English 344 - Blog 1

After reviewing most of the work on the Electronic Literature Collection, I found the piece that interested me the most: 10:01, by Lance Olsen and Tim Guthrie. This piece of literature reminded me most of Fiction literature, which is my particular forte. The many stories that come together to compose the work were full of fascinating characters and descriptions.

10:01 opens with a quick introduction. Following the intro, a movie theater screen pops up and the reader can begin clicking on various people in the audience. Each person clicked on has a story from a 3rd person omniscient point of view. The stories are relatively short and are a quick excerpt of who the character is, what they are thinking and doing before the movie starts.

The very first character that is introduced to the reader is Kate, a dark blond woman whose imagination runs away with her. She loves to think up various plots that are so intense they follow her into her dreams. In fact, Kate Frazey has not slept the last two nights because she dreams she is a hare being chased by hounds. As soon as she sits down in the movie theater, she quickly falls asleep, only to be bombarded with more dreams.

Many excerpts have a certain amount of silliness, whereas others are tragic and heartbreaking. The characters' thought-processes capture the reader's attention so fully as they often dream they are in another place--escaping reality. So many of the characters are coming to the movies to try and forget the sorrows of their lives and with each character, the reader feels connected to them because their struggles are very common to many people.

Beside the text box there is a space where pictures often pop up. These pictures are related to the story in some way, whether it is a card that floats around, a box of Dots candy, a photograph of Hugh Grant, or a knitting video. Whatever is happening in the story, there is normally a sort of visual aid to go along with it. The creators of this piece of work were very smart to add another dimension to the writing through the pictures.

Overall, this piece is extremely fascinating and almost acts as a flash-fiction composition. Each story drew me in as a reader, captured my attention and made me compassionate toward the characters. Of all the pieces that we could have chosen from in the Electronic Literature Collection, this one was my all-time favorite.