Journal #4

Place and scene have a lot to do with the very nature of everyday writing. The place and scene in which people use certain everyday writing elicits specific reactions, and most of these reactions can fall into two categories: positive or negative. Certain places call for certain types of writing. This article has a very powerful personal example of when someone wrote "ZEPPELIN ROCKS!!!" on a wall that was created for students to voice their feelings towards the 9/11 tragedy. The example given in Jennifer H. Edbauer’s “(Meta)Physical Graffiti: ‘Getting Up’ As Affective Writing Model,” would be viewed as a negative use of writing in a specific scene because it elicited anger and hate, and even disappointment. In everyday writing, the writer must have a conscious understanding of what type of reaction that they are  trying to get out of the audience. Now whether the unknown-hair-band-lover was trying to be funny, disrespectful, or just lighten the mood; I am not sure. What I do know is this; when they wrote this on the wall, it was the wrong place and scene for what was written. Maybe if "ZEPPELIN ROCKS!!!" was written somewhere in the busy streets of New York City, no one would have objected to the statement.

Place and scene factor into the circulation of ideas because if a writer has a wide range of places that they are able to circulate their work and ideas then they will make a greater impact on their audience of choice. Edbauer gives another personal example of the graffiti tag “Half Dead". She first saw this in Austin, Texas in 2002. She then explained that a year later she spotted the same tag in San Francisco. She states in her article that, “not only shows how much he or she can get seen, but it also reflects an ability to generate an experience of impact.” Scenes can also effect the circulation of ideas because there are many different scenes that a writer could be interested in/part of. The specific scenes that you are involved in create a circulation of ideas of an great amount of places, with the same scene. In a way, place and scene effect one another when it comes to the circulation of ideas that a writer is trying to get out to an audience. I really enjoyed reading Emily Wegman's ideas about how scenes may effect the circulation of ideas, and I agree with what she wrote. Different scenes call for different writing modes, audiences, and reactions.