Blog Post # 6

Blog Post:

Please write a reflection - your thoughts/questions resulting from reading Amanda Gould's article on Electronic Literature.

After reading, “A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature” I have realized that electronic literature is important more than ever as being the new element for education.  It amused me when I first came across that “electronic literature is born-digital literary art that exploits.  This makes me question about, when exactly was electronic literature born? Who started it? Where did it come from? Electronic literature has been evolving throughout the media more than ever, but at times an individual may think that e-lit at times is not an easy task to navigate.  For example, when I first read “Twelve Blue” I didn’t even know where to start.  I would click any link that would get me to the next page but after a while I started noticing that the stories weren’t in a sequential order.  Therefore, I needed to think of a method or task to find out how an exactly does one find to read Twelve Blue (which I still haven’t found the answer). Therefore, “E-lit provides students new objects to think with and new ways to think the objects (the text) we think we know.”  Even though, one needs to understand that when reading any type of genre that is related to e-lit there will be many new ways to read it but an individual needs to be open-minded and just have fun while reading a piece of art work. 

Further on, in the article Francisco Ricardo indicates that he believes “a digital work is fundamentally different form and more complex than a material or printed work.” I agree with this statement because ever since I attended Zamora’s class I believe that electronic literature is multifaceted in many ways such as images, text (ex: hypertext links), audio and many more.  Even though, from all of the interconnected parts that take place in any work of e-lit comes out to be something out of the ordinary that captivates the reader to be more highly engaged and entertained.

Overall, electronic literature is not just about e-books, or written work, it’s about doing beyond the dimensions of creativity. As Ricardo mention, “the first purpose that digital work serves is an act of creative expression.” Without creativity people would find that e-lit is too boring to read, therefore, by incorporating art work in any piece of digital work will attract many people into being part of the social discourse of electronic literature.  Although, when students encounter electronic literature Simanowski suggest that when one offers skills to students “and critical readers rather than offering them knowledge” it “teaches them how to produce their own knowledge.”  Therefore, when students are able to use their critical thinking skills that’s related to electronic literature, they will then be able to understand the fundamental concept when reading any type of digital work.  After all, electronic literature has become the new element of education in today’s generation of technology. Even though, as Wardrip-Fruin states, "I believe there remains more I need to learn to read, in order to read digital literature."