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Bibliography by Morgan Schuler

Page history last edited by Morgan Schuler 10 years, 4 months ago

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

 

By Morgan SchulerInto the Zone: A Study of Adaptations

 

1) Bowen, Hugh. "Can Video games Make You Cry?"Bowen Research Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

 

In this article, Hugh Bowen explores what characteristics are necessary in a medium to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. He specifically probes into how feelings play a role into the world of video games. To test this, Bowen conducted an experiment with 535 experienced gamers, and resolved to determine how the emotions experienced in a game impacted its overall measure of  “success.”

 

 The most unexpected conclusion found in this study was about the overall rankings of mediums that affected participants, with movies ranked as first, followed my music, books, and video games, respectively. His experiment with video games specifically gave rare insight into the type of video games that were dubbed “emotionally powerful”, with role playing games evoking a response among 78% of gamers tested, followed by first person shooter games among 52% of the test group. Bowen's research showed how each gamer has a personal response to the medium, with games describing that in first person shooter games, “’You feel "the ruthlessness of being the hunter, the fear of being the hunted"' and many remarked on competition being a main motivator. The author found his most startling finding to be that two thirds of the gamers he polled believed that video games could match or exceed the emotion found in other forms of entertainment. In addition, Bowen compiled a list of feelings that gamers say video games most strongly evoke, and despite the obvious emotions of “violence/excitement”, “accomplishment”, “frustration”, they also brought about “delight”, “compassion”, “love”, and even “spirituality." 

 

This article connects to the class project in many areas, beginning with his assessment of which forms of media were most inspiring to the participants. It is interesting to observe research that has already been conducted and to see if our study brings about the same findings about which form of entertainment creates the most emotional response. In addition, as someone with little to no experience in video games, the survey about the type of video game that resonated most with the player was able to give more insight into a component of the project that I am not directly involved with. Lastly, I enjoyed reading his assessment of the feelings that are most often inspired among gamers. A component of our project is having each person take a survey after experiencing their media and examining the specific emotions that each one invokes, so I think it will be interesting to compare what the gamers in our study feel in comparison to those watching the film in our project, as well as how I feel after reading the short story.  

  

2) Gingrich, Derek. "Roadside Picnic in Adaptation."Somewhere Post Culture. N.p., 7 Apr. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

 

This article tells that though the medias inspired by Strugastky’s story are wildly different, “Roadside Picnic," the film, and the video game it inspires do share some common qualities. He found that together they all share a structural similarity in that each media centers around a fictional world, and at the center of that world is the concern of the “nature of man in the face of post-industrial era." In addition, he found likenesses in the protagonist’s quest for their innermost desire, the setting of an ambiguous zone left by a disaster, and an outlaw that is in search of cherished prizes present in the dangerous zone. Gingrich then goes on to summarize each media independently, analyzing the differences in plot that occurs among the three mediums. Through these discussions, Gingrich’s question of “What is at the center of man?” that he feels to be connected to the text and adaptations evolves into a question for each specific medium.

 

Gingrich’s analysis of the three art forms together allows the participants to consider how all of the adaptations come into play with each other. Though he observes differences in dystopia through “dystopia in capitalism” in the novel, “dystopia in modernism” in the film, and “dystopia in communism” in the video games, he focuses on the similarities as a way to show that each medium complements instead of competes against each other. Gingrich’s final observation, that all three stories utilize the same “world structure to explore the relationship between the world man inhabits, and the center at which he’ll find meaning” shows that a story can survive different mediums without creating a disparity in the message it communicates.

 

This article can contribute to our group’s research by reinforcing our belief that some attributes of a story stay consistent despite the medium it is delivered in. A key component of our research is investigating what stays true to the text and what differences came about in the adaptations. It will be interesting to compare our group’s conclusions about the different mediums with Gingrich’s findings, but I think his discovery about the common themes among all of them could be useful supplemental research to our project. 

 

3) Newitz, Annalee. "A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read."

      Rev. of Roadside Picnic. 09 May 2012: n. pag.Io9. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.

 

Annalee Newitz produces this review of Roadside Picnic for the 30th anniversary of its original publication. The article details this edition’s new translation and an added afterword by author Boris Strugastky, who describes the challenge of being published in a time full of Soviet censorship. Newitz’s short summary of the novel’s plot precedes her fascinating remarks on how the novel brilliantly parallels the ambiguity and discomfort surrounding alien life and our own human world.

 

Newitz’s description of the afterword gave a great insight into the challenging publishing process for the Strugastkys, who faced countless revisions due to the mature content the Soviets thought would be inappropriate for children, rather than the depiction of Western life as a “horror show." The most surprising detail of the afterword is that Strugastky’s biggest challenge faced in the publishing process was not the “ideological censors," but rather those in the literary world who discouraged any originality or excitement in their writing. Newitz was able to succinctly communicate that the authors’ belief in the importance of moving outside established boundaries, which is an important message in Roadside Picnic, also clearly translates to their attitudes towards writing.

 

The review gives great insight into Roadside Picnic’s publishing process during a time with heavy Soviet control over writing. Though there are many articles are the adaption process of the novel into a film and video game, this gave insight into how the original text itself came into being and how it may have influenced the author's writing. As a group member who is focusing on the text of the novel in our research, this review was very informational in how it took into account the context of the novel’s genesis in its analysis.

 

4) Sanders, Joe. "Found In Translation." Publishers Weekly 259.11 (2012): 42. Academic Search Complete.  Web. 5 Nov. 2013.

 

In an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, Olena Bormashenko details how her dissatisfaction with the original English translation of Roadside Picnic inspired her to create her own translation of the text. As an activity completed merely for fun, Bormashenko details how her process of translation began with a rough conversion of the text into the English language, which she further edited in later readings. As she went though the process of revision, she took liberty with certain expressions that she believed would work better in the English language, and admitted how language barriers presented themselves in communicating certain phrases. Bormashenko was able to give deep insight into the technical process of translating, which was perhaps influenced by her career as a mathematician. Though she didn’t initially intend for the work to be published when she began translating, and she felt very grateful when the Chicago Review Press selected it to be published.

 

Though the plot and characters will be the same between both translations, the Cryptomaoist edition translated by Antonia W. Bouis will be the text used for the class project. It would be interesting to compare why Bormashenko’s translation was selected over Bouis’s in the new edition, and as well as the differences between the two texts that arise as a result of different translators. Though there is the chance to only read one version due to limited time in the course, it would be very interesting to read both and recognize their differences.

 

5) "Science Fiction Teaches the Civic Virtues: An Interview with Arkadii Strugatsky." Interview      by Vladimir Gopman. Science Fiction Studies. DePauw University, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.      <http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/Gopman53interview.htm>.

 

This article presents an interview with Arkadii Strugastky in 1988 and details additional background on his life as well as his opinions on the genre of science fiction in Russia at the time. Composed of him and his brother, Boris, the Strugastky pair holds an impressive list of awards and recognition for their writing. The interviewer asks him about his thoughts in the 1960s and the blossoming genre of Soviet science fiction, which Strugastky describes as “spiritual upsurge joined with a romantic faith in science, in the omnipotence of science and technology”. The Russian writer cites many important historical events occurring at the time, such as the 20th Congress of the Communist Party as well as the satellite launch as huge influences to the writing in that area.

 

The most poignant part of this interview is when Strugastky describes a decline in this genre that is still ongoing at the time of the interview. This is due to the authorities’ strict censorship of the genre that led to a slowing down of this “Golden Age” of science fiction. The interview gives the reader valuable information on the history of publishing from an author’s perspective in how Strugastky found that the greatest problem was the lack of publishing new authors and titles that brought about an “artificially created” genre of only 20 new heavily supervised publications per year. The interviewer asks the author about why he never chose to write stories about the real world, to which he replies that he and his brother think that SF [science fiction] is capable of most fully embodying the problems that worry us—and that trouble our fellow citizens as well," a quote that succinctly describes the value and interest of the genre. In the interview he notes his work with the film adaptation of the novel Roadside Picnic and tells how it resulted in 11 versions of the screenplay. The interview gives greater insight into the author’s adaptation of the film which in turn gives greater insight into the authors themselves, for through their determination to show  “people's quest for happiness and their disenchantment with it" Strugastky sums up their philosophy on writing.

 

As a new reader of science fiction and a person who is rather uninformed about the history of publication  in Russia, this interview gives valuable information from a very influential person in those areas. It is interesting to see how the author of Roadside Picnic understood the events that occurred in Soviet Russia and how this may have shaped his writing of the novel. Overall, this interview sheds light on the authors, the science fiction genre, and the influence of the Russian setting that gives added context while reading Roadside Picnic. The adaption of this work into film is remarkable in that it was by the same author, so it could be an interesting research to see what he choose to adapt to the film from his own writing.  

 

 

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