Computing Literature Vol. 2: Writing Under: Selections from the Internet Text

Writing Under: Selections from the Internet Text is "not an introduction to 'The Internet Text' as a whole, but a selection of writings from it. Let’s say this book focuses on Sondheim’s conception of writing as wryting. The neologism picks up the a/e play of Derrida’s différance and the a/y play of feminism’s 'womyn.' Certainly, Sondheim is engaged with a deconstructive troubling of the graphic/vocal and with a feminist inquiry into gendering/sexuality in writing. He is also engaged with a generalized play of writing. There is perhaps a suitably absurd sense that in wryting the 'i' or I is removed from writing and replaced with the question or 'y.' Wryting is writing that questions and disturbs itself, that ruptures the symbols and communicational channels of writing. A writing that questions and disturbs is uneasily suspended between the philosophical and literary, between the analytical and performative. The result is the tautological stutter of writing writes writing writing, and so on, or simply 'wryting.' Sondheim, as usual, is perfectly accurate in his exploration of disturbed textual spaces. Wryting is appropriate and necessary for a meditation on Internet (computer) communication." -- Sandy Baldwin, "Introduction"