Hi Andre, Was making notes on the theses as I read them for tomorrow, and thought I may as well mail them to you!

Cheers,

Eleanor 14.05

Introduction

State early on that you're focussing on 419s (not penis enlargements

etc), take a bit of time to give a definition of 'spam' so we know what your subject is specifically

Slow down intro of D&G's minor lit theory
Start instead w/ unpacking the abstract: what do you mean by spam as

'threat' etc?

Explain/defend why spam is a threat to advertising - you assume this but

don't clarify until section 5.

Minor lit

Nice link from discussion of D&G's minor lit theory to how it could

apply to Spam: "The decision to become minor, and the consequences that result from such choice, is not confined to literature."

This should go in the introduction not in section 4: "Spam is synonym to

unsolicited emails, sent to large number of addresses, with the underlying intention of selling products such as Rolex replicas or Viagra pills, or even extort money from its recipients."

Nice use of specific examples of spam techniques and example spam emails

to illustrate the points relating to minor lit, and well explained how they fit in with the minor lit theory (eg ""In this example we are given a personal and close, but also fictitious perspective on the heavily mediatized event of Osama bin Laden assassination, over which we only had a birds’-eyes view provided by the mass-media. The fact that these two perspectives are superimposed, as are fiction and reality, and the intimate voice through which millions of readers are addressed, brings spam into an unstable and undefined territory, which I see as a significant contribution for its deterritorialization.)"

4.3 (spam's political dimension): you make several claims about the

motivations/views of spammers in the 1st paragraph - make sure all of these are eitherclearly referenced, or make it more clear that they are speculation!

IBB = 419 section: signpost more clearly how this anecdotal section

relates to the argument you're developing (politics of illusion); I got a bit lost in the specificity of the example.

-Section 5

First sentence could be unpacked more; summarize what you've developed

in section 4. ("Based on the outlined features of a minor language on to the language of spam, I believe to be possible to affirm that spam constitutes a minor language.") << summarize clearly why.

"One is seen legitimate and has carte blanche to take-over our visual

and aural surrounding, at every occasion and in any context, whereas spam, just as the handle indicates is seen as distasteful, unsolicited, and deceptive junk" << By whom? Many ppl regard ads in this distasteful way too. Maybe specify who you're talking about - I get the impression it's the people who have the power to organize physical/digital space (eg, email hosts/city planners) rather than individuals (who I suspect use adblockers and spam filters in similar ways these days...)

"Such definition seems applicable not be only to ads, but also to spam"

<< the preceeding quote isn't strictly a definition but a description. A working /definition/ of advertising at the start of section 5 would be helpful, perhaps putting the 1st sentence from 5.1 at the very beginning of section 5.

Sections 5.1-2 rely implicitly on a (Marxist?) analysis of the

'production of desire' necessary for consumer capitalism ("With the end of World War I and rates of production rising so did the need for consumption"); maybe chuck in a couple of references to back this assumption up?

5.2: Ads inducing self-criticism linked to spam emails for weight-loss

pills: introducing these types of spam emails jarrs with the previous focus on 419s; it seems spurious to introduce them now just to back up your argument. How does guilt relate to 419s?

5.3: convincing links made between the ways that spam and advertising

adapt to their context

5.4 - tantalizing analogy made with "noise vs signal" - could you

develop this idea more? Ie, how do we classify noise vs signal.

5.5 this sentence is a great summary and needs to go ealier, in the

introduction, to explain what you mean by spam as threat: "If spam would grow to become as prominent, accepted, and popular as advertising it would bring advertising into a marginal territorility, similar to the one inhabited by spam. If this were to happen consumers would begin to look at ads with the same kind distrust and obliviousness with which they look at spam."

"Given this, isn’t it then expected that in a future incarnation

of advertising the advertised product will entirely disappear, and costumers will just buy a dream brought by the ad? And isn’t that what the fraud spam like the ”419” is doing, but in a more honest a perceptible way?" Nicely articulated conclusion in this last paragraph.

5.6 - "I all seriousness I would like to know if this development can

possibly happen." - explore this question in 5.6 and move the Spam Awards proposal to a separate section.

question of future of spam-as-advertising: I think you need to look at

examples of viral marketing; this process is already happening and is the obvious glue with which to connect the two topics of spam & advertising in the thesis.