Hello, everyone!
I understand that despite knowing many of the faces in this class, I do not know all. Therefore, I will write out the quick spiel for those of the latter. First and foremost, and how many people know me in the program to be, I am a poet. Not so much in the eat, drink, breathe sense, but something akin to that. Though, I love learning and I am always aspiring to transform my writing and thinking beyond who I am as a poet and what I tend to explore when writing such pieces.
Thus, I am very excited to be in this class. I know nothing about Electronic Literature, and that acceptance is what excites me. As a lifelong learner who constantly has to remind myself that I cannot, and will not, know everything, getting the chance to discover something I have no experience with is intriguing in this phase of my career at Kean. As Dr. Zamora has advised me this week, knowing everything is synonymous to that of a close, an end, or even a death. So, this class is livening me.
At this point, I am not sure of what I am expecting outside of the thought that the literature I will be engaging with will be different and unlike anything I have yet to see. I suppose the only aspect I am expecting is that I will be engaging with words in some way. These words, whether we are able to read them in the “normal” sense (as in left to right, paragraph or stanza) or not, declare the idea that we are able to put forth a narrative of some kind to connect with another person. That is what literary means, I believe. I also know that I will be on my computer a lot. That is, of course, a given.
As far as my relationship to storytelling and technology, I think it is more robust than I first initially thought. Looking at my poetry, I tend to create poems that take up space, whether it be lengthy indentations or even words taking the shape of an object. Yes, I could draw this out on paper, but these kinds of poems, for me, always occur on the computer… even if I have all of the words down on paper, they are most likely written in stanza format. The computer is the destination in which the magic occurs. It is also the place in which most people engage with my poetry. This makes me ponder the idea of electronic literature that is not necessarily made for the computer, but usually viewed on the computer. Does this make it, at its core, ELIT? I guess that is to soon be discussed and discovered.
I am looking forward to this semester and excited for what I will soon learn about and create. Looking through the volumes, I have interacted with many fascinating projects, one of which I am hoping to present on this semester and share with my classmates. It is a great opportunity to try my hand at something brand new.
