In the beginning there was a post...

My initial response to e-poetry based on the pieces assigned so far is that it's a really interesting concept. Before coming to this course I actually had no clue that the world of electronic literature- and by extension e-poetry- had such a huge and firmly-established thing going, and being disillusioned as to the complexity of this new world is a fun experience.

While intriguing in many ways, what draws me to e-poetry more than anything at this juncture is the infinite number of ways in which an artist can convey meaning in their e-poem. I have always enjoyed reading into the deeper meaning of what appears before my eyes or enters my ears, be it interpreting the written word, deciphering a work of visual art, or trying to find the underlying emotions in a symphony. The intellectual stimulation provided by an e-poem is like wrapping all three of these media in one awesome package- now not only am I decoding this aspect or that, but also figuring out how it ties in with the rest of the work as without a vision of the bigger picture one can’t really understand the poem’s individual aspects properly.

My favorite example of this sort of tie thus far has been The Mermaid by William Yeats. The text of the poem tells the tale of a mermaid who has caught sight of a young human man whom she was instantly attracted to and tried to pull him underwater to be with her, but in the heat of the moment failed to consider that he would drown if he did so. The message that the text conveys is that love is blind on multiple levels, and not all are in a good way (as evidencedby her unthinkingly and selfishly dragging the human underwater for herself), but the electronic presentation takes it a few steps further by presenting the first line of the poem solidly, and the rest of the poem in several blocks of text in various arrangements, all too sall to be read unless you move your mouse over them, and even then they are jittery and almost illegible. I’m not sure how accurate my take on this is (that the fuzzy/”drowned” arrangements of the text signifies that what makes sense in the heat of passion and lust is not necessarily right) but the fun thing is that there are so many interpretations possible with it that it almost doesn’t matter. The exploration of its meanings can just be fun, rather than trying to arrive at a certain answer.

More to come. Viva la literary revolution.

- His Imperial Excellency Actorbass33 the Triumphant