Electronic Literature Lab

Electronic Literature Lab, WSU-Vancouver • 18th May 2021

Michael Tratner, "The Distinctive Quality of Holeton's Hypertext Fiction"

The wonder of this hypertext is that it rigidly sticks to an extremely complicated, even tortured, organization (in which every possible arrangement of three characters, three objects and three places occurs) and yet it is a good read — whether you mechanically follow the default route or flip around randomly, you can zip through and enjoy the pages.

Electronic Literature Lab, WSU-Vancouver • 15th May 2021

Dene Grigar, "Migration as Translation: Moving Figurski to the Web"

In a digital translation aimed at restoring access to a work that has become technologically obsolete, the gain is so much greater than the loss. In the case of "Figurski," especially, it means that we can now again read one of the most unique and quirky interactive novels of the early 21st Century.

Rebooting Electronic Literature, Volume 2 • 20th December 2019

Dene Grigar, "A Man and His Shoes: Complexity and Satire in Richard Holeton's Figurski at Findhorn on Acid"

Along with its satirical treatment of contemporary culture, a hallmark of the novel is its structure: It is a massive work of 147 text spaces built around clearly-defined combinations of three characters, locations, and artifacts, with an additional 147 Notes help to further contextualize the narrative for readers, and 2001 links connecting spaces and Notes together.

Ilha Do Destero: Posthumanism • 5th June 2017

Ermelinda Maria Araújo Ferreira and Joanita Baú de Oliveira, "Poetic Inventory: Notes on the Remains of the Human in Literature"

Key words: Post-humanism, Electronic Literature, Literary Criticism, Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Holeton.

XV Abralic • Dialogarts Publications • 23rd September 2016

Joanita Bau de Oliveira, "A Narrativa Especular em Hipertexto: O Caso de 'Frequently Asked Questions About “Hypertext”,' De Richard Holeton"

Just as Joyce transports the action of Homer's Odyssey to 20th century Dublin, Richard Holeton transposes Nabokov's Pale Fire into the context of digital technology.

ELO 2015 Conference • 6th August 2015

Davin Heckman, "Jailbreaking the Global Mnemotechnical System: Electropoetics as Resistance"

This paper [explores] subversive practices of electronic literature as contexts for the experience of agency within various systems of control [t]hrough close readings of covert communication practices in prison narratives alongside the works like Rob Wittig’s Netprovs, Richard Holeton’s slideshow narratives, Nick Montfort’s !#, and Darius Kazemi’s “Tiny Subversions.”

Electronic Literature Lab, Washington State University-Vancouver • 9th January 2019

The Richard Holeton Collection

Exhibit at WSU-Vancouver, "Richard Holeton's Writings and Art about the 1970s counterculture, drugs, and pigs," with 38 works from The Richard Holeton Collection donated to the Electronic Literature Organization for the Electronic Literature Archives and curatorial statement by Prof. Dene Grigar.

Literary Studies in the Digital Age, MLA Commons • 1st May 2018

Davin Heckman and James O’Sullivan, “Electronic Literature: Contexts and Poetics”

In the work of Richard Holeton, readers will find a consistent tendency to exploit commonplace digital forms for literary effect. . .

The MIT Press • 1st August 2014

Astrid Ensslin, "'The Pen is Your Weapon of Choice': Ludic Hypertext Literature and the Play with the Reader"

(Chapter 4 in "Literary Gaming") The tripartite structure (character—place—object) [of Holeton's "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid"] is curiously reminiscent of the way most digital games are structured.

electronic book review • 19th February 2013

Davin Heckman, "The Politics of Plasticity: Neoliberalism and the Digital Text"

Through readings of John Cayley, YHCHI, Rob Wittig, and Richard Holeton, Heckman points to a poetics of technical estrangement by which new media is opened up to deliberative reading . . .

Lecture, University of Bergen • 12th April 2012

Davin Heckman, "Grasping at Loose Bindings: Thoughts on Language, Literature, Communication in a Time of Change"

University of Bergen (Norway) Fulbright Scholar lecture in Digital Culture by Davin Heckman exploring "the objective tendency of neoliberalism and the digital revolution, and the humanistic potential of emerging literary and critical practices" including "Grace, Wit, and Charm" by Rob Wittig and "Custom Orthotics Changed My Life" by Richard Holeton.

Journal of Narrative Theory Volume 42, Number 2 • 1st July 2012

Alice Bell and Jan Alber, "Ontological Metalepsis and Unnatural Narratology"

Throughout the text, the characters exchange a series of combative emails with an individual called Richard Holeton, whom we interpret as the storyworld counterpart of the hypertext’s author in the actual world.. . .

Narrative Volume 19, Number 3 • 15th December 2011

Alice Bell and Astrid Ensslin, "'I know what it was. You know what it was': Second-Person Narration in Hypertext Fiction"

An analysis of two Storyspace hypertexts, Stuart Moulthrop's "Victory Garden" and Richard Holeton's "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid" . . . .

The Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan) • 15th June 2010

Alice Bell, "The Colourful Worlds of Richard Holeton's (2001) 'Figurski at Findhorn on Acid'"

(Chapter 6 in "The Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction") While the structure [of "Figurski"] adds to the staccato style of the narrative, the resultant disjointed scenes are also responsible for generating humor . . .

Porkopolis • 27th September 2008

Daniel E. Schultz, "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid"

(Book review) This is far more than a pig tale; Holeton transports us through a spiraling adventure spanning time, culture and pathological purposes with great wit and enthusiasm . . .

1st July 2007

Astrid Ensslin, "A Hypertext Canon"

(Chapter 3, "Canonizing Hypertext: Explorations and Constructions") Richard Holeton ranks among the few writers who have taken the original concept of hyperfiction in the sense of graphemic centrality into the new millennium. . . .

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies • 15th November 2006

Jessica M. Laccetti, "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid" (review)

This kind of humor and play throughout Figurski is what has led others to define it as "screwball comedy, [raised] to the level of metaphysics" . . .

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies • 19th November 2006

Richard Holeton, Author Response to Jessica M Laccetti's Review of "Figurski"

We surely live in fast-forward, postmodern times when a literary work can become "classic" (as in "classic hypertext") in only five years.

electronic book review • 24th January 2003

Jeff Parker, "The Museum of Hyphenated Media"

I have been holding on to Richard Holeton's "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid" for upwards of a year, reading and rereading it, wanting for it to be the one to break out, as they say in industry-speak.

Stanford Magazine • 1st December 2002

Andrew Hinderaker, "It Has No Beginning, It Has No End"

(Book review) Readers of conventional fiction, beware: there are 147 scenarios in Figurski's brainchild, and not a single one can definitively be characterized as the beginning or end.