Comments on: The Rettberg Files http://grandtextauto.org/2003/08/22/the-rettberg-files/ A group blog about computer narrative, games, poetry, and art. Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:43:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Scott Rettberg http://grandtextauto.org/2003/08/22/the-rettberg-files/comment-page-1/#comment-276 Scott Rettberg Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=62#comment-276 Hey thanks Nick. Just a word in defense of part 2: I was interested in seeing if parts of the Unknown, arranged in print, linearly, could form a novel-like reading experience. They are, of course, the same words as appear in the hypertext, but it's virtually impossible to assemble any kind of clear chronology while reading the hypertext online. I did a lot of work, and had a lot of fun, with arranging scenes from the Unknown with novel-like print experience in mind. I think it would be better, of course, to do this with a larger proportion of the text of the Unknown in a real paper book. Someday. Coffeetable book by committee. I'm not convinced that shovelware is always bad. I think that the change in media of a given work (for instance the pirated Italian art book version of Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl -- or the fantastic oversize art book edition of Noah et al.'s Gray Matters) changes the work in an interesting way. Both those are better examples than the shovelware in my diss. In a way, this kind of repurposing foregrounds what is unique about the network as a writing medium. There was also, as you might guess, a political reason for including the scenes from the Unknown. I wanted to at least stick a toe in the door for people at Cincy who might in the future want to do electronic dissertations. I had floated the idea of doing a collection of e-lit as my dissertation (which was originally going to be a print novel) and been shot down. So there was a point to proving that that this e-stuff can actually be translated and read off a page, just like that non-e-stuff. To my knowledge, there are no Italian dissertations about the Unknown, though it has been the subject of MA theses in Belgium and the Netherlands, and a few term papers in Spain and Singapore. Hey thanks Nick. Just a word in defense of part 2: I was interested in seeing if parts of the Unknown, arranged in print, linearly, could form a novel-like reading experience. They are, of course, the same words as appear in the hypertext, but it’s virtually impossible to assemble any kind of clear chronology while reading the hypertext online. I did a lot of work, and had a lot of fun, with arranging scenes from the Unknown with novel-like print experience in mind. I think it would be better, of course, to do this with a larger proportion of the text of the Unknown in a real paper book. Someday. Coffeetable book by committee. I’m not convinced that shovelware is always bad. I think that the change in media of a given work (for instance the pirated Italian art book version of Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl — or the fantastic oversize art book edition of Noah et al.’s Gray Matters) changes the work in an interesting way. Both those are better examples than the shovelware in my diss. In a way, this kind of repurposing foregrounds what is unique about the network as a writing medium. There was also, as you might guess, a political reason for including the scenes from the Unknown. I wanted to at least stick a toe in the door for people at Cincy who might in the future want to do electronic dissertations. I had floated the idea of doing a collection of e-lit as my dissertation (which was originally going to be a print novel) and been shot down. So there was a point to proving that that this e-stuff can actually be translated and read off a page, just like that non-e-stuff.

To my knowledge, there are no Italian dissertations about the Unknown, though it has been the subject of MA theses in Belgium and the Netherlands, and a few term papers in Spain and Singapore.

]]> By: nick http://grandtextauto.org/2003/08/22/the-rettberg-files/comment-page-1/#comment-277 nick Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=62#comment-277 Scott, I actually agree (despite my use of the derisive term "shovelware") that it can be worthwhile to present the same writing in different formats. (Since William and I have the full text of 2002 online and available in a printed book, it would be strange for me to categorically object to this practice.) I also see your point about how part two is an attempt to create a novel-like reading experience from the texts of the Unknown. The main reason I recommended against ordinary folks spending their book-reading time on part two is that The Unknown Anthology is available. Since it has writing from all the main Unknown authors (as it didn't have to be submitted as part of a single person's dissertation) that book seems like a print incarnation that is more representative of the whole project. But the idea of the novel is not as strong an organizing force there as in part two of your dissertation, so you do have something new going on in part two. Scott, I actually agree (despite my use of the derisive term “shovelware”) that it can be worthwhile to present the same writing in different formats. (Since William and I have the full text of 2002 online and available in a printed book, it would be strange for me to categorically object to this practice.) I also see your point about how part two is an attempt to create a novel-like reading experience from the texts of the Unknown.

The main reason I recommended against ordinary folks spending their book-reading time on part two is that The Unknown Anthology is available. Since it has writing from all the main Unknown authors (as it didn’t have to be submitted as part of a single person’s dissertation) that book seems like a print incarnation that is more representative of the whole project. But the idea of the novel is not as strong an organizing force there as in part two of your dissertation, so you do have something new going on in part two.

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