Daily Archives: November 3, 2022

student blogs

Dial

Created in the context of the physical and social isolation caused by the 2020 global pandemic, Dial expresses the tenuous lifeline offered through text messaging and instant messaging, according to the editorial statement. Dialogue is generative, shifting through emojis and brief phrases conveying the weather, seasons and the passage of time, the two voices fusing into a monologue. This work is a deeper reflection on the malleable time experienced during the blockade, when minutes felt like days and months passed without discernible memories to separate them.

I found similarities between this work and the interactive mechanics of peaceful dream that I had previously reviewed – capturing text and image changes through the eye. The rapidly changing background colors and the text in the dialogue bubbles show the passage of time. Most importantly this work reminds me of how people lived during the height of the pandemic. I was reminded that I spent my entire freshman semester at home during the beginning of the pandemic. I spent 90% of my day on my phone and computer during the initial lockdown. My message dialog was just as this work shows – rapidly changing and sometimes confusing. The sense of time also seemed to change during the pandemic. The difference between day and night seemed to be the same except for the presence or absence of the sun – the streets were always dead. I started reversing the days and nights to escape the abnormal days, because the nights seemed to go by faster. Those were the days when I found the least meaning of life. I was grateful that people worked hard to make the blockade permanent and not come back.

student blogs

C-ya

How many times have we said see you later and it was the last? It is not normal for every week to have a favorite piece, but it is. C-Ya-Laterrrr is a magnificent piece that proves that it doesn’t take much to achieve something good. I started reading and I didn’t really know what it was about, but it’s written in such a way that it manages to connect the reader, makes the reader worry, gives anxiety, and transmits despair. It also generates the need to know more, therefore, in each option, he gave to investigate more in the situation where he gave and read and read. I didn’t believe this had happened in real life and I think the author does a good job of capturing a possible family point of view of the tragedy. In addition, I think it is also a piece to think and rethink our actions, many times we are in a hurry, stressed and so on, which makes us leave aside our loved ones, limiting ourselves to saying hello or a see you later cold and far, but we do not know if that is going to be the last, the last word, the last communication. So, it is also a call to stop and tell the people we love «here I am and I will be», «here I am and I will prove it to you», and «here I am and I want you to know it».

student blogs

c ya laterrrr

To me, c ya laterrrr is more like a game than an elit. Much like A Kiss and Twelve Blue, it is a piece based on the reader’s choice and different clues leading to different plots.

C ya laterrrr is a hypertext game based on a real experience. In May 2017 the author’s younger brother was one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena terrorist attack. According to the author’s statement, this game expresses some of the experience, along with exploring some of the what-ifs of choices he ultimately didn’t make.

At first, I would think it is a funny game. However, as I click, I feel a sense of sorrow inevitably. The sentences are like “life is too short” and “we fall asleep, same as many nights,” which makes me think that in the face of time flying by, there is nothing we can do about it. We can only enjoy life more in the limited time, do what we want to do, and not waste time. But the latter sentence makes me feel that every day we are sitting in the repetition of things, such as brushing our teeth, washing our face, eating, and sleeping, all of us want to be like robots, go to work and go to class, not to be defeated by life and live their own life is a very difficult thing.

 After reading the background of the piece, I will more pain and sorrow about it. c-ya-laterrrr is a deeply emotional autobiographical Twine game conveying the experiences of the author on 22 May 2017 and the days that followed: the day of the bombing at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

The prose is written devastatingly, showing how language’s influence endures in interactive technologies. The work is completely pared back to highlight the language and is presented as black text in lexis centered on a white background.

student blogs

c-ya-laterrrr

Ouch. This is the first time I’ve teared up to an e-lit piece. It was way too close to home and poured a little salt on a fresh wound to be honest. When I read it was about the Manchester bombing, I anticipated more of a focus on the news and press side of things. The beginning being so invested in the screen and electronics in general confirmed that notion, I thought. Until, I started to feel myself in the character’s shoes as I read.

I think it was when the character began to wonder what would has changed if he stood awake. I can relate. Even though, realistically, I know nothing would have changed. But, what if?

Then, the slow, gradual description of that period of “?????” before the assumptions are confirmed. Although, there were no assumptions besides a few noises I heard below my bedroom on Saturday night. It was completely out of the blue when I was notified that there was more happening downstairs that night then I could’ve imagined. The next Sunday afternoon I was watching Jackass with my boyfriend and best friend at her house laughing our asses off. Quite the shift in mood when those missed calls and text messages hit your phone screen and you’re driving home in silent tears.

But, it’s the modern way, which I guess is what this piece emphasizes. In this case, the news of a lost loved one is placed on every screen possible and kind of adds a new layer of surrealness to the act of losing them. We go online to escape and lose some brain cells sometimes, but what happens when our personal reality and the fictitious world of characters & celebrities intertwine and how do you cope with it?

As I navigated through this piece, I noticed I mostly avoided the phone or any electronic. Obviously, it’s inevitable that we communicate through these means in this day and age. Even through hard times like this story. I feel like I actively chose not to engage in screens throughout the piece because I wanted to separate the character’s reality and the strangers on the screen. I couldn’t imagine what that mix would do to my grieving process. Also, I’m imagining the character reading through news stories, tweets, IG posts, etc. that would just group the 22 people and their individual personalities into one post or story and how angry that would make me. It’s hard to place myself in that position.

The nonchalant title and the heavy themes explored are contrastive and I think that’s probably what threw me off to start. I truly didn’t know what to expect from the pairing of “c ya laterrrr” & “Manchester bombing”. Now, I do. It’s easily become my favorite e-lit piece, as much as it hurt to read.

student blogs

Dial and C ya Laterrrr

Extremely different pieces, yet, both are centered around distance and communication.

C ya laterrrr is heartbreaking and walking through the interactive game was a lot. I got pretty far into it before I couldn’t take it anymore. The detail, the way it is just life in the midst of what should never be, the real and rawness of it. What a moving work.

Dial, on the other hand, was a calming piece. If you analyze this piece with c ya laterrrr it could be really touching. Thinking about distance and time zones, etc. On it is own, it was hard to understand and navigate at first. It took a few minutes and I had to look at the author notes to really understand and that was helpful.

student blogs

Blog #9: Sucks to Suck

While reading the preface to this one I made the decision to go through this game of life-styled work as truthfully as I would go about it in reality, and boy was this one a real guilt-feeder. It really had me feeling like a sad-boy Shakespearean ass or something, every choice was like a slap in the face that made everything worse.

I mentioned in class last week (and in a blog that I didn’t realize I posted for the wrong class) that I had experienced some big losses during COVID. I always struggle with the whole death thing, which surprised a good lot of people, because I very much have an “it’s always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it’s just hilarious” outlook on life, but I really don’t like NON-existence. It’s gross. Everyday since I lost my dog has been gross at some point, I feel like I’m in Groundhog Day in a lot of ways.

While this piece isn’t literally cyclical and whatnot, it sure feels as inescapable as Groundhog Day. It is so taxing, as loss is, but with interest. The situation provided here, one that was just another news story that I couldn’t be bothered with when it happened, is amplified into an event that I am now invested in – because it is presented as my own. Selfish. It is guilt and frustration with interest, both of which never really leave you when it comes to loss. As a side note that pain never really leaves, I don’t think. The worse and worse I seem to get as time passes on by, the more I feel people are looking down on me for my incapability to “push forward.” Maybe that’s because I am male and we’re always expected to not be vulnerable. Time can’t heal every wound, especially those that piece both ends of the soul.

This piece is arduous, and the worst part is how badly I wanted to escape the task of going through this-which is also the best part about it. It got a really sincere experience out of me. The further I got into things the more intimidating the downward spiral got, the more clueless I made choices, the more scattered and crowded my thought process became, and the more heated my physical state became. I wanted it to be over repeatedly, but then another page and block of text or a complicated nuanced decision needed to be made. Exhausting given the situation.

student blogs

C-Ya-Laterrrr

For this week’s piece I decided to do C-Ya-Laterrrr. I was interested in how Hett was going to explore such deeply personal stories in a creative way. There is so much senseless violence in the world, and this piece represents one of those awful, gut-wrenching events based on the Manchester attack. This is a sensitive topic to explore, and I appreciate the trigger waring that was in the author statement. I think it is important for the reader to have the option of view something that might trigger them. It wouldn’t be worth it if it impaired your mental health. 

C-Ya-Laterrrr is my favorite Elit piece thus far and I love the simplicity of it. It is the closest Elit piece I have explored that has been most like the pick your own adventure books. I loved being able to explore an interactive version of a childhood favorite. Although the topic was heavy the interaction was almost nostalgic. 

I appreciate that the reader will always end up at the same place no matter what path that they take. The end or the lack of end was my absolute favorite part of the entire piece and brought everything together. My favorite line “In the long run the only thing that matters is that these words and thoughts are somewhere” (Hett). The need to have a place to let out your feels in a creative way is important when dealing with real life traumatic events. There is also a lot of symbolism in this piece. The loss of a loved one and the existence of time that is always fleeting is really put into perceptive with this story.