Radical Change in YAL

"Skeleton Sky" is definitely the most radical poetry I have yet encountered. Especially because the author has no control over how the reader will experience the poem. At the beginning, when the reader chooses randomly from a set of the exact same words and is then transported to a different part of the poem. I loved it. It was completely fresh, completely radical. I was experiencing the poem however I pleased, but it wasn't as though I really chose what would come next, just that I was able to click the word that stood out to me the most. This was a nearly flawless example of the kind of advantages that digital interactiveness offers. It seems almost unnecessary to comment on what I thought of the poem, because my experience cannot be replicated. Even if I were to go back for a second run through, I may not again experience a poem that is dark, creepy, lively, bouncy and somehow subdued and pretty. There wasn't much of a narrative, but the images were striking and well constructed, and the connections between the links were sufficient for the poem as a whole to be seen. It wasn't as though it was just a random collection of words. It is definitely a radical change of context.

I haven't had a lot of interaction with children books that represent Radical Change outside of the ones I have read so far for this class, including Revolver, which is radical change in perspective, as it predicts the viewpoint of a early 20th century teen in several mining towns, a perspective at least that I had not heard before. Maus, which was radical in presentation, and perspective as it used the graphic novel medium to depict the story of a Polish Jew during the holocaust, and also the son of a holocaust survivor, who had a very unique perspective because of his parents' legacy. Ghostopolis, as a graphic novel is also a change in presentation and perspective, as it tells the story of a young man dying who is magically transported to the land of the dead. Of course, I can relate well to the other listed radical charge types as they occur in more adult literature, such as the journey book I presented, the Sun Also Rises, which altered the way language was presented. Maybe As I Lay Dying for depicting psychological states as opposed to plot. T.S. Eliot's Prufrock did much the same for poetry. Unfortunately none of these represent radical change in the digital sense, and besides the poem discussed earlier, I'm not sure I've encountered much radical change in a digital sense.

As far as graphic novels, I already mentioned two that I have read thus far. I think they are great way to present complicated texts, because so much can be conveyed by images. That makes graphic novels much more accessible to readers who are ESL or on a lower reading level than the rest of the class. I think that means that the key to incorporating graphic novels into the curriculum is to allow students to select their own texts, and to allow some of those texts to be graphic novels. Even though I would not consider Ghostopolis to be literature, because I think it failed to explore some of the themes it presented (as Roxburgh discussed when extraneous information is presented or unresolved sometimes the book doesn't work) it was still very engaging. And I think that for some of our younger students, Ghostopolis would be a great graphic novel, because it has great graphics, and an interesting plot regardless of its shortcomings. I hope to allow students to discover graphic novels on their own, though I would probably limit which ones I made available and would make sure that I cover all of my reading levels with options. But I think they really provide a fresh avenue for students to discover literature, and that should always be encouraged.