Author: jen

Encountering this text was perplexing at times, at times intriguing, and peculiar to navigate.  At first it seemed as though none of the stories connected in any way, they would jump around based either on what was chosen or inevitably automatically.  Perhaps not very “inevitably” as sometimes I had to go back and finish what I had read, although it seemed to go back to the same place it was directed to originally.  Through the cyclical reading I noticed that there were connections amongst the intents of the overlapping stories.  Similar words were manipulated throughout the stories and interspersed quotes. 

It was most curious to run into the hidden link pages like when you click on, “darkness” (pg HGSXX2) on most screens you run into a completely black page with hidden quotes.  At first one may believe some technical error has occurred but if explored, many paths may be followed. The reader can choose “Hark!”, “Pissed off yet?”, “True meaning”, “Five finger exercise”, “Doppelganger”, “of looking at”, “A dead parrot”, “Same old same old”, “Don’t Click Here”, “Fourteen ways” or “Windfall Lever”.  These links are not visible except through the little hand that appears when you’ve found a link.  However, this particular screen does not appear to transform on its own. 

I chose windfall lever which brought me to “Chapter One: I am dead” (pg. HGS076) this is a rather morbid examination of dreaming death, though more as a beginning than and end.  It entices an idea of journey in finality and a cyclical or everlasting realm similar to this text.  “We commit his person to the sky in hope of no resurrection beyond our bodiless hegira…”  There is an escape through death and the use of hegira as in the title “Hegirascope”.  Subsequently, the word flight is used in many of the other escape sequences.  A similar storyline was linked through the side word, Wake and it took me to the scene called “How it played in the Boardroom” (pg. HGS211).  The first line was a similar flight “They couldn’t understand him so they shot him into space.”  An inherent connection, as the two are written in the same color, orange, on a black background and have a seemingly similar tone but no actual transition  from one idea to the next, aside from the word “wake.”

The scene in the boardroom progresses to the widow’s son sleeping and the ascension of us all.  However, if I had chosen the word “zero” on the previous page, “Chapter One: I am dead” it would have taken me back to the same black screen with hidden links and the choice of a new direction.  Finally, “Boot Me Up and Call Me Rider” (pg. HGS212) emerges from our ascension in the “Boardroom” and the man is a dark type with apparently no dream beyond his own.  Inevitably, this sequence ends with “wake up rider and dream.” There is a cynical optimistic obscurity to this progression; there is no feeling of close personal accounting or connection in this second person narration. The theme is illusory in nature falling in with the dream sequences throughout the relating stories. 

 Similar to that of a “choose your own adventure” book, there are some areas which have scenes that seem to last two or three pages due to color, tone, and often theme.  This is exemplified in the previous arrangement, through the resemblance in tonal quality.  However in this text, the reader has several choices throughout the excursion.  The word links on the side, extracted from the writing in the center of the page, seem to hold a connection to the word at hand and often the word later in the story will lead to a continuation but not always.  The continual transient structure and continual collision of sequences creates an ever changing patchwork of imagery.

I enjoyed playing the Zork, I may have been at an advantage since I had played the "Return to Zork" when I was younger.  Though, it is quite different but with similar commands keeping to the origin of the game. The mazes were still significantly more difficult to navigate.  I suppose because they are randomly chosen everytime you enter, there seems to be no logical path to get back to somewhere I had been before I seemed to be forced to stumble upon it.  For some reason I could not save my games which sucks cause I had all sorts of useful stuff.  Also I grab possibly useless things for fear of needing them later.  I’ll figure that part out but interesting use of vocabulary, although the system can only understand certain words the descriptions were lovely.  I did not catch on to "Adventure" quite as well but see the connection.  I kept getting stuck in the cave with no direction and have not quite figured out how to navigate out yet.  This is why saving would be wonderful but for some reason it wouldn’t listen to my login pleas!  My map of the CYOA is at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jparker6/hyper

Hopefully it still works!  I had a difficult time getting it to listen to me as well ;)

-Jen- 

   ** Just a suggestion of something I ran across a while ago. It seemed relevant to mention an exhibit I had read about this August by Jane Cardiff.  It is an audio tour drawn from her memories but involving the museam and sculpture garden.  I was interested in going but have not made it yet so I do not know if it’s good or not.  However, it seems interactive and whatnot so if anyone is interested it is wed-sun 11:30 to 2:30 ( though it was three good thing I didn’t show up) and it is at the Hirshorn. Check it out here is the link: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/description.asp?ID=20 (for some reason the link button did not work)**

   The several examples in Marie-Laure Ryan’s, Narrative as virtual reality, of textuality were a bit overwhelming at first. I kept re-reading the title, isn’t that what I just read?  Seriously, I had no idea there were so many variations.  I am never surprised these days. It was helpful to break it all down into catagories that overlap and subsequently explain examples of often nebulous combinations. 

    I always enjoyed adventure games as a child and created stories and challenges to getting to my bed.  If I get to the covers quickly, or hop, I can escape various frightening figures introduced through movies and books.  This seems relevant for some reason to me as it seems playful this interactivity.  Strangely, I get excited when there is some choice or surprise involved even in educational reading online or otherwise. 

    It was good she explained ergodic some more because I needed a refresher.  I also found it quite interesting the way she explained the interactions and modifications children make when personalising stories they are being told.  The parent or guardian adds and creates images and the cild then has the specifications to see what they would like or explain differences from the paradigm.  Why is this ghost purple aren’t they supposed to be white? 

  

    The story, "Where There is No Story at All" by Jackie was adept use of imagery which made just enough sense and brought that edge I had hoped to find.  She chose interesting flash productions which were stimulating with out distracting from the inevitable narrative.  I had hoped to find some of these kind of visually appealing interactions but lost a couple URLs I wanted to use.  I enjoyed the clock where th hand keeps erasing and rewriting the minutes as they pass in constant cycle. Yes, and the 5 minute sideburns were very funny and to me it was like at this moment when the author was abandoning you in suspense she was laughing at you HA HA! No ending for you! 

    Some like Lindsey’s The Drawn Pavement of October Nights  were somewhat straight forward illustrations of the word used.  There was an image of Army recruitment for the word Army and a camaro for camaro. It was imagery toward the visualization of the narrative.  However the first, ketchup was linked to a site which had a funny political message.  The bottle has a picture of Geoge Wahington and is called "W" that seems to represent george (duba-u as people call him) Bush and it was for fallen soldiers.  It seemed to be in line with some of the words she chose to link, such as army. It was an interesting direction as she was writing about discrete assignments for some organization. 

  Once it was discussed, I begain thinking about why we did not choose many texts (aside the ones required to link to).  I suppose my particular reasoning is that it would be drawing away from the original text but I guess it is more Calvino’esque to do so.  I think Lindsey’s Linked at the end to another which I had not considered during the assignment as Calvino always does so.  I tink it would be interesting to encorporate mor sounds with the linkage. I would have linked "The wind cried mary" by Jimi Hendrix to Jason’s.  However, I like the visual as well so I suppose the only way to integrate the two would be through creating the pages yourself as opposed to outside links that are out of our control.  Anyway I enjoyed this project but especially exploring the other creations and various takes on the assignment.

       
 

      At the onset of my linking there were a few that I already had in my head for particular words.  I had ideas of what kinds of links I wanted to include.  Honestly, I meant to give it a darker comic edge but the final product ended up being a bit goofy.  A few of the words I knew I could find something interesting on, I typed in the actual word and a couple others I had the synchronizing idea in mind and typed in the word that it reminded me of. 

     I had alread chosen the bio-bay site which related to the word "glowing" in the text, or actually it just jumped to mind as perfect connection.  I love these images and it seemed to add something strange with a visual of the similie in the story.  Initially I was going to put an image of a cave, I had from Puerto Rico, behind the story but since I had just reformatted my computer I was currently denied the option.  So, the other obvious connection was either "chasm" or "dark seedy cave" and a link to a cave.  Since I had already used Vieques island off Puerto Rico I chose instead to type in the word stalagtites and found this appealing image. 

     I think the slightly less obvious connection was escape and a neat picture of barbed wire at Alcatraz.  I wanted to make it playful and interactive so I did add a couple of games, the first of which duck hunt may have been distracting so early on in the narrative.  The last word seems obvious I typed in sour, searched around for something kitchy and visually apealling, "Sour punch", and found a game within the site which seemed logical to link to as a impression of Sour. 
 

Similar to the comic strip by Scott McCloud we engaged in completing a simple story earlier we are not given the underlying explanations to the complications in a chronilogical order. Which can be quite fascinating in movies and novels because it leads you to certain assumptions. Often leading you in certain directions purposely but in Calvios novel there have been numerous instances in which it seemed there was no particular direction the writer had in mind for your conclusions. However as the story ensued it has become appearant that he lead us through the readers’ narrative. Never knowing what to expect has kept me fascinated. The moment there is a comfort level, that is to say, I finally know what to expect from the style, he throws in another trick.

I have also considered the idea of reading and writing in different gender roles and have found that some books written in the female role to be less beleivable. It seems to have a slight effect when written in the opposite role of disconnection. Not that I enjoy a story any less either way but that I am less connected as one as I am more aware that it is not me. So, I found it quite interesting to compare more directly the effect upon the point of view and to see another characters function from within as I am not often allowed that chance. (I know it’s late, I just got off work ;)

Through this exploration into Italo Calvino’s train of thought, I have found myself reminiscing upon the trail. Although quite appearant that the narratives have little connection to one another. As of yet, other than the convoluted publishing escapade. It is like watching television with someone else surfing the channels or trying to follow someone’s journey on the web.

I encountered the same frustration as the readers whose narrative is stringing the partial stories together. The stability of this underlying story lineates the process. I hadn’t considered finishing the stories as was mentioned in a reflection. However, subconsciously I did perveive a make-shift conclusion once I gave in to a depart from the preceding story. Which I suppose allows a an element of interactivity within the whirlwind.

It may be because of the second person narration and my initial reaction that the author was speaking to the actual reader (us, me, you ;) but it as though I am playing a character as in an adventure game. Especially at the moment when the narrator is abandoned in the office of the publisher to read “Looks down in the gathering shadow.” Even though I could not get up and explore the room myself and was thus thrust into another tale. Although in actuality we are passively reading, the reader’s internal narrative convinces us to continue. As Ludmilla states, “Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be….” If it has not been written, it can be anything.