We Descend

We Descend is a collection of writings passed along over many generations. The work has a default path which introduces us to these various assemblages and putative writers.{{Cite journal |first1=Brian |last1=Davis |first2=Bill |last2=Bly |date=2019-03-03 |title=Descending into the Archives: An Interview with Hypertext Author Bill Bly |url=https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/descending-into-the-archives-an-interview-with-hypertext-author-bill-bly/ |journal=Electronic Book Review |language=en-US}} "The story spans four timelines, beginning with a future post-apocalyptic storyline of Egderus who digs down through eons of data to reconstruct cultural history, encountering, along the way, writings by an ancient who calls himself the Last One. The metaphor of the “archaeological dig” serves “to visualize time” Bly uses hypertext linking to collate and annotate this archive and to create hidden writings that exist "behind gated links that may unlock truths about the archive."

The work was originally published on stand-alone floppy disks (one for Mac and one for PC){{Cite journal |last=Van Looy |first=Jan |date=January 2002 |title=23 reasons not to read We Descend by Bill Bly |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261350363 |journal=Dichtung Digital |archive-url=http://www.brown.edu/Research/dichtung-igital/2002/01-14-Looy.html |archive-date=June 3, 2025}} from Eastgate Systems in 1997,{{Cite web |title=Bill Bly |url=https://www.eastgate.com/people/Bly.html |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=www.eastgate.com}}{{Cite web |title=We Descend |url=https://www.eastgate.com/catalog/WeDescend.html |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=www.eastgate.com}} in the form later called Volume 1. Excerpts from We Descend were published in Word Circuits in 1996.{{Cite web |title=Cover |url=https://wordcircuits.com/gallery/descend/Cover.htm |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=wordcircuits.com}} The online journal, New River (Virgina Tech) brought out Volume 2 in its Fall, 2017 edition, and subsequently, a preliminary view of Volume 3 appeared in the same journal in Fall 2019. The NEXT Museum, Library, and Preservation Space presented Volume 3 in 2023.{{Cite web |title=We Descend, The Complete Edition |url=https://the-next.eliterature.org/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=The NEXT |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |title=Celebrating the Release of Bill Bly's We Descend, The Complete Edition |url=https://dtc-wsuv.org/wp/ell/2023/10/04/celebrating-the-release-of-bill-blys-we-descend-the-complete-edition/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=Electronic Literature Lab |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Pathfinders Chapter 5: Bill Bly's We Descend |url=https://the-next.eliterature.org/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=The NEXT |language=en-us}} Volume 2 was created using Tinderbox.{{Cite web |title=Authoring Software - Process - Bill Bly |url=https://narrabase.net/bill_bly.html |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=narrabase.net}} The Bill Bly collection at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities houses notes and various early versions of We Descend. {{Cite web |date=November 2011 |title=Bill Bly Collection |url=https://mith.umd.edu/research/bill-bly-collection/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=mith.umd.edu |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=October 12, 2012 |title=We Descended: Processing the Bill Bly Collection with the UMD Born-Digital Working Group |url=https://mith.umd.edu/news/we-descended-processing-the-bill-bly-collection-with-the-umd-born-digital-working-group/ |work=Maryland Institute for Technologies in the Humanities}}

Brian Davis calls this work "an early exemplar of 'archival fiction,'” and notes that this ongoing work is also "one of the longest running hypertext sagas in electronic literary history."{{Cite book |title=Global perspectives on digital literature: a critical introduction for the twenty-first century |date=2023 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-21491-5 |editor-last=Ghosal |editor-first=Torsa |location=Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY}} Bernstein traces We Descend's roots to Michael Joyce's afternoon.{{Cite journal |last=Bernstein |first=Mark |date=2004-11-06 |title=Card Shark and Thespis |url=https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/card-shark-and-thespis/ |journal=Electronic Book Review |language=en-US}} This work was also one of the subject works for the Pathfinders Project with Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop.{{Cite web |title=June 5: Web-book chronicles history of digital literature {{!}} WSU Insider {{!}} Washington State University |url=https://archive.news.wsu.edu/news/2015/06/01/june-5-web-book-chronicles-impact-history-of-digital-literature/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=archive.news.wsu.edu}} As Grigar explains, "Ultimately, what We Descend suggests is that we––all humans––are capable of descending and ascending, depending on how heroically we fight for the truth, how hard we work to place truth at the center of our lives."{{Cite web |last=Grigar |first=Dene |title=We All Descend |url=http://dtc-wsuv.org/wp/pathfinders/2014/02/09/we-all-descend/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=Pathfinders |language=en-US}} The Electronic Literature Directory notes that "We Descend is a work unmatched in its levels of complexity and thoughtfulness. As a result, it has captured the attention of scholars (such as Dene Grigar, Mark Bernstein, and Susana Tosca) who have written essays on the subject, and has been showcased at the Electronic Literature Organization’s media art show State of the Arts in 2002."{{Cite web |title=We Descend {{!}} Electronic Literature Directory |url=https://directory.eliterature.org/individual-work/5059 |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=directory.eliterature.org}}

Astrid Ensslin analyzed We Descend as a literary hypertext in Canonizing Hypertext: Explorations and Constructions.{{Cite book |last=Ensslin |first=Astrid |title=Canonizing hypertext: explorations and constructions |date=2007 |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-0-8264-9558-7 |series=Continuum literary studies |location=London}}

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Category:Electronic literature

https://www.wedescend.net/