What is E-Lit
Electronic literature explores the bounds of the internet and the computer though different genres and writings. It has been expanding mostly since the 1990s and has continued to develop as technology has changed. Readers are able to encounter, interact, and digest the works in different ways and each may be able to have a completely individual experience with that work. This type of work also allows the reflection of digital changes as well as changes in communication, society, and text. Electronic literature is not granted the preservation that print literature often has. While printed works can be archived and saved, digital media is at the mercy of the technology, platform, etc. Used for its creation. As a whole, electronic literature goes to challenge the perception and thought of what literature has been and what it can do.
“Disappearing Rain” by Deena Larsen is a hypertext fiction that includes links to the 144 pages of a story following the mystery of a missing girl and the families hunt for the truth. The website is very interesting to navigate, there are two parts to the story which are presented as poems. The poems have words or phrases that are then clicked into and reveal parts of the story. The reader is also able to click on a certain character and jump to sections where they are included in the story. Within the story sections, there are often highlighted words that bring the reader to various other sections of the story. In the first section, this includes the missing girls’ letter to the police, this is found by clicking on the highlighted “police.” It would take me a good amount of time to follow the whole story, but from what I was able to read and click through, this seems like a very interesting work. I have an appreciation for hypertext stories like this as exploring them is great for getting the readers involved in the story and having them put the pieces together.
"Disappearing Rain" sounds fascinating! To be honest, I wasn't sure what a piece of hypertext fiction would look like since I don't have much experience with digital literature in general, but I especially like that you can access different perspectives and parts of the story. I think this would make it so that nobody reads the piece the same way, which is interesting because the piece is a mystery, and everyone has a different way of problem solving.
ReplyDeleteHonestly this does remind me a little of those children's books where you read through it and then it gives you different page numbers to go to depending on what choice you make. This just takes that to the next level. It allows you way more freedom than traditional text can.
ReplyDelete