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My definition of literature is that literature is not just reading and understanding something written from left to right on a piece of paper. “Luminous Airplanes” is a more dynamic, electronic, and interactive way of reading. There are so many ways to go while reading this text, and it isn’t like any regular text. You have to click and travel through the map. Luminous Airplanes are also written in two to three-page papers. This keeps the reader from losing interest because the way of writing is interactive. In this book, they have a whole map and different paths that you could go down, which turns reading into a game. This map is almost like a maze because it has different endings and dead ends. This is very close to how someone’s brain works. This is shown in the text, “If I spent as much time as Lucas does learning things, when would I write anything down? So I am giving Lucas (and the other Lucases of the world) a fair warning: whatever scope Luminous Airplanes has is a kind of interior scope. Its tangles aren’t the tangles of the Internet; they are the tangles of my own memory.”(In the Democrat or Republican text). This shows that even Luminous Airplanes is forwarding the idea that literature can be changed and formatted in a new way to create different ways to read. That piece of text I pulled out was at a dead end, and it shows that the tangles are not just the internet but also the tangles of the human brain. In Luminous Airplanes, when they have short excerpts, that causes our brains to think when each change of excerpt happens. This is because, at one time, people can be reading about one thing and then go into detail about another thing in just one click. This helps readers be able to not get lazy and to help them not get distracted. With people now, literacy is needed to understand short texts because people’s attention spans are being shortened with the tool of technology. In this text, there is an explored percentage shown on the side of the map. This turns this text into a game because most people would like to finish/explore everything on this map. This pulls in the attention of others and keeps the reader interested in what else they might find as they explore more in-depth what Luminous Airplanes has to offer. Some hyperlinks are in the reading, and this draws the attention of the reader because it is in a blue text that is also underlined. One link that I clicked on sent me to a new part of the map, and it gave context to what exactly the word meant. I was on one slide, and the blue text with an underline showed up, and my eyes were instantly drawn to it. I clicked the word “Pills,” and it took me to the spot on the map where the word pill was explained. This is the new way of reading, and it helps people who aren’t as literate as others to understand what is going on easily and leaves fewer people lost in words.

 In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid” argues that digital media encourages shallow reading, and keeps readers from engaging with the text in a deep reading manner. Carr’s main worry is that always looking for the top link for a tiny piece of information is causing people to lessen their reading and wont be able to follow more indepth arguments. “I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.”(Paragraph 5). This shows that the main argument in Carr’s writing is that searching up answers is hurting the attention spans of people that just search up answers and don’t try to find them through deep reading. This really corresponds well with how “Luminous Airplanes” is written in its two to three page papers. This keeps the reader from losing interest because the way of writing is interactive. In this book they have a whole map and different paths that you could go down which turns reading into a sort of game. This map is almost like a maze because it has different endings and dead ends. This is very close to how someones brain works. This is shown when Carr says, “If I spent as much time as Lucas does learning things, when would I write anything down? So I am giving Lucas (and the other Lucases of the world) fair warning: whatever scope Luminous Airplanes has is a kind of interior scope. Its tangles aren’t the tangles of the Internet; they are the tangles of my own memory.”(In the Democrat or Republican text). This shows that even Luminous Airplanes is forwarding the idea that Carr is representing. That piece of text I pulled out was at a dead end and it shows that the tangles is not just the internet but its also the tangles of the human brain. In Carr’s essay he conveys the message that the internet is changing the ways that our brains work. “We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains.”(Paragraph 13). This shows that with google helping us with getting answers instantly, it is making our brains learn how to process more information in new ways that humans didnt have with just print based text. This is shown in Luminous Airplanes, when they have short excerpts that causes our brains to think when each change of excerpt happens. This is because at one time people can be reading about one thing then go into detail about another thing in just one click. 

McLuhan’s book “The Medium is the Massage is a provocative book that has notradtitional layout of texts. This book was created to argue the impact of digital media on human society and perception. In this book, rather then just having a traditional format, the book blends text fragments, images, and different layouts to engage the readers. This layout is mimicking the multimedia experience, making his argument shown in the format of the text. One of the main ideas is that the content of the media is the form that it is put in, not the content that that it carries. Jobs have been changed due to the electronic revolution. “Under conditions of electric circuitry, all the fragmented job patterns tend to blend once more into involving and demanding roles or forms of work that more and more resemble teaching, learning, and “human” service, in the older sense of dedicated loyalty.”(McLuhan 20). This shows that electronics help blend things together and that in turn makes everything easier because everything is in one spot, however, in the earlier days you had to go around talking to people and taking up precious time. Also, culture has changed due to media. “The old civic, state, and national groupings have become unworkable. Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than “a place for everything and everything in its place.””(McLuhan 16). This shows that with the times of electronics culture in neghborhoods have been taken away. This is because people no longer have to leave their houses to talk to others. They also can do everything from ordering food, talking to friends, and playing games with eachother without leaving their property. This is a huge change because before electronics you would have to go out and talk and go be active and be an extrovert. Back before electronics detention has been used for punishment. With that punishment people wouldnt be able to talk to others and get things done because they are trapped. I have experienced this when I was younger and didn’t have a phone that I could use or a TV. So when I would be grounded I would have no ability to talk to others like I do in todays age. “The whole concept of enclosure as a means of con- straint and as a means of classifying doesn’t work as well in our electronic world.”(McLuahn 61). This shows that with today’s age people can get around in the media world and not have to miss a thing while being trapped. This also makes people feel less trapped due to the freedoms that electronics give you. Print based things made more people aware of things going around them in their community. However bringing in electronics everyone can see what is going on. This is perfectly said when McLuahn says, “Print technology created the public. Electric tech- nology created the mass.”(McLuahn 69). This is really well said, and it just shows that with the invention of social media and things like that the whole world is connected.

Is the Creature really a monster, or is he just a person with no childhood? The Creature’s innocence and his want for human connection is shown. “It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original æra of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.”(83) This shows that he was just trying to understand what was going on and the fundamental ways of human life. He took a while to find out which sense was which, so he was innocent in that sense. He was also innocent because he wanted to interact with things. “Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds, but was unable.”(84) This shows that he can hear, but he doesn’t know quite well how to make noise he is just doing what a baby would be doing and trying to understand what is going around them. “During the morning, I attended the motions of the cottagers, and when they were dispersed in various occupations, I slept: the remainder of the day was spent in observing my friends. When they had retired to rest, if there was any moon, or the night was star-light, I went into the woods and collected my own food and fuel for the cottage.”(94) This shows us the Creature’s day, and he just wants to be like the humans but he just watches them. But he is surviving on his own and he calls them friends but he can only watch because he doesn’t know how to interact with them. But he wants that type of connection with people. “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance, I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.”(100) This part of the text shows the want to be a normal person like the family in the woods that he is stalking. All he wants is to be a normal person and to have someone to look over him and be with him so that he is not lonely. The Creature has had a very rough start to life, with him not knowing anything he is essentially a baby in a grown person’s body. All babies want a home and people to be with but he does not get this attention so his later actions are caused by him not having a childhood in a sense.

I am a hidden intellectual. I know this because I am much more street-smart than book-smart. I have had many real-life encounters and that only makes me more street smart. I personally think that people need to be street-smart to make it through things. The real world has a different level of problem-solving that has punishment and learning occurs more naturally and is not forced on others and that’s how I like to be taught. I partly decided to rule in favor of Berry’s rule of literature because it is important to keep people writing the same so everyone can understand each other. Some people use slang and most people depend on culture and different friend groups to find different slang words. Some people make words that others don’t understand. If people do not know how to communicate effectively because they use words that only they know they won’t be able to talk to outsiders so they limit themselves to talking to only a select amount of people.

In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he explores intellectual ability when outside of the classroom. In the essay, Graff argues that education in school is overlooking the potential intellect that can be found outside of school. Several examples given are fashion, dating, sports, TV, and cars. Graff explains that students might not be intelligent in the classroom but they might have a higher intelligence level in things that aren’t “scholar-like”. He states that “Since argumentativeness is often viewed by schools as a form of troublemaking or “acting out” rather than as apprentice intellectualism, students themselves may not recognize the academic potential of their argumentative talents”. This shows that while kids argue like they arent in a classroom and get punished for arguing. But this instead of being a bad thing it should be understood and the teachers should show how good their arguing skills are.

Graff also shines light on his experience when growing up, his out of classroom interests like sports helped develop his argumentative and critical thinking skills. Graff explains that the educators should invest time into finding students “hidden intelectuism”. Educators can do this by making their personal interests intersect with their academic learning. That will make the education more engaging and relevent. Graff is looking for intellecuism to be broader. To not just base intellection levels on the “books” and more of the experience. 

“In Defense of Literacy” by Wendell Berry that conveys that literacy is important for a society that is dominated by social media. Berry states that true literacy is more then just reading and writing. It is the engagement of language and thought. He wants change in modern education to not focus so much on technical skills. He would much rather build up critical thinking and gaining a love for writing and reading in young brains. Berry really drives home the idea that literacy is essential to preserve traditions and comunication. He also thinks that the decline of literacy could lead to a loss of culture and less critical reflection in society.

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