Kinetic Poetry: the medium is the metaphor

I generally don’t love poetry too much, but to be honest these works this week really blew me away. Dear e.e. by Lori Janis and Ingrid Ankerson was able to create so much beauty and meaning in its digital form. First, you hear music that’s choppy, distant, echoey. Then the dream erupts into fast cycling animation. Pieces of a sketched apartment fly by while letters zip around the screen. The place is dismembered into oddly placed pieces of furniture (a sink by the door, the fridge in front of the window) with words attached to each piece when you hover over them. I found it very illustrating of a dream: fragments you try to piece together, things that seem real but don’t make true sense, adaptions of reality. The odd almost horror-psychedelic music cycling in the background with the images and letters flying around make it a surreal experience. Close to reality, but not quite, just like a dream about someone that you aren’t quite sure how to interpret. 

I also enjoyed Cruising, especially because of the child-like mid-century voiceover of the poem that plays. In her voice you can hear the optimism of what these teenagers might discover cruising around town. The poem cycles images of the town in a fast-paced strip. The music rises, falls, and repeats. The line “in a car we couldn’t yet take to the world” emphasizes how the poem makes the reader feel trapped in this driving cycle around town, illustrating that small-town teenage desire to find some meaning in the limited world available to you. 

The textbook’s note of “letters and words as manipulable material objects” is definitely seen in these works. Metaphor and meaning can be developed even further for reader experience when letters, like in Dear e.e. are manipulated and reconstructed. I think it also echoes the idea of Letterism discussed in the textbook, where deconstruction of language and rebuilding it to an essential level would result in “letters encountered as objects and sounds encountered not as semantic form but pure auditory experience”. I also appreciated this chapter’s discussion of technological advancements that make the layering of sound, image, and text possible for kinetic poetry. It seems that the programming aspect of these poems is as much an art as the poems themselves.

Interactive Fiction

 

This chapter was very interesting. I am not a big game person. The only video game I play is the sims and even then I only play twice a year. But even I can have appreciation for this form of electronic lit. In my brain I never connected that hypertext and video games could be so connected because in all honesty I do not really care for video games. Something I find I really like about gamelike fiction is the way the reader becomes part of the game. It develops a new depth to literature and I like that. The process of creating these games is still wildly confusing to me and code feels like another language but I like the end process. 

This week I decided to play Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods. After playing for a good half and hour I got so stuck with the snake I had rage quit. I found this game to be really cool. At first I had trouble with the single word commands and got stuck at the end of the road a few times. Even not being a game person I found this very intriguing. I enjoyed how the computer would respond and almost guide me when I needed help. I really enjoyed how it was just words, I found that really cool. I liked the texting like format. It was very interactive and pulled me in right away. I might go back and try to figure out more, but the snake has me stuck. 

 Interactive fiction has interested me since I was a kid. I was always enthralled by the person-to-person perspective and enjoyed the concept of reading/experiencing the same thing, but with different outcomes. Interactive fiction is defined by a literary experience that is affected and explored through interactions and inputs from the reader. Similar to other genres we have explored, interactive fiction relies on a dynamic structure, as opposed to the typical linear structure of literature. One of my favorite examples of this is the 2018 Netflix phase of interactive stories. While a lot of those types of media have not stood the test of time, Black Mirror's Bandersnatch is still popular (within the niche community), likely due to its tie to the Black Mirror universe. However, it is one of the best media experiences I have ever had, and it can be done at any time. The interactive movie "trend" breached the mainstream media for a little bit, but was quickly forgotten about. Some users experienced interface issues and struggled with the formatting. 

As I went through the in-text references, I could not help thinking about the Oregon Trail game that we all (presumably) played in school. This game has multiple endings and is used as an educational platform. I played this game three times in K-12, but it was still the first thing on my mind when I was looking into these references. As mentioned, I have always enjoyed interactive fiction. I struggled with having a different learning "type" than my classmates in primary school, and integrating different mediums of educational practices saved me. I wish interactive fiction were more applicable in schools; students enjoy learning more when they are required to use empathy and see how their decisions affect things. 

Interactive Fiction

 Well, to nobody's surprise whatsoever I felt right at home in this chapter and content module. Interactive storytelling is a medium I personally cherish and seek out as a form of entertainment. Good literature can absolutely come in digital forms, and I'd go a step further to say experimenting with new forms of literature is an immensely enriching experience.  

The posed question of "games or literature" is asked much more often than we tend to think; people do it all the time, even subconsciously, when deciding their feelings on forms of media. Just like many people will spend hundreds or even thousands of hours playing video games but refuse to touch a book, there are literature lovers who would probably never pick up a game. Preference aside, the benefits of each are so far apart that there is little overlap at all in my mind. Interactivity and tangibility of a story gives that deeper level of engagement, but written works supplement visual detail for imagination and structure. 

Concerning empathy or other emotion, a game is equally able to convey any range of emotion to written word for the same reason that literature is lauded for this ability in the first place: human element. People who love what they do put themselves within it, no matter the medium. If a game has soul, then it has feeling, same with text. Equally true are soulless creations, that were not made with love, or maybe just didn't come out right. To use Howling Dogs as an example: there is intention and care in every phrase and description of the sanatorium (10/10 setting). It's literature because it's story is being shared with you through an author's words, but it holds the same interactive elements that make it an engaging game. Both of these elements work in tandem, and I'd argue that the experience would be lesser without either of them. A game without the vivid descriptions of surroundings, lighting, and layout would feel flat, and a written story would lack the mystery, agency, and exploration present in a game. 

tldr: BOTH! Both is great! 

 Interactive Fiction

I have enjoyed interactive fiction for a long time and enjoyed learning more about it a lot. I played through Zork I and Zork II in middle school, and it was interesting to return to them thinking about them in a literary sense. Seeing them in the same vein of riddles is not something I had thought of before, but makes a lot of sense considering how these kinds of games are won. I was surprised when Portal was mentioned at the end of the chapter because I have played that game but have not thought of it or its narrative much more than when I was playing it. It also made me think about other story-rich games I have played. The first one that came to mind was Baldur's Gate 3, which is essentially a digital version of D&D. Since D&D was also a big inspiration for Zork I had it in mind while playing through Zork again. Baldur's Gate is much more sophisticated than Zork but the latter was still able to evoke some of the same emotions. The main difference is Baldur's Gate seems a lot more intentional in the story it is telling. I hope we get to create some interactive fiction in this class as it is always something I have been interested in doing.  

Interactive Fiction

 In Chapter Four, Rettberg explains "interactive fiction", seen first as an adventure game, or a choose-your-own-adventure where the player can interact with said platform and essentially create or choose the outcome. It's hard to lose the "creative spark" in interactive fiction, because there is always something new to create or solve. When I think of interactive fiction, my mind instantly goes to Twine, as I've had experience in creating an interactive story. Which is why the Howling Dogs interactive story by the iconic Porpetine Charity, stuck out to me. This piece of interactive fiction was created on the one and only Twine. 

This story throws the reader, or player into a seemingly never-ending loop of exploring the eery setting of a treatment center, (from what I've gathered), and by all means, I love a good interactive psychological map. Though as you continue to make your way through the game, the setting I guess, deteriorates? As the player begins to feel the feeling of losing their ability to care for themselves. It's definitely a mind-warp as I made my way through the game. Super interesting. 

I definitely want to approach a project of a post-apocalyptic/psychological theme of interactive fiction. This chapter motivated me to want to dive deeper with Twine and create a choose-your-own adventure game. 

Interactive Fiction

  

     This past week, I've enjoyed experiencing with different pieces of interactive fiction, becoming both the reader and the player as I (unsuccessfully) explored Zork, The Bafflement Fires, and Howling Dogs by Porpentine Charity Heartscape. In Howling Dogs, I liked experiencing more with Twine, which feels infamous in this class, and thus I enjoyed exploring it further. Though I primarily enjoyed how Howling Dogs had elements of hypertext set in a broader, game-like environment (the player/reader's goal is to escape the "prison-like" black screen) I was initially drawn to Porpentine because Rettberg, in Electronic Literature, said that "Hypertext and interactive fiction had a baby and she named herself Porpentine Charity Heartscape." Very cheeky, Scott. 

      However, learning more about interactive fiction and the influence game-like programming has on electronic literature has made me question where the line is drawn: what is considered game, and what is considered literature? 

      A few years ago, I read Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; to break it down simply, it is a novel about friends who create video games, but the games and worlds they create are rooted in storytelling. This was my first introduction to the nuance and complexity of video games - which seems arbitrary to have read in a book, but alas, I am an English major - and I feel this idea of  meshing storytelling and game pairs nicely with James O'Sullivan's article "Good literature can come in digital forms - just look to the world of video games." Sullivan enforces the idea that good video games can have elements of storytelling - just like good pieces of electronic literature can have elements of game - which leads me to think that being specific about what is game and what is literature takes away from the conversation about the actual piece itself. There is nuance, and overlap, and I think being concrete about what is literature ultimately limits creativity when it comes to storytelling. 

      Besides, even Rettberg understands the complexity of interactive fiction: "IF can however sometimes seem more like conversing via telegraph with a precocious chimpanzee who has worked out a compass and the possession of objects than conversing with an adult human."

interactive fiction

 This chapter was interesting to learn about. I liked how it talked about the different ways to create fiction works. I liked how it talked about what the difference between interactive fiction and computer games .he first introduction to interactive fiction was adventure games. You would type commands that would control the character in the game. For example if you typed jump, you'd make your character jump. Because of this, most iF games are likely to be "solved" or "won". There's always something new in the interactive fiction community and I like that there's still ideas and people creating these fun works. The IF community originated in an almost completely network based fashion. One of the main activities that the player does is puzzle solving which I thought was cool. Depending on the work, the complexity of the game and characters varies. The reference I picked was Colossal Cave Adventure. To be honest, I gave up after 15 minutes. You have to type in commands and to try and find the cave. While I was typing commands for it to do, it didn't either understand or would just repeat the same things over and over again. When I realized that the game wasn't going anywhere, I closed out of it. It was kind of funny at the end because I would but in commands and the computer that pops up would just go "What?". Right before I clicked out it said something like "you can't go into the forest but you can stay in the stream" and I said "hmm" and it just said "I don't know that word!". I just thought it was funny that the computer had phrases for that. 

Colossal Cave Adventure

Blog: Games or literature?

    This week the textbook chapter and the article "Good literature can come in digital forms" better helped me understand interactive fiction as a combination of games and hypertext writing. What I love is how varied these games can be in their methods for conveying plots, emotions, characters, and tropes to interacts through different elements. While some rely on the classic adventure method like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure traveling through tunnels and collecting objects, others are based more in dialogue or interactions with NPCs. Others simply have users unwind a story rather than finding the 'solution' to the work. My dad said he played Zork when it came out and he thought it was very cool, but I'm not a big video game person and I struggle with enjoying games that block off areas or make difficult challenges just for me to learn more about the world I'm in or my own character. My favorite game is Animal Crossing or Mario Kart, so I found Zork difficult at first. Eventually I made my way into a canyon. I did enjoy the witty responses Zork would give me though: 

    Something from the textbook that really caught my attention was Nick Montfort's Ad Verbum. I played this for a bit and enjoyed the alliteration puzzles, and that it was within a house that was easy to navigate, rather than the big whole world of Zork. Montfort also had funny responses, writing that reminded me a bit of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which seems to be a common theme in the popular IF games. I also wanted to look at Emily Short's Galatea. In this IF work you are interacting with an animate marble statue, asking her questions and telling her things. Short says eventually this will lead to a multitude of different endings, and Galatea will react differently based on previous interactions in the playing. I liked how I was stationary in this work, instead of moving around a world map I cannot see, but I also found it difficult to ask the right things. I didn't find an ending yet. But the game functioning as a conversation is really interesting, and the textbook describes it as "a story telling system more than a game". The prose was beautiful, and made me want to investigate further to understand Galatea more. 

    What I do like about these works is you can scroll up through your playing and see all actions and dialogue that has happened, but there's no saving. I accidentally closed Ad Verbum and lost all progress :(

My Body a Wundermaker

 Going into this piece, I didn't know what the author was going to talk about. When I clicked on it I was kind of shocked. I wasn't expecting a naked female body. I felt like I wasn't supposed to see it. I clicked on every other body part that wasn't intimate first. I liked reading about what the author admired about her each part of her body. It made me realize that our body can only incredible things and that our bodies have been through so many different experiences and memories. Some of the authors writing did make me a little uncomfortable and squeamish but I like how the author didn't hide anything and was vulnerable. After going through the stories about her body I clicked on the breasts. Her experience with transitioning from a young girl into a woman was very moving. I think the process of puberty and growing into our bodies is something that isn't talked about enough. Her story about her vagina shocked me because I wasn't expecting the story that went along with it. It made me a little uncomfortable but I realized that's the point. A woman's body is a topic that makes people uncomfortable and is often looked at with shame and unease by others. After I read through the stories, I took a minute to reflect before I wrote this. I realized why I was so uncomfortable. It's because growing up, I was never taught things about my body without a form of censoring or having vague terms. When I had my first health class that talked about the female body, my teacher censored pretty much everything. And the boys in my class made fun of everything my teacher talked about. My Body a Wundermaker made me realize just how much the women's body is viewed as an uncomfortable topic and I like how the author is trying to break that view. 

Interactive Fiction

 

The readings for this week helped me understand more about the different way to create fiction, like interactive fiction. The concept of interactive fiction being compared to computer games gave me more insight about the difference, even if they were invented from computer games as the beginning thought. For example, the adventure games had idea to include text to their games. You would type commands into the server and the compute would recognize, controlling the character to do that action or go down that track. This was the first introduction to interactive fiction. I feel like the community of IF is very unique and tries to find out the best way to create new programs that tells stories in different ways. The IF programs are always new and creative. Then I read James O'Sullivan's blog about good literature in digital form. I liked how he talked about walking simulators as literacy elements. And how that they remove the usual gameplay concepts, focusing more on the atmosphere and story. They are more interesting to non-gamers because it doesn't feel like it's like a game, which can be scary and too boring for those non-gamers. The reference I chose was Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin. This is a interactive game where you are a spy trying to collect more details about where they are, and why they are hearing voices. You play by typing in commands. It was kinda confusing at first. I didn't know what commands I was allowed to type and if they would work. I had met with some problems with the computer not knowing certain words, learning you have to be very specific. However, it is cool to try to find out more information. 

I began the readings by opening up “Good literature can come in digital forms” by James O’Sullivan. I really found this article interesting because it was about something that I honestly really don’t like- video games. I’ve never played a video game before and I think I don’t like them because it's just a lack of knowledge when it comes to how to use the controllers, etc. However, this article made me want to try out all of these “walking simulators” or “literary video games”. This explains why I had such a hard time with “Zork”, I couldn’t figure out easily how to continue in the game and I quit playing pretty fast. I think it's really amazing how great people are with things like that and it's honestly something I envy. Furthermore, I chose to delve deeper into “The Chinese Room” which is the British gaming company that creates a lot of popular literary video games. They are best known for their exploration games which is the type of video that the couple played in the article that they really enjoyed. The company went through a lot of hardships and really couldn’t flourish anymore when it came to hiring employees and developing new games. Their latest game was still recent in 2025, but they aren’t developing on the same level as they were in the early 2000’s. As for Chapter 4 of Electronic Literature “Interactive Fiction and Other Gamelike Forms”, this chapter was pretty easy for me to follow. I don’t understand much about gaming, but it is something so common, in the comfort of everyone's home, that it's very easy to know what it is and very surface level information even if you don’t play the games. I enjoyed how the chapter discussed all of the interactive, literary video games from the beginning. “Zork” from the 80’s and “Colossal Cave Adventure” from the 70’s. I find the development of all of these very interesting and it makes me want to learn how to properly use all of these platforms and games. When the chapter started discussing worlds, puzzles, interactive fiction, etc that is what really drew my attention and felt like something I could do well. Even if it is still a “video game”, hearing it described as a puzzle makes it a lot more intriguing to me and feel like it is something I would want to participate in. I think what makes a "game" a work of e-lit is the creative aspect and the stories that these games can tell. They could convey an arrary of emotions just like a piece of literature could tell a story of quite literally anything you can imagine. These games add an interactive aspect to the liteary part of a story and create a world where you can feel maybe even more emotions than if you were just to simply read a piece.

Hypertext (pt .2)

 Continuing my exploration of hypertext narrative, I returned to My Body by Shelley Jackson. I'd previously seen this piece last semester, and I was curious if broadened perspective/understanding on the medium would enhance the experience over my first watch. I'm happy to say- it did!

My initial exploration was all about the adventure provided by clicking through the visual story. Each part of her body had another fragment of overall narrative, and while I recall at the time being somewhat lost, it was a great way to experience a story. Now I find the medium much more compelling for breaking down her message into smaller pieces. I will say that as someone who always aspires to 'complete' or see all of whatever I'm doing, I was going a little crazy trying to find every single offshoot path. 

I believe that personal stories, like Jackson's, are among the more successful in this format. The old 'Choose your own Adventure' style is fun, but often falls short of being compelling. When the story is central to one person, one experience, and every step is deepening the understanding between the author and reader I feel this medium excels.

my body —a Wunderkammer

I did my exploring on my body —a Wunderkammer By Shelley Jackson and it was amazing. Every click brought me deeper into her mind and her thoughts. What I loved about this piece is that it was so open and raw. Nothing was hiden or kept secret. Every detail that everyone thinks about their body was explained and written and published. The concept of clicking on her naked body to understand more about her is such a wonderful idea about openness and how the world interacts with a woman's body. I enjoy that it did not shy away from any part of her. I found her writing about her breast to be very moving. There is such an uncomfortable shift to womanhood little girls experience and it is never really spoken about. The life altering shift from being able to swim in the pond with no shirt off to being viewed as something unhuman. It is such a deeply disturbing switch that I find rarely spoken about. Everything was laced with humor and lightness even in the dark moments. A reflection on growing up in the most interesting way. One of my favorite sections was the one on her vagina. A historically (and currently) a  bold and polarising  topic and yet it has some of the most writing. The early part speaking about the unknowns to the coming to terms and the final acceptance. This piece is one of my favorites we have explored. 

    Hypertext 2

 

 

             The thing I found the most interesting in My Body is a Wunderkammer and Entre Ville is how they are able to use the medium of hypertext with things other than just words to make the narrative more impactful. The drawings in My Body is a Wunderkammer add a layer to the story that I think would be hard to achieve without them, and takes advantage of hypertext in a very effective way. Since you're clicking through the pages without really knowing where they will take you make the images jump out and set an expectation of what what happen on the page, kind of like a chapter title. I also found that I really like the body being the theme of a hypertext story and I think it works very well. Since the body can be so easily broken down into different parts it makes a lot of sense that a medium such as hypertext would lend itself well to a story about it. The way the narrator obsesses over their body also works really well since multiple links will go to the same page, you get the feeling of obsession.

 

 I think Entre Ville uses hypertext to an even greater degree since so much of it are the pop up windows with the videos that are throughout the piece. It gave me the feeling of exploring more than reading a piece of literature more than any other piece we have looked at so far. Additionally, I liked how the text in the middle of the screen had to be scrolled through slowly to read because I think it adds to the feeling of exploration, and of wandering through a city.

 This week, I explored My Body is a Wunderkramer by Shelley Jackson. In this hypertext piece, there is an interactive body with anecdotes and context from head to toe. Some had long paragraphs associated with them, and some just had a few sentences. I was impressed by the depth she associated with some of her body parts, vs others. She also utilizes syntax for a few of the body parts, using line breaks and drawings to break up space on each hyperlink. 

This specifically stood out to me because of the display of femininity. The female body is often shamed, being told to cover up to maintain poise and modesty. This piece derails that thought process and instead speaks through every part of her anatomy openly without censoring any medical terms. The drawings associated back this up as well, with no part left out/covered. 

I also liked the embedded links "within" the links. The sheer amount of information and stories on this page could result in hours of clicking around (Like I did). There is no "dead end" page that I could find, with every page having links to more pages.

My favorite was "tattoos." Jackson has twenty-eight tattoos, but only two done in black ink. The rest were done in skin-colored ink. While some may see this as a waste, I find it to be a unique artistic expression. Going through the motions of getting tattooed for yourself only is beautiful to me. 

Extra Hypertext Examples

 For some reason it was really hard to find another good example that I found interesting. I looked up examples and different forms of hypertext and different stories and I read a lot of different articles on it. One website I found was cool because it had a bunch of different interactive stories. I quickly went down a rabbit hole of all of the stories. Some were long some were super short, but they all were different. They all had to do with choosing a path of life and careers and you get to decide where their life goes. Some didn't have to do with careers but more with what their life would look like depending on what choice they make. There's two thousand six hundred and thirty- seven different stories you can choose from and they're all super cool. I didn't go through the almost three thousand different stories but I went through a bunch of them. A lot of the stories have really similar if not identical titles which can make it confusing cause it feels like I've read the same story multiple times. I also thought it was cool too that this website gives you the chance to make your own hypertext story. I chose not to do that but I thought it was a cool that they give you the option to do so.  I also love how every story has a different author and there's not that many duplicates. It's interesting to see how many people love to create hypertext and create these really cool interactive stories. 

https://virtualwritingtutor.com/hypertext-narrative/published-hypertext-narrative-examples

Hypertext Pt.2

Hypertext pieces such as My Body a Wonderkammer, by Shelley Jackson, revolve around a non-linear and interactive element that forms a narrative. This piece in particular takes on a very artistic, creative format as we see drawings, inspired by "Patchwork Girl", another piece by Shelley Jackson, as it relates to the human experience of body parts. I believe its the interactive element that makes it feel so personal to every individual reader. 

Giving "Entre Ville" by J.D. Carpenter a try was an interesting experience. I was initially fascinated by the collage like style when opening the link. Similarly to "My body a Wonderkammer" By Shelley Jackson, there is an artistic element within the piece that allows for the reader to experience more than just literature. In contrast, we see the pop-up experience was a lot different in comparison to My Body, and videos played as well. As the videos play with natural audio backgrounds, you feel immersed in this raw video format in the interactive piece where the reader choses were to go. We experience the neighborhood which Carpenter films and depicts, as if we are walking through it with her and understanding those experiences with more context.  That is the interesting thing about hypertext is that it comes in so many forms, and again, the non-linear element separates these pieces from ordinary literature. Its very poetic in its relation to the more traditional aspects of poetry and literature. 

Hypertext Fiction (pt. 2)

 

    I chose to explore Entre Ville by J.R. Carpenter with a more in-depth perspective because I was drawn to the characteristics of the work - I liked how this piece told the story of a place, and less the story of a person or idea, which have been the focus of some other hypertext works we have looked at in this class. 

    Carpenter based the piece on her town, Mile End, which is a neighborhood in Montreal. She says she spent years learning the "vocabulary" of Mile End - learning less the languages spoken by locals and more the physicality of Mile End itself (the shapes of the alleyways, the balconies, the graffiti, the clothes hung out to dry, etc) - which is evident based on the sheer detail and poetic themes of Entre Ville. 

    When you first open Entre Ville, you are met with a crude sketch of an apartment complex and random things that pay homage to Mile End (like a dog, or the number four). Clicking through, you find videos of Mile End and Carpenter's poetry, which allow you to learn more intimately about the neighborhood. My favorite lines are: "In an intimacy / born of proximity / the old Greek lady and I / go about our business." I feel it keenly highlights the relationship between people and the places they live, and how close-knit neighborhoods, like Mile End, can feel rich, textured, and poetic when you allow yourself to look for it.

    I thought this piece was a great example of hypertext because it was easily consumable and there was an identifiable theme. (Also, it was easy to navigate back to the home page!) I liked how the work allowed the audience to explore the town in any order as if they, too, were learning the vocabulary of Mile End for the first time. 

    In this essay for MIT, Carpenter describes how Entre Ville works better in the format of hypertext than print, and it reminded me of "A Cyborg Manifesto". In her essay, Haraway argues that we have experienced a technological revolution, and so the definition of things like "man" and "machine" are blurred. I feel that electronic literature is a prime example of these blurring boundaries - hypertext, for example, combines the technology of the web with the creativity and storytelling of poetry and literature. However, I like how authors like Carpenter defend these "blurring boundaries" and argue that it has made their work better for it, as it proves that cultural and technological changes can be positive.  

Anyways here's a cat:

My Body a Wonderkammer and Hypertext Fiction

    I really enjoyed Shelley Jackson’s My Body a Wonderkammer. It is so simple, yet so thoughtful. I like that it combines the ‘mapping’ element of hypertext narratives with a human body. Clicking on one part of the body leads the reader to a short narrative about the narrator’s life through that body part. Then, text within that narrative are linked to other body parts or other stories. I like that reading this work feels like getting to know someone; the more you talk to someone the more you learn about them through conversation and coincidence, and by the time I finished reading My Body I felt as though I knew the narrator. This hypertext fiction is similar to the effects of a written novel and how a readers becomes more attached to the main characters by the end of the book, but instead My Body is nonlinear, and readers can explore how they want through the narrator’s body and life. I wonder the differing emotions different readers feel when they read this work, as each will discover My Body’s stories on a different path? This work reminds me of memory, nostalgia, and making peace with a body and life that the narrator maybe perhaps disliked once upon a time. It also smoothens the lifetime of the narrator’s body, by taking readers back into memories and comparing the body to past and present. The digital format of My Body allows readers to literally get lost inside the narrator’s form, which carries with it all her stories and experiences connected to the parts of her body, making it a fascinating candidate for hypertext fiction. 

    Like many hyptertext narratives, My Body relies on linking parts of a greater story through layers of code and html pages. Again I find myself returning to the quote from the textbook's chapter on hypertext, how "the subjective experience of human consciousness is messier" than a linear and orderly progression, and "memories of past and projects of the future interpellate our experience of everyday life". The narrator of My Body carries her body with her through everyday life, and Jackson has designed the work so that readers can explore the narrator's connections to her body and her consciousness in that body through nonlinear, disordered memories. The textbook also mentions "narrative structure". I think the way in which Jackson invites readers into the narrator's digital body is an extremely important part of the text working as it does, similar to how Sunshine 69 brings readers to the specific accounts of different characters, or Entre Ville invites readers into the neighborhood through different objects and windows. What I mean to say is that the medium and method a hypertext author choses to convey their work greatly effects the outcome of the work, and I feel that greatly with My Body a W
onderkammer. 

 

When I read more about Hypertext, I found "These Waves of Girls" made by Caitlin Fisher had peaked my interest. It is a hypertext novella that explores different aspects about girlhood, identity, sexuality, and many other factors. These topics are told through different perspectives of girls that are different ages. They are through a four year old, ten year old, and a twenty year old. It shows how memories from these girls effect them individually. Some are there to display how the girls are victims and victimizers, but that doesn't make them any different. It was awarded the Electronic Literature Organization. It was the first award given for work of fiction.The book told me about how it is made up of hypertexts that you click to get more of a story or a different one. It includes images, animation, and links. The hypertext is all over the place and is to make the readers think that they are going through memories of the girls. And it's supposed to show the stages of girlhood. Caitlin Fisher created this project with background audio and repetition with images. 

I found this interesting because I really think it's cool how Fisher made this to have reader understand girlhood. I believe that girlhood is very hard to understand if you are not a girl or woman. We have many different events that happen to us, and how they shape all of us are not the same to any woman. And I also found it amazing how this project is told though different stages of life. I think that shows just how mind-blowing growing up as a girl can be. I wasn't able to to find the software, but I did found images and videos. The media that I found looked like a flash window not the whole screen, and it came off kinda like a scrapbook with writing under the pictures of childhood. 

Donna Haraway’s "A Cyborg Manifesto" was something I found to be very confusing, but still pretty interesting. From what I was able to grasp I feel that it presents an ironic political myth that uses the cyborg (a hybrid of machine and organism) as a metaphor to go beyond the set boundaries of traditional feminism, socialism, and materialism. By embracing blasphemy and irony, the author rejects the journey for a return to a "natural" Eden. This argues that modern humans are already "chimeras" fabricated from technology and biology. This cyborg identity skips the traditional Western origin stories found in Marxism and psychoanalysis. These ideas rely on the concept of "man vs. nature" or "self vs. other." Instead, the cyborg exists in a post-gender space that is uncoupled from organic reproduction and patriarchal history. Although the cyborg is the "illegitimate offspring" of militarism and capitalism, Haraway suggests its lack of innocence and its commitment to connection make it a powerful tool for subverting systems of domination. Additionally, I just wanted to dive a little deeper into the concept of the "post-gender" idea that is presented in the Cyborg Manifesto. I feel like Haraway uses this idea as a way to challenge the traditional Western concepts of "origin". Unlike humans in this Western tradition. cyborgs have no originality within nature. It doesn't dream of returning to anywhere or have connections with people like how humans have homes and families. Also, the cyborg is not born of organic reproduction, it exists in a world where gender is no longer a fixed, binary requirement for existence. Finally, I just wanted to talk about my experience looking through the piece "My Body". I think that during this course so far that is my favorite work we have looked at. It is so simple, but still has so much to unpack throughout the whole site. Each body part has a story, and there are still stories within the body part passages. It is very meaningful and an emotional piece. It seems like something I would love to be able to create someday, I feel like I have so many stories about my life and expereinces and this is one way I'd love to put them all into one spot.

Hypertext as a writing tool

This chapter's focus was on the history and usage of hypertext in digital media. What stood out most to me was that the original intent behind hypertext as a whole was to provide additional anecdotes or information to the audience supplementary to the main structure- in this way, it was already being used in a narrative sense. 

There's a pretty intrinsic link between the navigational aspect of hypertext and those of 'choose your own adventure' novels and multimedia. While I myself was never a fan of choose-you-own book formats, the merit is far greater to me in a digital setting. By placing the possibility of navigation, discovery, and variability to the experience, the ball is now in the reader's court to create their own singular experience with the piece of media. It is an entirely new dimension of interactivity that, when used properly, can absolutely enhance the right forms of narrative.

Hypertext

 Going into this chapter I didn't know a lot about hypertext but the chapter really expanded my knowledge on it. A cool fact that I learned is the "h" in https means hypertext. Hypertext was one of the first forms of electronic literature that gained interest. It's a piece of fiction that has embedded links throughout.Some examples of this are an interpretation of "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley and "Patchwork Girl". Readers are able to use various different hyperlinks to create literature. It was created in the late 80's early 90's by a group of writers that wanted to give readers an opportunity to have an input on how the story went. When the internet was first starting to be talked about, hypertext was starting to become a popular subject. It's also cool to hear about how hypertext has evolved throughout the years. I've always loved English classes but I've never heard about hypertext, so reading this chapter was very insightful. 

The reference I picked was Olia Lialina's My Boyfriend Came Back from the War. It's an interactive website that was one of the first hypertext fictions that was published on the internet. It works by clicking different gif images that are in framed. The story is a conversation between a girl and her boyfriend who's a soldier that just returned from war. By the user clicking on different links, it brings the user through different dialogue. Different links give you different images that help you piece together the story. As the story continues you see there's an emotional distance between the girl and her boyfriend. It's also inferred that she had an affair while her boyfriend was fighting in the war. I thought this was a really interesting story and an interesting way to tell it. 

my boyfriend came back from the war

 

This chapter took everything I previously knew about hypertext and expanded on it. I believed the stereotypical comment: Hypertext fiction is merely a story with embedded links. It goes against the "laws" of narrative and breaks down typical structure. I found this to be super interesting. I have been taking various English classes my entire life, but this has exposed me to an entirely different dimension of what literature is defined as. I also enjoyed how "untraditional" the reader is as well. There is emphasis placed on the reader becoming a navigator and going through the program/pages/etc. in a second-person POV. My favorite example of this is definitely Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. This came out in prime "choose your own adventure" type movies/shows, and is extremely underrated. It takes this crazy twist on hypertext, while still having the black mirror elements. That is definitely an example of a more developed nonlinear media, but it is proof that hypertext lives on, just in different mediums. 

Even though the textbook had lots to say about Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson, I still wanted to explore more. I never read Frankenstein (Gasp), so I had limited information about Mary Shelley before going into this.  Patchwork Girl offers a different perspective - a female one. However, in true hypertext fashion, it is not a linear story. Similar to the concept of Frankenstein being "patched" together, this piece uses lexia to break up the content. 

 

This chapter really went into everything hypertext. If I am being honest I still find it a little confusing but I enjoy that it is more of an art than anything else. Something I am noticing about electronic lit is that it becomes more of an art the more you look into it. I also love how interactive it is. You are able to experience it in a way that is just not possible in a book. I find this to be really cool. I say it every time but how wonderful must it have been to be a pioneer of this stuff! 

I wanted to take a deeper look at Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse. And what a wild ride that is. I typed it into google and hit the first link and that was transported into the early 90s. The program was able to go full screen on my laptop and it was really cool. At first it just looked like an old school windows program. I clicked around until I found a file that said "Click me first". I did what any normal person would do and clicked it. It then took me deeper into the program. I finally arrived at the funhouse. It has different windows to click into. It honestly gave me a really creepy vibe. I liked it. I watched the art gallery and it had something to do with his missing father. It is a really cool concept and I wonder what it would have looked back in the 90s. 

 Hypertext Fiction

 

I found this chapter to be very interesting to read and greatly expanded my understanding of  hypertext fiction. Before reading this chapter I was aware with what hypertext was in a general sense of how it is used online but had not thought of how it could be used in fiction. I also realized that I was very familiar with hypertext non-fiction as I use Wikipedia a lot and they way I navigate the site is through clicking through the links. I was very surprised to find out that platforms such as Storyspace were published as early as 1987 since it was just a few years after the internet was becoming a big thing. The part of the chapter I found most interesting was how hypertext can be identified by when it was made in relation to the release of the World Wide Web. It made me think about how classic literature is often thought of in relation to dates and events (such as pre and post industrial revolution literature) and the hypertext genre does a similar thing but on a much smaller timescale. 

 

I decided to look at Mark Amerika's Grammation which, as the textbook says, retells the golem myth. It was a very interesting experience to click through the website. Since the story just throws you into it without any real directions on what to do you piece through the story in your own way and make out what is happening. The result is a very easy reading experience that, though confusing, is not frustration or complicated to get through. Since clicking on the links feels so natural as someone who has had the internet for all my life I was able to just experience the story. I definitely don't think I got through most of the story since the textbook says it has over 1000 elements, but it was a great introduction to what hypertext fiction is like. 

Hypertext Fiction!!!

Hypertext is one of my favorite topics in the Digital Literature realm. I love the idea of the culmination of digital networks mixed with a non-linear plot/text. In chapter three of Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg, it is evident that the idea of hypertext is a foundation to electronic literature and, by extension, a foundation to the way humans interact with digital elements. Rettberg essentially describes that Hypertext is more than it comes off to be, and it is a creative medium that demonstrates the capabilities formed in the digital field. Through works of "The Garden of Forking Paths", which is a great example of what the author describes as something not linear, as opposed to a straight line, as it is a story within a story.  

"Patchwork Girl", by Shelley Jackson, takes on the concept of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," which shows the creative extent of hypertext literature and how it shows fluidity through ideas and storylines, especially the change from Victor creating Frankenstein, to the creation of a woman character that mirrors Frankenstein and its symbolism. Which is why hypertext is so fascinating, as it shows itself in the places you wouldn't think it would be. This piece reminds me of "My body" which Shelley Jackson also created, which is a hypertext piece that stuck out to me, and I believe is worth experiencing as it is a form of art and literature interconnected. 

These pieces are a beautiful correlation of the inner workings of hypertext, which is why I am personally so fond of the field of hypertext, as I have past experience in creating my own versions. I find it to be a creative outlet to produce not only literature but art and history in ways that network original and non-linear ideas. I would love to even discuss the process of my hypertext, as it was such a meaningful process! 

Before I get carried away, though, this week's readings really interested me as the idea of hypertext is growing and evolving in such positive ways, especially as it becomes more useful and common in this digital age. 

Hypertext Fiction

After reading the third chapter of Scott Rettberg’s Electronic Literature, what stood out to me about hypertext fiction was how it was built from the “abandonment of linearity” (a term Rettberg coins) and the acceptance of narrative structures that are multilinear. The very nature of hypertext fiction is that the narrative structure is created by the reader, who clicks the connecting links in the order that they please, and thus the fragmented texts make a new story for the reader. I liked this idea of storytelling and way of expressing language - perhaps because it reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read in elementary school - but nevertheless I think the concept of transferring authorship to the reader (who inherently “creates” the narrative structure) is interesting. 

“The Garden of Forking Paths” touches on this idea of indefinite storylines as well; Dr. Yu Tsun, a spy for Germany, meets Dr. Stephen Albert (who he later kills), and they discuss Ts’ui Pên’s legacy/labyrinth/book, and how “the garden of forking paths” is multilayered - there are infinite possible outcomes that exist simultaneously, but every decision leads to one path. This is the very nature of hypertext fiction; there are an infinite number of outcomes the reader can create, but their choices create one “new” narrative. 

I chose to explore The Unknown by William Gillespie, Frank Marquardt, Scott Rettberg and Dirk Stratton - an example that is a “‘sickeningly decadent hypertext novel’” (Rettberg, 81). The narrative follows the authors on their book tour; however, the links take you to seemingly random and incoherent pieces (like “Winelist of the Unknown” or “Williams’ New Years Resolutions 1996”, or a correspondence where Scott describes how he made his poetry students eat fried chicken) so the reader is left to piece together meaning - which is difficult, considering the themes of The Unknown and the general randomness of the entire piece. However, this is definitely a piece that I will come back to, because there are too many hidden meanings and fun-subplots to explore in one sitting.

   I found Scott Rettberg’s Chapter 3 of Electronic Literature, “Hypertext Fiction”, to be a very fundamental chapter to understanding Digital Literature. It explains the relationship between the author and the reader to be something deeper than what I originally thought. He defines hypertext as an array of “interconnected documents”-aka lexias. Readers can navigate using hyperlinks, this was a concept foreshadowed by Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Garden of Forking Paths”. Software like “Storyspace” in the 90’s allowed authors to create complex works like “Afternoon” by Micheal Joyce and Shelley Jackson’s “Patchwork Girl”, and interpretation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”.      

     Rettberg claims that the power of hypertext is in its capability to mirror the nature of human consciousness, which operates through memory and connection rather than a straight line. This medium/connection allows the reader to be very creative, as the meaning of the story is co-created through the sequence of choices the reader makes. Overall, Rettberg illustrates that hypertext is not only a technical format for the "H" in HTTPS, but a tool that allows for a more creative, and scattered  representation of the human experience.

     Furthermore, this digital format can be found in classic literature pieces like “The Garden of Forking Paths”. This piece serves as a philosophical blueprint for hypertext fiction. It features a “book-labrinth” where any possible outcomes occur all together at the same time. The author, Borges, explores time not as something linear, but as a series of paths that interlink and overlap. I chose to bring in Shelley Jackson's “Patchwork Girl” (1995) from the chapter as my “bring it in”. I feel that this piece is a good example of how the form of hypertext can match well with the theme of a story. It is a postmodern piece that reimagines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but instead of the character Victor building a monster, the story follows the creation of a female character. This is important for Rettberg to highlight in the chapter because it emphasizes the fact that hypertext isn’t just something unserious, in proves that digital literature can handle the complex themes and convey ideas just as meaningful as classic literature pieces.

Hypertext Fiction and "The Garden of Forking Paths"

    “The Garden of Forking Paths” immediately throws the reader into a layered historical space, with a Chinese man named Tsun living in England while working as a German imperial spy. The initial story begins as a tale-within-a-tale structure, the author explaining to us from the present this situated past where the Garden of Forking Paths occurs, and the remainder of the story takes place in this past. The language is dream-like and distant, the main character seeming to be in a trance as he goes to a man Albert’s house who he discovers to be a sinologist studying Tsun’s own ancestor, who was murdered after spending thirteen years writing/crafting a book/labyrinth. Albert tells Tsun that the book and the labyrinth are one in the same, and that that “The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time” without ever saying the word ‘time’. 

    The entire story is fascinating as a work of ‘hypertext’ because of its structure of a tale-within-a-tale, and the conjuring of a distant, unfinished book-labyrinth which muddles the meaning of time, consequences, and actions, while the author’s ancestor murders the one person who has divulged the book-labyrinth's function. Also the final fact that Tsun has completed his mission as a German spy, communicating to his general through the newspaper story on his crime that British troops are in a town called Albert, Somme – a deep play on language and communication in a story already curiously focused on interpretation, and communication over space and time in different formats – certainly adds to the literal meaning of ‘hypertext’. 

    “The Garden of Forking Paths” was not what I imagined hypertext to be after reading the textbook chapter on hypertext fiction, but I do see how the textbook’s notes on proliferating texts, instantaneous and overwritten works, and elements unfolding in unusual temporal flows certainly constitutes “The Garden” as hypertext. One point I found especially fascinating from the textbook chapter on hypertext was the quality of adaptability and the extendable format of digital texts. Before standardized programming like HTML, adaptability was more difficult. But with the implementation of universal software, hypertext could be translated everywhere and accessed in multiple spaces of the internet and computers. This idea immediately coming from contemporary fiction focused on shifts of point of views, recycled and represented motifs, and manifestations of narrative voice created a world of hypertext where unique visions of humanity could be translated into digital form and written for multiple audiences. The textbook notes how the “subjective experience of human consciousness is messier” than just a linear simple storyline – hypertext was able to break that linear stream, much like “The Garden” attempts to do through its construction and themes. Digital hypertext allowed authorship of these modern themes in even more disconnected, fragmented, and “messy” illustration of humanity through simple, extendable, and transparent online formats. 

 

HYPERTEXT FICTION

Before reading about hypertext fiction, I had no idea how bug of an impact Hypertext actually was. I had no idea that the H in "https" that begins every website and browser stood for Hypertext. Hypertext Fiction is all about story fragments combined together by links that readers click to continue the stories. it was firstly made in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, and a group of writers started to find interest in the concept of giving readers some input on when and how stories were going to continue on. Hypertext was getting more popular when the Internet became the topic of discussion. This kind of fiction changes the narrative for every story based on what is pressed. It is wicked cool to think about, and how the creators could think about these things. I could not create this cool of a type of fiction, it must have taken a lot of thinking to make sure that all the readers are enjoying it. 

I also found it cool that hypertext was one of the connections between the literacy and network computing. It really showed just how impactful hypertext really was. And it was cool to read about how hypertext transformed into more softwares like interactive 3D  works in CAVE and app on mobile devices. The chapter then talks about what "hyper " stands for. They state that it is just a web of "interconnected documents". That is an interesting way to put it. I found that an easy way to understand what Hypertext is, and how it works.

For my reference, I chose Deena Larson's Marble Springs. It is a story of different women in a ton of generations that have lived in a heavily mining town called Marble Springs. It gives all the perceptive from all the woman. And you don't read it in a straight line. You have to click names or places or themes. it was confusing to figure out at first but then I was able to understand. It's cool how there are little paragraphs or poems, and words were highlighted to switch over to what they were talking about. I thought it was cool that you could pick from stories.

Combinatory Poetics

 This chapter was a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the idea of being able to break down and identify pieces of a greater picture and mixing and matching to create a poem is incredibly cool. On the other, reducing any creative process to algorithmic roots feels somehow like a part of what makes it 'art' is inevitably going to be lost. 

A fair comparison, I feel, is making a collage. Take the collage piece created during last week's class for example: we have made a new, fresh, and transformative creation based upon the works displayed in the gallery, and that transformation has value in of itself. But is it art? I'd argue that transplanting the soul of the original work is impossible, and that it has instead been overwritten with the intentions of the new creator. 

Tangent aside, it's a deeply interesting topic. Generating poems based upon pieces and half-stanzas is a very cool side project, but again, I'd argue even if it's coming from 'you' it's still not art. The process to me is significantly more meaningful and relevant than the product, and by shortcutting or eliminating the process, the product loses value. 

 I thought this chapter was very interesting and gave me a greater understanding of how computers can be used to create literature in a way that is simply not possible without them. Learning about dada was very interesting and made me think about how I interact with art. The thing I found most interesting was the international aspect of dada as I have not thought about how far art movements can go before. Additionally, learning about the algorithms and randomness that computers were able to give to poetry made me think a lot about the poetry I have read before. It made me think about how carefully authors choose every single word, and how introducing such randomness changes it so much it is almost hard to think of them as the same end product. 

 

 

I really enjoyed learning about Queneau and playing around with the Hundred Thousand Billion Poems. I didn't take the final product into account when creating my sonnet, as just picked the lines I thought sounded the best. The end product does not really make too much sense, but for picking lines at random I do think it's surprisingly cohesive. I also thought of the whole process as part of the work and not just the final product. That created a sort of 'the journey is more important than the destination' sense to the work that I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 I'm going to be completely honest, I don't like poetry. But I respect it. I think the appeal and the idea is nice but it just doesn't speak to me. Reading this chapter was a bit challenging to try and find interest in it but I liked how it talked about the early forms of e-lit poetry. I liked how it talked about how machines got into the world of e-lit, I liked learning about that. I liked how this chapter went into detail about different programing types and the technology behind the creation of poetry. 

For my reference I picked the Cent Mille milliards de poems book. I thought it was very cool and interesting that the reader could make their own poems out of the book. I think the idea of this book is very unique and I love how hands on it is for the reader. The poems might not make sense but I think that's the beauty behind it. While experimenting with it, none of mine made sense. I tried to make them make sense but I couldn't and I thought that was kinda cool in a way. 

 

I found this chapter to be very interesting. I like regular poetry as a writing style normally but this enters a new world. I enjoy that is a wacky and sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense. I found Nanette Wylde’s Storyland (2002) to be very fascinating. The random story that on the surface seems like it doesn't make much sense but I think that is part of its appeal. In this chapter he directs his focus on early forms of electronic lit, something I find very cool. Creating with something so new and not fully understood must have been such a cool time. 

I also did one of the create your own poems on the Cent mille milliards de poèmes site and this was so cool. The concept of clicking buttons to create with what other people have created is really cool. I went in blind with my poem and just clicked the line I liked best. I think it came out well, but it makes little sense. I like the ending lines, I think they sound well together and not like they are completely random. 

Combinatory Poetics

                                 

"You can not will spontaneity. But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors." -William S. Burroughs

The second chapter of Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg explored combinatory poetics, which relies on the randomness of computer algorithms to create poems. This randomness removes subconscious constraints that writers place on themselves when creating, allowing the unconscious to "fuel" creative practice and form something new (Rettberg, 24). The key artistic practice for combinatory poetics and generative writing is the randomness of the computer, and this functions as an ironic critique to standard literature, which relies heavily on logic, rationality, and grammatical constructs. I enjoyed learning about the Dadaists and their anti-art movement post-WWI, which Rettberg touched on in the beginning of this chapter. Rettberg described how this movement influenced modern poetry generators and combinatory poetics, and has encouraged writers to re-define what poetry, and art, really is. 

A notable section of this chapter was when Rettberg described the characteristics of compelling poetry; often, he described, if you read a text that you are told is poetry, you will feel "compelled to make meaning of it" (Rettberg 35). After experimenting with Cent mille milliards de poèmes, I found that this was true, as I caught myself looking for the meaning in the random sonnets I created. This critique of poetry and a broader mockery of the literary/publishing world lead me to explore Jim Carpenter and his Issue 1: Fall 2008 - a 3,785 page collection of poems advertised as the work of contemporary poets, but instead all created by a poetry generator. UNH has blocked a lot of sites that still have this anthology, but you can access it here. (Beware!)

Here's a section from "Of idleness", a poem featured in the anthology:

It's not a world, it's a 

rite

More helmented than idleness

Imperceptible worlds in unbuttoned

existence, where earths seemed

narrow

Turning idleness with sleep

Naturally, Carpenter's publication created significant backlash. Barry Schwabsky, one of the poets "featured" in the anthology, said that the publication was "the most provocative hoax to hit the poetry world". Unlike Schwabsky, I found the satire amusing.

       In Chapter 2 of Scott Rettberg's “Electronic Literature” he explores Combinatory Poetics, this chapter focused on the use of words, lines, stanzas, etc. rather than a fixed narrative. The parts of the chapter I enjoyed were the history of combinatory poetics and how that is really the oldest genre of electronic literature as well as the background and explanations of “dada”. This was a phrase and concept I was completely unaware of and I look forward to learning more about this concept and art form. 

      The additional readings, “Introduction to Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes” and the Electronic Literature Directory website were very enjoyable to click through and see everything that both sites had to offer. The Introduction to Queaneau site was very immersive because of the way you could interact with all of his sonnets and see them in a slideshow format. I also really enjoyed creating my own sonnet with lines of his already existing sonnets.         

      Additionally, the E-lit directory website was extremely helpful and I look forward to going back to the site for future help with all things digital literature. It contains just about everything a novice in electronic literature could want, from authors to all kinds of resources. I decided to just click the first thing that caught my eye and dive a little deeper into its contents. The source I chose is “Analyzing Digital Fiction” by Alice Bell, Astrid Ensslin, and Hans Rustad. This resource is able to be purchased online and described as offering a wide variety of  chapters discussing hypertext fiction, flash fiction, twitter fiction, and even videogames.