When first starting to revise my final essay, I knew there were a few things I wanted to do. First I wanted my essay to have a stronger thesis. The first time around my thesis was basically that I didn’t have a thesis. I couldn’t decide whether Patchwork Girl succeeded or failed as a novel. I couldn’t commit to one or the other. This time around I decided that I really need to pick a side in order to make the thesis stronger so that is what I did. The other thing I needed was to add more quotes from Birkerts. I did not add as many as I would have liked but I believe the quotes I added helped my thesis. I also wanted to incorporate a previous writing assignment into this one.I chose to use my first one and I believe I did so successfully.

Before writing this final paper I looked back at my to-do list from the beginning of the year. The two most important things on there were “improve introductions and conclusions” and “develop stronger thesis statements”. I know I have not perfected either of these things but I feel that this final essay shows the improvement that I have made in both these areas.

Amy Shivers

Professor Meehan

English 101

December 2, 2009

The success/failure of Patchwork Girl as a novel

Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl provided a new and unique experience for me. I am quite divided on whether or not this story succeeded or failed as a novel. To me a novel should keep the reader interested and engaged. It should also challenge the reader. I also feel that one should be able to get lost in the story. They shouldn’t want to put the book down. Novels should also last forever. Although Patchwork Girl is challenging and keeps the reader interested, I feel the complexity of the layout does not allow the reader to get lost in the story like they should and the fact that Patchwork Girl will not last forever means Patchwork Girl fails as a novel.

Patchwork Girl’s layout is quite interesting. One could spend hours clicking through the story. With a book the reader has no choice but to read from cover to cover. With hypertext, the reader is able to choose where they want to go. They get to participate more in the story. This can be very engaging. It reminds me very much of those choose your own adventure books that I read as a child. At the bottom of the page it would give you a choice of what you wanted to happen next. Once you chose, it would direct you to another page. I used to love these books. They would keep me entertained for hours. That was what happened when I looked at Patchwork Girl for the first time. I started off by clicking on graveyard. I followed this path until I hit a wall at resurrection. I went back to the title page and this time decided to read journal. I spent at least two hours in this section. I would click on the link that would bring me to the next page and that was fine for a while. But then I discovered that there was sometimes more than one link on each page. I went back and clicked on every word until I found it. It was like an adventure.

I thought the same thing about the choose your own adventure books. They were entertaining but at the same time I always found myself getting frustrated. If I chose one thing, what would happen if I chose the other? I would go back and try to follow a different path this time. It was fun but at the same time I hated knowing that there was a chance that I missed something. That is exactly how I feel with this novel. I don’t like that I feel like I am missing parts of the story by skipping over some of the links.

Because Patchwork Girl is so disconnected, it is also very hard to get lost in the story. Whenever I read a good novel I always have a hard time putting the book down.  I just get lost in the story. I always become very emotionally attached to the characters. I often find myself crying as Birkerts does: “…I cried scalding tears, unable to believe the whole world did not grind to a sorrowful halt”(page 37).  I also find myself feeling happy when something good happened in the book. It got to the point that what happened in the story the night before would determine how my day would go. If something good happened, I would be in a good mood all day but if something bad happened, I would have a terrible day. That is how reading should always make you feel. Although you can get caught up in trying to find the next link, it is not the same as completely disappearing into the story. “I tipped up and back in my chair, clicked and clicked again, waiting patiently for the empowering rush that ought to come when worlds open upon other worlds and old limits collapse” (Birkerts 151). This is exactly how someone should feel while reading a story. Like they are in another world. Like anything is possible. There is no flow in Patchwork Girl making it very hard to feel this way.

“R. sat me down in a chair in front of a terminal, booted up, and off we went. Or did we? In fact it was not one of those off-you-go kinds of things at all. What we ahs in front of us was a spatialized table of contents in the form of a map form of a map of an elaborate garden. There were mazelike paths and benches and nooks, each representing some element, or strand, of the novel. This was an option board. The reader was invited to proceed by inclination, choosing a character, focusing on a relationship, engaging (or not) a relevant subplot, and deciding whether to snap backward or forward in time” (Birkerts 151).

Although this excerpt is not describing Patchwork Girl it may as well be. It is almost exactly the same experience. As soon as you open the program you are overwhelmed by options. All the choices keep the reader from being absorbed into the story.

I also feel that a novel should be something that lasts forever. Books are reliable. You don’t have to worry about the technology being out of date. All you have to do is pick it up, open it and star reading. It will always be there. Technology, on the other hand, is quite different. Technology is constantly advancing. With all this change, one has to worry about the software becoming out of date. That is the problem with Patchwork Girl. It is not compatible with all of the new technology. I was unable to download the program onto my computer. Luckily some computers are able to use this program but I feel that soon Patchwork Girl’s technology will be completely obsolete. No one will be able to use it and the novel will therefore be gone forever.

Ultimately, it is difficult to determine whether Patchwork Girl fails or succeeds as a novel. The layout is very complex and keeps the reader interested. But this same complexity sacrifices the flow of the story. When the story doesn’t flow, it is harder for the reader to get lost in it. Also, the technology used to create Patchwork Girl is very outdated. Soon people will no longer be able to use it. When this happens, Patchwork Girl will be gone forever, forgotten. Although all these factors are pretty important in determining the success or failure of a novel, I feel that the fact that the reader is unable to be absorbed into the story and the fact that Patchwork Girl may soon be obsolete are the most imperative to this decision. Therefore, I believe Patchwork Girl is unsuccessful as a novel.

I thought the same thing about the choose your own adventure books. They were entertaining but at the same time I always found myself getting frustrated. That is exactly how I feel with this novel. I don’t like that I feel like I am missing parts of the story by skipping over some of the links.

Because Patchwork Girl is so disconnected, it is also very hard to get lost in the story. Although you can get caught up in trying to find the next link, it is not the same as completely disappearing into the story. “I tipped up and back in my chair, clicked and clicked again, waiting patiently for the empowering rush that ought to come when worlds open upon other worlds and old limits collapse” (Birkerts 151). This is exactly how someone should feel while reading a story. Like they are in another world. Like anything is possible. There is no flow in Patchwork Girl making it very hard to feel this way.

Amy Shivers

Professor Meehan

English 101

December 2, 2009

Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl provided a new and unique experience for me. I am quite divided on whether or not this story succeeded or failed as a novel. To me a novel should keep the reader interested and engaged. It should also challenge the reader. I also feel that one should be able to get lost in the story. They shouldn’t want to put the book down. Although Patchwork Girl is challenging and keeps the reader interested, I feel the complexity of the layout does not allow the reader to get lost in the story like they should.

Patchwork Girl’s layout is quite interesting. One could spend hours clicking through the story. With a book the reader has no choice but to read from cover to cover. With hypertext, the reader is able to choose where they want to go. They get to participate more in the story. This can be very engaging. It reminds me very much of those choose your own adventure books that I read as a child. At the bottom of the page it would give you a choice of what you wanted to happen next. Once you chose, it would direct you to another page. I used to love these books. They would keep me entertained for hours. That was what happened when I looked at Patchwork Girl for the first time. I started off by clicking on graveyard. I followed this path until I hit a wall at resurrection. I went back to the title page and this time decided to read journal. I spent at least two hours in this section. I would click on the link that would bring me to the next page and that was fine for a while. But then I discovered that there was sometimes more than one link on each page. I went back and clicked on every word until I found it. It was like an adventure.

I thought the same thing about the choose your own adventure books. They were entertaining but at the same time I always found myself getting frustrated. If I chose one thing, what would happen if I chose the other? I would go back and try to follow a different path this time. It was fun but at the same time I hated knowing that there was a chance that I missed something. That is exactly how I feel with this novel. I don’t like that I feel like I am missing parts of the story by skipping over some of the links.

Because Patchwork Girl is so disconnected, it is also very hard to get lost in the story. Although you can get caught up in trying to find the next link, it is not the same as completely disappearing into the story. “I tipped up and back in my chair, clicked and clicked again, waiting patiently for the empowering rush that ought to come when worlds open upon other worlds and old limits collapse” (Birkerts 151). This is exactly how someone should feel while reading a story. Like they are in another world. Like anything is possible. There is no flow in Patchwork Girl making it very hard to feel this way.

Ultimately, I cannot determine whether Patchwork Girl fails or succeeds as a novel. The layout is very complex and keeps the reader interested. But this same complexity sacrifices the flow of the story. When the story doesn’t flow, it is harder for the reader to get lost in it. Both these factors are equally important which is why it is impossible to conclude.

Work Cited

Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. Union Square West, NY: Farber and Farber, Inc. 1994. Print.

Jackson, Shelley. Patchwork Girl. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems, 1995. Hypertext.

I started on the title page and clicked on a graveyard. This led me to her cut 4, then to graveyard, headstone, out, and resurrection. In these sections it talked about the body parts, piecing them all together, and resurrecting the monster. At resurrection I hit a wall so I went back to the title page. This time I chose a journal. This is where this link took me: her cut 2, my walk, sight, written, she stood, meeting, appetite, learn, infant, crave, I lay, shy, turned, I moved, fingertips, weight, pity, cut, her, me, female trouble, mary, surgery, join, us, and hideous progeny. This sequence describes Mary’s relationship with the monster from when she first sees the monster to when her monster leaves her. Mary talks about how she tries to teach the monster and how the monster’s moods change erratically like a child. Then the relationship between the monster and Mary changes dramatically. Mary now craves the creatures company and their relationship becomes very intimate. Mary and the creature fall in love but the creature is restless. They both plan for her departure but first they perform a surgery. Mary takes skin from her inner thigh and stitches it to the monster and the monster does the same. They do this so a piece of them will quite literally always be with  them. Then Mary bids farewell to her hideous progeny.

The story and its layout are equally interesting. It is, however, difficult to enjoy the story because of the complexity of the layout. I would much rather read this story from a book.

Professor Meehan

English Literature and Composition

October 30, 2009

i, Robot and Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been translated into quite a few different mediums. The most apparent form of remediation is movies. Many elements of Shelley’s novel can be seen in a countless number of movies, one of the more recent ones being i, Robot. By looking closely at some specific elements in this movie, we can see the similarities between i, Robot and Frankenstein.

One of the first similarities that struck me was the idea of technology being a dangerous thing. In both cases, the creatures created by technology have destroyed the lives of their creators by rising up against them. In Victor’s case, he brings life to a creature and as soon as he does so he regrets it. Because his creation is hideous, he deserts him, leaving the creature miserable and alone. He eventually finds Victor and requests a companion. Victor creates the creature’s counterpart but then destroys it, afraid of the consequences of letting another monster roam the earth. The creature is infuriated and seeks revenge on Victor by killing his loved ones. He eventually dies while trying to hunt down the creature. In i, Robot, Dr. Lanning creates V.I.K.I. (virtual interactive kinetic intelligence). This is a “positronic operating core” or “brain” that basically everything is linked to. It controls everything but only on the command of a human. Or so we think. V.I.K.I. ends up getting a mind of its own and tries to control humanity. In order to stop this from happening, Dr. Lanning orders this robot (later deemed Sonny), which he created to destroy V.I.K.I., to kill him in order to get the attention of Detective Spooner. These cases are quite different but also very similar in that both of the scientists’ lives were ended because of their creatures.

I also was reminded of the creature’s intelligence when looking at the robots. Although he is no smarter than a human being, he is smarter than the way he is portrayed in most film versions based of the book. Also, the fact that his intelligence evolves is similar to i, Robot. In the novel, he goes from a grunting, unintelligible creature to a rather intelligent individual. He teaches himself how to speak and read in a relatively short amount of time. In i, Robot, V.I.K.I. gets smarter as well. It starts out as a machine that can only abide by the “three laws of robotics”.  These laws discuss the robots’ duty to protect human beings, obey them, and to cause them no harm. All the robots are programmed with these laws but V.I.K.I.’s intelligence evolves and it interprets the laws in a different way which does not involve protecting individual humans, but tries to save mankind as a whole, even if this means the death and enslavement of most human beings.

Another element that reminds me of the novel while watching this film is the fact Sonny has emotions. In both mediums we feel compassion towards the creatures because they experience human emotions. At one point in the film, Sonny is to be decommissioned for the murder of Dr. Lanning. As he is waiting for the “nanites” to be injected into his system, he talks to Dr. Calvin. He tells her that he does not want to die and asks if it is going to hurt him. His reactions are so human-like that the viewer feels sympathetic to the robot. They do not want him to die. In the novel we feel this sympathy for the creature as well. When he is talking about how his loneliness and how that is the root of his wickedness, one can’t help but to feel bad for him.

One of the things that has stayed with me since reading the novel is the creation scene. Although how the creature is brought to life is not described in great detail, the image of when he opens his “dull, yellow eye” sticks in my mind. There are a few scenes throughout the movie that remind me of this. The first is when Detective Spooner is looking around Dr. Lanning’s office. As he is digging through a bin of robot parts we see a robot’s face with its eyes closed. The eyes pop open and he jumps from the bin. Another instance that reminds me of the scene is when Detective Spooner is attacked by two truck-loads of robots. He is driving when these trucks pull up in front of him and behind him, trapping him. The truck doors open revealing robots hanging lifelessly from shelves. But then one of the robots snaps its yellow eyes open and begins the attack. The third time this happens is when a robot is being decommissioned. As the “nanites” enter its system, its yellow eyes burst open before the life is slowly drained out of them. I find it interesting that the death of a robot reminds me of the birth of the creature.

Ultimately, elements of Frankenstein are seen in many different mediums, the most apparent being movies. At many points throughout the movie i, Robot, I was reminded of the novel. The similarities that I noticed include the idea of technology being dangerous, the creations’ intelligence and emotions, and the eyes of the creatures.

Professor Meehan

English Literature and Composition

October 5, 2009

The Creature as Adam and Satan

There are many biblical references in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. At many points throughout the novel, we find the creature comparing himself both to Adam and to Satan. But which is he more like? I would say that he has similarities to both of these biblical characters due to the way he was created, his loneliness, and his ostracism.

In Genesis, God assembles a creature and then breathes life into it. This is not too different from how the creature in the novel came into existence. “…for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelly 60).

In Paradise lost, Adam asks God to create him a companion. After reading this, the creature wants one as well.

“I endeavoured to crush these fears, and to fortify myself for the trial which in months I resolved to undergo; and sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathising with my feelings, and cheering my gloom; their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation. But it was all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows, nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adams supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me; and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him” (Shelley 118).

In this passage, the creature is expressing his desire for a companion. He compares himself to Adam and Victor to god, his creator. He doesn’t understand why his creator has abandoned him.

“But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature, but I was wretched, helpless, and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (Shelley 116).

The creature is saying that like Adam, he is also very lonely. But although there were no other creatures like Adam at the time, his creator loved and protected him. He refers to himself as Satan because he was ostracized by his creator just like the fallen angel.

“Be calm! I entreat you to hear me before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous” (Shelley 93-94).

He is saying that he wishes to live. The creature says that he is more powerful than Victor but he does not wish to hurt him. He merely wants to be treated as Victor’s Adam, but instead he is treated as Satan. Like the “fallen angel” he was once a good creature. But his isolation caused him pain and sadness. This made him into a “monster”. If Victor were to show him some compassion, the creature would no longer be a miserable monster.

Ultimately, these passages show the creature’s relationship to biblical characters. They show that because of the way that he was created and the fact that there were no other creatures like him, he was very much like Adam. They also show that due to the fact that his creator showed him no affection and the way that he became “a fiend”, that he is also very much like Satan.

creature argues that if Adam had a companion why can’t he?