Two States Two Forums (Akram)

Introduction
Communication is generally defined as the way to exchange information between two parties. While communication is not exclusive to humans, we have the unique ability to actively change our methods of communication as well as to use multiple forms of communication simultaneously. We started communicating through speech and sign language, and then incorporated written language in the form of pictures, symbols, and alphabets, and now we are increasingly communicating through the internet via e-mail and social networks. The most drastic changes occurred in the last century when telegraph, telephone, fax, and internet were developed. While these dynamics were meant to ease communication, they are often criticized by many who believe that older forms of communication are more advantageous than newer forms. This brought about a general debate of the old media versus the new media for communication. Socrates was one of the first to criticize new media when he said “And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them….they always say one and the same thing.” Here the old media is speech where as the new media is writing and Socrates is telling Phaedrus how something that is written does not have the ability to reply to questions posed by its readers whereas in oral speech there is no restriction on dialogue. Another instance of such criticism is in the reading at risk report by the National Endowment for Arts (NEA), where the chairman of NEA says “To lose such intellectual capability (reading) – and the many sorts of human continuity it allows – would constitute a vast cultural impoverishment.” In this case the old media is print literature while the new media is the electronic literature, and the chairman talks about how the lack of reading print can be detrimental. In a response to this letter by NEA, the spokesman for the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) said “Electronic media need not put literary reading at risk; in fact once we begin taking screens as well as pages seriously as venues for literature and written expression, organizations such as NEA may well find rates of literacy are again on the rise.”

While the argument between new media and old media is ongoing, authors have continued using new media to draw the most number of audiences. Today, almost all popular authors are releasing their works in both print and digital media to satisfy a wide range of audiences which shows how literature has changed in the wired world. Furthermore, there is an active remediation process for many popular works that were originally in print. Frankenstein is a good example of a piece of fiction that has been remediated to different forms like video and theater. Harry Potter is another example where it was remediated from print to film and video game. Remediation allows for different presentation of the same story which in turn allows for people to understand the story in multiple ways. The availability of digital and online media has also led to the creation of some unique forms of work such as digital poetry and video games. In digital poetry, though the themes are similar with those found in the print poems, the delivery of the poem is vastly different compared to the print version in that it is interactive rather than being passive. The readers have to click to move from one line or stanza to the next and are treated with music and visuals that enhance the experience of reading the poem. Video games are similar to digital poetry in that they are also interactive but the plot of the video game is controlled by the player. These are some examples of how the new media has incorporated an interactive component to its delivery. 

Also with the advent of digital media, there is a rise of online communities which serve to analyze a piece of fictional work whether it is in print or in digitized form. These communities, among other things, allow for interpretive disputes, discussion about authorial intentions, and personal engagements about the piece of work being analyzed. Some communities display so much passion about their base that they take extreme measures as seen in Spoiling Survivors. In this case the online community discussed the plot of the show Survivor before it was even released to the public. One member claimed to have knowledge about the plot and this caused a cat and mouse game between the forum members and the producers of the show who did not want that information leaked to the viewers. This incidence shows how influential these communities can be since the information reached high level officials. I was pleasantly surprised to see that online communities exist for one of my favorite books, Two States by Chetan Bhagat. Two States is a novel about pre-nuptial complications that occur between two lovers who are from completely opposite parts of India. Differences in culture, caste, and religion are tackled by these lovers as they face the daunting task of convincing their parents to put the differences aside and accept their relationship. Parents’ acceptance of a relationship is considered the ultimate blessing in the Indian culture and hence this is the goal of the two protagonists in the novel. Analysis of the interpretive disputes, discussion about authorial intentions, and personal engagements in these online communities on Chetan Bhagat’s Two States shows that they can provide each reader with a different perspective of the novel.

Interpretive Disputes
Interpretive disputes are an important component of online communities and are almost synonymous with them. The indirect interaction in these online communities erases fear and timidity that may come as a result of having a direct argument with someone. Some disputes become personal while others remain focused towards the topic. These disputes arise because of differences in either the points of view of people discussing the topic or because of differences in the way the topics are interpreted. To control the extent to which these disputes go, moderators or administrators who are usually someone highly experienced in the forum are assigned.

The two online communities used to analyze this in the Two States are the indusladies forum and goodread.com. Indusladies forum exists to give Indian woman a place to discuss a variety of topics online while goodread.com is a book review site. In the indusladies forum, there seemed to be an overall appreciation for the book as the whole thread is composed of comments in which the community members liked the book. Ish333, one of the members of this forum said “ It is one of my favorite books. I have read the book twice. I just love his sense of humor. I am even smiling now thinking about his comment on his in-laws.” Another member called Gane said “ Its one of the best novel i read.”This seemingly unanimous praise for the book and the author exists probably because there is uniformity in the interest and point of view of the members of this forum. In goodread.com on the other hand we again see this uniformity but with an overall negative opinion. Most members in that website criticized the book for a variety of reasons. Keerthy said “Chetan Bhagat, in my opinion, might not have read any good book in his life, except Mills and Boons. Now, he might be India's bestselling author, but he can never be a best writer, if he goes on writing this stuff. I never see any substance in his writing, no standard. ” According to another poster Julia, “I'm not too sure I'll finish this at the moment as I don't even have the feeling to learn anything more about India and its people than from watching some Bollywood filmi, and they are at least good entertainment with their singing and dancing mummies, soldiers and beauty queens.” Members in goodread are most likely avid readers who just by being members of that forum show that they are passionate about reading. The important thing to notice here is how these criticisms or praises are given in each forum. In indusladies, most of the praises are a one or two sentence acknowledgements about the book while in goodread, each person seems to have a 500 word explanation about their views of the book. This shows a clear disparity in the type of online community each is.

Indusladies seems like a more casual and light hearted online community whose main purpose is socializing online while booklovers is for people who are ardent readers and are hence more critical when they read and discuss the book. Although there were praises as well in the booklovers site, they were backed by good reasoning as to why the reader thought the book was good. By analyzing these two different online communities who had a vastly different population base, we see how differences in the nature of the forum can attract different types of people there and show the different points of views that exist for the same piece of narrative. While there was no clear dispute directly between the members of each community within the community, we can only infer that there would be a dispute if these two members were part of the same online community.

Authorial Intentions
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'TimesNewRoman',serif;">Discussion of authorial intentions is popular among readers of the novel because readers like to connect events in fiction with possible events in real life. This makes the story more believable and gives the readers an ability to get more deeply involved with the story. Authorial intentions are a popular topic of discussion in these online communities as well. Gane, who is a member of the indusladies forum, goes as far as to say that <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif";background:white">“ <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"; background:white">tht was actually based on his (chetan's) true wedding story... ” <span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; color:#181818;background:white">Lilly rose in the goodreads forum says “ <span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; color:#181818;background:white">It's perhaps because Bhagat's experienced it himself that the book has a sense of reality, as far as North-South idiosyncrasies, customs, abuses are concerned. ” Both members claim that the whole story is just a replay of Bhagat’s life while Bhagat himself acknowledges that he was inspired by his own life to write this book.

<span style="font-family:'TimesNewRoman',serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;">While we know that the story was inspired by the authors own life since he says "Well, like my first book, this book draws a lot of inspiration from my own life. I am Punjabi and my wife is Tamilian, similar to the protagonists in the story. "<span style="font-family:TimesNewRoman,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;"> the point of understanding authorial intentions is to see why the author wrote the novel in the first place. Some members from both communities believe it is to shed light on the issue of intercast marriage that exists in India today. Others believe that the author wrote this novel to raise the issue of nationalism over regionalism through his love story as both are popular issues in contemporary India today. In goodreads, Lilyrose says “The patriotism about 'being an Indian first and then a Punjabi or a Tamilian' is aptly conveyed.” Another member Rajesh from the same forum says “A very very very good story for all Indians who are in love with a girl of different community. The best part of the book is the last cover page which tells the extreme truth about love stories of India.” So he believes that the authorial intention was to show how difficulties exist for an intercaste marriage due to regionalism prevailing over nationalism. Ramakrishnan from the same forum even believes that “Above all, this is most certainly not meant for I-am-a-Punju-and-I-rock or the I-am-Tam-Brahm-and-we-are-the-best-there-can-be.” Basically he is saying that this book will hurt the sentiments of people who support the regionalist movement or are very regionalistic themselves.

<span style="font-family:TimesNewRoman,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in;">All the examples used for this section were from only one of the two forums because the other forum did not have anyone mentioning anything about the authorial intention. This raises an important point that not all readers are concerned with authorial intentions. Considering the reader population of the two communities we can understand why the goodreads community has more discussion about the authorial intentions than the indusladies. As mentioned previously, the goodreads community consists of avid readers who are more likely to try and find the authorial intentions than the indusladies community which is more casual and lax. While understanding authorial intention was not necessary to enjoy Two States <span style="font-family:TimesNewRoman,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in;">because the narrative was commonplace, other works of literature may not be interpretable without understanding the authorial intentions. Difference in point of views give rise to difference in what the readers believe the authorial intention is.

Personal Engagements
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'TimesNewRoman',serif;">Finally, personal engagements are common topics of discussion in online communities because of the anonymity the screen provides to the forum members. It allows the members to openly speak about personal matters to strangers whom they may never personally met. Many members of both forums were part of an intercast marriage themselves or knew someone close who was. Others were offended at the author’s account of the different cultures he explored in his novel while a few believed he was accurate in his portrayal. One such member from the Indusladies forum is Satchitananda who said " It (the novel) is hilarious and at the same time it gives an insight into the cultural differences between the north and the south. The characterisation was absolutely hilarious and you could almost see people you know in those characters." The last sentence clearly indicates that the member believes the novel is accurate based on personal experiences. In another example s.a's in the goodreads forum has a contrasting opinion. She says " <span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:14px;line-height:18px;">that the story is exaggerated projection of long held stereotypes, not necessarily researched. And a disclaimer that it is fiction absolves him of any personal biases, right. It's tricky - but it sells, I suppose." This clearly indicates that the member does not believe from a personal standpoint that the author was accurate in his portrayal of characters.

<span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:14px;line-height:18px;">While everybody reads the same novel, the differences in interpretation and judgement of the novel come from differences in people's point of view. The point of view is shaped by each individual's life experiences and since each reader has had a unique life, their differences in judgement of the novel could be attributed to that. Many of the members from both forums who thought the book was accurate didn't belong to the cultures explored in the novel while those that did generally thought the portrayal was inaccurate. Online communities allow for people from different backgrounds to meet (virtually) in one area so they can discuss a common topic. Seeing differences in point of view allows others to look at things from a different perspective. While one could argue that old media has distinct advantages over the new one, it cannot be overlooked that new media offers an avenue for global interaction that was non-existent before. By analyzing these online communites we saw the results of such interaction in a small microcosm.