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Our group has just submitted our form for IRB approval and think that we have a good plan for collecting data during the quarantine.  I feel comfortable with where we are at in our research.  We are currently awaiting feedback from our professor to go forth with our research.

Due to the COVID-19 virus we must do online courses for the remainder of the semester.  I am not too worried about this class in particular because it is mainly online to begin with.  The only aspect I am concerned about is the group project because I am not sure how we will be able to go about collecting data from VMI cadets.  We have kept up to date on our project due dates up to this point so I remain confident.

We have now completed three quizzes and I have been doing progressively better on each quiz.  The things I am specifically feeling good about are the progression of our group project and how to run descriptive statistics on SPSS.  Things I would like to continue to work on is research design and the concepts that Thyne focuses on his his book in order to do better on the quizzes.

I was much more successful with worksheet three than the previous.  Now that I know the basics of how to navigate through SPSS I feel more comfortable running frequencies, and re-coding variables.  I think it will be important to continue to refer back to Pollock to ensure that I am not missing any steps once we begin the group project.  I specifically like the ability to combine results such as “strongly disagree” “disagree” and “slightly disagree” in order to make results easier to interpret.

Following completing the first worksheets, I am growing more confident in my ability to understand the system.  I am impressed with what SPSS can do and how user-friendly it is.  I understand there is much more to learn, and I am excited to move onto using SPSS for a research question.  The largest difficulty that I am facing is understanding when to use the median vs the mean and inputting the data into canvas correctly.  I was able to get full-credit on the last couple worksheets.

Below is a link to a review of Frankenstein in Baghdad published in the New York Times titled “In ‘Frankenstein in Baghdad’ a Fantastical Manifestation of War’s Cruelties” by Dwight Garner.

Review Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/books/review-frankenstein-in-baghdad-ahmed-saadawi.html

Reading Frankenstein in Baghdad gives readers a glance at how a creature similar to Mary Shelley’s might stack up in today’s society.  It brings modern elements into play with the same concept that we see in the 1818 novel.   One of the elements most interesting about this story is that it takes place among a time of war in Iraq.  It seems that there are constant explosions that remind us of the brutalities of war and the setting in the novel.  In Frankenstein in Baghdad we see a more grotesque description of the creature that goes along with the theme of war and brutality.  At one point, we even see pieces of the Whatsitsname falling off and needing to be stitched back on.  In this way I see Frankenstein in Baghdad as having more gloominess and horror than Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel.   In addition, it is also interesting on how modern technology is brought into play that was not even invented in 1818.  The New York Times review by Dwight Garner that is referenced above discusses how the creature becomes a media obsession and even grants interviews and makes recordings that make the plot more complex.  This relates to the fact that there are many more elements with technology in today’s society that make it more complex than Mary Shelley’s society in the 1800’s.

The National Theater Encore Production of Frankenstein was an enjoyable and fairly accurate depiction of Mary Shelley’s novel in 1818.  The play generally stayed close to the plot in Mary Shelley’s original novel but had a few interesting additions that made it more culturally accurate in the modern day.  For example, the dialogue between the creature and Elizabeth (pictured above) revealed a lot about just how desperate the creature was to have love and a partner.  This was revealed by the scene in which the creature rapes and violently kills Elizabeth in the movie.  The creature brought to life the transition from being innocent to evil.  This was an impressive production that is one of the many examples of the novel still being active in today’s society.