One of the important main ideas based on reading chapter 1 in Electronic Literature and Electronic Literature: What is it was the progress of electronic literature throughout the years. One part in chapter 1 that stuck out to me was the section on “Why read electronic literature”. I had never thought of electronic literature as a broad range of subjects and fields of research. The description of electronic literature as a broad subject is mentioned by Rettberg when he states “Electronic literature is controversial within the field itself. Detractors of the term claim that it is not specific enough..” (Rettberg 3) and Hayles mentions how the broadness of electronic literature “implies a wide-ranging exploration of what electronic literature is, how it overlaps” (Hayles). In chapter 1 Rettberg explains the importance of electronic literature because of the ability to preserve a work of art and how relatively new electronic literature was. Rettberg discussed how electronic literature started to become popular around the 1990s and increased in popularity over time. He mentions multiple works of art that discuss electronic literature including: Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Theory and Technology and Word Toys. Electronic Literature: What is it also mentions how electronic literature began to expand and unlike Rettberg, Hayles discusses the program Storyspace and its distribution among PCs and MACs. Hayles also mentions the limitations of these types of programs referencing the lack of “palette of colors and cannot handle sound files” (Hayles)
A work of electronic literature Rettberg cites is titled Expressive Processing. Published in 2009 Expressive Processing was written by Noah Wardrip-Fruin. The focus on the book was about how we understand digital media. In the first chapter Wardrip-Fruin discusses the relationship between computers and how it is a “increasingly significant means of expression” (Wardrip-Fruin 3). Wardrip-Fruin also discusses the idea of artificial intelligence by referring to the game SimCity. He explains how he uses expressive processing to explain the overall design of A.I and how “digital media’s processes often engage subjects more complex than timekeeping” (Wardrip-Fruin 4).
Tim Wizda
Nice look at both of the introductions/explanations of e-lit. Rettberg will look at Storyspace as well in later chapters (mainly chapter 3, since it is for early hypertext literature). I haven't read this Wardrip-Fruin book but it looks great. He co-edited the New Media Reader with Nick Montfort, which is a great textbook (and hypertextual itself).
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