An exercise in reclaiming electronic literary works on inaccessible platforms, examining four works as both artifacts and operations.
Many pioneering works of electronic literature are now largely inaccessible because of changes in hardware, software, and platforms. The virtual disappearance of these works―created on floppy disks, in Apple's defunct HyperCard, and on other early systems and platforms―not only puts important electronic literary work out of reach but also signals the fragility of most works of culture in the digital age. In response, Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop have been working to document and preserve electronic literature, work that has culminated in the Pathfinders project and its series of “Traversals”―video and audio recordings of demonstrations performed on historically appropriate platforms, with participation and commentary by the authors of the works. 
In Traversals, Moulthrop and Grigar mine this material to examine four influential early works: Judy Malloy's Uncle Roger (1986), John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse (1993), Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl (1995) and Bill Bly's We Descend (1997), offering “deep readings” that consider the works as both literary artifacts and computational constructs. For each work, Moulthrop and Grigar explore the interplay between the text's material circumstances and the patterns of meaning it engages and creates, paying attention both to specificities of media and purposes of expression.

Traversals: The Use of Preservation for Early Electronic Writing

Politics & Social Sciences

Moulthrop, Stuart

Grigar, Dene

Social Sciences

Mit Pr

The Gulf War and its media frenzy serve as the backdrop for this sprawling tale of campus politics, seduction, war, and dissent. 
In the winter of 1991, Emily Runbird is compelled to leave graduate school for a position as a postal clerk in the Gulf War. She also leaves her lover, another graduate student named Victor Gardner, who has more than his share of trouble on the home front after Jude Bush, an undergraduate with a curious past, embarks on a mad campaign to seduce him. Meanwhile, Emily has made it clear that her true love is Victor's middle-aged and possibly deranged thesis advisor, Boris Urquhart. 
Robert Coover called this hypertext "indispensable... No one has taken on the hard questions about hypertext and fiction or played so intrasigently with the myriad possibilities and obstacles of this new art form as Stuart Moulthrop, its leading practitioner and theorist. The publication of his first full-length narrative work, Victory Garden, marks a new stage in hyperfiction's development." 
The Victory Garden CD-ROM works with Windows/PC and Macintosh computers.

Victory Garden

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Eastgate Systems, Inc.

Hypertext is now commonplace: links and linking structure nearly all of our experiences online. Yet the literary, as opposed to commercial, potential of hypertext has receded. One of the few tools still focused on hypertext as a means for digital storytelling is Twine, a platform for building choice-driven stories without relying heavily on code. In Twining, Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop lead readers on a journey at once technical, critical, contextual, and personal. The book's chapters alternate careful, stepwise discussion of adaptable Twine projects, offer commentary on exemplary Twine works, and discuss Twine's technological and cultural background. Beyond telling the story of Twine and how to make Twine stories, Twining reflects on the ongoing process of making.

Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives

Computers & Technology

Salter, Anastasia

Games & Strategy Guides

Amherst College Press

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Books by Moulthrop, Stuart