A new collection of “electronic literature” proves that the genre of interactive storytelling comes in an array forms and technological platforms. In fact, if you’re not sure what exactly electronic literature is, you still won’t know after clicking around on this Web site that mixes video, audio, and text into works that are not quite video games, not quite poetry, and nothing like a traditional novel.
Works in the anthology, Electronic Literature Collection Volume Two, include a poem that lets users trigger different sounds by clicking on various letters; a video game that lets players shoot pictures of words; and a satirical collaborative novel about a book tour that “takes on the excesses of a rock tour.”
The goal, said Mark Marino, an assistant professor of writing at the University of Southern California, who has a work in the collection, is to “inspire the next waves of digitally born literary creations.” That stands in contrast to what he sees as the spirit of a typical literary anthology, “whose primary function is to intimidate students and to enshrine an elite group of dead authors.”
The collection was published free online by the Electronic Literature Organization, a nonprofit group started by professors and graduate students.
One work of digital fiction in the collection “comes closer than any digital literature work thus far to realizing a long-held dream,” according to a note on the site. That dream: to incorporate just about any typed response from a user into the outcome of the story’s narrative—a feat of artificial intelligence as much as storytelling.
Unfortunately, that story, called Facade, also shows the limitations these experimental electronic works. To read the piece, you first have to install it on your computer, because it is a stand-alone piece of software (the anthology provides separate versions for Mac and for PC). Doing so requires a lengthy download. When I tried to open the installed software on my newly purchased MacBook Pro, I got a notice saying “Loading ...” which never ended. Then my computer crashed. A pretty frustrating experience.
To be fair, most of the pieces were free of glitches, and many simply play in a standard Web browser. And the collection’s variety means that clicking on a work feels adventurous and often reveals clever surprises.
Many of them pack a message as well. As Mr. Marino said, “some mistakenly believe e-lit is only ever “about” electronic media, but this collection shows quite a bit of engagement with the political and social issues of the day.”