In print literature, there is usually a single voice. In fiction, this is usually the narrator of the story (Joey learned to hate the group that killed his mother. They were only lawless terrorists and one could not listen to their demands for food, clean water, freedom to choose their leaders or their religion. Terrorists who killed themselves to kill his mother could not be granted anything. ) or the story can be told in first person (I listened to my teachers at school, to the newspapers, to the rants. All of it was a complex, interwoven mess. The only thing I knew for certain was that my mother would never hold me again.). In nonfiction, this may be a single author expressing a viewpoint or it may be multiple authors explaining a subject. Very rarely will the story or explanation or thought process allow for multiple voices, multiple interpretations, within the same text.
Electronic literature, on the other hand, easily embodies multiple voices within a single piece. These voices can be shown differently (set off with a different font or a different color or a different placement on the screen). Or these voices may be more subtly distinguished--only after careful reading does a reader see that the nodes come from different "authors" or narrators or sources. Dissenting voices may even be hidden within the text--either as a secret node or as a series of nodes accessible by certain links or paths only.
A piece can portray many voices at once--and it may not be clear who is speaking when. This plurality of voices can also lead to a single piece proclaiming contradictions. As text can be hidden and unhidden, readers can discover one thing and then discover its opposite in the piece as well.
Exploration
Direct contradictions. Peter Howards' Rainbow Factory (2000) contrasts the "PR" story of the Rainbow Factory with its opposing element that dishes out what really happens underneath. The piece sets up the opposition as upper and lower windows.
Multiple voices on the same node. Deena Larsen's Carving in Possibility (2001) provides a myriad of voices (past, present, future, stone, sculptor, crowd, David) in different colors. Each voice augments--and contradicts--the others.
s
Multiple voices on different nodes. Some works put different voices or narrators on different nodes to create a juxtaposition or internal dialogue. Some of these are short (for example, Edward Picot's An Unimportant Story with four nodes) or quite long (for example, The Unknown, an anthology of fiction and poetry by William Gillespie, Scott Rettberg, and Dirk Stratton with hundreds of nodes).
Exercise: This Sentence is False
Set up a work (using any electronic literature tool) where the first sentence in the pair is displayed, and the user can click on that to get the opposite.
You can take your origins out of your destiny. {click to read contradiction } /
You can not take your origins out of your destiny
You can speak without language. {click to read contradiction} / You can not speak without language.
You can cry out for peace before your enemy’s children die. {click to read contradiction} / You can not cry out for peace before your enemy’s children die.
You can rest while the children scream in agony over their wounds. {click to read contradiction} / You can not rest while the children scream in agony over their wounds.
You can heal after the earth is laid bare. {click to read contradiction} / You can not heal after the earth is laid bare.
You can hold on tightly to things without desecrating them. {click to read contradiction} / You can not hold on tightly to things without desecrating them.
You can destroy what you love. {click to read contradiction} / You can not destroy what you love.
You can build your life on the sounds of battle. {click to read contradiction} / You can not build your life on the sounds of battle.
Experiment: On Your Own
Solitaire
Flipping positions
Get some index cards or a deck of cards
Write a positive statement on the front and a corresponding negative one on the back of each one.
Find a variety of different opinions on one subject that interests you (these can be blogs, newspaper articles, school papers, etc.) You can also use corresponding images.
Cut each out and glue it to a hard backing or place these on a posterboard.
Cut out thin paper strips (you can use different colors to represent different themes)
Use these strips as connectors--place them between the texts. On each strip, write the connection between the two texts.
How do the voices and meanings change when they are juxtaposed like this?
How do the connections change the meaning?
Team sport
Point and counterpoint
Have everyone write on the same thing (a situation, an image, a sound, an object, a recent incident in the news, etc.) for 10 minutes.
Switch cards with everyone, so everyone has a different card. Write a response to this new card for 10 minutes.
Switch cards as a set again, so everyone has a set of first card and second card responses. Write a response to both cards for 10 minutes.
Arrange the cards on a poster board and use connectors (as in the links experiment) as a series of voices.
Which cards overlap?
Whose voices come through in the discussion?
How do the different responses influence the discussion?
Can you make a coherent whole from these voices (feel free to add, subtract, or duplicate cards.)
Here's an exercise: write a Storyspace hypertext that describes a party. For example, you might place dialogue in the nodes, and use
links to move either in time or across space (as one might experience a party while wandering throught the room.
Now, start over and write an account of the *same* party, with the same people and events, but with a completely different approach to
the use of links. Some alternatives you might consider:
Begin with a framing story, and then move forward through disparate points of view (Rashamon)
Begin at the dramatic climax, and tell the story backward
(Kathryn Cramer's In Small & Large Pieces)
Design each writing space so that it ends with a partial sentence
of dialog -- which can be completed by several distinct lexia in
which the sentence might be concluded by another character (Coover,
Knave of Hearts)
Intersperse multiple versions of the unfolding events, which need
not be mutually consistent (Coover, The Babysitter)
Illustrate the party, in such a way that the images change the
meaning that the text would otherwise convey (McCloud, Understanding
Comics)
Enforce alternation of writing spaces (such as a Mirrorworld pattern) so
that we shift constantly from unfolding events to backstory, and then
return to a new place or a new time (Mary Kim Arnold's "Lust")
Share your work in person Take a few readers through your piece--ask which voices or opinions or statements they agree with. Use this as a starting point for a discussion of your issues or stories.
Share your work online
Create a video of different readings of your piece. In the video, explain how the pieces work together--or how they clash. your work and explain the links and connections and how they change meaning.
Take a series of pictures of your piece and tie them together with a narrative for a slideshow.
Render your creation to be read on a computer (use any tool you can).
We'd love to show your work--either send it or send a URL for your work here to be a part of this site.
