Author: nluu

On page 99 in Nick Montfort describe my feelings and thinkings after playing Zork.  He states "to get through the mazes, detailed mapmaking (or else extraordingary luck, or cheating) is required" which is pretty much true.  I felt that since this is my first time playing Zork that it is hard to guess where anything is located.  One does need to spend time in closely inspecting everything.  If I did not go online, I don’t think I would be able to find the little window for many days. The game is pretty much pointless if I can’t get into the house.  In addition, it is also true that for the most part, in exploring the game and learning its feature even with the initial game guide command, I still have to "guess the verb" when I am face with the object to see what command the game require me to use.  After reading Nick Montfort article the game Zork have so much more to it than I originally perceive.  There are many hidden inside jokes about MIT and humor in the game. 

I found playing Zork and Adventure interactive game very difficult.  There is no map or hint that I can discover. I spent hours trying to go around the forest, the house, the river and seem to just go around in endless circle.  At least in Zork I am able to gather leaves, eggs, and nest.  I cannot gather branches to make fire, nor can I climb down the canyon, even though the game says it is possible to climb down.  There is obviously more to this game or else people wouldn’t be so addicted to it, but it is very difficult to discover more of the surrounding when you are limited to a limited set of text commands.  The humorous thing about the game is when you started jumping repeatedly the narrator mocks you, that is about all that I discover. So maybe if there are more tips someone can offer me to make the game more interesting that will be great.

Marie-Laure Ryan explanation of textual media is very hard to follow because it is there are many variations and forms to textual media.  There are lots of new terms, definitions and criterias to keep track off.  I am impressed by the mapping of the different story outcome and paths one can take in a narrative with several decisions and multiple endings offer to the readers.  The some of the illustrations hep with understanding of her explanation of the different path but some are still confusing even with illustration.  The Vector with Side Branches and the Maze type of paths are easier to understand because they are more straightforward, but all the rest of the paths have lots of variations that make it hard to see how the narration will unfold. I need reread the article and ponder more on the reading. 

Most of the links are helpful in which it provides visuals to the words that we mentioned in the story.  There are links to a face on the side of the mountain, a singer yelling into another face, and the image of dough which all relate to the words use in the story.  The link to another story in the word Malbork are especially helpful and creative because the two stories seems to complement each other well.  However I do not get the the link made for "escape plan" and "alliance", maybe this two links try to convey the idea that the narrator has joined some political band that incite anger from most of the people in the town.  Overall, I think the links provide further explanation and meaning to the incipit instead of detracts from it. 

In starting to create the links I start by rereading my own incipit and try to brainstorm what type of image or idea I want to convey through the incipit.  With the list of words from out of the brainstorming I google to find the image or the word that convey the idea I am attempting to find.  Afterward, I realized that I am still short of ten links.  Therefore, I go back into the story and pick out random words from out of my story and google them and see what come up.  Some where helpful, some are more random that leads to completely different paths.  In summary some of the links are intentional, some are more untentional.

For the link to the word "daisy" is an intentional link.  I purposely picked that link because the summertime in the past for the narrator is seen as innocent and carefree, therefore, I link the word daisy to a website that will provide the meaning of the to the flower.  Daisy is a flower that usually symbolize innonce and loyal.  This link acts to enhance and reaffirm the idea of innocence in that paragraph.

Another of the link that I purposefully choose to put in the incipit toward the very end that linked to another classmates story.  The links can be a seem to be a continuation of the event of where my incipit has left off.  It can works to provide more background to the incipit.  The story addresses the issue of money and falsely accuse of a crime.  The girl in my incipit seem to have stolen something, it might be money, and somehow it might provide a better hint to why the girl is late and being pursued.

The link on the time "time" is more unintentional.  I was just serving the net and ran into the peanut gallery.  I found the website hilarious and want to incorporate it somehow into the story.  It so happen that at the section of the incipit it is a point of anxiousness and anticipation, however by clicking on the link, it is a complete juxtaposition to what the mood was in the story.  In a sense it provide a comical light to the incipit.  This link out of all the other beside the "baseball ticket" link detracts from the story.  It create more of a farce then enhance the story.

Finally, another of my link are to the painting by Munch, the scream.  This painting depicts pain and anguish, and that is the mood that I want to get across.  If the woman escape from the pursuers, she will causes the pursuers great pain and anguish whatever she took from them.

 

 

I felt somewhat disappointed in reading this last sections of Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler. All along I was intriqued by the mini-stories inserted within the general narrative, even if they do not have an ending, and the quest of the readers to find the complete volume; however when I read this last part the novel somehow lost its appeal. I think it might be due to the fact that the plot become too chaotic that it no longer resembles the style or characters that was presented to us in the first half of the book. Only at the last fifty pages there the events are completely strange and bizzare. The mini-stories between the narratives I already expected to be different, but now even the general narratives are twisted. In addition, there are lots more generalized thoughts and insights that the feel of the novel become more philosophical, metaphysical pondering on the act of reading experience instead of a story. It seems like Calvino, knows that he is wrapping up the novel, so therefore if we haven’t already grasped the vision that this novel is resembling something like “ergodic literature” idea, it’ll be stated all the more clearly.

In Calvino’s novel If on a winter’s night a traveler I realized that when the author refer to “you” “the reader”, it is not just me who is reading the author is refering to in the passages. The “you” is actually a construction of another character that is part of the novel itself. I realized in chapter 2 that “you” is actually a man, and I am definitely not a man. Unfortunately, that is the limitation of writing in a second person point of view. Another reason I felt the you that the author addresses is not simply a general “you” as public audience reader is because the you have a specific personality and interest that the author ascribe to the you through discriptions of how “you” would react to certain situation. Nonetheless, the author direct involvement in dissecting the reading experience by explicitly stating what the readers should feel, react or pay attention to, I can very much identify with the “you” character. At some point it is difficult to differentiate the “you” (the male character or me) that the author is addressing. It is almost like a double layer you. When there are things that does not apply to me directly when the author refers to you, I would attribute the characteristic to the fictional “you”, as another character in the book. When there are statements that the author made to “you” that can be apply universally, many times I take it as if the author is addressing the real reader, which is me. For example, when the author states things such as, “If you, Reader, were already prepared, each time that character is introduced again…” or “Each sentence, in short, wants to convey to you…”(36-7) those broad statements directs the reader attention to what the author intend to do or how the reader should think about the conversation, I think those statement addresses the actual reader reading the book.

That is one convuluted paragraph above. I am even getting myself confuse in what I originally intended to say. On a different note, I find this sentence in the novel very applicable to my reading experience, “Whatever it may be, this is a novel where, once you have got into it, you want to go forward, without stopping.” (76) I realized as I make my way through this novel, as choppy each separate sections in the novel is or confusing it may be at some parts, once I started I just got to forge right through the novel, there is no stopping even though there is a different story after each chapter.

Aarseth and Bolter seem to emphasized that the main difference between cybertext and traditional printed texts is that cybertext “involve interactivity” and allows for more control to the readers. Aarseth termed the readers’ interaction with cybertext as “ergodic” which refers to the readers’ choice leading to numerous variations of reading experiences and results. I can see how this definition can apply to cybertext such as the Hejirascope project, however I do not see how the definition can apply to the Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries cybertext project of Bust Down the Doors! and All Fall Down. In both “Bust Down the Doors! and “All Fall Down” it appears that the readers have little control or direct interaction to change the course of the words flashed on the screen. Textual media seem to be more than just the electronic medium that is used to present the literature and the capability for reader interactions with the text. Despite the lack of readers’ control within the text the Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is considered as a form of textual media because the form of the text incorporate sounds and the continual self-flashing of words cannot be reproduced in print format. So is the definition of textual media similar to cybertext?