Stitch Bitch – Definitely a bitch to read …

Shelley Jackson and “Stitch Bitch” led me to the edge for a nice jump off the windowsill. Unfortunately, all I could produce was a first floor leap that resulted in scrapes and scratches from the azalea bush below rather than a mind-numbing crack to the skull that would put me out of my misery.

That is pretty much how I felt when reading this piece, particularly in the early stages of the writing. Jackson’s style was, no doubt, disorienting and confusing – at least for the most part. I felt like I was sifting through a jumbled up mess for the first three pages until I finally stumbled upon the actual point of the chapter, its discussion on hypertext.

Like many of my fellow classmates, I did not enjoy reading this style in any way, shape or form. Coherency is a beautiful thing for me, and I was not finding it too often in this piece.

I did, however, pull some good and positives out of it in terms of the ideas she was presenting. Once I could weed out some of the psychobabble and get to the meat of her point, it was somewhat refreshing.

I absolutely love Jackson’s thinking when she says, “if it’s in your head it’s yours to express. Write about what interests you, no matter how sniffy the world gets …”

When putting original thoughts, if there is such a thing, onto paper, writers are always at risk for offending someone. You are always in a position to produce something that someone will disagree with. So, writers should be very aware of that. Be free to write what is in your mind and don’t be held by the boundaries of expectant behavior.

That is a point she makes very clear with when she states “You can’t let other people decide what is important to think or write about. Other people are wrong … but also keep in mind that you are someone else’s ‘other people.'”

I also believes she makes a solid point when she states, “Sentences always say more than they mean, so writers always write more than they know, even the laziest of them.”

The premise behind her ideas were certainly intriguing – the never-ending opportunity to expand knowledge in a wide spectrum kind of manner through hypertext. I just was not a fan of how she brought those ideas to us … I feel as if it was just a bit overboard.

Now, I shall take some headache pills, because that is exactly what I have from this reading.

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