Hayles writes that “literature…activates a recursive feedback loop between knowledge realized in the body through gesture, ritual, performance, posture, and enactment, and knowledge realized in the neocortex as conscious and explicit articulations. As the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has shown, robust and durable knowledge can be transmitted through social practices and enactments without being consciously articulated” (132). This concept comes into play, particularly when considering William Poundstone’s Tachistoscope. Because of the element of subliminal messaging and the way the text is constructed in terms of color, multimedia, and symbolism, the reader is, in effect, approaching a text that is almost dream-like, greatly engaging the subconscious realm of the brain.
While Hayles offers her own assessment of Tachistoscope, her explanations for various symbols are subjective and her analysis of the work itself seems cursory, functioning more appropriately as a summary of what the reader is to encounter while interacting with the text. After going through Tachistoscope several times, the text became much more cohesive as a story. While I did, as Hayles predicted, attempt to “screen out…‘extraneous’ information” (142), I also attempted to force my consciousness to integrate it into the work and understand the underlying meanings of the symbols and subliminal pictures and messages. The white words, superimposed by larger black words, generally appeared on the screen at a pace that was too fast for me to process. However, I did notice images of faces in these sequences, as well, which may have subliminally provided context in the form of characterization. Were they the faces of people who had fallen into the bottomless pit? Were they the faces of people from the town where the pit had been formed? I could not be sure, although these questions came to mind. I also took into account the use of color and how the colors made me feel. For example, dark blues appeared to signal tragic events, such as people falling into the bottomless pit. I also noticed that the orange spheres increased my anxiety as I read the text.
As for the symbols behind most of the words (e.g. the knife and fork, the cross, the martini glass), I was unsure of what to make of their meanings. Hayles’s inferences as to what their meanings were did not come to mind while I, personally, was interacting with the text. The symbols seemed to denote the man-made objects and, perhaps, their implications, both negative and positive. In the work, there are symbols depicting construction work—perhaps referencing the main plot event at hand, which has caused irreparable damage, not just to the area of land itself, but to the town in which it exists and the people who live in that town. There are also symbols like keys and planes—perhaps alluding to the idea of escape. The population of the town does eventually dwindle, as the text reveals. Additionally, I felt as though the symbols alluded to a sense of historical context. I understand that this is a far reach, but the Afro pick, for example, reminded me of Civil Rights events in the 20th century, while the bomb reminded me of war. I associated the crown with medieval times, and also associated the key with the distant past, because of its shape and form.
For me, the symbols placed the words flashing across the screen within the context of culture that was ever-evolving and ever-changing. This may have also been partially due to the nature of the music, which contained a series of chord progressions that, at its climax, seemed uplifting by providing the reader a sense of movement within the text—a feeling of being propelled forward during the crescendo and the addition of music that was more melodic than the repetitive notes played at the beginning of the music’s cycle.
The music, I found, was the most compelling aspect of the text, rather than the imagery. I did not feel as though the images had much of an effect on me other than the fact that I found them distracting. Perhaps because, as humans, we have an innate desire to make sense of our experiences and observations, the subliminal messaging along with the use of symbols in this piece became frustrating components of the work for me. Nonetheless, it was an interesting exploration; trying to find meaning within the symbols used, as well as the subliminal messaging. I felt somewhat detached to the literal text of the piece because of the symbols and subliminal messaging, which I thought was interesting. Rather than responding emotionally to the text, I felt myself responding to it from a more analytical standpoint. For this reason, the symbols and subliminal messaging most likely contributed to the tone of the piece in my experience of interacting with it.