When we were first given the assignment, I honestly thought it sounded relatively easy. My initial thought wasn't quite right. Before given our choices for the topic of our Mashup, I already had one in mind: strength. When given our topic choices, strength was not one of them. Determined to stick to my original idea, which usually is my best idea, I asked permission to use it. Permission granted, I got to work right away.
As I looked through Jane Eyre, I realized this task may be slightly more daunting than expected. I had a few ideas of passages I wanted to use, so I looked those up first. Some worked, some didn't. Thinking of and finding new passages was much more difficult. Looking back there are a few scenes that may have been better choices than the ones I used, but overall I think my Jane Eyre passages were incorporated nicely into my finished product. One thing in particular that I liked was the flow of my Jane Eyre passages. Yes, some were next to each other, but in the end I decided it was definitely the most effective way to showcase my topic. This was probably the easiest section to complete.
The next task to check off were my "outside sources". This consisted mostly of scouring through endless pages of Google suggestions. At one point I also listened to the songs on my iTunes for a fit. One song, "Fix You" by Coldplay, played a few times. Each time I noticed it. For some reason it really stood out to me. Thinking this was probably a good addition to my Mashup, I incorporated some lyrics from the song into it. That was easier than expected. Filtering through websites to find pictures, a poem, quotes and excerpts was much more difficult and time consuming. Still, overall I was satisfied by my findings.
The hardest part of the assignment was to find passages from other texts read this year. I did this by picking a book, King Lear for example, and refreshing my memory. I read the back of the cover, some sparknotes, and a few random pages to get my brain flowing. Eventually a few, more like a dozen, lines and scenes popped in my head. The hardest part was finding them all. After finding most of them and writing them down, I read them all over again and again. Eventually I decided on one that I thought best fit. I repeated this process for my other book. It was probably the most time consuming portion of the project, but there were also probably quicker ways to do it.
The last portion to complete was to simply put them in the most effective order. I was stubborn at first in doing this, believing I had gotten it right the first time around. I knew that couldn't possibly be right though, so I sucked it up and re-arranged over and over again until I was satisfied. Each element ties into the one before it and the one preceding it. Happy with the turnout, I posted the website and emailed my link.
It was an interesting experience, and I actually liked it. In the beginning I thought it would be useless, but I was proven wrong. I think it took just the right amount of time and effort. It was strange to not directly put my thoughts into the project, but in a way I still was. My thoughts, someone else's words.
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