Analysis of All About Lily Chou Chou (Final)

To address this question, I center my attention on the movie “All About Lily Chou Chou” that portrays how a Japanese high-schooler, Yuichi Hasumi, takes refuge in the ethereal music the pop star, Lily Chou Chou, makes when experiencing growing pains from bully, ridicule, and abuse at school . Drawing on the readings revolving around the new literacies characterized by multimodality and social mediation (Lewis and Fabos, 2005), I identify and in turn examine 6 major themes surfacing from this movie in terms of the literate activities taking place on the fansite, that is, social interaction, participation, identities, literacy development, emoticons, and broadcast outlets.

First and foremost, virtual activities promote, rather than prevent, social interactions among youth. As Black and Steinkuehler (forthcoming) pointed out, running counter to the commonly-held view that computers and videogames lead to a decrease in time spent on socializing with friends for youth, sharing information with peers or other fans on-line actually function as “social glue or a point of affiliation that helped these teens develop and maintain close social connections with both on and offline friends” (p.13). In the movie, Yuichi constructs and maintains the forum Lily Philia for those who idolize and worship the fictitious diva, Lily Chou Chou, to exchange their passion and thoughts inspired by Lily’s music and the Ether as well as the updated information about Lily’s albums and concerts. In the movie, these fans, a.k.a. the lilyholic, pay frequent visits to this fansite, engage in intensive interactions with one another, and as such establish a kind of relationship that bears resemblance to the one that they might build up offline. To put it another way, apart from voicing their passion for Lily, they also verbalize their confusion, pain, joy, and the like, springing from their lives on the fansite to which others respond with consolation, suggestions, or personal experience, which is in much the same way as what friends would do face-to-face. The example that follows captures this interaction.

“I wanted to die many times. But I couldn’t. Falling, falling, falling. Like endless loop. I keep falling. Somebody help me. Somebody. Get me out of here.” ~ philia
“I know you’re feeling the invisible Ether deeper than everybody.” ~ blue cat
“I don’t understand. I just don’t understand.” ~ philia
“I understand because I know the pain you feel.” ~ blue cat

Therefore, diagonally different from the idea that online activities prevent social interaction, this movie aptly demonstrates how social interaction in the virtual world could be every bit as dynamic and abundant as the off-screen ones.

The second theme pertains to weblogging as participatory practice. Writing in 2005, Lankshear and Knobel defined participation as “involvement in some kind of shared purpose or activity” and activities as things that are established with certain norms and criteria (p.4). Meanwhile, they also distinguish among 3 types of participation, that is, participation directed to particular others, participation directed toward a larger community, and participation directed to both. In the movie, Yuichi initiates and operates a fansite entitled Lily Philia and announces a paramount rule to be abided by for anyone wishing to be granted permission to join the website, which is spelled out in the interaction below.

“Hi. I never know there was a site like this. So, you probably don’t think I’m a true fan. But I hope I’m welcome.” ~ blue cat
“Hello. The rule here is you have to love Lily. That’s all. So, feel free to write here anytime about your passion for Lily.” ~ philia

Therefore, when Lily fans vow to comply by this rule in order to join this fansite, they are actually agreeing to take part in an activity where they need to share the common goal with the whole fandom, that is, loving and lauding Lily. This embodies the Lankshear and Knobel’s definition of participation. Also, in the movie, the postings uploaded to the fansite seem to fall into two major categories, one concerning mainly with Lily herself and her music and the other dealing mostly with members’ life experiences in relation to the Ether. Though the general public might find the former interesting and informative, the latter might, in all probability, strike them as weird, if not creepy. In fact, in the movie, a viewer named cuttlefish ever posts such a message, “This sounds like a cult. Can’t you live without the Ether?” Viewed in this light, it is justifiable that we consider the former as being directed to a larger community and the latter to their fellow members, which is clearly the third type of participation mentioned earlier. Hence, sharing a common goal and directing their postings to different target audiences, the fansite in this movie aptly illustrates how weblogging is synonymous to a participatory practice.

Third, identities are easily changed and disguised online. First, as evinced in the movie, Yuichi is an introverted high-schooler who gets picked on and abused at school, on the side being coerced into carrying out the dirty work for the top bully, Hoshino. As for Hoshino, experiencing a change from a good-natured student to the absolute evil, a change sparked by his near-death experience in Okinawa, he puts everyone under his reign of terror as he beats up the class bully and takes over his position. However, in the virtual world, Yuichi runs the Lily Philia website where he assumes the role as the webmaster. Anyone interested in joining needs to be granted the permission from him. Additionally, he emerges as the one who possesses the best knowledge as to Lily’s music and the Ether, guiding the rest to establish connections between Lily’s music/philosophy and the Ether and in turn worship her religiously, which is duly demonstrated by the example that follows.

“Lily says, it’s always sunset. As it grows dark, when the air splits in two, sounds swell in my head and the light leaks through. … And it was just there. This is the most important episode in her awakening to the Ether.” ~ philia

Whereas Hoshino takes on a more subordinate role in this virtual community, functioning as a fandom member who follows the rule formulated by the webmaster, namely, Yuichi. Moreover, he seems to mostly respond to others’ messages rather than compose and dispatch new ones on his own. As can be seen, a switch of places/roles/identities is taking place as Yuichi and Hoshino alternate between reality and virtuality. That is, Yuichi goes from an order-taker and bully-victim to a ruler and preacher as he travels from the real-life setting to the on-line milieu, while Hoshino goes in the opposite direction. This role-switching appears to be in alignment with Black and Steinkuehler’s (forthcoming) proposition that fans tend to create and enact different social identities through interactions on fan sites. In other words, unlike their real-life identities, Yuichi takes on powerful roles in the virtual community by way of displaying expertise in the Lily Chou Chou fandom and Hoshino undertakes the identity of a listener and pious disciple through following the prefabricated rules to stay a part of the fansite.
The other identity issue represented in this movie relates to the easiness in disguising oneself in the virtual space. In the movie, Yuichi goes by philia and Hoshino names himself blue cat as they navigate Lily Philia, the fansite. Among the conversations occurring in this affinity space, it appears that philia connects best with blue cat in that they exchange the most messages with each other, seemingly reaching a much higher level of friendship at which they empathize with what each other is going through in life. However, to Yuichi’s great shock, blue cat turns out to be the person that he fears and in all likelihood loathes the most in the real life, the very person that turns Yuichi life into a living hell, namely, Hoshino. Had Yuichi had any knowledge of this, he would never have given him the green light to be part of Lily Philia, let alone bonding with him. This ease of disguise lends further support to Lewis and Fabos’s (2005) findings that the absence of physical body in the virtual communication allowed participants to “manipulate voice, tone, and subject matter to hide or transform their own identities” (p. 491).




The fourth theme pertains to virtual spaces as environments favorable for the development of literacy skills. At the beginning of the movie, Yuichi is found to post messages mainly to promote the philosophy Lily embraces as it relate to the Ether or disseminate the latest news in regard to her albums. Also, he touches on the interview that Lily had some time in the past in terms of the music that influences her, which is as follows.

“If that idiot interviewer hadn’t asked her this question, she might have shown more of what’s inside her, what music influences you. She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. She conceives and gives birth to it.” ~ philia

It is immediately obvious that philia, namely, Yuichi, needs to obtain the above information from somewhere to come up with such postings. Though TV programs, magazines, and newspaper are all easily accessible, I speculate that he would most probably acquire the information through the Internet, given the way he indulges himself in the virtual world. Further, in consideration of the fact that the movie was shot in as early as the year of 2000 when youtube has yet to be brought to the world, there is much justice in surmising that Yuichi usually gets hold of new information by reading on-line news or critiques devoted to Lily Chou Chou. Running in tandem with this line of reasoning, we arrive at the conclusion that though blogging most of his spare time away, Yuichi is in fact carrying out a range of literacy activities, such as reading to obtain new information and writing to present the information to the Lilyholic. This somehow echoes the proposition that the virtual spaces would result in adolescents and fans becoming “consumers who also produce, readers who also write, and spectators who also participate” (Jenkins, 1992:208). To put it another way, not unlike the fanfiction writing journey detailed by Black and Steinkuehler (forthcoming), Yuichi’s enthusiastic participation in the fansite through extensive reading and writing practices online might also strengthen the development of his literacy skills, rather than stand in its way.

Fifth, emoticons enable the written communication to carry emotions and tones. Vis-à-vis orality, literacy emerges as being emotion-free and toneless, so it is not uncommon to find authors resorting to the employment of symbols or icons to help facilitate the encoding of their messages. In the movie, some viewers incorporate such symbols in their postings in attempt to get across their emotions. For example, the viewer by the name Matrix accompanies his message with the symbols :-) that represents a smiley face. Other viewers repeat certain letters in words to pass as being reluctant, such as Thhhanks, I’llll buyyy itttt tomorrrrow. These features somehow coincide with the ones enjoying great popularity in Instant Messaging communication, viz., emoticons. As revealed by Lewis and Fabos (2005), emoticons are often utilized to help writers express their emotions and engage readers. Therefore, this movie serves as another example corroborating the pervasive use of emoticons in digital communications.

As also reported in Lewis and Fabos’s (2005) study, IM communication is characterized by another linguistic feature, that is, abbreviations, such as ”brb” for “be right back” and “lol” for “laughing out loud” (p.483). Nonetheless, in the movie, there is not a single use of abbreviation. As far as I am concerned, this absence might have to do with the Japanese language itself. That is, the nature of Japanese might render it difficult to practice the creative use of abbreviations. Since Japanese and Chinese share certain characteristics such as Chinese characters and in Chinese abbreviating a phrase by taking only taking the first part of each word in that phrase would result in meaningless combinations of strokes, it is possible that this might also be case for Japanese. Therefore, I surmise it might be the nature of Japanese language that gives rise to this non-use of abbreviations in the movie.

Last but not least is the theme regarding weblogs turning into broadcast outlets. According to Lankshear and Knobel (2006), a weblog-turned-broadcast-outlet would result when a blogger merely distributes materials without participating in the conversations occurring among the readers in his/her blog. In the movie, having taken a girl to an old factory to be raped as he is ordered to, Yuichi suffers from tremendous devastation and despair since he has been carrying a torch for the girl for years. This mental trauma seems to cause him to not participate in the conversations on Lily Philia for a while, which is revealed by Bear’s message noting that “I wonder what philia has been doing these days.” Therefore, during that period, the fansite he runs turns into a typical broadcast outlet where information as regards Lily Chou Chou might continue to be updated and conversations with respect to the Ether continue to take place among other members, only Yuici himself remaining utterly silent. This plot of the movie indeed serves as a pertinent example of the broadcast outlet posited by Lankshear and Knobel (2006).

Blogging as Participation

Writing in 2006 and capitalizing on weblogging participation, Lankshear and Knobel distinguished between “participation that is directed to particular or specified others, participation that is directed toward a larger community, and participation that is directed at both.”(p.5) And to illustrate the first type of participation, they cited the post and ensued comments talking about a UK Education Fair and taking place between Encaustic and Sun_Skittle. From these artifacts, the use of acronyms and abbreviations came rushing to my attention, such as URE for you are, SUMTHIN for something, wld for would, rite for right, OMG for Oh My God, prob for probably, unis for universities, depts for departments. This feature reminds me of Instant Messaging communication (on which my multimodal project centered its attention). It is understandable that the real-timeness of IM communication might call for users to shorten their messages to keep the communication smoothly and the exchange quicker. Yet, since there exists a time lag in weblogging, that is, an asynchrony between posting and viewing, there is not need for immediate response. In this case, I’m curious about bloggers’ reasons for abbreviating and acronyming when there is no need to type quickly.

Lankshear and Knobel (2006) also noted that as the audience of a blog grows, the blogger might not be able to respond to all of the comments, ending up “becoming a broadcast outlet, distributing material without participating in conversations about it.” (p. 4) This led me to reflect on my own purpose of keeping a weblog. And I came to realize that my blog serves solely as a venue where I upload and share photos with friends, with virtually no conversation taking place in my blogoshpere. Therefore, as opposed to going from a participation facilitator to an information distributor, my blog is born a broadcast outlet. I guess this springs largely from the fact that keeping a weblog as a place for conversations entails an amount of time and efforts for me. As I recall, posting and responding always took me a while to get done, which when novelty of blogging faded out became nothing short of a burden. True, weblogs, when directed to particular people, indeed function as a site for friends to “hang out” and exchange thoughts and ideas. Yet, as far as I am concerned, I still prefer IM to blogging when it comes to having conversations with my friends.

In our last class on April 30, we talked about the features of blogging, 2 of which pertain to the permanency and the huge scale of visibility of postings. Here's video clip I found on Youtube elaborating on the Danger of Social Networking.

Participatory Culture

As noted by Jenkins (2006), a participatory culture is defined as “a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices.” (p.3) This concept aptly underlies the assessment tool we talked about in class the week before, namely, electronic portfolios, or interchangeably blogs. First, an alternative to standardized tests, e-portfolios serve as a venue onto which learners upload assorted artifacts they see as reflections of their learning process, be it journals, essays, pictures, and the like. And thanks to the wide availability of commercially-oriented websites that give away free spaces along with an almost plethoric number of blog templates, building a weblog is only a few clicks away. On top of that, as opposed to the print materials characterizing the more traditional vanilla-foldered portfolios, the multimodality featuring e-portfolio makes possible the incorporation of sound files, animation, and even video clips to further enrich and personalize the blog, a function that embodies the concept of relatively low barriers to artistic expression. Furthermore, e-portfolio possesses the function that enables viewers of a blog to comment on it in terms of the aspect that arouses emotion of any sort in them. With this function, e-portfolio nurtures this learning community among bloggers that promotes and values a feedback-giving culture. This somehow lends support to the “beta-reading” (or editorial feedback) brought about by Jenkins (2006) that is believed to contribute to the growth of bloggers as writers by virtue of the giving and receiving of feedback. Last but not least, unlike the traditional portfolios whose target audience is usually if not always the teacher, e-portfolios are open to anyone with internet access. Knowing that friends as well as strangers will be reading their artifacts/work, bloggers would definitely care and take caution when it comes to what goes on their blogs, since to certain extent the blog would come to represent them in the virtual world. This, again, reifies the concept of a participatory culture stating that bloggers “feel some degree of social connection with one another and care what other people think about what they have created.” (Jenkins, 2006:7) (The video clip below demonstrates another reason why bloggers should take caution in dispatching postings. Check it out!) All in all, e-portfolios, a.k.a. blogs, could serve as a pertinent example of the participatory culture put forth in Jenkin’s article.



*This video clip comes from YouTube.


Ever since the class we had on Monday, this thought have been lingering in my mind till this moment: does the multimodality of the internet stifle the imagination of learners? True, the old “mono-modal” written texts indeed allow more room for imagination. You get to paint the pictures of the good-looking prince/princess in your mind when dealing with a story that portrays everything simply by words. So, when the multimodal internet kicks in and saves those thousand words that describe a picture by simply giving the picture away, readers/viewers are left with very little imagining to do. I find it hard to disagree with this argument because it is so true. Yet, to look at this multimodality issue from a different perspective, I guess we might say it provides viewers another motivation to keep on viewing because it presents the information in a more vivid and lively manner. Plus, we might think of it as offering those not-so-into-reading people the access to the information that would otherwise be absent from their world.

Multimodalities

In Siegel’s (2006) article, semiotics is defined as “a broad field of studies that looks at meanings and messages in all their forms and all their contexts.” (p.68) That is, it gives the same weights to all sign systems, be it languages, codes, symbols, pictures, gestures, and so forth. This discipline somehow pinpoints the importance of taking into account multimodality when it comes to literacy development. More often than not, literacy learning at school is characterized by monomodality; that is, to be literate is to display the language required for successful participation in schooling. However, language is all but one sign system/modality capable of enabling learners to construct meanings. Other modalities such as drawings, dramatic play, and 3-D constructions also abound to allow students to get across intended meanings and thus those proficient in these modalities should also be considered literate. As I recall, my 4-year-old niece once showed me a drawing that according to her portrayed her family members, though to me there were nothing more than 4 identical sets of symbols on the paper, each consisting of a circle on top, a triangle in the middle, and 2 ovals in the bottom. Yet, to come to think of it, this drawing indeed demonstrated that my niece had established the concept in regard to family members as well as an artistic skill as a way to convey this concept (a modality), though the skill still left a lot to be desired. However, in light of the multimodality theory noted here, she should be thought of as being literate, now that she was equipped with a sign system to help her “paint” her mind. I think this drawing example also serves as a piece of evidence lending support to Siegel’s (2006) proposition that children come into the classroom filled with prior knowledge in terms of multimodalities which, when tapped, would contribute to position the children as successful meaning makers.

I also find the idea transmediation really interesting. As Suhor (1984) put it, transmediation refers to the “translation of content from one sign system into another.” (p. 250) And this movement across sign systems emerges as a generative process giving rise to new meanings, due to the fact that there exists no shared code to help represent both sign systems and thus the connection between them needs to be invented. As I rolled my eyes through this idea of transmediation, I realized that it actually underlied some of the activities that I administered in my EFL classrooms and rendered them both fruitful and enjoyable. To take an example, I used to engage students in the story telling activity in which they looked at a comic strip with the bubbles emptied, collectively creating the lines they saw fit for each bubble, and then narrated a story taking place in the comic strip while at the same time presenting to the class their comic strip with all the bubbles filled. That is too say, this activity required students to move across 2 sign systems (modalities), that is, from pictures to oral discourse. And almost always the oral language students managed to produce in response to the comic strips was a lot richer than what they generated for the regular story telling task without any visual aids. On top of that, most students expressed fondness for this comic-turned-story activity because they found it a lot of fun to create dramatic dialogues for the comic characters (instead of themselves). As such, I believe transmediation indeed possesses great generative power that, when practiced appropriately, would lead to new meanings and come with a lot of joy. Picture 1 and 2 below serve as fine pieces of material for the activity in question.















Picture 1* The comic strip with empty bubbles















Picture 2* The original comic strip

*This comic strip comes from http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20070318.html

As Halliday (1978) contended, “language as a social semiotic means interpreting language within a sociocultural context in which the culture itself is interpreted in semiotic terms.” (p.2) This statement reminds me of how sounds animals make seem to differ from culture to culture (onomatopoeia). Of course, it is common sense that all dogs on the face of the earth bark in the same way. Yet, people with different cultural memberships had come to mimic the barking in different ways. Here’s a list of animal sounds represented in English and Chinese. As can be seen, roosters cocka-a-doodle-doo or gu-gu-gu depending on where they are. As far as I am concerned, this, among other facts, aptly illustrates how meanings of language/concepts/values are situated in the sociocultural context.

Animals -> English -> Chinese
dogs -> woof woof -> wan wan
cats -> meow -> meow
roosters -> cocka-a-doodle-doo -> gu-gu-gu
pigs -> oink oink -> go-go
ducks -> quack -> gua gua
cows -> moo -> mo

A guy made some crazy and funny animal sounds in the video clip that follows. It totally cracked me up! Check it out!



* This video clip comes from YouTube.

PowerPoint and Its Power to Point

As Adams (2006) put it, PowerPoint users might come to develop certain ways of doing things and patterns of behaviors and thinking, namely, becoming habituated with this software (p.394). This proposition somehow spells out my expectations for conference presentations; that is, they must be PowerPoint-enhanced. Ever since PowerPoint came into the picture, a number of the speakers in conferences waved goodbye to the old OHP transparencies in favor of this new technology, which I guess might be the result of several reasons. For one thing, it provides visual/audio reinforcement of oral information to the audience, helping them make better sense of the information. For another, it frees presenters from the manual changing of the transparencies and as such puts them in a better position to focus their attention mainly on conveying their ideas. Thus, due to this vast popularity of PowerPoint in conferences, my expectation that PowerPoint is a must for conference presentations kicked in and gradually became habituated. In fact, in the conference just held by my program (FLE) during this past weekend, I participated in several presentations, all of which were mediated by the use of PowerPoint as a presenting tool. And to come to think of it, I totally took this PowerPoint enhancement thing for granted. In fact, I guess I would definitely have felt less comfortable and even somewhat upset if the PowerPoint enhancement had been absent. This idea really stroke me as surprising for I’ve never known I’ve been habituated by the technology this much. Speaking of conference presentations facilitated by the employment of PowerPoint, I have ever experienced several ones that made use of PowerPoint in such a way that everyone present wished the speaker would just give them the ppt file and get it over with. One of the speakers read from the slides word by word without supplying any additional information. Another speaker skipped so many bullet points in each of the slides that a holistic understanding of the study became next to impossible. Still, not unlike the incongruous PowerPoint lecture discussed in Adams (2006), another speaker presented information somewhat different from the one projected onto the screen, making it rather difficult and confusing for the audience to establish any connection. However, honestly speaking, I feel glad that I’ve experienced these leaving-a-lot-to-be-desired presentations since they brought to my attention some problems that I should go out of my way to avoid while preparing my own PowerPoint presentations.

In her article, Adams (2006) contended that as a user seizes hold of PowerPoint as a tool for presenting information, “he or she necessarily begins to think in terms of the form it suggests.” (p. 394) And the form that PowerPoint suggests concerns titling each slide, abbreviating subject materials, and bulleting points. The way I see it, Powerpoint bears much resemblance with an overhead projector in regard to these features. In other words, presenters aided by an overhead projector would also need to entitle each transparency, abbreviate materials, as well as to bullet the points. Yet, a major difference between these 2 types of presentation facility representing the pre-computer and post-computer era consists in PowerPoint’s preference over information able to fit in a single projected 4:3 rectangular, which necessarily disadvantages and in turn renders obsolete the (narrative) texts calling forth more space to display. This is exactly the feature of PowerPoint that put me in a rather difficult situation as I tried to compose the slides for my presentation in the conference last weekend. In that presentation, I needed to show the audience a preview passage that spanned one A4-sized page in an attempt to help them get a better idea about what a previewing treatment gets at. However, I found it impossible to fit that one-page preview onto the 4:3 rectangular allowed by PowerPoint and ended up breaking the preview passage into 2 fragmented slides. I felt really upset in doing so, for the idea of a preview taking ONLY a one-page space so pivotal to my study was somehow lost from making it last for 2 slides. Picture 1 below pertains to the one-page preview whereas Picture 2 and Picture 3 depict the 2-slide preview, the fragmented one.



Picture 1



Picture 2



Picture 3













As for the use of PowerPoint as a presentation tool in the classroom, Adams (2006) argued teachers seem to “settle into the easiest, most accessible, efficient path and seldom thinking to diverge from it.” (p. 395) To put it another way, while using PowerPoint, they would rely on the AutoContent Wizard to construct their teaching presentations and stay tuned ever after. As a teacher myself, I surmise that this might be accounted for by several reasons. First of all, teachers might not feel the need to switch or venture any new format because the messages/content conveyed through the PowerPoint file constructed following AutoContent Wizard had been well-received and understood by students. Plus, when the format serves only as a medium to convey the messages, teachers might be convinced that the choosing of the messages should take precedence. Additionally, the time constraint might also play a part in the process. In sum, while experimenting with the new formats would no doubt be exciting and exhilarating, these practical concerns might have underlied some teachers’ decision as to sticking to the simpler template.

TV Programs as Smartness Boosters

It never occurred to me that dramas and reality programs could also function to make viewers smarter. I used to think of news programs as the only programs on TV capable of doing so, due to the fact that news programs would impose cognitive demands on viewers by acquainting them with the up-to-date events and in turn engaging them in the analysis and reflection of these events as they relate to their lives. Therefore, Johnson’s (2005) article indeed comes as a pleasant surprise for me. As he asserts, dramas such as 24, ER, The West Wing, actually place greater cognitive demands on the viewers by putting forth narratives which are characterized by subtlety and discretion (p.8). As such, in stark contrast to the commonly held value that they are a bad influence, these programs could actually contribute to the development of mental functioning and the enhancement of cognitive capacity. This is nothing short of great news for people like me who turn on TV as if it were a second nature as soon as I hit home.

However, while I welcome Johnson’s proposition with open arms in terms of dramas and reality programs boosting viewers’ smartness, a major concern has come to present itself as I read this article. That is, the potential negative impact on viewers might override the cognitive benefits these programs have to offer. Although dramas like 24 do entail better integration of the information and a higher-level reasoning skill to make sense of and connect their multiple narrative threads and in so doing set viewers in motion for some brain exercises, the fact that they are, more often than not, violence-, crime-, and obscene-language-packed somehow makes them less than ideal candidates for serving as informational programs for viewers. As a rule, we construct our value systems and develop our linguistic repertoires by virtue of interacting with and learning from people, books, and media that we come into contact with in our social milieus. Hence, there is a chance that viewers of the aforementioned programs, while expanding their cognitive capacity through watching them, may at the same time foster the idea that violence and threats are acceptable solutions to conflicts, and incorporate offensive language such as excessive cursing and swearing into their everyday conversations. The example popping up in my head as to how easily language might catch on through media pertains to the flick Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember when the movie came to an end, I noticed a number of people left the theater crooning Willy Wonka, the theme song played over and over again in the movie. In other words, a merely two-hour trip in the theater resulted in a new unit being added to the viewers’ linguistic repertoires and being produced in the oral form right away. The trailer of this movie accompanied by the theme song is as follows.



*This video clip comes from YouTube.

In light of this example, I could not help but wonder what impact the hours after hours of exposure to the violence and offensive language would exert on the viewers, not the least teenaged ones. In a line, though the growing complexity of dramas and reality programs involving multiple-threading, flashing arrows, and social networks would no doubt act to stimulate viewers’ cognitive development, the negative impact sugarcoated by the excitement of watching them such as the idea of violence-as-a-solution and offensive language deserves more careful attention.

As far as I am concerned, none of the dramas or reality shows named in Johnson’s (2005) article is my cup of tea. For one thing, they tax too much of cognitive resources in watching. For the most part, I turn to TV programs for some entertainment which by my definition means something I could kick back and enjoy without focused attention. Having to concentrate a great deal and feeling exhausted after watching certainly falls outside that definition. For another, they stand far from being adequate language learning materials. One of my motives for watching English-speaking dramas/sitcoms pertains to the benefits of getting more exposure to authentic use of English through understanding the narrative threads embedded in the show. Yet, for such dramas as ER, the fast-speed talking fraught with a plethora of medical jargons make it practically the off-limit to me as a language learner, since I would spend most of an episode feeling confused and overwhelmed both by the language and by the plots. Vis-à-vis these dramas featuring twist-and-turning threads and fast-speed talking, sitcoms like Friends, with their friendly plots scattered with surprises and with their everyday English mixed with useful idioms, emerge as the most educational form of entertainment for me. For example, I picked up some idiomatic expressions such as leaving someone high and dry and kicking up someone’s heels from Friends. Plus, they also play a crucial role in my process of cultural acquisition. For instance, I learnt about the 4 things needed for a wedding from Monica’s wedding in Friends, that is, something old, something new, something borrow, and something blue. Most important of all, I could always count on them for a good laugh. Therefore, as an English learner, I benefit more from the sitcoms that not only leave me in stitches but offer great vocabulary as well as cultural lessons than the Sleeper-Curve dramas.

Copyrights Getting in the Way of Creation?

I.
Lessig (2003) argues that the advent of the Internet led to the expansion of the reach of copyright, resulting in a devastating effect for the environment for creativity (p.130). As he puts it, the possible uses of copyrighted works distinguish among 3 categories: unregulated uses, related uses, and regulated uses deemed fair, or interchangeably fair uses. And since the Internet came into the picture, copyright owners’ control over these uses of their works has been greatly extended, to a degree much higher than what the copyright law dictates. Lessig (2003) cited several examples to reinforce his argument. One of them pertains to the case where Video Pipeline’s idea of distributing the video clips as being within their “fair use” rights was met with Disney’s countersuit which gains support from its control over the access to their video clips made possible by the Internet. Another example involves how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) puts forth support for the prohibition of the spreading of information on the Internet as to hacking Aibo pets to make them do new tricks. Still another example relates to Felten’s academic paper on the weakness in an encryption system developed by Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Again, DMCA was resorted to as a way to ban this paper from being published. In sum, Lessig (2003) concluded that the expansion of the copyright laws, though providing better protections for the copyright holders, at the same time weakens the opportunity to create and transform works, which in turn undermine the tradition of free culture (p.173).

Positive that Lessig’s argument would no doubt make perfect sense to creative artists who long for more inspirations and better flexibility to access others’ works, I tried to picture myself in the shoes of those copyright holders and examine this issue from their perspective. And this shift of perspectives brought to my attention the needs and desires of the copyright holders to protect the works that they gave birth to. That is, since they devoted efforts and time in producing the works, of course they would hope to enjoy the benefits and acknowledgement that come with the works. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that when they are granted with more control over their works in terms of copyrights, they would take the best advantage of it. Actually, I’ve been thinking the whole time while browsing through this chapter that if I were the one who designed the Aibo dogs, I certainly would not be too happy to see my works hacked and re-programmed to perform new tricks without any prior permission from me, especially if those tricks were the ones that I’ve been holding in store for the next promotion. In this case, I guess I would make no exception from the Aibo pet company and fall back upon the DMCA for the protection of my rights.

Turning back to the creative artists’ viewpoint, I guess the free market economy might somehow function to counteract this over-exercising of the copyrights on the part of the owners. To cite the example provided by Lessig (2003), if Barnes & Noble banned browsing books (over-exercising control), it would drive customers to other bookstores. In the same vein, if an e-book publisher imposed excessive restrictions on the times allowed to read their e-books (over-exercising control), readers might end up getting the physical version of those books and eventually turn to other publishers. Additionally, even though users are now subject to more restrictions and permissions to proceed when it comes to using the copyrighted works, technology, by which I mean the Internet, actually simplifies and accelerates the processes of obtaining these permissions in the same manner that it eases the process of detecting infringement of the law (Lessig, 2003). While reading, I kept getting this mental picture of me trying to get an account from the Wretch (a blog system) which required that I read and accept their copyrights up front. As far as I can remember, to do so, all I needed to do was ticking the “I agree” box and hitting the “continue” button. And then I was good to go. What this experience of mine goes to show is that technology, while unfortunately enabling the over-exercise of control over copyrights, also serves to simplify the act of getting permissions and might as such facilitate rather than weaken creation.

II.















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In Free Culture, Lessig (2003) states that “the copyright now is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a ©.” (p.137) These statements sent me back to the examination of the differences between literacy and orality again. In regard to literacy, when you put ideas down into words and publishes a piece of work as such, be it a book, an article, or a manuscript, you are almost immediately entitled to the copyrights to that piece of work, for the written work itself stands as the powerful proof. In this case, yes, the copyright could be automatic. However, when it comes to orality, if you verbalized something without penning it down or recording it with some electronic devices, your thoughts would not be awarded with any copyrights since there would be no proof showing you’re the one who “owns” these thoughts. So, no, the copyright doesn’t come automatically. This reminds me of one of the Friends episodes where Chandler and Ross argued over the ownership of a monkey joke. Chandler claimed that he told the joke in Central Perk while Ross asserted that he used to keep a monkey as a pet and of course it was he who came up with the monkey joke. This plot duly demonstrates the no-automatic-copyright characteristic of orality. To conclude, I think “automatic copyrights” could also be put onto the list of the differences between literacy and orality.