Reynolds uses metaphors from postmodern geography, such as the frontier, to inform our understanding of space as transparent. She believes that technology encourages time-space compression and masks the politics of space. According to Reynolds, there is a need to address the imbalance of power that is apparent in the spaces where writing takes place. In other words, the illusions of overcoming spatial barriers and having more time camouflage the material conditions of writing and writing instructors. She emphasizes that the location, the environment, and the surroundings affect the product (the writing).
Nedra Reynolds
Reynolds’ touches upon ideas that we, as writing teachers, experience everyday without giving it much thought. For example, when I finish teaching on Monday and Wednesday and after a very long day that ends at 9 pm, I go home to rest and I make the “fatal” mistake of checking my email before going to bed. I notice emails from students. Some had to miss the class and need to know what they missed; others need more instructions on writing their essays, and a third group needs a quick reply to their questions. As any other teacher, I feel the need to respond. With each e-mail I read, there is a sense of urgency, a feeling that I need to respond as soon as possible. You won’t believe this, but I get emails from students 20 minutes before class asking me questions about their homework that is due in 20 minutes! My students don’t know about my material conditions and with the help of technology, teachers are reachable and accessible 24 hours a day. The capitalist idea, as Reynolds describes it, that “workers can be productive from “anywhere” at “any time” (31), puts us at the students’ disposal.
However, viewing space as transparent allowed me to travel in my place piece to three places: my father’s garden in Jordan, My grandfather’s hometown in Palestine, and my balcony in Athens, Ohio. With the aid of the visuals and technology, my audience is capable of experiencing these places with me.
I couldn’t compose on the blog immediately. I had to do it on a word document and then copy and paste it to the blog. I like to see a page in front of me with its borders and margins. It gives me great satisfaction to fill the boundaries of space with words rather than blogging directly, filling in a space without borders, without a sense of an end. This “spatial disorientation,” as Bolter calls it, is one of the challenges of electronic writing, but I relate it specifically to writing on the blog (Reynolds 15).
Lana,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be hinting at a unplugged space where you don't feel compelled to respond to emails, phone calls, or other technological intrusions to our life.
It is hard to understand why students continue to think we are always accessible and that we should be responding so quickly, even when they have been "disconnected"--in more than one way.
I would like to hear more about any quiet space you may create that does not include technology (as well as others).
What do you think are the problems that we engage and what do you think we can do about them?
Thx
Rock
Maybe it's just the way I have always been, but I don't respond to students or anyone else at all times and in all places. I'm pretty good at establishing set times when I will respond to emails, and I don't particularly feel bad if I don't get to an email a student sent at nine o'clock at night until the next morning. If that's too late, they should have emailed earlier.
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly right about the problems of being constantly connected to the rest of the world. Connectedness seems like it should save time by not requiring travel time, but instead we end up spending inordinate amounts of time on-line....like I'm doing now with this whole blogging thing.
As far as spatial metaphors go, I think we usually use them as a way of analyzing relationships, sometimes in good ways, and sometimes in bad. Reynolds does discuss work like Rose's "Lives on the Boundaries" which uses the spatial metaphor of center and boundary to bring attention to marginalized groups, but then of course the metaphor implies that there is a center, an unmarked "norm" which has its own troubles. I also think that spatial metaphors are a symptom of a field that is always looking for the next big thing. Anyway, my answer is that they are both productive and restrictive, which is another helpful tautology ; )
Hi Lana,
ReplyDelete"Viewing place as transparent allowed me to travel in my place piece to travel to three places..." Good point. My understanding of transparent place is a little shaky, but your point here makes me wonder if transparent space is always a bad thing. Is it beneficial in some ways? (I dunno.)
And I was the same way with blogs when I started blogging for a company I used to work for. The little blog box freaked me out--totally de-centered my writing approach. (Now I'm usually in such a hurry I don't take the time to copy/paste. Time/space compression at work?)
Your question about these metaphors being restrictive/productive is really interesting. I think they have potential to be both, right?
You rock,
Sam