Blind Hope: A Review of Gregg and Seigworth’s The Affect Theory Reader
Julie ReiserNo need to get excited. According to Julie Reiser, The Affect Theory Reader offers the reader no end of theory but little affect. Reiser suggests this points to a broader and systemic problem in any reading or theory of affect.
Critical Code Studies Week Five Opener – Algorithms are thoughts, Chainsaws are tools
Stephen RamsayStephen Ramsay introduces a short film in which he does a live reading of composer Andrew Sorensen's performance "Strange Places" and provides commentary.
Critical Code Studies Conference- Week Five Discussion
David ShepardDavid Shepard heads off the discussion regarding Stephen Ramsay's live reading of Andrew Sorensen's "Strange Places." His initial contribution is followed with posts by Amanda French, Mark Marino, Max Feinstein, Jeremy Douglass, Daren Chapin, John Bell, Jeff Nyoff, Jennifer Lieberman, and Stephen Ramsay, as well as Andrew Sorensen himself.
New Media: Its Utility and Liability for Literature and for Life
Joseph TabbiThis formulation by Joseph Tabbi is being reprinted with permission from the University of Minnesota Press's remixthebook. The original online version can be found here.
Watching Watchmen: A Riposte to Stuart Moulthrop
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Is 'media specific' e-lit criticism nothing but the last gasp of New Criticism and Deconstruction? Lee Konstantinou seems to think so, in this appreciation of the 'astute micro-analyses' (but critique of the theoretical basis) of Moulthrop's close reading/observation of Watchmen.
“Is this for real? Is that a stupid question?”: A Review of Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts
Megan MilksDennis Cooper's disorienting novel, The Sluts, complicates reader expectations about subjectivity and identity. As a result, Megan Milks notes that it "is either the most honest or the most dishonest literature I have come across."
Epic at the End of Empire
Joseph TabbiIn The American Epic Novel, Gilbert Adair presents a "State-of-the-Empire address" that interrogates the epical form in a time where authors no longer talk of writing "The Great American Novel." As Joseph Tabbi finds, such an exploration goes beyond expanding the canon and presents "a new, compelling context for 'the literary' itself."
A New “Gospel of the Three Dimensions”: Expanding the Boundaries of Digital Literature in Jörgen Schäfer and Peter Gendolla’s Beyond the Screen
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Just when you thought you were used to electronic literature, this critic makes the case for "beyond the screen" with a review of Jörgen Schäfer and Peter Gendolla's book of the same title, focusing on "transformations of literary structures, interfaces and genre."
Anomalies
Rob SwigartFrom the heavens to the stars, the number three has often been tied to the occult. Carrying on this tradition, Rob Swigart has brought together three books that investigate the anomalous, address the unexplained, and answer the impossible. The truth is in here.
Due Diligence
Stacey OlsterToo much about too little, and too little about too much. Reviewing the new critical collection Against the Grain: Reading Pynchon's Counternarratives, this critic finds evidence of overproduction in the "Pyndustry."
A Review of Brian Lennon’s In Babel’s Shadow: Multilingual Literatures, Monolingual States
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Literature joins the living dead. A critic illuminates Brian Lennon's "scene" of literature today: both suspended and emergent in the world system.
“With each project I find myself reimagining what cinema might be”: An Interview with Zoe Beloff
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Jussi Parikka interviews artist Zoe Beloff about her relationship to the emerging set of interdisciplinary theories and methodologies known as media archaeology. In way of response, Beloff discusses some past works, including: Lost (1995), Shadow Land (2000), Claire and Don in Slumberland (2002), Charming Augustine (2005), The Somnambulists (2008), and The Dream Films (2009).
The Maypole is the Medium: A Review of The Networked Wilderness by Matt Cohen
Madeleine Monson-RosenFrom early modern texts to "publishing events," Madeleine Monson-Rosen's review follows Matt Cohen's exploration of the "networked wilderness." It turns out that the English colonists and native Americans were already information theorists, centuries before cybernetics emerged at MIT.