Observing Multiple Elements Of E-lit through Various Works

Electronic Literature gives readers a way to interact with our literature. Before the time of computers, writings could not include animation, sound, or any sort of interaction. This changes the way a reader experiences pieces of literature and is very significant to the advancement of creative communication.
The following are examples of various pieces of Electronic Literature. 

One example of Electronic Literature is e-poetry. “The Sweet Old Etcetera” by Alison Clifford and “Puddle” by Neil Hennessy are two great pieces of e-poetry. “The Sweet Old Etcetera” was full of poems by e. e. Cummins. By moving through the piece, more and more of a beautiful landscape are revealed as well as phrases by the poet. This was an example of how we can advance on static poems. A more simple approach was “Puddle,” which creates an animation with solely words. Both “The Sweet Old Etcetera” and “Puddle” show how original poetry can be built on to create beautiful animations. These works made me see more of what poetry can be.

In one of the weeks of readings, pry’s unique take on loss and secrets was something intriguing. Just the trailer kind’ve tells you how impactful of a story this is. It has all the interactive elements like touching the screen and swiping up and down. Pinch the screen to make text in the passage large or viewing multiple clips through the piece. Although the access to it was limited, I was able to access a link to the description and view a demo of the work (http://tenderclaws.info/sheet.php?p=pry). As it seems in the work, the reader will get the protagonists point of view. For example, the main character is a war vet who lost his sight or close to losing his sight. The piece shows this as every image or every video will be from the main character's point of view.

A very interesting depiction of electronic literature is “Tailspin”. The piece tries to give you an insight on what it is like to live with tinnitus. The piece uses sounds to show the perspective of a war veteran that used to work on aircraft.  It tells the story from the point of view of a mother that has to deal with the issues of a father that refuses treatment and rowdy kids at the same time. It was interesting to me because it showed the struggle of living with tinnitus and being a caregiver to someone that has it.

This week we took a look at Pieces of Herself. I found this that this interactive piece was oddly satisfying. I liked the idea that you could choose things (pieces), that create a type of self image. It gives you private and public environments to explore and collect pieces. I felt that exploring this interactive piece, somewhat empowered me.