Frankensources!

I've never smelled frankincense. But I bet it doesn't smell better than sweet victory! Specifically, this one. Here are some of the oh-so-scholarly things I've been reading in order to back up my "tweethis" (a thesis statement in 140 characters, give or take). As Captain Walden (perhaps) once said, "We have our heading". Okay, I'm pretty sure Jack Sparrow said that.
Anyway, here are the lines I've been thinking along.

Tweethis: What we create and put on the internet can often take on a life of it's own, like #Frankenstein's monster. The thing we wonder is whether our creations are inherently good or inherently destructive.


Sources:
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Joseph Pearce. Introduction. Frankenstein. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2008. Print.
Found through suggestions on Amazon.com, the introduction talks about the various lenses Frankenstein has been looked through and goes through a history of Mary Shelley. Essentially is some basic background to the novel and criticisms of the text. It brushes over the topic of the creature seeing himself as Adam, and the two types of Adam that can be found in Paradise Lost and the original creation story. It helped get me questioning, when has creation gone too far? Or does it ever?

Sherwin, Paul. "Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe." PMLA 96.5 (1981): 883-903. Print.
This article was originally sent to me by Makenna, who found it at www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/mshelley/anderson.html. However, it can also be found on JSTOR at <http://www.jstor.org/stable/462130>. It talks about how the creation overshadows the creator himself, and any sublime artwork or reanimation of Frankenstein's sort is bound to do so. This is where I started thinking in terms of creation (especially on the internet), and how it affects those that are responsible for it.

Dan-Cohen, Meir. "Responsibility and the Boundaries of the Self." Harvard Law Review 105.5 (1992): 959-1003. JSTOR. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1341517>.
Along with the responsibility train of thought, this article, suggested by Erica, delves into some of the underlying issues that people have with taking responsibility. I've been thinking about this pertaining to the responsibility we feel we have over our creations. But if our creations run amuck, what happens to our responsibility?

Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.
I found this book through WorldCat, and it is smashing. It talks about how the internet has given us a tremendous opportunity for creation, especially when it comes to language. He debunks the myth that techspeak will be the downfall of our language and that globalization will ultimately take creatively and pound it till everyone is the same. Definitely sparked ideas when it comes to how the internet is helping creativity.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/faculty/gergen/Technology_and_the_Self.pdf I wasn't quite sure how to cite this, considering that it was a chapter draft posted online. He talks about his view that technology is slowly obliterating the need for an inner self, that we will no longer have an "I", due to the constant contact we have with others through social media. Kinda creepy, but this is the thing that got me thinking about the creation of social media sites, and how they may have more effect than anyone could have ever imagined possible. Found through a simple google search.

Runco, Mark A., and Ruth Richards. "Creativity and Mental Illness." Eminent Creativity, Everyday Creativity, and Health. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Pub., 1997. Print. Link.
Looking at Frankenstein and his near-crazed state while relentlessly creating his monster led me to this article, found through a search on Google Books. She talks about the connection that some people have wondered about for a long time: are creative geniuses just mad (crazy, not angry)? This is interesting to consider. With today's tech-genius world, does the creations from this madness backfire?

http://talentdevelop.com/articles/CTAAM.html Neihart, Maureen. "Creativity, the Arts, and Madness." Creativity, the Arts, and Madness. Web. 21 May 2012.

This is another article examining the madness-creativity relationship, with a bit more emphasis on actual experimentation with such things. It made me wonder whether creativity inherently leads to deviant behavior. This was found through a search on Google scholar.

Rumbold, Kate. "From "Access" to "Creativity"" Shakespeare Quarterly 61.3 (2010): 313-23. Print.
This was found through a search on MUSE. It is mainly directed toward educators who are experimenting with teaching Shakespeare through new mediums. What interested me, however, was her explanation of creativity dominating the "current cultural policy", and that arts will be central to the "creative economy" of Britain. What what? It is obvious to me that we need to figure out how online creativity is affecting the individual before we start making sure every schoolchild is a creative genius.



Some inner dialogue:
Rational Me: Um, hello, Sam? Your ideas are all over the place!
Sarcastic Me: You think so, eh?

That's what I realized from doing this whole project. There is a LOT of stuff out there, and a lot of directions I could go. If the internet was outer space, I'm sure I haven't even explore to Mars yet. The key now will be refining ideas into a more solid thesis. Like my general direction? Let me know!