“Why don’t we write each other love poems? / Look at me collapse into babysobs and bare need, me, / sturdy and self-sufficient.”

“Inevitable Postcards” Ellen Doré Watson

This (two star, written) assignment required me to share a quote I’ve read and explain why it interests me. I have always really enjoyed this quote, how sweet and purely pleasant it is- but considering the name of my blog, y’all probably aren’t surprised. Right below are pics of the poem that I took, since I couldn’t find a copy online, in case you’re interested in reading the whole thing.

Part of what interests me about this quote is how, within the context of the rest of the poem, it’s almost surprising, like she was all of the sudden overwhelmed with affection for her significant other and just couldn’t keep it in. It’s a marker of a huge tone shift between the first and second half of the poem, the shift is just so noticeable, and I love it, but I’m interested as to where that came from. Additionally, I really like how she contrasts her general sturdiness and self-sufficiency with “babysobs and bare need”, sort of showing how even Very Strong People can go crazy go stupid (emotionally). That there is nothing wrong with having big, huge, uncontrollable emotions and that it is okay to have outpourings of those emotions. Its a really nice, refreshing outlook to read about. The other incredibly interesting thing about this quote is its intro, “why don’t we write each other love poems?” Its, as I stated earlier, very sudden and kind of a shock given the prior content of the poem. The way its almost talking to the reader, treating the reader as her lover, is a Hot Take that I generally really enjoy seeing in poetry. Not to go too English professor on here, but there is also some fun alliteration with “babysobs and bare need” versus “sturdy and self sufficient”, that is fun to think about, the effects and implications of that alliteration. Overall, this is, to me, a really powerful quote that speaks volumes about the nature of love and its un-ashamed-ness (that’s a word, right?).

Now for the “reflect on the assignment” part! This was a nice way to ease into the ds106 assignment flow after taking a (probably foolish) weekend break from it. The most difficult part about this assignment for me was choosing which quote to write about, for I recently got into poetry and thus have a lot of highlights and markups in my Ellen Doré Watson book (which, btw, 10/10 recommend if you’re into poetry). I decided on the cheesy romantic one partially because of my blog name- romanticism cliche- and partially because I was just really feeling a light-hearted and cutesy moment. After I settled on Watson’s cheesy love quote, I took some time to figure out what really draws me to that quote, and then wrote that down!

xoxo! -liz

important ps: any poet/poetry recs? def doesn’t have to be romantic/cheesy!

For this assignment, I did Quote Me On That, where we had to, “Share a quote (or quotes) from a reading you’ve done and explain what interests you about it.” Hey! we had two reading options this week, how about that. I already talked about how I really like the quote, “stories decode and encode,” from THE NEW DIGITAL STORYTELLING: Creating Narratives with New Media in my post The 80s are alive! ALIVE! Since I’ve already said what I wanted to say with that pearl-of-wisdom, I’ll discuss another quote I like from the other reading, I link, therefore I am.

can a story be a labyrinth, or should it be the thread that leads us through?

Zacharias Szumer

OK, so this is really more of a question than a pearl-of-wisdom, but I think it’s still worth delving into.

According to the author from, I link, therefore I am, we should all be skeptical about jumping on board the labyrinth train. I’m not sure what all the hesitation is about- If David Bowie magically appeared, stole my baby brother, and forced me to navigate a surreal Labyrinth of puzzles and muppets, I’d be pretty ecstatic.

Ba-dum-tss.

While I am (partially) joking, I think that this is actually a good example of an 80’s movie that would work well with interactive media. Picture it: Goblin King Jareth makes you an offer you can’t refuse. You hate being stuck on babysitting duty, and Jareth kindly tells you that he’ll make all your dreams come true and take care of the whole drooling infant situation. What do you choose? Do you take his offer? (Of course you do). Instantly regretting your decision to hit “Yes, take my baby bro away” on the Netflix pop-up screen, you now have precisely 13 hours to solve Jareth’s labyrinth and find baby bro before he is turned into a goblin forever. Sounds fun, right?

I of course am referring to the Black Mirror ‘Bandersnatch‘ episode where viewers got to make choices like the ones I described. Some of the choices were big, like ‘Yes’/’No’ to a job offer, and others were trivial, like ‘This’/That’ to the type of cereal that the main character ate. But here’s what made ‘Bandersnatch’ truly addictive: depending on what you made poor Stefan Butler do, the resulting end scenario would be different. The myriad of choices also resulted in many variances of the same scene, which led to a massive Easter egg hunt. The branching paths and extra scenes gave viewers a reason to watch ‘Bandersnatch’ over and over again, making a 90 minute episode stretch out into 2.5 or more hours. It’s an especially immersive experience if you’re viewing the show with a friend:
“OK, which one do we pick? Hurry! Choose”
“Ahhh, OK, have him ‘Pick up Book’”
*Stefan Picks up Book*
“What? How did you get that ending? I’ve never seen this before!”
And so on. This kind of viewing interactivity turns mindless zombie binge watching into a fun-for-the-whole-family event.

But the question of “can a story be a labyrinth, or should it be the thread that leads us through?” is one that is misguided. It’s a bit like asking, can a Disney story be live-action, or should it be animated? The obvious answer is that there is reason to have it both ways! Having an interactive story like ‘Bandersnatch’ makes sense for ‘Bandersnatch.’ The creators wanted to make a story about a programmer who loses control. And what better way for them to achieve that than to have the viewers literally control him. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that interactive viewing will work, or should work, with all stories. Because sometimes you feel like watching your favorite blue genie as the real-life actor, Will Smith, and other times you just want to curl up to the comforting animated voice of the beloved Robin Williams (may he rest in peace). J/K, Robin Williams Genie is the only true Genie.

The author goes on to say that the interactivity of ‘Bandersnatch’ is akin to the hypertext fiction stories of the 80’s-90’s, to which he then attempts to compare the success of the two mediums. But the two are not comparable. ‘Bandersnatch’ is truly immersive; a simple two-choice menu lets viewers be a part of the story without making them work too hard to watch more story. A hypertext story is a patchwork of links and branches and extraneous information that overloads the reader. And if I’ve learned anything from the wonderful world of UX Design and their stories of woe, it’s that clicking on stuff is work. (Fun-fact: Most users will achieve their website goal with as few clicks as possible, even if more clicks would have resulted in better information).

But Melody, you’ve been littering your posts with hyperlinks! True. And most readers will not click on them. But for those who do, they’ll either discover more information on the underlined word, or they will be directed to a humorous video, sound, GIF, or image that relates to the word in some way. The creators of ‘Bandersnatch’ went into the episode’s production knowing that the average viewer wouldn’t even see all of the scenes they shot, but for the dedicated few, it was an extra treat. This is how I believe blogging should be: a story that threads the reader through with the option of it being a labyrinth.

The labyrinthine narrative of ‘Bandersnatch’ was a huge success, and one that doesn’t have to be just a passing fad. This style of choose-your-own adventure storytelling is one that I think we’ll be seeing more of in the future. Will it replace traditional storytelling? Probably not. Will it be an addition to traditional storytelling? I would put my money on ‘yes.’ And to refute the end quote from I link, therefore I am, that asserts, “For now, I think it’s best to avoid the futile field of cartography for the rapidly shifting terrain of digital media,” I’ll add my own:

“For now, I think it’s best to embrace the prospective field of cartography because the rapidly shifting terrain of digital media affords us the opportunity to do so.”

My first writing assignment was to find a quote that interests me and explain why it does. This wasn’t too hard since I enjoy poetry and follow a lot of poetry accounts on my main Instagram. So as I was scrolling along, I came across a page by Chloe Frayne where she shares all of her creativity. In particular I loved the quote, “We are all just searching for something with more During than After.” I was also simply just drawn to the image because of how cool it looked. Here’s my post explaining why I like it.

“I’d be a terrible secret agent. I can’t keep a secret and I’m not sneaky.”

This quote by Katherine Heigl is one that I ran into last week when I was looking into secret agent stuff. I thought this quote was funny and relatable, so when I found the “Quote Me On That” assignment I figured it would be a good one to talk about! It’s also a bonus that it fits with the course theme.

Let me tell you… I would be the worst secret agent. I wouldn’t say that I am bad at keeping secrets, but I am HORRIBLE at lying. Like just awful. I lose any game that involves bluffing and struggle to keep things from people if they ask me for information that I know. I am also one of the clumsiest people you will ever meet. I trip over nothing all the time, and my friends laugh at me for stumbling over a completely flat piece of ground or losing my balance when I’m standing still.

So yeah… secret agent would definitely not be at the top of my list of recommended professions. However, it’s fun to pretend along for the course that I am a super stealthy secret agent who goes on all sorts of important missions and can keep any secret. The great thing about digital storytelling is that it doesn’t have to be true to life!

“Share a quote (or quotes) from a reading you’ve done and explain what interests you about it.” – Quote Me on That

These past few months, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into self-improvement. One of the things I have aimed for improving was the rate at which I read books, and overall, how many books I read a year. So far this year, I have finished three books.

The books are:

• The Habit Loop by Charles Duhigg
• The Book on Real Estate Investing With Low and No Money Down by Brandon Turner
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

One of the most noteworthy quotes that I read out of all of these books, that I think will have the most value out of context- was this:

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”

What interests me about this quote is that it can be applied to anything in business, the interpersonal world, and beyond. In the book, it spends the entirety of its contents discussing the difference between average companies and great companies. Despite this, the book still provides many incredibly insightful pieces of information, ready to be applied to our own lives.

“I don’t like green eggs and ham.”

I was struck with the potency of these words.The poor guy was trying to impart what he liked and didn’t like, but was constantly belittled. The “moral” of the story was to try new things and to be open to change. I think it’s unhealthy propaganda made to inform the status quo on an unsuspecting and entirely unwavering party. Is there anything wrong with sticking to your guns and resisting the man who attempts to force things down your throat?

Of course not!

Yet here we are- an entire generation of children believing that “trying new things” forced upon them by annoying third parties is a good thing.

To that, I say….

“In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration.”

This quote comes from one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies, North by Northwest. It is was uttered by the character, Roger Thornill, played by Cary Grant.

Advertisements have changed in their distribution methods, yes? They have also become more involved with our lives more then ever, no? This quote is timeless and also simple. Very few things in life are as they are advertised. They are convenient. Some advertisements may be immoral. Even though this may be true, now more then ever they offer thoughtful engagement to those that think critically. Others can be lured in at their own risk and pleasure. It’s a quote that reveals a pernicious part of our lives that reaches down to the core of a necessary evil.

I took the excellent Writing Process class with Dr. Rigsby a number of semesters ago and have carried this quote from Tilly Warnock with me since leaving:

“I learned to respect the potentialities and probabilities of revision, as I learned to respect the fallacy of hindsight, the truths we create with hindsight, the patterns we change by turning the kaleidoscope, the potential distortion of historical facts and horrors.”

I enjoy this notion of “rewriting” my life or, more understandably, taking a different perspective on past events. Often times, especially in our youth, we are driven into modes of understanding that we don’t even think to control. The events and people around us force our perspectives on our lives in one way or another. In reality, with personal exploration and insight, we can take a reappraisal of the situations of our past lives, re-invent them based on who we have become in relation to who we were then. We tend to take emotional, enduring snapshots during our times of crisis in life and have trouble letting them go.

Louis C.K tells a joke of an openly gay professor he knew in college. While reminiscing about him with an old friend, Louis remarks the professor “would always try to have sex with me.” His friend, stunned, replies “really? Like he physically tried?” Louis replies “No, you know, he would just…always try to have sex with me.”  Confused, the friend replied “Well, what do you mean? How so?” While thinking about it more, Louis realized he was unsure. After continuing their conversation, Louis came to the realization that the crux of the story was simply “I once knew a gay man,” with nothing really ever coming from it. His younger, more naïve self was unable to understand the situation and he hadn’t reflected and reevaluated back on the topic since that time period. He highlights this example as a way we retain narratives in our lives that can be rewritten with time. As a kid, Louis had a naïve view of homosexuality and was likely uncomfortable with it. Without having to confront that particular situation with that man in his life again, he never experienced a personal reappraisal of the situation using his newfound experience and intelligence. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the notion that that man acted that way stayed dormant in his mind. Humorous, yes, but I also think it highlights a decent point of conversation.