Chapter Two of "Electronic Literature," By Scott Rettberg, was filled with so much valuable information, almost to the point where I felt as though I couldn't absorb as much of it as I had hoped. The discussion of combinatory poetics was intriguing, as I adore poetry as much as the next, and I always found generative poetics interesting, as I try to understand how it has altered the state of "human poetics." As it is quite obvious that the context will change depending on the medium, whether it be a computer-programmed project or a print publication, it changes how each viewer interacts with that piece.
Throughout the chapter, various techniques were discussed. From surrealist practices, which are essentially automatic writing techniques that go into things such as written interactive games. And then we have the exquisite corpse technique, which follows the idea of having many outcomes depending on the player or viewer. Collaging, especially in a digital sense, was what the Dada and the Surrealists used when producing work. The procedural nature goes into the initial practices behind the game rather than creative inspiration. A last example can be the use of found texts and how that coheres with the practices of many writers in the process of combinatory poetics. The reason I mention these techniques is because it shows how fixed digital literature is and, more specifically, combinatory poetics.
A piece that stuck out to me within the text that I had looked into was House of Trust, by Stephanie Strickland and Ian Hatcher (2015), as it was inspired by the first computer poem, House of Dust, created by Alison Knowles and James Tenney (1967) Which was the main reason why the House of Trust stuck out to me in the way that it did because of its similarities yet stark differences from the House of Dust. Strickland and Hatcher's creation was made to honor and promote free libraries. Which puts an interesting twist on the digital aspect of the poem; is it to get a larger audience to support the cause? or is it to hint at the spread of digital humanities and its inevitable connections to physical literature? Very interesting!
Cent Mille Milliards de Poemes reminded me a lot of the House of Trust, as visually, they appear very similar from the start, its definitely different eras that create the distinction of difference. I felt as though the piece was slightly out of context, and while I know that is the point, to take ten poems and turn them into other sonnets. I felt like I couldn't achieve an accurate experience like I did with Strickland and Hatcher's piece.
l like your notes on the viewer interaction aspect of combinatory poetry. The practices that go into these poetry algorithms and games are just as important, if not more important to e-lit as a whole, than the outcome. I like describing it as "an altered state" of poetics!
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