Emily Coughs: A fictocritical exploration of the self via social
media.
Emily Naismith, B.Comm (Media)
Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for
the degree of Bachelor of Communication (Media) (Honours)
Dr. Jenny Weight
School of Media and Communication,
RMIT University
October 2009
Emily Naismith
1
2
labsome 2009
Thankyou
To my supervisor, Jenny Weight for supporting me throughout
the year with your guidance, knowledge and encouragement.
You helped me to produce the best project that I possibly could.
To Adrian Miles for originally introducing me to fictocriticism.
To Rachel Wilson for always providing confidence in my ideas
and being a source of motivation throughout my four years at
RMIT.
To my Dad for printing this beast.
And finally, to the Labsome 2009 group for your helpful
suggestions, ideas and cupcakes.
Emily Naismith
3
4
labsome 2009
Statement of
authorship
This thesis contains no material which has been
accepted for the award of any other degree or
diploma in any tertiary institution, and that, to the best
of my knowledge and belief, contains no material
previously published or written by another person,
except where due reference is made in the text of
this thesis.
Signature
Emily Naismith
5
6
labsome 2009
CONTENTS
Abstract
8
Introduction
9
theme of interruptions
10
background on cystic fibrosis
15
background on fictocriticism
16
background on social media
21
writing fictocriticism
24
My Fictocritical Writing Style
29
The Online Environment
36
Identity In Online Environments
36
Reading And Writing Online
38
Twitter
40
Facebook
45
Blogging
46
Flickr
48
Google Maps
49
Conclusion
51
Appendix
54
Bibliography
60
Emily Naismith
7
ABSTRACT
An interruption is something that breaks continuity or stops
something from happening. Interruptions can make our lives
interesting and more engaging by introducing unpredictable
elements but they can also dispense disturbance and irritation
if the interruption is unpleasant. There are multitudes of ways
we deal with interruptions throughout our lives: embracing
them, ignoring them, searching for them, opposing them
and acknowledging them. This project explores the theme of
interruption on three levels.
The three interruptions I will be exploring and using in this
project are Cystic Fibrosis, fictocriticism and social media.
These three interruptions together make up the content, method
and medium of my project.
As a writing practice, fictocriticism has allowed me to explore
the interruptions Cystic Fibrosis imparts upon my life (most
notably my constant cough) in a creative and experimental
way. The interruption of coughing was my departing point
for the theme of interruption. Through using social media as
an instrument to write more personally, I have attempted to
explore my personal relationship with Cystic Fibrosis, a chronic
condition I have lived with my whole life. This journey of selfexploration is an attempt to acknowledge this interruption that I
have for the most part ignored previously.
Through fictocriticism, I will contemplate my capacity to
“write the self”. The aim of this project is to gain a greater
understanding of my self and my relationship with Cystic
Fibrosis through writing myself on the page.
8
labsome 2009
Introduction
I was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) when I was two years
old. I have never known a life outside of CF. I remember my Mum
pouring the contents of capsules onto apple puree for me to eat
before I learnt to swallow tablets and I’ve always been aware
that I cough a lot more than others. But what does this actually
mean? I can’t escape CF and examine it from the outside. It is a
part of who I am. So it’s from this unique vantage point, where
I am observing myself through my own eyes that I examine my
relationship with CF. I want to give myself time to contemplate
how it has shaped my personality and outlook and also consider
questions about CF that I have never thought to ask.
In this exegesis I will firstly introduce the theme of interruptions
that runs through this project. I will then provide a background
on the three main areas of focus: CF, social media and
fictocriticism, also exploring how these three areas relate and fit
together. Then, I will delve deeper into the world of fictocriticism,
first providing an overview of how to write fictocritically and
then how I went about attempting to write fictocriticism and how
my style has developed. The focus will then move to the online
world where I will discuss issues of identity that crop up when
using online environments and also how writing online differs to
writing offline. I will individually explore each of the social media
websites I used in my project: Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Flickr
and Google Maps. My conclusion will address the struggles I
have faced in the production of this project and provide insight as
to whether I have gained a greater understanding of myself and
my relationship with CF through the production of this project.
Emily Naismith
9
Theme of
Interruptions
Our lives have always been filled with interruptions: some
wanted, some unwanted, some surprising and some
bland. An interruption is something that breaks continuity
or stops progress. In this light, interruptions are seen as
slightly negative: they stop us doing what we want to do. But
interruptions can also be positive.
The three types of interruptions that I will be drawing parallels
between in this project are the interruption of CF, the
interruptive nature of social media and interruption of writing
fictocriticism.
Even though I’ve had a cough as long as I can remember, I
still see it as an interruption. My cough will interrupt movies,
lectures, conversations and even sleep. It is a natural for me
to cough and my cough is a part of me, but it still interrupts my
everyday activities, sometimes for the better, but mostly for
the worst. Having said this, I can’t imagine not having a cough.
Coughing actually helps me to clear my lungs so I can continue
to do more things. It is a necessary interruption.
CF is an interruption on a larger scale than just having an
interrupting cough. It invades and takes over aspects of my
life frequently at the most inconvenient times, for example, in
the two weeks before all coursework is due for the end of the
semester or just as I step foot off a plane on a holiday. However
this interruption theme does run deeper.
It is most likely that one day CF will decisively and ultimately
interrupt my life and cut it short. This is a theme that I attempt to
deal with in my project.
Social media is an interruption on two levels. Tweets, status
updates and new blog post notifications interrupt our day,
whether we are at work or sitting on a tram. We may not ask to
know whether an old high school acquaintance prefers Froot
Loops to Coco Pops, but through participating in these social
10
labsome 2009
networks we will get the answer. One factor that makes this kind
of interruption different from an interruption like a cough is that
we can tailor what interruptions we receive. From subscribing to
certain RSS feeds to organizing the people you follow on Twitter
into groups, we are tailoring our interruptions to suit our needs.
The other way that social media sites act as interruption is in
the form of procrastination. When you are struggling to write an
article to a close deadline or have a presentation due in the next
few hours, suddenly it seems like a great idea to look through
the travel pictures of a friend of a friend’s trip to Greece. This is a
form of interruption that we actively seek. Sometimes we crave
an interruption to break the monotony of work and other times
we feel bombarded with interruptions. Social media balances on
this line very carefully.
Writing can also be an interruptive process. We can blur genres
and the codes and conventions of writing styles to produce
new hybridized texts. Fictocriticism is a writing practise that
enables you to blur these boundaries. Fictocriticism differs from
academic writing and also from fiction. It can take elements
from both academic writing and fiction writing, and use them
to create something else. The hybrid nature of fictocriticism
disrupts our habitual reading traditions. This interruption
prompts the reader to question the text and delve deeper into
what we are reading.
Trying to garner a greater understanding of the self through
writing can be an interruptive process. Thoughts jump from
one topic to the next often only prompted by a faint memory and
joined only by a few words. But it is from within this interruption
that it’s beauty lies. Raw and powerful expressions of self can be
nestled alongside questions of who we really are. It is the desire
to explore the self through writing and engaging and tuning into
this interruption that can produce interesting fictocriticism.
Emily Naismith
11
Fictocriticism does not dictate that you must write about
yourself as subject, but inevitably, because it is such a close and
personal kind of writing, even if unintended, the self will always
slip through. I was drawn to fictocriticism as a writing practise
because it allows a deeper and more involved process of writing
and allows you to engage in multiple spheres of writing at the
same time: personal, theoretical and experimental.
This is not the first time I have engaged with CF through writing.
I have written about my friends with CF in a half imagined, half
truth-based way in early secondary school. I have also written
more personally about CF in VCE when I described the emotions
I thought CF made me feel through describing them as colours.
At the time, I felt ashamed and uncomfortable with this piece of
writing as I was embarrassed by the reality of what I had written
down on the page.
In these two former attempts at writing about CF, I explained
my experiences like I would explain them to others. I was
explaining myself to the reader. In my current attempt at writing
involving CF I am in a different position: I am attempting to write
myself. I am trying to explain myself to myself. I will expand
more on writing myself later, but for now, my ambition is that I
am attempting to capture myself on the page, in order to gain a
greater understanding of who I am and how I think about CF.
I am aware that until now, I have never really focused on how
having CF has impacted me: physically, emotionally or socially.
This thought scares me. I want to get to know myself and how
I interact and engage with CF. I want to ponder the questions
I’ve never asked (or thought to ask) and grasp my thoughts and
put them on the page without monitoring or censoring them for
others and myself.
The three areas of my Honours study (fictocriticism, social media
and my experience with CF) started off as separate goals or
interests, and then joined into one.
12 labsome 2009
The urge to explore my experiences with CF really only came
about earlier this year. It wasn’t until different people started
asking about CF and became interested in it that I realized
I didn’t really think that much about it. Explaining it to other
people made me recognize how much I just accept without
question. Even though I wanted to consider my observations
of CF, I didn’t even dream about focusing on it as my Honours
project.
When I started this year of university I thought my Honours
project would focus on social media in some way. I thought
it would be actually about social media in content, possibly
presented as a thesis. It wasn’t until we began as a class to
research “research methods” that I came across fictocriticism.
Our tutor gave us a lot of material on different research methods,
but the one reading that really stood out for me was The Erotics
of Gossip: Fictocriticism, Performativity, Technology by Hazel
Smith (2005a). Immediately after reading it I wrote about it in my
university blog:
So I think it’s by being more than an informative essay and
more than a fictional radio drama, that is what makes her
example of fictocriticism so fascinating. It’s because she has
mashed together all different genres in a discontinuous way,
we actually end up with more of a feel of what gossip actually
is. Moreso than if it was purely creative or purely academic.
(Naismith 2009c)
This writing practice immediately appealed to me. But I couldn’t
really see how it fitted with my original idea of writing about
social media. I continued researching fictocriticism and social
media, trying to get them to fit in some way so I could keep
researching them both for my project.
Eventually I realized that my interest in fictocriticism was far
more immediately motivating then my steady interest in social
media. So I followed this path. I was then faced with the problem,
Emily Naismith
13
what do I want to be fictocritical about? This was when my drive
to explore CF creatively came to the forefront of my mind. I could
see that fictocriticism could be a great vehicle to explore my
relationship with CF.
I hadn’t given up on using social media as part of my project
yet either. This is my long-term media passion and eventually
after trying to explain my project to others, I realized that social
media did have a place in my project. Using the metaphor of
“interruption” it was possible to join fictocriticism, CF and social
media together in a compelling project.
14 labsome 2009
Background on
Cystic Fibrosis
1
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic medical condition that
mainly affects the respiratory system, digestive system and
reproductive system . It is the most common life threatening,
genetic disorder amongst Australians.
The information
in this chapter is
sourced from the
Cystic Fibrosis
Victoria website
( What is Cystic
Fibrosis? 2006).
CF patients have a build up of mucous in the lungs which leads to
repeated chest infections. Coughing helps to clear this mucous.
Regular chest physio and exercise is vital as this helps to keep
the airways open and clear and to prevent chest infections.
There are different kinds of infections that people with CF can get
in their lungs. They are easily transmitted between people with
CF so people are usually segregated in hospitals according to
what lung infections they have. It is advised that people with CF
do not physically socialize with each other to limit the spread of
infections.
Because CF affects the exocrine glands, it affects the production
of sweat, mucous and enzymes. The pancreas is blocked by
mucous so the enzymes that are usually released to help break
down the fat in food aren’t released at all. CF patients have to
take supplement enzymes to make sure it breaks down properly.
People with CF take up to sixty enzyme replacement tablets
per day. Because of the inability to digest the fat from food,
sometimes people with CF have trouble putting on weight. This is
why most people with CF are on a high fat, sugar, salt and calorie
diet.
Cystic Fibrosis is a recessive genetic disorder. Both parents
need to be CF carriers to produce a baby with CF. One in every
2500 Australian births is a child with CF. It is not a contagious
disease but a chronic condition. There is currently no cure for it.
Emily Naismith
15
Background on
Fictocriticism
Fictocriticism is a form of hybrid writing which combines theory
and fiction. My interpretation of “theory” incorporates anything
from non-fiction, philosophy and meditations on language.
Theory may also be used as an influence to your writing. It is
hard to define the structure or features of fictocriticism because
of the multitude of forms it can manifest itself in. This is why
speaking of fictocriticism as a form of writing is in essence,
redundant. Amanda Nettlebeck prefers to refer to fictocriticism
as a “strategy for writing” (1998, p. 4) that does not dictate its
own form. Anna Gibbs says that fictocriticism is “not so much a
genre as an accident” (1997, ¶4). This means that no two pieces
of fictocriticism are the same (Gibbs 1997) and often, are very
specific.
Fictocriticism has roots in the work of the French semiotican/
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and his examination and
analysis of the use of language and the arrangement of the
text (Nettelbeck 1998). In my research I will be focussing on
fictocriticism that is primarily Australian, though it is important
to acknowledge its foundations.
In the introduction to The Space Between: Australian Women
Writing Fictocriticism, a collection of fictocritical pieces
by Australian women, Nettelbeck expresses hope that this
anthology will be interpreted as “a series of investigative writings
connected by their agnostic relation to the interpretative gesture”
instead of “boundary-setting” (1998, p. 13).
Nettelbeck provides a rich historic overview of the origins of
this literary movement. She notes that the shift toward a form
of writing that is more self-conscious toward the construction
of a text and authorship is grounded in post-structuralism
(Nettelbeck 1998). She says that fictocriticism appeared at
the intersection of literature and postmodernism, whilst
dealing with the controversy and complexity that the term
‘postmodernism’ is afflicted with.
16 labsome 2009
This chapter is the reference point to the examples of
fictocriticism within the rest of the book. Although it doesn’t offer
insights as to how to read each text, it sets up what fictocriticism
is and its effects on the reader.
Nettelbeck says that fictocriticism oscillates between “the
poles of fiction (‘invention’/ ‘speculation’) and criticism
(‘deduction’/ ‘explication’) of subjectivity (‘interiority’) and
objectivity (‘exteriority’)” (1998, p. 3). There are two important
effects of fictocriticism, according to Nettelbeck. The first is that
fictocriticism makes the text something else. The text isn’t just
something to be explained then interpreted, or as Nettelbeck
describes it, a “hermeneutical exercise” (1998, p. 4). The
second is that the text can be used “to do something other than
explication” (Nettelbeck 1998, p. 4). Because a fictocritical text
is not solely fiction or theory, the places where fiction and theory
intersect, creates something new.
One way in which fictocriticism blurs the distinction between
literature and criticism is through the use of “irregular intrusion
of a slippery subjectivity” (Nettelbeck 1998, p. 5), that is, the
use of subjectivity (saying “I”). I have used subjectivity in my
fictocritical attempt because I felt without saying “I” I was
creating a distance between myself and the text. I will discuss
subjectivity in my writing further in the sub-chapter called My
Fictocritical Writing Style in the Writing Fictocriticism chapter.
One of the most important points that Nettelbeck makes in
her introduction is that fictocriticism allows “a simultaneous
occurrence of more than one way of reading” (1998, p. 6) a
text. The devices that allow this to happen are: “metaphor and
metonymy, to deploy intertextual echoes and analogies, to write
(back) to a parallel text in a way that invokes that absent text
but avoids the interpretative gesture” (Nettelbeck 1998, p. 5). A
fictocritical text can have layers of meaning, each interpreted or
read in a different light. Metaphors that reverberate throughout
a text can be an abstract entry point into theory.
Emily Naismith
17
An example of a text that uses echoes and metaphors is ‘Lemon
Pieces’ (‘Quelques Morceaux en Forme de Citron’) by Noelle
Janaczewska. Janaczewska describes her trip to France as
a teenager to find Albert Camus, dotting the story with tales
about lemons. The lemon metaphor adds to the summery and
zesty feel of the story, but also interacts with it. She talks about
sharing lemon curd with her lover and bleaching her hair with
the citrus fruit whilst stating facts about them, “the fruit has
a very thick, white pith and meagre, almost juiceless flesh”
(Janaczewska 1998, p. 58). But the metaphor runs much deeper
than this too.
The baby she has, then gives up for adoption is described as
a “wrinkled, yellow baby” (Janaczewska 1998, p. 63) and when
talking about the very act of writing this reflective piece she
uses the analogy of making lemon curd, “once you’ve made
lemon curd, you can’t then reduce it back to its original butter,
sugar, eggs and lemon” (Janaczewska 1998, p. 63). By this she
is pointing to the act of writing is always saying something else,
rather than the pure idea, and once these literal words are
attached to your idea, you cannot escape them. At the end of
the piece Janaczewska has included the recipes for lemon curd
and preserved lemons that she mentions in the work. The echo
of “lemon” as metaphor is woven throughout the whole piece of
fictocriticism.
One notable fact about the book this story is part of is inherent
in its title. This book focuses on only Australian women and
their fictocritical work. It has a gendered and regional focus.
The focus on only women writers is perhaps due to the fact that
fictocriticism made its way into universities initially through
“women’s studies courses” (Gibbs 1997, ¶3), although its ties
with women specifically began before this. Gibbs says that the
first group of people to engage in fictocriticism in Australia was
a group of mostly non-academic women who were “very well
aware of those strange, exciting and provocative texts emanating
first of all from France and then later from Canada from the late
18 labsome 2009
seventies onward” (1997, ¶1), which were major feminist texts by
writers such as Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray.
Nettelbeck writes that the place of theory has been an issue
“within the often controversial debates on women’s authorial
positions” (1998, p. 11). Fictocriticism has competing narratives
about where it originated (Bartlett 2006). Alison Bartlett says
that it is either attributed “to French feminist ideas of embodied
writing practices or to male postmodernists through ideas
of hybridity and pastiche” (2006, ¶1). She writes that she is
intrinsically more interested in fictocriticism’s feminist origins,
effects and shapes, and this is the angle she follows in this
article.
Fictocriticism is asserted as an Australian style of writing
(Bartlett 2006). In other places around the world it goes by other
names, for example: theory-fiction, paracriticism, postcriticism,
metafiction (Bartlett 2006).
Bartlett finds Nettelbeck’s point (1998, p. 3) that fictocritical
writing is a product of postmodernism interesting. Bartlett
argues that this discounts the feminist analysis of “rational,
linear, logical and patrilinear argumentation that retains
authority because of its very form” (2006, ¶14). Bartlett disputes
Nettelbeck’s point of view when all contributors to her book are
women, and the main postmodernists are men. Bartlett argues
that there is no reason that fictocriticism can’t have originated
in postmodern and feminist circles, which is a different idea
to her reading of Nettelbeck, in which she interpreted that
fictocriticism either originated “through male postmodernists
or through feminist psychoanalysts respectively” (2006, ¶16).
Bartlett calls her work “postmodern feminism” (2006, ¶16).
When I started writing fictocriticism, I did not know if I favoured
a feminist background or a post-modern position. I don’t think
my examples of fictocriticism are a case of one or the other. I
would agree with Bartlett that my work is postmodern feminism,
leaning more towards the feminist side. This position was not
Emily Naismith
19
at the forefront of my mind when I was writing fictocritically,
although upon reflection I can see that my writing style is
definitely feminine. This reflective process is documented in my
conclusion.
20 labsome 2009
Background on
Social Media
Social media can be defined as media that is produced or
distributed through interactive mediums. However, social
media does not have to be media in the traditional sense of
selling content. Social media can also refer to the “platforms
for interaction and networking” (Eisenberg 2008, ¶4). These
platforms include Twitter and Facebook and are built around
social interaction and relationships, not media content in the
traditional sense.
Social media is centred on the user. Yochai Benkler wrote that
the shift from a “mass-mediated public sphere to a networked
public sphere” (2006, p. 10) improves the political public sphere.
This is because social media gives the power back to the
individual. Companies with large advertising budgets are now
not the only ones who can spread their message to millions of
people worldwide. The internet and social media has allowed
anyone with an internet connection and motivation to get their
message out there. Benkler wrote that this allows anyone to
look at and respond to the social environment through “new
eyes—the eyes of someone who could actually inject a thought, a
criticism, or a concern into the public debate” (2006, p. 11). Social
media gives everyone a voice.
The way people use social media can be very personal. The
“many-to-many” (Rheingold 1993, ¶51) approach that social
media promotes lends itself to a conversation model. Social
media allows people to converse. Howard Rheingold wrote that
computer-mediated communication (CMC) which can now be
interpreted as social media “appeals to us as mortal organisms
with certain intellectual, physical, and emotional needs” (1993,
¶50). We are conversing and sharing ideas and opinions with
others through social media and together exploring “new ways of
experiencing the world” (Rheingold 1993, ¶50).
The aspect that differentiates social media from most other
forms of mass media is the ability for the user to get involved:
to comment, collaborate and share. Social media is a very
Emily Naismith
21
conversation driven space. Speaking from an advertising
background, Tom Martin wrote that social media is “meant for
conversation, not marketing” (2009, ¶1). This means that instead
of pushing out lots of content via social media, success for
brands and companies lies with conversing with customers and
consumers. Engaging with an audience, and having the audience
able to engage back is what separates social media from other
more traditional forms of media.
My fictocritical project does not take full advantage of these
aspects. This is not through laziness or ignorance. I feel that
this feature of social media is perhaps out of line with what I am
trying to achieve through the use of social media. I am using
social media as a tool for a web of connections and because
social media sites are places that call for us to constantly define
ourselves. I have not turned comments off my blog posts or
denied anyone access to my writing. I am open to feedback. My
writing journey through this project is a personal process, this
is why I have not used social media to collaborate with others.
I am still engaging with social media and an audience, but the
feedback or comments my audience may provide has not shaped
the creation of my project. At the moment I haven’t shown
many people my project and have definitely not “marketed” it.
It is a personal exploration of identity in a place where we are
continually asked to define ourselves, not a conversation with
others.
In many ways using social media to write fictocriticism is a
perfect match. The follwing passage is about fictocriticism and
its features. But taken out of context, it could just as easily be
referring to social media and the many interactions we make
through social media websites each day.
We are asking for a way of reading/listening that is about
interaction? Reaction? Creation? Concatenation? We are at
another moment to do with subjectivity. There are so many
22 labsome 2009
new subjects. All of us are endlessly becoming more but do
we touch? To speak, to put small feelers of connection out
seems to require more effort than it ever did before. The
new selves coming into being no longer seem resistant but
increasingly alone. Somehow this writing wants to turn and
touch its listeners and readers and wants to feel their touch
back.
(Schlunke & Brewster 2005, p. 394)
The interactive side of fictocriticism is referring to the
interactions between theory and creative writing and between
the writer and the reader. A key part of social media is its ability
to make connections between different information and people,
not unlike fictocriticism.
Stephen Muecke argues that the contemporary writer is asking
what can “legitimate his or her point of view” when they are
“faced with masses of ways of knowing things coming from all
points of the compass” (2002, p. 108). They do not just want to
“add to existing views of the world” but the writer “traces a path
(which the reader will follow, avidly of course) showing how we
got to this position, and what is at stake” (Muecke 2002, p. 108).
Social media websites are full of pathways to follow that delve
into different layers of privacy and intimacy. Social media can
offer insights to the backgrounds and contexts of where people
are coming from. Fictocriticism is a very personal form of
writing; just like social media is a way we express our personal
selves, publicly. Now that I have covered what fictocriticism is, I
will provide an overview of different authors opinions on how to
write fictocritically.
Emily Naismith
23
Writing
Fictocriticism
There is no specific way to write fictocritically. The term
“fictocriticism” covers a wide range of very different examples of
writing. Anna Gibbs writes that fictocriticism is a style for which
“there is no blueprint and which must be constantly invented
anew in the face of the singular problems that arise in the course
of engagement with what is researched” (2005, ¶4). With this in
mind, this section of my exegesis will not offer a definitive guide
of how to write a perfect piece of fictocriticism. It will instead
offer a range of different ways in which different writers of
fictocriticism think about and reflect on their personal style.
One way to think about writing fictocriticism is through the
use of mimicry. Anna Gibbs writes that “writing may be driven
as much by the body as by thought” (2005, ¶28). She is talking
about the feeling you sometimes get while writing, that the
words are coming from somewhere else; some other rhythm
is driving them onto the page that is separate from our thought.
Our bodies are actively thinking up ideas without words or
grammatical structures attached to them. When this happens,
“thought takes place without language” (Gibbs 2005, ¶28). Gibbs
suggests that the animal phenomenon known as mimicry
might be one way in which we can “make use of these extended
cognitive capacities” (2005, ¶29).
Gibbs writes that we “try-on” another writer’s writing style
when we learn to write. This isn’t plagiarism, but the imitating
another person’s style can help us build up our own (Gibbs
2005). She cites Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies: toward a
corporeal feminism. While describing a surrealist text by Roger
Caillois on animal and insect mimicry Grosz says that “mimesis
is particularly significant in outlining the ways in which the
relations between an organism and its environment are blurred
and confused – the way in which its environment is not distinct
from the organism but is an active internal component of its
‘identity’” (1994, p. 46). The person who is mimicking the writing
style of someone else is in this sense not plagiarising, but
actually using it in a different way. So there is a certain “fragility”
24 labsome 2009
(Gibbs 2005, ¶30) in the distinction between the subject and its
environment. Gibbs suggests that this is what happens when
writing something imitative or derivative. This is what Gibbs calls
the “difference of the similar” (2005, ¶35). And it is through the
use of mimicry that fictocriticism can “do something differently,
to undo something, to make a difference” (Gibbs 2005, ¶35).
Taking Gibbs’ approach to heart, I believe that The Stream of Life
by Clarice Lispector is one of the most beautifully written books
I have ever read. It is very poetic and constructed with beautiful
language. I want try and learn from her style of writing in my own
fictocriticism. Ironically, it is difficult to write about, because the
whole book is about capturing an indescribable quality or feeling.
Lispector was not consciously writing fictocriticism, and never
referred to her work as fictocritical. However, her work is very
helpful to me and developing my writing practice, so I feel it is
necessary to cover The Stream of Life.
Lispector belives there is a difference between the thought or
feeling you are trying to express and what you actually write
on the page. So she defies the normal structure of writing, and
writes in a way in which she tries to capture the present moment
and present it on the page. Lispector uses the analogy of writing
being like using words as bait, “a word fishing for what is not a
word. When that non-word – the whatever’s between the lines –
bites the bait, something’s been written” (1989, p. 14). Through
this process, the non-word incorporates the bait. Lispector is
not actually writing the present moment on the page, but hopes
that between the lines, the struggle between the now moment
and writing the now moment can be appreciated by the reader.
There is no real narrative or main themes in the work. It really is
a collage of thoughts and feelings, but this is the beauty of it. No
subject is given much more than a few lines or sentences before
Lispector jumps to talking about something else. Lispector
knows she is being implicit, “and when I begin to make myself
explicit I lose my moist intimacy” (1989, p. 17). It seems that by
Emily Naismith
25
pointing to nothing, she is in fact giving us more of an insight to
her world then by pointing to anything or everything.
Gibbs refers to fictocriticism as “haunted writing” (2005, ¶1).
This analogy stems from the “numerous voices” within a piece
of fictocriticism that “work now in unison, at other times in
counterpoint, and at others still against each other, in deliberate
discord” (Gibbs 2005, ¶1). Gibbs suggests that academic writing
is haunted by the dead through acts like citation which is “the
kind of repetition you have when reference is deference to
disciplinary authority” (2005, ¶1). Instead of citation, Gibbs puts
forward “recitation” (2005, ¶2). The kind of repetition that will
bring about new differences, and through that, to “see what
happens” (Gibbs 2005, ¶2).
To write fictocriticism you have to consciously hybridise your
writing and “blur generic boundaries” (Dawson 2005, p. 170).
Paul Dawson calls it “mongrelisation” (2005, p. 170). Dawson
draws attention to hybridisation as a postmodern aspect. This
means breaking down the barriers between genres, like fiction
and criticism, to “recognise that genres are institutionally
conferred categories” (Dawson 2005, p. 171). Dawson writes
that postmodernism is best understood as a “plurality of
genres” which means an “erasing of hierarchies rather than
generic differences, and a loosening of boundaries, retaining the
conceptual differences of genres but exploiting their practical
possibilities of permeability (rather than contamination)” (2005,
p. 171). So it does not mean that the boundaries between genres
disappear in fictocriticism, rather that it becomes possible to
interact playfully with them because they are not rooted in a
hierarchy.
The use of lists within writing is another strategy of fictocriticism
(Gibbs 1997). Moya Costello writes that lists are a form of
evidence, “linking the textual to a material world” (Costello 2005,
¶14). A lot of fictocritical writers use categories and lists to break
up their work. Susan Ash (1998) uses a list like structure in
26 labsome 2009
Waiting To Dance. She constructs her writing around the stages
gone through at a school dance, for example: waiting to dance,
the opening out, promenade position, turn, cross hesitation and
déplacement (Ash 1998). In another example Zoë Sofia (1998)
uses the alphabetic structure to define the construct of her
writing.
Costello has complied a “partial, contingent and transient
toolkit” (2005, ¶22) for practical use when writing fictocriticism.
However, this toolkit it not solely for just fictocriticism, it extends
to other forms of experimental writing, but it does have an
Australian focus. She has grouped quotes from other writers
under each part of the “toolkit”. The main points are:
To take risks, to challenge.
To change, transform, question, disrupt.
To be uncertain, indeterminate, contradictory.
To transgress, to be hybrid.
To be silent.
To fragment, to trace, to be incomplete, open, nonlinear,
nonhierarchical.
To have a metadiscourse.
To be intertextual.
(Costello 2005, ¶23-30)
Stephen Muecke also writes in a fictocritical style. Muecke (1997,
p. 159) tells us a story about his process of writing. He says that
the weakest parts in his work are often the start of something
new (Muecke 1997). This is because the weakest parts often
have “vulnerability and danger” (Muecke 1997, p. 159) as part
of them. The parts that aren’t weak in your writing are “always
the confident step, the almost clichéd, the acceptable” (Muecke
1997, p. 159). So Muecke says that it is important to go back to
these parts that seem weaker after the first draft of writing, to
explore them more. There is “potential adventure” (Muecke
1997, p. 160) in these weak parts that we might often overlook or
even erase. This is interesting because throughout schooling,
from primary school to higher education, we are mostly taught
Emily Naismith
27
to exclude anything that doesn’t directly relate to your main
argument or narrative, so as to stay on track and not confuse the
reader. But Muecke believes that the weaknesses in our work
started to become apparent because “one was paying too much
attention to the foreground ideas, and background connections
started to be made without control” (Muecke 1997, p. 160). This
is an experience that is usually overlooked. Through the process
of revisiting the weakness, and teasing it out, it will become a
strength and then another weakness will pop up, and they will
“multiply” (Muecke 1997, p. 160). This seems like a very organic
way of working with your writing.
First-person narrative writing is incorporated into some
fictocriticism. Anne Brewster uses first-person narrative
because she wants to “enter into an intimate negotiation with
the seductions of subjectivity and narrative” (2005, p. 401). The
use of first person separates persuasive or rhetorical writing
from the “unmediated nature of voice and a coherent subject”
(Brewster 2005, p. 401). Another article by Brewster, co-written
by Katrina Schlunke, argues that use of first person narrative
or “personal voice” is a tool that presents the tangibility and
importance of sociality and makes clear the “relationship
between writer, text and audience” (2005, p. 394).
Jenny Weight has produced works of fictocriticism and cybertext.
In one of her lectures she speaks about fictocriticism. Weight
offers some tips for students to begin to write fictocritically,
these include:
•
start with the first person
•
start with something mundane, that you experience a lot … then see where it can take you
•
explicit reference to your own experience
•
find / invent juxtapositions and hybrids
•
follow the tangents, poke about
(2007, ¶51)
Hazel Smith also offers different ways in which her readers can
28 labsome 2009
write fictocritically. She suggests writing in a “discontinuous
prose form so you can write in sections” (Smith 2005b, p. 209).
Choosing a theme that has “theoretical mileage in it, then write
poems and short narratives in response to it” and offering your
own take on a theoretical idea or concept are other ideas Smith
suggests (2005b, p. 209). She also proposes an alternative way to
write fictocritically, where you take the theory from theoretical
texts and use it to “trigger the writing of fictional or poetic texts”
(Smith 2005b, p. 210).
Now that I have covered a wide range of opinions on how to write
fictocritically, I will describe how I began to write fictocriticism,
and how my style has changed through the process of writing this
project.
My Fictocritical Writing Style
One’s usual experience of writing about the self is usually very
abstract: summarizing yourself into a list of achievements on
a résumé or presenting your point of view without mentioning
the self in an academic essay are detached ways of presenting
yourself on the page. Since learning to write in primary school,
creative writing has always centred on story telling and situating
the self in the middle of the story. Walter R. Fischer suggested
that the root metaphor we use to describe the essential nature of
human beings be “homo narrans” (1984, p. 6), not homo sapiens
or homo politicus etc. This is because “humans are essentially
storytellers” (MacIntyre 1984, p. 201). Narrative ties in deeply with
our essence as humans:
The unity of human life is the unity of a narrative quest. Quests
sometimes fail, are frustrated, abandoned or dissipated into
distractions; and human lives may in all these ways also fail.
But the criteria for success or failure in human life as a whole
are the criteria of success or failure in a narrated or to-benarrated quest.
(MacIntyre 1984, p. 203).
Emily Naismith
29
Narrative is one of the ways we understand ourselves. Alasdair
MacIntyre said that when a distinction is drawn between art and
life, narrative is often discounted as art. But when narrative is
dismissed in this way it “further helps to protect us from any
narrative understanding of ourselves” (MacIntyre 1984, p. 211).
Narrative as a pastiche of art and life is a valid way of seeking to
understand ourselves.
When I began to try to write myself through fictocriticism I began
with simple narrative. Story was my starting point, and I built up
from there. One of my first attempts at writing fictocriticism was
a story about being at work and coughing. Here is an excerpt:
I know you’re all looking at me and thinking similar things so
I just pretend not to notice the absurdly large queue of blank
stares and concentrate on finding Chinese cabbage on the
touch screen menu. It’s under ‘W’ for wombok. I’m actually
not sick, but I’m aware that every time I cough it sounds like
my lungs are about to invert out of my mouth and land on top
of your reduced fat cheese.
(Naismith 2009b)
This way of expressing my self through story tells a series of
events with my reactions explained beside it, but it doesn’t really
allow much room for actually exploring why I feel like this. It
was narrative at it’s most basic. I had to move beyond simply
telling a story. This demands a different process of writing. I
had to make a conscious decision to break linearity and switch
off my sequential mind. To fully explore myself through writing,
I wanted to get my mind as close to the page (or screen?)
as possible. This required me to not only delve deeper into
myself, but reengage with the idea of story telling from a more
sophisticated angle.
I didn’t want to narrate my life in a linear structure. I wanted to
consciously break this mould, while still incorporating elements
of narrative to create a multi dimensional, experimental writing
of myself.
30 labsome 2009
Through the writing of my project I have developed a more
sophisticated relationship with theory in my writing. Although
the term “theory” for me still conjures up images of trying to
remember the parts of a fish’s anatomy or how many crotchets
are in a semibreve for music, theory can be far more than just
random facts. Although I have only learnt this through coming
full circle, at first I did think that all I had to do to incorporate
theory into my work was insert a few terms and theories here
and there. Here is an example of one of my first attempts at
incorporating theory to my writing:
Some think that computer-mediated communication (CMC)
is inferior to face-to-face communication (f2f). Obviously,
text-based CMC can miss out on important non-verbal cues.
It is harder to convey a smile, a tinge of sarcasm or an inkling
of a laugh over the web, but there are other ways to express
these feelings. For me, not all non-verbal cues are desirable
to communicate over the web. Can you imagine?
(Naismith 2009a)
I was coming from a very simplistic notion of what theory is:
taking something out of a textbook and dumping it into creative
writing. But what I have learned since then, through the process
of writing, is that theory can actually be incorporated in a more
complex way. The idea behind my project is that I want to explore
my experiences with Cystic Fibrosis, having never really thought
about it before. So in effect I am actually exploring myself,
which is quite an abstract concept. And when I am recording my
attempts through putting fingers to keyboard in writing it down, I
guess I am essentially writing myself. This is a valid theoretical
exercise in itself. It is the principle behind my writing, which
justifies my venture into fictocriticism.
Writing is a powerful tool that can reveal a lot about yourself.
From an anthropological point of view, Dennis Altman said
writing the self is confrontational and “can lead to later regrets
and self-doubt” (Altman 2002, p. 320). Through my experience
of writing this project I have doubted whether what I am writing
Emily Naismith
31
is true to what I actually believe. I was internally asking myself
questions such as “Is this my real voice?” and “How do I know
what I really believe?” Even though these questions can never
have solid answers, they are important to reflect on. Considering
these questions on one hand helped me actually write what
I thought my beliefs and feelings are, and on the other hand
confirmed that even though I am trying to write myself on the
page, it is impossible to do so. I have realized through trying to
write the self, that perhaps it is not possible. I will expand on this
realization further later in this chapter.
Unless you are writing a manual or set of instructions, it is hard
to avoid including your own point of view or aspects of yourself
within your writing. Shirley Ann Jordan wrote that “conventions
of most academic essay writing require an impersonal,
objective idiom and the almost total erasure of the ‘I’, relegating
subjectivity to the status of the non-academic” (2001, p. 45). But
subjectivity is something that cannot be escaped. Even if every ‘I’
is replaced with a more impenetrable objective phrase we can
never see from outside ourselves, therefore, we can only give
a personal account. Writing the self onto the page requires a
“self-questioning alertness” (Jordan 2001, p. 45) that otherwise,
if the self was not ingrained in the written work, may never have
surfaced. It is through writing the self that we begin to know
ourselves.
I embraced the “self-questioning alertness” that Jordon speaks
about in my writing practice. To question the self was something
that didn’t just happen, but was one of the main reasons for
writing, an aim. My goal in writing this project was to bypass the
rational thoughts of my brain. I wanted what was written to be my
thoughts, fears and hopes. I didn’t want it to be representational
of my thoughts or a refined version of them: I just wanted them
on the page. This was all a part of the process of learning to
know and understand myself. Though through the process of
actually writing my project and then reflecting on it, I realized
that this is impossible.
32 labsome 2009
The words that have ended up compiling my project are obviously
not me. I don’t think it’s possible for me to write myself to that
extreme, or for anyone to write himself or herself. There is
always going to be a gap or something lost in the translation
between your thoughts and what ends up on the page.
In The Stream of Life Clarice Lispector struggles with capturing
her essence on the page. She writes: “I’m trying to capture the
fourth dimension of the now-instant” (Lispector 1989, p. 3), “I
want to capture the present” (Lispector 1989, p. 4) and “I want to
take possession of the thing’s is” (Lispector 1989, p. 3). Lispector
is trying to say something that cannot be said. Hélène Cixous
wrote that the very theme of this book is “to say something
always betrays something” (1989, p. xi). Lispector is hyper-aware
that what is written on a page will always be separate from what
is thought, but her attempt at conveying the present or “instant”
of her thoughts on the page is remarkable. She writes, “What
I want in music and in what I write you and in what I paint are
geometrical lines that cross in space and form a discordance
that I can understand. It’s pure it.” (Lispector 1989, p. 53). The
way that Listpector playfully skips and darts from one thought to
another mimics the human mind.
She wants to capture the it, the now or the present through
writing. Through reading The Stream of Life we become
absorbed in the text, but not the same kind of absorbtion that
may occur through reading a common narrative. On one level
it is impossible to be absorbed in The Stream of Life because
Listpector is always interrupting by changing the form of the
text, asking rhetorical questions and urging us to acknowledge
the writing as a text, “didn’t I tell you? didn’t I tell you that one day
something was going to happen to me?” (1989, p. 48). Cixous said
that “one has to read the very phenomena of writing, reading
oneself” (1989, p. xxiii). Lispector attempted to read herself and
presented something rare, fleeting and almost magical on the
page. Although she has not captured herself or the present on
the page, the attempt she made was worthwhile. Lispector knew
Emily Naismith
33
that she was trying to write something that cannot be written:
I’m aware that everything I know I cannot say, I know only by
painting, or pronouncing syllables blind of meaning. And if
here I have to use words for you, they must create an almost
exclusively bodily meaning. I’m battling with the ultimate
vibration.
(1989, p. 5)
I am now aware that I cannot read myself and present myself
in writing. Through adapting some of Lispector’s writing
techniques and sharing a similar reason for wanting to
write (capturing something indescribable) I hope to express
something of myself on the page. Through the process of
trying to read something impossible to read (the self) and
write something impossible to write (the self), more of an
understanding of self may follow.
Autoethnography is a related genre to ficrotcriticism. It is
a writing practice that closely relates to my project as it
“involves a rewriting of the self and the social” (Reed-Danahay
1997, p. 4) presented through the writers experience of life.
Autoethnography has elements of three writing genres: Native
anthropology, ethnic autobiography and autobiographical
ethnography (Reed-Danahay 1997, p. 2). There are two different
uses for autoethnography, although they are not completely
distinct. Deborah E. Reed-Danahay defines the distinctions as
either having an accent on autobiography or ethnography (1997,
p. 8). The type of autoethnography I am interested in examining is
related to autobiographical writing.
In autoethnography the thoughts and feelings of the writer are
valued so that “the subject and object of research collapse
into the body/thoughts/feelings of the (auto)ethnographer
located in his or her particular space and time” (Gannon 2006,
p. 475). Autoethnography inverts binaries like “individual/
social, body/mind, emotion/reason, and lived experience/
34 labsome 2009
theory” (Gannon 2006, p. 476). Playing with the opposition
between lived experience and theory in academic work is similar
to the writing practice of fictocriticism. Some think that this
focus on the self leads to abandoning theory, “the force of the
ontological is impoverished . . . through an insistence on the
researcher’s self ” (Probyn 1993, p. 5). Patricia Clough believes
that autoethnography suffers symptoms of “trauma culture” and
is focused on issues like “drug abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse,
rape, incest, anorexia, chronic illness, and death” (2000, p. 287).
Lisa M. Tillmann has written about her struggles with bulimia,
separation and divorce through autoethnography (Tillmann
2009). I am writing about my experiences with a chronic illness
but I do not think it falls under the trauma culture umbrella
because I am not discarding theory in the place of personal
experience (even if some of it could be seen as traumatic).
There seems to be a blurred line between autoethnography and
fictocriticism. I have gained insight from researching the selfreflexive nature of autoethnography to use in my project.
I have developed a fictocritical writing style that is selfquestioning, personal and subjective. It differs between having
a more narrative based format and a more self-questioning and
less linear format depending on the type of social media it is
written in. It is influenced by elements of autoethnography, but
the key text my writing style is influenced by is The Stream of
Life. I will now expand on identity through writing, specifically in
an online environment.
Emily Naismith
35
The Online
Environment
In this chapter I will cover identity in online environments,
especially social media websites and how reading and writing
differs online to an offline environment. I will introduce hypertext
and how hypertext theory relates to my project. Then I will
provide an overview of the five social media websites I used in
this project and explain how I used each in an individual way. I
will also offer examples of other creative projects that inspired
me that have also used these social media outlets as a medium
for expression. Finally, I will provide advice on how to access and
navigate each part of my project.
Identity in online environments
I have explored a previously unexplored part of my self through
this project. I have examined aspects of myself through writing
fictocriticism using social media that I wouldn’t have been able
to see otherwise. This has been beneficial to me and in this
instance the internet has provided a “space for growth” (Turkle
1996, p. 263). Sherry Turkle belives that the internet allows
people to “build a self by cycling through many selves” (1996, p.
178). Though I have not created an avatar or a radically different
self through the internet, the screen name that I have chosen
to present my fictocritical work is in a way a multiple identity.
“Emily Coughs” is the profile name behind all the different
aspects of social media I have used. I did this to distance myself
from the project (because I am already on most of those social
media websites myself). I wanted this project to be separate
from my “Emily Naismith” profiles because I have been treading
on delicate territory. The things I have written are personal
and I do not feel comfortable sharing them with my friends and
followers through various social media websites. It has been
helpful to create a different identity because it allows me to
explore sensitive ideas freely, without worrying about what the
people I know will think.
“Emily Coughs” is a real identity according to the different social
media websites I used because to create new profiles all you
36 labsome 2009
need is a first name, surname, password and email address
(all of which I have created). This raises an interesting question
about identity on the internet. Are online identities any less
real than offline identities? According to five different social
media websites “Emily Coughs” exists as a real person. Obvisly
the identity I have created for this project does not exist as a
separate being offline, but there are elements of reality within
the creation of this identity. I created “Emily Coughs” to explore
part of myself that “Emily Naismith” couldn’t. Turkle said, “Like
the anthropologist returning home from a foreign culture, the
voyager in virtuality can return to a real world better equipped to
understand its artifices” (1996, p. 263). I believe Turkle is correct.
Through my journey into exploring myself as “Emily Coughs” I
have become come to better understand “Emily Naismith”.
Communicating with others online can be different to
communicating with others face to face. When we talk to
someone face to face, we are not just listening to what they are
saying but we are building a character profile of them, even
though we may not realize it. We may note their appearance,
nationality, age, mannerisms and voice, as well as what they
are actually saying. We may use these clues to inform us of their
perceived identity, and judgements may be made based upon
this. In the online world issues of personal identity can be hidden,
turned off and even played with.
Joshua Berman and Amy S. Bruckman created an online
environment called The Turing Game. This environment allowed
users to play with identity and explore the issues surrounding it.
This is the outline of the game:
In this environment, The Turing Game, a panel of people
all pretend to be a member of some cultural group, such
as women. Some of the panelists, who are women, are
instructed to try to prove that fact to their audience. Others
are men, trying to masquerade as women. An audience
of diverse gender tries to discover who the imposters are,
Emily Naismith
37
by asking questions and analysing the panel members’
answers.
(Berman & Bruckman 2001, p. 83)
Games like this, and more recently, online environments such
as Second Life allow users to try out new, different identities.
Crossing cultural boundaries such as gender and race online
is easy and even “gamelike” (Berman & Bruckman 2001, p.
100). The ability to try on and test out divergent identities allows
us to play with our personal identities. This notion of playing
with identity can be simply a way of having fun or entertaining
oneself, but it can also aid our understanding of who we are.
Online environments, like Second Life, allow you to role-play
and experiment with different identities. Perhaps the identity
people promote in these environments is closer to who they
actually are. When interviewing residents of Second Life for his
book Tom Boellstorff found that for some, “the actual world is
more characterized by “role playing” than virtual worlds, where
one’s self is open to greater self-fashioning and can be more
assertive” (2008, p. 121). Online environments allow room for
play and experimentation, which in turn, could bring us closer to
understanding the self.
Reading and writing online
In many ways, reading something online is similar to reading
something in a book, “the eyes move from left to right, then
search for the start of the next line” (Have 1999, p. 283). However,
there are obviously some large fundamental differences. Instead
of holding a physical book in your hands which is in a fixed state,
you are looking at a screen in which “electronic text always has
variation, for no one state or version is ever final; it can always be
changed” (Landow 1997, p. 64). Hypertext is using the computer
to “transcend the linear, bounded and fixed qualities of the
traditional written text” (Delany & Landow 1991, p. 3). My project
is hypertextual because it uses links and because it uses social
media, is constantly able to be updated and changed.
38 labsome 2009
Hypertextual works make use of links. Links within a text can
make connections within that text, but also to outside texts. This
allows readers to take various different paths through the text
which in turn makes the writer lose “certain basic controls over
his text, particularly over the edges and borders” (Landow 1997,
p. 64). I have used links within my project to link together all the
different social media websites. It is important that when the
user visits one social media site, they still feel like they are within
the project and not just on the social media website. This is why
I always included a link back to the home page on each social
media website I used.
Hypertext plays with linearity. It possesses “multiple sequences
rather than lacking linearity and sequence entirely” (Landow
1997, p. 77). When I began writing for the various social media
websites, I was writing in a very linear fashion. I will explain
this in detail later when I cover each individual social media
website. Generally though, I had to alter the way I thought about
writing and reading to get what I wanted out of each piece of
writing. Social media websites are not usually used for telling
linear stories, most are more suited to short, self-contained
updates. I took this into account when writing. I had to align my
writing with the features and elements that are specific to each
social media website. When people use a social media website
like Facebook for instance, they know that the wall posts are
not in chronological order. But by reading backwards the story
or message still gets across to them. Hypertextual works can
provide “multiple beginnings and endings rather than single
ones” (Landow 1997, p. 77). In some cases, like the blog part
of my project, the initial beginning I wrote has become the end.
This is again because of the reverse chronological nature of
blogging. This does not matter. The user may choose to read
any blog post first, or indeed any other social media part of my
project first. The order does not matter. I have given control
of my text over to the reader, they can navigate as they like
because this is the nature of the internet. They can also add to
Emily Naismith
39
it by adding to the comments I have already included in the text
of my Facebook part or by linking back to individual parts of
my project. Hypertextual works are “open-ended, expandable
and incomplete” (Landow 1997, p. 79). My project will not be the
same before or after I hand it in for marking, it will be constantly
changing. The fluidity of hypertext, the internet and social media
is means that my project will be constantly open and engaging.
Within my project I have used five different social media
websites: Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, a blog and Flickr. I
will now explain the uses of each individually and how I have
gone about working with them.
Twitter
Twitter is a social network and micro-blogging service that
enables users to send and read text based messages of 140
characters. These messages are called tweets. A user’s
tweets are shown on their profile page and are also sent to their
followers. Because Twitter deals primarily in text, it seems
somewhat suited to fictocriticism.
There is a lot of media attention around Twitter and its purpose.
Frequenting newspapers are articles arguing that Twitter is
pointless, like Tony Wright’s, What’s the most birdbrained
thing to do right now? Make a Twit of yourself (2009). Most
articles tend to question why people “tweet” and the allegedly
disastrous effects Twitter will have on society. Wright writes that
the answers to the question Twitter asks users ‘What are you
doing now?’ are mostly “banal communication almost beneath
description. ‘Sitting at my desk typing thinking whether to wear
black jeans or blue out tonight,’ tends to sum up most traffic”
(2009, ¶5). Wright is correct in one way. Most tweets are mainly
about simple, everyday moments. One of the main types of user
intentions of Twitter is “daily chatter” (Java et al. 2007, p. 52).
40 labsome 2009
Kate Crawford says “it is this very mundanity that is central
to Twitter’s success” (2009, p. 258). Crawford delights in the
fact that Twitter allows us to access the everyday thoughts of
others. Far from being “less substantial than air” (Wright 2009,
¶2), Crawford (2009, p. 258) speaks about some of the mundane
tweets performing a double function, much like fictocriticism
does. Crawford (2009, p. 258) uses the essay Thinking Habits
and the Ordering of Life by Elspeth Probyn as an example of how
domestic, everyday tasks can take on this double function.
Probyn writes about her actions as she wakes up on one
particular day, while also describing her thought processes. It
is like we are there with her, in her house, listening to all the
trivialities in her mind and hearing things that would usually
never be spoken. Probyn is speaking in layers. Crawford cites
this example from Probyn’s text:
I mop the floor all the while chasing the notion of semiotic
habit around the dusty corners of my mind. The floor looks
good, a legacy of having been a commercial cleaner in my
youth.
(Probyn 2005, p. 246).
In this example Probyn tells us about the banal domestic task
of mopping her floor whilst also allowing us an insight to her
mind. Crawford describes this as “moving beyond the division
described by Charles Pierce between ‘the outer world’ of
social reality and the ‘inner world’ of subjectivity” (2009, p. 258).
Probyn’s style of writing may be seen as fictocritical because
she covers very interesting theory, in small parts so you don’t
get bogged down in it, but all the while describing the features
of her cat, the light streaming through the window and mopping
the floor. These aren’t simple descriptions either. They are
gateways to higher, more theoretical thought. The ordinary and
the theoretical are interwoven so they twist and turn out of each
other.
Emily Naismith
41
This gives the reader a feeling of displacement. You’re neither
here, nor there. You aren’t reading theory, and you aren’t reading
fiction about her ordinary life. This displacement is something
found at the core of fictocriticism. It’s similar to reading
someone’s tweets. People use Twitter for different reasons, like
daily chatter, conversations, sharing information and reporting
news to name a few of the most popular (Java et al. 2007). And
often, people might use Twitter to reply to a friend’s comment,
report news, share a link or state what they are doing within the
one Twitter profile, day or even the one tweet. This confirms that
Twitter is a hybrid medium, much like fictocriticism.
Because of Twitter’s 140-character limit, it is suited to short
updates about what you are doing in a certain moment in
time. However, people are creatively using this 140-character
limitation to expand Twitter into media you would not expect.
For example, Joshua Rothhaas’ first tweet says, “Every update
will tell one tale of exquisite mastery and limited characters.
Each will be 140 characters long and completely self contained”
(2007). Each tweet to his profile is a self-contained piece of
fiction. For example:
Two design students fall madly in love and make terribly bold
statements holding each other to be more perfect than the
typeface Helvetica.
(Rothhaas 2007).
This is one example of the creative writing possibilities of Twitter.
Some have attempted to write larger works of fiction using
Twitter as a medium. Manton Reece decided to write a short
story in 140 characters a day for 140 days (2007b). The tweets
are connected each day so that the story continues. This is an
experimental kind of writing that is constrained by the character
limit and the fragmented nature of tweets. In his personal
blog, Reece reflects on the process of writing Twitter fiction in
this way after attempting five tweets, “writing something 140
characters at a time is exactly opposite to the way I normally
42 labsome 2009
write. It is much more challenging than I thought, and after 2
days I immediately wanted to start cheating and writing a bunch
ahead, so that the story flowed properly” (2007a). Reece did not
succeed in his aim of writing 140 characters a day for 140 days
(one and a half years on, there are still only 61 tweets). This is
probably because Twitter is not suited to publishing large stories,
just self contained tweets.
Defying what most use Twitter for, Maureen Evans condenses
recipes from all over the world into tweets. This is a work of art
in itself. This is Evans’ tweet for butterscotch pudding:
Butterscotch Pudding: mix.5c packed brwnsug/3T
cornstrch/dash salt; +1.5c milk/.5c cream. Boil/whisk1m;
+2T buttr/T whisky/t vanil. Chill2h.
(2009)
There is a certain beauty in the 140-character limitation. Clearly
for Evans, limits like this are no boundaries. The limits Twitter
enforces seem to implore people to act more creatively within
the boundaries, often producing new genres of media, or at least
things never tried before.
I began using Twitter to write fictocriticism in a very different
way to how I eventually ended up using it. I started off by simply
taking a piece of writing and chopping it up into 140 character
tweets and posting to a Twitter profile. Although this is adhering
to the rules of Twitter, it isn’t using Twitter to it’s full potential.
I was adapting writing to suit Twitter, where it would be more
effective if I wrote a piece especially for Twitter.
One of my next ideas was to show a conversation between myself
and an imaginary future version of myself via tweets and @
replies. This is an example of this piece of writing:
Great, now I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m imagining myself
in the future with someone else’s lungs inside me.
Emily Naismith
43
@cough_cough It’s not actually that weird. I feel like they are
my lungs now… breathe in, breathe out…
@future_emily Sshhh. You’re freaking me out!!! They must
feel a bit different though, and you must be aware that
they’ve been in someone else’s body?
@cough_cough It’s not that creepy. If anything I just feel
thankful, not weirded out.
I’m scared. Why am I having an imaginary conversation with
myself in the future with new lungs?
(Naismith 2009d)
This is a more integrated approach to using Twitter because it
uses more of its functionality (@ replies and conversations), but
still, this read as a linear story. The premise behind Twitter is
that each tweet answers the question, “What are you doing?”
which denotes a self-contained answer. Another reason why
Twitter does not suit linear based stories is that tweets are
displayed in reverse chronological order, so the most recent
tweet is at the top of the page. When talking about “linear stories”
I mean stories that read from beginning to end, generally not
from end to beginning (otherwise Twitter may be better suited).
The order tweets appear in suggests that linear based stories
are not the place for Twitter.
Tweeting my coughs seemed to be the solution because each
cough/tweet was self contained (it didn’t matter what order they
were read in) and they answered the question “What are you
doing?” Using Twitter in this way meant that I was tailoring my
writing to Twitter, not the other way around.
I originally wanted the tweeted coughs to interrupt the audience
in real life and real time. I wanted to be able to tweet a cough
44 labsome 2009
and then have it interrupt them on their mobile phone. In the
larger theme of “interruption”, these tweets also provided an
actual real-world interruption for the audience, an interruption
that they would hear if they were to be physically near me.
Unfortunately this feature is unavailable currently in Australia. I
have still tweeted my coughs, but unfortunately they do not have
the real interrupting quality that I was after. What I have ended
up doing is compiling a list of tweeted coughs on my Twitter
profile page. It does not matter what order they are read in
because each tweets is self contained.
Facebook
Instead of asking, “What are you doing?” like Twitter does,
Facebook asks, “What’s on your mind?” This seems to imply that
people express themselves more emotionally and personally
on Facebook then they do via Twitter. Soren Gordhamer from
Mashable said that Facebook is “oriented toward communicating
with people one already knows” and “seems more suitable for
longer conversations” (2009). Facebook allows you to engage
with people you already know. You have to be reciprocal friends
with someone to be able to receive their status updates, so
naturally the status updates may be of a more personal nature.
Facebook allows you to write paragraphs upon paragraphs in
the status update field, unlike Twitter’s strict character limit.
This allows you to be more in depth, and also have some control
over the linearity. The ability to comment status updates also
allows you to work in a linear fashion, even though updates are
displayed in reverse chronological order.
Most status updates are about what is happening in this very
instant because of the nature of the question Facebook asks:
“What’s on your mind?” The instantaneous quality of Facebook
is another reason people use it. You can post something to your
wall and within seconds all of your online friends have seen it. It
is very heavily based in the present moment. A study of Facebook
Emily Naismith
45
and Myspace use in American young adults found that they
thought Facebook was “an efficient way to communicate with
friends” (Urista, Qingwen & Day 2009, p. 221). This study found
that bulletin posting in Myspace, (which on Facebook is now
similar to a status update because all of your friends can see it)
was an “efficient way for an individual to get a quick response
from others when he or she desires attention” (Urista, Qingwen
& Day 2009, p. 221).
My fictocritical writing on Facebook is based around real time
because I wanted it to convey real status updates. Through
the process of making gnocchi and listening to the radio, my
thoughts are documented and commented upon through the
status update function on Facebook in real time. When the user
is presented with my Facebook wall, they will see my status
updates and comments on my status updates. This is the text
of the story. There is no set way to read the Facebook wall, but
usually, to get an idea of the order of events things happened
in via Facebook, people will look back at older posts then read
backwards to the start. The way I would read this story would
be to start at the first (bottom) status update and work my way
up. Each status updates have comments attached to them which
can be accessed by pressing the “View all comments” button.
The comments attached to each status update should be read
immediately after that particular status update.
Blogging
Blogs consist of multiple posts displayed in reverse
chronological order. They reveal a strong personal presence of
the author because they display their passions and perspectives.
In an article called Why We Blog five motivations are listed
for what makes people want to blog: “documenting one’s life;
providing commentary and opinions; expressing deeply felt
emotions; articulating ideas through writing; and forming and
maintaining community forums.” (Nardi et al. 2004, p. 43).
46 labsome 2009
Of these five, I think what I am trying to achieve through blogging
is a hybrid of “expressing deeply felt emotions” and “articulating
ideas through writing”.
Out of all the social mediums that I am using in this project,
blogging is probably the most personal. It allows you to find your
voice without working to character limits or other functionality
issues. The act of personal writing is tied up in personal thinking.
One of the bloggers (Alan) interviewed in Why We Blog says
that “I am one of those people for whom writing and thinking
are basically synonymous” (Nardi et al. 2004, p. 44). This is why
blogging is so important. It is sometimes only through the act of
writing that our thoughts come into fruition.
While on one hand personal writing in a blog is almost like
writing in a personal diary because the content may have
similar themes, they couldn’t be further apart. When writing in
a personal diary, the only audience is the self. When writing in a
public blog the “overt awareness of another reader implicates
the personal blog as being more declarative and fictitious than
its intimate presentation as ‘personal’ might suggest” (Hayton
2009, p. 201). Kavita Hayton offers a fascinating metaphor of
the personal blog: “The personal blog offers a mirage of the
self, deliberately placed into a virtual desert, in the hope of
being mistaken for an oasis” (2009, p. 201). When we write about
ourselves in a personal blog, we do not have to get drafts upon
drafts read by a publisher first – it can be instantly published on
the internet which means there is room for exaggeration, fiction
and fabrication (although publishers allow this too). Which is
why Hayton says, “the reader must approach the personal blog
as though it were a mirage until proven otherwise” (2009, p. 201).
There is a certain level of faith a web audience needs to have in
the writer of a blog.
The blog I have created for this project consists six blog posts.
These appear on the blog in reverse chronological order. They
can be read in any order but to get the best idea of the story
Emily Naismith
47
within these blog posts, it is advised that they are read from the
first post that appears at the bottom of the page to the last post
at the top.
Flickr
Flickr is primarily a visual communication tool that can be used
as an “ultimate photo album, visual email server, inspiration
source, globally distributed photographers’ portfolio, newsgatherer and perhaps even alternative image library” (Sinclair
2006, p. 39).
Flickr allows users to tag photos. This is when users assign
certain words to each individual photo so they appear in
searches. If someone has tagged a photo of a beach with
“Summer” and “Queensland”, whenever people search for
“Summer” or “Queensland” their picture will come up. Tags can
also be helpful for personal groups. If a group of people went on
the same holiday and all took photos with individual cameras
tagging the photo with a unique tag like “tasmaniandevils09”
when this term is searched for, everyone from that holiday’s
photos would appear.
There is another function that text plays in Flickr apart from
tagging. Flickr gives you the ability to attach notes to your
pictures. A note is a piece of meta-data that is placed in a certain
position on your photo with text attached. This enables users to
tell stories through their photos.
My use of Flickr to publish fictocriticism uses Flickr notes. The
pictures I uploaded to Flickr are screen captures of a speech
that I presented to the Year Nine class at my secondary school
this year. It is ironic that I have not used traditional photos on
this website that deals primarily with images. Instead I have
uploaded text, and laid more text over the top of it through adding
notes. I did this because I wanted a dual reading of texts to occur.
I wanted my fictocritical notes to respond directly to the speech I
48 labsome 2009
wrote. The fictocritical part of the Flickr page is in the notes that
pop up when you hover your mouse over the picture. The picture
of the speech in the background is not meant to be read from
beginning to end, though it provides insight to the fictocritical
bits here and there if you do.
The writing in the notes explores what I really thought about what
I said in the speech and alternative versions and what I would
have said. In this way, Flickr allows a double reading and double
meaning to come out of one image. The notes are interrupting
the image and the flow of the speech. I am critiquing and
dissecting the speech through fictocriticism.
I have labeled each of the pictures Part 1-6. They are meant to
be read in order from Part 1 to Part 6. To read my fictocritical
notes you have to click on each picture individually. The number
of notes on each picture varies. To read the notes, hover your
cursor over the black boxes in the text. A pale yellow box will
appear and this is the part that contains my fictocriticism.
Google Maps
Google Maps allows users to create their own maps, browse
maps and use maps in very different ways. Mapping has always
been a “creative process for the person designing the map”
(Peuquet & Kraak 2002, p. 81) but since the rise of mapping
software like Google Maps, mapping has become democratized,
“in that this capability is available to anyone with access to a
computer” (Peuquet & Kraak 2002, p. 81).
Many people are now using Google Maps as a creative tool. We
Tell Stories is a project by the publishing group Penguin that
transforms six classic stories into the web media realm. Charles
Cumming wrote The 21 Steps for publishing via an interactive
Google Map (Cumming 2008). It is an example of digital
storytelling using satellite imagery.
Emily Naismith
49
The reason I included Google Maps as one of the social media
sites to integrate with fictocriticism was one of the stories I
wanted to explore was very geographically based. It took place
on a train journey from the city out to the suburbs. To tell a story
via Google Maps, the story has to have some degree of spatiality
because the very nature of maps is to convey geographical
information. Through using maps in new and creative ways
mapping has “become a tool for thinking and maps themselves
are often ephemeral and transient” (Peuquet & Kraak 2002, p.
81). The story conveys the range of emotions that take place over
a specific distance.
The easiest way to read this map is to use the left hand tool bar.
Each of the blue titles, beginning with “Week old chips” can be
clicked on. When you click these links a bubble will appear on
the map. This is where my story lies. Each link you click on is in
chronological order with my train trip home. If you make your
way down the links on the left hand toolbar until you get to the
bottom, you will follow my train journey from start to end.
50 labsome 2009
Conclusion
When beginning this project I thought it was possible to “write
myself”. I wanted to write myself on the page so I could gain a
more comprehensive understanding of my relationship with CF.
However, through the process of researching and writing this
project I realised that I was never going to be able to write myself,
or capture myself on the page. But just because I was not able to
capture myself on the page, does not mean my attempt was not
worthwhile. And I think this struggle to write myself through this
project was a valuable exercise.
Cixous (1989) wrote that in The Stream of Life, Lispector knows
capturing the present on the page is a struggle. She notes that
Lispector writes “I want to capture, not I capture” (Cixous 1989,
p. xi). This shows that she is aware that what she is writing
on the page isn’t exactly what she wants to express, because
“femininity always resists capture” (Cixous 1989, p. xi). Earlier in
this exegesis I pondered whether my attempt at fictocriticism
was more feminist or more post modern. Throughout the writing
process I think my writing style may have developed into a more
feminist style of writing. This is because in my writing examples I
am struggling and in a way battling with language.
I am also struggling with technology. It was hard to express what
I wanted to sometimes through these examples of social media
due to their constraints and restrictions. I want to be able to
express myself through words published through social media,
but I never end up being able to do so. It is a constant struggle.
The language I have ended up using is dialogic, interruptive and
unsure. Diane Herndl wrote that “a feminine language does
not assume the authority of logical discourse and, therefore,
escapes the hierarchy of the official language” (1991, p. 11). I
think my writing has somehow managed to escape hierarchy.
What I have presented in my project seems like it is without a
coherent form. At times my voice sounds desperate, “It hurts. I
feel a pain in my chest. I might suffocate. Everybody be quiet”
and at other times it sounds anxious or hesitant “I want to tell you
a secret: I don’t know myself”.
Emily Naismith
51
Herndl believes that in feminine language, meaning is
elsewhere, “between voices or between discourses, marked
by a mistrust of the ‘signified’” (1991, p. 11). Although I began
by trying to capture the “signified” (the self), I realised through
the process I couldn’t. Though there is still meaning in my work.
The meaning is hidden between the words, and the meaning
is not the essence of myself but rather I have gained a greater
understanding of myself. This is a viable meaning, even if it is
only applicable to me.
I have not written myself on the page. However, in my eyes the
project was still a success. I have confronted personal issues to
do CF that I never have before. I have explored my feelings in an
abstract way and learned more about myself in that process.
It would be an amazing outcome of this project if in the
conclusion I could wrap everything together and say I
understand myself and my relationship with CF: but I can’t. I can
understand aspects and recognise characteristics of myself
that I previously couldn’t, but I definitely do not come close to
wholly understanding myself and CF. Through the process
of writing and making this project I have realised that total
understanding of the self is unattainable. The self will always be
fluid and changing and I will never know everything. My quest for
enlightenment and understanding hasn’t lead me to a definite
answer but it has provided me with a frame of mind to view
myself through. Examining the self by trying to write myself on
the page has helped me to accept who I am and inspect how I
deal with CF. I feel like I am standing on a more solid foundation
compared to when I began this project.
In my abstract I wrote that I view CF as an interruption to my
life. There is no doubt that aspects of CF do have interruptive
qualities, but CF is not an interruption. It is a part of who I am. I
have embraced this interruption (as I have fictocriticism and
social media) and can now see CF and myself as a whole.
52 labsome 2009
Emily Naismith
53
Appendix
The Following six pictures are screen shots of each part of my
project.
Project Home Page
54 labsome 2009
Blog
Emily Naismith
55
Facebook
56 labsome 2009
Flickr
Emily Naismith
57
Google Maps
58 labsome 2009
Twitter
Emily Naismith
59
Bibliography
Altman, D 2002, ‘Writing the self’, Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 2, p. 5.
Ash, S 1998, ‘Waiting To Dance’, in H Kerr & A Nettelbeck (eds), The
Space Between: Australian Women Writing Fictocriticism University of
Western Australia Press, Nedlands.
Bartlett, A 2006, ‘Dear Regina: formative conversations about feminist
writing’, FemTAP: A Journal of Feminist Theory and Practice, vol. online
journal 1.
Benkler, Y 2006, The wealth of networks: How social production
transforms markets and freedom, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Berman, J & Bruckman, AS 2001, ‘The Turing Game: Exploring Identity
in an Online Environment’, Convergence, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 83-102.
Boellstorff, T 2008, Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist
explores the virtually human, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Brewster, A 2005, ‘The Poetics of Memory’, Continuum, vol. 19, no. 3, pp.
397-402.
Cixous, H 1989, ‘Forward’, in The Stream of Life, The University of
Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Clough, PT 2000, ‘Comments on Setting Criteria for Experimental
Writing’, Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 278-91.
Costello, M 2005, ‘’Irrigorous Uncertainties’: Writing, Politics and
Pedagogy ‘, TEXT, vol. 9, no. 1.
Crawford, K 2009, ‘These Foolish Things: On Intimacy and Mobile
Media’, in G Goggin & L Hjorth (eds), Mobile Technologies: From
Telecommunications to Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 252-65.
Cumming, C 2008, The 21 Steps, Six to Start production for Penguin
Books, viewed July 15 2009, <http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/
week1/>.
Dawson, P 2005, Creative writing and the new humanities, Routledge,
London.
Delany, P & Landow, G 1991, Hypermedia and literary studies, MIT
Press, Cambridge.
Eisenberg, B 2008, Understanding and Aligning the Value of Social
Media, September 30, 2009, FutureNow, Inc, Blog post, <http://www.
grokdotcom.com/2008/11/07/understanding-and-aligning-the-valueof-social-media/>.
Evans, M 2009, cookbook , Twitter, viewed June 1 2009, <http://twitter.
com/cookbook>.
Fisher, WR 1984, ‘Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The
Case of Public Moral Argument’, Communication Monographs, vol. 51,
no. 1, p. 1.
60 labsome 2009
Gannon, S 2006, ‘The (Im)Possibilities of Writing the Self-Writing:
French Poststructural Theory and Autoethnography’, Cultural Studies
<=> Critical Methodologies, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 474-95.
Gibbs, A 1997, ‘Bodies of Words: Feminism and Fictocriticism–
Explanation and Demonstration’, TEXT, vol. 1, no. 2.
---- 2005, ‘Fictocriticism, Affect, Mimesis: engendering differences’,
TEXT, vol. 9, no. 1.
Gordhamer, S 2009, When Do You Use Twitter Versus Facebook?,
09/18/2009, <http://mashable.com/2009/08/01/facebook-vs-twitter/>.
Grosz, E 1994, Volatile bodies: Toward a corporeal feminism, Allen &
Unwin, Bloomington.
Have, PT 1999, ‘Structuring Writing for Reading: Hypertext and the
Reading Body’, Human Studies, vol. 22, no. 2-4, pp. 273-98.
Hayton, K 2009, ‘New expressions of the self: autobiographical
opportunities on the Internet’, Journal of Media Practice, vol. 10, no.
2&3, pp. 199-213.
Herndl, DP 1991, ‘The Dilemmas of a Feminine Dialogic’, in D Bauer & S
McKinstry (eds), Feminism, Bakhtin and the Dialogic, State University of
New York Press, New York, pp. 7-24.
Janaczewska, N 1998, ‘Lemon Pieces (Quelques Morceaux en Forme de
Citron) ‘, in H Kerr & A Nettelbeck (eds), The Space Between: Australian
Women Writing Fictocriticism, University of Western Australia Press,
Nedlands, pp. 53-68.
Java, A, Song, X, Finin, T & Tseng, B 2007, ‘Why we twitter:
understanding microblogging usage and communities’, paper
presented to Proceedings of the 9th WebKDD and 1st SNA-KDD 2007
workshop on Web mining and social network analysis, San Jose,
California.
Jordan, S 2001, ‘Writing the other, writing the self: Transforming
consciousness through ethnographic writing’, Language and
Intercultural Communication, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 40-56.
Landow, G 1997, Hypertext 2.0: The convergence of contemporary
critical theory and technology, Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore.
Lispector, C 1989, The Stream of Life, University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis.
MacIntyre, A 1984, After virtue: A study in moral theory, University of
Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame.
Martin, T 2009, ‘Social media is meant for conversation, not
‘marketing’’, Advertising Age, vol. 80, no. 6, pp. 11-.
Muecke, S 1997, No Road: Bitumen all the way, Fremantle Arts Centre
Press, South Fremantle.
Emily Naismith
61
---- 2002, ‘The Fall: Fictocritical Writing’, Parallax , vol. 8, no. 4, pp.
108 - 12.
Naismith, E 2009a, ‘Punctuation’.
---- 2009b, ‘Supermarket’.
---- 2009c, The Erotics of Gossip: Fictocriticism, Performativity,
Technology, 19 August, Wordpress, Melbourne, <http://raws.adc.rmit.
edu.au/~s3134903/blog2/?p=292>.
---- 2009d, ‘Twitter conversation’.
Nardi, BA, Schiano, DJ, Gumbrecht, M & Swartz, L 2004, ‘Why we blog’,
Communications of the ACM, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 41-6.
Nettelbeck, A 1998, ‘Notes Towards an Introduction’, in H Kerr & A
Nettelbeck (eds), The Space Between: Australian Women Writing
Fictocriticism, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, pp.
1-17.
Peuquet, DJ & Kraak, M-J 2002, ‘Geobrowsing: creative thinking and
knowledge discovery using geographic visualization’, Information
Visualization, vol. 1, no. 1.
Probyn, E 1993, Sexing the self: Gendered positions in cultural studies.,
Routledge, London.
---- 2005, ‘Thinking Habits and the Ordering of Life’, in D Bell & J
Hollows (eds), Ordinary lifestyles: popular media, consumption and
taste, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK, pp. 243-54.
Reece, M 2007a, Five days, one paragraph, June 1, Austin, <http://www.
manton.org/2007/11/five_days_one_paragraph.html>.
---- 2007b, story140, Twitter, viewed June 1 2009, <http://twitter.com/
story140>.
Reed-Danahay, DE 1997, ‘Introduction’, in DE Reed-Danahay (ed.), Auto/
ethnography: Rewriting the self and the Social , Oxford International
Publishers Ltd, Oxford, pp. 1-17.
Rheingold, H 1993, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the
Electronic Frontier, MIT Press, viewed September 30, 2009, <http://
www.rheingold.com/vc/book/>.
Rothhaas, J 2007, 140 story, Twitter, viewed June 1 2009, <http://twitter.
com/140story>.
Schlunke, K & Brewster, A 2005, ‘We Four: Fictocriticism Again’,
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 3935.
Sinclair, M 2006, ‘What is Flickr?’, Creative Review, vol. 26, no. 6, pp.
39-41.
Smith, H 2005a, ‘The Erotics of Gossip: Fictocriticism, Performativity,
Technology’, Continuum, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 403-12.
62 labsome 2009
---- 2005b, The Writing Experiment: Strategies for Innovative Creative
Writing, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest.
Sofia, Z 1998, ‘Dr Zeo’s Artrageous A-Z of Technosex ‘, in H Kerr &
A Nettelbeck (eds), The Space Between: Australian Women Writing
Fictocriticism, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, pp.
129-45.
Tillmann, LM 2009, ‘Body and Bulimia Revisited: Reflections on “A
Secret Life”’, Journal of Applied Communication Research, vol. 37, no.
1, pp. 98 - 112.
Turkle, S 1996, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, The
Orion Publishing Group Ltd, London.
Urista, MA, Qingwen, D & Day, KD 2009, ‘Explaining Why Young Adults
Use MySpace and Facebook Through Uses and Gratifications Theory’,
Human Communication, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 215-29.
Weight, J 2007, Week 9, M&M, May 18, 2009, RMIT, Melbourne, <http://
mmp.adc.rmit.edu.au/?p=774>.
What is Cystic Fibrosis?, 2006, Cystic Fibrosis Victoria, viewed
September 5 2009, <http://www.cfv.org.au/html/s02_article/article_
view.asp?id=97&nav_cat_id=129&nav_top_id=50&dsb=1722>.
Wright, T 2009, ‘What’s the most birdbrained thing to do right now?
Make a Twit of yourself’, The Age, 2 May 2009.
Emily Naismith
63