Title: Roulette

URL: http://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/nrjguest/howe/

Description: "Roulette" is a language game for readers, a single work that can be read in roughly 64,000 ways. The lines of the poem shift every time you interact with one of the three lines of the poem. By clicking and holding a block for a few moments, the reader can activate a change in the text. Only one line of the poem changes at a time, so the two stable lines give a context for the altered one, a background against which alternative meanings are generated. Those other lines can then be altered in turn. The work appears clothed in an endless night sky that foregrounds rotating, colorful cubic containers, each one containing smaller rotating cubes. From there, from out of the cubes, the word emerges along with background music that calls to mind a night out at the casino. The poetic content concerns philosophical questions concerning life, relationships, and language, and at times seems to generate a meta-commentary on randomness and the work itself. Entry drafted by: Patricia Tomaszek

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