"Mr. Plimpton's Revenge"

This week in class, our lectures focused on the topic of Electronic Literature, otherwise known as e-lit. As N. Katherine Hayles, professor of English at UCLA, describes in the article “Electronic Literature: What is it?”, electronic literature is a “digital born” object, which she refers to as works of literature that are created on the computer and meant to be read by audiences on their personal digital devices instead of being viewed on a printed version.

Dinty W. Moore

George Plimpton

One of the various pieces of e-lit that our class viewed this week was Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge. This piece was created on Google maps and was used to reconstruct the history of run-ins between the author of the essay, Dinty W. Moore , and his one-time passenger, George Plimpton, as well as an embarrassing situation involving Mr.Plimpton that would haunt Moore for a decades after their encounter.

University of Pittsburgh

In the beginning of his essay, Moore speaks of his journey by telling the audience of his first account with Plimpton. As Moore explains, Mr. Plimpton was invited to speak at the University of Pittsburgh, where Moore attended school at the time. Due to Moore being considered one of the most reliable undergraduate writing major students, he was assigned to pick Mr. Plimpton up from the airport and chauffeur him around. However, as Moore further explains, he made as absolute fool of himself in front of  Plimpton during their time together.  For instance, while Moore taxied Plimpton around, still high from the morning’s buzz, he could not stop talking. More embarrassing than that, Moore was unable to pay for their meal at the Chinese restaurant, leaving Mr. Plimpton with the check.

Later in his life, as he tells, Moore encounters Mr. Plimpton on several additional occasions including: seeing him at Harrisburg airport, across the street from a Music store in New York City, and at a national nonfiction conference outside of Baltimore where Mr.Plimpton was the keynote speaker. During each occasion, Moore instantly recognized Mr. Plimpton’s presence, waving to him and asking him if he remembered the time he picked him up from the airport and furthermore remembered the fool he made out of himself.

In the end, after the national conference outside of Baltimore, Mr. Plimpton finally gets his revenge. After the passing years, Plimpton approaches Moore and tells him that he recalls all the run-ins and the first time that they met at the Pittsburgh airport. Unfortunately, because of Plimpton’s recollection, Moore’s embarrassment of their first encounter is emphasized once again, leading Moore to wonder if Plimpton really does remember the fool he made out of himself. However, nearing the end of Moore’s essay, audiences discover Mr. Plimpton did not, in fact, remember who Moore was or the fool he portrayed himself to be. Instead, it was one of Moore’s colleagues who had reminded Plimpton of his encounter with Moore. Ultimately, as users discover, it was Moore who took revenge out on himself, living his life reflecting on the embarrassment of his run ins with Plimpton, who ultimately did not even remember him.

Aside from its addicting storyline, the Google maps essay written by Moore is also a great work of electronic literature. First of all, the essay shows a map of all the points, locations, and destinations that surround the history of Moore and Plimpton. For instance, the map takes users to the airport where Moore picked Mr. Plimpton up, to the Chinese restaurant where Moore was  unable to pay for the meal, and the music store in New York City where Moore sees Mr. Plimpton across the street. Moreover, the piece actively involves audiences, inviting them to discover the exact areas of Moore’s essay along with plotting points of interest on the map. The Google maps essay also allows viewers to change the map’s appearance and zoom in on specific locations to get a sense of where they are as well as what they look like.