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,

• "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