{"id":1678,"date":"2013-07-11T18:23:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T01:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2013-07-15T06:45:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:45:54","slug":"1678","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/2013\/07\/11\/1678\/","title":{"rendered":"What is E-LIterature?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><b><\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b>\u201cElectronic literature, generally considered to exclude print literature that has been digitized, is by contrast \u201cdigital born,\u201d a first-generation digital object created on a computer and (usually) meant to be read on a computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Electronic Literature Organization<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cwork with an <i>important literary aspect<\/i> that takes advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Key scholars<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Katherine Hayles,\u00a0Dr. Joseph Tabbi<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Forms and threads of practice<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Hypertext fiction and poetry, on and off the Web<\/li>\n<li>Kinetic poetry presented in Flash and using other platforms<\/li>\n<li>Computer art installations which ask viewers to read them or otherwise have literary aspects<\/li>\n<li>Conversational characters, also known as chatterbots<\/li>\n<li>Interactive fiction<\/li>\n<li>Novels that take the form of emails, SMS messages, or blogs<\/li>\n<li>Poems and stories that are generated by computers, either interactively or based on parameters given at the beginning<\/li>\n<li>Collaborative writing projects that allow readers to contribute to the text of a work<\/li>\n<li>Literary performances online that develop new ways of writing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"vIqKNPo96Z\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/eliterature.org\/what-is-e-lit\/\">Our Role<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Our Role&#8221; &#8212; Electronic Literature Organization\" src=\"https:\/\/eliterature.org\/what-is-e-lit\/embed\/#?secret=bqohsF2PMX#?secret=vIqKNPo96Z\" data-secret=\"vIqKNPo96Z\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Important questions<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Is electronic literature really literature at all?<\/li>\n<li>Will the dissemination mechanisms of the Internet and the WWW, nu opening publication to everyone, result in a flood of worthless drivel?<\/li>\n<li>Is literary quality possible in digital media, or is electronic literature demonstrably inferior to the print canon?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><b>Facade<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The e-story &#8220;facade&#8221; describes a dinner party between a married couple. As the reader interacts with the conversation, the party quickly circles around the couple&#8217;s marriage. This work is revolutionary as it\u00a0can accept any type of language produced by the user and assimilate it into the outcome of the narrative.<\/p>\n<p>LINK: <a href=\"http:\/\/collection.eliterature.org\/2\/works\/mateas_facade.html\">http:\/\/collection.eliterature.org\/2\/works\/mateas_facade.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Electronic Literature is Not Print<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Relies on different language.\u00a0 Need to begin with computer code; an entirely different source language.<\/li>\n<li>Hypertextuality.<\/li>\n<li>Cool factor.<\/li>\n<li>Involves more genres than just literature (digital arts, computer games, and other forms associated with networked and programmable media).<\/li>\n<li>Also \u201cdeeply entwined with the powerful commercial interests of software companies, computer manufacturers, and other purveyors of apparatus associated with networked and programmable media\u201d (24).<\/li>\n<li>\u201c[E]lectronic literature can be seen as a cultural force helping to shape subjectivity in an era when networked and programmable media are catalyzing cultural, political, and economic changes with unprecedented speed\u201d (24).\u00a0 This is the key point.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 For real?\u00a0 For the better?\u00a0 This notion can be connected to McLuhan.<\/li>\n<li>Espen J. Aarseth suggests e-lit to be \u201ca purely ideological term, projecting an unfocused fantasy rather than a concept of any analytical substance\u201d (21).<\/li>\n<li>Is e-lit an attack on the imagination and bound for obsolescence?<\/li>\n<li>Reliant on \u201cthe grid.\u201d\u00a0 Privileged genre?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>E- Literature \u2013 Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination<\/b><\/p>\n<p>How exactly is e-literature preserved and archived? While there are methods to preserving physical work (as books, for example, can endure for centuries if printed on quality paper), how does the archiving of digital media take place? In her article, Hayes mentions that libraries, librarians, conservators and preservationists allow physical work to be conserved, but that no such method or mechanisms exist for electronic literature. This situation is further complicated by the fact that digital media is incredibly fluid \u2013 it is constantly changing and its direction is often uncertain (often due to software and hardware updates), making it unplayable or unreadable on newer systems.<\/p>\n<p>The answer to this, according to Hayles, is The Electronic Literature Organization, which has taken a proactive approach to this crucial problem of preservation with the new PAD initiative (Preservation, Archiving and Dissemination Initiative). They collect, in their words, \u201cinnovative and high quality\u201d works and compile them in a collection that features 60 recent works of electronic literature, includes brief descriptions of each work, a note by the author(s), a keyword index, and make it available to the public \u2013 all while preserving and archiving it. It is, essentially, an online electronic library.<\/p>\n<p>Hayles also mentions that an article available on the ELO website called \u201cAcid-Free Bits\u201d by Nick Montfort and Noah Wardrip- Fruin, offers tips for authors on how to preserve their electronic literature. The tips advise authors to pay attention to how they digitally present their work, and make recommendations such as utilizing open systems instead of closed systems (open systems allow unrestricted user access while closed systems do not), choosing community-directed systems over corporate driven systems, and adhering to good programming practices by supplying comments and consolidating code.<\/p>\n<p>Hayles closes the article by discussing what she calls a \u201cvisionary\u201d proposal that is discussed in the essay \u201cBorn Again Bits\u201d (Alan Lui et al). The authors in this essay make the proposal of an \u201cX Literature Initiative\u201d, which basically makes the argument that since XML \u2013 which is Extensible Markup Language \u2013 is and will continue to be the most widespread form up web markup language, it should be a means through which e-literature can be preserved. The proposal also puts forth the idea that a set of practices and tools can allow old works of e-literature to be migrated to XML \u2013 allowing e-literature of all ages to be encoded and preserved in the same manner.<\/p>\n<p>Discussion Question:<\/p>\n<p>In her article, Hayles mentions that when it pertains to the preservation of e-literature, the PAD initiative only selects \u201cinnovative and high quality\u201d works for their archival collection. In your opinion, what potential problems could arise when it pertains to what exactly is chosen for preservation? How accurate do you think the ELO is in choosing \u201cgood\u201d literature that the future generation would find beneficial? Should there be some sort of checklist for what is deemed \u201chigh quality\u201d, and thus, preserved in the ELO\u2019s collection?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u201cElectronic literature, generally considered to exclude print literature that has been digitized, is by contrast \u201cdigital born,\u201d a first-generation digital object created on a computer and (usually) meant to be read on a computer.\u201d Electronic Literature Organization \u201cwork with an important literary aspect that takes advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6392,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-literature","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled368\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}