An Essay Begins
For this essay I'm expanding my earlier discussion of The Revolution will not be Televised into a full-fledged essay. You can view it's working form here, and leave any comments either there in the google doc or below in the comment section.
I particularly like your use of questions to guide your future drafts. It's a clear indicator of not only where you'd like to go with this piece but also how you're trying to fuse together several different ideas cohesively (and, to be honest, it really helps me in that I am able to check what questions I'm not answering with my own writing).
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see if you're going to touch on the topic of strangers being a necessity of publics. Personally, I'm interested in when and why a public gets its start - and I think your essay also touches the concept of how a public is first formed.
Does time necessitate change? Can the protests in Ferguson and Beyonce's half-time show still be considered part of the same revolution? Even though strides towards better race relations are still relevant, could hearing the same message over a long period of time dilute its efficacy?
As someone with a fair amount of revolutionary tendencies, I'm looking forward to reading your final thoughts on this piece!
I agree with Cat, I really appreciate the questions you ask yourself as to guide your thoughts down the road, but be careful about outlines. I have heard that outlines can be rather constricting or limiting: You may answer all the questions you had when you first started, but as you learn more from day to day, there are new questions that arise, so don't be afraid to follow the thoughts that MAY not fall within the guide.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, are you strictly going to focus on Gil Scott Heron’s piece, or are you going to use your other examples as well? I ask because it seemed that you were originally going to talk about the song, but then other examples popped up too.
Just a quick blurb here, is Spotify, like blogs and facebook, a vehicle to introduce others to publics, does it simply form the public that you have no control over?
Speaking to Cat asking, "Does time necessitate change?" Rather than just time influencing publics, is there a role of symbolic action here?
I think you have chosen quite a fascinating topic, and I'm excited to see how it ends!