What is a narrative?

To me, a narrative is an explanation or summary of a story. It is a brief snapshot of the overall picture and a foretelling of what is to come. You should learn from it. I like the idea of reading a book, and the story progressing in a linear fashion. Cybertext does not necesarily allow this. It is non-linear. However, cybertext can be considered a narrative, because it does inform and you are reading and learning. It is just a different form of narrative. You can jump to different parts of a story, as evidenced by Joyce's Twelve Blue. In Aarseth's work on Ergodic Literature, he explains that the reader is powerless in the unfolding of a narrative. That is true in the case of cybertext or reading a book. You only have as much power as the author allows. In cybertext, links allow you to read forward, and not in sequential order, but I believe you can lose meaning by reading out of order like that. So, I say all this to say that a narrative is an informative piece of writing, regardless of the format or style. Again, I prefer to read books. My eyes are less tired, and it is less taxing on my brain!!

More on Electronic Literature

I am still trying to wrap my head around the notion of reading electronic literature versus traditional literature. I understand the concept and the options associated with electronic literature. You can jump all over the story by clicking on links and you can read the story in whatever order you want. But, why would you not want to read the story chronologically? Or in order? This could just be me, but I don't like to read things that are jumbled. I like order. So, I still prefer traditional reading to the online reading, but am trying to keep an open mind and try new things. I guarantee I would not have read any electronic literature had it not been for my class. 12 Blue by Michael Joyce was disturbing and the lighting on the page made it difficult to read. It did not make sense. And the poem about the body was equally as disturbing. This was by Shelly Jackson. Granted, you can click on body parts and read about those specific parts, but then another link will take you to another little story. It is a series of stories about body parts that don't make a lot of sense. The common thread is that they are all body parts. I do like the interactive fictions better than the straight text.

My remix project

This project was interesting, to say the least. I fumbled my way through it, but wish I had a better, or more creative presentation. The project was to remix something that had already been created. Well, I have written numerous poems over the years and thought it would be interesting to remix one and see what happened. I used the website languageisavirus.com to remix my masterpiece. The original poem was written about traffic in the Northern VA area and when I went to the website and pasted my text into the "cut-up machine", it completely changed the wording around and gave my peom a new spin. I don't think that the words made sense in the manner in which they were rearranged, but it read like you would imagine traffic to be. You would read and it would flow for a minute and then it would stop abruptly, then move along again and then stop. It was stop and go, nonsensical and frustrating. An interesting view of traffic in Northern VA, eh?

Photo and Video Credit

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Comment on remix project

I enjoyed the remix projects I viewed last week in class. I liked all of them, but the remix that Owen did on Scrooge was really good, neat and interesting. Maybe one day I can be technologically savvy and create such an item. He remixed the famous movie, "Scrooge" and did 2 voiceovers. He scripted it himself and it was funny. I could tell that he put a lot of work into this project. It was interesting to see Scrooge in his opinion/version. It was neat to see the way the character's lips moved in sync with what he dubbed in. Someone who has never seen "Scrooge" may not have know the difference! (just kidding) Anyway, he did a great job and it was creative.