Ingrid Ankerson’s “Cruising” is an example of a born digital work. This piece of electronic literature could never exist on in print, as it would take away from the fluidity that it has on online. The fast pace pictures and auditory rhyming give Ankerson’s work a sort of beat nick quality. There is a quote in the text that articulates this point quite nicely “Computer-modulated texts (poetry machines, cybertexts) are a form of poetry that lives and breathes the fluidity of the electronic environment. They highlight the dynamic production of text, turning this production into a spectacle. Experiencing the text means watching words and meaning emerge and evolve on the screen.” This is what it means to be a “born digital” work, electronic literature goes beyond the limitations of the text itself, as it tries include different senses and interactivity. If one were to try to create “Cruising” on paper, it would fail, because the images would be static. It would lack the movement and the rhythm that is has digitally. One draw back to electronic literature is that it is giving you the narrative, and doesn’t let your mind imagine as fully as simple printed text does. With a book or a poem, one is more free to interpret and imagine what they want, but with many forms of electronic literature, the narrative is more rigid as it feeds you text, sound, and pictures, that is specifically programed by the creator. This form is interesting in how it can reinterpret literature and widen the definition, yet it still can never replace the authentic printed word.
Colleen Burke-ColleenBurke85