ASRC 2021: Week 8

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Literary Monopoly. You can find the rules here and fill out the form for participating here.

Now for what staff has been up to this week:

Elias: I seem to be hopping from special space to special space because I rolled a 7 and have once again landed on Write a Review. This time, I thought I'd get extra meta and write a review of this site. The site is a map of places where John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed (a 5 star book of essays, laughs, and contemplation) has been purchased/read, accompanying a review of said place and the book, making this a review of a map of reviews of a book of reviews. Maybe next time I should review the video reviewing the reviews of Green's book of reviews.

Set a couple scrolls down the minimalist site - not a cold minimalism but a warm one, built to mimic the beautiful Grace Han designed cover of the novel, but not clutter the experience of accessing the reviews - the map is expansive at first, with pins representing thousands of people across tens of thousands of miles, but as you zoom in on each pin, they split effortlessly into smaller and smaller pins until you reach each as an individual, located on street corners and in fields and in buildings. Sure, the UI doesn't always scale and sometimes the reviews are lost below the image, but they are minor glitches and expected for a fan project.

It's an experience that can only really be done through the internet and through this strange, human connected era. To go from the impossibly large to the humanly small in a way that allows you to appreciate both.

Yes, 5000+ reviews seems wildly impersonal as an aggregate but the largeness of the number makes one feel connected to something grand, something that has a meaning as an aggregate. When you break that aggregate down, you get to see each one of those on an individual level, seeing the person behind the number and a glimpse into their personality and the places they're near; it brings you, the reader, closer to them, the reviewer. The map facilitates this transitory period through which the macro is connected to the micro, providing a unique experience of understanding. I could lose hours on the site looking at aspects of the world no map would show because it is too mundane or small and yet is wonderous and large to one as unfamiliar with it as I.

I give the map experience 4/5 stars.

Elizabeth: This week I rolled a 5 and landed on Visual/Performing Arts. I didn't feel like reading a book and instead decided to watch a professional recording of the Broadway musical Newsies. Theater was meant to be watched so that counts, right? Anyway, it was great. I give it 4/5 stars.

Let us know what you've been up to and we'll see you back here next week.