J. R. Carpenter’s texts are simultaneously very interesting and challenging. They remind me of math problems in which I need to figure out the relation between different given numbers in order to be able to solve the problem. Here, I attempt to find the relationship between the presented pictures that contain historical, geological and geographical facts and the written sentences or short paragraphs. For example, in “The Cape”, the motion pictures do not merely keep us, the explorers, engaged with the text as we attempt to understand why a photograph or a map is moving and to know what kind of meanings are being generated, but also give a sense of time, movement, progress, changes, etc., all of which are reflected in the text.
In “The Cape”, after narrating a story and connecting it to the changeable geological facts, Carpenter concludes with the assertion that her story is fictional: “Cape Cod is a real place, but the events and characters of THE CAPE are fictional. The photographs have been retouched. The diagrams are not to scale.” Carpenter adds “I generally read from left to right, but you can read in any order you like.” Thus, the author or the creator of the text is unconcerned with how a reader might read, understand, or generate meanings out of her text. Similar to Cecilia Vicuna, by her detachment I believe that Carpenter is encouraging her readers to personalize their own various experiences of the text.
Carpenter clearly leads us through the illustrations, maps, words, photographs, etc. to explore certain places digitally and digital places in a literary way. I am unable, in fact, to classify the readings of this week or confirm their literary genres. Yet, I believe that these texts can be anything except poetry.
Asmaa,
I am interested in understanding better why you think that Carpenter’s work can be anything but poetry. “The Cape” tells a story in no more than a dozen sentences, so it would seem to have a dense, concentrated meaning.
I like how you compare the texts to math, which creates meaning through much more non-linear patterns than reading a novel from page 1 to 300.
Jed, I believe that you have defined poetry in your comment as “a story in no more than a dozen sentences, so it would seem to have a dense, concentrated meaning”. Rather than paying attention to the number of sentences, I define poetry in relation to feelings. I think my emotional expectation of a poetic work is higher than what Carpenter offers in her texts. Carpenter tells a story and connects it to geological and historical facts. Then, she confirms that the story is fictional which I believe makes “The Cape” a literary work but not a poetic one.
I agree with you Asmaa that Carpenter creates a digital world using maps, pictures etc. I think it has pros and cons since the maps and pictures help us to visualize the story, but at the same time they interfere in our imagination and makes us lazy. Because they are there and ready. As a traditional reader I prefer to create my own world while reading a story.
Hediye, I have enjoyed exploring Carpenter’s texts. I think her texts guide me to think of literature in a different way. I do not see this kind of literary works limiting, I think they encourage me as a reader to get out of my comfort zone and challenge the traditional ways of thinking of literature.
So, I want to talk about how our genre expectations effect our experience. Whether nor not we call these poems is not crucial to me. In fact, short fictions might be more appropriate. More generally, what I find interesting about the work of many E Lit writers is how they do something that is “similar”but different from the expectation, thereby causing me to think again about my own definitions. For instance, while much poetry does emerge from a lyric tradition in which personal expression of emotion is at the core, certainly not all poetry does this, right? Chaucer, Dante, Milton, Dryden … ? Or, if there is emotion, it may not be personal, i.e. Blake. Also I’m interested in why there is a poignance to a piece like The Cape even though it’s language is very flat and the voice tells us the whole is unreal.