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I have two Wordpress sites I am now intimately connected with and I have to say that I can't stand Wordpress. It won't follow the code I ask it to follow, nothing is in a sensible location, they overcomplicated the simple and oversimplify the complicated.
Wordpress will make me crazy.
Thanks for the link to your paper. And for the wordpress advice--I am about to start another blog with several friends and there has been some debate about the best format.
ReplyDeleteAs for the paper, well, I hadn't linked the imprinting to the idea of pre-mortal love. I had linked it to the puke-worthy notion of one and onlies. And while I thought her description of Jacob's imprinting on demon-child was actually quite beautiful, I was disturbed by the way Meyer so callously took Jacob's agency.
In all the stories, I think that Leah is probably the character who excites the greatest feelings of compassion in me. Your paper quoted Hugo--Leah's character is the Eponine of the story. Her very real heartbreak is so much easier for me to identify with than a perfect love that transcends time and and legend. My husband, whom I love dearly, is the third man I have loved. I honestly think I could have had a large measure of happiness with either of the first two. My life would, no doubt, have been very different, but still good.
To take your excellent analysis a step further--my question is about what effect Meyer's rendition of love (based on Mormon mythology or not) has on young LDS girls reading her stories? In a world with so many conflicting messages about love, sex and femininity, how can Meyer's novels create any sense of normalcy in the already highly imaginative brains of teenage girls? Perhaps she didn't intend to. (There is a topic: does the LDS artist have some kind of greater social responsibility?) But I can't help but wonder, when Meyer saw girls (and yes, women) flock to her movies in droves from its opening day at midnight until the DVD went on sale this week, did she at some point say, "How did this happen? When did this romantic story I intended for an adult audience become the standard by which every girl would base her hopes and dreams? At what point did this take on a life of its own?"
I have my own publishing dreams. (Hah! Like no one has ever said that before!) In the back of her last book she had a thank you credit that said something about thanking her editor for taking plain, mousy Steph and turning her into Stephenie Meyer. That gave me pause. Do I want to create something that causes people to question my committment to my deeper self and the gospel? Do I want an editor (or anyone for that matter) to take me and turn me into something else? For all the fame and money that such an enterprise might bring, do I want to create something that people will obsess over to the point of it wreaking havoc on their psyche? (Like one of my young women who says she has to read books about vampires so that she can sleep at night; she then dreams of vampires.)
I know, I know that scope of your paper is much more limited and based on literary analysis. The other questions are things that cannot be so clearly documented, though I can't help but think there is going to be some kind of Twilight Effect as the (LDS)teens of today enter various stages of marriageability over the next decade.
Oh, and more relevant to your topic, in the third novel Bella becomes very confused as to which one of her monsters she loves. There is some very interesting and tense juxtaposition between her two men. It might even be called cruel. Bella, for all of her one-and-only-love-bigger-than-all-eternity attitude toward Edward finds herself confronted with a choice about love as well, knowing absolutely that she could be entirely happy with the other. I mean, if it wasn't for the always regretting the pain she'd caused the other. Jacob's imprinting on Bella's daughter was the only way to ease her heroine's conscience.
What do you want it to do and how are you trying to get it done?
ReplyDeleteOne problem, of course, is your need for idiosyncratic html coding, and I don't imagine that any CMS is going to handle that well. Remember that the Web runs on CSS these days.
I can tell you that from an administration side, WordPress kicks butt over anything else I have used in terms of ease of installation, ease of developing/modifying themes/templates, number of and functionality of plug-ins, management of user accounts, etc.
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ReplyDeleteWm---I'll email you. And yes, it is mostly code issues (why must indenting be complicated???).
STM---We have an interesting opportunity now to observe an accidental social experiment. And I'm not capable of guessing how it will turn out. It may just burn through without any appreciable residue, or it may make a serious impact on gender politics nationwide for years to come. I have no idea. I don't know how to predict.
I also think of parallel mes, living other lives with women they love other than the one this me married. I reject the one-and-only idea no matter how it's presented, although I will readily admit that it has enormous appeal.
I have a student (not LDS), a senior, who very rationally is fanatic about the books. She says that this is the last time in her life she'll be able to be totally nutso over something. If she's typical, I think we'll be fine. But is she typical? Will girls be able to lay down these childish things as they move into adulthood? I've heard rumors that Twilight has wrecked marriages (but I'll need proof for this).
Anyway, we shall see.
(And Éponine is one of my alltime favorite fictional characters. Enough years have passed that I can think of her without crying, ergo, it must be time to read the book again.)
Theric, I assume your statements about Wordpress are absolute, not comparative.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried the alternatives?
My own experience running WordPress-mu (four different installations) has included a few frustrations, but mostly its been rather smooth.
I would never claim that wordpress is perfect. But I'm fairly sure it is better than most alternative.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps. I'm frustrated by how it thinks it knows what I want and changes my code to match its imagining. No! I want it the way I coded! Just do what you say!
Also, some things are just not how I expect them to be. On one site (not AMV), I can't figure out how to alter the template. I just don't find Wp very intuitive--largely because it's not the way I learned it.
It's like switching to a Mac.
(Hell.)
"why must indenting be complicated???"
ReplyDeleteWell, there's one of your problems right there. The Web was not made for indenting. For all the sophistication of all the various languages and markup we've compiled that create all these lovely flashy websites, at the very heart of it lies ASCII (a code developed from telegraphic code) and HTML (a mark up language created by a physicist) which simulates a few basic typesetting codes for layout and presentation of characters.
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ReplyDeleteYes, and that will never change, but I still want an indentation when I want an indentation. I'm an American!
Well, since Wm. mentioned CMS, I'll tell you my webhost mildly chastised me for the use of WP for content management and said, "Please use Drupal." Erm, no thanks. I know how to manipulate WP.
ReplyDeleteThat said:
text-indent: 20px;
might fix your problem. ;)
Is it something on b10mwx/pp you're having a problem with?
Just out of curiosity, what browser are you using?
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteFirefox, mostly, but also Chrome.
My problem with b10/pp is manipulating the template. I cannot figure out how, for instance, to link to Ben's blog. I'm sure it's very simple but for the life of me I can't figure it out.
Where do you want to link it? In the sidebar or via widget or what?
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteDown there at the bottom where mine is.
Appearance --->
ReplyDeleteEditor --->
Footer (on the right)
6th line down, right above yours.
Wordpress does not format many things correctly using the Chrome browser. Stick with Firefox for now.
ReplyDeleteI've spent a lot of years working with and teaching young people myself. I think that there are as many of the irrational fanatics as there are of the kind personified by your student. Still, every age has its own hero that actual men are competing with. After all, it is still possible to buy a James Dean poster despite the fact that he's been dead for decades and hardly made any movies.
ReplyDeleteStill, in an age of such intense media images and photoshopped "ideal" women, perhaps Edward is just a girl's answer to all of that. It is interesting to note that women who leave men panting are primarily sex symbols for how they look. Edward, on the other hand, didn't even have to be personified by the mediocre Robert Pattison to have a following to give even the incomprable Mr. Darcy a run for his money.
I have my own literary theory about what makes women swoon. It is called the Darcy Effect. I'll do my PhD on it and read all the classic and/or famous romance novels I can get my hands on. And then I'll wake up.
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ReplyDeleteI think you should switch the order: wake up then write it up.