I know I didn’t answer this question in class, but I think honestly that I enjoyed Afternoon so much more than I did Twelve Blue. Afternoon feels like it is so much more easy to navigate and to find different passages than Twelve Blue. I think that whatever story lines exist in Afternoon are much more identifiable and are more easily accessible than in Twelve Blue. I have played with Afternoon to the point that I can kind of anticipate where my actions are going to lead the story. I have found that with Twelve Blue it is easier to get stuck in some short cyclical pattern consisting of about maybe three screens. Afternoon also has its own cyclical parts, but they tend to be much longer with many opportunities for diversion. In Twelve Blue, I am only referring to this cyclical pattern in dealing with clicking on the in-text links and not with the graph on the side with the twelve opportunities for diversion.
The side panel in Twelve Blue I feel is completely open for diversions. However, I do not feel like it is a complete story as compared to Afternoon (if you can even call it a complete story). I feel like somehow Michael Joyce got a little cocky with his unique way of storytelling and forgot some of the key things in a story. Like maybe a plot. I feel lost when I read Twelve Blue. There are so many story lines running parallel and bumping into each other and over lapping I feel so overwhelmed, but maybe that’s the point. There are so many aquatic themes running through the veins of the side story panel and I’m thinking that he is trying to make it comparable to being adrift in the ocean. Maybe I’m way off base here, but I think it is kind of an easy comparison. Everything is written in blue. duh. I also think that the blue text on a blue background makes it hard to read at times especially in those huge blocks of prose that he is using, unlike Afternoon where the writing is minimal and seems to be pretty concise and contained on the page.
But it also could be that I enjoy afternoon more because I have spent more time with it. Of course you’re going to like a book you have read ten times over than something you have only gotten half-way through. I think that’s something natural. But yes, I have found that I definitely find the complexities and obscurities in Afternoon a little more charming than the changing tides and currents of Twelve Blue.