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Post by Olive on Apr 11, 2012 20:53:54 GMT -5
I believe that the internet in and of itself has increased communication, but internet coupled with lack of education has degraded the quality of said communication.
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Post by Olive on Apr 4, 2012 9:42:05 GMT -5
(Oh no. Sorry for telling you this was a good place to come... I can't believe no one else has answered!)
Anyways, on to the question.
I think that there are several answers. An obvious (and shallow) way that it has changed our language is the increased frequency in abbreviations and acronyms. They're not just for texting and IMing anymore--have you ever heard someone say "lol" out loud? I have. After all, they're in our dictionaries now. Our vocabulary certainly has changed, and not necessarily for the worse.
Things get a little more complicated after that. You'd think that with the increase in text-based communication, the general public's written skills would have increased. However, I'm afraid it might have had the opposite effect. People, in their rush to get their thoughts out (or save characters) tend to leave out punctuation, truncate spelling, and drop parts of speech. The saddest thing is, this seems to have bled into any writing they do which should be more formal. I've seen freshmen turn in academic papers with acronyms and more colloquial word usage ("kinda," "gonna") and not notice anything wrong with it. Sure, there are always the exceptions--this community, for example. There are those of us who had a grasp of grammar before the advent of AIM, those of us who care about how we "sound" via text. While I still capitalize and punctuate my text messages, even though I'm working with a phone-sized keyboard and a 160 character limit, there are many more people who post comments like", i dont really like jb but i loveee this songg ( ; ." on youtube, put phrases like “IDE PREFER…” in academic emails, and say things like ”,I dont belive God likes it or he would have never said „theo shell not kill „,” on facebook.
I think that the internet could have been a fantastic tool for increasing literacy, basic writing competency, and a passion for words. However, it seems to have done less to evolve the English language and more to devolve it. Suddenly the internet is a viable source and authority for all things imaginable, leaving many people with improper information and undue confidence in a variety of things, like how to spell "definitely." I think I've lost track of how many times I've seen people defend their incorrect spelling or grammar usage, all because "so-and-so says ____ on their site, so it must be right."
(Yes, all of the quotes in the second full paragraph are things I have personally come across. Let me know if you have any citation issues... not exactly sure how that would work.)
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Post by Olive on Jul 11, 2011 8:30:54 GMT -5
Female Lead I secretly love Male Lead. He must never know. Male Lead I secretly love Female Lead. She must never know. (They find out.)
THE END
And this is why I can never love Austen.
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Post by Olive on Jul 6, 2011 7:56:47 GMT -5
They're soooo ridiculous. I went to my first when I was...14.... That was probably way to young to be lined up outside the State Theater in downtown Ann Arbor at midnight, but oh well! I had a blast.
I've been going whenever I find one since then. Actually, the first time I got my roommate to watch it was when they did it on campus. They had a king and queen competition before hand, and that's when I realized she looked like Columbia. I shoved her out of the seats and told her to go down and line up. When they asked her why she should win, she said "Because I look like... Columbus?"
Most. Adorable. Roommate. Ever.
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Post by Olive on Jul 6, 2011 7:51:28 GMT -5
This is the longest gif ever (yes I realize that statement isn't even close to true), and I'm in love with it.
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Post by Olive on Jul 6, 2011 7:49:46 GMT -5
I first realized about halfway through my freshman year of high school. Up til that point, I had wanted to major in Astronomy (shhh), or another hard science, though I think creative writing had always been at the back of my mind. That year I started paying more attention to career options, and the most likely result for my science-y plans sounded... boring. I was sitting in the sophomore English class with a really awesome teacher, and we were reading Taming of the Shrew. I had always loved Shakespeare, and something clicked... I want to spend my life reading and writing, and sharing that passion with others (in the form of lording over them as a professor >.>).
So... yeah!
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Post by Olive on Jul 5, 2011 10:25:11 GMT -5
Magenta is fantastic. I convinced my room mate last year to be Columbia for Halloween (she looks just like her as is), which involved introducing her to the movie.
Have any of you ever been to any local Rocky Live events? They're so ridiculously fun.
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Post by Olive on Jul 1, 2011 7:12:24 GMT -5
I actually just saw an article that states that it wasn't removed from the style guide, but rather the initial article was based off of the journalism guide, which hasn't used the Oxford Comma in quite a while. When it comes to things like books, it's still allowed.
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Post by Olive on Jun 29, 2011 13:34:00 GMT -5
Also, reading minds would simplify life quite a bit. I think it would simplify some things... and massively contemplate others. That guy who has dirty thoughts about you but is reasonable enough to keep them silent and never act on them? Yeah, now you know exactly what he's imagining. Shudder.
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Post by Olive on Jun 29, 2011 8:43:50 GMT -5
Agreeing with the idea that Pullman is attacking the organizations and institutions. It is the Church and various other organizations that are doing evil, and I seem to remember that it was made fairly clear that they were acting on personal ideals rather than in accordance with some sort of Heaven-sent command. When it came right down to it, "God" played no real part in the people did.
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Post by Olive on Jun 27, 2011 12:57:09 GMT -5
Oh God, I already own Paradise Lost but I just found out there's an edition that Pullman wrote the intro for and I must own it.
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Post by Olive on Jun 27, 2011 12:55:00 GMT -5
Honestly, the ending of Amber Spyglass isn't the part of the book that makes me cry... it's (well, I wasn't going to say this earlier because of *SPOILERS* but it seems that we're ignoring that concern) when Lyra has to leave Pan behind. It became harder the second time through, when I had very recently re-read TGC and there's that line where she is just a distance away from Pan, and talks about how she knew that she would rather die than be separated from him again and... yup.
I haven't read Once Upon a Time in the North, either. I should do that...
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Post by Olive on Jun 27, 2011 10:41:13 GMT -5
Oh hey, I didn't even think of that. Just joined... I wonder, how can we make it so that it doesn't say "Currently unofficial"? It gets moderator approval from me :-D
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Post by Olive on Jun 27, 2011 7:21:54 GMT -5
Anyway, I was research grad schools the other day. I basically had my list finished months ago, but I wanted to give one final sweep of the MFA programs before I started putting together my portfolio. I ended up looking at Syracuse's page. It's a bit difficult to navigate, and I couldn't find any of the important information I needed, so I checked the "contact us" page to find someone to email about the information I needed. Turns out, none other than George Fucking Saunders teaches there (celebrated short-story writer and essayist who's a regular in The New Yorker, Tin House, and other such amazing magazines). So, because I was gushing like a school girl, I sent him a rambling email telling him how much I loved him and asking him for information about their MFA program. It was about 8pm where he was, so I wasn't expecting a reply back until the next day. Ten minutes later, there he is in my inbox, giving me information and shit. I emailed back a "thank you," then he emailed back a "you're welcome," then I had a wet dream about the whole thing. So, who's the most famous author you've had correspondence with? And who's your favorite author you've spoken to? What'd you talk about? etc. Saunders was a visiting writer at my school last fall, and the creative writing prof I had at the time managed to get him to come into our workshop for a bit. He is immensely humble, which makes him talking about things highly entertaining and rather inspiring.
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Post by Olive on Jun 27, 2011 7:17:30 GMT -5
I love this trilogy! It was my favourite for a very long time. I liked The Amber Spyglass the best. It always makes me cry in the end. I remember reading it when I was 13 and being distraught that Will and Lyra couldn't be together. I didn't like the movie adaptation. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. It was brilliantly cast, but the ending was so bad. The bears were done well. And I loved the man they cast as Lee Scorsby (my favourite character). I would love to see adaptations of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, but judging from the reception the first movie got, I doubt we'll see others. I heard recently that there is a small novella available called Lyra's Oxford. Has anyone read it? Yeah, I picked up a copy of Lyra's Oxford a few years ago. From what I can remember, it's... strange. There was something amiss with the timeline, I seem to remember thinking. But! if you've got a craving for more, it's worth it.
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