I follow the page on Facebook entitled: The Group to support Zac Sweeney's Journalism Career. This Facebook page, is an individualized page made by Zac Sweeney, a journalism and broadcasting major here at The College at Brockport. He is positioned as the creator and publisher of every post made in this forum. Whether he is writing for a music magazine called Infectious Magazine, or for Brockport's school paper the Stylus, Zac keeps readers up-to-date with his latest articles he has written and had published. As a fellow journalism student, it is cool to see someone in the same field as me thriving in the field. Also, whenever I read his posts, I analyze his style and try to pick up on what he does, to see if it's what I should be doing. His page is always good for a fun read and helps me to support him in his pursuit of a journalism career.
As I said before, Zac is constantly posting with new articles he has written, so there is no end in sight for his page or posts. As long as he continues to pursue a career in journalism, and I'm sure he will, then he will continue writing and making Facebook posts on his works. Although this modern epistolary form is a bit different than what we have seen in the letter-exchanging in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, it is still interactive. Zac will post his articles and readers like me have the opportunity to "like" or "comment" on his posts to give him feedback. That's our way of responding to his "letters." In both cases, Clarissa and Zac's journalism page on Facebook, stories are being shared albeit in different ways. Clarissa's and Zac's way of sharing stories both attribute to the time they are in as Clarissa is an older way of doing it, whereas Zac's version is modern to fit in the 21st Century. Either way, though, they are both cases of epistolary form being used.
Both forms of epistolary writing, by Zac and Clarissa, are important because they offer a support system between the writer and reader. It's also used as a learning mechanism in the interest of the correspondents. The biggest difference is that Zac writes objectively, so the subject matter tends to be more palpable and factual because the information had to be researched. Clarissa on the other hand is speaking subjectively so her writing's more reflective, based on feelings and thoughts from her experience which can be a little vaguer or abstract in relation to the reader.
ReplyDeleteWith Zac's writing you're learning from his insights and commenting on the things you agree/disagree with or can elaborate on for conversation. In a sense this happens in Clarissa, but it's more emotive. The correspondents in Clarissa either act out of care or to satisfy their own agendas. Both kinds of characters in Clarissa therefore care to know what's going on with a her to offer advice or take advantage of her.
In contrast to Zac's articles,Clarissa fits the definition of a novel, not just epistolary form, because it contains conflict and series of events that took place between the characters.