lit - NicheInterests/mistfunk GitHub Wiki

Formerly part of the ANSI art article at Wikipedia:

A subset of the broader ANSI art scene arose in 1993–1994, known as the 'Lit Scene': Packaged and distributed similarly to ANSI artpacks, zipped and uploaded to BBS systems throughout the United States and the world, Lit[erature] packs saw increasing popularity - and rising quality - until an abrupt end of the scene coincident with the explosion of the web-driven commercial Internet. These Lit packs often also contained ANSI art by authors and guest artists, and music that could be played by reader clients provided with the packs, composed on hexadecimal music editors using instrument samples, typically in MOD format as originally developed on the Amiga and later also used on early Soundblaster-powered PCs. The effective replacement of the BBS scene with the Internet effectively decimated both sides of the ANSI and Lit scenes, creators and users.

Two of the most well-known and prolific Lit groups were Soulz at Zero (SaZ) and its contemporary Candelabra, the latter of which restarted as a website a few years after its initial run as a traditional BBS-driven distributed 'pack'-zine. Candelabra's run as a website lasted the better part of a decade. The leader of SaZ, The Stranger, and one of its best-known writers, WiSH, joined Candelabra, whose co-founder and original editor The Alienist had also contributed briefly to SaZ during its run.

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If you were to ask celebrated lit author Cthulu what the most significant lit groups of the underground computer artscene were, he would probably point to [Revolt] and [Reality], then gesture at his inspiration [Israfel] of [GOTHiC], clenching his fist over his heart while remembering [Cenobite], and then breaking down in tears and gesturing vaguely toward CiA's [ScrollZ]. Of course there is a lot of overlap with lit and the [etext]s circulated on BBSes, FTP sites and over UseNet newsgroups as [tfile]s, [zine]s and emags (eg. the [TABNotes], [Pinion], [Kithe]), to say nothing of underground periodicals with histories of physical publication such as 2600 and pHRACK... but while they are related to lit, the term primarily applied to poetry, both free verse and rhyming/metred. Closer kin were online purveyors of poetry such as The Giltweasel periodical which solicited submissions from #poetry on the EFNet IRC, and poetry-inspired intermedia organizations such as [the Edgewise Electrolit centre].