Separate Kingdoms

In the story "Separate Kingdoms", by Valerie Laken, i was confused when i first read the story. I started off by reading the whole page as one, which it didn't really seem to make any sense. The author wrote in two separate columns, so i decided to read one whole column on each page instead, and this make more sense. This is the first piece where i find an author writing about two different perspective of each individual shared under one roof. I find the author's style of writing is very interesting. I like the way the author can write two different stories at the same time and therefore show a connection between the two stories. (very creativel)

The piece of story written side by side happens to tell from each person's point of view that is happening at the same time. One column tells from a father's perspective and the other column tells from a teenagers perspective. In both stories, their is also the mom who plays an important role in both lives, and to make the whole story as a piece, it show what she goes through and how she feels and deals with in each person's story.

The purpose for Valerie Laken writing this piece, "Separate Kingdoms", is to show to her readers the different perspective coming from adult view compare to perspective coming from a teenage point of view during a trauma event that happened in their home. This story shows what family goes through, how they cope, and how trauma can affect family life.


Aspect 1
The author, Laken describes everything that happens under one roof as a single image.
The author did this by using theoretical language (Drucker 56), self referential, tying each page back into the overall stucture of the book as a single 'image'.

Aspect 2 and Aspect 3
Arrangment of text. Page layout
Laken wrote in two separate colums to separate each person's point of view.

Aspect 4
Elements of configuration (Drucker 58). Combining both the actual and theorectical bases for the work into a single statement.
Laken used the same background, people, animals, foreground, location, context, and gestures to emphasize the contibution as a whole.

Aspect 5
Produce evidence. Fore Gone.
Laken uses animals and mother as evidence to prove evidence that the story was taken place at the same time.

Old Introduction/ New Introduction

Old Introduction

In Charles Baxter's essay Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age, Neil Postman quote "We have transformed knowledge into a form of garbage." In today's society, we are surrounded by abundanta and fruitful of information that will never leave us to starvation in knowledge. However; people seem to be so hard on their self, especially when they forget or losse a piece of information refer to as their "memory." Why are we shameful when we forget? I can agree more with Neil,; One form of knowledge is labeling, people label forgetting or forgetfulness as a negative connotation and therefore in this way it turns knowledge into a form of garbage.

New Introduction

In Charles Baxter's essay Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age, Walter Benjamin (pg.149) argues that the explosion of Information in the Modern Age is denying us of something precious: "the ability to exchange experiences." In today's information age, people are now spending thier day in front of a computer emailing, paying pills, writing papers, doing research, shopping, playing games, and even chatting with friends and family on the internet. People are so involve and focused in front of the computer, that they are now missing out on the experience of actually hanging out and experiencing close interactions with one another.

Intoductioon Assignment #1.1

In Charles Baxter's essay "Forgetting and Shame in the Information Age, the author is trying to express the idea that society today is relying on technology information for everyday living and guidance. People that fall behind and cannot catch onto printed information is labeled as an outcast. Why? Maybe, because today's society depend too much on technology,and you have to keep up with everyone else. There is competition to see who has better memory, the kind of memory that can hold data information, not the memory that we can hold in our human brain. People turn to media for everyday news and presidential leadership. People turn to internet, magazines and books to gather facts and information. In warehouses and factories, people need scantron devices to keep track of shipment, delivery and orders. These days, memory data is keeping track of our memory for us, but are we going too far?
Neil Postman wrote, "We have transformed information into a form of garbage." Nowadays, t.v commercials portray forgetfulness as a shame. Baxter wrote (147); " One recent commercial, shown nationally, begin with a documentary footage of a young Canadian women in a large stage singing the Canadian Anthem. After about ten seconds, she begins to fluff her lines, A pause, while she looks embarassed and shamed face. She then stops singing. Cut to a voice-over, an annouonced saying, "Everybody needs a good night's sleep to perform well." We see a shot of the product, a mattress. Memory anxiety makes for a good business." In the Information Age people turn to technology for information and in this case the tv commericial is sending a message that forgetting is bad and people seem to be so hard on themself when they forget. The point is; there is always information out there and it is so easy to obtain, people think they should everything off hand which makes them so hard on themself. Walter Benjamin wrote (146) " Remembering data and remembering experience are two very different activities." In our society today there will always be data that and no one can absorb all the information, but people need to focus more on remembering experience for that is what will stick on them longer.

In an information age, forgetfulness is a sign of debility and incompetence (147)

Ronal Reagan, has become the central figure, the genius loci, the brawny poster-chil, of forgetfulness (147)

His high approval rating suggest that nobody really minds, that, in fact, the American people secrety approve. Clinton has become a hero of seslective data management. (149)

Assignment #1

I think Baxter is trying to say that technology today is a trend in society. People rely on computers, phones, digital devices for organization and memory as well as information. The competition of knowledge through technology devices for process information and guiding people throughtout their daily lives for work, advice, and information allows people to focus less on their lack of experience to their social surroundings such as their neighbors name, and importatnt events in daily life. When they do forget simple things like this, they become so hard on themself.
Throughout Baxter's various parts of the essay he explains two types of memories, one is personal memory and the other is computer memory. He gives life experiences of people and his hypothetical reasons to how people view high tech devices as positive and negative in today's information age , and how people portray "forgetting" as a negative connotation.

Virtual Introduction