Before it leaves my mind tonight…
It was funny when we were talking about the games and literature in terms of “what can be considered as literature” because the whole time I was thinking about how I play the computer game the Sims 3. I think that the Sims 3 is definitely a sort of literature because it creates a story. It also has features in the game that allows you to create somewhat of a story book tale.
There was also something that was being discussed on the lines of paintings and art being a form of literature, and I have to agree with those in the class who said that it is literature because one can develop stories from any kind of perspective that someone has about the picture. As a saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. This is why I consider art a form of literature.
In the words of Forrest Gump… thats all I have to say about that.
I agree that Art tells a story, but I am not quite ready to allow Art to be in my definition of literature. I can’t quite pin point why I need to make that distinction. I think of literature as something that has words and I can’t seem to get away from that. The electronic literature examples that are without words do not seem to be literature to me.
Wasn’t it a Sims game that was mentioned in the Convergence Culture book that talked about a young girl who was running for Mayor of the electronic community? So in regards to the Sims games, are they creating their own literature or is there a story line in the back ground that was created by the game designer? I am asking because I have never played the Sims before.
I don’t know if it was the Sims–that sounds more like Second Life antics. The Sims isn’t known for being as massively-multiplayer as Second Life. The Sims is largely still played alone (I don’t remember the Sims online being able to reach the online heights for electronic community like Second Life), but the community is very user-generated content geared–which EA is currently fiddling with to try and turn a profit.
Speaking of the Sims 3, I always found “Alice and Kev: Being Homeless in the Sims 3″ to be a really interesting example of the Sims 3′s story-telling capabilities.
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/ <—here is the link. The story "ended" in late October of this year. It's an interesting, entertaining and pretty quick read.
I agree with you. in my mind its like no words means not literature. I cant see how people would see literature in paintings lool that does not make any sense to me. when I went to Oklahoman state in thanks giving break we went to a museum for my son and the person who sells the tickets was explaining to me what is in the museum and he was excited for a moment saying oh yes for you guys there is a gallery upstairs that has loots of arts I bet you would enjoy that. In my mind I was thinking duh no big deal why would I be interested in that its pointless pictures hanging on the wall and i pay to see that. when i went there i did not see any body except pictures hanging on the wall lool. Not fun at this point at all.
I’ll go a bit of topic here, but I have already expressed my idea of the division of art and literature in one of the earlier comments. I just wanted to say a few more words about the status of electronic literature itself. It’s obvious that reading Hayles’s book one can draw a lot of parallels with the ideas voiced by Jenkins in his “Convergence Culture” (merging of forms, unpredictability of convergence processes for the future). But I also thought about Kastan when reading the following passage in “Electronic Literature”: “… the conditions in which a work is created, produced, disseminated, and performed always mark it in distinctive ways” (27). It makes me think that all those computer manufacturers, software companies, programmers, designers must be influencing each individual ebook just the way editors and printhouses impact the production of a traditional book.
I agree that there are strong connections between the Convergence Culture book and the ideas in the Electronic Literature book about how individuals interpret ideas. It is important to realize that people will view things differently and enjoy tv/books/movies/art in different ways. Their ways of expressing their appreciate for art/literature can evolve into new forms of art/literature. While I am not entirely sure of my definition of Electronic Literature and how it relates to Literature I feel that it is still important to recognize the value of other people’s creative forms of expression, whether that is spoiling Survivor or writing Harry Potter Fiction or literature without words.
Alls I know is, Convergence Culture was on to something because there are a lot of things I didnt notice before that I do now. I still think about the topic of people spoiling the ending of shows like survivor, but besides that, I agree that there combination of ideas and future developments of hybrids is going to take us all by storm, and in the end things will be crazy, but in a good way. I’m looking forward to more futuristic developments.
I comment.