Timeline Project


 

 

Team Members: Vanessa Silvas, Christian Galvan, Andrea Ellickson, Jennifer Housel

Timeline project team

 

 

Why Livejournal.com?

The Canterbury Blogs Project adapts Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to the modern medium of Internet blogging using Livejournal.comLivejournal.com is a blogging site that allows users to recount their memories through text and pictures, and is essentially an electronic diary.  Unlike myspace.com, which is first and foremost a social networking site with blogging features, livejournal.com is a blogging site with some social networking features.  These social networking features include the ability to comment on one another’s journal entries, as well as “friend” people and view others’ posts on a universal “friend’s page.”  Groups and communities centered on a particular area of focus are popular to connect people with similar interests.  One of the biggest appeals of livejournal.com is the great amount of freedom it allows its users to personalize their journal and create their own online identity.  Livejournal allows its users to have multiple “user pics” which can be changed with each new post and comment.  Users also have the option of supplying individual information such as “current mood” or “current music” with each post, as well as filling out a “User Profile” page which outlines age, hometown, birthdate, and interests.  The flexibility of the site design encourages further personalization—users can change the page design to be as plain or elaborate as desired, and html can be easily used in almost any text entry box to link to pictures, change the color of text, etc.

 

 

Why The Canterbury Tales?

Different characters with very distinct personalities and speech—perfect for creating online personalities, user pages, tailoring speech.

o      Interaction between the characters was perfect for blog commenting

o      Canterbury Tales was groundbreaking @ time for its vernacular, common used of the English language. In blog adaptations we exaggerated common cliches of Internet speech (like "LOL..") to produce another unique translation of the original work.

 

 

Blogging and the Representation of Time

Timeline

timeline2b.zipThe Canterbury Blogs <-------Download Attachment, extract the zip, and then run timeline.html to access the timeline shown in the presentation.***

 

 

A timeline is a tool or model to organize and lend insight into a person's memories of life events. People naturally think in a series of associations, rather than a time based linear line. We want to explore this model of memory's relationship with the individual and with the group reading it. Why is there a growing obsession with documenting one's own life in a public space (i.e. myspace, facebook, blogs, photos, and so on)?

 

creator allowed us to create an interactive online timeline.

be made for presentations like these.

was compiled from the user's inputs.

we link to the blogs that pertain to each tale told by the pilgrims.

Finally, while the design may look plain, the timeline does a great job in terms of functionality and conciseness.

good reference.

found within the actual work by Chaucer.

when it comes to the community scene found within the timespan of pilgrim's journey. 

 

 

 

The Canterbury Blogs Project addresses two primary topics of study:

   1. The advantages/disadvantages of reading The Canterbury Tales in blogging format, and;

   2. The social aspect of blogging activity and the construction of an online identity.

 

                    Looking at Userpages and design of site itself provides additional and instant information about character's personalities

                                Clearly and easily identify differences between characters since personality is more developed through these visual and additional  features.

                                Quick, easily digestible segments about each character or tale.

                                We took care to maintain the chronology of the book: the order in which tales were told, and the order of interjections between characters.

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections/Conclusions

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Canterbury Blogs Community Page:

****To Access each account, log in using the username, with the password "english149"

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The Canterbury Tales Blogs:

 

 

 

The Host (i.e. "hb_host") by Vanessa:

     The Host is described as the leader of the group of pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.  He is said to be a very "manly" man.  He also enjoys laughing and being happy in general.  The Host is the one who decides that the group should begin a competition.  He also introduces most tales and facilitates their order.  The Host will be the one to choose who tells the best tale at the end of their journey.  Because of his "joyfulness" the Host gets along with most characters except for the Pardoner.  

     On our LiveJournal site the Host is the community leader of the travelers.  He creates the community for the travelers going to La Feria de Abril.  Although the travelers are not physically together, their on-line blogs allow them to communicate.  Like his role in The Canterbury Tales, the Host controls who will tell their tales next.  He also establishes the rules and makes sure everyone comes to an agreement on them.    

 

 

The Pardoner's Tale (i.e. "p_money149") by Vanessa:

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The Pardoner is described as young and sly.  He appears as a cleric of the church to pardon the sins of Christians, yet he tricks each one and could care less whether their sins are absolved.  Although the Pardoner confesses to the group that he tricks each of his "clients", he attempts to trick the group into giving him money at the end of his tale.  To modernize the Pardoner, he is said to work closely with the church.  He mainly tries to trick tourist near Vatican City and Jerusalem.  In his blogs the Pardoner rambles on about his trickery just like the prologue to his tale.  This portrays the effect that he is an alcoholic, which he is in fact.  The Pardoner's tale in a sense is a drunken confession. 

 

 

 

The Monk's Tale (i.e. "huntermonk") by Andrea:

 

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    The Monk in the Canterbury Tales is described as having qualities and interests opposite to the image of a typical monk. He is an avid hunter and property overseer. He enjoys gourmet meals, lavish fur coats, and expensive jewelry. And yet, the characters of the Canterbury Tales still seem to treat him with the reverence deserving of a monk. The monk seems in denial of his hypocracy. Also, rather than telling creative tales, he only tells short, well-known tales of tragedy.

    The Monk's blog models the personality presented in the Canterbury Tales. The dark and slightly disturbing background (black with pictures along the heading) reflect his preference for dark tragedies. The profile picture/avatar of a fierce greyhound in pursuit represents his distorted priorities. Hunting is first and foremost in his life, followed by God and religious beliefs. His language is educated and stiff, which is captured by his voice in the posts. He also has a competitive edge in some of his posts, reflecting his hunter attitude. His tales are centered around religion, yet his blog's appearance reflects his hypocracy. His actions and appearances do not match his words. He seems to be mixing self-projections of an idealized self and an actual self.

 

 

 

The Miller's Tale (i.e. "savage_brute") by Andrea:

 

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    The Miller in the Canterbury Tales is described as a brutish drunkard. The tale he tells is filled with crude humor, lusty affairs, and a mockery of both the educated and simpletons. Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" was intended for a lower class audience and is a "quite" or pay back to the previous chivalrous "Knight's Tale."

    The Miller's blog is a model of his identity correlated with the aspects of his personality that are presented in the Canterbury Tales. The bright orange background of his blog represents his attention-catching, humorous, and somewhat revolting nature. The profile picture/avatar of the angled Miller Genuine Draft bottle matches his personality by emphasizing his masculinity, drunken demeanor, pride, and obviously his name. He even has a picture in his Livejournal scrapbook of the ram trophy he won as a Wrestling Champion of Southwark, England. Many of his posts contain provoking, yet simple language. The page format places his posts completely center with no distractions on either side, which represents his self-centeredness. His smilies are upbeat and energetic, matching his personality and speech. The Miller is very straightforward, since he does not mask his flaws. He seems to self-project his actual self (with some proud exaggerations), rather than a touched up ideal self.

 

 

 

 

 

The Knight's Tale (i.e. "knightlysaviour") by Chris:

 

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 The knight is the embodiment of all things normal and courageous. His story also emphasizes these points, and establishes his persona throughout the telling of all the character's tales. Notice that his layout pays tribute to the king and has very dark and medieval colors. His entries are very formal and he does not use internet slang in order to be as humble as possible. He is also obssesed with all things knighthood, and this is seen through his immersion in the ideas of armors and weapons. Finally, his avatar establishes that he is indeed, proud to be a humble servant to his country.

 

The Wife of Bath's Tale (i.e. "thatwifeofbath") by Chris:

 

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 The Wife of Bath is one of the most outspoken character to tell their tale. First of all, she seems to be intent on the fact that her sexual experiences in life have made her powerful and wise at the same time. Her entries show no shame in the fact that she has had five husbands, and moreover, the blog entries give the reader an insight on her views regarding sex and the emotions involved behind it. The bright colors and flowers establish that she is feminine and her avatar is very vogue, emobodying all of her features into one pic.

 

The Reeve's Tale (i.e. "osewoldz_estate" ) by Jennifer:

 

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    In The Canterbury Tales the Reeve, named Osewold, is the manager of a large estate and has generally high status and wealth.  He is also described as being skinny and bad-tempered, and thinks highly of himeslf. The Reeve had once been a carpenter, so when the Miller's Tale mocks the profession, the Reeve angrily responses with his own tale that takes a jab at the Miller.

    On the Reeve's livejournal page the blog design is clean and simple with an Argyle print background, to try and reflect his "elevated" tastes.  Since it's not common to run into a "reeve" on the street in the 21st century, the new Osewold'z profession remains vague, and has something to do with public service in his town.  His user pics range from promotional photos to an old carpentry project to a picture of a Southern plantation.  Like the original text, Osewold becomes very angry with the Miller's blog posts mentioning carpenters, and responds with fury.  This modern adaptation of the Reeve invoked the image of a hot-tempered, egotistical moron--albeit with a good sense of humor.

 

 

The Summoner's Tale (i.e. "summ0n_me") by Jennifer:

 

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    The Summoner in The Canterbury Tales is a messenger who brings persons accused of violating Church law to ecclesiastical court, and is not particularly qualified for this job.  His face is scarred by leprosy and he loves above all to get drunk.  He enjoys crude humor, and is also known to spit out Latin phrases in attempt to sound educated.  He absolutely loathes the Friar, and his tale takes quite a few low blows at the Church.  His tale is especially crude: it ends with one character farting on another.

    The summoner's livejournal was very amusing to make, as his character is essentially a glamorized homeless person.  The simple web design, the dimwitted, all-caps speech and the reference of Jack Daniels all create the image of a drunken fool.  Although a blog was not created for the character of the Friar in this project, anonymous posts from a Friar on summ0n_me's blog fuel the feud that is present in the original Tales.  The summoner's comments on other character's pages tend to be stupid, crude, and drunk. **Note: Due to time constraints, the Summoner's Tale is entirely quoted from a modern translation of the tale found here; it has not been re-written for The Canterbury Tales Project.**

 

 

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Project Team Notes:

 

 

Opening Statement

 

 

 

Introduce the concept of Livejournal, Fair, etc.

Literary work we chose & Why

-        Canterbury Tales  (Vanessa)

o      Different characters with very distinct personalities and speech—perfect for creating online personalities, user pages, tailoring speech.

o      Interaction between the characters was perfect for blog commenting

o      Canterbury Tales was groundbreaking @ time for language.. we’ve done our own modern translation.

 

 

 

Timeline (Christian)

Why we chose Livejournal

 

 

 

Show and Tell (Andrea)

            -walk class through site

                        -individual page examples/user pages

-community board

                        -comment activity between users

 

 

 

Our project & concept

Why (Jenny)

            2 main reasons:

            -1. another way to read the Canterbury tales

                        Pros: characters are very relatable online

                                    Very accessible in this technology age

One page you can instantly get more from their character: page design, user pics, formatting

                                    Easily see differences between characters and personality

                        Cons: Miss on some details, because this our own interpretation.  But in general we’ve made the cantebury tales very digestible.  It’s not as in depth—similar to sparknotes and storyboards, it’s a model for a way to understand literature more clearly.

 

 

 

            -2. a social commentary

                        Shows the nature of blogs and their ability to keep time.  A

                        The ability to create an alternate reality

            The ability to create an avator, or personality, online (user pages, user pics, etc.

            Blogs give us the chance to reconfigure, re model ourselves.. project what we want people to see.

            Visuals=give people imagery.  You can post links to other things so readers can explore other interests, which isn’t possible.

            Emoticons, Music currently listened to, etc= develop personality more.

            With our internet speak, we’re pretty much just doing our own translation of it..

Community page: No one knew each other physically, they met each other in this virtual space.  They all met because they’re going on a pilgrimage; haven’t met physically but they feel get a good idea of each other’s personalities.  Today we feel like we can get to know someone just be looking at their user pages and interacting online.  We’re creating our own reality in this virtual  space.

 

 

 

We took care to maintain the chronology of the book, the order in which they speak, and the interjections between the two.

 

 

 

Age?  These are older characters.. blogging is maybe more of an older person’s thing, and youths are more

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections/Conclusions

            -how our project changed over time

            -how our project would be expanded if we had unlimited time