That’s a Wrap

Forward LookoutDownload

That’s a wrap folks! It has been a challenging semester for all of us. Coming into the semester, I despised the idea of doing all our coursework in an online environment. To this day, I’m still not a fan of it, but what other option do we have? Sit back and wait for all of this to pass over before we continue our lives. Not I. It would be too hard to take a break, walk away for a few unknown amount of semesters, and then try to get back into the swing of things. I think not. It really wasn’t an option anyways.

Here we are though. Above, you will find that I have loaded my project file for your viewing pleasure. The cover page is the first one upon opening it. Through this project, I experimented with many different tools. Many of which, I had no previous exposure too, which led me to becoming very frustrated and wanting to throw my computer across the room. It was very tempting. So I explained what my vision is on the cover page.

Ideally, I wanted to have the picture that I used for every other page, as the main picture. Upon clicking on the different objects, it would zoom in, much like looking through a camera as it zoomed in, and then a clearer picture would entail a story and reflections. I thought it would be really cool if it could have been made into a virtual reality piece. The reader, or user would see the pictures as if they were in person. Add correlating sounds to match the visions. All while the narrator, yours truly, shares his thoughts and ideas while making observations and reporting them.

I started to explore some of the new features of PowerPoint, like using audio recordings in each slide, but something didnt jive when I saved the recordings and it was really infuriating me once again. So to save my lap top and sanity, I finalized it as is. Hopefully you will enjoy the journey that I take you on, as the Forward Lookout.

Project Update

This week, I have made great strides towards putting my project together. The toughest part that I’m running into, is finding the images to use that meet my intended vision. I have a total of ten different scenes with their own thoughts and stories behind them.

Last week, after we went over some of the additional resources, I was getting more and more frustrated. So taking Dr. Zamoras’ advice, I am not stressing it. I will be using what I know and comfortable using, PowerPoint. The interactive part is that it requires the user/reader, to actively perform a function to advance to the next piece. I will be incorporating automatic transitions in a few of the slides that will make it more appealing. I do not want to spoil it and tell all of my plans, but it is coming along nicely.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone later today, online. How I wish we were in person still. Soon hopefully.

Better Late than Never

“The Hunt for the Gay Planet” is a was created by Anna Anthropy in 2013. The piece is an easily navigable satire full of humor, decisions, exploration, and twists. The piece is instrumental in entertaining and captivates an audience because of the development of the characters. It represents the development in the contemporary world in which same sex marriage is becoming a common practice and acceptable trend in the society. In particular, the plot development creates a world or an environment where the gay community is less understood and intimidated and thus living uncomfortable and unhappily. In retrospect, this creates an element of fear and stigma in these individuals who are forced to limit themselves in expressing their ideologies in society. Therefore, they have to ‘hunt’ for a planet where they can live openly and happily as gays and truly themselves. Though the author uses satire to develop her topic, the piece is commentary as it is clear how these people are ostracized in the world today. For instance, before 2013, only six states in the United States of America had permitted marriage among gay people. Later the civil right of gay marriage was reinforced in sixteen states out of fifty states in the USA. The author used the gay community rights movement’s continued and prominent issue during that era to develop the work. Like many other electronic literatures, the work is made of a pitch-black background. Since the story revolves around the LGBTQ community, many people would expect it to have a colorful adventure such as a symbolic flag. The quirky undertone on the black-pitch background is appropriate as it takes the readers on a special adventure on the gay planet, Lesbionica.

Hunting Process

Anna Anthropy has described herself as a fat gay hex living with her black cat. Her aim of creating this piece was to help the readers differentiate between queer and gay since the two words are highly mixed and matched. The basis of the work is founded in Zork, which was created in the early 1980s. The author of the work, the hunt for the gay planet, gives many links at the lower edge of every page giving the reader a channel of selection. She uses attractive admissions and Star Wars fonts on every page that captures the attention of the reader. The author uses various phrases and words that illicit the physical responses and emotional responses to the verbiage. She hits the reader’s mind with contextual words that help them formulate the meaning of the words straight, queer, and gay (Cmakharm). The entire piece is set such that it is an emotional work revolving around the three words. 

Structure and Styles’ Development

Anna Anthropy’s work is a hilarious and impactful satirical piece where the hunt is satirized as a star-wars game that permits the romance of homosexuals on an isolated planet. The Star Wars are sprinkled throughout the work, for instance, when the proponent says going to a “seediest hive of scum and villainy.” The entire story is made of ridiculous occurrences and goofy puns that make the title ‘hunt’ a hilarious satire. One of the ridiculous occasions is when the proponent surveys the planets and come across ancient tools. ‘Could these be gay tools?’ the protagonist asks herself (Cmakharm). The author has equipped the work with a lot of witty quips. She ironically points out the idea of walking straight through a dimmed tunnel without thinking straight. Another hilarious irony is seen when the police tie her up, and the conflicting feelings within her libido annoy her. The hilarious irony in the work highlights the ridiculousness surrounding the current video games culture that features straight male proponents and occasionally sprinkles them as afterthoughts.

Its format structure highly enhances the satirical nature of the game. The work, ‘hunt for the gay planet’ is structured like an old science fiction adventure story. The quest of the heroine across the galaxy is full of suspense. For instance, when the heroine, the heroine does an extensive exploration of the ancient cave and finally finds an isolated carving depicting two persons, a male, and a female, holding hands. The resulting anti-climatic change in the piece yields to the subversion of the average gamers’ adventure expectations. The author has used many ironic expectations’ subversions throughout the work, like when she finds a paradise-like planet.

            The author does careful crafting of the vivid descriptions of the lush grass and placid waters. She also develops a sense of intrigue and mystery to the reader when she introduces certain psychic forces that wrest the protagonist’s mind. She culminates the whole hilarious sequence using a psychic whale that magnificently fronts on water and asks her whether she have a boyfriend. Despite the entertainment scene, the proponent is frustrated as the galaxy assumes her sexuality and normalizes heterosexual relationships. The action is justifiably frustrating and tiring for fictional lesbians in the space and the gay community in real life. Anna concludes the work with a brilliant satire. She uses a sloppy between the heroine and the lover that subverts straight male viewers’ expectations with fetishistic views of gay relationships (Jason). This ending kiss takes the past act of hero tropes and applying them to the video game. Here, the female proponent uses her intelligence to disarm the evil queen, saving the day, rescuing the girl and the whole galaxy against straight stifling.

Works Cited

Cmakharm “The Hunt for the Gay Planet: It’s like a Star Wars porno’ University of Mary Washington 27 January 2017 https://elit.umwblogs.org/2017/01/27/the-hunt-for-the-gay-planet-its-like-a-star-wars-porno/  accessed on 18 November 2020.

Jason, Johnson,” ANNA ANTHROPY’S HUNT FOR THE GAY PLANET EXPOSES HOW FAR  GAMES NEED TO GO FOR TRUE EQUALITY’https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/anna-anthropys-hunt-gay-planet-skewers-star- wars-old-republic/ accessed on 18 November 2020

Faith

Rob Kendall’s ‘Faith’ and the movements

‘Faith’ is a philosophical poem created in 2001 and published in 2002 that grips on the existential darkness. The play is characterized by flash, audio, music, kinetic, and poetry text’s genre. The author narrates the piece in a kinetic poem form in five different movements to achieve the play’s central theme and express the author’s struggle in dealing with logic and faith despair. The movements overlay each other with intent arguments. On the title page, the title, “Faith,” and its five verses are created in bold colored fonts; green, gold, red, and green; that signifies the radiated manuscripts created by medieval monks. Both the colors and the fonts are very elaborate and highly resembles calligraphy. These features create a religious mood, which helps in supporting the main idea of the poem.

First movement

Immediately after the title page, the piece transit into the first movement of the poem. Here the title statement takes the central position and is bombarded with the statement ‘logic’. Once ‘logic’ hits the word faith, it bounces off in an unphased manner. After every ‘logic’ touch, some simplistic and discordant music notes are made. The first movement concludes with the statement “so…” The yellow words roll in all sides in an illogical manner. The ending word ‘so….’ in movement one expressed the author’s creative decision of ending the first movement into another movement, thus building the entire idea of faith. According to Kendall, faith is highly resilient and thus more beautiful and stronger than logic in the first movement.  

Second movement

In the second movement, the author uses harp music with yellow-orange words to transform the message from the first movement into a decision of embracing faith and rejecting logic. The use of harps in this movement symbolizes angels and churches that are in ultimate faith. The poet uses some words that reveal the easiness of desiring a faith-based life than living it. The words reflect the poet’s struggles in evading his ‘mind’s logical answers of embracing an unknown depth. Kendall uses the word ‘consummate’ to express his desire for faith, but he’s consumed by the fear of the unseen, unfelt, and inexperienced events. The author struggled with the choices; …’ or’ …’ but’ …’ maybe’ depicting that living a faith-based life is proportional to courage and negating logic.  

Third movement

The two states’ orange and yellow words are merged with a red color into a third movement. In this movement, the words originate from the page sides and blended with words from the second movement in the complex sounds of the played organ notes. The new words appearing on the page blink and flip, giving their meaning in the poem. For instance, the flipping of the word ‘theory,’ which has initially been inverted, shows the sophisticated look of faith, accompanied by the uncomfortable feeling of the approach. Also, the blinking of the line ‘red winking neon logic’ gives the poet the warning to avoid the desire for a faith-based life and embrace the safe logic.  The movement captures the poet’s elevated tension that he cannot press the black button into the visionary would despite his desire for faith.

Fourth movement

In the fourth movement, the new words joined with words from the third movement are accompanied by music from a blend of organ sounds and a harp. This movement seems to be the most complex as it forms the basis of the poet’s decision making. The new words and the outgoing words from the third movement combine to form a unique piece that is different from other movements. The piece’s colors are similar to those of the previous movements except that some words employ certain meaningful movements, and others are faded. In this chapter, the poet makes an elegant movement with confidence as he approaches the logical ‘lip’. The line “Off the rocker (yippee!)” appears in downward orientation to express the poet’s negation as he makes the final decision. These words signify isolated spirited happiness and absence of constraint as the poet decides to live a faith-based life. Kendall shows the visionary and the incorruptible nature of faith when one chooses to take the ‘leap’. The word ‘leap’ appears momentarily on the screen and later leaps off the page.

Conclusion

In the final movement, the poet tries to close the poem but far away from the possibilities related to ‘faith’. The words drop to the page’s footer as playful music notes play in the background. The title word, ‘faith,’ of the first four pages appears at the header of the page but floats on the fallen statements in the fifth state. According to the poet, the process attached to faith-based living is determined by individuals’ fears and worries since they demand personal awareness and reflection. Both fears and worries are always absent in logical life. Poet finalizes the script by saying that faith brings full-bodied joy in life, while logic hinders one choice and embracement of this joy.

Works Cited

Review of Robert Kendall’s poem “Faith” http://electronicliterature66.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-of-robertkendalls-poem-faith-    i.html accessed 16 November 2020

The Original Subtlety of E-Literature, a Review

The first thing worth mentioning in regards to the two pieces this week, is the fact that they left me with a subtle respect towards the notion that real originality still exists, and human creativity is actually a boundless element which has not lost its possibilities for surprising the senses and, however subtlety, producing that special smile of appreciation in front of the aesthetically unexpected. In this sense, despite not producing the astonishment or profound commotion of a Hemingway novel or a Poem by Derek Walcott, the ways in which the originality of these pieces stimulates the artistic hope of mind, can be explored in order to comprehend not only the flexibility but also the contemporary abundance of art, in particularly literature, as a force which is far from extinction.

            In this line of ideas, it is possible to affirm that both pieces focus on offering an experience instead of a specific textual composition. The first piece to which I accessed was the Linus’ Letter, and from the first moment, the dynamic of the interaction with the poems made me smile in front of a simple and yet elaborated mechanism of ambiguity which lines stand against the most negative aspects of modern life directly from one of the very sources of our disintegration or alteration as a society, which is the encoding of words, the transformation of language into the heart and soul of the digital dimension (Gillespie, n,p). This rather programming theme is not severely exploited by the author, in the sense that it does not consists on line after line of an official web developing language used with poetic purposes of protest against the code itself. Instead, it goes, like a cubical bullet, to the essence of the systematic perception with which these codes have progressively deconstructed the world around us transforming it in a place which not only can but must be understood exclusively through the lens of their rivers of information. The briefness and sharpness of every verse in the face of the cube, and the link between the last word and the following poem’s stanza subtlety insinuates that we are dealing with the bones of the digital artifice. That we, by clicking, are fighting against the illusion from within the illusion itself. The sequential poems protest against the bombing of society, both by media and by American planes, but I consider that their true merit is to generate a deeper and more intuitive protest against the limitations with which the screen is constraining human perception to operate within their borders, reducing the real world and the real complex experiences of individual and collective life to mere collateral data which sole purpose is to be, sooner or later, processed.       

,      In this line of thought, the second piece, presented under the weight of Mayakovski’s name and poetical principles, takes the concept of processing to an interesting level of composition. The combination of all the forms of expression allowed by the digital medium, audio, video and text, results are a little overwhelming at first, as any baroque work is supposed to, and I in particular did not like the sound with which “the mechanism” orbits with its links escaping the pulse of the reader. However, after a little exploration and adaptation to the proposal the element of subtlety, the transmission of their protest also strikes. In this case, I could perceive a contrast between the worldliness and melodramatic density of “the manifesto” and overall textual parts, in comparison with the precision of their visual content. In this case, I could not connect to their texts, which I perceived too alarmist and overindulging with this alarmism, as well as I did to their images (Szilak, n,p). However, the proposal itself seemed interesting for offering an interactive platform which is also able to produce surprise after every click, guaranteeing the evolution from the turn of the page to this multilayered construct in which many levels of the human experience, legacy, perception and unsettledness are condensed into the dynamic of the digital space.

            In this sense, another interesting element I found in both pieces is the use of idealism, in terms of the digital era and its writers. For the first piece, the symbol of “Linus” represents the very voice of these artists in their rebellious struggle for taking human expression and creativity one step further, to regions which, however subtlety, have not been explore. On the other hand, in the second piece, the notion of “Kitsch” makes reference to this new form of language, which is ironically seeking to transcend the limits of ordinary language in terms of form and content, in order to provide not a text but an experience capable of stimulating imagination and expanding the possibilities of the digital realm with aesthetics purposes in which another subtle element is a thread of nostalgia towards the past; the times when books and poems were regarded with the place today reserved, or conquered, by the tactile screen.

            To conclude, it can be summarized that the pieces in question are truly original creative works, with the main purpose of stimulating the imagination of the reader through the offering of an interactive environment which stands in protest against the limitations and superficialities of our contemporary and technologically saturated way of life.      

Works Cited

 Gillespie, W. Letter to Linus. Electronic Literature Collection, 2001. https://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/gillespie_letter_to_linus.html

 Szilak, I. Reconstructin Mayakovsky. Electronic Literature Collection, 2008. http://www.reconstructingmayakovsky.com/

“Digital: a Love Story” : A Review

Presentation Digital-LoveDownload

            Digital: a Love Story is a romance/mystery game developed by Christine Love. It is a short visual novel set five minutes into the future of 1988 (“Digital” n.p). The player supposedly is the lucky winner of a new Amie computer, and this computer is equipped with a music player, messaging system, and a dial-up modem. The story develops as the user interacts in the Bulletin Board Systems of the game. In the Bulletin Board System, you can read topics and meet new friends. The player meets a girl and exchanges messages with her, until she decides to go away to do something. The mystery part of the game then starts. The friends in the Bulletin Board System gives you clues and hacking programs which you can use to find her.

            The game focuses more on the mystery part than in the romance part. The romance in the story that you are interacting with a girl and your quest in finding her. The game is really short and is not that interactive as we would have it today, like what is shown in the episode “Bandersnatch” in Black Mirror. You do not get to type up responses, although the conversations between you and your friends that the author made, actually made sense even though you have to fill in the lines yourself because you have to guess what your character replied to the friend you were messaging to get that type of response. The story also develops linearly. You do not get to choose which path the story goes, and you only have to unlock portions of the game in order to continue. To do this, you have to read messages, figure out clues, and apply the programs your in-game friends have provided you.

            The beginning of the story is well-paced because it is actually assumed that it would be the first time that you would use the computer. The present technology in 1988 is introduced and the concept of computer virus and anti-virus is also introduced. After that, the game starts feeling kind of rushed, as you jump from one scenario to another, one plot to another. The friends you have met along the way in the Bulletin Board System starts messaging you sporadically and it gets overwhelming at times. You start realizing that the parts you thought were unimportant in the beginning were actually clues and necessary steps to lead you to where you are now. Although this is case, the development of the story and the change in pacing makes sense because it only starts feeling rushed when you start trying to find the missing girl, which adds up to the thrill and excitement of it all.

            Overall, the game is short yet well-written. The setting and options in the game is limited to what we would expect what the technology in 1988 would have been able to deliver. Even though there were limitations and the story developed linearly, the game was interesting because the author did not have to choose between focusing more on the technicalities of the game, or just the quality of the story – she was able to balance both of these aspects which gave readers/player a really good experience. The format of the game looks historically accurate thus it actually feels like you’re living in 1988 and interacting with the people during that time. The development of the story is exciting and challenging, which sparks curiosity in players and thus drives them to continue and finish the game.

Works Cited

“Digital: a Love Story”. Eliterature, n.d., https://collection.eliterature.org/3/work.html?work=digital-a-love-story. Accessed on 23   Oct 2020.

Wanna Play a Game

Upon starting Icarus Needs, the music reminds me of something that one ay listen to to help them fall asleep. Fitting because that is what has happened to the main character. Upon inspection of the start up and reviewing the directions, it says that the player can use W-A-S-D keys to move around or arrow buttons on the keyboard. Though I’m not sure why those letters.

Upon the beginning of my journey, I elected to go up the stairs instead of down. I came across another character that I thought would have interacted with me, the dog or cat. Instead I just moved right past it. When I went back to the left, it was no longer there. Icarus came to a phone that was off the hook and propped up on the wall, on the other end was another voice telling him “Icarus! You have to find..” before being disconnected. Icarus questioned the voice, “Kit! Is that you?” Then there was nothing else. The only progression in the screen that I could make was to the left back towards the stairs. Icarus decides to take the giant phone with him on his journey.

When I proceeded back to the stairs, I kept going to the left where I came across the animal figure again. This time Icarus interacts with it, even though it hisses at him while he calls it a nice kitty. LOL. I can see in the next screen, there was a key in a locked case. I have a filling that Icarus will be returning for this key. The cat will not let Icarus progress towards the key at this time. Maybe that silly kitty needs a bowl of milk or a mouse to chase.

So I headed back down the stairway. At the bottom of my decent, Icarus went to the right until he met a character that exclaimed he was a door and that Icarus needs a key to get past him. As Icarus turned back around, he exclaims that the character didnt look like a door, then questions if his remark was racists’. Now I need to really figure out how to obtain the locked key past that rascally kitty cat. Lets take our adventure down the hole. That’s right, Icarus is going down! The ladder that is people. Come on.

As I begin the downward slope of uncertainty, no not my life, the music changes to a more up beat tone. The prompts appear, didnt your mother warn you not to fall asleep playing video games. At the bottom of my descent, I take Icarus to the right. He came to a part of the tunnel that seemed to drop down, suddenly he uses the giant phone to lay down as a bridge so that he could cross.

Next Icarus finds himself fishing at the end of the tunnel. He doesn’t catch anything, but decides to take the net with him. Maybe this net will reach across the stubborn cat so he can get the key. Lets go try my theory. I was wrong…. Wait what did I just say? I am a guy that admitted he was wrong! Woah… Look out people!

Now I am perplexed. I can not go through the door without the key, and the net is all I have to distract the cat with. I do not recall any other direction of movement available. I guess I should go explore some more.

Upon traveling back to the right side of the stairs, where I first noticed an animal character, Icarus used the net to snatch it. Icarus exclaims “GOTCH YA!” Maybe I can use this animal to distract the stubborn one on the other side of the room. Ah ha!!! The small animal he netted was a mouse. I used it to distract the cat, and while the mouse appears to have ran in the hole in the wall, I was able to obtain the key from the case. Now I must go visit that door again.

After using the key, the game takes me to the exterior of the house. Different tones again and colors are different as well. It gives the feeling of leveling up. So now my adventure takes me outdoors. I promptly approached a roadside stand where the finest rope was available for purchase. I don’t need no stinking rope! What would I do with it in this dream of mine? I am sure to find out soon enough though.

I tried to climb up the tree, but there were pesky squirrels’ sitting there with their nuts all around them. Icarus was to afraid to move past them, so back down the tree he went. Icarus soon approached an opening to a well where he hears a voice call out his name. This is where he learns that he will need rope. Is that Kit down the hole? Did Kit fall down the well? Someone call the fire department!

When I returned to the rope, the vendor demands five apples for some rope. My opinion is that he would take three apples instead. Lets see if we can now go apple picking. After all, it is fall ya’ll.

Before I knew it, Icarus jumped into a hot air balloon that lead him to the top of the tree where the squirrels previously were. Icarus gathered the five apples and went back down the tree. Funny those squirrels had left by this time. Lets go exchange some apples for the rope.

After making the illegal exchange of goods, I ran for the well where I previously heard a voice calling my name. I throw the rope in and descend to the bottom. I can hear the voice calling me from the left, but while I’m down here, lets explore the other side. And by the way, the music has changed once again. This has a Mario brothers 3 feel to it. Down in the tunnels running around. What could go wrong? Right! Not like Icarus is having to jump off of pyramids to land at the top of a flag pole after each level.

After exploring to the right, Icarus discovers the other half of the giant telephone that he used at the beginning. It must have some meaning. Maybe its a transport device to come out of his sleep, but for now it is useless. Now to chase the voice on the other side. To his dismay, it isn’t Kit at the other end of the tunnel, it was the other piece of the telephone. A voice begins to tell Icarus that he needs to… before being disconnected once again. So Icarus takes the phone with him and climbs back up the well. Before I jumped on the hot air balloon earlier, there was a new level that needed a bridge for Icarus to cross over and into. Lets go try this phone bridge out.

Sure enough, a new level is my reward. Now Icarus enters the castle. Is this where he finds the princess? Ugggghhh I mean Kit. Upon entering the castle, Icarus is forced to jump into a bubbling pool of blood… Okay maybe its cherry soda. Either way, Icarus dived to the bottom to find a locked treasure chest. I guess another key is in my future.

I think my commentary on play by play action isn’t necessary anymore, although entertaining possibly, I shall just move through the game and conclude with my final thoughts and feedback.

Okay so this was a squirrelly piece of e-lit. Nuts to be blunt about it. LOL… OKAY OKAY… I’ll stop. It was entertaining. The final screen where there are the nine slides made it look like a comic book, which is what the author was going for. It makes me wonder what game he fell asleep to. I believe this is my favorite thus far.

Motions & Pieces Of Herself

   Motions, by Hazel Smith, really grabbed my attention this week. The sounds really messed with my mind while trying to read through the different pages. So much so that I had to mute the sound after about ten minutes of it. It was really nerve wracking. I liked the easier navigation on this work. However, when I tried to go back, to the left, it took me somewhere different than before.

   Smith has created a piece of Electronic Literature that needs national attention. Sure, we are in a pandemic and everyone is concerned about COVID, yet the media has never been one to really discuss the other national epidemic, human trafficking. Smith showed us several different ways that the ‘slaves’ are being used and some examples of how they are trafficked.

   One of the first screens was black and had the sounds of passing airplanes and trains. It initially made me want to close my eyes and imagine being blindfolded and forced into the train. I could only imagine what is going through the minds of the kidnappers, transporters and the kidnapped. The visualizations were a bit odd at times. I found myself questioning what it was that I was looking at. That may have been an intended element to the piece.

   I am looking forward to hearing Medea guide us through this piece. I know she always does a spectacular job on her presentations and I’m curious to see if she gets too sing any for us in this one.

   The other piece this week, Pieces Of Herself, by Juliet Davis, was a bit perplexing. Davis explains that the game was derived from the works of Elizabeth Grosz. Elizabeth Grosz is a professor at Rutgers University and teaches Women and Gender studies. She is known for her written works on the body, sexuality, space, time, and materiality. All of this information about her inspiration, made the game make a little more sense to me.

   At first, I was just plugging pieces onto the body and trying to figure out what the end game was. I guess there was no real method to placement because I had to clear my board numerous times so that I could continue with the game.

   It seems that the world of e-lit has took on a new shape after this week’s readings. I am starting to see a trend that has evoked some deep reflections on my part. The idea of mixing different media into ones work can open the door to the next level of reader engagement. We have visuals, sounds and text. Maybe the future will allow for other sensory play, such as smellovision. Imagine the technology that will allow for someone to paint a visual with their words and show you an actual picture of their description and that creates a smell that can be associated with the imagery. That would be powerful and prolific.

Trope Review

The term E-literature or Electronic literature refers to literary works presented by electronic means. The electronic literature has its own features that distinguish it from the traditional form of hard form or non-electronic literature. The addition of sounds and visual representation add up to the literary qualities of an e-literature. The term literature itself proves that the work being presented is a literary work. There are various forms of literature that are presented electronically. The literary work under navigation is Trope by Sara Waterson, Elena Knox and Cristyn Davis.  The different features of this electronic literary work include the visual, sounds, text and impression of the literature.

            The sounds used in Trope are electronic jazz sound which makes it a piece of modern literature. The electronic literature has a key feature of producing a sound impression on the viewer or reader. The reader is impressed and influenced by the sound used in presentation of the electronic literature (“Trope”). Humans can relate to different situations with different kinds of sounds, hence the sounds used to create a hard image of the text.

            The visual features of the Trope description used dark and bold colors like red and black that further add up to the dark or hard image of the literary work presented electronically.  Humans also can relate different colors with different contextual situations hence the usage of certain colors to create certain meanings when used in electronic literature. A simple text also has the ability to communicate with readers, but the piece is further enhanced by incorporating various colors that make the message or crux of the literary work more communicable. Hence the colors used in the Trope introduction, creates a dark or serious image of the literary work.

            The other main feature is the arrangement or formatting of the text online. There are various formats available online to present a literary work electronically. The authors have used different sections of the page to illustrate different parts of the literary work. The electronic literature is also able to provide different colors for different sections to enhance or lower the impression of the text being presented.

            The use of symbolic language makes the electronic literature more engaging for the audience. The symbolic words and metaphors like “floating geometric maze” and “a firework display” make the text a literary piece presented electronically.

            The electronic text also has the ability to create a virtual world that assists the readers of the text to not only imagine the world created through mere text, but also to view the virtual world by visual representations of the texts. Hence the readers are assisted by various sounds and visuals that add up to the impression of the literary texts.

            The piece also proves the fact that form is also important in literature, like the content. The form enhances the experience of the readers or audience regarding the content of the literary works. 

Playing Checkers

Upon opening the link of the poem, I was pleasantly surprised with the user interface. It was interesting and my initial thought was to click my way through the poem. The drawings and the background combined with the sound effects were all very appealing. The voice recording of the poems was also helpful since the font was not that legible. The transition was also smooth, however slow, so there was a lag in switching the pages.

As for the poem, I was interested in the mini stories behind each of the places I clicked. The graphics supported what was happening, and the interaction behind every country, and their story made it inviting to view more. I was pleasantly surprised as how it was able to depict the angst, the stories, the need, and hunger to show what happened during global capitalism. The poem was able to visually show how the immigrants felt. It made it easier for me to understand it. Each of the places showed different struggles that the Chinese immigrants felt, and it pushed those emotions throughout the pages. The effort for each country, each story, each frame was well thought of. For me, it was an effective approach. I found myself wanting to listen, read, and learn through interacting with it.

Some of the videos though were time consuming, although I get the reasons and the lessons behind it. It depended too much on my internet and I found it hard to play some of it. Also, like Twelve Blue, there was no given manual or steps to interact with the poem in a given order. The transitions also were kind of slow and I had to wait until the page loaded. There were few hints on what to do so I would believe a user could be initially lost upon entering the page. Should the poem be read in a certain order? Would it have more meaning if the poem and the interactions were done in a specific way? It felt almost as if by clicking the dots across the screen, I was playing a game of Chinese checkers.