Fanfic Forensics

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

"Do you think this might lead to new forms of literature?"

I have been using a fantastic hypertext for the last 30 years. It is called
Scrabble. Isn't it true that with Scrabble you can compose every possible cross
link, every combination of sentences. It's a nice game, it can have educational
purposes. Sometimes my wife who is German learned part of her English lexicon
by playing Scrabble. Sometimes we play Scrabble in English, or in French. OK,
but if you are a poet you have your mental Scrabble. You don't need the board
to do it. It is the same I think for all those kinds of games. They can be very
nice to play. So, I repeat: they can be used for training people in inventing
and composing, but they have nothing to do, according to me, with the future of
literature.

At the present
state of the art, if I had to bet all the money I have in my pocket, I would
bet more on hyper-systems more than on hypertext.

Then, when you read a
serious book on Cremonini, first you discover that Cremonini was a great mind
of this time, even though he was not an innovator like Gallileo, and that it
isn't true that he refused to look into the binocular. He just said: "At the
present state of technology, those lenses are very rudimentary, so I don't
think that they can really help me to see something more."

It was an objection to the present primitive state of the art. So what I am
making now is probably a statement that we are still at a primitive state of
the art. I have not been interested up to now to try virtual reality. Because
until it is possible to make love to Marilyn Monroe; until the moment that her
clothes start floating away - well, then at that moment I will try! But as long
as it is just a sketch of Marilyn Monroe, and I can have the real sensation
elsewhere, then the state of the art is so primitive that I prefer to wait,
that's all! If you offer me this possibility soon, or better still, if you
offer me this possibility when I am 80, I will be enthusiastic about the
innovation, and I will become a fanatic supporter!

But that's why I say that at this
point I have the impression that it is most interesting for educational and
training purposes, rather than for providing real new aesthetic experiences.

Tags: internet, literature, umberto_eco, games

by: Nele Noppe