Blog Assignment #6

After reading "A bibliographic overview of electronic literature," I came away with a few things. First off, she mentions, "E-lit provides students new objects to think with and new ways to think the objects (the text) we think we know" That sentence in itself made me think. (no pun intended!) I never thought of e-literature as thought-provoking and new aged. I translated it to read, "E-lit provides students the means to think with and new ways to think the text we think we know." Now, that still sounds a tad confusing, but I took it to mean that the evolution of electronic literature has taken literature to new heights. To a height where students must analyze literature in more depth. That electronic literature has given us, as students, a different way to think and interact with literature. In a way, that sounds completely scary because it's changing the way we already perceive literature. 

I also really like when she mentions Philippe Bootz and his essay. His idea of examining digital literature in various levels is absolutely genius! I believe that examining a piece by dissecting it's many levels is a wonderful way of analyzing a work to the fullest and in doing so, discovering the true creative essence of the piece. 

I also agree with Francisco Ricardo when he points out that electronic literature is "fundamentally different from and more complex than a material or printed work" because in my opinion, electronic literature seems to be more in depth than any printed work. There's so many elements that go into it and you have to really analyze it before you realize how much work truly went into a piece -- how much creative genius went into a piece, that is. 

And lastly I felt that Cayley had a good argument when he mentioned that, "Because language has been constrained to the mind, the voice and laterally to the “surface of the leaf,” we have internalized its being-in-all-possible-worlds as such. When it appears in “new media” we are re-sensitized to the experience of its never-having-belonged-here." I couldn't agree more! This explains why electronic literature has frustrated all of us as readers. It seems that we are so accustomed to language being constant, then when it changes, we grow discombobulated and confused. That being said, it's hard for us to adjust.