ‘composition modality’, it does not leave room for discussion of artist or symbolism.
Step 3: Coding the images
In reviewing the above information, the codes of the image would be that which is not in the parentheses. It is those codes that must be replicable. It is also this stage which is the most difficult because a cataloger must not only focus on making the codes replicable for fellow catalogers, but must also take into consideration users who have had little to no library search and retrieve training. And, again, if I were trying to have a 12-18 year old reader access this image, I would need to take into consideration their jargon and vocabulary. What I may see as a female standing and looking at a picture of a walking female, they may see as something abstract and aloof and search for those terms (although, in an ideal cataloging world the abstract would be categorized right along with the un-abstract or, uh, ‘literal’ as it were).
Step 4: Analyzing the Results
This is where, if I were to have a group of images, I would apply the statistical information based on the number of pictures which were categorized into each code. In considering my research question, an important code might be age. If I were to hope that a 12-18 year old would view this image, then the age of the woman in the picture might be a bit high. If any of my readers are artists they might be interested in looking at other photographs with pictures in them. As a cataloger, I would ensure that all of these categories and topics connect. Although, again, I would have to make sure that they were valid. If this was the only picture that had an older woman in it, it would probably not be ethically wise to lie about the woman’s age, as suggested earlier! (Shame on me!) 
To reach teens, perhaps I could use a word like ‘mentor’, although that term does not speak to replicability necessarily.
Whew! This content analysis stuff really is a tough cookie!
But, you maybe asking, “Is content analysis a critical visual methodology?” Well… yes… because it’s in the book! And, because if it wasn’t catalogers wouldn’t need a master’s degree in the field of library science. But maybe Rose can say it more eloquently, “Clearly, every stage of content analysis, from formulating the research question, to developing coding categories, to interpreting the results, entails decisions about meaning and significance… Lutz and Collins suggest that, especially if the coding of images is carefully formulated, content analysis can be used to interpret the cultural meaning of images” (66).
Add comment February 5, 2008
I can do it. I can do it 9 times!
This picture was taken of a former student of mine. The kids were outside during a break and she decided to do some headstands. I was playing with the digital camera and took a black and white of her ‘in action’. Because my focus is young adult literature I wanted to create something that would be engaging for 12-18 year olds. I realize that this picture, and the subsequent poem (no comments on the awfulness of that, please…!) includes more of a feminine audience, but I was encouraged with how it turned out–jazzy, sparkly, and just gosh darn cool was what I was going for. Also, I wanted to try to keep it as simple as possible, while still showing off my Photoshop skills. I would say that that was the most difficult task I encountered–trying to live up to the standards of the class while keeping it simple enough to look nice. At one point I had only done two Photoshop tasks (the clone and creating the light pink layer) and I really wanted to stop. But, then I ended up playing around a bit more and came up with something that I think looks pretty good for the minimalness of my practice in Photoshop.
P.S. Ten points for the title reference. Anyone? Anyone?
2 comments February 4, 2008
