Close to 50 years ago Hans-Georg Gadamer argued that "reading is already translation, and translation is translation for the second time” (Gadamer, in Biguenet and Schulte, ix). For Figurski, reading is also impacted by its migration from Storyspace software and physical media to the web languages and web, adding a third layer to the translation process of the work, for it is not just translation of the code from C to HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, but the changes, also, to the format of the work that results in a different sensory experience and a different way of reading the work. Lost is the intimacy established with touching the tangible object and the sense of it belonging to us personally. Gained, however, is something more important that should be celebrated: We can now again read one of the most unique and quirky interactive novels of the early 21st Century. (Grigar, 2021)
By offering the two reading modes, the Electronic Literature Lab aimed to provide a sense of the 2001 Edition while at the same time create a new work of art, a new experience, a new way of reading the novel.