Avry Week 4 - Hypertext p2

 Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" is an essay specifically on challenging traditional ideals of identity, feminism, and technology. She does this by referencing a cyborg (half machine, half human) to analyze the boundaries between human and nonhuman things - more specifically digital technology. Just like the cyborg, E-lit is a combination of text and digital features. Hypertext fiction is an example of one of the metaphors Haraway references. The use of Hypertext has a way of blurring the lines between human authorship and technologies use. I think Haraway builds an excellent case within this essay. 

Moving on to "My Body" by Shelley Jackson - after learning about her in class, I had a sort of standoffish view going into this. As I explored, my mind eased up a bit. I really enjoy the story that comes with each body part. The "arm" section was kind of empowering in a way. She writes how she did more chin ups than any boy or girl in her class, expressing the difference between her and others. As the section goes on, some people may view the writing as arrogant, or you can view it as writing with confidence. Jackson writes about how women trained to look like her, yet she was just born this way...  This piece of hypertext is a very vulnerable and intimate form of literature. Each part of the body has a written piece, and within that has other links to click to dive deeper into. I think it takes a mature reader to understand the beauty that comes with this.