http://kotaku.com/5806664/how-pokemon-was-born-from-bug-collecting-and-aspergers-syndrome?tag=totalrecall
In the article "How Pokémon Was Born From Bug Collecting and Asperger's Syndrome," author Luke Plunkett discusses how the creator of Pokémon, Satoshi Tajiri, became inspired to create the popular franchise. By the use of awkward syntax, great diction, and details, Plunkett creates contrast between where Tajiri started with where he is now, a distinction between past and present.
Plunkett utilizes an excessive amount of commas. This is so that he can fit two juxtaposing ideas into one sentence, but still make the individual ideas clear. This results in a "before and after" kind of effect for the reader. For example, the sentence "As happens when kids get older, though, interests come and go, and by the time he was a teenager Tajiri's focus had shifted from harvesting bugs to pumping coins into arcade games..." The separation of this sentence with commas has an effect of separating Tajiri's life into distinct stages, too.
Another technique in Plunkett's writing is his diction. In two adjacent sentences he describes Tajiri's hometown today as a "sprawling metropolis" and describes it when he grew up as "quaint, almost rural..." When talking about Tajiri's youth, the words are cozy, and when talking about the present the words sound more institutional-like, and modern. The game is even referred to as a "role-playing juggernaut" which really emphasizes Tajiri's successful new life.
Plunkett incorporates a lot of details about Tajiri's life that are not necessary to the goal of the article but do contribute to the contrast between past and present. He describes how Tajiri's childhood friends called him "Mr. Bug" due to his fascination with insects. That detail seems cute and nerdy, which fits Plunkett's pattern of describing the past. A detail offered about the present is Nintendo representatives' description of Taijiri, which is "creative" and "eccentric." The present is all glory and success, while the past is very humble and curious.
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article to do a close reading with. You do a good job of using quotes as evidence in your diction and detail paragraphs. I thought that you could use a little more evidence in your syntax paragraph. You give an example of how Plunkett uses commas to juxtapose two ideas; one or two more examples would make your syntax paragraph stronger. Your close reading is very well written, straight to the point, and concise as a result. That’s something I personally definitely struggle with as a writer. You had a good introduction, it introduced the idea of the article. I think that your close reading would benefit from a concluding paragraph because it would help wrap everything up. Great job overall.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteOverall I thought this was a pretty good post. Your thesis is very good and very strong; I only wish your body paragraphs had been as strong. I felt that with each paragraph you seemed to focus on only one aspect of each thing: the juxtaposing ideas in the syntax, the contrast in diction between “sprawling metropolis” and “quaint, almost rural”, and the “Mr. Bug” detail. All of these are good points; don’t get me wrong, I just wish there were more examples from the text in this essay. I know when reading through the article I saw one or two examples of inverted syntax, maybe they didn’t serve your point and so didn’t make it in to your analysis, I don’t know but I thought that was an interesting tool. And while you said that the details of Tajiri’s life “are not necessary to the goal of the article”, I thought they were in helping the reader understand Tajiri. Really these are minor criticisms, this was a very well written post and I enjoyed reading it and the article. Great job Mary.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteProps for choosing a genuinely interesting article to analyze; lots of people seem to choose soul-sucking general news articles and those are just so much less engaging to read. As far as your analysis, to me your paragraph regarding syntax was the strongest. I saw a lot of evidence for your claim of excessive comma use and fragmented sentences as I read through the piece. I'm not sure if I interpreted the style as "[having] an effect of separating Tajiri's life into distinct stages, too", though. It seemed to me as simply a detail of the author's writing style. Either way it was certainly annoying at times.
As for the rest of your post, your points were valid and well-supported by evidence, but each paragraph only seemed to focus on one detail that went along with your claims. Perhaps you would do well to add a few other quotes or ideas from the article that support your arguments regarding it. A concluding paragraph may also work to tie the whole thing together nicely-- I frequently neglect to do this, and I think it would be a good habit to get into. Just an idea, but overall this is excellent work!