Who reads e-literature? What kinds of audiences would be interested in experiencing multimedia works that take advantage of the potential and genres of digital media? Children, of course. This is a generation raised in a media-rich environment that offers video games, film, television, computers, portable devices, touchscreens, books, and the Web, to name a few. It is therefore fitting that literature written for children integrate these media, acknowledging the value of these technologies. It is also appropriate for traditional genres to begin to blend and reconfigure themselves to take advantage of the capabilities of new media, especially thinking of audiences for whom centuries-old print-based modes of writing must seem very artificial. Case in point: Inanimate Alice. Aptly called a novel, this serially published multimedia work uses games, images, video, and narrative prose cut into portions that use poetic tactics for delivery of ideas and story. And it is beautifully integrated, layer by layer, moment by moment, to deliver a poignant narrative about a girl named Alice who exemplifies her media-savvy generation. Over the next few postings, I will examine this remarkable work to go into detail on its strategies.

Featured in The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1.