{"id":454,"date":"2008-09-28T23:41:05","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T03:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/?p=454"},"modified":"2008-09-30T19:58:57","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T23:58:57","slug":"afternoon-a-confusing-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/2008\/09\/28\/afternoon-a-confusing-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon, a Confusing Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on my experience with Afternoon<\/em> and reflecting back to our maps, unlike the arborescent pattern of Choose Your Own Adventure<\/em> books, Afternoon <\/em>has a network structure.\u00a0 In my opinion, this is where some cohesion and clarity are lost.\u00a0 My first experience with Afternoon,<\/em> I clicked words that interested me.\u00a0 The second time, I used the return key.\u00a0 The experiences were totally different; however, I read some of the same links using both methods.\u00a0 This tells me that the paths\u00a0are uni- or bidirectional.\u00a0 The third time, I used the return key again but experienced a different sequence of pages.\u00a0 Most, I had not seen before.\u00a0 Now, I’m wondering if the program was purposely designed, like Hegirascope, to create a new narrative path with each experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of how I navigate Afternoon<\/em>, aspects of the text are confusing. \u00a0I have had difficulty identifying the changing narrator. \u00a0I also find it difficult to sort out the complex and entangled relationship(s) of Lolly, Nausicaa, Lisa, Peter, and Wert.\u00a0 Also confusing is the fact that most of the pages are peppered with pronouns but contain few or no antecedents.\u00a0 Who is “he” or “him?”\u00a0 Who is “she” or “her?”\u00a0 Who is “I?” I\u00a0am also confused by incorrect grammar – wondering if it is deliberate and has meaning or\u00a0if it is\u00a0a mistake?\u00a0 Ex.\u00a0 The page “Lovers”: “…sometimes weeping for all the guilt her<\/strong> feels…”<\/p>\n

The pages relating to Dataquest puzzle me as well. \u00a0For example, the page “Dream Pools”:\u00a0 Dataquest is compared to sex that uses – as in prostitution.\u00a0 Is this a figurative description of the workers and their relationship to the company, or is the speaker (Nausicaa?) really turning “tricks?”\u00a0 Why is Dataquest important to the narrative?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0I am intrigued by the name Werther.\u00a0 Is Joyce’s choice of this name deliberate in relationship to Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther<\/em>?\u00a0 \u00a0Are the entries\/pages of Afternoon<\/em> 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?\u00a0 \u00a0Or is there even such a thing?\u00a0 Reading Afternoon<\/em>, I have more questions than answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 In my opinion, this is where some cohesion and clarity are lost.\u00a0 My first experience with Afternoon, I clicked words that interested me.\u00a0 The second time, I used … Continue reading Afternoon, a Confusing Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}