Week 7 – Electronic Literature – Justin Oberg

Out of the three electronic literature pieces I watched I enjoyed Shy Boy by Thom Swiss the most. Shy Boy is definitely a moving piece of electronic literature and could not be nearly appreciated if it was converted somehow into print form. The combination of music, text, animations and color are all key to making Shy Boy an effective piece of literature. However, it is these aspects that also make it not able to be made in print form but require it to be electronic. In N. Katherine Hayles’ article “Electronic Literature: What is it?” she states, “Unlike a print book, electronic text literally cannot be accessed without running the code. Critics and scholars of digital art and literature should therefore properly consider the source code to be part of the work, a position underscored by authors who embed in the code information or interpretive comments crucial to understanding the work” (3). This is very true for Shy Boy concerning the code. All of the multimedia features going on like the music, colors and animations are only made possible through someone putting in code. From HTML markups down to the binary code that makes up the flash animation, these code-based elements are what give this piece of literature more depth and I think more power over the reader. The multiple stimuli of text, music and movement just naturally serve to grab my attention more than just if I were reading it in text in print form. This is why I would say that I enjoy reading electronic literature more than traditional print literature.