Monday, March 23, 2026
Chapter 6, Network Writing, was a simple read and easy to understand. As someone who is learning all about digital literature for the first time, this was a chapter I found very easy to digest which made it more interesting. It seems like the basic idea is that network writing is text that it created specifically for the internet. It can still be interactive and include many different aspects of other interactive works. I like how collaborative network writing can be, like twitter chains and even through email. Network writing emphasizes collaborative authorship. The "author" is a facilitator or a participant rather than the only creator. Rettberg argues that literature moved from a finished product (a book) to an ongoing process within a network. The piece of network writing I looked into is Teju Cole’s “Hafiz” which is an example of network writing because it used the social aspect of Twitter to create a narrative rather than just publish one. Cole didn't tweet the story from his own account initially. Instead, he sent segments of the story to various friends and followers through Direct Message. He was able to make the story by retweeting those individuals in a specific order. What I found the most interesting was that for Cole’s followers, the story didn't just appear as a block of text; it appeared as a series of voices from across the globe appearing on their timeline. Furthermore, “The Unknown” was pretty cool to look around as well, it followed non-linear paths and had a map. I liked how readers navigate by clicking hyperlinked words within the text, which transport you to different scenes, cities, or flashbacks. The interface often uses a color-coded map of the United States, where different colors represent different narrative threads or moods. Because of its scale, I found it hard to read every page. I like games like this, how every reader's experience is unique based on the links they choose.
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I also liked how The Unknown had a map! I found it easier to navigate/ follow because of it
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