Re.La.Vir

by Jan Ramjerdi

RE.LA.VIR renders rape through the narrative filter of an online hypertext program. Juxtaposing savvy technical language and graphic scenes of sexual violence, the novel creates an alternative techno fictive space for representing lived experience.

The pages of RE.LA.VIR are the scrolling text of a computer screen, as transitory and erasable as the body of the raped woman. RE.LA.VIR reenvisions her, offering the female...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573660825
• ISBN13: 9781573660822
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: F2c
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

digitized rape

Once I finished reading the last page of this novel, I wondered about the possibility of any of the material being real. It gave me a sinking feeling inside to know that any of the actions taking place in the novel could have been done in reality as well. The sexual abuse and violence within are presented in a form appearing to be "machine processed" and so allow itself to disconnect from traditional human narrative and into a digital form not unlike a computer's command line interface. The broken recollection of the sequence of events adds an air of internal thought seemingly coming from the victim(s). Torture is shared to us in raw, sometimes stuttering lines that define the urgency, pain, and fear experienced during the re-tellings. Subconcious, disjointed scenes of neutral nature slip in to reveal a feminine undertone that is an abrupt change from the slickly worded and almost poetic verses of sexual assault that are coldly observed. The command line program puts an unemotional quality to the novel's presentation which give me the idea of stoic intermissions read in monotone that help to preserve and organize the mass of subconcious abuse streaming as words on the page. It feels as though, ultimately, I can attempt to explain the novel logically, but it won't give you the full scope and experience that can only be had by reading it.

M.T./Computer Matrix

Jan Ramjerdi takes a different approach to tell a story of crime that occurs daily within the world. RAPE. RE>LA>VIR takes us into the mind of a victim who experiences rape. RAPE spelled in any language rather it is English/DOS has the same meaning and I am sure the victim feels the same. A must read.