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Welcome to Exhibit C: DeviantART. As we come to our third and final exhibit, we will be exploring an eLiterature collection website. DeviantART itself cannot be labeled as an eLiterary piece, but rather an eLibrary of sorts. When the reader starts at this website, s/he will instantly be transported to a portal of various eLiterary genera. You can find fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, scanned drawings and paintings, computer generated images, and more. Authors also have the option of selling their works in print format. Authors can set up free or paid accounts with DeviantART, allowing the individual different levels of publishing access. With a DeviantART account, an author obtains interaction with other authors in a similar category or even their polar opposites. The range of interaction ability makes DeviantART such a fantastic place for eLiterature.
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Cutting directly to the point, we will skip ahead through the log in process and dive into a search. DeviantART offers a menu of eLiterature to search for, and the reader is giving the choice of his or her own tastes for that particular visit. Just as a conventional reader enters the library in search of a mystery novel one day and a romance novel the next, the eReader enters DeviantART in search of an enticing piece of eLiterature. This card catalog of sorts allows the reader to "thumb" through the different types of eLiterature offered at DeviantART. Perhaps one day the reader is hungry for poetry. On this particular day, the reader desires to devour a piece of eProse. The reader selects "Prose" on the menu, and awaits the resulting subheadings. What a wonderful display of simplicity, visibility, multiplicity, materiality, and interaction we find all rolled into one menu.
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After selecting the genre of prose, the reader is next presented with a subcategory menu -- these are the "main courses," if you will. One can find a variety of eLiterature listed here. Perhaps today the reader is interested in reading a fictional piece. Again, there are still more types to choose from, remaining very similar to the world of the conventional library. To choose a fluffy children's story, a reality-transforming fantasy, a thrilling mystery, or even a frightening horror piece, it all depends upon the reader's tastes, mood, and preferences. This ability to cater to nearly anyone's needs makes our wonderful eLibrary such a spectular place to visit. You never need to leave your home, put on decent attire, or bathe. You may wake up, spend the morning in your pajamas, and none of the librarians will scold you for laughing loudly or bawling like an infant with your chosen stories.
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