Prezintly, I Have a Few Questions

                No, that was not a misspelling. This class has made me increasingly intrigued about how I, as a writer, could help to lead this progression of Book Culture for the publisher. I’ve spent hours at times reeling in the idea of a progressive reading context. Not just eBooks - in the world I was picturing they would be the “slow” technology like hardback books are being looked at more and more today. In the world I imagine a couple different options.

            First will come the eBooks that have sound bites and YouTube clips filtered in. Kindle will have to adapt their technology a little bit, but these kinds of books could be available on iPad even tomorrow if they have been written. The sound bite idea has always made me think of Leap Frog or those rather corny audio books (not all of them are corny – usually it’s mainly the books written for children or the very young adults in their pre-teens or early teens), but now I’ve taken to imagining memes or YouTube clips that accentuate parts of the story. I never thought I’d be saying that’d be a cool idea, but I see it as like YouTube was for the film world.

            Ok, but we’ve heard this idea before. What about something that’s a little different? What about text that literally moves with the reader? No, not a video like text that is read to the reader, but literally text that moves to excite the right energy for the right parts of the story. This idea sprang from hearing about  a story that was partly written in PowerPoint and how it affected the presentation of the information and added to the story being told. Recently I’ve been thinking about the energy contained within a Prezi and the energy it creates. So, here’s my thought – what if the story was written in a Prezi (for now, though it might actually be better as a video later) and the way the words were written (how they were placed, if they were zoomed into, if they were placed within other words, etc.) would create the meaning. This idea was further birthed from the idea of the narrative poem. In the time of Homer, these giant narrative stories were written in poetic form, but the epic poem has in some ways died as something to aim for and conquer. Some forms of poetry focus on the placement of the words and what that can mean. This PreziBook would be a way to marry this concept of poetry and the narrative – an epic poem of this technologically advanced day and age.

            This summer I plan to embark on this journey already taken by Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, and others, and while I don’t hold that mine shall be anywhere as glorious I do hope to grasp the future and experience a new creative experience. Who knows? Maybe it could become my thing? My art? My special mark on the world?

I've Wandered For So Many Years

This may be a strange, strange situation, but sometimes I am extremely distracted while reading. This happens more often than I'd like to admit. There will be absolutely nothing to distract me, but there I'll be thinking about what's for dinner, or who I might talk to, or the societal structure of ducks, or on occasion how certain words came to be. I'm not quite sure what to do about it, but I know it happens. Sometimes I blame the reading material - "It was too dry," "Nothing to hold my attention," "I have to get through it for class" - but honestly that's probably not the truth. Don't get me wrong - for some of the pieces that is precisely part of what is going on. But for most readings, it is not the case. 

What is frustrating about it is that it is hardly time efficient. For a girl who has a lot on her plate, it makes it just a little harder to keep things from slipping off. Sometimes during the semester there would be hints of mashed potatoes plopping to the floor or some poorly barricaded peas that would cascade in a suicidal attempt to flee from the swaying plate that held them. These reading casualties can be partly attributed to this difficulty. For many stories and independent pages, I have to read them several times in order to actually read them. 

Let me explain: The first read sometimes would have the best of intentions and then come to a word that started with a "gr-." Instantly my mind would jump to the thought that my stomach was "gr"owling, which led to what to feed it, which led to what would take place while I was making that, which would lead to having to do dishes, which would lead to making a list of all the chores I hate doing (dishes being one of them), which would lead to when was the last time I vacuumed the apartment, which leads to my roommates, which leads to..., which leads to..., which leads to.... END OF PAGE. Uh-oh. I realize at this point generally that while my eyes have read every word, my brain has ... not.

If at first you don't succeed- try, try again. So, I do. This time I want to make sure I get every word, so I chant to myself: "Focus. Focus. Focus," which turns into "Car. Camera. Photo," which leads me down yet another rabbit hole. END OF PAGE. This time there is not uh-oh. There is only frustration and anger. My inner self chews me out to let me know I can do better. 

So, I try, try again, again and find that my finger following down the words is distracting. I thought it would help me focus on individual words, so I could concentrate on the message, but now I'm just focused on hitting every word at the same time and so I'm not taking it in again.

I think to myself, "Get your act together. Sure, you'll sound a little crazy, but go ahead and read it out loud if that will help." So I try that and the idea that I'm reading it out loud is distracting because of self-conscious factors and how my voice sounds. 

At some point, you throw in the towel and decide, "Tonight's not the night to read. Maybe tomorrow." While this does not happen all the time, it has happened to me before. I know this is a weird topic to openly talk about, but I know I can't be the only one that inadvertently thinks of other things as she reads. I'm an avid reader, but sometimes my head has other ideas. Try as I might, there's no going against that. So, I write this not for self-benefit or self-appreciation, but for those handful of people who feel the same and struggling with the difference.