The idea of forwarding

Joseph Harris describes the idea of forwarding as “taking words, images, or ideas from [the text] and putting them to use in new contexts.” It’s responding to someone else’s work and putting your own spin on it -- which is something we are all constantly doing. There are very few literary works in this day and age that are truly original, and Harris argues that there are four core ways in which we respond to text: by illustrating, authorizing, borrowing and extending. 

I believe Harris’ email metaphor explains the idea of forwarding best. With emails, you can either “reply” or “forward” and he goes on to contend that anyone with email has seen one take up a life of its own.

Forwarding is not about stealing others ideas but rather adding to the discussion. It sort of reminds me of the Billy Joel song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 

The lyrics read: 

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

Like “the fire,” no one know who sparked the conversation about literary texts or when it even happened, but we’re all adding to the discussion and will continue to do so until we die. But even then, the conversation will live on.  

The other day, my roommate told me about this new iPhone app called “Lulu” and told me I should download it. After downloading it, I realized how ridiculous it was (it’s basically an app that lets you rate and review guys) so I decided to do a bit of internet research to see if any people were enraged about it. There was an article on the Huffington Post called, “Lulu App Lets Women Review Men Like Restaurants.” The article uses a few examples of what other people were saying about it on other websites like BuzzFeed and Slate. The article reads, “Chong told BuzzFeed Shift that she sees the app as ‘a place you can talk about the good and the bad’... Slate’s Amanda Hess found the app creepy and bordering on harassment.” As you can see, people use articles to write other articles all the time. It can only add to the discussion.