Programming

Full disclosure, when I first enrolled in the course I was not really sure what exactly electronic literature was. The initial computer-generated poems that we saw at the beginning of the first class spoke spoke volumes to me about what e-lit is and what is tries to be in light of which factors. When computers began to emerge (when my father became fascinated by them and went on to create maintenance programs for Chevron not knowing his son would use these wonderful machines to write low-budget screenplays) it makes sense that while the world became caught up in the technical tasks they could accomplish, artists immediately tried to make them modes of expression. Expression for themselves via the new technology? Or expression for the technology via the artist? These are questions that fascinate me and everyone else in the class I'm sure but I can only imagine the contempt these early e-lit artists faced when they tried to make these revolutionary machines make poems. Reading Funkhouser's academic breakdown of the stages of e-lit in it's early days almost feels satirical to me because I can't conceive of such work being taken seriously beyond a cool party trick. The actual payout of the page makes the article feel even more dated even though it is only eleven years old. The words feel drier as now we have the means to create striking examples of the text and simple graphics he describes in the article. If someone from the 50's were to see the visual Library of Babel, could they deny how visually interesting and academic the work is? I'd hope not.