Reading Reading Over Your Shoulders

In her opening questions, Maggie Cotto, gets at what's at stake in Hayles' study of electronic literature as well as the key historically significant issues confronting our culture and our academic discipline. Cotto asks, "How does electronic literature differ from print literature? How do we read it? How do we write it? How do we criticize it? How do we preserve it? How does it affect culture and society?"
She goes on to answer these questions and to delineate the types of fiction -- something usually missing from those that would dismiss all electronic texts with one broad stroke. Cotto draws the following distinctions using Hayles's categories: hypertext fiction (mainly blocks of text with few graphics), network fiction (a hybrid of narrative, sound, graphics, video, etc.), interactive fiction (with stronger game elements), locative narratives (the reader uses GPS to track plot elements in the real-world), site-specific installations (interaction in a stationary locale such as CAVE[12]), generative art (using algorithms to generate or rearrange texts), and flash poetry (whereby sequential screens progress like a slideshow).

The importance for historians is that this type of text requires a new disciplinary formation. This discipline will combine the usual tasks of "designers, graphic artists, programmers, and other workers within the knowledge industry – and the traditional humanities” (Alan Liu 37). Cotto notes that "art, music, literature, math, science, history, politics and popular culture all intersect," and that is why texts and technology is both such a demanding doctoral program and the necessary combination to appreciate our transitional moment.

Computer science began as a hybrid discipline. This new emergent discipline, T&T, adds a cultural and historical feedback loop. Cotto notes that "humans are not the sole agents of machines, and machines do not practice complete control over humanity. Instead, the evolutions of both rely on one another." Cotto goes on to close readings that connect these (and other) major themes into the e-literature works.

Stacey DiLiberto argues persuasively that "In the past 50 years, we have seen a radical and rapid development of media and technology. This advancement has changed the way we think and view the world, as well as the way we read the world. Electronic literature is the perfect example of just how much literacy has and continues to change; how it is breaking down traditional literary boundaries and creating new ones."

DiLiberto notes that "when literature moves from one medium to another (from print to electronic in this case), the knowledge is, for Hayles, “carried forward into the new medium typically by trying the replicate the earlier medium’s effects within the new medium’s specificities” (58). Mencia’s work, Birds Singing Other Bird Songs, is the perfect example of this phenomenon. The text is a demonstration of how sounds can be transcribed into words and then translated into human sounds. It is a double translation across media. In this instance visual images, sound, and images of sounds (words/syllables) are used to create the text. When considering Hayles’ description of changes across media, it is important to remember that while the text might resemble the previous medium at first, its characteristics evolve and develop gaining effects that couldn’t be achieved in the old medium (digital texts can do what the printed page cannot) (59).

There is a historical shift, it has specific characteristics involving translation, and e-lit demonstrates a cultural and historical change. One aspect of that change is literacy. DiLiberto writes, "Hayles concludes that “illegibility is not simply a lack of meaning, then, but a signifier of distributed cognitive processes that construct reading as an active production of a cybernetic circuit and not merely an internal activity of the human mind” (51). Here, the definition of literacy (reading) has changed and is not based solely on human cognition, but the complexities of the electronic and cyber system." She continues later by explaining, thar "not only does language move from one rendition to another, but from one medium to another (print to electronic). At another moment in Translation, the text reads, “grâce a le rapport entre les langues…tous les langages sont traduisibles les uns dans les autres” [thanks to the relationship between languages…all languages are translatable one into another] (trans. mine). This is a poignant statement for me since it suggests that all texts are translatable and understandable. Benjamin would even suggest that “everything in the world has signifying powers” (Hayles 148)."

John Lamothe wonders about the possibility of writing the history of the future, and gives an extended complaint about the insufficiencies of e-lit mostly depending on Ong. He concludes that section by arguing, "I have a difficult time accepting them as [literature], at least not in any way reminiscent of what is commonly considered literature. Clearly, we’re at a transitional period, and experimentation is necessary in order to define the boundaries and characteristics of the new form. But electronic literature is a long way from reaching its peak (or even its foothills). Until electronic literature is able to be defined by other ways than subtraction from print text, it’ll remain a marginalized medium and its full capabilities won’t be realized."

Bravely, in spite of his skepticism, Lamothe soldiers on to look at how -- the imperfect e-lit -- functions in terms of Kittler and Hayles. Lamothe describes much of the historical shift in his unpacking of the portmanteau word intermacy. "As a conflation of internet and intimacy, “intertimacy” expresses the seemingly oxymoronic state of having intimate connections through a machine. The suffix interworks on two very evocative levels: 1) it represents such unifying ideas as mutuality and reciprocallity. Here the suffix works to demonstrate the cohesion of personal Man and impersonal Machine. But, as Kittler would point out, it is impossible for Man to form these intertimacy attachments without mechanical means; therefore, our personal relationships are dominated and informed by our current media situation. 2) inter as a verb instead of a suffix is the process of placing the dead body into a grave or tomb. Taken in this regard, our intimate relationships are formed through the burying (leaving behind) of the body. At the same time, it’s a body that’s deceased, and viewed from a Kittlearian vantage point, this makes sense since the body is only an organic vessel that houses media forces; existentially speaking, we are formed and informed by media and thus have lost any self interior to our body."

Lamothe is best when he does close readings. Here he explains one example of e-lit. "Reading the text one letter at a time destroys traditional expectations that meaning
resides within words and sentences, not individual letters. And yet, one letter at a time is
exactly how we all write, whether it’s printed, manually typed, or electronically typed.
Stefan’s choice of a text that is at the very least vaguely familiar to pretty much everyone
(who doesn’t at least recognize “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…”) problematizes the reading because it transforms what could be discarded as random letters/words without meaning into something that is culturally significant. At the same time, his use of the original manuscript, which few have actually read and are familiar with, instead of the more well‐known text from the movie sans perfunctory formatting forces the viewer to actually attempt a reading/interpretation of the presentation instead of simply relying on memory. The resultant disjuncture forces us to consider the encoding/decoding process in technology; the basic units of ones and zeros that underscore and control everything we do on a computer. Moreover, Hayles’s claims about a recursive loop were evident to me during my personal viewing experience of Stefan’s work. After the initial struggle for interpretation that the format forced upon me, I eventually settled into the text and start observing it in a different way." Here he is correctly noting a lapse in Hayles' close reading: "To me, the seemingly random “honks,” “bangs,” and “clangs” used in the soundtrack were aural representations of the computational “ones and zeros”—base units of sounds that can be combined together to form signified auditory works. Just as Cayley believes that underlying “higher‐level relationships” in all language are “lower‐level similarities that work not on the level of words, phrases, sentences but individual phonemes and morphemes,” the car horns, door slams, and miscellaneous other “noise” played in union with the notes from French horns, bass drums, and other musical instruments underscores the “phoneme and morpheme” equivalents in the musical world (146). The car horns are to the soundtrack what the ones and zeroes are to electronic texts and, if we’re to follow Cayley’s logic to its modern end, to the “heart of human inscription. If engagement with electronic literature is in fact a recursive loop that effects both the user and the used, then it’s crucial that we include computational practices in our analysis of modern social and cultural discourses. As technology becomes more and more a part of our society, and according to Hayles, our very way of thinking, then to leave out the code which technology is based off of would be tantamount to ignoring the language that a literary work is written in. Certainly, we can gain knowledge without that tool, but by including it we open up large worlds of signification possible from the text."

Meghan Griffin eloquently summarizes Hayles' take on the historical change underway -- where -- like it or not -- we are all post(e)-human. "When N. Katherine Hayles discusses computational practice, she points toward a reflexive, multidimensional relationship between the human and computer that conjures images of her posthuman. Computing is no longer simply punching on a keypad, but rather becomes “a powerful way to reveal to us the implications of our contemporary situation, creating revelations that both work within and beneath conscious thought” (Hayles 157). Particularly in the medium of electronic literature, computational practice “is revalued into a performance” drawing on “the full complexity our human natures require, including the
of the conscious mind, the embodied response that joins cognition and emotion, and the technological nonconscious that operates through sedimented routines of habitual actions, gestures, and postures” (Hayles 157)."

Further on, Griffin notes another part of the shift. "Cayley’s emphasis on the algorithm as opposed to literal reading represents a fundamental shift in computational practice as it relates to reading. Now non-linear and no longer reliant on a full working vocabulary, language is thought to be intuited rather than read letter-for-letter. "Cayley's transliteral morphs… reflect their phonemic and morphemic relations to one another," which privileges the relational aspect of language over that of precision and clearly defined meaning (Hayles 146).In the same way that print culture gave rise to expanding vocabularies and precise meaning through the creation of new words, electronic media appears to again rely on context, which includes the speed of the algorithm and the relation of phonemes and morphemes across language to convey meaning (Ong)."

To the frustrations and complaints voiced by most of the class, Griffin cites Hayles and writes, "Hayles explains, however, that the frustrations users experience while interacting with electronic literature serve an important purpose in relating technology with our everyday lives. She writes, "404 errors … are not simply irritations but rather flashes of revelation, … minute abysses puncturing … the illusion that the human life-world remains unchanged by its integration with intelligent machines" (Hayles 136-7)." You might not buy it, but somewhere you apprehend the fact that shift has occurred and it might not be a return to a Garden of Eden. That said, we can't simply pretend that the history of reading, literacy, identity, and culture has not changed. Texts and Technology as a discipline responds to the change with applications, syntheses, and analysis. Our program could just as easily be called Posthuman Studies as you will be called on to apprehend and respond to the changes upon us.

Griffin notes that " Central to the concept of the posthuman is the notion that consciousness no longer resides within the boundaries of human flesh. And once the body expands to include technological apparatuses, it becomes difficult to locate personal identity within a consciousness that has no clear bounds. The idea of a downloadable consciousness inevitably arises in discussions of the posthuman, and is exemplified in Memmott’s Lexia to Perplexia where the machine speaks to the reader/player, as if another consciousness calls out from behind the screen."

Sonia Stephens, like many of the students involved in this course, has some very perceptive close readings, but I want to pick-up on the general theories as they involve these large historical questions. Stephens writes, " A question that has been asked as the dynamics of the relationship between humans and computers have grown more complex is: in this relationship, which is the dominant partner, human or machine? The answer will affect the context in which we describe the relationship; whether a humanistic study of digital technology, or a media-oriented study of the body. While Friedrich Kittler holds the latter view, N. Katherine Hayles advocates a third view, one focusing on “the dynamics entwining body and machine together” (EL, 88). In the historical context, Hayles sees in today’s human-computer interactions a new, closely interpenetrated relationship between human and machine, while Kittler sees a more radical subordination of the human to the omnipresent technological media. Kittler argues that even text alone acts upon the body, as when the reader subvocalizes as he or she is reading the text. This process changes the text into an internally-“heard” orality. Electronic media complete the process of externalizing the senses: “machines take over functions of the central nervous system” and now “understanding and interpretation are helpless before an unconscious writing that … makes the subject what it is” (Kittler in EL, 90). In other words, it is impossible to understand the environment created by electronic media because “whatever conclusions can be drawn from it are already predetermined by prevailing media conditions” (EL, 91). Our senses can no longer encompass the media because the media in fact are our senses."

Stephens concludes one part of her paper by noting that " For Hayles, electronic literature lets us examine our assumptions about text, embodiment, and computation alike. As electronic literature “join[s] technical practice with artistic creation, computation is revalued into a performance that addresses us with the full complexity that ourhuman natures require” (157). The act of computation is no longer merely the fulfillment of technical code, but has become the space in which the author’s desires, computer’s routines, and reader’s perceptions combine in dynamic interactions."

Adam Fields, like most of the class members, particularly liked Mencia's work. His comments about that work really capture its importance to our historical over-view. If it is difficult to revel in the initial impressions generated by Twelve Blue and The Jew’s
Daughter, the task is much easier when approaching Maria Mencia’s Birds Singing Other Birds' Songs. Unlike Joyce and Morrissey’s works, which resemble their print predecessors a good deal in form if not function, Birds Singing Other Birds’ Songs turns its attention to the radical reconfigurations of literature made possible by technological advancement. From the sounds of thirteen species of birds, Mencia created morphemes of their “speech” and then animated the resulting graphemes, which appear on screen accompanied by a human recording of the corresponding morpheme. The result is rather spectacular: mediated by the computer code, the reader experiences the interaction between human and nonhuman, and between speech, sound, and sight. What I found most interesting about the work is the fact that although the computer performs nearly all of the work of interpretation – in terms of computing the translations for thereader to absorb – it is essentially invisible in the process, an idea that reaffirms Mark B. N. Hansen’s argument that technology is subordinated by the body (Hayles 110). This is not to say, however, that all electronic literature must privilege either the body or the machine in the course of intermediation, merely that it is possible to argue that certain works do so.

Again, like many of you, Fields appreciates the importance of describing in detail the process of reading. Here he is on Memmott's work: "I began reading Lexia to Perplexia slowly, cautious of Hayles’ warning that the work was
‘notoriously nervous,’ and that even a small movement of the mouse could send the window into a frenzy. I tried to take in everything before looking for the next link, noting both the clever neologisms and the numerous subtle allusions to computer code (.tmp, .exe, and the computational usage of punctuation). I particularly enjoyed Memmott’s networking analogy for the interaction, or “realtionship” between the individual, which she casts as the I.terminus, and society, the X.terminus – signifying “internal” and “external” respectively.
As the hyperlinked image of the eye was replaced by what seemed to be a hieroglyphic representation of man – now clearly identified as “the User”- Memmott continued to depict situations of “the user” being “processed” (an idea that ties in with Hayles’ comment on the lack of reader/user control when reading Lexia to Perplexia)."

John Bork, after expressing his skepticism about writing books about e-media-reading, jumps in and summarizes an important aspect of Hayles work: "In the second chapter of Electronic Literature, Hayles develops the concept of intermediation as a way to examine electronic texts without binding them to the traditional modes of interpretation that have been used for critical study of print literature. The mark of digital born works is the non-trivial role played by nonhuman, technological components in not only the preparation of the work, but its dynamic rendering to readers, viewers, listeners - many prefer the term 'interactors', since many senses may be elicited at once in activities that go beyond passive consumption - and how it abides and potentially mutates within information systems. Departing from the traditional model in which “it's all in the head of the reader,” meaning develops through the interaction of human and machine in ways that are often emergent, associative, layered, and adaptive through various levels iteratively feeding back into each other."

As scholars, we will need to adjust our approaches to texts. This is huge. It does not mean that what you do is vague or undefined, but that you will have to account for intermediation and emergent, associative, layered, and contingent feedback loops. That is the historical shift that we have set out to discover, and that is the foundation of all of your work from now on. You might have to educate or at least reinforce these messages as I, for one, might forget ... and certainly my colleagues began where you began ... dismissive, print-centric, eye-rolling at terms like intermediation, and unaware of emergent knowledge, associative and atmospheric meanings, and a shift away from traditional notions of interpretation.

Bork goes on to compare e-lit or EL to video games: New modes of analysis and criticism have arisen along with the new forms. For example, it is worthwhile to examine the similarities and differences between EL and computer games; in both, the user is required to invest substantial effort to engage in the computational mechanisms, but for different purposes: “[p]araphrasing Markku Eskelinen's elegant formulation, we may say that with games the user interprets in order to configure, wheres in works whose primary interest is narrative, the user configures in order to interpret” (8).

When Bork warms up, he starts moving on to a whole new plane: "For example, the region spanning the Cartesian grid beginning at the left-hand point 3 on the x-axis and 2 on the y-axis to 42 on the x-axis and 227 on the y-axis links to sl1.html. The region beginning at point 43 on the x-axis and 2 on the y-axis to 85 on the x-axis and 227 on the y-axis (coords="43,3,85,227") links to sl2.html, and so on. This means that while a horizontal sequence is established, the threads themselves are indistinct." There are other wonderful instances of this sort of emergent code writing -- a poetry of the coder?

Bork, as many of you, notes some important historical facts that are relevant to our studies -- like this one: "Kittler saw a great technological advance in Heinrich Stephanie's phonetic method of reading, which occurred around 1800 - something most readers of the 2000s do not realize, that there had ever been different ways of reading - “erasing the materiality of the grapheme and substituting instead a subvocalized voice” (89)."

Bork's table is useful and probably something like that should be expanded and linked to the examples on a blog or website.

I invite you to read these research papers -- all available here.