Final Project (Callanan)

Introduction
Over the course of the semester, there has been a lot of focus on Literature and how it has grown and adapted through technology over the years, and how many different texts have been altered since then. Books are remade into movies, or television shows, video games, plays, and many other things, with the growth of technology and resources in society. One of the major elements that has been used to change literature is remediation. Remediation, recreating, altering or redesigning and old work of text, happens all the time one of the main ways that literature has grown and developed over the years. In this class alone, remediation has been seen multiple times, such as in the case with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where we see the book start an entire phenomenon and fan base that has lead to the creativity to create many different spin off movies, based on her novel. With each and every remediation of a text comes a new light, a new energy given to the text, and it also brings in a new group of fans and readers. Another benefit to this new world of literature online is that people can interact with authors or other readers and learn more about the text or the story, and even though the article reading at risk talks about how technology is harmful to the world of reading, it actually is really beneficial and helpful to the readers, if they use it in the correct sense. The dynamics of reading is shifting and growing today and the internet is only here to help. Yes, of course people can get lazy and misuse the internet, but overall I think that it is a useful tool in the growth of reading and development. A good way to show how much the internet helps and benefits the readers is using a Web 2.0 with different blogs, websites, and information that people can access and comment on in regards to the text they are reading or using at the moment.

Not only is literature on the web good for all of these aspects of reading, but it as mentioned briefly above, it helps the readers fully understand the text and gives them options to discuss or debate the text. A big asset to the new technology and literature on the web is the idea that people can communicate, discuss, and even dispute ideas. In class, there was a lot of discussion on interpretative disputes and how everyone thinks of a different book or even a different portion of the book in different ways. Having and online website like Web 2.0 or Wikis are viable assets in engaging and utilizing the web to their benefits to understand and discuss the book. Having these forms available to the readers also starts a large amount of debates and disputes. One potential topic of debate is has to deal with the author and why the author wrote the book or the background information that is not included within. The idea of authorial information draws the readers to the websites and the internet provides access for the readers to find answers to their intriguing answers. These are what I consider the major assets for the internet with regards to literature, but there are many more benefits to the new technology and the growth of texts. All texts do not utilize all of the benefits that the website offers, but they are out there and they are growing everyday. One example of not fully utilizing all of the assets on the web and the technology is the case with Running with Scissors. This text uses some of these assets but not as much as other such as Frankenstein, but with the growth of these options, the growth of this text will only continue.

On the basis of showing how literature text has adapted over the years and is shown on the web, there are endless different types and examples of this, but one that may not be as known, or popular, as other examples is the book Running with Scissors. This was a book written by Augusten Burroughs, a memoir actually, about his life growing up as a child. He has written a number of books over his years about his life, multiple memoirs, and even a self help book, but the one we are going to focus on is Running With Scissors. Running with Scissors was written and published in 2002, and within five years, in 2006 was recreated into a movie. It took less than ten years for this book to be recreated and a remediation to be created to represent this book. In addition, a lot of people after reading this book talk on forums, and discuss the book since it has so many different elements and twisted details that Burroughs went through. This book has so many different elements, terrible experiences that he went through as a child, and there is much debate and disputes about the book and what he went through, if it was wrong, if the book is written in a comical sense, or if it is supposed to be sad and depressing, and if it is worth reading in general. Another discussion topic was about why Burroughs wrote this book, and where he grew to be today. He himself has done multiple interviews about the book and his experience and he has definitely grown from the experience and grew as a human and overcame all of the problems from his childhood. Now as mentioned before, this is not one of the major texts that people analyze or first think of, but hey, who doesn't like a challenge? This book seems to go through phases of popularity, and then drifting in the back and getting mixed in with the zillions of other books published, but none the less, it has a huge fan base that only continues to grow especially in the teen and young adult generations. This book is a great read and really has its ways of representing the online world and how a text can be transformed over the years and how people flock to the online sensation by having remediation bring in new fans, interpretative disputes which cause conversations and debates between the fans which expose people to new information as well as can clarify the parts of the book that are little more confusing. Another big draw to the book and the internet sensation is the authorial intention and why Augusten Burroughs wanted to write about his history and where he is now, so the book is definitely a valid representation of the literature text in today's society.

The movie
Running with Scissors, which started out as a book by Augusten Burroughs, and was on the best sellers list for over two years, and it was turned into a movie in 2006. Remediation happens for endless numbers of books and other forms of text, but for Running with Scissors, this is the main form of remediation, or the most popular one. The movie allows for the readers to get a much clearer visual representation of all of the characters and the story. It has most of the same characters, leaving some of the smaller ones out, but overall has a good representation of the book in a new energetic, more modern light. Burroughs grew up when a lot of the current readers of Running with Scissors had not been born yet, so some of the ideas of the book are a little outdated or confusing, however with the new creation of the movie, it helps the younger generation readers be able to connect with his life. Even Burroughs had positive things to say about the remake of his movie, when in an interview he said, "I think they did a great job...I think it's got the same spirit as the book." However, Burroughs was not always so thrilled that his very personal book and story were going to be made into a movie, he expresses this anxiety in an interview with Joseph Cross (Augesten from the movie), "It would never be a movie because I felt it would be too easy to make a terrible movie out of it.....During that meeting Ryan (writer/producer) showed that he had such a profound understanding of the book....I decided I wanted him to make the movie." Burroughs was not wrong in anyway to think that this book would be incredibly hard to make a movie for, with the incredibly amount of detail, and the realness of the book, it is hard to believe that anyone can capture it in the live sense, not just in your head. But the movie does a great job getting the point across from the book and really gives the book a new light, a new energy, without ruining the book or missing huge aspects.

Covers of the book
In addition to the movie, over the years since the book came out, the phrase "running with scissors" blew up in titles and names. There have been websites, blog forums, music albums, and even a band name all entitled running with scissors just like the book. However, through all of my research, I cannot verify that the names of the texts listed above are directly related to the book or movie of Running with Scissors. All of those texts were created after the book came out, but through tons and tons of research I do not want to say that there is indeed a relationship unless it was 100% verified. One thing that is certain is that there was a case where someone posted their review of the book online and took it upon themselves to redesign and recreate the cover of the book. This person adapted the book in their own ways and made a new cover of the book that he found interesting and eye-grabbing. The fans of both the book and this guys blog responded very well to the new cover art and it clearly brought new energy to the fans. This particular redesign of the cover is drawn up by a fan, but there are many different versions of the book cover besides the one used in the introduction portion of this project. Each of these covers were explained with meaning and each of them give a new light to the book and an entirely new feel to it, it draws in more readers and more fans to allow for growth for the book.



This cover is explained to be a representation of "his interests as a child and expresses the chaos of the Finch household."

This cover was found on a flickr photo album and is described to have the floating pills as "a relation to the main characters bizarre experiences with the psychiatrist."

Interpretative Disputes
If you have read or seen Running with Scissors, you would know instantly it tells a twisted, controversial tale about a young boys life growing up. It is indeed a memoir, so it is a true story which makes the story all the more twisted. There are multiple different websites and forums that discuss the book, review it, and ask questions because the book has so many different elements and gives you a mind trip making you need clarification. A large majority of the commenters liked the book and thought that it was a good read, however even though they liked the book, there were definitely some debates on material or the writing style within the book. One major topic of conversation was Burroughs writing style, and if he was trying to be comical or if it was in a twisted way, was supposed to be funny. There was a debate on whether the readers should consider it a satire, even though it was true, or if they should just think of the book as a tragedy. In one commenters post it reads, " I haven't laughed yet. (And I have a good sense of humor...)" whereas on the other end someone explains, "I think you have to have a dark sense of humor to like that book." . A person on a different website goes as far as to say, "This book is a total crackup...I nearly lost in laughing." .

The commenter that mentioned the dark sense of humor, is definitely correct. This book is not for everyone, and even though most of the reviews are positive and recommend the book, there are definitely people that dispute the appeal and think the book is not even worth reading. One commenter made it clear that the book was not for her when she said, "I couldn't get through it- I found it depressing. I have to somewhat like or be at least interested in the characters in a book and I didn't like anyone in this book." This is just one of the posts that shows people dispute the appeal of the book in general, not even the content of the book. Disputing this and on the complete other side, a commenter wrote on the blog, "I loved it....Yeah it's disturbing, but not ever childhood is full of puppies and kitties, so I admire him for getting his story out there & trying to present his dark childhood with some humor," this commenter talks about how much she loved the book AND how she thought it was funny, so she comments on both disputes. This book is definitely a controversial topic book, and with it being so real and in your face with terrible life experiences by Burroughs, it is easy to see how there would be people that love it, hate it, and everything in between, and all the while debating their opinions on the web.

The Lawsuit
On a completely different note, some people that really did not like the book, and were actually quite offended by the book, were there characters in the book, especially the doctor and his family. They were so distraught about the book that they actually filed a law suit against Burroughs in 2005 alleging "defamation of character and invasion of privacy." They went into detail about how the entire story was exaggerated and that they were perceived in the wrong manner and that some of the things Burroughs put into his book were not even real at all. With the argument back and forth between the family and Burroughs in court, each having different stories about what happened in those years of his life, they settled before the movie came out, and Burroughs changed Running with Scissors from being a memoir to a book, but not without having one final thing to say about the situation. Burroughs showed his disgust and anger when he said, "I'm not at all sorry that I wrote (the book)....the suit settled-it settled in my favor." The book is still noted as a memoir on the cover and is known widely strictly as a memoir, however Burroughs was forced to change the Author's Note and Acknowledgment pages. However, in my own opinion and review from this entire legal case and dispute regarding the book, is that Burroughs changed the name of the family and the doctor for the book, so the family could have just left the book as is since it is not using their names specifically, but just written about them using different names. If they had never said anything, most people probably would have never known exactly who he was referring to in his book but this is just one more major dispute that went on in regards to Running with Scissors as a novel. This just goes to show that every work of art, especially a text, can encounter haters and lovers of the text, and there can be endless numbers of interpretative disputes, this one just went as far as a court hearing.

Authorial Intention
Knowing that Running with Scissors is a memoir based on Augusten Burroughs life, he has already let a lot of people into his life, the background, and the experiences he went through growing up. However, a lot of people want to know where he is now, how he overcame his struggles. In an interview with Joseph Cross Burroughs talks about how he was not nervous about writing his book in the manner of people not understanding his story or disliking his story, he was actually nervous for the reader, and that they would "find it boring" something I would never say about the book after reading it. The majority of the readers would all agree that even if you dislike this book, and it is not your style of reading, it is definitely the opposite of the boring, so Burroughs really had nothing to worry about there. But as the readers grew into loving this book and becoming a fan of Burroughs, everyone wanted to know more, and something that a lot of the readers probably do not know, is that Augusten Burroughs, was not actually born with that name, but rather was Christopher Robinson and legally changed his name at eighteen years old. He wrote this book to have closure, to relieve the pain he had gone through when younger, and to move forward. Augusten Burroughs did an interview with people magazine about his book and he claims that writing the book relieved the hurt and that, "The pain, is finally gone."



In a separate interview Burroughs was asked about going back to that tragic time in his life and he claims, "I've closed the book on it. Writing the memoir was the final stage. I spent a long time trying to runaway from my childhood but I couldn't do it...It was really good for me to accept it." However, before he had this sense of closure with everything in his life, Burroughs went through some of the hardest times that are featured in some of his other books, some of these problems being drugs and alcohol. He talks about his struggles for years, and going to rehab, getting sober and changing his entire life around.

Now a days he is happy, healthy, and sober after rehab, and now in a dedicated relationship with his partner. In more recent years, as Burroughs is a grown adult at 47 years old, he wrote yet another book to add to his collection titled, "This is How: Help for the Self Proven Aid in Overcoming for Young and Old Alike" which talks about ways to overcome and shows how he has overcome all of the terrible life experiences he has gone through in the past.