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student blogs

Yardley, PA 1997 & Avenue S

Yardley, PA 1997

I would like to begin this section of my blog to say that I really enjoyed this one. The first time around, I went the linear way. Going across the keyboard from left to right and shifting the keys as the instructions advised. Usually, when looking at electronic literature for this class, I do not read the instructions and just go. For this, I do not know why. I think I just like to go into it and try to figure it out on my own as well as find what speaks to me personally. Though, I do read the statements by the author and the summaries of each piece. So, when I saw that it involved the keyboard, I knew I had to buckle up.

I expected something a bit more radical than what it actually was. I think I was more so expecting some kind of crazy technique requirement that I could not keep up with. Though, I was pleasantly surprised when all I had to do was make my way down the keyboard and press new keys once the words and music began to fade away. I thought the delivery of the poem was quite beautiful, and really mimics the way we read poetry on paper. Although there is no fade away of the words or built-in music to accompany our reading, the way in which both of those aspects carry the piece is a great way to creatively imagine what goes on in our heads when we read poetry. Things oftentimes click in our heads from line to line, creating a personal symphony. Yardley, PA 1997 helps us do this in a way that is more connected to another’s experience. Unlike the other pieces of ELIT we have read so far, this one stands out because you can go through it the same way another person does, or not. The choice is yours, and I really enjoy that idea.

Lastly, I would like to discuss the content a bit. I think the way in which the author brings about the various aspects of 1997 in Pennsylvania and the specific instances in which they live through was really beautiful because it made room for readers to connect in their own way. Specifically, the short section of about the brother, and how the author reflects that they should have told him they loved him more. I really liked how there were times in which we knew we were not in Yardley, PA, but instead taken back into our own lives, wherever that may be, and given a chance to reflect.

Overall, this was a really great piece, and I think I will find myself returning back to it. I enjoyed its simplicity and the fact that it had no “tricks” or hidden meanings — it was all laid out for us to type through and reflect on.

Avenue S

Reading first, of course, what Avenue S is about, I was immediately pulled in. There are plenty of COVID-19 experiences written and heavily discussed today, but I knew that this rumination would be an outstanding one. First, just stating right off the bat that the speaker missed urban life is a statement that everyone though in some way or another, but to just be laid out in such a way that is pointed and speaking for itself was a great way to start. The world at large missed so many things for a great amount of time that just admitting we missed a part of our lives demonstrates a vulnerability that is pertinent to literature tackling such matters.

Clicking through the dots and mandalas, the first page that really connected with me was “bouncing off the walls” . The way in which the simplistic art renders itself is really fantastic. The constant movement of the stick figures demonstrated quite well the shell of people experiencing the pandemic, and how we were limited to just a specific space — in this case, the screen. Additionally, the lack of color in this section goes to show how staying in one place, forcefully, can remove the color we have in our lives because we are not out experiencing what we otherwise would have. Once clicking on the three dots, I was brought to “butterflies in the stomach”. Again, we are met with a simplistic stick figure who seems to fade into themselves, generating a gear, or a butterfly, preparing to take off. I find this an interesting way to symbolize the anxiety felt during these unprecedented times, especially because this gear-looking image is composed of smaller human-like figures. Not only can this symbolize the many facets of one’s own personality ruminating in a way that works against one’s own person, but how the expectations and well-being of others was also a great source of worry for people during this time.

Lastly, I wanted to discuss “endless cycle”. I think this page put into perspective the idea that life-altering events will always happen, whether on a scale as massive as COVID-19, or on a personal scale. Though this may seem to be a bleak perspective, I choose to see this animation as somewhat hopeful, as the stick figure, after falling and sliding, continuously gets back up. Yes, the figure does fall again after getting back up, but it’s the action of rising again that intrigues me, and makes me hope that in moments of failure or sorrow, I am able to get back up again, even if its just to go through the same sort of perilous time again and again.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the flashback to 2020-21 that this piece brought. I found myself more drawn to the simplistic features of this piece because it allowed for more connection. Using a simple stick figure really works well here because anyone can input themselves and their own experiences into this work. It is also really interesting to. be interacting with this piece now, as COVID-19 has been behind us for a few years now. In day-to-day life today, it’s easy to just go on and not think about what happened to us not so long ago, but it was a major life event for all of us. Though, moving through this work, it was really interesting to be brought back to that time (I was a junior in high school!) and reflect on it today. How easily we forget.

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

Blog #2 I don’t get it

Jessica Pressman’s essay, Navigating Electronic Literature was a definitely needed for this attempting to read through Joyce’s Twelve Blue. Before going into Joyce’s confusing story, I want to bring up an interesting aspect of some of Pressman’ s essay. To start, I liked the way she explained the aspects of navigation. In addition to this, she also drew attention to how a readers interaction with navigation can affect the performance of a work. As someone who loves traditional books (physical books are one of my addictions) I find the act of navigation as second nature. The most interaction with a book is reading and turning a page; two things that do not have much impact on the narrative’s “performance”. Though within the context of graphic novels and comics, navigation does play a role. How a reader wades through the myriads of dialogue bubbles, text boxes, art and composition of the specific panels does force the reader to navigate the story to see the intended way to read. I see this as a bit of an unspoken agreement with the reader and writer. The writer paves the road of understanding for the reader to drive on. In electronic literature, there is not much of a guarantee. Instead of paving the way for the reader, and work of E lit gives the reader the tools to find their way through the narrative. This aspect of E lit is something I will have to get used to as the class continues.

Another thing worth bringing up in terms of the Pressman essay was the difference between hypertext and interactive fiction. While I initially though that I did not have much experience with E lit, this essay made me more aware of the types of things that might fit into both categories. In terms of interactive fiction, the work I chose for my presentation, Writers are not Stranger, fits into this genre of E lit. From my early interactions with Writers are not Stranger, I have to say that I really enjoy playing around with it. Being an active part of the story, based on predetermined choices made by the author is really gripping and placed more power in my hands as a reader that I am accustomed to. As the semester goes on, I will play with it much more, but my early thoughts are very positive in terms of the genre of interactive fiction. While I do have thoughts about hyperlink text, I want to share them when talking about Joyce’s story. Overall, Pressman’s article was a nice intro into understanding two genres within e-lit.

Micheal Joyce’s Twelve Blue was interesting to say the least. Before I get into the E lit aspect of the piece, I wanted to give Joyce his flowers a bit. One of my reactions to the work is how good writing can be in this context. Chopping a story up and relying on it into pieces is not new but it is effective. In terms of this story, it was great reading Joyce’s great prose. His writing made me want to continue on in uncovering how to make sense of it all. The repetition of the color blue and its uses throughout the story were a great motif to use.  The overall narrative was compelling despite the fact that I was lost for most of it. I can definitely say that the navigation aspect of the story did not take away how I felt.

 As a reader, I like “boring” stories or stories with normal structure. I find myself gravitating towards classical literature avoiding more contemporary literature because unorthodox stories can be. The idea of a reader having to navigate through a story compared to just turning a page is confusing and a bit dauting to me. Reading Joyce’s story was a struggle for me for the most part. As I said before, a narrative bouncing around is not a new thing, but a story moving rapidly while only giving the reader crumbs was new for me. I feel that the story and its composition were a match made in heaven. It forced me keep tabs on the information that has been presented (characters, setting and the “plot”). It also surprised me many times, as the story would shift in tone, and perspective at the click of your mouse.  One second, we are reading about Samantha and her dream, and the next someone’s father is buying a carnival ride. This narrative wipe lash was just not for me. As we continue through this semester, I hope I see the light in the hypertext genre.

One side note from the story I want to add was a part of the story that I felt got me. One of the parts that I read contained three separate hyperlinks that jumped into three distinct parts of the narrative. While I did struggle to piece the story and its element together, I did really like this little wrinkle. One question for all of you guys was what aspect of this story was better, the overall narrative or the act of uncovering the narrative through the hypertext?

While i may not see the greatness of hyperlinks as a genre, Joyce’s story at least has peaked my interest and has made me a bit more open and exited to see how the genre has changed and improved since the 90s.

student blogs

Reading Reflection BLOG

Michael Joyce: Twelve Blue & Jessica Pressman: Navigating Electronic Literature

The biggest take for me when reflecting on both electronic literatures introduced from Pressman article and Joyce is that those such as Blue Hyacinth, Façade the readers interaction and navigation contribute to their experience or story development differently for me than Twelver Blue. Even though by clicking on the hyperlink threads it changes my experience of the content that shows. Another similarity is that this type of electronic literature I find the reader, myself will not find an end point in either situation or reading. As long as I interact the story will change and depend on my involvement.

I really enjoy the idea that the hypertext story will be different for every reader, their experience depending on how they navigate the text and read. The openness of possible endless meanings, interactions with each hypertext story reading makes it unique and a form of electronic literature that I know would be beneficial to my short fiction and poetry. Being able to create an experience that will be personal to each individual keeps the story fresh, alive and not just to be discussed from one critic, or viewpoint that the reading has been analyzed according to. I also think experimenting with hypertext as seen in the Pressman reading and with Blue Hyacinth piece navigating is central to each reader’s experience keeping them engaged and interacting instead of just reading a linear line of the story waiting for something to happen in the plot. The reader is making it happen or not depending on their attention span or involvement. Functioning this way appeals to some but there will also be those who will be distracted or maybe even get frustrated with hypertext if they are a more traditional reading type and not familiar with this type of electronic lit digital technology but wanted to try it out.

 In order for a relationship to form from participation between the reader and hypertext content they will have to be open minded and wanting a new stimulating experience where they are the ones creating the story as they actively navigate using the mouse or whatever device is implored to promote action moving along the reader along and not become boring or looping to the same images, words, phrases already experienced. The navigational action that becomes necessary becomes a performance art in my eyes as participation leads to its own creation and will vary depending on the person who are looking for a new experience of digital stimulation through their interaction that the hypertext platform provides.

There are also flaws, anxiety it seems though with how to have such interactive technology where the reader can continue to navigate with no known ending in site. How would a standard be put in place so there was a certain amount of time that can only be spent on the hypertext link, or will there be a limited amount of page numbers to go through a story or even the reader becoming entertained at first and feeling involved but eventually becoming bored like any technology introduced and has exhausted its use or newness. It would be challenging to find a middle road with this type of technology because any kind of restrictions and rules may downplay the experience of the one navigating and creating the same time. This could be the issue present in the Façade character navigation process as the participant uses an avatar representing them and their involvement in the game. This reminds me of Actor Network Theory that I did an article on last semester and the student Brian who also developed an avatar which kept him involved with a certain interactive game. Lastly the virtual space we decide to interact with comes with a responsibility of acknowledging the fantasy we are creating and the world we are hoping to create away from our own. Also, the changes to how we are reading text, interacting with it can become challenging when a new genre of digital technology arises and everyone seems to be talking about it, playing it. It may not be for everyone and their experiences if they do choose to interact will be distinct from their own interaction. I guess that is one of the benefits to this type of experimental digital electronic literature.

Michale Joyce: Twelve Blue

After reading the brief synopsis on the initial page of what Twelve Blue is about I clicked Begin and followed the directions on the main page by spontaneously clicking on the colorful threads on the left of my screen, these resembled to me sound waves in their appearance. Frist thing I did notice was the difficulty of reading the light blue text on the dark blue background. I thought by clicking from top to bottom in a particular order the reading would follow some sort of progression, it just kept changing every time. I would read a few then click again curious and skeptical to see what the next page would have on it for the story. There was a relation and connection to what I discussed in my experience of Pressman’s article and the readers interaction with the story thus creating their own experience as they choose to participate and navigate. I did get annoyed though, but as a creative appreciated the changes as I navigated and clicked on each thread thinking it would build upon the previous line, I guess expectations of form as I tried to put a story together with each line I became uncomfortable and not accustomed to such changes in how we read as story and its structure.  Each one has a different angle to them, or flatness. Since this is my first experience of experimenting with hypertext using HTML frames and image maps to follow along the story I did not know what to expect or if I was doing it right. I did tend to refer back to Pressman reading again of the type of similar role of interaction needed to produce the necessary reaction similar to Blue Hyacinth, and Façade with being part of the story as I choose to interact with the content and add to it with my own navigation. But I let myself go and didn’t put too much thought into the process or pressure to understand what was happening, just enjoyed how each time I clicked on a thread the lines produced different part of the story not in any particular order and changed for me the story itself being aware of characters and the different incidents, plot points happening in each line.

I really had to pay attention to which thread I clicked on and see if it was a linear progression of the story or out of place leading to a whole new experience with the story as I read out of order. This made things interesting in a disoriented way with some of the descriptive text in each line kind of started to blur my experience of what I was reading. It no longer seemed to me a story but like I was there present wanting to know more about why things were the way they are. It seems to take me to different destinations, personal moments with conversations of the characters and what they are going through.