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Hey Everyone!

We made it to the end!

I am happy to report that my project is about 70% done. I am very excited about it.

The whole project takes place inside Google Sheets. It starts with a sheet with two links. One takes you to a website that allows you to generate scrolling text from the opening of Star Wars. The text is a suicide note from the protagonist. After that, you go back to the sheet to continue.

Next is the iceberg. There are x’s inside the boxes in the iceberg. When you click on one, it takes you to another page in the sheet. The things above the iceberg are things that are out in the open and the things below the iceberg are hidden by the protagonist.

There are different elements that I have used. There is prose about the protagonists life before their suicide. There are song lyrics that have been made into blackout poems with links to Youtube videos of the song. There are clips from anime. If you don’t know the source material, the clips seem out of place. For example, one clip is from an anime where the protagonist kills themselves and wakes up in a new world where everyone has wings, yet people who commit suicide have black wings.

I’m going to include one hidden thing. I am going to make a box behind the moon that links to a sheet. It will take all of the songs that are included in the piece and put them in order. There will be a note from the protagonist telling the reader that when they die, this is the playlist for their funeral.

The piece is meant to be confusing, maybe a little disorienting, and not fully understood in a narrative sense. There is no one reason why the protagonist commits suicide and I want the reader to see that. I guess the reader is going through the life of someone who committed suicide and trying to put all the pieces together.

student blogs

A World riting 2025-11-10 10:23:39

Writers Are Not Strangers

‘Writers Are Not Strangers’ has many stories, and at first, the stories did not make much sense, so I had to rate them as well. Then, as I read further, the stories started to make sense. It was like a game where, at the end of each story, you had to either answer a multiple-choice question or fill in the blank, and then the story would add the name or word you placed in the blank, which was very interesting. Each story was different, covering assorted topics that took Alix on a personal journey with her friends. I found it to be long and sometimes hard to follow and understand.

Alix is a young YouTube-style content creator and writer whose mother is hospitalized and nearing death. Alix’s stories reference classics like Middlemarch and games like Space Invaders, providing a layered commentary on derivative creativity and originality. They blend fiction, game mechanics, and critical theory into compelling digital experiences. Again, I found that at times it was hard to follow and confusing. It is all about Alix’s journey in her life with her friends and family.

Retrotas Vivo de Mama

Carolina Lopez Jimenez is a Colombian writer and artist working across different disciplines. “Mom Living Portraits” was published online in 2015 and is still being updated. It is a documentary, hypertext narrative, and autobiographical electronic literature. Inspired by Lopez’s mother’s prolonged illness and passing, it explores mourning and memory within an evolving digital space. “Retrotas Vivo de Mama” is a scrapbook of Lopez Jimenez’s mother, beautifully created in Spanish, where her mother’s voice narrates various stages of her life and her family. The scrapbook is filled with family photos that tell a compelling story; it was beautifully made. It feels as if her mother’s voice is speaking aloud throughout, telling her story. I lost my mother a year ago, and I am thinking about creating an online digital scrapbook for her, highlighting our family and her life’s various stages. This has inspired me to make a digital scrapbook with photos of my mother and our family, which I believe is a wonderful idea and could serve as a heartfelt tribute mother.

By: Lareice Weeks-Bigelow

student blogs

My Presentation and Hana Feels

Hey Everyone,

Here is a link to my paper and slide deck for All of Your Time Tossed Selves: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iN8oAbIvAuFJcEk6Z5GG4Z9Rp3RjDxd7Ygep0IrR6C4/edit?usp=sharing & https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v5Its4UyiT885PBzTwHiLZQ08whdKCCUUvUhmoKEw1k/edit?usp=sharing

Let’s talk about Hana Feels!

What an interesting concept for this piece. Being a volunteer for a mental health hotline puts the reader in a position where a person’s life is in there hands. Right from the start, the stakes are high and I am carefully considering my choices because I want to make the “right choice”.

At the beginning, it says there are three different endings which really reinforces the weight of each choice.

As I am reading/playing this piece, I start to think it would be great for someone who doesn’t take mental health seriously or is not empathetic to play this/read this. The piece really makes you feel for Hana and it makes me want to help and understand her. I think this would be great for old school types who don’t take mental health and therapy seriously. It could be a good way to help change their views.

Another thought is that this could be a great training resource for people who volunteer for these types of hotlines. When I get to some of the choices, I really sit and think about what the best response is to say in each situation. It’s not easy to know which choice will lead to Hana opening up or shutting down and I’m guessing that is intentional.

It’s really cool that you get to play as Hana’s boss. It makes me feel uncomfortable that so many of the responses that you can pick for her are cold and mean, knowing what Hana is going through.

I really like how we switch to a new character after Hana’s boss. I guess this is how the piece will play out, with new characters being introduced. But I feel like it will come full circle and we will be Will at the mental health hotline again.

Wow! I mad it to the end! That was really intense and once Hana revealed her secret, I felt like I had to finish the piece.

To say every choice felt heavy would be such an understatement. Hana’s story is so relatable that I wanted to help her get the best ending possible. I think I got a good ending because Hana told Jen her secret and they stayed friends, Will was very helpful, and Hana called her mom and planned to meet soon.

student blogs

A World riting 2025-10-20 07:51:56

Lareice’s Digital World

The Aesthetics and Experiential Dimensions of Interactive Electronic Literature

Interactive electronic literature, Yardley PA, and Avenue S, represents a dynamic merging of narrative, visual art, and digital technology. Unlike traditional print-based texts, these works invite readers to engage with storytelling as an immersive, multisensory experience. Through the integration of instrumental soundscapes, animated net art, and game-like navigation, electronic literature transforms passive reading into active participation.

One of the most compelling aspects of this genre is its resemblance to video game mechanics. Users often navigate through the narrative by pressing a single button, which propels them into new story environments. This tangible interaction fosters a sense of agency and exploration, allowing readers to move through the text as if journeying through a virtual landscape. The interface itself becomes a narrative device, guiding users through layers of meaning and emotional resonance.

Vibrant animations and net art aesthetics contribute to a rich tapestry of symbolic and affective imagery

Visual elements play a critical role in shaping the reader’s experience. Vibrant animations and net art aesthetics contribute to a rich tapestry of symbolic and affective imagery. These visuals are not merely decorative; they function as extensions of the narrative, enhancing ideological depth and emotional tone. The interplay between text and image creates a blended form of storytelling that is both intellectually stimulating and visually engaging.

Equally significant is the role of sound. Instrumental effects and ambient audio cues heighten the immersive quality of the work, reinforcing mood and pacing. Sound becomes a narrative element, capable of revealing memory, tension, and transformation. When combined with visual and interactive components, it produces a comprehensive sensory experience that exceeds conventional literary boundaries.

Interactive electronic literature exemplifies the evolving nature of storytelling

Storytelling in the digital age with interactive electronic literature exemplifies the evolving nature of storytelling. It offers a powerful platform for creative expression, pedagogical innovation, and emotional engagement. For scholars, educators, and artists alike, this genre opens new possibilities for exploring trauma, identity, and healing through multimodal narrative forms. As digital media continues to reshape the literary landscape, electronic literature stands as a testament to the enduring power of story reimagined through sound, image, and interaction. It is an engaging and enjoyable storytelling style.

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Yardley PA 1997 and Avenue S

  • Yardley, PA, 1997
    • I really like how in order to make the text move, you can press the keys in a certain order or just press the spacebar.
      • Pressing the keys in a certain order makes this feel like a game which is really cool. 
      • Great choice by the author to make this decision as it really leans into the game aspect of interactive fiction.
    • The background colors, font, and fireflies invoke a short of coziness. It gives vibe of Summer evenings catching fireflies.
      • Since the piece has the year 1997 in it’s title, I am assuming it takes place then.
      • I definitely get nostalgia vibes from just staring at the piece.
    • The music sounds like it could be a vinyl record because I can hear record scratches.
      • It is very calming and really adds a wonderful dimension to this piece.
    • The way that the words fade away like fireflies in the dark is really working for the piece.
      • I like how the instructions tell you to press the button to make the next line of text appears as soon as the last line disappears.
        • This plays into the firefly motif since they glow and then go dark as another firefly lights up.
    • What a hauntingly beautiful ending. The way all the text overwhelmed the screen and the music rises to a crescendo and then it all flickers away into the darkness as we are reminded how ephemeral everything in life is.
  • Avenue S
    • What an interesting piece! At first I thought it would be more text based and straight forward, but there is a lot of imagery here that needs to be interpreted.
    • I think I understand one aspect of how on some pages there is a ton of clutter which is the idea of living in a city that the author misses.
    • It’s interesting how some things on the pages, like certain images, take time to make their full picture. This can be a metaphor for having to wait for things in the city – like buses, trains, lines, or slow walkers.
    • I think the author is showing what city life can look like to outsiders – overwhelming and crowded. But to people who live in the city, it is the hustle and bustle that makes the city feel alive.
    • It’s interesting to note how simple all of the people are drawn. Maybe this is the author’s way of saying that in the end, all people are the same, no matter how you appear on the outside. 
    • I really like the aspect that the reader has to make meaning out of this. The author gives hints in that each page has a different title if you look in the name of the tab. It seems the story being told isn’t a solid narrative, rather it is a series of the author’s observations about city living that tell a story of change caused by Covid.
      • What happens to the crowded city that you love, when it’s people are forced to stay away from each other? If you came to the city for the connection, what do you have in the Covid era? Just isolation. For those who feel alone, Covid in the city is an awful reminder that no matter where you go, the world is forcing you and others to keep your distance (physically and emotionally).
student blogs

Exploring Façade and Welcome Home

I wasn’t actually able to get Façade to run (apparently that’s pretty common—it’s an older work that doesn’t always work with newer systems), but I read quite a bit about it. It’s described as an “interactive drama” where you, the player, show up at the apartment of a married couple, Trip and Grace, who are in the middle of a fight. You can type your own dialogue and the characters respond, sometimes in unpredictable ways.

Even just reading about it, I could tell how unique it must have been when it came out. I loved it and was a little bummed that I wasn’t able to play with it.  The idea that a computer could listen to you and react emotionally feels kind odd and yet compelling. What I found most interesting is how it explores communication and miscommunication. You step into someone else’s relationship and try to help (or maybe make things worse). Being an actual communication major this really interested me.  I did check on-line and notice that everyone else was able to get into Façade, I was a bit jealous, but my technology was just not compatible.  I was really sorry that I had not bought a Mac Book earlier on my graduate school experience (now). 

Welcome Home, which I did get to explore seemed a bit different.  I couldn’t imagine that it twas a traditional e-lit story but rather a multimedia project that blurs the line between archive, nostalgia, and interactive storytelling. The premise seem to be that there was once a 1970s children’s show called Welcome Home, which has supposedly been rediscovered and restored through “The Welcome Home Restoration Project.” The website is full of colorful artwork, letters, hidden clues, and strange, almost dreamlike details about the show’s characters, like Wally Darling and his neighbors.

What pulled me in was how interactive it all feels. You start scrolling and clicking through images and “archived” materials, and before you know it, you’re part of the story. It’s like an internet rabbit hole where you’re both the audience and the detective, trying to piece together what really happened. 

I enjoyed my time with Welcome Home and I hope to check-out Façade the next time I’m on a macbook. 

student blogs

Welcome Home/Facade


I feel like I was going down a rabbit hole going through “Welcome Home”. I’m not gonna lie, I went through the entire website and got a little overwhelmed because I just wasn’t understanding the purpose. I guess I was expecting a storyline, rather than a website which is the story itself…if that makes sense. Granted, I was doing this assignment in the dark and when I was playing some of the Discoveries where it included snippets of the radio.. I was getting a tad freaked out. Especially when they wrote “But we believe there is someone trying to stop us or make light of our efforts”…like who is watching you? Why are they watching you? It was just giving me an uneasy feeling and I didn’t help myself by googling and reading creepy conspiracies about “Welcome Home”. I digress. When I opened this story, I was inclined to click on “About us” because I literally did not know what this piece of e-lit was going to be about. I then moved onto to meeting the neighborhood cause whats a story without a character.

Overall,  I think my thoughts would be that this piece was interesting to say the least. I’m not sure why they included sections that were clickable but didn’t really lead to anything. For example in “Guestbook” the page literally said the guestbook will be closed for the foreseeable future…so why add it there in the first place? Maybe I am analyzing this too much and missing the bigger picture?

Anyways, I will say the section for News was pretty helpful in the sense of keeping their readers included. They would provide updates and I was able to figure out when certain pieces of information were found or “given” by this anonymous source that shall NOT be named for some reason. The section where we were introduced to “The Neighborhood” was probably my favorite plot because thats the only time it felt like a story but also the full house intro theme song kept playing in my head while reading about these characters. Finally, I will say that every section had a voice of the same person which I appreciated. At no point did I think the speaker changed since we knew there is more than one person contributing to the piece.

Honestly in the year 2090 if something like this but Spongebob related comes out, it was probably me preserving it lolol.

student blogs

Navigating Electronic Lit

Hey Everyone!

So just a few observations on Twelve Blue by Joyce based on the Navigating Electronic Literature article by Pressman:

  1. This piece has hyperlinks which are the mode of navigation. New windows that open up are called “lexias” as per Pressman’s article “Navigating Electronic Literature”
  2. The reader is “writing” the story as they go along.
  3. Is there a correct order to read this text? For example, did the author have a specific narrative order in mind? Is there a wrong way to read a text such as this?
  4. Does the author know all the possible paths that we can take through a carefully calculated behind the scenes method and therefore can control the narrative order in a subtle way? Such as the links we click offer different bits of the story, but we eventually get the same overall picture each time?

Next are my notes I jotted down regarding Twelve Blue as I was reading it:

I wonder if there is a difference in navigating with a mouse like I did or with your finger like you could on mobile? What would the mobile formatting look like compared to on a computer screen? This is one way electronic literature is different from print based materials is that we can use different devices to view them which may impact how we navigate and interact with the work. Think about playing a game on your phone vs playing it on your computer or video game console.

Not an easter egg per se but if you hover over the hyperlinks on the right hand side, the text that has the address of the link has a number at the end. The first link ends with a 2 and all the other links follow in numerical order. So is the “click here to begin” page #1 and all the other pages go in order from top to bottom? The hyper link text is purposely obscured by the writer, but the links reveal hidden info.

Also the 1st hyperlink at the top has an address that ends in “sl1” and once you click it the address of the links on the next page end is “sl…” with some being “sl5” “sl6” and some even being “sl7_4”. This is definitely something as the author used these address to help themselves stay organized and probably didn’t want the reader to see them? Or did them?

I’m gonna navigate the story by trying to go from “click here to begin page” and then follow the link address on the left to go in numerical order. Are the hyperlinks in the text and not on the right side red herrings? Maybe put there to be little sides quests so you don’t analyze the hyperlinks on the left so much?

Nevermind, can’t navigate the way I wanted. When I open up a new window and go to the “Begin” page now I am hovering over the hyperlinks and the address is some variation of “sl_…” like “sl_2” “sl_3” “sl_4” etc. So maybe randomness is at play? Or just the illusion of randomness.

OMG when I started on the begin page “follow me” in the story was hyperlinked. I closed the page and started again and now it’s not hyperlinked. Glitch or intention?

I think this piece might be less about the narrative of the story and more a meta meditation on how the reader navigates the electronic text. I feel like this could be a psychological experiment. And the content of the narrative is bizarre and strange so it seems like there is more than meets the eye here. What if there isn’t even a central narrative and this text is a bunch of stories put together, but because the reader has to navigate with no map, they are reading different parts of different stories?

I feel a certain discomfort reading this and it’s more pronounced knowing that my navigation is what is moving me through the text. I didn’t write the words in the text, but I can choose what happens next even if it is like stumbling blindly in the dark. About 20 mins in and I just want to get to a few pieces that make sense. I am no longer assuming there is a concrete narrative here which allows me to navigate in the style of “enjoy the journey, not the destination.”

I got back to the “Begin” page. I just realized that I began with that page because it told me to. Is this part of how navigation in an electronic text changes the way we engage with a text? I didn’t have to begin with that page just because it said so. Maybe I lost something important by starting with that page. After many clicks, I made it back to that page and I feel a sense of failure like when you are lost and end up back where you started.

If I didn’t start with that page and didn’t know it was the beginning, would I feel that same sense of failure. So in this case, navigation of the text had a direct effect on my sense of self. Very interesting.

There is so much different information regarding characters, actions, and settings that when I click on a hyperlink and it brings me to a picture, I almost feel a sense of relief. I can look at the picture and get a general understanding of what it is so I feel grounded. It’s kinda like stopping at a bench before going on. I click the hyperlinks in order to navigate to safety (the pictures) when I feel overwhelmed.

It seems the pictures can only be in the intext hyperlinks, but not the left hyperlinks. But the intext hyperlinks can also be more text so I never know if I’ll get a picture or not. This causes a sense of apprehension when clicking the intext links and also a sense of relief when I come to a picture.

Since I am the navigator so when I get to a picture it feels like I accomplished something significant. Putting me in the driver seat makes this text less overwhelming. If I wasn’t able to navigate this text on my own, I don’t think it would be fun or interesting to read.

I think in this case, this text could be seen as showing how navigation is a central feature of electronic literature and the act of navigating the text without fully understanding it is okay because each of us had a different experience navigating the text and how and why we navigated the way we did along with how it made us feel which can be an important topic of discussion and dissection that will remind us to always keep the idea of navigation in mind when interacting with electronic texts.

student blogs

I’m Starting to Get That Feeling…

Writing and posting this on Saturday preceding Wednesday’s class. There were some great things about this week and some not so great things. To start, I landed a tutoring job today! I will be morphing students into SAT and ACT-taking machines. The hours replace what I would have been doing at the dance studio, which I think will make me rediscover a bit of my purpose more. I will still be teaching in some degree, just not dance. Rather, how to answer questions asking you for a synonym for a word, but you have no idea what any of the words mean at all. Yay.

On the not so great side, I had to unfortunately get rid of my beautiful little rose bush. This week I noticed some kind of little bug infestation that was eating away at the plant. I’m no expert, as we know, so I showed my father who told me my best bet was to let the plant go. I’m sad about this because it was doing really well and I really liked having it around. But, I will try again with a new plant. I just didn’t think that plant would be gone so soon.

Moving onto my thesis, I completed my write-up for Remarkably Bright Creatures. I am so torn about whether it is postmodern or not because with this book, it really comes down to the technique in which the story is told and the content of the narrative. The technique is postmodern at its core, but the content is a wholesome, sincere story. So, is it postmodern or New Sincerity? I think it’s similar to that of Good Material, which I studied over the summer, and found that it was sincere with postmodern elements. I believe that whatever literary era we are in now, whatever we end up calling it, will unearth itself in this way: some new overarching developments with postmodern elements on the side. So, I don’t think we are done with postmodernism yet, and we may never be, but the state of things is changing.

I know that it may seem very easy to poke holes through the sheet that is New Sincerity, but two books kind of point this way. I know, two books sounds absolutely ridiculous, and they may even be the only two books that do this today and by chance I have picked them to study. But, I have been wondering if the separation we all feel from each other exacerbated by the current political and economic spheres we find ourselves in may actually be causing some kind of regression (if that is the correct word to use here). My thinking is leaning towards that we have been feeling disengaged from each other for so long that we find solace in connecting with characters from books who want their stories told, and this is why this research matters. Maybe, stories are finding their way to the top again after years of being fed artificial graphics.

I will be thinking more about this because I am totally not sure about any of that at all. In the meantime, I will be starting my next book soon. I have picked This Other Eden by Paul Harding to cover the historical fiction subgenre. In the summertime, I decided to stay away from historical fiction because I did not see usefulness in studying a retelling. Though, looking back at my literature review, none of the pieces of scholarship I read mentioned what postmodern historical fiction looks like and how it could change if we are out of postmodernism. Plus, I realized that I did include an article that studied a fantasy book with a post-postmodern lens, or something or other. So, I felt including fantasy within my scope would not be filling a gap. I love historical fiction so I am excited to see where this takes me.