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It is now 40 years since Gérard Genette's work introduced the term paratexts into literary studies, giving a unifying name to the many kinds of texts that serve as thresholds to other texts. The term and concept have migrated into the study of several other media forms, including video game studies, thanks principally to Mia Consalvo in Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Video Games (2007) and Steven Jones in The Meaning of Video Games: Gaming and Textual Strategies (2008). The term's meaning expanded in the process, which has been the subject of much debate since then. Over a decade later, the timing seems apt to take stock of the concept of paratextuality and consider new ways of adapting it. This introduction to a special issue titled "Video Games and Paratextuality" reconsiders Genette's reception in video game studies, and introduces a set of articles that together look beyond Genette. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portal (2007) presents an unusually complex example for the study of video game paratexts. This article uses the case of the game's promotional website ApertureScience.com to consider how paratextuality and the associated concepts of ephemerality and materiality may be further refined to open up new dimensions of video games as objects of interpretation and play. The article draws from the field of textual studies, which specializes in the particularities of media, and in the entanglement of technical detail with interpretation and meaning. The first part re-evaluates the nature of the book as an analogy for the materiality of video games, and critiques Gérard Genette's conception of bookish paratexts and its applicability to video games. The article then offers a detailed analysis of ApertureScience.com as a paratext, including its satirical critiques of positivism and corporate research, and concludes with a discussion of the materiality of digital paratexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOMMAIRE Cet article fair la synthese d'un exercice de consultation auquel a procede entre 2006 et 2008 une equipe de chercheurs de HCI-Book (Human-Computer Interaction/Interface with the Book Interaction homme-machine/Interface [...]

Was Marshall McLuhan's greatest work not his published writing but his reading? This article examines McLuhan's annotation practices in his copies of James Joyce's Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and asks what kinds of evidence a prolific annotator like McLuhan might have left if he had done his reading digitally. The first half profiles McLuhan's annotation practices, illustrated by examples from books from McLuhan's personal library. The second half describes an informal experiment, in which the author tests McLuhan's annotation techniques against the capabilities of digital book platforms and formats, specifically PDF (using the Apple Preview app) and EPUB (using the Apple Books app). Overall, the article works through two questions that are relevant to book history, marginalia studies, and digital archiving. How will we understand the evidence left behind by readers when that evidence is in born-digital forms, as archived digital files? And what can we learn about digital reading and annotation from someone like McLuhan, who did those things exceptionally well in another medium? The conclusion reflects on prospects for the study of born-digital marginalia, and on the role of encyclopedism in understanding both McLuhan's and Joyce's media theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the Editor: Drs. Logan and Baeulne suggested that treatment with enteric-coated peppermint oil reduced small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth in a patient with irritable bowel syndrome (Altern Med Rev 2002;7(5):410-417). That [...]

Background Marshall McLuhan was not only a prolifc reader but also an expert annotator of his own books. Taking as a case study McLuhan's copies of James Joyce's Ulysses in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, this article asks what we can learn about McLuhan's reading from close analysis of his own books. Analysis The article begins with a discussion of McLuhan's media theory as "applied Joyce, " with particular reference to Ulysses, and then turns to an overview of the annotation techniques and strategies visible in McLuhan's copies of the novel. Conclusion and implications The conclusion considers McLuhan's own books as hybrid artifacts that challenge us to rethink rigid distinctions between print and manuscript cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the materiality of electronic books (e-books). The author argues that e-books must be analyzed through the forensic frameworks of bibliography and textual scholarship and the non-empirical framework of performance theory. He focuses on the contentious publication of the book "The Sentimentalists," by Johanna Skibsrud, and its relations to the materiality of text. The author questions whether readers of the electronic version actually engage with same novel as those who read the traditional print version.

In this article, we argue that, just as an edition of a book can be a means of reifying a theory about how books should be edited, so can the creation of an experimental digital prototype be understood as conveying an argument about designing interfaces. Building on this premise, we explore theoretical affinities shared by recent design and book history scholarship, and connect those theories to the emerging practice of peer-reviewing digital objects in scholarly contexts. We suggest a checklist for subjecting prototypes directly to peer review: Is the argument reified by the prototype contestable, defensible, and substantive?Does the prototype have a recognizable position in the context of similar work, either in terms of concept or affordances?Is the prototype part of a series of prototypes with an identifiable trajectory?Does the prototype address possible objections?Is the prototype itself an original contribution to knowledge?We also outline some implications for funding agencies interested in supporting researchers who are designing experimental computer prototypes. For instance, if a series of prototypes functions as a set of smaller arguments within a larger debate, it might be more appropriate to fund the sequence rather than treating each project as an individual proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the December 2008 issue of "Shakespeare" is presented.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including "Monkeying Around with Text," by Terry Butler, "The Film/Game: Narrative Form and Network Conditioning," by Andrea Austin, and "From Paradox to Partage: On Citizenship and Teletechnologies," by Philip Armstrong.