Kevin Marsac

Term Paper

Digital literature allows the reader to believe they are in control of a story when in reality,

they are just following steps designed to create the story. This paper will talk about two main

ideas. First, we will look at a work of digital literature to illustrate how the story feels more like a

game than a traditional story. Next we will look at how the reader believes that they are in

control of the story, when they really do have no control in what happens. While we look at

these two points, we will look at Cybertext by Espen Aarseth, What is an Author? by Roland

Barthes, and Electronic Literature: What is it? by Katherine Hayles. These essays will expand

upon the topics by giving insight on electronic literature. The Possession of Christian Shaw by

Donna Leishman, feels like a small open world game where one can make decisions, but the

story stays on a linear path.

The Possession of Christian Shaw is about a girl who is followed by odd spirits and

ghosts. These ghosts seems to take control of her body as the story goes on and once that

happens, the story starts to jump around and make little sense and odd sounds begin to play, and

lights begin to flash. The story at this point feels more like a game than a story. The ability

electronic literature gives over standard books is that ability to create sound and actual images of

the characters. These e-literature stories allow the reader to click and interact with the story

which creates new scenes. The only thing that can compare is videogames. In videogames, the

player is given a task to complete to continue the story of the game. The same thing goes in e-

literature stories where the reader is more like a player in the sense that they are given tasks to

complete to move to the next scene. As a result of completing these tasks, the story reacts to the

task and gives the reader a new task to complete. Katherine Hayles asks a great question in her
essay Is electronic literature really literature at all?(Hayles). She talks about how electronic

literature has overlapping similarities from traditional stories, as the first e-literature stories were

just meant to be read on a computer, but then starts to talk about how aspects of social media

have changed the way we look at stories. In any type of traditional story, the reader has nothing

to do but read what the author has written, and use their imagination to create a setting in their

head. Hayles talks about how computers have the ability to do so much more which allows the

reader to experience something new and exciting that a book can not bring. Roland Barthes

wrote an essay called The Death of the Author, in this essay he states:

The removal of the author (one could talk here with Brecht of a veritable distancing,

the Author diminishing like a figurine at the far end of the literacy stage) is not merely

an historical fact or an act of writing; it utterly transforms the modern text (Barthes 145).

Modern text is removing the author from the story and putting the reader in their place. Not only

is modern text putting the reader first, people are choosing these stories based on how it looks

rather than the reputation of the author. When an author writes a good book, people tend to

remember who the author is for their next book but in today's electronic literature, people are

choosing the story they want to read by how it looks and plays. Less emphasis is put on the

author, and more on the play style and look of the story. A good author in today's electronic

literature makes the reader feel like they are in control of the story and anything can happen on a

nonlinear path, but just like a regular story, the author is still in control.

The story of Christian Shaw is the perfect example of this type of ergodic literature.

Ergodic literature is the idea that a nontrivial effort is needed to traverse the text at hand. This
would explain why many of the modern e-literature is considered ergodic. Like stated before, e-

literature can been seen more like a game rather than an actual story. The reader is more like a

player with control over what happens in the story. This seems to be the case in Christian Shaw,

but deeper look into the story shows how nothing can happen without certain actions taking

place. The reader feels in control of the story and what happens to Christian Shaw as they click

along, but one can start to see that the story can not continue without that certain action

happening. If the reader does not click on the correct thing or action, the story stalls and their

freedom begins to become less and less. In Aarseths essay, he states:

I have almost invariably been challenged on the same issues: that these texts

(hypertexts, adventure games, etc.) aren't essentially different from other literary texts,

because (1) all literature is to some extent indeterminate, nonlinear, and different for

every reading, (2) the reader has to make choices in order to make sense of the text, and

finally (3) a text cannot really be nonlinear because the reader can read it only one

sequence at a time, anyway. (Aarseth 2).

Aarseth talks about how these stories that feel like games and give the feeling of full control is

not really the case. In Christian Shaw, the plot of the story seems very nonlinear and all over the

place yet without the reader clicking on a specific action, the story would not advance. The

reader must make sense of the actions they are doing, along with the outcomes of these actions as

it builds upon the story. A good electronic literature author has the ability to make their story

feel nonlinear and all over the place but at the same time continue down a linear path. What

makes electronic literature difficult to understand is the use of hyperlinks placed into the story.

After one completes the story of Christian Shaw, a page comes up with the full story behind what

the reader just did. In this detailed page, are hyperlinks to other websites (some real, some fake)
which go into other details about the story. This is when the author has the ability to make their

story nonlinear and bring back complete control of their story over the reader. People can get

lost in the other links talking about what can be completely random stuff from the original story.

These links have the ability to make the story very complex but also very detailed if done

correctly. When you click on the links from Christian Shaw, the pages can not be displayed.

This can either be on purpose by the author to make the reader think there is more to know, or it

can not be displayed due to the software being used by the reader. The author is in full control of

their story from beginning to end, but does give the illusion that the reader is in control of the

story.

Electronic literature has been around since the beginning of computers. People wanted

others to read their work on a massive scale and saw an opportunity in electronics. Since then,

these stories have grown into something more than words on a page. These stories have become

more like games and authors have the ability to give off an illusion that the reader is deciding

what to and how the story plays out. As one can see electronic literature is more like a game

than a story now, and one can now see how the reader is never in true control of a story even

when it seems like they have that power.

Works Cited

Aarseth, Espen J. Cybertext. Monoskop.org, Monoskop,

monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Aarseth_Espen_J_Cybertext_Perspectives_on_Ergodic_L

iterature.pdf.
Barthes, Roland. The Death of the Author.

Hayles, N. Katherine. Electronic Literature: What Is It? Electronic Literature: What Is

It?, 5 Aug. 2005, eliterature.org/pad/elp.html.

Leishman, Donna. Deviant:The Possession of Christian Shaw. Deviant: The Possession

of Christian Shaw,

collection.eliterature.org/1/works/leishman__deviant_the_possession_of_christian_sh

aw.html.