writing machines

i sent links to the "get a first life" page to a couple of my friends. i just had a discussion with one of them about how she met this guy on the subway (in new york) a while ago who was really into second life. some tidbits:

he had surgery, for something i forget, and during his recuperation (he couldn't go to his job) he played second life twenty hours a day.

Some talks:

I really enjoyed Rettburg's article for the way it describes all the different facets of collective authorship. I guess I had been thinking of collective narratives mostly in terms of the final product/project, but Rettburg's description of his collaborative process of writing The Unknown sounded much more focused on the actual writing process as a kind of performance. Ranging from "in person get-togethers taking turns at the keyboard" to "collective expeditions" and "sessions with friends," much of the process was live collaboration as opposed to virtual.

here's an interesting example of online collectivitiy.

random thoughts on collective narrative:

I don't want to post too much on ebooks, but reading this article made me re-realize how interesting I found the subject, and I had a few thoughts I hoped to get some reaction on.

Milliway's Bar:

"a pan-fandom livejournal role playing game." Not quite sure if this is a distributive narrative either, but it's easy to fit almost anything into a category that doesn't seem to have distinct boundaries.

instead of exploding outwards to the world around, this "narrative" takes multiple worlds and implodes them into one...

A Bliography?

Pepys' diary

I find this delightful.
Is it distributed narrative? I think so. It is interesting because of its multiple authorship, and outside linking. Interestingly the primary content was produced in a stuffy journal 400 years ago.

I think the questions of temporality are mesmerizing.

i haven't found a distributed narrative i want to talk about in class yet, but i did stumble upon this.