<\/p>\n
Electronic Literature<\/p>\n
\n
A couple notes from the reading:<\/p>\n
\n
Before diving into new texts\u2014I prefer to read the articles about them so I have an idea of what to expect. <\/span>In the beginning they discuss the digitality of all current texts\u2014the basic precept of nearly all books\u2014they are formed and stored digitally. <\/span>In a previous English class, we read House of Leaves<\/em> by Mark Danielewski. <\/span>While the author does not go into this novel in depth regarding the visuality\u2014it was truly unique. <\/span>Visually, words appeared in different parts in the page\u2014most notably, I remember having to look at the book through a mirror on some pages as that was the only way to read them legibly. <\/span>It was a very different experience from any book I had ever read before.<\/p>\n \n In regards to dynamic heterarchies and fluid analogies\u2014I liked the author\u2019s explanation of the dynamic heterarchy when he explained the fetus growing inside a mother\u2019s body, the mother\u2019s body is forming the fetus but the fetus is also reforming the mother\u2019s body (45). <\/span>This analogy lends itself to electronic texts by giving the reader a different experience each time he or she experiences the piece. <\/span>Furthermore, the descriptions of the MP3 player and creating an executable from programming bring two things to the table. <\/span>One, the author brings up things that are current and relevant to the reader and the second, he seems to have knowledge on the subject, he either has made electronic literature before, knows how to put it together and the steps that are involved.<\/p>\n \n Michael Joyce: Afternoon: A Story<\/p>\n \n After playing interactive fiction and immersing ourselves in hypertext media, this is certainly a step backwards in terms of display. <\/span>Upon opening the application, we are greeted with the copyright date 1987,93 and a picture that appears to be about 300dpi in grayscale. <\/span>This work does seem to get one thing right, or at least it has a good aspect to it, one can click yes (y) for directions on how to navigate through the piece.<\/p>\n \n Instructions from help text:<\/p>\n RETURN KEY \u2013 Navigate through the text.<\/p>\n BACK ARROW \u2013 Page back.<\/p>\n DOUBLE CLICK \u2013 Bring up more information about a particular word.<\/p>\n \n Other useful information:<\/p>\n TEXTURE \u2013 Certain words have texture, usually character names and pronouns.<\/p>\n Y|N \u2013 One can type Y or N or click the buttons for Y and N to respond to questions.<\/p>\n \n What I do not like so far is when I click certain words to find out more about them, I wish it popped up a small note or something more modern, but rather it takes me to a new page and then I have to click back each time I look at word. <\/span>This makes reading into the words a bit tedious. <\/span>I find the help from the earlier instructions\u2014is true, when I click regular words, it takes me to the next page; where as when I click names it gives me more information about a character. <\/span>I will continue to work through this piece; although, it would be nice to know how long it goes on for so I can allocate an adequate chunk of time for this story.<\/p>\n \n As noted in class, one can continue through several pages until you get into a loop in which the user must take action.<\/p>\n \n \u201cfenceline\u201d<\/p>\n \u201crelic\u201d<\/p>\n \u201ccan I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cno, I say\u201d<\/p>\n \u201ctranscript\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI call\u201d<\/p>\n \n This series of slides will repeat until the user chooses a different path besides just pressing return or clicking \u201cY\u201d continuously.<\/p>\n \n The premise of this piece\u2014is the main character is Peter and he has witnessed a car accident and it may involve his son and ex-wife.<\/p>\n Also mentioned in class was the dialogue, I agree it takes a while to get used to as the reader needs to ascertain who is talking\u2014as it is not explicitly stated.<\/p>\n \n Ann Arbor is located in Michigan, more info here: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan<\/a><\/p>\n \n While searching around for hints online about certain pieces of this text, I found a document containing the entire text itself:<\/p>\n http:\/\/fortunaty.net\/text\/textz\/textz\/joyce_michael_afternoon.tmp<\/a><\/p>\n \n Doing a little scoping of the raw text\u2014 it is composed of ~1512 lines and ~25,249 words.<\/p>\n \n I liked the text on the \u201cbut this\u2026\u201d slide, he mentions a Cray and parallel processing\u2014its rare to find mention of these types of computers, especially in literary texts. <\/span>A computer that was marveled\u2014 in its time.<\/p>\n \n The narrator or main character drives a truck, his wife drives a Bimmie. <\/span>What is a Bimmie supposed to represent, a small vehicle? <\/span>On \u201cI want 2\u201d it stated \u201cHe\u2019d be alive still if he\u2019d had the station car.\u201d \u2013 in this slide, who is \u201che?\u201d<\/p>\n \n Two further items, one is what relation does the Title Changes in the menubar have to do with the story? <\/span>Second, \u201cMedusa,\u201d I find the computer comments very interesting, something only a geek would say, \u201cIn the silence I could hear the humming of hard disks.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Overall comment in terms of navigation and the text itself, even though Hegirascope was not concrete, I found it more entertaining and interesting than this piece story\u2014pure black and white text with a very early interface, similar to HyperCard for the Macintosh back in the 1980s. <\/span>If we were in the 1980s this may be more interesting, with the advent of Flash, Java and other plug-ins, it is difficult to keep my attention on this work of fiction.<\/p>\n \n If you choose the wrong way out, it takes you back to the beginning and is rather irritating. <\/span>However, the history is nice allowing you to go back where you made the bad decision and pickup where you left off. <\/span>On \u201cI know\u201d it states \u201cI\u2019m afraid they have been hurt\u2014I say\u2014I\u2019m afraid they died.\u201d <\/span>At the end of this path, there is still no resolution, the woman tells Peter to call and then he will know.<\/p>\n \n I am not sure if one exists\u2014but it would be very interesting to see a concept map of this piece.<\/p>\n \n Other\/misc information:<\/p>\n \n Characters:<\/p>\n Werther, Peter, Peter\u2019s Wife, Andrew\/Andy, Lisa\/Lolly, Nausicaa, Woman he flirts with at work.<\/p>\n \n Company: Electronic Literature A couple notes from the reading: Before diving into new texts\u2014I prefer to read the articles about them so I have an idea of what to expect. In the beginning they discuss the digitality of all current texts\u2014the basic precept of nearly all books\u2014they are formed and stored digitally. In a previous English … Continue reading Blog on Afternoon, A Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","tag-joyce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDataquest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"