Author: ggs

http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html

This is a cute series of simulated forum entries that end up telling a story.  Since online forums like this are relatively new to the world, however, this is something that we literally could not have seen not so long ago.  The methods people use to interact are changing, and in doing so, the things people choose to present are growing and evolving with the new technologies.  Those people not familiar with forums and their related etiquettemay not immediately understand what is going on, but reading through once or twice should straighten everything out.  Those that have used forums to any decent extent will recognize all the familiar symptoms: the bulletins, the enforcers, the noobs that insist on rushing in and ignoring the aforementioned.  This could all have easily taken place in a real forum, and were time travel real, these would no doubt be issue tackled constantly.

And, though composed by one person, great attention is given to the different characters.  They, though brief in this short adventure, come to have roles and characteristics we expect of them.  The author even plays upon our expectations with some of his interactions, such as the exchange between AsianAvenger and SilverFox316.  BarracksRoomLawyer is another character who becomes familiar, with only four appearances in the text.  It’s all very well done and flows nicely.

In addition, the piece works to establish a background, while not worrying too much about filling the reader in.  The reader is expected to be able to figure out what is going on, as though a snapshot of a forum’s timeline is being examined.  BigChill’s reminder that “everybody kills Hitler on their first trip” sets the basis for a long-standing setting in which this has gone on enough for veteran members to be accustomed to it as a regular event.

All in all, I think this is a very effective new media text that pushes the current boundaries of literature into new areas that conform to growing world stages where they can be seen as applicable and fitting.  They’re new works catering to new audiences, and the fresh style targeting the electronic-savvy demographic should prove to hold a large fan base.

There seem to be two types of people on the net, those that use emoticons, and those that don’t.  The sides are like those people that prefer dogs to cats, Redskins to Cowboys, shaken to stirred–they are fortified in their belief.  The question arises, however: why?  Why does anybody use these things?  Or why doesn’t everybody use them?  What creates the divergence between those that 🙂 upon it and those that frown?  Perhaps it’s all in interpretation.

Both words and emoticons sent via the web must be interpreted.  Some things are easy, like “I’m going to Burger King in a few minutes, you should come.”  That person’s probably going to end up at Burger King in the near future, and wouldn’t mind your company.  Then there are the elusive comments, like “Yeah…” or “Ha.”  What does it mean if the “year” trails off like that?  Does that means it’s awkward now?  And the single “ha,” is that laughter, or is that pointed criticism hidden behind e-sarcasm?  These are things that the sender has to carefully craft based on their knowledge of the recipient of the information.  In the same way, people must be careful with using emoticons for the same reason–perhaps to a greater extent.

Here’s another example:
Mike:  See you soon!
Mary:  Okay 🙂

That’s pretty straight-forward, and you’d be hard-pressed to mix up the implied happiness of Mary’s declaration.  But how about this one:

Mike:  Hey Jenny
Mike:  Mary*
Mary:  Jenny? `,: |

The semi-stern cocked eyebrow may be lost on some viewers, and Mike may instead think that Mary has just fallen asleep on the keyboard.  This example just shows how you have to be careful when working with more complicated expressions.  The same goes for sad Santa: *<||:-(>

In addition, different people have different styles of emoticons.  For instance, it was only a matter of time before the simple smiley 🙂 met it’s upright counterparts.  Different genres, like anime and video gamers spawned their own various faces and meanings, which then slowly became integrated into the public mixture to further confuse the rest of the populous.  For example:

>.<
=.O
T_T
t.t
o.o
@v@
-.-
^.^
etc…

I am of the belief that some people have confidence their conversation partner will be able to keep up with their meaning, whereas other people are more confident that the words they choose will effectively carry their intentions.  In this way, some people see fit to toss in smiles and frowns and yells all over the place.  Others think even the most basic use could potentially be catastrophic, and forgo the option altogether (see below).

Mary:  Ugh
Mary:  Today was HORRIBLE!!1
Mike:  Why is that?
Mary:  I can’t find my necklace.  My mother gave it to me!
Mike:  Oh..  🙂
Mary has signed off.
Mike:  You left it in m–

That’s as far as Mike gets in trying to tell Mary she left the necklace at his place, but she just thinks he’s insensitive because of his satisfaction that he was going to be able to make her day.  Is the situation irreversible?  Of course not.  Could it lead to a big fight?  I’ve fought over less.

I’m not one to tell a person how to conduct themself on the Web; I’ve simply noticed trends that run across it, and think they’re worth exploring.  Emoticons probably will not be anybody’s downfall, but they may lead to some unnecessary confusion.

I’ve always had small hands. Soft small hands. People have used them to try to emasculate me, or point out how little work I do and how easy I’ve had it in life. This is likely why I decided the scar, whose origin is a mystery to me, on my index knuckle of my right hand would be known as a fight scar. Throughout much of my early high school life, I would tell people that noticed it that I had split my knuckle on the forehead of a bully pushing around my girlfriend. Not only had I never been in a fight, I had never had a girlfriend. It was an odd defense mechanism, but I wasn’t content with having a scar, and not having a cool story to go with it. Otherwise, it would simply have been an abomination of my flesh, and that was useless to me.

I am hesitant to call anything in “Afternoon” closure.  I feel that, as with real life, closure is ever-ellusive and almost impossible to find with only one vantage on a given subject.  As I went through Joyce’s work, I tried to piece together what happened, how, and a list of other events that all seemed hazy depending on the reading.  I tried to go through and map out different readings and see if there was any coherency–to see maybe if different stories were different bits of the same story that could be pieced together or different stories altogether. 

At times, it felt a lot like I was standing back in the shopping “Aisle” looking for Clare.  Except, this time, you aren’t in a little place where the people are within earshot and easy jar-launching range; imagine trying to find your maybe-dead lover in a collosal setting, where all you have to go on is scattered memories and an action, that may, in the end, be fruitless.  That’s what I felt like going through “Afternoon.”  I never knew if the story I got would be any more helpful than the last time, or if it would even make sense with the previous conclusions. 

I kept feeling like I was getting somewhere with it all–making some progress at figuring it out or at least making sense of little bits of it, and then something would come along, like Clare being alive and around the corner, that would cast my progress into rubbish.  It’s in that way that I don’t feel anybody can properly say that there is a good deal of closure to be found.  With the ambiguity of it all–the misleading paths and the broken narratives; the speakers and characters–it becomes to much to easily sit down, satisfied in having read a “story.”

Mapping out my adventure did not reveal anything that I had not unfortunately found on my own, but rather illuminated the fact that it was possible to read my book forever. True, the astute reader would realize that some choices would only lead back into a cycle, and in this realization they may make the decision to act differently the next time around, but some of us would rather open fire on the aliens every time. There were, in fact, two large loops around which a reader could travel through the story, both times being tossed back to the begining, and within those, a couple of smaller diversions which would negate previous questionable choices. In the end, it was not difficult to find an ending, but it was certainly easy enough to find yourself back near the start, making Hyperspace a potentially very long story. In the same sense, you could end the piece in 6 pages, never having left the street on which you live and never seeing anything of tremendous note.

This seemed to be to be completely different than Hegirascope.  In the latter, some of the pages may have seemed briefly connected (think Amanda) whereas others were entirely different.  They were scattered and impatient.  Making sense of it all was near impossible and the possibilities were near endless.  Also endless: Hegirascope.

My Boyfriend Came Back from the War, on the other hand, was not at all like this.  From the first screen, we are presented a situation, and the obvious assumption is that everything that happens thereafter is based around a boyfriend coming home–from a war.  Thematically speaking, it makes most of the ideas that come up fall into place, even when they are overall fragmented or broken thoughts.  Those ideas such as infidelity, mortality, and lasting love are all skimmed over in an unsettling way, but the reader is able to perceive the meaning, as opposed to Hegirascope’s often random, forced redirection. 

Hegirascope also became frustrating in that it made you choose an option of multiples presented.  MBCBFTW, however, allowed the viewer to explore all possible options at his or her own pace.  It was not necessarily linear, and could be just as fragmented, but it was never hurried or involuntary.

MBCBFTW seemed to me exactly what it was presented as with the first link.  I was able to imagine a couple, torn apart by way, reunited and going through the process of coping with the things that can happen in that kind of time.  The highs, like getting married, and the lows, like “you don’t trust me, I see” and the resulting “But… it was only once…” string of thought.  I was able to see two people going through all of this, and in that way, this became more of an active “choose your own conversation” piece.  Eventually, the whole conversation is covered, but the path you take to the final box is almost certainly not the same as anybody else’s.