View source for Electrifying Detail: Writing and Reading Triggers in Textual Zoom

What can be said about the ''detail'' as an aesthetic category within the framework of an emergent electronic culture? The paper does not aim to draw a standpoint on the subject but rather to identify possible paths of reflection and inquiry starting from a particular model: a form of zoomable text (''z-text'') and interface (''zoom-editor'') allowing the text to be structured on levels of detail and explored by ''zoom-in'' and ''zoom-out''. The questions that we intend to address concern the role of ''detail'' as a ''trigger'' fostering both the writing and the reading process. As an essential ingredient of the zooming paradigm - urging the writer to say and the reader to ask ''more'' about what has already been said - the detail acquires a prevalent character, that of ''trigger''of the textual unfolding and core of the interface functionality.

The paper focuses on samples of constructed ''z-texts''pointing to the following aspects:
- disclosure of details as a strategy of storytelling, e.g. progressively turning a few outline paragraphs into a full-fledged story (''narrative''triggers);
- variable physical or emotional proximity/distance of the reader to a textual object by simulating a camera-like approach in a descriptive setting (''descriptive''triggers);
- gradual movement from particular to general, general to particular, simple to complex in inductive/deductive or pedagogic essays (''logical''triggers).

While centered on literary and digital features (textual unfolding based on a ''visible/hidden''detail dynamics), the paper also refers to conceptual constructs related to other media (printed text, photography), such as Naomi Schor’s (2007) ''delayed, absent''or ''absorbed''detail, and the discursive ''punctum''inspired by Barthes’s reflections on photography (1981).

'''References'''

Barthes, Roland, ''Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography,''translated by Richard Howard, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981.

Schor, Naomi, ''Reading in Detail: Aesthetics and the Feminine'' (first published 1987 by Methuen, Inc.), Routledge, New York, London, 2007.