Book-in-a-box to Xbox: materiality and the contemporary textual object

Abstract

Book-in-a-box to Xbox is a discussion of developments in the material form of contemporary textual objects and of the impact this has on user/reader experience. The article formulates itself as a contemporary book history, situating the texts in question within the broader sphere of digital culture, and analyses textual function, reception, form and user interaction, presenting a cultural theorising of contemporary textual objects. The article conducts these discussions via a consideration of Marc Saporta's Composition No. 1 (a key example of materially experimental literature); recent developments in e-reading and the implications of these developments; designing interactivity in massively multiplayer online gaming; and emerging forms of sociality, or shared experience, in virtual reading and playing communities.

Keywords:

• reading
• interactivity
• digital media
• text, e-readers
• experimental literature
• participation
• gaming
• games
• Saporta
• Nintendo DS
• MMO
• digital culture
• Internet

Notes

 1. This and the preceding quotations are from Borges, “The Book of Sand,” 89–91.

 2. Grimm and Scher, “Marc Saporta: The Novel as Card Game,” 280; Ferrua, “Eros et Thanatos dans l'oeuvre de Saporta.”

 3. Weightman, “Chips from the New Novel: review of Composition No. 1.” It should be noted for the sake of accuracy that Weightman's review was of the original French edition. (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1962.)

 4. Grimm and Scher, “Marc Saporta: The Novel as Card Game,” 282. Grimm suggests that readers should ‘forgive [Saporta] this slight poetic license’ in describing the combinations as infinite.

 5. Nintendo of Europe. 100 Classic Book Collection. http://www.nintendo.co.uk.

 6. silentmage_245 (pseudo.), comment on “Shakespeare booked on DS,” Gamespot.

 7. Anderiesz, “Game review: 100 Classic Book Collection for Nintendo DS,” Guardian Online.

 8. Gunter, “Electronic books: a survey of users in the UK,” 514.

 9. Numerous sources discuss e-reader usability, including Gunter “Electronic books: a survey of users in the UK,” 514; Landoni and Hanlon, “E-book reading groups: interacting with e-books in public libraries,” 603–5; and Shelburne, “E-book usage in an academic library: User attitudes and behaviors,” 59–72. The latter of these articles highlights a more recent movement towards acceptance of e-reading formats in academic study.

10. This and the preceding quotation are from Hoggins, “100 Classic Book Collection review,” Telegraph Online.

11. Rhubarb9 (pseudo.), comment on TomM_Gscom (pseudo.), “Shakespeare booked on DS,” Gamespot.

12. The Kindle's hidden content, amongst other features, is detailed in Amazon Kindle 1: The Definitive User's Guide. The Kindle edition was, to date, most recently updated on June 11 2009, and is available at http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Kindle-Definitive-Shortcuts-How/dp/B0017XZJEG/ (accessed January 16, 2010).

13. Strain, interview by Emma Boyes, Gamespot.

14. Chooseco LLC, http://www.cyoa.com/main.htm (accessed January 25, 2009).

15. MacCallum-Stewart and Parsler, “Illusory Agency in Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines,” para. 3.

16. The OED suggests this age range for female adolescence.

17. Juul, A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and their Players, 132.

18. Strain, interview by Emma Boyes, Gamespot.

19. Amidon, “Amazon's e-reader, the Kindle, reviewed,” The Times Online.

20. http://217babel.com/ (accessed November 14 2009).

21. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, http://uk.playstation.com/psn/ (accessed February 8, 2009).

22. Microsoft, http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/0205LIVENetflixPR. Mspx (accessed February 8, 2009).

23. Nintendo of Europe, http://www.nintendo.com/wiifit/launch/ (accessed February 8, 2009).

24. Gates, “E-books,” 17; and O'Leary, “E-book scenarios,” 62. Cited in Herther, “The E-Book Industry Today: A Bumpy Road Becomes an Evolutionary Path to Market Maturity,” 45–53.

25. Amidon, “Amazon's e-reader, the Kindle, reviewed,” The Times Online.

26. CG, London (pseudo.), comment on Ahmed, “Mario makes way for Shakespeare on Nintendo DS in HarperCollins deal”.