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• 1 2021-06-17T13:51:24-07:00 Social Media Content for Richard Smyth's "Genetis: A Rhizography" 30 Audience participation via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Chat plain 2021-08-22T15:50:27-07:00
  The following are postings on Twitter that promoted the live Traversal of Richard Smyth's Genetis: A Rhizography  prior to the event and thanked the participants after the event. Also included is a transcript of the YouTube Live chat from during the Traversal.
   

  Twitter 

  The Electronic Literature Lab used their Twitter account to post promotional content regarding the Traversal of Genetis: A Rhizography.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

  YouTube Live Chat 

  Because Traversals are all streamed live via YouTube, the lab takes advantage of the chat feature offered by the network to provide a forum for the audience to make comments and ask questions. The chat is then saved and added to this book as part of the Traversal archive. The Traversal can be watched on YouTube here.
  
  
  
  Holly June
  Hello everyone!
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Hello!
  
  trupaokl
  [happy face emoji]
  
  Richard Snyder
  Hi all!
  
  Andrew Thompson
  Good morning!
  
  Joel Clapp
  Hello!
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Hello everyone!
  
  Viet Anh Nguyen
  Hello y'all
  
  Holly June
  For this event, Sarah West did the art in my place. She did a wonderful job!
  
  Dan Walker
  Hi everyone!
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Hi everyone! Welcome! Good to see you all.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  I heard a bit!
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Hello Astrid! [red heart emoji]
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Indeed, Holly. Very nice, futuristic, art from Sarah for the event. It reminds of Judgment Day film poster a bit
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  hi, folks
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  There is a bit of a lag due to YouTube. We will edit the lag out in final production
  
  
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  I notice lexia are referred to as "cells", was lexia an official term coined by Storyspace or was it one scholars formed?
  
  Holly June
  I love how the folios even give you instructions on inserting the disc into your computer.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Agreed Holly, I think they unknowingly helped preserve the context of the work
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  @Kathleen: George P. Landow uses it in his books, drawing on Barthes.
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Great question, Kathleen. Lexia was formed by scholars. Technically in hypertext we speak about nodes and links. But George Landow took a term lexia from Roland Barthes and lexias replaced nodes
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Oh how interesting! Thank you for answering my question. George Landow is definitely a name I remember
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Many us differentiated nodes and lexias by thinking of node as the apparatus that made it possible to add words/content to produce a lexia
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Very interesting!
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Felman, Shoshana. WRITING AND MADNESS: (LITERATURE/PHILOSOPHY/ PSYCHOANALYSIS). Trans. Martha Noel Evans. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  @Electronic Literature Lab I love that!
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Thank you, Mariusz!
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  nodes are also referred to as spaces. See Bolter's Writing Space
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Plato took on the notion of madness and art in Ion.
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  my favorite part of the work
  
  Richard Snyder
  I appreciate the warning at the entry of the labyrinth. It seems very classical.
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  memography!
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  The multiple paths available in hypertexts were seen / described often as "forking paths," a reference to Borges
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  we love surprises
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  his lexis titles are important storytelling features
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Hypertext has always felt like a sacred space to me, where my thoughts can move freely in abstraction. It is truly a unique and beautiful experience
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  There has to be a word for that
  
  Richard Snyder
  Well put, Kathleen. It seems to mirror the natural movements of the human mind. I believe that was Vannevar Bush's argument in the mid-20th century with the Memex.
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  a rhizography, Kathleen?
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Landow's book Hypertext was also influential during this period
  
  
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  "logic of dreams, poetry, and invention"
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  @Richard Snyder @Astrid Ensslin those are both excellent thoughts! Agreed, it does seem to move in the same patterns as the mind
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  I am loving the lore Richard is sharing with us
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Agreed, having the author's commentary makes the work that much more rich
  
  Richard Snyder
  "I find comfort in this analogy."
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  what is it when the father raised the child for himself?
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  It's such a great, humorous take on the myth of creation: Ken and Barbie, junkyard.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Agreed, it's very unique!
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  there is music here. Can you all hear it?
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  the music came back
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  yes!
  
  Richard Snyder
  I can!
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  It fades in and out
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Yes, that is the way it is presented
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  we move to poetry in this next lexia
  
  
  
  Richard Snyder
  The idea of the boy being unable to generate his own life's blood is also fascinating--there is no independence without self-sustenance.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Very good point!
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Absolutely!
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  hence the psychosis
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  The poetry feels very much like a creation story to me, especially with a woman being tied to nature
  
  Richard Snyder
  Interesting; so here the speaker captures self-sustenance but only through mimicking what the mother provides, not providing his own blood.
  
  Richard Snyder
  And the imagery is violent -- the sustenance can only be produced through the destruction of the self.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  We should be watching the titles of the lexias
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  @Kathleen: when you read "Myth" first, it is essentially like reading a feminist take on Genesis.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  if we had followed the r, we would notice the lexias spell out "parable"
  
  Richard Snyder
  Yes, it reminds me of poetry regarding the myth of generative creation that combined Christian and classical (e.g. the Bower of Bliss in Spenser's Faerie Queene)
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  @Richard Snyder that does seem to be one of the underlying themes of the hypertext
  
  
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  @Astrid Ensslin agreed!
  
  Richard Snyder
  Creation often seems to come from the excess of this sort of verdant overflow of life -- I'm seeing this here in the mother bursting with milk, but it is an imbalance instead of a balance.
  
  Dan Walker
  @Richard, it's interesting to think of how narrative-making and the therapeutic process ties into all of it -- stories as a way to do that self-sustenance
  
  Richard Snyder
  Oh, excellent point @Dan Walker
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Agreed, Dan, and it's striking to see this trend happening in Twine now.
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  And it is also a great news for hypertext scholars, after some years of neglect, the node-link structures found a very interesting narrative/therapeutic use
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  It is such a horrific experience he recounts to us
  
  Richard Snyder
  I can't imagine going through this and then revisiting it. I appreciate the sharing.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  the sound again, "Bizarre."
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  I agree. It's shocking - Foucault through and through.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Richard said it helps to talk about it with us
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Apparently they gave him Haldol because they thought he was on drugs. He wasn't.
  
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Can you imagine being taken to a hospital under mental breakdown and see the name of the hospital bearing your won name.....
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Your own name
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  as if grad school was a symptom of mental health. Anyone who's been through grad school knows it's the exact opposite.
  
  Richard Snyder
  @Astrid Ensslin Yeah.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  It is a wonderful site in Mexico he is describing. I got to see it in the past
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  You said it, Astrid
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Grad school was a trial of spirit
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  we will begin the Q&A at 11:30
  
  Dan Walker
  I love the hypertext weaving back and forth between different kinds of writing -- theory, fable, memoir, all working together
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  The Plateaus
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  blame school
  
  Richard Snyder
  @Dan Walker hypertext seems to encourage this mix of genres, don't you think? Perhaps the sort of compartmentalization effect of writing lexia leads to different modes of expressing the same things?
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  mirror--Lacan?
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Beautifully put, Richard
  
  
  Katya Farinsky
  Agreed Dan & Richard, the hypertext paired with personal stories is such a rich experience. [red heart emoji]
  
  Richard Snyder
  Reminds me of "They Flee from Me" by Wyatt..."all is turned thorough my gentlenessInto a strange fashion of forsaking."
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  It's from Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto Richard SnyderI think we can see, too, the mirror of the mind in its processing, input, and output -- no barrier between the primary and secondary
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  @Dan @Richard Snyder Paths, such us "spiral link" and "memory paths of..." play an important part in organizing the whole. I think Richard uses Storyspace paths much more than most hypertext writers.
  
  Richard Snyder
  Did paths inspire the same mechanism in Scalar?
  
  Dan Walker
  yes @Richard Snyder! The tight little compartments arrange in so many ways. Reminds me of how on Instagram you can scroll from a beer ad to a political post to a friend's family photo all in one swipe
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  I doubt it, Richard.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Ulmer was trying to get us to rethink hypertext theory, envisioning it as a rhizome
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  The paths are a lot more obvious and straightforward in Scalar
  
  Dan Walker
  let's drop everything and re-organize REL4 into a Deleuzian rhizome lol
  
  
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  :)))))
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Dan let's do iiiit!
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  So cool, does anyone know The Princess Murderer? It does the same thing but frames it in terms of a feminist critique of gamer culture.
  
  Richard Snyder
  Reminds me of the piece "Mobile Figures" by David Lloyd and Erik Loyer in Vectors. Rhizome as applied to historical scholarship, but here applied to personal history.
  
  Richard Snyder
  I love the idea of emphasizing the speed of composing in hypertext to map that.
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  I'd love to hear a bit more about Richard's work with Ulmer. Perhaps for the Q&A.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Astrid, let's ask him to read this lexis and then move to the Q&A
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  If you ask me: writing is therapy - even if it's about (boring) narratology lol!
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  if you have a question, please post it in this chat
  
  Richard Snyder
  Thank you so much, Richard. I'm wondering how the hypertextual nature of this work (vs. print) affected the process of revisiting it for you? I'm thinking of the fact that you "spoke" to yourself
  
  Richard Snyder
  audibly from the past, etc. Also the idea of being "lost" in your own previous thoughts, lexia, paths...
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Yes, we have the lexias to share in the book
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  It was very personal
  
  
  Richard Snyder
  Thank you! It's very interesting to hear your process.
  
  Richard Snyder
  It's intriguing to consider these traversals as performances--works in themselves.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  the path to intellectualism involves the personal experience
  
  Richard Snyder
  Yeah, anysort of dualism that separates out the intellectual life as something apart from experiences, beliefs, ideals, and even traumas is impoverished as a result.
  
  Richard Snyder
  Dene, I was just typing this!
  
  Richard Snyder
  [smiling face emoji]
  
  Mariusz Pisarski
  Lakoff, George. Philosophy in the Flesh. Basic Books, 1999.
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  [smiling face emoji]
  
  Richard Snyder
  I've read some great arguments that Montaigne's philosophy is so enduring because it is embodied -- before prescientific thought picked up Platonic dualism
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Yes. There are moments of insights like that one, but unfortunately the overriding view that persisted had been dualism, which is not really sustainable for humanity
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  the hyper masculinity promoted by Trumpism is a sign of this
  
  Richard Snyder
  Stephen Toulmin: "Montaigne actually argues for the unification of body and soul...Philosophers are drawn to dualism, he suggests, only when they are uncomfortable with their own corporeal natures"
  
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  I love Toulmin's work. Been a while since I read him
  
  Richard Snyder
  Yeah, he's great. This quote is from Cosmopoulis
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  I'm curious to hear your personal take on the pros of hypertext as a mode of self reflection?
  
  Dan Walker
  Hi Richard! Thank you for the reading! Given the changes you've described in how we understand trauma, and the changes in media/tech, how do you think you'd approach writing a work like Genetis today?
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Randall Okita's VR work does that kind of thing, Dene.
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Lately I've felt the intertwining of physical and virtual realities, almost to the point that my mind no longer separates them because one reality so deeply affects the other
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Before, they felt completely isolated and unrelated
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  But, maybe I'm stretching it to say video chat is a "virtual reality"
  
  Stella Wisdom
  what about literary and dramatic performances in online gaming worlds like Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto?
  
  Richard Snyder
  @Kathleen Zoller well said. William Gibson has argued that the network is "everting" via mobile devices and the internet of things
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Hello Stella! [smiling face emoji]
  
  Stella Wisdom
  Hi [smiling face emoji]
  
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  Interesting, Kathleen. Virtual for me is a state that allows for us to rethink reality
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  @Electronic Literature Lab I love that
  
  Stella Wisdom
  yes [smiling face emoji]
  
  Stella Wisdom
  I was trying to lurk
  
  Dan Walker
  I've felt that intertwining also, Kathleen! I had a dream about being on a zoom call last night -- it was kinda bizarre, I've always dreamed physical reality things in the past
  
  Electronic Literature Lab
  we love lurkers
  
  Stella Wisdom
  [smiling face emoji]
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Thank you Richard Smyth! I'm beginning to wonder if the medium determines how much is left to the reader's imagination vs how much is a controlled experience
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Agreed, hypertext has its strengths
  
  Stella Wisdom
  I was thinking about writers and creatives experimenting in popular game world environments.
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  or LARPs! [smiling face emoji]
  
  Stella Wisdom
  I have lots of friends who LARP
  
  Stella Wisdom
  I have made notes of books that I should read from this discussion
  
  Kathleen Zoller
  Thank you!
  
  Dan Walker
  thank you Richard!
  
  
  Katya Farinsky
  Thank you all!
  
  Stella Wisdom
  thanks
  
  Astrid Ensslin
  Thanks, everyone, for joining us! Looking forward to continuing the conversation!
  
  Richard Snyder
  Thanks so much!