April 8, 2010 Archives

Lots of fancy words in this section.  Have a dictionary handy. I'll get you started by posting links to a few definitions,

• neoteric
• ergodic
• cybertext
• neologism
• extranoematic

And that's just from the first page! 


Aarseth is not writing for the general reader. He expects his readers to have a large vocabulary, and he expects his readers to be motivated enough by a desire to learn the material that they will look up unfamiliar words.

But if you look more carefully, you'll find that Aarseth often does explain an unfamiliar word.  For instance, he uses "aporia" for the first time on page 2, but on page 3 he say "inaccessibility, it must be noted, does not imply ambiguity but, rather, an absence of possibility -- an aporia."  So the careful reader will find an explanation of what Aarseth means by "aporia."

When you come across an unfamiliar word, I recommend that you underline it. If you can guess at the meaning of the word, or you find Aarseth provides a definition, draw a box around the definition.  If you aren't sure what the words means, put a question mark in the margin, and keep reading.  Then, when you get to the end of a chapter, go back and see whether you can figure out what those words mean.  If not, now is the time to look them up (and write their definition in the margin).

Paper 2 (minimum 15 pages) is a research paper that demonstrates your ability to research at an advanced college level.  Personal experiences and journalistic interviews must take a backseat to scholarly information from peer-reviewed sources, textual analysis, literary interpretation.

Quick Overview
1) Brainstorming (a half a page; informal; feel free to post it on your blog)
2) Preliminary Research Questions (what will you need to research?)

The Details