Rebooting Electronic Literature, Volume 2 Chapter 3: Deena Larsen's "Samplers"

"Rebooting Electronic Literature, Volume 2 is the second of a series of open-source, multimedia books documenting works of electronic literature held in Dene Grigar's Electronic Literature Lab (ELL) collection at Washington State University Vancouver. The five works selected for this volume are among the most unique and fragile in the collection. All constitute long-form writing produced with stand-alone hypertext authoring systems available during the late 20th and early 21st centuries." -- from Rebooting Electronic Literature Volume 2, Introduction

Samplers references the concept of the sampler quilt –– that is, a quilt whose patches do not repeat the same pattern but, instead, offers unique quilt blocks throughout as a way that demonstrates the mastery of the quilter’s craft. Like a quilter of cloth, master storyteller Larsen draws upon established quilt blocks for her sampling of stories. 'Firewheel,' 'Devil's Claws,' 'Mystic Knot,' 'Crossed Ends,' 'Century Cross,' for example, are all named for conventional quilt blocks. Recognizing Larsen’s design, therefore, provides readers with an understanding about what to expect with Samplers: Each quilt block of the sampler image found on the interface, when clicked, launches a unique work of short fiction with a unique structure." -- from Rebooting Electronic Literature Volume 2, Chapter 3