While Reading "A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature"

During my reading of Amanda Starling's "A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature", I took away many points and quotes which I've listed below: 

"Electronic literature is born-digital literary art" This made me wonder when was e-lit born? What was it's root? How did it develop?

Her article was a survey of different books and texts that explored Electronic Literature. Of one of the texts she says, "The sixteen essays here work toward an aesthetic of electronic literature by contemplating the question of the new literary quality that emerges when a work is born digital" When something is born digital it creates a new quality, a unique aesthetic that is added to our idea of literature in general.

"Bootz offers a procedure for studying a digital literary work that separately examines the levels of a work―its surface level, communicative level, and meta-level―that together provide an entry point for understanding its meaning, its creative (and creating) aesthetic, and the relations it enacts between writer, reader, and sign." There are many ways one can approach a work of electronic literature, and to fully understand these works we must explore them from different angles and at different levels. On the surface, many of these electronic works may seem simplistic, but in reality they are very complex and in order to understand them they require deep probing.

"By dismissing the premise that electronic literature is literature electrified, he points toward a method of analysis that rejects the separation of the electronic medium from the work’s literariness and instead appreciates that the literary is indeed inseparable from the mediated, performative (inter)face of the unified work." It is easy to see electronic literature simply as 'literature electrified'. In fact, that was definitely what I thought of before I took this class. When I heard the term 'electronic litearature' I imagined e-books, fan fiction, and blogs. Never did I think it would be a whole other world, a new art form, to explore.  

“What might constitute a paradigmatic method for analyzing digital artworks?” In order to analyze digital artworks we have to come at them with a whole new mind set. If we limit ourselves to our old understand of 'art' or 'literature' we will not be able to appreciate nor understand them.

"Simanowski proposes an e-lit reading model that begins from the premise that “the first purpose that a digital work serves is as an act of creative expression”" If we think of these works more as acts of creative expression than we can be less judgmental of them. If we approach them the way we would approach a piece at the MoMA, we might not understand them, but at least we can appreciate them for what they are. 

"He believes a digital work is “fundamentally different from and more complex than a material or printed work” and that it “deserves a broad, extratextual reading of its creative context” à la New Criticism that effects a close reading extending beyond the text and its screen(s)" Again, a new mind set is required in order to read these digital works. 

"If we are too tightly or too tidily contained within a particular theoretical discourse, we chance ignoring significant or critical elements of what should be a hybrid episteme for the study and teaching of e-lit." We must be open-minded in order to realize the important aspects of this new genre. We cannot ignore it because if we do we ignore the enormous impact it could have.

"How do we move beyond the question of the literary to include interdisciplinary approaches, like those of semiotics, linguistics, neuroscience, computer science, performance/actor theories, in our search for a theory of e-lit works?" One of my favorite parts of electronic literature is the fact that it involves so much more than just words. It is interactive, it involves technology, art, creativity, etc etc. There is so much potential for interdisciplinary approaches, which makes it very exciting.  

"We must teach our students, and ourselves, not only to read digital literature critically but also to read literature digitally." We have to keep up with the times as the times keep rolling. 

"It is important that we learn―and teach―new ways of reading that break (into) these habits and facilitate digital literary reading skills that appreciate the literary systems and structures created when literatures become modernly transmediated" Studying electronic literature is all about re-learning how to read, analyze, criticize, and appreciate a work of literary art. 

Project 1- Literary Hypertext

Building this hypertext project has been quite a journey! At first, I was intimidated by the immensity of what was laid before me which inhibited me from coming up with a starting point. Then, after talking it over with a classmate I had an inspiration and a concept for a story came to mind. From there I began to map out how I wanted the story to connect and interconnect. I made myself a compass of sorts and modeled the story off of that. This project is nowhere near finished although it is "due" today. I consider it an ongoing work, and as I learn more about this genre of Electronic Literature, and Electronic Literature in general, I hope to expand on it.

Abstract:
The Cabin is an interactive hypertext work of electronic literature inspired by a scene between three individuals stuck in a cabin together. Each character's story is intertwined with the others'. As you navigate through this work, you may get lost, as the characters in the story are lost in the woods. Luckily they have found the cabin, which is both your starting point and their present state. The Cabin takes you through Alexia, Beiron, and Code's stories. You can experience each character's story from their own perspective, as well as through the perspective of the narrator.


Experience The Cabin here

Suggestions:
As you go through the story, freely explore and don't be afraid to get a little lost. You have your compass (the site map) to guide you, and you can always get back to the cabin (the homepage).

The Lexia:
This hypertext work consists of 33 pages of lexia (some of which are still unfinished). They are as follows-

AC1
AC2
AC3
Alexia1
Alexia2
Alexia3
Alexia4
Alexia&Code
BC1
BC2
BC3
Beiron1
Beiron2
Beiron3
Beiron4
Beiron&Code
Code1
Code2
Code3
Code4
NA1
NA2
NA3
NB1
NB2
NB3
North1
North2
North3
North Alexia
NorthBeiron
The Cabin
True North

Schematic:
Below is a picture of the original concept along with the compass like map I created and modeled this work after-

Hypertext Project

So, we've started working on our hypertext projects in class. Last week I had no idea where to go with this project and was feeling quite intimidated by all the requirements.

After talking with Joe about his idea, I was inspired! An idea came to me and I immediately began to sketch it out.

My piece of electronic fiction will be a story about 3 people stuck in a found cabin during a sudden snowstorm. Each person will tell the story from their own point of view in addition to the narrator who will tell the story from an objective point of view. In this way I will play with the idea of perspective.

The three people will be one woman and two men: Alexia, Beiron, and Code. Through their experiences I will explore their relationships, history, personalities, and dynamic.

I'm still a bit lost when it comes to building the hypertext portion of this work, but hopefully during our workshop in class I'll learn and build something!