To view the piece of  electronic literature one must download the file and click on the slide show icon in the bottom left corner.
Author’s Description: This piece attempts to bring clarity to what electronic literature is. Many time people attempt to this genre of literature and have a hard time doing so. After viewing this piece on can start to understand some of the different aspects of electronic literature.

Coming into this class I did not know what to expect. I felt that writing through media was such a broad class. It could have touched on many things that ranged from magazines to television. I never consider electronic literature though. I actually had never heard of e-lit prior to coming to this class and found it a bit intimidating to make a piece of work I had no idea existed. This form of literature neither seemed concrete nor constant, I would start some pieces with such confidence and leave frustrated and somewhat angry. This class opened my eyes to a new art form and I do not think I will ever forget the things I have learned. Electronic Literature is a very diverse, and sometimes challenging form of literaturewhich I have been given the privilege to look into.

After watching the trailer for portals I started seeing the game pop up everywhere. I did not realize that this was a mainstream game. Though I am horrible and find them somewhat frustrating I found the trailer/ tutorial for the game quite cool. The tutorial walks the player through the step of playing the game, which helps change the way the player views the game world. Instead of seeing impossible task and insurmountable obstacles the player sees a game where ones tactics are extremely important. The way this game is set up, it will challenge everyone from them game playing novice to the expert. One must truly think portals to play portals.

My final project will be a piece of electronic literature about electronic literature. The piece attempt to describe the different aspects of electronic literture. The piece is not interactive like many others, but is quite informative. If I were to compare my e-lit to any other is would most commonly relate to a simple version of ” Time Frame”. If all goes as planned the piece will be looped and the words and picture will appear as the piece moves along.

I chose to do this e-lit, because I do not know many people who know what an electronic literature piece is, and I myself find it hard to describe. This genre of literature is broad that one can find themself going in circles trying to explain the key components of this art form. Hopefully my piece will help this problem.

Braid is game unlike most video games, in that it give the the player a certain invincibility. The invincibility is obtained through the ability of the player to alter time. In most games after one dies the must completely re-due the stage or go through a situation. Braid allows one to change a specific event to alter an outcome. In the game the player can rewind through time, slow down time, and even have a shadow like body double. The fact this game has such a different format that it forced the player to think in a new way. As the game progressed one could not tackle obstacles in a traditional manner. This transformed a game that would have been quite simple into a complex, somewhat difficult game. In the later levels of the game there would be objects that were not affected by the time manipulations. The way we, the player maneuvered through these stages reminded me of “Cruising”. In “cruising there was a forward progression of the time and plot of the audio even if the reader was doing something to change the motion of  the pictures.

The presentation on Tuesday were all pretty good, they all related the texts we have discussed in class to a piece of e-lit in a comprehensive manor. My group, Group 4,related the “End of Books” to “Sooth”. ” The End of Books” discusses the idea that hypertext is becoming more popular, and books are dying out. In the article it shows some of the ways which hypertext is superior to the traditional books. Though all the points made are valid the article ends saying that although hypertext books, it is also dying out. With all the upgraded in computer software programs hypertext works are having trouble keeping up.

In comparison to “The End of Books”, “Sooth” shows how hypertext can be the completely opposite of book. It also solidifies the notion that although books can be translated into hypertext, hypertexts cannot usually be translate into a book. The hypertext “Sooth” is a collection of poems that are set against a movie like background. The word of the poem appear as the veiwer clicks on the screen, while music plays. Something like this would never be able to be transfered into a book, but if the software were to become out dated one could have some trouble viewing it. With a book you are the software, usless the book is burned or destroyed in some other way. Books offer a certain security, they are somewhat nostalgic and I do not believe they will disappear for some time.

This movie puzzled me. When it started I question if it was working properly due to the long musical introduction and it made me question the purpose of such as introduction. Did the director do this to create a feeling of anticipation or did he have this introduction to give the audience a taste of what the characters in the movie would go through? When the movie started it went from beautiful music to silence or unintelligible speech. This gave me an appreciation for the music intro. At first I was quite unsure of the representation of the apes and the monolith, but after further discussion in class I am I little clearer. Just I was just about to adjust to the lack of words the setting jump from this picturesque scene to out of space in the future. This scene has dialogue, but it did not seem to connect to any of the previous scenerios in the film. It seems as just I was starting to accept something in the movie something changed, and it was somewhat harder to understand than the previous. By this time in the movie I was a bit frustrated with the inconsistencies in the movie.

The film continued and it was not as sparitic, but I found my self trying to understand the theme behind much of the film. The fact that it was made in 1968 and is a potrayal of a future that never happen was interesting though. For me that was the coolest part of the film. It almost gave the audience of today a idea of the how people though life would be today. In some aspects we do the same thing, and it will be cool to see how the future movie of today will look in 20 years.

The “My Body” piece was quite different from the other pieces of electronic literature pieces.  The piece was a somewhat detailed account of the author, Shelley Jackson’s  adolescence. She took the audience through the different mindsets she had as her body began to develop. Some of the imagery was vivid and a bit awkward, but it was well thought out. In terms of its interaction, the audience would simply move through the piece by clicking on different links, which referred to different body parts.

The things that  Shelley Jackson stated in this piece shows a certain comfort with  her own body. Many people would not have felt comfortable discussing such intimate thoughts, nor would they be alright with the representation of their body on the first page. In relation to the cyborg discussion we have been having in class this piece works well. Instead of talking about the body as a whole like most would, Ms Jackson speak about each part were its own separate entity. Based on my understanding of a cyborg, it is part human part  machine and in a way this piece shows this concept. Though in the piece there are not mechanical parts the fact that each part is so separate and independent gives a feeling of interchangeability. The author is no longer one whole being, but the accumulation of different parts with different memories and functions.

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