November 3, 2005
Ivanhoe
There are certainly some usability issues with Ivanhoe. I spent quite a bit of time at home downloading the demo, and then my computer would not let me run it for security issues. Neither can I get it to run on a UMD computer.
I'm still considering the project, and I feel a little, um challenged, trying to find the practical classroom use for Ivanhoe. I realize that we can all get stumped by orthodoxy and habit when encountering new ideas. So, I'm still a little unclear as to what Ivanhoe is trying to accomplish. Is it the rhetoric? or just the idea itself that is giving me trouble.
We always seem to return to the question of 'what is the text?' If the text is 'rewritten', well, it's a different text. When we think of translated texts, we know that it will be a different text. When we rewrite a text, that,too, is a translation.
In fact, to some degree, translation and interpetation co-mingle during the reading process. If, for example, you encounter a word of which you don't know the meaning, are you translating with the dictionary, and interpreting the the dictionary's definition to help you interpret the rest of the text?
And, if the goal of Ivanhoe is to call attention to textual studies and the processes of interpretation, can you do that with a game that interprets much of the text for you with action and image and visual sophistication?
Or, can you only interpret the game?
Posted by wood0072 at November 3, 2005 9:21 AM
i share your puzzlement on this one.
i imagine ivanhoe can be great fun -- especially for those folks of a "gaming" bent. if i grasp how it works (and i'm not sure i do) i can see a group of lively, literate friends having a grand old time messing with a book or a story that they all know.
someone might toss in a passage they're all familiar with, or maybe a parody of that passage. the other people respond with their alterations and additions. maybe characters from other works show up.
i have a friend who co-wrote parodies of elliot poems with her pal 1000 miles away. they did it via snail mail. one of them would write a line of, say, "the wasteland," and send it off. the other would respond with another line.
let us go then, you and i
where the jello is left out beside the pie...
ivanhoe could, perhaps, give students a new, active way to approach something they're reading in class. maybe i'm an elitist, but i don't think there are very many students who'll get swept up into this. for a few, it could be great. they can lose themselves in this game and experience a piece of writing in a much fuller more intense way than if they'd just read
the scarlet letter and gabbed about it in class.
but i don't think there are a good many undergrads who'll take the bait. most of them will be puzzled and frustrated -- and bored.
"what the hell. i thought we were s'posed to read this
book. what's all this crap my classmates are writing?"
call me a pessimist if you will, but i think the large bulk of folks will be perplexed and put off by ivanhoe.
that's not to say it's a bad project. for the people who get off on it (and i just might be one of those) it could be great fun. and maybe even useful -- in terms of sparking new ideas and testing out new theses.
but it takes lots of time, energy and focus to play such a thing. and it takes a certain level of passion for the subject matter. and it calls for a willingness to play along. and it demands a degree of familiarity with "literature."
i'm not sure i see that combination in very many people. so i wonder about the usefulness of this game in most classrooms.