I wonder whether
Clay Barrett kept a diary. Mr Barrett,
to whom a bench outside the Mabo Library is dedicated, died in 1999 at the age
of 34 and is described on the plaque as "one of the last true humanitarians".
The epitaph shocked me, implying as it does that a) the world no longer
produces humanitarians and b) the last of them were gone before the 21st
century began. Is this another facet of posthumanism?
I searched Clay Barrett, "Clay Barrett" Townsville and "Clay Barrett" JCU, and
all I found was a photograph of the bench in a website of memorial pictures. Perhaps Krogerus and Tschappeler (2012) are
right in saying: "Today the most interesting people are those that we can’t find on Google"
(p88).
Uncommon Forum (UF) members
can grab attention with the naming of their threads. "Molested by a
five-year-old" ran to eight pages, in which it soon became clear that the title was deliberately misleading.
Van Luyn (2013) said no text exists in a vacuum and that
academic text is a response to previous work in the same genre. UF members generally demonstrate the reading
method described by Di Yanni (2004): "observing, connecting, inferring, and
concluding" as well as "respond[ing] with questions that echo in their minds as
they read" (p9). However, some thread-starters on UF receive no response, which
surely must feel like a vacuum to the authors.
Russian
semiotician Mikhail Bakhtin (cited by Van Luyn, 2013) said all language fitted
a genre. UF rules ask that people not start arguments or attack, but this is rarely
enforced. One member communicates almost exclusively in images
while another writes in what he considers academic style, despite many members
disputing his claims. Many write the filter-style posts McNeill (2011) describes; some promote
products but the majority are disinterested. Those whose style particularly pleases
the site owners have the Most Valuable Poster emblem under their usernames.
REFERENCES
Di Yanni, R. (2004) Introduction: Reading and Writings
Essays. In Twenty-Five Great Essays (1-30). New York: Pearson Longman.
Krogerus, M. & Tschappeler, R. (2012). The Change
Book: Fifty Models to Explain How Things Happen. London, UK: Profile Books
Ltd.
McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2:0?: A Genre Moves from Page to
Screen. In Language and New Media (313-323). New Jersey: Hampton Press
Inc.
Van Luyn, A. (2013) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives
and the Making of Place, Lecture 6: Genre and Identity.
Main picture: Vicky Seal
No comments:
Post a Comment