Write a proto-hypertext--the written material that will be the first stage in constructing an online hypertext.
Topic: Your paper will focus on one of Lessig's four puzzles or on Julian Dibble's "A Rape in Cyberspace" (you will be asked to choose which topic you want to write on in class on Tuesday). You should prepare arguments both for and against a position on one of the issues these readings raise.
Structure: The paper should consist of nine 1/2-page lexias. We will construct a simple hypertext out of them, using a tree structure. The first two lexis will present your thesis--both pro and con. That is, one will present a positive position on the issue you choose, and the other will present a negative position on the same issue. From each thesis lexia, there will then be three linked lexias, amplifying and supporting the position being argued. The paper will end with a ninth lexia, which presents a conclusion. Of course, your conclusion may well be paradoxical or suggestive, for it will need to sum up two totally opposed arguments.
Presentation: You will be asked to present your paper for
peer review by a fellow class member on Thursday. The way you present your
paper is up to you. You may choose simply to bring in 9 pages of paper with
a lexia typed on each and some navigational directions typed on the bottom
of each page. Or, if you have a laptop, you may bring in an electronic version
on your computer, written in Word or WordPerfect, with the navigational links
already hyperlinked. If you choose this approach, please email your paper
to me that morning as an attachment file.
Topics (choose one):
(1) Write critiques of the best and the worst Blog or Webcam that you have visited.
Structure of Blog or Webcam paper: Organize your paper as a Cycle of 8 lexias, which will begin and end at the same point. Here are some ideas for the 8 (1/2 page) lexias, which should be linked in a unidirectional fasion from 1-8 then back to 1:
(2) Write a hypertext critique of The Matrix. Organize your paper as a cycle of 8 lexias, which will begin and end at the same point. Ideas for lexias:
- Begin with a provocative scene, motif, or even line from the movie. Simply capture the scene dramatically. Do not try to say anything critical about it.
- Interpret the scene, saying what you think makes it interesting, disturbing, etc. You should try to do a close reading of this moment in the movie.
- Jump to another scene that you think is connected to the first one, either as a development of some idea or dramatic element in the first or as its opposite. Say a bit about how it is related to the first scene but spend most of the lexia simply describing it.
- Analyze this second scene.
- Jump to a third scene, which should work to conclude the line of argument you are implicitly developing in three stages. Again, indicate how it is related to the first three but spend most of the lexia capturing the scene for your readers
- Analyze your third scene. Keep your interpretation close to the details of the scene. Resist the temptation to reveal your hand about what you think the entire series of three means.
- Reflections on what this series of scenes from the movie has made you think about some larger issue, such as movies in society, violence, gender roles, drugs, music--in short, whatever ideas or concerns that the series has served to illustrate. End with a link back to your first lexia.
| Jay Clayton |
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