This is the assignment as I gave it to them. I have already had some
interesting responses — they all seems quite excited by you. Love or
hate they do seem excited. I suppose it would make more sense to you
if you knew the reading … but meh. I thought about the idea after I
wrote to you about proving marketability through traffic , so I wanted
to see how much traffic I could generate — not much I suppose, unless
the whole class gets in on the act (there are 340 first year cultural
studies students). “Step Back” is a term we use in my classes to try
to represent the idea of a meta-cognitive sort of thinking — asking
why, why do I think the way I do.
Thinking about their thinking —
It is a tough thing for many of them to grasp, but they are catching
on. Already some of them are beginning to understand that things like
compassion and tolerance requires that they “Know Thyself”.
Okay,
Here is the assignment. Go to www.raymitheminx.blogspot.com. Raymi
is a bit of an internet phenomenon. The task is to take a look at her
site (Warning: some nudity, some foul language some odd stuff) and try
to think about it in terms of Internet memes and the reading on
Niagara Falls.
What makes a site? (like Niagara or Raymi) Write me a little blurble on Raymi.
Now the fun part – after you have read as much as you can handle, (or
have read it all) and written your thoughts down, ask at least one
other person you know to look at the site and see if they can figure
out why Raymi is so compelling to so many in the blogshpere. A quick
email will do.
Include their response in your journal. She is not
universally loved, in fact some comments are vitriolic. ( I will email
you a few random internet grabs) It might be very interesting to see
how three or four people react to Raymi… and then “Step Back” and see
if you can understand why those people react the way they do. What
can we learn about cultural studies, about ourselves, what about
private and public space, what about the projection of identity or why
people react so strongly? Or anything that comes to mind. This is
extra work, do not get stressed. Right now, she has not archived the
month of November – but time is probably of the essence. As of
today, she has not done anything extraordinarily offensive, but I
cannot take responsibility if she decides she is going to become a
porn star or post anti-Semitic comments in the future.
Here is the quotation from Karen Dubinsky that I thought had
relevance to my blog idea. “…[T]he question of how certain sites
become designated as popular places to visit, as well as of how
particular places become invested with specific qualities” . . . .
Places are more than simple locations; the spatial is also socially
constructed, and places can mean different things at different times
(Coursepack 108)
A Google search for Raymi turns up a rather impressive 23 500 hits.
She receives approximately 14 000 hits a month…
Good Luck
