Pinpointing Twine's Others

The proposed panel theorizes Twine fiction and the politics of “othering,” and offers a number of meditations that thread through the most insular aestheticism to the most radical activism. Twine has many potential Others. “Twine games,” self-described as such, might be positioned as the Other to [an electronic] “literature,” and academics, in turn, must ask what is at stake in their academic domestication. As a free and open-source digital writing tool, Twine might also be the (democratizing) Other to the (institutionalizing) Storyspace authoring software – or the punk to Storyspace’s folk. The popular/populist press and the battle lines drawn online would position Twine as the (estimated 13 or whatever percent) Other to the male-dominated gaming industry. And the progressive themes and marginalized status of some its most high profile artists might further position Twine as Other to conservatism, or to the mainstream, or at least to the Internet trolls – both tactical and tactless. This proposed panel will thus mind the gaps – filling some in, opening up several more – between Twine narratives and its Others.