In my opinion, game, game, game and again game by Jason Nelson is aggravating. There isn’t one aspect of this work that appeals to me. Regardless of the statement it makes, I would never want to engage it again, and I probably would not recommend it to anyone. Unlike Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and the Bible-one of the most enduring works of all time and a work that Nelson ridicules-game, game, game and again game most likely will not stand the test of time. (I couldn’t stand it for 15 minutes.) Related to our class, I find myself questioning over and over, what is art? And I keep coming back to my own personal criterion: Does the experience make me a better person? Writers like Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Booker T. Washington, and Harper Lee have contributed to my personal growth and have enhanced my life. I can honestly say that their works have made me a better person. Nelson has the opposite effect on my psyche. He successfully irritates me. I am more attracted to some form of beauty than any form of annoyance. And, yes, I think it is true…beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I appreciate the exposure to textual media, but I can’t help but notice something curious. Electronic literature is not overwhelmingly popular. Most everyone is familiar with Asteroids but not Arteroids. Most everyone is familiar with Orson Wells but not Orson Whales. When television eclipsed radio, the new technology was better and everyone wanted to own a television. I can remember when a high school friend told me that cassette tapes would replace albums. I couldn’t believe it, but within two years, I had purchased a cassette tape case and had filled it with cassettes. I am building a personal library of books that I love-Shakespeare, the Bible, Anna Karenina, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. I want to include all of Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare films in my DVD collection, but…I don’t think I will include the Bomar Gene or game, game, game and again game.
Today, when we discussed the difference between conventional games and counter games, I (finally!) began to see that many of the game related works we have explored are deliberately the antithesis of what I naturally expect and enjoy. I guess I’m a little slow, but this finally helps answer another question I have frequently asked myself, “WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS?!” Art that is counter to the norm has a more jarring effect than art that conforms to the norm. Prof. Sample used the term upside down related to counter games. Shakespeare employed an upside down device in his works. It is called topsy-turvy (referred to in I Henry IV.i.83) and dates back to Saturnalia. So, this is a technique that has proved to be effective in art through time. (In the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo employs the same idea related to the Feast of Fools.)
Electronic literature definitely turns things around and shakes things up. Sometimes it’s dizzying!
Just in case anyone is interested in exploring the topic, Leo Tolstoy wrote an essay entitled “What is Art?” Excerpts can be found on-line at http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html