Oddly enough, I realize for the first time that actually university is made of people, not only of libraries, classrooms and exams. Of course, students and teachers work together and cooperate to pursue their academic aims, but here I can see that there is something more: there is the passion and the affection for what you are doing, and there is a strong will of “exporting” it further from the class’ borders. The Commons is like a web in which every thread is linked with and sustains the others. It is not just a flux of information, it’s information that becomes knowledge thanks to the interaction between people, even if what we actually can see are just words on a screen.

I have been here at the Grad Center (and in New York) for 3 weeks now, but I am already deeply convinced that what I have found here is something unique. I would like to write my dissertation about electronic literaure and so much has been written about it, and so much there is still to write, that it is almost impossible to give this literary phenomenon a clear shape. This happens because, I think, it’s something always changing and always growing, as its main engine is made of people, their thoughts, their experiences, their words.

That’s why I am thinking about how to practically do it: it can’t be the usual volume of a thousand pages. It should be something alive, something people can play and interact with, something that can stimulate their curiosity and their minds and can encourage them to comment and actively participate. And when something is learned in friendly and joyful way, it really becomes part of one’s deep knowledge and interest.