Critical Essay: Stage 3

Prompt:Is there ever a time when remixing or reusing someone else's work is actually a better response to the rhetorical situation or a better use of creative energy than starting over from scratch and creating something totally new and original?


What is the most important thing when creating a new piece of work? Is it to create the most impressive work possible at any means, or is it to create something unique and original? There have been discussions in class about when it is alright to remix or reuse someone else’s work and when it is not okay. This question’s answer is not black and white but a combination of the two. Sometimes, it is best to work off of each other’s ideas to advance as far as possible in the work. While other times, it is best to allow each person to independently express their own ideas in the work with no outside sources. Another factor that must be considered is the creator’s intent. For what purpose was the work created? Certain purposes such as the advancement of human knowledge could support the reuse of the work, but other purposes such as financial reasons or the pursuit of fame would support the opposite. For these reasons, the problem must be observed and judged based on a case-by-case basis. For the purpose of analyzing the prompt, this essay will cover both sides of the case. The examples that will be covered for the side of not allowing the use of outside sources will be literature. For the side of allowing the reusing of outside sources will be computer software.
When is it alright to reuse the works of others to improve upon your work? Many claim that in the golden past without copyright laws, men, who were working off of each other’s ideas, invented concepts such as Calculus and democracy. It has been proven in many cases that working off of each other’s ideas can lead to many great ideas being created that otherwise wouldn’t have even been imagined. This leads to the question of why there are laws such as copyright in existence today. One argument is that the copyright laws are there to maintain the creative energy that allows for new ideas to be created. During many of Engl 1102-L3’s discussions, the idea that literature should be copyrighted was brought up. Within the “Blog Post 4: Copyleft” discussion, a fellow student commented that “author's do want significant protection and credit and whatever other accolades, whether financial or otherwise, for their work, hence why copyright is such a big deal.”(Ramoutar). This statement clearly summarizes the argument for copyright laws. An author has all of the rights to the expression of ideas that he/she has created and should be protected by law. If another had free access to use these ideas, then there would be no incentive for many authors to use their creative energy. In the case of literature, this is especially prevalent. Say an author produces a best-selling novel. Then, another author writes a similar novel with a different setting and cast, consequently stealing some of the original author’s customers. During this scenario, the original author suffers from losing revenue and renown. But, the original author is not the only one to suffer for this. If events such as this scenario were to be allowed, the literary world as a whole would suffer as there would be less need for new ideas to be created, thus the literary community would begin to lose its creative energy. In such media formats such as literature that requires the expression of ideas would benefit from not allowing the reuse of other’s ideas.
“Marx's concept of a 'general intellect', suggesting that at some point a collective learning process will surpass physical labour as a productive force, offers a promising backdrop to understand the accomplishments of the free software community.” (Soderberg). While certain cases require individual work to promote originality, other cases are far more efficient when multiple minds are free to work on it. For this reason, the law of copyleft was created. Copyright is a law used to prohibit the reproduction, adaptation, and distribution of the copyrighted material. Copyleft, unlike copyright, gives “every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute it and require that any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement.” (wikipedia). Such ideas have lead to the creation of “open-source” software. Open-source software is a type of software, such as Firefox and Linux, that is freely distributed and anyone is allowed to freely modify and adapt. Because of the free access to the source codes, many programmers around the world have worked extensively towards debugging and improving the original programming. For this reason, many software programs such as Firefox have become one of the most popular software within its domain. The open-source movement was started by computer scientist Richard Stallman in an attempt to create high-quality free software available to everyone. According to Lawton, “Stallman's beef was with commercial companies that smother their software with patents and copyrights and keep the source code – the original program, written in a computer language such as C++ – a closely guarded secret. Stallman saw this as damaging. It generated poor-quality, bug-ridden software. And worse, it choked off the free flow of ideas. Stallman fretted that if computer scientists could no longer learn from one another's code, the art of programming would stagnate” (Lawton). Stallman believes that by gaining new insight into computer programming by learning from other’s codes, a programmer can make far more use out of his creative energy then if he were to work from scratch. Despite the programmer using ideas not originally his own, by using these ideas as a stepping stone, the programmer can reach new heights in his creativity that had been previously inaccessible to him due to the lack of knowledge. By not having to waste his energy on rediscovering old ideas, the programmer can use his creative energy far more efficiently. As can be seen by copyleft and the open-source movement, allowing the reuse and remix of other’s ideas can be highly efficient compared to other options.
Because there are so many differences between media types and intentions of the creators, there is no clear cut way of knowing if the reuse of another’s ideas is a better use of creative energy. In many situations, allowing one to use other’s work can restrict the creative energy. In other situations, allowing one to focus on developing new heights off of other’s previous works can lead to a far more efficient use of creative energy. As the teacher of Engl 1102-L3 stated in one of the class discussions, “not all media formats are created equal.”(Wharton). Because of this, the question can only be solved on a case-by-case basis.

Works Cited
"Copyleft -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.

Lawton, Graham. "The Great Giveaway". NewScientist. . 02 February 2002.

Ramoutar, Reesha. “Copyleft” Engl1102-L3. . 25 February 2010.

Soderberg, Johan. “Copyleft vs. Copyright: A Marxist Critique”. FirstMonday, volume 7, number 3. . March 2002.

Wharton, Robin. Quote during class discussion.

Critical Essay: Stage 2

What is the most important thing when creating a new piece of work? Is it to create the most powerful work possible at any means, or is it to create something unique and original? There have been discussions in class about when it is alright to remix or reuse someone else’s work and when it is not okay. Sometimes, it is best to work off of each other’s ideas to advance as far as possible in the work. While other times, it is best to allow each person to independently express their own ideas in the work with no outside sources. The question of is remixing or reusing someone else's work alright should be decided on a case-by-case scenario because of the fact that not all media cases are created equal and that certain cases such as scientific discovery where shared information can exponentially increase efficiency while there other cases such as novels where remixing or reusing only inhibits creativity.
When is it alright to reuse the works of others to improve upon your work. Many claim that in the past with out copyright laws, men working off of each other’s ideas led to the golden age of discovery with things such as Calculus and democracy being invented. So why should it ever be not alright to use the works of others to make your work better? One argument is that the copyright laws are there to maintain protection for all of the work you’ve created. How would you feel if you created some new invention but another man took your creation and made it better, causing him to receive all of the credit for the invention. Sometimes, using the works of others is unfair for the creater of the original work. The other reason is that there are always people who misuse the power to use other’s works. Say an author creates a work that becomes a best seller. There are always those who plan to make a profit off of the work and create works similar to the original so that they may make a profit off of the work. That just isn’t fair to the original author. This also creates the scenario where many authors start writing the same story and eventually, the literary world would lose its creativity.
If allowing the reuse other works is so bad, why should we ever allow such things to be done? It has been proven in many cases that working off of each other’s ideas can lead to many great ideas that otherwise wouldn’t have been created to be created. If you look at the science world, if no one could use each other’s works to create new ideas, progress would be immensely hampered. Also, so many ideas have been created in the past that it is near impossible for any normal person to create an entirely new idea. Reusing old works can act as a head start to allow more complex and more useful ideas to be created.
There are both pros and cons to reusing the works of others. Which should be allowed: the reuse of works, or complete independence in creating new works? I believe the world is not completely black and white. Some cases would better be served to allow the reuse of works and others are not. For example, I believe that the science R and D should always be allowed to use each others works for help so that the most useful ideas can be created. There is the question of fairness for the original creator but there are ways around this. First, the original creater has the ability to give permission to use the work. If he plans to make further research on the idea himself, it should be protected. But, if the creator wants to allow others to use his work, then this only helps the scientific world. But, I believe literature should not allow the reuse of other works. For one, books would begin to be very boring if the same several books were just written over and over again. For literature, unique new ideas are the key to keeping the world interesting.

Critical Essay: Stage 1

Response: Is there ever a time when remixing or reusing someone else's work is actually a better response to the rhetorical situation or a better use of creative energy than starting over from scratch and creating something totally new and original?

Thesis: The question of is remixing or reusing someone else's work alright should be decided on a case-by-case scenario because of the fact that not all media cases are created equal and that certain cases such as scientific discovery where shared information can exponentially increase efficiency while there other cases such as novels where remixing or reusing only inhibits creativity.

Questions:
When is it alright to reuse or remix someone else's work?
When is it not okay to reuse or remix someone else's work?
When reusing someone else's work, how much of taking the work is alright and when is too much? How should credit be given?

holy sonnet final

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~bpayne7/
My power point is on this website. My prism account is currently being used for CS 1371 so I can not mess with it at the moment. That is the reason I am using the prism account of my roommate. In order to access the annotations on the power point, first, press the start button, then click the crosses next to the annotation numbers to go to the annotation pages. Click return to go back to the annotation page.

recasting stage 5 reflection

First, the idea for this story had been in my mind since the first "resetting the Canterbury Tales" project. I had been thinking about what kind of characters I would incorporate into the story so being able to fully flesh out the idea in this project was very rewarding. During stage one of the project, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do for the project. I had the general idea for the story but, thanks to the peer reviews, I realized that my characters lacked life. They were just cardboard characters with no real depth. For stage 2, I decided to try and bring out characteristics for the character. The video's purpose was to try and bring the characters to life. Then, I realized that the video and essay were stand alone projects and needed to be brought together. So, for the final part, I not only fully brought out the details that I pictured in each individual parts, but I also inter-weaved the video and essay so that they supported each other as a single entity.

stage 3

XVII.

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravishèd,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.
Here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:
And dost not only fear lest I allow
My love to saints and angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 162-163.

My annotations will be in the form of either tabs or hyperlinks on the annotated area so by either hovering over the area or by clicking it (haven't quite worked out how I'm going to do this), website will take you to an in-depth description of the annotation. I'm trying to design it right now but the website is still not up yet so I don't have the actual link yet. The annotations will deal with Death and how this sonnet compares with the other sonnets on similar subjects.

holy sonnet XVII stage II

XVII.

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravishèd,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.
Here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:
And dost not only fear lest I allow
My love to saints and angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 162-163.



Bovan, Jonquil. “Donne’s Debt to Petrarch in His Holy Sonnet 10.”
Notes and Queries (N&Q) 1998 Mar; 45 (243) (1): 34.

This source gives a comparison of the similarities between Donne’s Sonnet and the Sonnets of Petrarch. Bovan, the author of this article, is a published literary critic and lists a respectable group of sources for his article. Thus, his article is a credible source. The information that is in the source can be used to compare the sonnet with works of other poets. This allows the reader to have better background information in order to fully understand the annotations.

Linsley, Joy L. "A Holy Puzzle: Donne's 'Holy Sonnet XVII'." John Donne's Religious Imagination: Essays in Honor of John T. Shawcross. 202-213. Conway, AR: UCA, 1995. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.

This source goes into the background of Donne as well as giving a certain perspective on the deeper meaning behind sonnet XVII. Linsley is a literary critic who is published in several well known journals such as The Journal of Thomas Moore. Thus, this article should have some credibility. This source will help analyze the deeper meaning behind the poem as well as help analyze how Donne’s past affects his sonnets. This article will work very well with Bovan’s and Faulkner’s article as a supplement to what they talk about.

Faulkner, Eleanor; Daniels, Edgar F. “Donne's Holy Sonnets XVII (Since she whome I lovd), 1-2.” Explicator (Richmond, VA) 1976; 34: Item 68.

This source analyses the deeper meaning behind the sonnet as it gives a new perspective on what Donne meant when he wrote the sonnet. Faulkner is a well known literary critic within the literary community so this article has credibility. I will use this article in order to better understand the meaning behind the sonnet and will serve as a basis for the analysis I will do on Sonnet XVII.

Oliver, Antonio S. Views of Death in Donne’s Poetry. Luminarium. ©1999. .
This source compares “Death” and the meaning of death between the different holy sonnets. The author gives many credible sources in his bibliography so the article should be credible. I will use this source to compare holy sonnet XVII to the other sonnets that Donne wrote. This is great because all of the other sources only deal with one specific sonnet.

Hirsh, Edward. How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry. 1999.

This book is a source on the workings of lyrical poetry. Donne’s sonnets are considered lyrical poems so this will help me understand the nuisances of the poem. Hirsh is a well known and respected poetry critic so this source will be credible. I will use this source to further understand some of the reasoning behind Donne’s choices through out the poem.

My annotation will most likely be in the form of a website. I want to have some sort of flash animation incorporated into the site. The annotations will mainly deal with Death and how this sonnet compares with the other sonnets on similar subjects.

Holy Sonnet biblio stage 1

X
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better than thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Albrecht, Roberta J. "Montage, Mise en Scène, and Miserable Acting: Feminist Discourse in Donne's Holy Sonnet X." English Language Notes 29.4 (1992): 23-32. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
I do not have a copy of this source yet so I don’t have an analysis on the source. This source has been peer-reviewed and been published in English Language Notes so I believe that it is a very credible source.

Beck-Watt, Sebastian. “Poetry explication: Holy Sonnet 10, John Donne's address to death.” Helium. Mar. 2010
This article gives a general overview as well as a different perspective on Donne’s Holy Sonnet 10. Helium is a where amateur writers write, edit, and review each other’s works. They make some sort of profit as well from the writing. While the credibility of the work is questionable, the article has been rated highly and it gives a new perspective on the holy sonnet. The article gives a great list of rhetorical devices used within the sonnet.

Miller, Ronald Eugene, Jr. "Death's Funeral Procession: An Intermission between Bondage and Liberation in John Donne's 'Holy Sonnet X'." Cleave: A Journal of Literary Criticism 1.2 (2002): 26-34. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
I do not have a copy of this source yet so I don’t have an analysis on the source. This source has not been peer-reviewed but it has been published in a literary journal for criticisms so I believe the source is credible.

Wolfe, Ralph H., and Edgar F. Daniels. "Rime and Idea in Donne's Holy Sonnet X." American Notes and Queries 5.(1967): 116-117. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
This source gives a very insightful analysis on the Holy Sonnet 10. It focuses on “death” in the poem as well as the rime scheme within the poem. The article seems to be very credible as it was published in American Nates and Queries, a scholarly literary journal with a long history. The audience is most likely scholars and literary amateurs. Wolfe makes the argument that the prevalent theme in the poem is that death speaks of a person who will die, not a way to eternal life as in many Christian writings.

Woolway, Joanne. “Holy Sonnet 10 (Criticism).” Answers.com. Poetry for Students, Gale, 1997. Mar. 2010
This article gives a great criticism on many different aspects of the sonnet. Answers.com is a website that allows people to write about any topic they desire. Woolway is a PhD from Oriel College, Oxford, England so I assume the source is somewhat credible. The article states that there are 4 reasons to not fear death that Donne gives. It discusses the sonnet form and the irregular rhyme scheme.

stage 3 Recasting Final Draft

The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a social satire on fourteenth century English society. Because of this, many of the social norms depicted in the Tales do not seem to apply to modern day society, thus losing some of its meaning. In order to prevent this, I have chosen to rewrite the Merchant’s tale with a modern setting and modern cast. This essay will discuss the modernization of the Merchant’s tale by delving deeper into the reasoning behind the creation of the Canterbury Tales, the significance of the characters and narrator that Chaucer chose to incorporate into his Tales, and the reasoning behind the modern depictions of the cast and setting that I have chosen to modernize the Tales.
As any who have studied extensively the Canterbury Tales would know, the Canterbury Tales shares a common structure with other works such as the Decameron. The Tales borrows a great deal of ideas such as the back story of traveling people telling tales to pass the time. So why would Chaucer rewrite a story that has already been told? Boccaccio’s The Decameron is a tale written in the early Renaissance. In essence, the Decameron was a social criticism against the church and the general populace. By shedding light to circumstances where clergymen were put in compromising situations or using religion in order to make money or where young wives cheat on their own husbands and were caught in adulterous acts, Boccaccio offers a sharp social commentary on the corruption of the church and speaks against the falling morality of the people. On the other hand, the Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer, is a more humorous sort of satire on the late fourteenth century society that pokes fun at the social stereotypes of its times as well as teaching moral lessons about life. These lessons range from warning men to never marry young beautiful wives for they will always cheat, as seen in the Merchant’s and Miller’s tales, to the lesson that greed will lead you to ruin, as seen in the Pardoner’s tale.
As the years have passed since Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, many social norms and morals have changed. Because of this change, many things that may have been important during Chaucer’s time become less applicable in the modern era. Knights marrying young maidens were a social possibility in the original Canterbury Tales, but for modern times, such topics become obsolete and improbable. The merchant’s tale in the Canterbury Tales is such a tale about the marriage of a knight and a young woman. The tale’s purpose is to warn against the old marrying the young and that the young woman will always cheat on the man. This moral lesson within the Merchant’s tale is a recurring theme that seems to be brought up during several of Chaucer’s tales. For this reason, it is safe to assume that this is a strong point in which Chaucer wants to emphasize through heavy repetition. This makes the Merchant’s tale a very powerful tool within the Tales.
The merchant is described as an accomplished man who has a “forked beard, and girt in motley gown, and high on horse he sat, Upon his head a Flemish beaver hat; His boots were fastened rather elegantly. His spoke his notions out right pompously, Stressing the times when he had won, not lost.”(Chaucer, General Prologue). As stated in the general prologue, he is a well dressed man who knows how to poise himself. He is a skilled merchant as seen in the statement, “At money-changing he could make a crown.”(Chaucer, General Prologue). Despite this, he does not seem to be a happy man. The merchant, in his prologue, woes and laments about his knowledge of the weeping and wailing as a result of marriage. He claims about his wife that, “For though the foul Fiend to her wedded were, She'd overmatch him, this I dare to swear.”(Chaucer, Merchant’s Prologue). He spends much of the introduction speaking ill of his wife and of marriage. He speaks of the 2 months he has spent as a married man with disgust and “more than common cruelty. Were I unbound, as may I prosperous be! I'd never another time fall in the snare. We wedded men in sorrow live, and care;”(Chaucer, Merchant’s Prologue). He has clearly been through tough times in regards to the subject. To adapt the Merchant into my recasting, I have decided to make the story teller into a businessman. My tale will be warning the elderly from big name corporate office jobs so the businessman is the perfect role for the job. He will be the stereotypical Japanese businessman dressed in a well kept black suit. He will have a straight formal posture with an air of confidence. As the merchant was wary of marriage, the businessman will be analogously suspicious of large corporations. He has been working for a corporation for 2 months and hates every minute of it. He feels that the company restricts his potential with its strict rules and regulations. I chose this character because I feel that modern readers would be better able to relate to such tales compared to courtly love.
The merchant tells a tale warning against marriages. While this warning may be applicable in modern times, I wanted to use this theme in a more business sense. The businessman’s tale will be a story about an elderly businessman committing to a work assignment for a company and having a younger businessman stealing the job from him. The salesman’s tale will be a tale focused on the workings of the business world instead of the marriage life, both of which are a commitment made by those who are involved.
The Canterbury tales seems to have a recurring theme warning against marrying young and beautiful wives. In terms of the theme of marriage, the merchant’s tale fits perfectly with the warnings that Chaucer gives. My vision for the modern Canterbury Tales deals with the dangers of the business world and warns the audience of the pitfalls and traps of the economic world we live in today. For this new theme, an accepted job would be the equivalent of a marriage as both are commitments taken with the vows of finishing the task that one has promised to fulfill. As marriage is a vow to love and care for the spouse, a job acceptance is a vow to work towards the success of the company. In line with the character of the merchant, my salesman will be a man who has been through his fair share of bad business deals and bad employers. His anger and bitterness towards employers will fuel his tale of betrayal as the merchant’s bitterness towards wives did his tale.
The salesman’s tale will begin with the aging business man suddenly wishing to reenter the business world and enters the job searching market. As seen in the video, the aging man is no longer in his prime and lacks in aesthetic appeal. He has heavily wrinkled skin and completely graying hair. The appearance of the old man is vital to the story for it is the primary reason why misfortune befalls upon him. This old man will find the company, May, who is willing to hire him. They offer him a marketing job which he falls in love with. As time passes, a young and uprising businessman comes along and becomes one of the elderly businessman’s subordinates. The young man, depicted in the video, is dashing and sharp in his choice of wear. Little to the elder’s knowledge, the young businessman is scheming with the company to have the elder fired. As Chaucer’s January is cheated on by May for his lack of aesthetic appeal and lack of sexual prowess, my elderly business man is being fired for his unsightliness in the work area as well as lack of efficiency in modern technologies. The video helps bring out these traits that an ordinary essay can never truly depict. By showing an image of characters, the audience has a concrete image of the characters and can further understand the reasoning behind the firing of the elderly man.
The recasting of the Merchant’s tale follows the general layout of the merchant’s tale with a more modern twist. The businessman is a common stereotype among modern society and the setting is placed in the modern business world. I believe this tale will be more relevant to modern times than the original told by Chaucer.





Works Cited
Casino Royal. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2006
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Ed. W. W. Skeat. Trans.
Equilibrium. Dimension Films, 2002
Green Street Hooligans. Baker Street, 2005
Shooter. Paramount Pictures, 2007

Stage 2 video

recasting canterbury stage 1

As the years have passed since Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, many social norms and morals have changed. Because of this change, many things that may have been important during Chaucer’s time become less applicable in the modern era. Knights marrying young maidens were a social possibility in the original Canterbury Tales, but for modern times, such topics become obsolete and improbable. The merchant’s tale in the Canterbury Tales is such a tale about the marriage of a knight and a young woman. The tale’s purpose is to warn against the old marrying the young and that the young woman will always cheat on the man. While this warning may be applicable in modern times, I wanted to use this theme in a more business sense. My tale will be told by an aging salesman. The salesman’s tale will be a story about an elderly businessman committing to a work assignment for a company and having a younger businessman stealing the job from him. The salesman’s tale will be a tale focused on the workings of the business word instead of the marriage life, both of which are a commitment made by those who are involved.
The Canterbury tales seems to, as a whole, warn the audience about the dangers of marriage. In terms of the theme of marriage, the merchant’s tale fits perfectly with the warnings that Chaucer gives. My vision for the modern Canterbury Tales deals with the dangers of the business world and warns the audience of the pitfalls and traps of the economic world we live in today. For this new theme, an accepted job would be the equivalent of a marriage as both are commitments taken with the vows of finishing the task that one has promised to fulfill. The merchant, in his prologue, woes and laments about his knowledge of the weeping and wailing as a result of marriage. He claims his wife, were she to marry the devil, could overmatch the devil. He spends much of the introduction speaking ill of his wife and of marriage. He has clearly been through tough times in regards to the subject. In line with this character, my salesman will be a man who has been through his fair share of bad business deals and bad employers. His anger and bitterness towards employers will fuel his tale of betrayal as the merchant’s bitterness towards wives did his tale.
The salesman’s tale will begin with the aging business man suddenly wishing to reenter the business world and enters the job searching market. He will find the company, May, who is willing to hire him. They offer him a job which he falls in love with. As time passes, a young and uprising businessman comes along and becomes one of the elderly businessman’s subordinates. Little to the elder’s knowledge, the young businessman is scheming with the company to have the elder fired. It follows the general layout of the merchant’s tale with a more modern twist. I believe this tale will be more relevant to modern times than the original told by Chaucer.

Stage 5

First of all, I really liked how this project was split up into manageable segments with plenty of peer review for additional input. The first section had started out with just a hodgepodge of ideas, much like a brain storm for ideas. With the help of the peer reviews of my group, I was able to quickly come up with ideas for what sort of story I wanted to deal with. I had a general idea of the back story I wanted to fit with my slideshow, but the peer reviews and discussions with my group gave me new insights that I would not have thought of by myself. With the help of my group, I chose three of the images and an audio file that truly seemed to portray the theme that I wanted to flesh out of my Canterbury Tales. My thesis was a breeze to write because through out the whole process, I had been unconsciously creating a story that fit the slideshow and it only needed to be written down for the final section. Because the thesis was written to fit along with the audio and visual, they mix together to allow the audience to fully understand the theme and story that I wanted them to see. Overall, I truly appreciated this project and would like to delve deeper into the resetting of the Canterbury Tales.

stage 4

As spring’s “gentle rains” (Chaucer 1) “bathed each sprout” (Chaucer 2) in April, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales opens with a fair company of pilgrims making their pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas A Becket in Canterbury. As the pilgrims rest, travel worn, in the Tabard at Southwark, an interesting situation is devised in a clever scheme by Chaucer. By placing the socially diverse pilgrims in a common setting such as a tavern, the walls that separate the social classes that range from lowly millers, to gallant knights, and to religious pardoners. By removing these social bounds that have separated the classes for as long as the audience could remember, the characters can be analyzed for morals and virtues without the restraint of stereotypes and social pretense. For my resetting of The Canterbury Tales, I decided to place my characters at a train station in the rural area of Japan. The travelers of my tales are all traveling to Tokyo for a chance at a new life. As they sit at a bento [Japanese lunch box] food stand, waiting for their train, they are, like Chaucer’s pilgrims, reverted to being just simple travelers regardless of social standings, age, or reasons of travel. Unlike Chaucer’s tales, social class is not as prevalent in deciding a person’s worth. For this reason, I decided that age would also be a contributing factor. Respecting elders in Japan is a very important aspect of Japanese culture. By placing these travelers in a rural part of Japan where social hierarchy becomes null, I can replicate the techniques that Chaucer uses to create the same atmosphere in the Tabard at Southwark.

From a historical point of view, a pilgrimage in the spring would make the most amount of sense. The temperature would be approaching comfortable traveling weather and the pilgrims would have enough time to return before the next winter before travel becomes impossible. To the audience The Canterbury Tales was originally written towards, this setting would seem most appropriate as they can relate towards it. The setting is a key aspect that allows the reader to relate towards the tale, so as my tale is written with college students and professors in mind, I have decided to start my depiction of the Tales in the start of the fall semester of college. Some of the characters that I have in mind for my version of the Tales involve a college freshman moving into the city by himself, a teacher who was recently transferred from a rural elementary school to a Tokyo elementary school, and a business man getting his first job in the city. These characters would most likely make the journey during the fall and as college students ourselves, I believed that the audience could appreciate moving into a new setting at the start of the fall semester.

By placing my travelers in the rural train station of Japan, I can eliminate the rough barriers that separate the lives of such uniquely diverse characters. Much like Chaucer’s tales, I can analyze the characters as humans with out the interference of social standings. The time frame that I have set for my Tales can help the audience relate to my cast of characters in a way that would ordinarily not be possible because they have most likely never experienced traveling by train across Japan. The setting of a story is an essential part of conveying the meaning hidden behind the text. Choosing the right setting can either help successfully transfer the ideas to the readers or confuse them even more by distorting their views of your narrative. For this reason, I have chosen to rewrite Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in the modern setting of Japan.






Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Ed. W. W. Skeat. Trans.
Lynne, Jeff. Electric Light Orchestra, Mr. Blue Sky, "Out of the Blue", 1977, Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany.

Stage 3 continued

Forgot to post the actual video

Stage 3

Setting: Train Station in Japan
Going from a rural part of Japan to Tokyo
Time period: Now
Reason for Travel: Transfering from Rural to City.
Travelers may include Students going from high school to college, businessman getting a job in Tokyo, Wife moving in with husband, etc.
Thesis: Finding a life for yourself in the city where you can start over with nothing from the past holding you back.

Why did I choose this? I am originally from Japan and would like to look further into Japanese culture. It interested me and thought this might be a great place to get started.

Stage 2

resetting canterbury tales stage 1

Created with flickr slideshow.