Based on my experience with Afternoon and reflecting back to our maps, unlike the arborescent pattern of Choose Your Own Adventure books, Afternoon has a network structure. In my opinion, this is where some cohesion and clarity are lost. My first experience with Afternoon, I clicked words that interested me. The second time, I used the return key. The experiences were totally different; however, I read some of the same links using both methods. This tells me that the paths are uni- or bidirectional. The third time, I used the return key again but experienced a different sequence of pages. Most, I had not seen before. Now, I’m wondering if the program was purposely designed, like Hegirascope, to create a new narrative path with each experience.
Regardless of how I navigate Afternoon, aspects of the text are confusing. I have had difficulty identifying the changing narrator. I also find it difficult to sort out the complex and entangled relationship(s) of Lolly, Nausicaa, Lisa, Peter, and Wert. Also confusing is the fact that most of the pages are peppered with pronouns but contain few or no antecedents. Who is “he” or “him?” Who is “she” or “her?” Who is “I?” I am also confused by incorrect grammar – wondering if it is deliberate and has meaning or if it is a mistake? Ex. The page “Lovers”: “…sometimes weeping for all the guilt her feels…”
The pages relating to Dataquest puzzle me as well. For example, the page “Dream Pools”: Dataquest is compared to sex that uses – as in prostitution. Is this a figurative description of the workers and their relationship to the company, or is the speaker (Nausicaa?) really turning “tricks?” Why is Dataquest important to the narrative?
I am intrigued by the name Werther. Is Joyce’s choice of this name deliberate in relationship to Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther? Are the entries/pages of Afternoon supposed to be a collage of entries from the perspectives of all of the characters, a multi-faceted epistolary of sorts but not recognizable as letters? Or is there even such a thing? Reading Afternoon, I have more questions than answers.
At this moment, I have a renewed appreciation for Tolstoy, and nothing seems more appealing to me than curling up in my favorite chair with Anna Karenina.