21st century reading revolution

Graeme Allister

We're still waiting for the 21st century reading revolution, but in the meantime Second Life offers some interesting new diversions

Since we all became globally-connected, various attempts have been made at changing how we read.

Consider hypertext fiction, such as Geoff Ryman's 253 and the new concept of the "wovel", as discussed here a few weeks ago.

Now, there's another injection of technology into reading, through the virtual worlds of Second Life. "What if, in addition to reading a book, we could actually visit the locations we read about?" ask the creators of Literature Alive! an academic project which encourages teaching online.
I'm not a Second Life user. I've visited once or twice out of curiosity, back when it was touted as the future of the internet. But since reality set in, I've kept my distance. Still, I was intrigued by the thought of wandering through Dante's Inferno, Edgar Allen Poe's house and Alice's Looking Glass ("Peering around the bend you see ... Hmmm what do you see? Your curiosity overwhelms you and you .... you ...")

The locations are certainly impressive, if somewhat bewildering, and a great deal of work is evident. Some random clicking brings up explanatory videos, notes, and the work itself. To further explore the idea of literature online, a conference was held yesterday (to be repeated tomorrow). With an emphasis on academic use, Beth Ritter-Guth or, as she is in Second Life, Desideria Stockton, delivered the keynote address.

Essentially her argument comes down to the issue of active rather than passive learning and she insisted students' work was marked as rigorously as any other academic work. Still, she accepted that the use of the internet isn't popular in academia ("EXPECT RESISTANCE" declared one slide, ominously) but that students enjoyed it. ("I thought it was crazy at first but it's really cool", admitted one of Ritter-Guth's pupils).

Literature in Second Life isn't just about teaching and learning. There's Cookie Town Center, a community centre for writers, actors and entertainers ,while London-based literary agency Greene & Heaton (home to Michael Frayn and Sarah Waters) has a Second Life outpost where would-be writers can ask an expert. I also spent a lonely few minutes in the Blue Angels Poet's Dive, reading some awful poetry written by fellow Second Lifers. Thankfully in cyberspace, no one can hear you laugh.

Exploring the literary worlds of Second Life was a combination of enjoying the novelty of it all without ever quite understanding it and intense frustration due to technical problems. Ultimately Second Life just feels like too closeted and strange a world for this form of "literary interaction" to ever enter the mainstream, though it could still be of use for education. Students would certainly enjoy wandering through Poe's house, which nicely sets the mood for The Raven, even if its creepy authenticity gets rather punctured by the appearance of a giant penguin.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - Jean-Philippe Pastor