Weekly Response #10

Emily Schmitt

ENG 280

Natalie M. Phillips

11/2/12

Week #10

“As students move deeper into the mode of hyper attention, educators face a choice: change the students to fit the educational environment or change that environment to fit the students” (Hayles 195).

Q: As we shift from Hyper to deep attention can we expect more books like Persepolis? What kinds of change are we going to see in areas that are usually dominated by deep attention?

A: I believe that as society shifts from one form of attention to another we can anticipate that we’ll be seeing changes in how we construct and consume literature. Persepolis is a unique combination of comic book and memoir. The way it is constructed mean that the readers attention is moving rapidly across the page and their attention can be multiple places at once while the consume the story, (The picture and the accompanying text). As we move forward I whole-heartedly expect to see more changes like this. I think we will see things like shorter chapters, more action, quicker pacing, and more characters within standard novels. We have already fallen into a period where Hollywood produces a significant number of movies based on books. How long before writers are writing with the intention of having that turned into something visually representative. I’m interested to see how the ‘classic’ novel adapts to accommodate the changing audience.

Works Cited

Hayles, N. Katherine. “Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive

 Modes.” Profession. (2007). 187-199. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Pairs: L’Association, 2003. Print.