Reading Enjoyment Maximizers

Project Description:
During this project we read the book My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. After reading it and having many discussions about the meaning and message of the parables Ishmael tells Julie we were given a sheet of REM's or Reading Enjoyment Maximizers. You could do many different things such as turn the book into a screen play for a movie, create a soundtrack for it, make a painting about a concept in the book, etc. It was truly up to you to choose something to create. I chose to make a zine based on the concept of Takers and Leavers.

Process:

Before creating the rough draft of my zine I had to think of a concept for it. I chose to do a Taker vs. Leaver comparison using the contrast between Dystopian and Utopian society in nature. I also made it so that as you were looking at the pictures and reading the lines in the zine you would have to flip it to see the Leaver lifestyle the right way. Every page in the Leaver section was the exact opposite of the taker section, just as a Dystopian society (Takers) is the exact opposite of a Utopian society (Leavers). I then created a rough draft that had written what I wanted on each page on it. After creating the rough draft I made my final draft.

Reflection:

In this project I learned a lot about our culture and why we are the way we are. Because of reading My Ishmael I feel like my eyes have opened up to the world a bit more. It's almost as if there was this invisible wall blocking my view of the way the world really should be and reading this book helped me to break it down. I have this whole new perspective of our culture and life itself that I believe has really changed my opinions on society for the better. It's almost as if my whole life I somewhat had an idea of what people like Daniel Quinn and Jared Diamond, author of The Worst Mistake in the Human Race, already knew but I couldn't quite grasp the concept. My Ishmael gave me the tools I needed to get it within my reach.
In the creation of my piece I had some trouble getting the sketches exactly right. After hours of working on them I finally got the shading and lines the way I intended them to be.
If I could do this project over again I would have liked to have done the challenge assignment, reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, before or after reading My Ishmael instead of reading them at the same time. Because they are both so similar it was very hard for me to distinguish between the two on the final and while writing papers about them.
Creating my zine really got my creative juices flowing and inspired me a bit more in the artistic department. I hope to be able to use this next year in projects.