Deena Larsen, Writer
Deena Larsen has written over 30 elit pieces. You can find out more about elit—and get writing exercises to try this out on your own—from her textbook introduction, Fundamentals. She will speak about elit Tuesday March 23 at 4 pm in the Memorial Union. This is the third in a series of posts designed to suggest ways to incorporate The 41st Annual Writers Conference into classes on campus. Check out Crystal Albert’s introduction to this series of posts, Deena’s first post, and check back on next Tuesday for the next installment.
This installment to Deena Larsen’s introduction to electronic literature, Link Spot Link, is provided in conjunction with the 41rst annual Writers Conference on March 23. In these introductions, Larsen will introduce you and your students to the immense possibilities of meaning inherent in electronic literature. Electronic literature provides new rhetorical devices that were not available until the mid-1990s. Using the web and HTML, we can now link to documents. Using Flash, we can animate sequences of text and imagery and incorporate sound. Electronic literature uses these devices to add meaning to texts. This introduction will examine just how electronic elements (links, sound, navigation, imagery, sound, animation, and structure) can highlight textual meanings, add subtle references, subvert the overt meanings, and play lots of wonderful tricks with what once was a simple text.
Be sure to check out the first four parts to this series:
The English Department and Beyond: the UND Writers Conference (Crystal Alberts)
Teaching the Writers Conference: Link Spot Link – Electronic Literature Made Easy (Deena Larsen)
Teaching the Writers Conference: Link Spot Link! How to use electronic literature in your courses now (Deena Larsen)
Part 2. Explore Electronic Literature on Your Own
Imagery and Sound
This exercise shows how electronic literature uses imagery, motion, and sound to enhance meaning. First, read the image below (from Rob Kendall’s Faith) and write out how you feel about this—what is the text saying?
Next, go here and read the actual poem (from beginning to end) WITHOUT music. What is the text saying now? How has the meaning changed? Talk about one motion, color, disappearance/fading, or other visual cue of the text that really spoke to you. Why did that appeal to you? What do you think it meant?
Click on replay and read the poem WITH music. How are the instruments related to ideas and themes in the text? What new insights did you gain into the poem?
Links and Secrets
This next exercise shows an example of how links can add meaning and how finding the secret places of texts can change meaning.
First, read the main text of Deena Larsen’s I’m Simply Saying (screen on the left) and write out what you think the author is trying to convey.
Next, examine the text with the link words highlighted (in bold blue). These show the links (doors into other portions of the text). How does this emphasis—choosing these words as the link/doors—change the story? What would have happened if other words (for example, “change,” “everything,” “end”) were emphasized as links instead?
Now, read the words with one of the secret levels caught and revealed to show a different story behind the lines.
What further insights do you have about this piece from these words?
Go to the actual piece and look at how movement and imagery also affect the meaning: http://www.canberra.edu.au/centres/inflect/02/larsen/simply7.html
Part 3. Questions to Ponder for Link Spot Link: Deena Larsen
Electronic literature isn’t just bling—it is literature that uses electronic elements as an integral part of the work to convey meanings in ways never before possible. This introduction will examine just how electronic elements (links, sound, navigation, imagery, sound, animation, and structure) can highlight textual meanings, add subtle references, subvert the overt meanings, and play lots of wonderful tricks with what once was a simple text. This lecture is with the 41rst Annual University of North Dakota Writer’s Conference. For a longer explanation of these devices, see Fundamentals.
Links
What are links?
How can links provide connections for meanings? (Discuss one example—how would the text be different if there were no links?)
Your class: Find a connection between concepts you are studying and write a short explanation of these connections.
Imagery
How can imagery affect the reading and meaning of a text? How did the images in Rob Kendall’s Study in Shades affect the meaning of the piece?
What does placement do for meaning? How would Peter Howard’s The Rainbow Factory differ if the texts were found on a rainbow instead of an upper and lower factory window?
Your class: Find an illustration of a concept you are studying and explain how the illustration relates to that concept. How else could this concept be illustrated?
Sound
How can music or sound affect the reading and meaning of a text? How did the sound in Rob Kendall’s Faith or Deena Larsen’s I’m Simply Saying work with the text to provide meaning?
Your class: Find sounds that are an appropriate backdrop for a concept you are studying and explain how the sounds relate to that concept. What sounds (voices, music, etc) would not work with this concept? Why?
Secrecy
What additional nuances can secrets give to the text? What happens if readers don’t find the secrets—are they left with a false impression of the piece? Are secrets a “fair” thing to do to a reader? Play with the corners in I’m Simply Saying. If you had not found these secret texts, how would your reading be different?
Your class: What if the concept you are studying were a secret revealed only after you had climbed a 20,000 foot mountain? How would that effort of finding out the secret affect your reaction to the concept?
