User:Laurier Rochon/readingnotes/cybertext

Espen J. Aarseth > Cybertext - Perspectives on Ergodic Literature

Define Ergodic : Of or related to certain systems that, given enough time, will eventually return to previously experienced state; Of or relating to a process in which every sequence or sample of sufficient size is equally representative of the whole.

keywords/concepts : cybernetic textuality, semiotics, linguistics, information theory, semiosis, processing, typology of symbols, textual variation, cyborg

• For all the dryness and lonely, pragmatic tone of this text, Aarseth has made a strong case (I find) for naming conventions and precisely pointing at things with accurate words. This makes his argument much clearer, straightforward and easy to dissect. Will remember for future writing.

• "By naming none I hope to include all" (completely unrelated, just sounds nice)

Intro

• Ergodic literature takes effort to traverse the text, given the extranoematic responsibilities of the reader, added to the eye movement and page turning process, which could characterize non-ergodic literature.

• "Cybertext focuses on the mechanical organization of the text"

• "A cybertext is a machine for the production of variety of expression."

• 'Traditional' linearity in a text means that there is an absence of possibility other than the direction given by the text. From a non-linear perspective (according to the author), the choices not made and the result of decisions not taken are reminded to the reader periodically. Inaccessibility != ambiguity.

• Aarseth's critics were analyzing what was being read, and he focused on what was being read FROM.

• The variable expression of a nonlinear text is often mistaken with the ambiguity of a linear text.

• In linear texts, the reader is passive. "Safe, but impotent"

• "The cybertext reader is a player, a gambler"

• The difference lies between games and narratives

• study of labyrinth - if the concept of it changes during periods, then the concept of text as a labyrinth changes with time, too.

• A footnote as an interactive feature of text : follow the path or not!

• Examples of paper-based Ergodic literature : I Ching (Book of Changes) which has inspired the binary math of computers, Calligrammes (Apollinaire), Composition No.1 (Marc Saporta)

• Examples of computer-based Ergodic works : Listen (Sharon Hopkins), Eliza (Weizenbaum), Adventure (Crowther & Woods), Tale Spin (Meehan), Hypertext (Nelson), TinyMud (Aspnes)

• Old question in a new context : What is a text?

• Author's exploration is based on narratology and rhetoric

• The distinctions that are made between printed and electronic texts are usually historical, technological and always political.

• cybertext = contains some kind of feedback loop

• Can a text never really 'reach itself'? And therefore not exist? (Fish, 1980) - will have to look into this idea.

• "Cybertext is the wide range of possible textualities seen as a typology of machines, as various kinds of literary communications systems where the functional differences among the mechanical parts play a defining role in determining the aesthetic process."

Paradigms and perspectives

• Can self-generating, self-sustaining works like Game of Life be considered a semiotic system?

• "Cybernetic signs are basically mouthpieces for their human designers and programmers"

• Andeersen's typology of symbols : permanence, transience, handling and action. The author will methodically destroy this technique of analysis based on semiotics. He is 'far from convinced' that computer-mediated communication is primarily a semiotic domain.

• Multilinear VS nonlinear VS linear VS multicursal

• What is interaction? Definitions proposed by Andersen and Lippman are obviously not suitable. Also, what does fiction mean?

• cyborg = coined in 1960s, humans + technology.

• The word 'interaction' connotes many, many things, but denotes nothing. It is useless then?

• Haraway's conception of a cyborg as a window to explore the aesthetics of ergodic communication.

A typology of textual communication

• As new media becomes visible, it forces us to look at old media in a new light.

• "The discussion of computer media lack rigorous terminology". True.

• Aarseth tries to create a topology for media...obviously the previous attempts came up short.

• What is text? 1) it cannot operate independently of some material medium, and this influences its behavior 2) a text is not equal to the information it transmits

• 7 variables determine the typology

After analyzing many texts (both paper and electronic), some interesting results were presented to us. Usually groups of texts cluster together depending on the outcome of the variables determining the typology, and most interesting of all was the way paper and electronic texts were mashed up together. This showed how electronic features were merely emulations of already existing functions of paper texts, and that the paper/electronic dichotomy did not stand.

• Literary field (Bourdieu!) (or to not consider only the text itself)

• Hypertext as a medium of text?

• Important : NAVIGATION

• Hypertext != reading + writing together. Reading is the same as with traditional texts

• Tmesis - skimming and skipping some parts

• "Contradistinctively" (wow!)

• Overheat Mcluhan's medium (nice)

• Hypertext works are temporal and irreproducible (because they change all the time)

• Aporia & epiphany -> they generate narratives

• In reading hypertexts, the reader must become a metareader, to counter the derailing effect of the narrative

• Ergodic explained : the sequences, successions of events in a football match. (i.e. which require nontrivial effort to traverse)

The Adventure Game

• 'Adventure' as collaborative, folk art

• D & D, Rogue, DOOM, Zork, Adventures

• Interactive game = pleonasm

• Adventure game as literary genre

• Critics don't want to apply literary theory to this new genre, because it is so different - which is precisely why it is worth studying.

The Cyborg Author : problems of automated Poetics

• We project sentience, even intelligence onto our mechanical partners.

• Tale-spin : incongruous moments, infinite loops, etc.

• "The computer will never become a good traditional author, if only because it cannot criticize or appreciate its own work. Narcissism is a necessary element in the artistic process, as is self-reflection and self-criticism".

• Not computer literature - cyborg literature (mix of computer and human ).

• The 2 problems of contemporary computer-generated poetics : 1)use of traditional literary genres and formats as the ideals of the new literature 2)uncritical use of traditional literary theory in the criticism of participatory literature.

Songs from the MUD : multi-user discourse

• "Indeed, MUDs of the tiny variety are not games, for the simple reason that there are no immanent rules to regulate social and linguistic behavior."

• "Bots and nonplayer agents can be effective autonomous parts of the aesthetic role-play in a cybertext and can provide a valuable supplement to the often more arbitrary company of human players."

• "MUD players are literary cyborgs"

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• "A passive reader of a document might be in a much stronger political position than the writer of the same document, for example in the case of wiretapping or surveillance..."

• Technology is not democratic or non-democratic in itself, it is only a tool. Its use can be democratic though, although it is usually not. People who control the technology will always have more power than the ones who don't, as they can control its use in whichever way want.