Overall, the mystory is a new media based writing that asks writers to consider the various areas of discourse that construct identity. Traditionally, we work in these areas in separate ways (I am formed by schooling practices; I am formed by family issues/moments, etc).

The mystory, drawing upon new media logics like pattern formation and juxtaposition, asks writers to compose with four areas of discourse at once. At the point of these areas’ (the popcycle) intersection, there is a moment of insight. An “ah-ha” experience. That insight drives the writing. The writing, therefore, is not argumentative - it does not “prove” anything - but instead is exploratory. The writing demonstrates the pattern (the insight). The one who benefits most from its composition is the writer, not the reader, for it offers the writer an insight not yet discovered.

The mystory, like the other three examples for this week, is still what we might call “academic.” Yet, it does something to “academic” that many, at first, won’t recognize. One challenge is to consider its usage of the personal. The same holds true for the other three weekly readings.

A side note: “teletheory” - the term used by Ulmer in the intro to “Derrida at the Little Bighorn” is the name of the book this chapter is excerpted from. It is a prior theory Ulmer explores regarding the merger of video, theory, and pedagogy (when the book is written, video appears to be a major fixture in new media work). In later work, video is replaced by the Web.