Adventues in E-Lit

E-Lit exceeded my expectations. It was everything I thought I was looking for in an electronic literature class and more. I learned more than I ever thought I was going to learn. Honestly, I didn't have true expectations other than I thought we would read different stories online. It didn't really dawn on me how the stories would be presented. Or that the mere fact that these works live in an online space make them electronic literature. Growing up I was always a fan of stories where I got to choose my own adventure. All of the electronic literature pieces we read where the course of the plot relied on my decision to click a certain word were some of my favorite e-lit pieces. The last text we read Quing's Quest sticks out to me as it is the most recent but I really enjoyed the bright and vibrant colors. Originally, when I thought of electronic literature I used to think in terms of fan fiction websites where people create their own storylines to their favor...

This week we're exploring the not a game, e-lit "game" Quing's Quest VII the self-proclaimed anti-video game e-lit piece, subtitled,  The Death of Video Games.  The concept of this game is that it was supposed to show the way that the feminist movement is going to be the death of video games. This was shocking and interesting to me, to think that the idea of women playing video games would lead to the death of them. The idea of a woman's involvement means things being domesticated or softened up. When you enter the game the colors are very bright and feminine. You can't get any more feminine than neon pink and green. When you hover over the words in this section they change.  The words start to sparkle as if they were struck with fairy dust. Now when you select the outfit choice, you're taken to another link where now you can select different outfit choices which are extremely over the top and ridiculous which aligns with the tone being ...

I should be ashamed of myself for being a procrastinator. It is all my fault. However, if I am being totally honest, life got in my way-- seriously. It was a series of unfortunate events. I swear. Let me start with last week's class. While sitting in class my computer decides this was the "later" time that it should update to the newest setting of whatever system my MacBook Pro is now running on. Then right when it was time to start group work, I get a text message telling that my mom was being rushed to the hospital and I had to come and get my daughters. Now, thank God my mom is okay. She couldn't move and was in an excruciating amount of pain because according to the doctor, she now has sciatica. This is in addition to all of the other back and arthritis ailments that plague her. Sorry, mom, I love you. You're the best! Anyway, that even sent my weekend on a tailspin. I went from showing up to Thanksgiving to now, hosting. I had to make a mad dash on Wedn...

Funny thing is when I first read the title. It reminded me of the Smokey Robinson song Cruise. So when I entered the site, I wasn't surprised at the vibe once I entered the site. The car made me think about cruising in the casual driving sense. Then when I began to explore the e-lit piece I came to this screen:  The entire vibe of this first page made think that we were headed on a journey of sight and sound. I was captivated by this photo. It made me think about my possible e-lit project and what I'd like for it to look like. There is a possibility that I could capture a photo that represents in my piece in totality. Then I click on the launch button. I was brought to this screen. The image of the woman intrigued me because I wondered how she fit in what seemed like a puzzle. The jazz music set the tone of the rapid movement of the images at the lower part of the screen. Everything seemed to be melodic and after watching for a while, I was set into a trance. Very...

I decided to actually read the background information before journeying into this week's e-lit piece. With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine jumped out at me so, I decided to start there. The title grabbed me right away. However, there was a warning right on the first page that stopped me in my tracks. Content warning for violence, self-harm, and abuse. Okay, is this supposed to be ironic because this e-lit piece deals with love and love can sometimes hurt? Maybe. I guess I'll have click on in order to find out if and how the dots between love and violence connect. As I answer the questions and clicked around nothing made sense. Then I start to read through the piece and I forgot about my original connection or prediction. I was caught up in the colorful words and different options. I noticed as I read through the piece that I kept coming back to the words, throne, balcony chambers, workshop. After each click, I tried to make sure that I took a reading by clicking on a d...

Taroko Gorge was interesting, to say the least. Truthfully it was hard to stay focused with the poem because it moved. Then I started to pay attention to the literary devices being used and try to pick up on a pattern to keep with the flow of the poem. Which made it easier. Then I tried to figure out what the poem was about. Words like forest, stone, and crags came up in several lines in different stanzas. Other words like veins and dwell appeared often as well and yet, it was still hard for me to make sense. In order for me to try and make sense of this piece, I had to look up the word crag. Because after ten minutes of watching the poem scroll by, I still couldn't figure out the meaning. So, according to dictionary.com, crag means a steep rugged rock a projecting part of the rock. Okay, that makes a little more sense so this is a poem about the outdoors and nature.  I didn't get a clear sense of what the theme of the poem. Even though I didn't really connect with it I...

First, I'd like to say how proud of myself I am. If you would've asked me to present on bots a year ago I would've run away. But now, after two Net Narr class. I'm kind of a bot master. Not, really a master but I am no longer a novice. I'm somewhere in the middle.  Okay, when I started down the rabbit hole learning about bots for E-Lit, I see this is slightly different than the purposes of bots for a networked narrative class. So, let's get down to the nuts and bolts of this whole bot- uation . That's my last bot pun I swear. Taken from the word robot, bots are, "computer programs designed to operate autonomously."  In the world of e-lit it becomes a really cool, sometimes random way to generate literature. Or is it? There are debates that happen that online bots are nonsense and it doesn't amount to anything sensical let alone literature. Bots like Tiny Crossword don't seem to serve a purpose. But if you follow through the fee...

If you're like me, then after the first class you thought the following about e-lit:                    via GIPHY If you didn't leave class feeling like that, then you probably felt like this:                via GIPHY Point is, I'm sure you left the class feeling some kind of way. No matter how you felt after the initial breakdown of electronic literature hopefully this week's readings pulled everything together to make things make more sense. This week we had to read Navigating Electronic Literature by Jessica Pressman and Twelve Blue by Michael Joyce.  In the Pressman piece, she talks about how e-lit is used. Something that stood out to me was when Pressman said,  "...electronic literature does not consist of stable, inscribed marks on a print page; rather, it emerges as a processural performance across codes and circuitry within the computer and in response...