Reading Twelve Blue is a brand-new reading experience. It demonstrates how electronic literature challenges expectations associated with and codified around print-based reading practices.

The confusion is inevitable: why is the font so small, everything is blue, do the 12 lines represent 12 different stories, why is there a hyperlink in each text, and what stories are they connecting to? What’s the connection between these stories?

When I clicked Begin, I was first attracted by the 12 colored lines, so I click on one of them connected with a kind of sexual story of a man named Ed Stanko. I noticed that there was a large gap between the two texts. I move the mouse between these two paragraphs and find a line of hidden text that blends in with the background color “She was nutty as a fruitcake, she thought she was a queen.” This design is fun. I mean not everyone will find this hiding text (not saying I’m smarter lol). So the story could end there or it could continue by clicking the link, the link in the link…

It just reminds me of what Pressman stated in Navigating Electronic Literature: “Some hypertexts may not even contain a definitive ending but instead continue in endless loops of lexias; such works depend upon the reader to resolve when to finish reading the work”.

The process of reading was interesting, except that it made my eyes tired. But to be honest, I didn’t really like the content of these stories. Their tone, like the color of the page, was blue. Overall, the beauty of E-LIT for me from this reading experience is its interactivity. It allows reading to move beyond the scanning of the reader’s eyes, and makes the reader aware of the power of the mouse as a navigational tool to drive changes in the work.

I’m glad to see how beautiful it is when combining Chinese culture and English together in this piece of ELIT.

I like this article on ELIT’s interaction design. Illustrations with Chinese elements, comfortable color matching, Chinese music, and handwritten fonts. To be honest, although I was confused at the beginning, compared with Twelve Blue, this one makes me more willing to explore, because it is clearer and more aesthetic.

The downside is that its words disappear too quickly. Poetry itself is different from other subjects. It’s obscure and requires repeated reading. It was annoying to see the page jump back to the previous page while I was pondering the overall meaning of a poem.

For the content, I have to say I resonated a lot. Although I am not an immigrant, after living in this completely different country for nearly a year, I think I can understand what it is like for generations of immigrants (not only Chinese immigrants) to gradually adapt to a new environment and make efforts to live.

“Saffron Robe” represents Buddhism and represents China in a way. I can’t fully understand the meaning of this poem, but I think it may be to express the hope to be understood and tolerated when you are new to the country and experience the collision of different cultures。

After settling down, they began to make a living.

Occasionally, they tried to find traces of their hometown.

Overall, I think this is an amazing ELIT. From content to design, it depicts every generation’s epitome of Chinese immigrants.