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The Exploration of Electronic Literature

An Example of a Twine Story

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Exploration of E-Literature of "With Those We Love Alive"

Sarah Krueger
With Those We Love Alive incorporates the most common mechanisms of e-literature through clicking on the hyperlinks, that were made in Twine, and connecting the story together through different paths. The reader is choosing, or exploring, the path they essentially want to take which is made possible through the mechanism of e-literature that allows for the increase in reader interactivity with the text.

The pages that are involved with the setting of the story give the reader the opportunity to put all of the pieces together for themselves; through being able to click on each location and being able to make sense of the story they are reading. Instead of the author simply telling the reader what the setting and background of the story is, the author is requiring the reader to interact with the text to search for that information; just like in real life nothing is ever told to you directly, you must figure it out for yourself. For example, when the reader comes to the courtyard, there are different choices that they can explore to get a sense of the whole area. There is no order they need to go in but going through all the locations is key to get the whole information about the story.
Each location provides more context for the reader to further understand the story and the mechanism of clicking through all of them allows for the reader to feel like they are exploring the story themselves. Patrick Larose mentions that “we’re finding a new way to engage with and experience a story on its own terms, like we’re singing along to a song on the radio—we’re not changing the artwork.” (Larose) this is important because the readers need to realize they are directly contributing to the outcome of the story but they are working with the text to get more out of the journey than just being told the meanings- such as the underlying social controversies that Porpentine has embedded into the story. There is never a true end to the story and it does not have a certain linear timeline that the story takes place in; the reader is exploring the story and making it to the end where they are able to see everything they have encountered and picked up throughout their journey. Exploration of the text is in the core of what e-literature is and With Those We Love Alive uses all the aspects of e-literature.

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