The Literary Berlin Wall

            Upon first encountering the Electronic Literature Collection, I found myself frustrated, challenged, and generally disgruntled as a reader.  However, the turning point in my experience with E-Lit occurred during the class discussion of Megan Sapnar’s reflection on her piece “Cruising”.  As more authors began sharing their intimate relationships with this seemingly trendy genre, it became obvious that there is something meaningful to take away from each unique piece of E-Lit.  Overall, the commentary from the ELC1 authors not only helped me to discover how to constructively approach and interpret electronic literature, but more importantly the personal remarks from each author provided insight into how much more powerfully a story can be told through this technological style of presentation.

My initial feelings of frustration towards E-Lit came primarily from my inability to be open-minded about this new form of literature.  With absolutely no idea how to navigate and move through this virtual space, the easiest reaction for me was to simply reject the “unknown”.  Perhaps most exasperating was my inability to find a starting point.  By this, I mean that I did not know where to begin interpreting each piece in the ELC1.  From the series’ inflexible ten minute media clips to its interactive directionless games, I found it very difficult to see any good in adding these extra, unnecessary elements to each piece – what I thought was a tacky approach to presenting learning material.  These mediated elements seemed to take away from the text itself by creating “noisy” distractions – at least that is how I thought of it, and I am sure that other active interpretive readers of my peer group would likely feel the same way. 

However, when authors Sapnar, Ezzat, and Joseph offered up their insightful reflections about the minute details of the relationships formulated within the structure and content of their pieces, it became more evident to me that I had missed the point of their approach.  I realized this after our class discussion about Sapnar’s “Cruising”.  Details in her piece that I had initially deemed nonsensical began to seem more meaningful to me.  For example, the “unstable” interface of “Cruising” was created intentionally to “highlight the work a reader must do to make a poem meaningful”.  The struggle between reader and interactivity establishes an intimate connection to both the content of the piece and the user’s personal experiences.  By creating this “realistic” connection with the story I began to understand how the mediated aspects of “Cruising” play a major role in the unique delivery of the text itself.  This entirely new experience of E-Lit helped to break down my bias towards traditional literature, which I realized had become as solid as the Berlin Wall.  I had naturally assumed that a book was the only way to genuinely deliver a story.    

Since then, through my experience with works of online literature and their authors, I have gained a better understanding of how much more the E-Lit genre has to offer.  With innumerable creative possibilities for presentation, each work not only gains strength through the inspiration and language of its author, but also through the electronic mode in which it is presented.  By reflecting upon each author’s forum contributions, it has become increasingly evident to me how the media aspects of E-Lit can create an entirely new and intriguing experience of literature.  The carefully designed details in the “form and content” relationship of each piece offer up a dynamic reading experience that is unique to the E-Lit genre.    

In conclusion, though the commentaries of the ELC1 authors were able to influence my attitude towards electronic literature in general, there are still pieces that I do not really understand as well as I would like to, and will most likely never grow fond of.  For this reason, I would like to see Maria Mencia (author of “Birds Singing Other Birds’ Songs”) featured in the 2010 Electronic Literature Forum.  Perhaps a look into her thought process behind the creation of her awkward and hard to like piece “Birds” could help make the story more accessible.  Presently, it still feels like a piece to me that does not have a valid purpose other than being obviously “arty”.

Digital Tools for Literary Scholars

Wired on Moretti: a short riff on Franco Moretti’s current projects that is worth a quick read, especially for English 214 students envisioning other ways in which they could have structured their final research project for the Fall 2009 term.

Good Article on the Future of E-lit

While looking for more sources I stumbled on a rather good article by Scott Rettberg, about the future of E-lit within academic study.  He is a professor  at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Late in the post he says that it’s more likely to end up in the domain of studio art programs as opposed to creative writing. He offers a good argument for the issues facing e-lit and where and why it may end up fitting into the academic world. He mentions a few of the pieces and some of the others we dealt with in the ELC1. Although it isn’t totally on topic for my paper, it was a good read none the less and may be of use to someone else. Rettberg actually has quite a few good articles online about digital literature and video games among other things.  Here’s the link if anyone is interested, First Person, Games, and the Place of Electronic Literature. If you go up a level to the posting board there are a lot more articles on similar subjects too.

On the Evolving World of E-Lit

Every time a new communication form is created, culture inevitably shifts, and E-literature’s effect on culture will surely change the way we think about poetry, animation and programming.  While it has great potential to challenge the dominant poetic medium, great improvements must be made to the way in which E-literature is produced.  One can criticize the current offerings for consisting of primarily “look what I can do” qualities, however it is important to recognize that without innovation, change does not occur, and that these are the beginnings of what could be a revolutionary movement in visual culture.  Because of the unprecedented access to software that allows for artists to create animations and upload for anyone in the world on the internet, this art form has the potential to spread its use to political and social movements across cultural boundaries. 

Yet still, the general consensus seems to be that we cannot appreciate this art form.  Perhaps our gaming culture has given us unrealistic expectations when viewing these works, or perhaps the creators of such works should be listening more to the desires of their potential audience.   In the past ten years alone, the capabilities of graphical technologies has changed drastically, and perhaps in another ten years, the look of E-literature will have changed so drastically that we will put more importance into the way we regard this medium.

Position Paper #2

 

Position Paper #2

            The communication between the students and the creators of a few pieces of the e literature that we studied was a refreshing way to organize a class, which introduces the student to such a wide variety of new ideas on, and aspects of literature. The Book of the Book threw us all for a spin and left many of us confused and muddled. Our expectations for what a novel is and will be before, during, and after reading had been skewed and it was hard for some of us to recover and stand back on our feet when assigned to read a novel from a more classic time period, Brave New World. Just as the class began to regain some confidence in our ideas of literature and the book we were introduced to the digital world of E literature. Unsure of what to think of this brand new media we were left with little to do but speculate and question. This is where the author communication became an essential attribute to the course. Receiving answers to our questions the interaction with the authors became a welcome anchor for our judgments and enabled us to come up with our own idea of what e literature should be and is. This time our speculation was held down by solid facts, “straight from the horses mouth.” Like any poem or piece of art from the heart these works had meanings, inspirations, and purpose behind them and it was interesting to discover what these were for the artists in question. A variety of answers from multiple authors really gave variety and helped to establish a common grasp on the ideas offered up. It was especially cool to see the authors so excited to be involved with the class, establishing a connection between us and the material we were reviewing and being taught; establishing a link between “technology” and “culture.”

            An author I would particularly like to see featured in the 2010 E lit forum is a writer/musician/pop culture expert by the name of Nick Cave. I am yet to read any of his books but after reading about his work and listening to some audio samples of his book it seems that he is taking literature on its natural path into the 21^st century. He began by writing a book and since turned the book into an application legible on an iPhone and produced an audio book recording of the novel complete with an original soundtrack to match the pace of the story and set the mood. Advertised through a cleverly designed website and promotions in relation to his band “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds” he is reshaping the path of a boo’s release into the public eye and encompassing in many different ways the aspects that would make a piece of literature fall into the category of E lit.