Shelly Jackson Paragraph Respones

"We like to make statues of ourselves. The Greeks marched ever more perfect bodies out of antiquity, slim vertical columns, like a line of capital I's, a stutter of self-assertion. But works of words are self-portraits too, substitute bodies we put together, then look to for encouragement. Boundaries of texts are like boundaries of bodies, and both stand in for the confusing and invisible boundary of the self. The wholeness of an artwork helps firm us up; in its presence we believe a little more in the unity we uneasily suspect we lack. As a result we have an almost visceral reaction to disorderly texts. Good writing is clear and orderly; bad writing inspires the same kind of distaste that bad grooming does, while experimental novels are not just hard to read, they're anti-social. Proper novels are duplicate bodies to the idealized ones we have in our heads, the infamous "thin person struggling to get out." They're good citizens, polite dinner guests."


In this first paragraph I chose from Stitch Bitch: the patchwork girl, written by Shelly Jackson, Jackson describes how we, not only as people, but as writers, create statues of ourselves. The author creates a simile between the Greek warriors and the simple letter "l", all standing in columns in the "correct" way to write. Jackson explains how we ourselves, as well as our writing, are always contained in an "invisible boundary of the self". This "self" can be whatever a writer wants it to be, but it creates a barrier to the writing process in the sense that "good" writing is easy to read, orderly, and inspirers readers, while bad writing can be more difficult to read or not exciting for the reader.


"Reality thinks it "includes" fiction, that fictional works are embedded in reality. It's the boast of a bully. But just because reality's bigger doesn't make it boss. Every work of art is an alternate "world" with other rules, which threatens the alibi of naturalness our ordinary reality usually flaunts. Every fictional world competes with the real one to some extent, but hypertext gives us the chance to sneak up on reality from inside fiction. It may be framed as a novel, yet link to and include texts meant to be completely non-fictional. Thus the pedigreed facts of the world can be swayed, framed, made persuaders of fiction, without losing their seats in the parliament of the real, as facts tend to do when they're stuck in a novel. Hypertext fiction thus begins to turn around and look back on reality as a text embedded in a fictional universe."


In this second paragraph, Jackson explains how fiction is not truly embedded in reality. He says that every work of art is a type of fiction or an "alternate world" of reality. The use of some factual text or nonfictional knowledge in writing (such as dates, events, locations, names, or time periods) makes it easier for a reader to lose his or herself in this new world. Jackson states that every "real" world competes with every fictional world, but the ability to "sneak up" on reality from inside fiction. This makes fictional novels seem more realistic and exciting to read.