Journal #4

Place and Scene are two very important aspects of everyday writing.  Where we see a piece of writing, in whatever medium that may be, can have a large impact on our interpretation and reaction to a piece of writing, In the article Edbauer mentions that graffiti, “ it gets you,” that when you see a piece of this writing on the street, that it hits you before you can discern any type of meaning from it.  In my opinion the place and scene at which the graffiti is encountered is extremely important in its affect on the reader.  If we encountered graffiti in books or on paper in general, it would not have that same effect.  Conversely, if we saw a novel written on a wall it would not have the same affect on the reader as it would on a book page in your hand. 

            Place and scene are also important in the circulation of ideas. For graffiti those ideas can be gang turf or messages of violence and revenge.  A gang member will tag a large area of a city to display where that gang’s turf is so that rival gangs get the message that it is not safe for them there.  Even when it comes to more traditional forms of writing, place and scene are important to the circulation of ideas.  Advertising is done in places where it will reach large numbers of its target audience, their ideas are a lot more likely to be spread further in an area where there are a lot of people, like a mall, as opposed to an area with a small amount of people, such as a library.  Also the scene must be appropriate. For example, it would not be wise to advertise a nightclub at a church, or vice versa.  The writing will not help spread ideas if the audience is not interested in what is being said