Happy Holidays

Grades have been submitted to Testudo. A reminder that it is my policy, as stated on the syllabus, not to discuss grades via email.

Happy holidays to all. Here's one last link to play with.

Today's Topic: FINAL EXAM

1:30-3:30 PM, as scheduled by Testudo.

The final exam will take place Wednesday, December 15, 1:30-3:30 in SQH 2112. No make-ups will be given if you miss the exam. The final will be similar to the mid-term in format and expectations. It will focus primarily on material from the second half of the course, but one essay question will ask you to synthesize ideas—and produce some examples—from throughout the entire semester. There will be some practically-oriented questions on working in the MOO. To prepare for that, I’d suggest logging into the MOO and reviewing the interface and styles of interaction.

Today's Topic: Logging Off (Robert Pinsky Lecture)

NO CLASS MEETING. PLEASE ATTEND ROBERT PINSKY'S PETROU LECTURE, "THE FAVORITE POEM PROJECT." 3:30, SQH 1120.

Robert Pinksy is one of the best-known living American poets, former Poet Laureate of the United States, and (especially notable for our purposes) author of the electronic novel/game Mindwheel (1984).

Reading (to be discussed Monday, 12/6):

Shelley Jackson, Skin: http://ineradicablestain.com/skin.html.

Today's Topic: Reprise: The Book (as) Machine

McCaffery and Nichol, "The Book as Machine" (CP).

Final Exam Review

Here is a review sheet for the final exam. To be distributed and discussed in class today.

No Contest

In the Washington Post:

I've known for a long time that a lot of the boys in my English classes are more interested in connecting with their Xboxes in the evening than with the next three chapters of Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon." But ever since I observed their mounting hysteria over last month's "premiere" of Halo 2, the new combat game from Microsoft, I've been trying to find out what's behind the lure of video games. As the boys I teach have endeavored to enlighten me, I haven't known whether to laugh, cry, or go find a new job. What they told me has me wondering how what I teach can possibly compete with the fast-paced razzle-dazzle of this ever-evolving entertainment form and worrying about the young guys who spend so much time divorced from reality and the life of the mind as they zap away the hours before their video screens.

Free registration required.

Today's Topic: Emergent Literature and Smart Texts 2.0

Readings:

Rheingold, from Smart Mobs (CP);
“Location Aware Narrative”: http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/Opinion/index.cfm?article=83;
Onesixty: http://www.centrifugalforces.co.uk/onesixty01/pages/main.html;
UniFiction: http://unfiction.com/;
Flight Risk: http://shes.aflightrisk.org/.

Today's Topic: Emergent Literature and Smart Texts 1.0

Readings:

Johnson, from Emergence (CP);
Richard Powers, “Literary Devices” (to be distributed).

Today's Topic: Literary Games and Instrumental Texts 2.0

Readings:

Stuart Moulthrop, Pax: http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/pax/;
Interview with Moulthrop by Noah Wardrip-Fruin: http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/feature/moulthrop/.

Catching Up

Folks,

We are exactly one week behind on the syllabus. Therefore, please have Borges' "The Interloper" read for the Monday after the break.

Have a good holiday!

Computers as Authors?

"Computers as Authors? Literary Luddites Unite!" in the NY Times (may require free registration). Here's a taste:

"Dave Striver loved the university - its ivy-covered clocktowers, its ancient and sturdy brick, and its sun-splashed verdant greens and eager youth. The university, contrary to popular opinion, is far from free of the stark unforgiving trials of the business world: academia has its own tests, and some are as merciless as any in the marketplace. A prime example is the dissertation defense: to earn the Ph.D., to become a doctor, one must pass an oral examination on one's dissertation. This was a test Professor Edward Hart enjoyed giving."

That pregnant opening paragraph was written by a computer program known as Brutus.1 that was developed by Selmer Bringsjord, a computer scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and David A. Ferrucci, a researcher at I.B.M.

Today's Topic: Literary Games and Instrumental Texts 1.0

Readings:

Borges, “The Interloper” (CP);
Natalie Bookchin, The Intruder: http://dian-network.com/con/intruder/;
“Literary Games” issue of PoemsThatGo: http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/fall2003/poems.htm.

Papers/Projects Due.

Reading at Risk: Reactions?

If you have thoughts about the panel yesterday, post here.

Today's Topic: Writing for the Web 2.0

Reading: Poems by Jason Nelson: http://www.heliozoa.com(requires Flash).

Last day to submit the Choose Your Own Adventure assignment.

Gutenberg's Role Questioned

New research questions Gutenberg's contribution to early printing.

Today's Topic: Writing for the Web 1.0

Readings:

Olia Lialina, “My boyfriend came back from the war”:
http://www.teleportacia.org/war/ (1996 HTML version especially);
Shelley Jackson, “My Body”: http://www.altx.com/thebody/.

The Numerist Fallacy

A terrific thread over on the GrandTextAuto blog that ties together much of the high-level theory about formal systems and the nature of the digital we've been doing this semester. Go take a look, you'll see that your prof isn't the only one who obsesses over this stuff!

Today's Topic: Hypertext Before the Web 2.0

Reading: Joyce’s Afternoon.

Reminder: Reading at Risk Discussion

Please consider attending: Thursday, November 18th, 2:00-3:45, in the McKeldin Library Special Events Room (#6137), University of Maryland, College Park.

Book Arts Fair and Conference

The 8th biennial Book Arts Fair and Conference, sponsored by Pyramid Atlantic. In downtown Silver Spring, November 19-21. A great line-up of speakers, and over 40 vendors/sellers. If you're interested in the present (and the future) face of the book, come on out.

Today's Topic: Hypertext Before the Web 1.0

Readings:

Aarseth, 76-96;
Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think” (sections 6, 7, 8 especially):
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm;
Begin Joyce’s Afternoon.

Today's Topic: Writing and/as Code 4.0

Readings: The Bug (261-end); examples of codework (to be distributed).

Today's Topic: Writing and/as Code 3.0

Reading: The Bug (157-257).

The Game of Life

The Game of Life is one of the most famous formal systems ever devised, by the mathematician John Conway.

Play the Game of Life by clicking the button in the top right-hand corner, drawing a starting pattern with your mouse, and then clicking Go. Try zooming out to see how your system proliferates.

A Word About Comment Spam

A quick word about something we'll all be seeing more of, unfortunately: from time to time you may check the blog and find "comment spam." These are automatically generated comment messages, with active links to commercial, sometimes pornographic, Web sites. Comment spam targets blogs with high Google page ranks; the logic, such as it is, is that by linking to a page ranked on Google the spammers' own pages will likewise climb in the Google ratings. Pretty sad, huh?

This blog is protected by a "blacklist" which filters the spam--most of the time. Some times it gets through, and I have to manually clear it away as soon as I can. If you find comment spam here the best thing to do is simply ignore it, even if it is gross and offensive. If it lasts for more than a day or two let me know, as I may have missed it. Thanks.

Today's Topic: Writing and/as Code 2.0

Readings:

The Bug (87-153);
Steve Ramsay and Geoffrey Rockwell, “Writing as Programming as Writing”:
http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/wap.pdf (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Today's Topic: Writing and/as Code 1.0

Reading: The Bug (1-87).

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS (don't read if you haven't finished the book yet).

Today's Topic: MIDTERM EXAM

Details TBA.

Today's Topic: Catch-up and Exam Review

No reading.

Exam Review

Please (everyone) post at least one term or name from readings or class discussions that could serve as a potential identification question on the exam.

Today's Topic: Social Texts: MUDs and MOOs 2.0

Introduction to the MOO: http://www.rc.umd.edu:7000.

Today's Topic: Social Texts: MUDs and MOOs 1.0

Aarseth, 142-161;
Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace”:
http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html.

Hamlet as a Text Adventure

What if someone rewrote Hamlet as a text adventure? Well, someone did:

http://www.robinjohnson.f9.co.uk/adventure/hamlet.html

Today's Topic: Spatial Texts: Interactive Fiction 2.0

Andrew Plotkin, “Shade”: http://www.eblong.com/zarf/zplet/shade.html;

Hint: In the dark about Shade?Take a look at the to-do list on the table. It'll tell you what you need to do next.

Today's Topic: Spatial Texts: Interactive Fiction 1.0

Readings:

Aarseth, 97-128;
Play Crowther and Wood’s Adventure online,
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/adventure/index.html.

LetterSpace

Practice with Mathews' Algorithm or other manipulations.

Craziest

Watch it again here.

Comments?

Today's Topic: Procedural Texts and Potential Literature 2.0

Readings: Mathews, “Mathews’ Algorithm” (CP).

My HTML Sampler

It's right here.

Oulipo Comix

Exercises in Style:

Exercises in Style was inspired by a work of the same name by the French writer Raymond Queneau. In that book, Queneau spun 99 variations out of a mundane, two-part text about two chance encounters with a mildly irritating character during the course of a day. He started by telling it in every conceivable tense, then by doing it in free verse and as a sonnet, as a telegram, in pig latin, as a series of exclamations, in an indifferent voice... you name it.

The goal of this project is to apply the same principle to comics by creating as many variations as possible on a simple one-page non-story: different points of view, different genres, different formal games, and so on.

Freedom and Constraint

"The classical playwright who writes his tragedy observing a certain number of familiar rules is freer than the poet who writes that which comes into his head and who is the slave of other rules of which he is ignorant."

--Raymond Queneau

Today's Topic: Procedural Texts and Potential Literature 1.0

Readings:

Aarseth, 129-141;
Knuth, “Basic Concepts” (CP);
Have a talk with ELIZA: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/eliza.htm.

Reading at Risk? A Panel Discussion

An event I've organized--mark your calendars!

READING AT RISK? A PANEL DISCUSSION

Released in July of this year, the National Endowment for the Arts' "Reading at Risk" report garnered widespread attention for its dramatic and troubling findings, chief among which were that there has been a documented 10% national decline in "literary reading" since 1982, with the drop-off even more precipitous among younger age groups. (The report is available in its entirety online at: http://www.nea.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf). These findings are surely of concern to anyone who cares about the future of reading and a literate populace. But what *is* reading in the current day and age? What can we learn from the history of media change, where previous moments of technological transition have been accompanied by similar expressions of anxiety and concern? Or are we truly facing an uprecedented shift in what and how and why we read? What are the implications for education? The arts? Public policy and civics? Join us on Thursday, November 18th, 2:00-3:45, in the McKeldin Special Events Room for a discussion of this issue, featuring a number of distinguished speakers from the College Park campus and beyond:

MARK BAUERLEIN, Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also Professor of English at Emory University. He has written many books and articles on American literature, history, and philosophy, and his commentaries and reviews have appeared in Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, TLS, Yale Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other national periodicals.

MICHAEL COLLIER, Professor of English and Co-Director of Creative Writing at UMCP, and former Poet Laureate of the State of Maryland. Professor Collier is the author of several books and collections, and over 100 published poems.

LISA GITELMAN, Associate Professor of English and Director of Media Studies at Catholic University. Professor Gitleman is the author of Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines (Stanford UP, 1999) and co-editor of New Media 1740-1915 (MIT Press, 2003).

SHIRLEY LOGAN, Professor of English at UMCP and former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (the 4Cs). She is the author of "We Are Coming": The Persuasive Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Black Women (Southern Illinois, 1999) and co-editor of many other books.

CLIFFORD LYNCH, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. He is a past president of the American Society for Information Science and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Information Standards Organization.

NICK MONTFORT, co-editor of the New Media Reader (MIT Press, 2003) and author of Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interfactive Fiction (MIT Press, 2004). Currently a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, Montfort is also a highly-regarded writer of interactive fiction.

The panel will be moderated by MATTHEW KIRSCHENBAUM, Assistant Professor of English at UMCP. It is intended to be of broad topical interest to a diverse and interdisciplinary audience. Free and open to the public; entire classes welcome.

Sponsored by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and the Department of English. Please contact Matt Kirschenbaum (mgk "at" umd "dot" edu) with questions.

Today's Topic: HTML 2.0

MITH Tables Tutorial (different from last week's): http://www.mith.umd.edu/teaching/tutorials/tables/index.html

Mark Saporta's Composition No. 1

Here's a detailed description of a reading of Mark Saporta's recombinant novel Composition No. 1, which Marie-Laure Ryan cites as perhaps the only actual example of a Complete Graph. The description, incidentally, is by Nick Montfort, whose work we'll be encountering again during the semester.

Art of Participation

Something I'm recommending to all my classes:

Please read this excellent handout on the Art of [Class] Participation.

Today's Topic: Machines Made of Words (Ergodic Literature II)

Reading: Aarseth, 24-75.

Today's Topic: HTML 1.0

Complete MITH's HTML Tutorial: http://www.mith.umd.edu/teaching/tutorials/html/index.html

Today's Topic: Labyrinths (Ergodic Literature I)

Readings:

Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” (CP);
Aarseth, 1-23.

Today's Topic: Loops and Branches

Readings:

Queneau, “Story As You Like It” (CP);
Coover, “The Babysitter” (CP);
Atwood, “Happy Endings” (CP);
Ryan, "The Structures of Interactive Narrativity" (CP).

Citations and Certificates

A couple of local programs you should be aware of:

The Interdisciplinary Multimedia and Technology Citation, which several of you are already enrolled in. 16 credit hours; ENGL 467 is one of three requirements. Additional information is available here.

The Science, Technology, and Society Certificate. 21 credits. There is now precedent for using ENGL 467 as an elective.

Introductions

Please use the comment function below to tell us a little about yourself: your year and major, where you're from, what attracted you to this course, and anything else that you'd like us to know about your background and interests.

Haiku Machines

If you'd like to share some output from your Haiku machine, feel free to do so below!

Room Change

From now on our Monday class will meet in Susquehanna 1117, down the hall and around the corner from the original room. Our Wednesday meetings will continue to be held upstairs, in the New Media Classroom.

Today's Topic: Poetry and Checkers

Checkers: http://www.darkfish.com/checkers/Checkers.html.

Today's Topic: Logging On

Introduction to the course.

Reading: Raymond Queneau, One Hundred Thousand Billion Poems: http://www.bevrowe.info/Poems/QueneauRandom.htm.