Do you know what leet (or leetspeak) is? I’m betting you do, but like me you may not have known the name for it.

I’ve actually been trying for over a year to figure out what to call this hallucinalingo the K3wL kids are all using, but every search on the subject was thwarted precisely because the language is so plastic. Today, however, while enmeshed in a completely different subject, I stumbled on the keyword that unlocks the code. Leet.

L| <4// |~33[) em0|~3 /-/3|~3.

(And before the leetpolice throw me up against a wall and give me a few kidney punches for desecrating the lingo — yes, I know you can’t just slap things together like that. For demonstration purposes only.)

I said in a previous post that I had “complete unfamiliarity” with the subject of fiction on the internet — then I promptly launched into a high-level analysis of blog fiction in the same post. Since that seems a bit incongruous even to me, I thought I’d get a few things into the record before relating any more of my fiction hunting escapades.

Prior to launching this site I had a lot of questions about the state of storytelling in the digital age, but I didn’t do much (meaning any) research or scouting ahead of time.

Here’s why:

1) I didn’t want to spoil any of the surprises I might find along the way. If there are great stories out there on the web, or there are growling literary factions at war over virtual turf, I wanted to experience it all with this blog at the ready. (I’ve already deployed all the sticky notes my desk can handle.)  [ Read more ]