Response to "Navigating, Mixing, Creating: Digital Literature"

We truly are in a Brave New World (interestingly a phrase repurposed from Shakespeare by Aldous Huxley, a practice these authors correctly note has been occurring for ... well, a long time). Some of the ideas about mixing to create new literature reminds me of my trip to Paris's Georges Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. I remember strolling through a room where a long line of feather fans, moving on some sort of clock-like mechanism cooled a wall of apparently overheated ceramic vaginas. I also remember a net that held twenty-foot long, red rubber penis that plunged up and down through the center of the building. I remember thinking: interesting, but I don't really get it. I understand that collage, and digital collage, or the repurposing of different elements (body parts, fans, clocks, nets, etc.) can present something to us in a new and unusual way. It's just that sometimes modern art and by extension, modern writing mystifies me as to its purpose and meaning. I guess that I am living in a hypertext world and I am a linear girl.

That said, I really responded to the poem "In My Country There Is a Mountain" by Kori Ashton and the possibilities her video interpretation of the poem provided her by allowing the Spanish text to move backward and the English text to move forward. It was so smart. And powerful. I could definitely see myself using something like this in my classroom.

I think part of what this chapter shows us is the changing nature of genre. In print form, we have essay, poetry, drama, novel, etc. etc. Now, I don't think we have enough words for what is possible or being created. We are in the midst of a genre explosion, and it is an exciting time to see how writers harness different technologies to create something meaningful. I hope, though, that we don't get too lost in the novelty of the possibility to become self indulgent and create "texts" that are silly or mundane.