Similar to Jon’s concerns with Electronic Literature, I was also taken aback by the busyness of the majority of Jason Nelson’s pieces. I had this same frustration as I navigated through the complexities of House of Leaves. Am I supposed to focus more on the novel’s plot or the idea of the novel serving as a spectacle? The level of distractions seems to almost be a consistent theme, one that is to be highlighted. With all of Danielewski’s ramped typography, colors, and footnotes, it was challenging to digest the plot without coddling the distractions first. In Nelson’s case, his mixing of text, images, and sounds leaves no room for the reader’s imagination. If the reader can see and hear everything all at once, the piece invokes more vacancy than engagement. Are those distractions part of the plot? There is almost a depersonalization in employing such “loud” colors, arrows, flashing lights, etc. With so many distractions, the reader cannot identify with what he or she is playing/reading. I have a hard enough time reading Mrs. Dalloway with music in the background let alone playing Evidence of Everything Exploding. I became more concerned with navigating my arrow through the dashed walls than actually reading what was exploding on my screen. See, there is that binary between playing and reading again! How is it that some of Nelson’s pieces are to be played, but others are to be read? On the main page of Everything Exploding, I noticed that at the bottom, in parentheses reads “an art game creature / digital poem.” Is electronic literature only to be presented in a slashed identity? Can it not thrive as separate entities?
With this question in mind, I chose the most “static” of Nelson’s literature, “reading” his electronic poem Sydney’s Siberia. I don’t think I actually finished the poem, as I kept being presented with redundant tiles. I think that was the poem’s biggest limitation. Because it was so set on the electronic aspect of the piece, it lacked in the actual literature of it. As for the content, I thought it was counterintuitive toward the presentation of the poem. The message of the poem seemed to represent irritancy with society’s favor of consumerism/materialism over organics/minimalism. However, the manipulation of text and color (and further, the electronic presentation of the poem) seemed to deflect or dissuade the reader from appropriating that mindset. Also, because there was no distinguishable end to the poem, I felt like it was a hollow experience. I felt dissatisfied quitting instead of finishing. Therein lies the answer to my slashed identity question. When presented as two types of avenues, one has to be minimized to empower the other. Because this genre is entitled electronic literature, the electronic aspect has to be dominant. Nick Montfort’s Taroko Gorge and its remixes could not just be online poetry to be considered “electronic”, but had to incorporate an automatic descending to be considered electronic. For those who want literature electronically, that is where the Kindle or Nook would be more appropriate.