Deena Larsen escapes

into electronic literature and beyond

Deena Larsen's Life and Works: So who are you and what have you done?

go beyond and explore

Marble Springs is who I am

When I was a child, I loved Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology, following connections. So then, I just had to create my own world, Marble Springs, a Colorado mining town where it could be ferreted out who the town whore's daughter's father really was. In my town, the links tell what cannot be put into words. This work is now reborn as a wiki--come join the fun.

Fundamentally, I just want people to understand

I have reve(a)lled in the new waves of meaning that flash, motion, images, navigation, links, sound and more can bring to literature. Yet I found that few folks understand the nuances, the delicate touch behind these juxtapositions, and so I wrote Fundamentals, a textbook that explains how to read and interpret these works, as well as write them.

Love in Rose

The Rose Language is what I am becoming

My love, MaJe Larsen (co-author of A Modern Moral Fairy Tale), and I had an incredible four years together before her untimely death from cancer, and her words still echo in my heart. So, now, I am fulfilling a promise to share my secred nuanced code language with all of you. This is a massive project, with its own website: www.thinkingrose.com.

A Far too Comprehensive List of Works

Intertwingled Words, Links, and Pages

screenshot of triptych--last lines in memory — Triptych Uses a straight word doc as a hypertext--adding links, playing with the multiple layers in the comments, etc.

Icon for Datafeeds-a braided line — Datafeeds Shows the same event in three social worlds (the blind, the sighted, and the heartbeat-sensors).

Some alt text — Modern Moral Fairy Tale is a very tight but complex interweaving of four separate story threads--from a sentient internet cafe to dissidents to salmon reading their newspapers.

Some alt text — Marble Springs 3.0 was originally a work mounted on a model railway bed with lots and lots of embrodeiry threads for connections.

Flash Collaborations

Princess Murderer among signs — The Princess Murderer With geniwate at the Iowa Review Web, is a game based narrative with sex and violence.

Intro screen for E:Electron, which uses the Dr. Who score. — E:Electron With Geoffrey Gatza at Blue Moon Review, is a love story based on the periodic table of elements, with a philosophical treatise woven in and around it.

Cut to the flesh in tiny pieces. This was my friend's Kelley's skin, but she would not want you to know that. — Cut to the Flesh With Jody Zellen for page space, is part of a larger project. The page_space collaborations explore relations between content and design.

Going through the signs. I took these photos in Australia, I think. — Going through the Signs Jody did the text on one and graphics/design on the other, then I did the same. A nice game of story-making. (See all the page space projects)

My Motion and E-motion

Firefly: A tale told in 180 degrees of separation. — Firefly Poems that Go is a poem 6 lines long with 5 stanzas. However, like Raymond Queneau’sCent mille milliards de poèmes, this has a million possible readings as each line is also 6 lines "deep." Click on the line to uncover ulterior meanings--the whole thing makes sense in a multiplicity of ways.

David's eye from Michaelangelo--is one way to look at this. — Carving in Possibilities frAme6
Lets you experience an instantiation of a sculpture--from the story to the scultpure--to well beyond. You can carve as many possibilities as you like--the ways reality could go are endless. Turn off the sound if the chopping away at your beliefs becomes annoying.

Some alt text — I'm Simply Saying Inflect Is a convoluted way of saying that everything is deeply intertwingled. As a performance piece, it has its own music and timing. If you want an easy, simple work to show folks, just play this and read along. The timing should work out perfectly--and of course, it is anything but simple.

Based on photos from my camping trips in Colorado — Tree Woman Epimone
Is a relatively simple piece with overlapping text, explaining womanhood and fecundity and trees and loss. This was an early flash piece, and could stand to be redone if I could find the files.

Structure (h)as Meaning

Some alt text — Disappearing Rain Is a mystery novel: Anna has disappeared and the only clue she leaves is an open internet connection. This is a complex layered work where several levels of kanji-kus serve as structure and framework. Come on in, the water's fine!

Some alt text — Shandean Ambles Drunken Boat is co-authored by a ghost. I wrote this work with Laurence Sterne in his study (about 200 years after he died). But this is stamped with his humor and proto-hypertext patterning.

Ferris wheels has a revolving pattern background because at the time, we thought that was way cool. — Ferris Wheels Iowa Review Web
is a ride where links can imply very different fates for our narrator. Will her ride end in marriage or suicide? (This was the first hypertext in the Iowa Review).

I had real photos of Walden Pond once but lost them somewhere. — The Pines at Walden Pond In Cauldron and Net, Volume III and written in Trellix, in the Trellix office, in one day (the day after I hiked around Walden Pond, following Thoreau, who would no longer recognize it).

Peace roses against a tile wall — Peace Roses The Muse Apprentice Guild. Is a poem that has haunted me for a long time. It is one I write and rewrite. In this version, I think, the story is told in the progression of images: From flower to bramble to abandoned fence.

Some alt text — Intruder In New River, holds most of its secrets in an intimate place. Violate her sanctity, if you truly must.

Some alt text — SamplersIs a foray into structural storytelling using Storyspace. Works on older browsers.

Hey, be nice. We last got funded to work on this in 2000! — How to get Things Done in Government I also wrote and designed a Decision Process Guide for Reclamation--now you can explore ways to actually get things done in government.

The Dead Works

All of my kanji-kus are dead, and you can see their husks if you follow these links. Kanji-kus are short poems based on the Japanese kanji or ideogram for the word itself. (Disappearing Rain, which still works, is a compendium of many kanji-kus). I want to explore the innate meanings inherent in the word. The javascript in all of these has gone on to bigger and better things. If anyone would like to help me upgrade these, I would be eternally grateful...
Dreams of Cobras, in Tattoo Highway, 2002 (VT)
Children's Time, in Snakeskin, 2001 (VT)
Sea Whispers, an accessible version in Currents, 2001 (VT)
In the Sun, Project Hope, 2001 (VT)
Bubbles, in Electronic Poetry Center, 2000 (VT)
Ghost Moons, part of Akenatondocks published cd, 2000 (VT)
Power Moves, in Cauldron and Net, 2000 (VT)
Breathing at the Galaxy's Edges, in Planet Magazine, 1999 (VT)
Mountain Rumbles, in New River, 1999 (VT)
The Language of the Void, in Riding the Meridian, 1999 (VT)
Spiritual Comfort, in PIF, 1999 (VT)
Dream Merging, in Aileron, 1999 (VT)
Sand Loves, in Eastgate's Reading Room, 1999 (VT)

Emily Dickinson's grave stone

Is it still a poem if no one else reads it?

Edgar Allan Poe

Do we mourn what is lost forevermore or do we go on to new vistas?

Here Lies the body of George Elliot, Mary Ann Cross

How will others see us? Can they truly step into the worlds that were?

In this house Jane Austen Lived her last daya and died 8th July 1817

What is taken for granted now was never taken for granted then.

Tristram Shandy Life and Opinions

Whose life was it, anyway?