Ergodic literature
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Ergodic literature is literature that requires special effort to comprehend or read, perhaps due to a "non linear" structure. The term is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work" and hodos, meaning "path". Ergodic literature demands an active role of the reader, such that they become "users" who may need to perform complex semiotic operations to construct the reading.
For example, ergodic literature may require following a very unconventional page layout in order to understand a novel, or in the case of ebooks, readers may need to constantly use hyperlinks to follow the narrative, or use menus to continue reading in a new location. By comparison, conventional "nonergodic" literature simply requires the reader to turn pages and follow the text in sequential order.
The term was coined by Espen Aarseth in his book Cybertext--Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Although it may be supposed that this kind of literature was born in the second half of the 20th century, at the same time as the first appearance of computers, critics of the ergodic literature have often mentioned the I Ching as the first example of genre. The text dates from the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122-770 B.C.), and comprises sixty-four hexagram symbols which are combinations of six whole or broken changing lines (which also give the text its other name, the "Book of Changes"). A hexagram has a main text and six others, smaller than the main text, with one for each line.
Other examples
- [On Lionel Kearns] by Jim Andrews implicitly compares reading with wreading
- Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine, Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded by William S. Burroughs, to greater or lesser extent composed using the cut-up technique
- "The Night (Alone) by Richard Meltzer is a relatively unknown work of brilliance
- Composition No.1, a novel on cards written by Marc Saporta in 1961
- and Landscape Painted With Tea by Milorad Pavic
- Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
- Rayuela by Julio Cortazar
- 253, both the print and online versions, by Geoff Ryman
- The Dionaea House by Eric Heisserer
- The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson
- Other Electricities by Ander Monson
- by Mark Dunn
- Riddley Walker
- City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- The Bible
- The Qur'an
See also
External links
Examples of ergodic literature online:- [253]
- [The Company Therapist]
- [lies]
- [My body & a Wunderkammer]
- [Arteroids]
- [Blue Hyacinth]
- [Red Moon]
- [somewords.com]
- [Art and Technology]
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