Chapter 2

In chapter 2, there is a lot of focus on the coding involved in E-lit. The chapter starts out identifying the process of accessing E-lit through coding. "l printing processes that print is more properly considered a particular output form of electronic text than an entirely separate medium. Nevertheless, electronic text remains distinct from print in that it literally cannot be accessed until it is performed by properly executed code" (ch2, Hayles). The chapter follows this statement up by describing how E-lit is is not like your traditional print work, in the sense of how one is to go about accessing it. This may be seen as a disadvantage, however as the web grows and evolves, so does E-lit. Hayles makes a point about this, referring to the early stages of the web as "first generational" or "classic".

The chapter speaks a lot about Interactive literature and how this is also unlike your traditional literature. With the introduction of hypertext, a lot more became possible for interactive literature, expanding in genres including interactive drama and fiction. The chapter also mentions a program that is held at Brown University CAVE. This just proves more that E-lit is still expanding. I find it very interesting that artworks and poetry can be generated through the computer. 

He wore his toga like an old chemise
you hear your spouse pay off the medico
when each of you with all his heart agrees
he mob demands that verse be comme il faut
A Tuscan scribed the stone with his imprese
since Elgin seems to think the nose de trop
just one was right and not those SOBs
when from afar we see the bushes grow
We dry the fish sea bream or some burbot
in his brain one tongue is all he's got
clear from the start the ending is foreseen
I nominate you as a gapingstock
all's sold the prawns the lobsters our whole stock
he'd really like to root out the cuckquean

                                     Ryan Donahue