Geek Girl See, Geek Girl Do
English
CCCC10 Wrap-up
Mar 21st
So I went to my first CCCC and for the most part loved it. I definitely want to go and present again, and I feel I learned a lot through this experience. However, there were some meh moments, but I’ll try to really get to both sides of the spectrum.
Most of the sessions I went to were amazing. I attended the whole conference (except the first-timer’s breakfast, I was still en route) and missed about two sessions per day (to eat, look at books, etc). Since I focus myself in technology and composition, I attended almost entirely IT sessions, and I found that almost every session was great. The two Twitter sessions I attended had a lot of great discussion and some thought-provoking material. The gaming session–which is probably what I will explore for next year–unfortunately just had way too many people. They each had great things to say, but when there are eight people or so presenting, there isn’t much you can do. That blame is on CCCC for not making multiple gaming panels. The Writing Center database session was helpful to me since I currently work in a Writing Center and I want to try to convince the department to let us make a database. I have a lot of notes from all the sessions I attended and got a lot of great ideas.
The part that I was slightly disappointed with–or rather, quite disappointed with–was my lack of ability to network with others in the IT “department.” Since there was only 15 minutes between each session and no lunch break or anything where everyone could go out together, I spent most of my time between sessions walking back and forth between the Marriott and the Convention Center. The IT sessions weren’t really congregated in one place, and since I had to walk so much, I didn’t always have time to stay and mingle after a presentation. Also, let me add that I am a Master’s student at Queens College. I’m not on my Ph.D. yet and don’t have a big school that I can turn to for people to hang out with. I know UPenn and some other schools had “mini-events” for those who attended or worked at the school. Which is fine, I would do the same. But I hope NEXT year we can also get an IT “mini-session” and begin to intermingle with people outside of our schools and workplaces.
I guess my largest complaint is the timing of everything. There was no time to really see the exhibitors’ booths, unless you skipped a session, because they closed at the same time as the conference day ended. The 15 minutes between each session is a bit much. On Thursday, I woke up at 4:30am to fly over to Louisville and attended all session times that day except one–for lunch. I was exhausted and didn’t get to fully recuperate and still am not fully recuperated. Personally, I think I would have preferred a day that went slightly longer on Friday/Saturday and have a lunch break. But I don’t know–maybe NCTE had a good reason for scheduling CCCC like that.
I know some people were concerned with the tweeting level at CCCC, expecting there to be more tweets. As several Twitterers mentioned, the lack of free wi-fi in the Convention Center, coupled with horrible 3G reception in the lower level of the Convention Center, made it somewhat more difficult to stay connected. But for some reason, the more I think about it, the more I think that number is pretty appropriate. I’m not into the whole “digital native” stereotype that everyone my age-ish (24) is more connected than a finely knit sweater, especially compared to older generations, but as far as CCCC it may be, for the most part, true. So assuming that already there is a generational gap for Twitter and that the tweeters will probably be the IT people, I’m not too surprised.
Finally–my session. I had approximately 10 people at my session (N.27). Two people were there to see me, I think about four to see my co-presenter, Matt, and the other four, I’m not sure. They may have been there to see Sheri, but they may have been genuinely interested in the topic. I felt a bit bad for Matt. His presentation was focused mostly on time, so how he got with two bloggers, I’m not so sure. We had a couple of questions that I believe we answered well, but that was pretty much that. I’m going to embed a voice-over into my PowerPoint so those of you who are interested in the presentation can listen to it later.
And yes, I know. Every time I make a PowerPoint Edward Tufte kills a kitten. Sorry, lil’ guy, but my prezi wasn’t done in time.
Book Talk: “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Jan 26th
Thank God for this blog. Seriously, I couldn’t just rant about a book on unE, because that’s not what unE is for (although I tried a little bit, with my Master’s Musings column, but I couldn’t bring myself to adding my personal emotions and ideas to my professional “work” site).
This post is going to be full of spoilers. If you don’t want spoilers, don’t read this. If you read the book and want to read my thoughts, keep going.
So I just finished “Never Let Me Go” (again, actually, since I read ahead and skimmed a bit) and I’m pretty speechless. The dystopian ending hit me out of no where. Yes, I knew to some extent where it was going, but to listen to Madam and Miss Emily discuss how Kathy and Tommy are nothing but advancements of science–nothing but cures–and saying it to their faces, I was horrified. The narrative manipulates the reader so subtly into a seductive dance of sympathy and compassion. We see Kathy’s emotions and her fears and her problems. We see the way she handles situations, how she wishes she could go back and fix things. We see her childhood drama turn into adolescent drama. She’s no different than me really.
But then we are plummeted into the icy-cool waters of reality when Miss Emily says,
By the time they came to consider just how you were reared, whether you should have been brought into existence at all, well by then it was too late. There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, the go back to the dark days? There was no going back (263).
Those lines really got to me because it was the first true glimpse we got outside of Halisham and the Cottages. We (the readers) live through Kathy’s sheltered eyes and know nothing of the surrounding world. We know they are clones, we know they’re used for donations. And we’re sort of just okay with that, probably because Kathy and crew are okay with it. But every now and then we get glimpses of how others see them, and we know: This is not okay, this is not acceptable or accepted. It’s kind of like–oh I don’t remember what grade it was now–but I had to do an earthworm experiment. I had to take the worms home, watch them, feed them, who knows. I hated it. I hate bugs, I hate worms, but I had to do it for school. And it seems like Ishiguro’s society is like me with my worms–they hate the clones, but they have to do it for society as a whole. And at the end of the day, when the experiment was done–I’ll be honest–I threw the damn things out. I think half were dead anyway. Again, that’s what people think of the clones. Except it’s one thing to do that with worms, it’s another to do it with people (right?!).
For the longest time, the world was essentially timeless. It seems anachronistic–to be discussing cloning through the seventies and eighties as opposed to far in the future. And Ishiguro effectively creates an alternative universe by using these time frames. When Kathy mentions cassette tapes and the appearance of walkmen, I remembered my own childhood and what it felt like to obtain these things. The familiarity of the time is part of what makes it so heart breaking and so dystopian–we’re not talking about the Jetsons. Hell, we’re not talking about Neuromancer or Ubik or anything like that. This isn’t even today or tomorrow; this is yesterday. This could have happened to us already. You know, it’s kind of like the whole Y2K nonsense. We know it didn’t happen, but imagine immersing yourself in a world where it DID happen. It’ll totally mess with your mind, much like this did.
I have to talk about the tech a bit, because although we never got around to discussing it, this book was assigned for my Literature and Technology class last semester. And in all of my ranting thus far, I have talked a bit about tech, but there’s one thing I found utterly fascinating: How can there be such a dichotomy in technology? How can we be so advanced in one sense (cloning), yet not even have CDs? It seems that, in this world, technology is attached to interest–if you want to cure cancer, you WILL find a way, no matter how difficult. Playing music though? Meh, not so high on the list. And the fact that the public turned a blind eye to the clones, claiming they were “soulless” is a huge breach of ethics. I don’t think our world could ever do that.
This novel really broke my heart though. Ishiguro blatantly shows that these characters have souls, feelings, emotions, and lives. To have all of that turned on its head in the last 5o pages or so is such a–I won’t swear here–fudged up device to screw with the reader’s mind. And it does. It totally, totally screwed with my head. I was speechless after reading it to be honest. Still am to a certain extent.
So if you’ve read the book and want to discuss, feel free to comment. I know a bunch of my English buddies have read it, and it may be nice to talk about it. 
