Kehinde Charles-Pedro
03/04-05
Essay Draft
ENG 410
The author’s style in this book is unorthodox for what a book is supposed to have. The tiny side notes in the book and the newspaper are annoying but must be clarified. The genre of S is difficult to pinpoint; it may be a dramatic, adventure, or true crime/ romance novel. The authors attempt to give clues about the book’s primary genre, and although Eric and Jen may seem to be the book’s focal point, it drifts off and focuses on other characters, which then makes the story, in a broad sense, confusing. The cover and title don’t give any clear understanding of the book’s genre, which makes it more confusing.
The paramount storytelling of this book focuses on two characters, Jen and Eric. Although it is semi-clear cut that they harbor feelings for each other, as a reader, why does it feel like Eric always tries to one-up Jen’s responses? His character and tone feel more mysterious than loving or caring. The unidentified author characterizes Eric as this knowledgeable, egotistical person in love with a young dashing college student. To many readers like myself, this fits in the genre collection of thriller, a murder mystery. But the author decided to twist their character and show a more loveable side to throw us off. This book’s storytelling could be more straightforward if written in a more linear concert story of young passionate love. A scholarly article written by Willis G. Regier interested me; it states. “ Slip cover and all, S. is Something Else: a masterpiece of book making, from concept to packaging, a very bookish book that also pays tribute to letters, postcards, and photocopies. It vents the misery of literary studies and changes shape as it progresses. It is a book-length critique of fiction, reading, and identity.”( Regier, bio). The book, from a cover standpoint to many, will seem like an ordinary lively fiction book about the Greek philosophical story of the Ship of Theseus. An experiment is to determine whether an object of form with its original parts will remain the same. And the genre for that ideal story is drama—the weird part about the book S. is that the covers are two different illustrations that don’t give any clear idea of the genre. The book resembles a ship at sea, lost and confused; it doesn’t have any sense of direction in story and genre. An open-minded reader like myself understand the fiction behind the story, but the twist and turns of how the characters and design of the book are displayed make it harder to understand the actual genre of this novel. Like most books, you can tell from the cover what genre it will be because of how it’s well designed, but the authors of this book make it complex with a big letter S and then a spiraling ship; what is the meaning behind it?—another interesting point from the article. “Ship of Theseus (what fans call “the inner novel”) has the usual library markings: ownership stamps.” (Regier). Could it be an inner novel? The definition of an inner novel is an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals primarily with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events. The book’s dialogue between Eric and Jen highlights how the author decided to tell the story. But also a mixture of other storylines that differ from the original story. Again this type of writing makes me frustrated to understand the genre of this novel. But I find it interesting that many describe the book as an inner novel; in a sense, it could be classified as an inner novel. However, this doesn’t represent the book’s lost genre; it helps to understand its complexity and gives the reader an idea of how tricky the book is when reading.
A small summary by the website (Downpour.com) gives this small overall of the potential genre for the book- it says, “ Ship of Theseus is the central novel within the experience that is S., a multi-faceted narrative of love and mystery. A mystical adventure of an equally mysterious figure, Ship of Theseus, is Straka’s final book about a man struggling to discover his identity.” (Doug). So by calling the book love and mystery genre, there is a slight sense of ensuring ness about the book’s true genre? I disagree, calling the book a faceted interstate me because the word faceted means to have a different way of thinking or aspect of an object. The features of the book that interest me at first glance, particularly the first chapter; it feels like the beginning of an ordinary boy meets girl type scenario; the shyness between the two, the awkward date, and getting to know each other feels like your typical romantic genre but is the title of the first chapter that questions if this story will take a more different approach “ What Begins What Ends.” Like the cover of a book, a chapter title also holds meaning in how the book will progress. From the reader’s standpoint, “What Beings What Ends” can mean something negative that changes the course of the story and the whole genre of the book. When reading a book chapter title, it’s always a good idea to relate your thinking to the type of genre the book is in and connect how it fits the romance, murder, adventures, and or action genre. The first chapter starts with a date-like scene “Do you live here? In the city? I am traveling, she says. I travel frequently. I arrived on the liner. Imperia. Do you always travel with such cumbersome books? I don’t trust anyone who wouldn’t. He purses his lips and nods. “So.” he says, “ I trust you know the name of this city?” She tilts her head and regards him slantwise. Then she laughs. “You’re making sports of me. What’s your game? “ I’m curious,” hey says, as to whether you know who I am.” Are you someone I should know?”(page 21Straka). Suppose I had to guess what type of genre many readers concluded the book is from the first chapter alone-it will be romance or drama. Because the dialogue between Eric and Jen seems ominous in a sense that Eric’s intention when he says, “I don’t trust anyone who wouldn’t.” To me, it set up a more murder mystery story than a romantic one. This novel always wants to detour readers from the plot but makes the genre more of a hide-and-seek game. In an article reviewed by Sarah Willams, she states, “ Ship of Theseus, also known as S., is hard to categorize. Presented in book form, it’s an ambitious piece of experimental fiction with many layers of story and meaning.” (Willams). The book itself is convoluted, with a unique story that leaves many questions unanswered; it is like a puzzle trying to figure itself out, and in a way, the book comes alive. But with such hard critique, finding a specific genre to classify the book S is impossible. The form of the book makes me, as a reader, question the mindset when writing such a book. A book without any genre identity shouldn’t be classified as a book or published. Genre, in a sense, when writing a book, helps readers like us explore a different side of writing and storytelling. Genre, in a sense, gives the book the identity it needs to sell and bring in customers. In an article written by Jonna Stampfle titled. “ The Dos & Don’ts of Combining Genres. She states, “Genre is essentially a marketing tool,” says Diana Fox of Fox Literary. “It’s a category marker that tells us in which section in the bookstore your book will be sold. It’s because of this that you need to be aware of who you’re writing for. Where in the bookstore would your target reader go in search of books like yours?” (Jonna). As interesting as the book S. is- I find it hard to believe the book itself will be in a bookstore with a specific genre under it. The vagueness of this book casts doubt on potential buyers that may be interested in it. The book’s cover, chapter title, and more specifications about the book help it identify its genre. But the problem with S with the genre is who is the book’s author. A book without an author is an anomaly. The book’s audience may be diverse, but there is no identification of genre and author—the placement of S. in a bookstore among hundreds of categories of books will be among the books that people wish they never bought. It’s sad to think when a book that looks interesting no longer interests me because something as simple as a genre doesn’t exist in a book with so much storytelling. We can hypothesize that S. may be romantic, adventurous, or even historical. But when the text becomes a mystery and an author is missing from the ‘publication’ of the book. We, as readers, are left wondering why we must find the answer to what this book is. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The only problem with this is that S. continues questioning our understanding of what type of book this is. Many call it a novel or a fiction novel. But what specific genre does this book categorize itself to be?
The author’s idea for this book was to have us critically think and piece together a puzzle of material that looks like trophies or to read the text and deeply summarize what kind of book this is. The realization kicks in, how can we identify this as a novel or genre. We are forced to engage with little to no understanding of what the book may be about. The back of the book gives us some ideas, such as “One book, two readers, a world of mystery, menace, and desire.” But then reading the text in the book doesn’t add up in terms of what sort of genre the book may be., especially toward the end of the book. “The ship is one of theirs, and as for the identities of the two people at the wheel, he and Sola will let their imagination fill in their features.” (Straka, 456). There is still no clear understanding, even after reading the whole book; start to finish, of what sort of genre I can call this book. The context clues in this book are fundamental for not understanding the story for what the story or genre may or may not be but to piece the story together. In a magazine article by Natalia Igi titled “Making sense of the Material, ” she states. “Based on a case in point analysis of J.J. Abrams & Dough Dorst’s S. (2013), the article thus aims to demonstrate how multimodal novels functionalize their narrative composition and foregrounded print materiality to engage the “embodied reader” in a process of making sense of the text as both a story and a material artefact.”(Igi). The book itself never had a genre, to begin with. Yet, we will classify it as a story or novel because we the “embodied readers” must try to make sense of a book that as hold one of many stories. The author’s attempt to create a book with no genre, yet a slight hint of it, confused many readers like me. A book like this will be forgotten in libraries because of how confusing the material and text are—a book without genre.
Work Cite
1st. Project MUSE – <i>S</i> by J. J. Abrams, Doug Dorst (review) (jhu.edu)
2nd. https://www.downpour.com/ship-of-theseus?sp=92704
3rd. https://roomescapeartist.com/2019/11/21/ship-theseus-review/
4. https://www.writersdigest.com/get-published-sell-my-work/the-dos-and-donts-of-combining-genres
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1. Argument:
• Does this paper have a clear, argumentative thesis? Can you identify what kinds of textual evidence will be used to support it?
This paper does have a clear, argumentative thesis. I can identify what kinds of textual evidence will be used to support it, though you don’t mention the sources in the introduction.
• After you’ve read the whole paper, how does the paper sustain the thesis statement? In other words: does each paragraph support and expand the argument laid out in the thesis?
Each paragraph feels like its jam packed with different ideas and thoughts since they don’t have topic sentences to support, but the paragraphs do support your thesis.
• Which paragraph reads the strongest with regards to the central argument, and why?
Because of the issue I mentioned beforehand about there not being a topic sentence, I couldn’t identify the strongest paragraph that regards the central argument.
• Which paragraph needs more attention to argumentation and analysis? Provide specific suggestions.
I believe your body paragraphs don’t need to be further analyzed, since you do a good job of analyzing the quotes.
2. Textual evidence:
• Does the paper make appropriate use of direct quotes and paraphrasing from the novel to support its argument? Discuss one place where this is done well and one place where you think evidence needs to be added (or different examples need to be selected)
The paper does make appropriate use of direct quotes to support its argument. Like in the third paragraphs when you say, “Because the dialogue between Eric and Jen seems ominous in a sense that Eric’s intention when he says, “I don’t trust anyone who wouldn’t.” To me, it set up a more murder mystery story than a romantic one.”
3. External sources:
• Are the articles referenced in the paper appropriate for the argument? Explain.
I think the articles referenced in the paper are appropriate for the argument since they support your idea that the genre of the book is unclear because of the book’s material content/paratextual elements.
• Are the sources well integrated into the student’s own ideas, or do they seem disconnected from the argument of the paper? Give at least one example.
The sources are well integrated into your ideas. Like in the fourth paragraph where you state, “A small summary by the website (Downpour.com) gives this small overall of the potential genre for the book- it says, “Ship of Theseus is the central novel within the experience that is S., a multi-faceted narrative of love and mystery. A mystical adventure of an equally mysterious figure, Ship of Theseus, is Straka’s final book about a man struggling to discover his identity.” (Doug).”
• Are the sources sufficiently summarized so that outside readers can understand what the article is arguing? If not, offer suggestions for where more summary or synthesis needs to happen.
I believe the sources are sufficiently summarized so that outside readers can understand what the article is arguing.
4. Feedback
• Provide 2 specific suggestions for revision — these can be about organization, style, clarity, or argument.
I suggest that you provide topic sentences for your paragraphs, so it’s clear what each paragraph is arguing.
I also suggest that you flesh out your introduction, I feel like it’s too short and doesn’t fully introduce the sources that you will use to support the essay.
Argument:
This paper does not have a clear, argumentative thesis because although you argue that the form of the book makes it hard for readers to comprehend S, I don’t know what exactly is it making S difficult to read. Is it the ambiguous genre? The complex characters of Jen and Eric? The multiple storylines? I suggest you pick one as the element that which hinders the book’s overall goals.
Although each paragraph does support the argument laid out such that they are about how the book’s form complicates readers with regards to understanding it, the ideas are all over the place. I suggest you guide each paragraph with a topic sentence so that all of the ideas (of each paragraph) are consistent, relevant, and flow well together.
With that being said, there is no one paragraph that was stronger or weaker than the other with regards to the main argument because there are so many different ideas and reasonings scattered throughout each paragraph.
Textual evidence:
The paper does make appropriate use of direct quotes and paraphrasing from the novel to support its argument. For example, you correctly cited (using MLA in-text citation), “The ship is one of theirs, and as for the identities of the two people at the wheel, he and Sola will let their imagination fill in their features.” (Straka, 456).
External sources:
The articles that you have chosen are appropriate for the argument because they are relevant to your idea that the overall form of the book makes it difficult for readers to understand it.
The articles do seem integrated into your own ideas, such is the example of when you said, “A small summary by the website (Downpour.com) gives this small overall of the potential genre for the book – it says, “Ship of Theseus is the central novel within the experience that is S., a multi-faceted narrative of love and mystery. A mystical adventure of an equally mysterious figure, Ship of Theseus, is Straka’s final book about a man struggling to discover his identity.” (Doug).” You then transitioned into your take on this quote by saying, “I disagree, calling the book a faceted interstate me because the word faceted means to have a different way of thinking or aspect of an object.”
The sources are sufficiently summarized so that even I can understand what the article is arguing for, such is the example of when you cited, “In a magazine article by Natalia Igi titled “Making sense of the Material, ” she states. “Based on a case in point analysis of J.J. Abrams & Dough Dorst’s S. (2013), the article thus aims to demonstrate how multimodal novels functionalize their narrative composition and foregrounded print materiality to engage the “embodied reader” in a process of making sense of the text as both a story and a material artefact.”(Igi).”
Feedback:
Overall, I like the fact that you’re arguing for the case that the form of the book interferes with readers’ understanding of it and therefore hinders the book’s overall goals. I suggest you provide topic sentences for each paragraph so that each ideas can be cleaned up. I also think you should provide a thesis statement about the difficulties of the book’s form; your first paragraph seems to be chock full of (negative) opinions but no thesis to guide it and wrap it all up.
1. Argument:
• Does this paper have a clear, argumentative thesis? Can you identify what kinds of textual evidence will be used to support it?
This argument has the potential to have a strong thesis. It would also help if you mentioned what specifically makes this novel so hard to read.
• After you’ve read the whole paper, how does the paper sustain the thesis statement? In other words: does each paragraph support and expand the argument laid out in the thesis?
The argument goes back to explaining the thesis statement somewhat, however it would be better if each paragraph was structured with a topic sentence. This helps you to have some cohesiveness to the overall paper. This would make it better for the reader to easily understand it.
• Which paragraph reads the strongest with regards to the central argument, and why?
The third paragraph in the direction of being strong, however it needs more structure in terms of how the ideas are arranged.
• Which paragraph needs more attention to argumentation and analysis? Provide specific suggestions.
All the paragraphs thus far need more attention to the analysis and argumentation.
2. Textual evidence:
• Does the paper make appropriate use of direct quotes and paraphrasing from the novel to support its argument? Discuss one place where this is done well and one place where you think evidence needs to be added (or different examples need to be selected)
The paper makes appropriate use of direct quotes and paraphrasing form the novel to support its argument. One place where direct quote is done well is in final paragraph, “The ship is one of theirs, and as for the identities of the two people at the wheel, he and Sola will let their imagination fill in their features.” (Straka, 456). This quote was done well. One place where it could have done better is in the third paragraph,” Ship of Theseus is the central novel within the experience that is S., a multi-faceted narrative of love and mystery. A mystical adventure of an equally mysterious figure, Ship of Theseus, is Straka’s final book about a man struggling to discover his identity.” (Doug). This was not correctly done as it did not show reference to exactly where the quote was found, this is not a well-done MLA style.
3. External sources:
• Are the articles referenced in the paper appropriate for the argument? Explain.
I think the articles referenced in the paper is appropriate for the argument as it still explains the unclear genre of the book.
• Are the sources well integrated into the student’s own ideas, or do they seem disconnected from the argument of the paper? Give at least one example.
The sources are integrated into the student’s own ideas example in paragraph 2, “Ship of Theseus (what fans call “the inner novel”) has the usual library markings: ownership stamps.” (Rieger). The source was further explained to bring out what your argument is built on. You did a good job at explaining it.
• Are the sources sufficiently summarized so that outside readers can understand what the article is arguing? If not, offer suggestions for where more summary or synthesis needs to happen.
The sources were sufficiently summarized.
4. Feedback
• Provide 2 specific suggestions for revision — these can be about organization, style, clarity, or argument.
Work on the thesis statement, base it more on the difficulty of the text.
I think you can work on your topic sentence for each paragraph so it can get the overall paper to be more organized.
Kehinde, there are a lot of great points here, but as your peers say they need to be organized more carefully. Paragraph to paragraph:
The introduction begins abruptly — try to situate the text and its ideas in relation to what you will argue.
I think you could focus more deliberately on the question of genre as it relates to the structure of the novel and the conflicting clues it gives us. Think about how the topic sentences for each paragraph can support this. In paragraph 2 you also say, “An experiment is to determine whether an object of form with its original parts will remain the same.” This might be an interesting topic sentence but it needs to be elaborated for clarity.
You will need to introduce and contextualize your sources more carefully. Works Cited list also needs to follow a clear formatting style (e.g., MLA)
I like the idea of focusing in part on the book’s marketing, and how it’s impossible to advertise it correctly. I encourage you to seek out the “trailers” for the book, which will help you contextualize this discussion in more detail.
This point might be better used in your intro: “The only problem with this is that S. continues questioning our understanding of what type of book this is. Many call it a novel or a fiction novel. But what specific genre does this book categorize itself to be?”