Overrated "Literature" Online

The Electronic Literature Collection vol. 1 is perhaps typical of "literary" "innovation." It presents itself poorly, with a non-intuitive interface that has to be dug through to get any real information, and the majority of works on it merely present "innovation" that has been used for more entertaining and enlightening things for years. It also ignores more common web literature that is less "literary" and more popular, despite the fact that this popular stuff laid the groundwork and created the means by which this database could be collected.

Most of the items on the database are more based on using flashy (and flash) animation affects to disguise worthless content. Or using some sort of crutch of computer technology to disguise the lack of real content. The example I looked at was a version of Red Ridinghood... and it was, in my opinion, poorly done overall, frustrating in its interface, and in the end failed to actually say anything.

Then again, maybe I'm too much of a storyteller to really get this stuff. My ideas of creative writing is perhaps, to narrow, as I believe that the fundamental goal of any form of creative writing, with exceptions for poetry, should be to tell an entertaining story. I find that things that disguise or confuse this storytelling a hindrance, no matter how "innovative" or "avante garde" that might be. In the end, I think the ELCv1 typical of "literary" writing, it is purposefully arcane and unusual in order to impress or cover up the lack of actual story. It also seems to ignore the largest single form of online literature: the webcomic. This form has been around since the middle to late 90s and continues strong to this day. Unlike many items on the ELCv1, webcomics are a truly open field with people ranging from high schoolers to professional artists, rather than a collection of more established and "literary" authors and artists. Sites range from the very professional to using nothing more than clip art.

Perhaps, in the end, preference is more the key. Some people like the arcane and "literary," and find it uplifting and fascinating. Others, like me, find it pretentious and obscuring, and, frankly, overrated.