Daily Archives: November 10, 2025
Understanding through Stories
“Writers are not Strangers”
Writers Are Not Strangers succeeds in dramatizing that writers are real people with real feelings. It tells the story of Alix, a writer, along with her dying mother, her aunt, and a meteorite threatening Earth. The piece gives a similar emotional resonance to Hana Feels, although the setting and tone are very different. You can tell this story takes place in a future shaped by technology, artificial intelligence, and influencer culture, most likely somewhere in Iceland due to the volcano mentioned. There is an impending doom that we are aware of, alongside the passing of Alix’s mother, who was once a hero of sorts.
I disliked how technology and the era of AI seemed to desensitize everyone from the real world and the things happening around them. I wanted to see Alix grieve her mother, or even her pet fish that I named Darla (it’s giving Finding Nemo). Instead, everyone just continues on as if the city has not been affected, as if making content is more important than acknowledging that the world is slowly crumbling at their feet. Still, I loved the creativity of the piece, especially seeing Alix’s reactions to my choices and ratings. At one point, after she visited her mother and wrote a post, she didn’t seem to care at all about the rating I gave her work, which felt both powerful and sad.
The plot, however, feels less important than the overall theme: how readers can affect the lives of writers. At one point, I used a combination of the scores I gave her writing as a passcode to access the hospital wing where she could see her mother one last time. As the player, you rate stories that Alix has written, and she reacts emotionally to those ratings. At other times, you make decisions for Alix herself, switching back and forth between being her reader and being Alix.
Alix responds to the ratings you give her when you are playing as a reader. For example, the first story of hers that I read was difficult to follow, so I gave it a low rating. Later, I watched her go through an exhausting visit to the hospital to see her dying mother. When she checked her ratings afterward, she was deeply upset by the low score. I felt as if I had punched her in the gut after she had already been through something emotionally draining. Yet at the same time, I was Alix, because I had been the one guiding her through those same moments. In a strange way, I had hurt myself.
This pattern continues throughout the piece, as you keep rating Alix’s stories and watching how she responds. Her later stories are even influenced by your previous ratings. I found myself trying to be honest and give her work the scores I thought it deserved, but I also felt tempted to give higher ratings just to protect her feelings. This creates a tension many players will probably experience.
By the end, Alix no longer feels like a stranger. You come to know her both through her writing and through the small glimpses of her life. The title becomes true, at least within the world of the story. It also made me think about how in real life we never get to “play” as our favorite writers. We are only the readers, not Alix, and it raises the question of how much we can truly know someone through their writing. Sometimes we can, but often the familiarity we feel is just an illusion. Still, Writers Are Not Strangers reminds us that writers are real people with real emotions behind every piece they create.
Retratos Vivos de Mamá
The second piece, Retratos Vivos de Mamá, pairs surprisingly well with Writers Are Not Strangers. Both explore memory, grief, and the act of preserving connection, though one does it through technology and the other through storytelling and remembrance.
Retratos Vivos de Mamá deeply moved me. It’s a meditation on discovering and honoring a mother’s life after her death. I resonated with it personally because I care deeply about preserving the memories of the women in my family, their strength, struggles, and sacrifices. I’ve been blessed to know both my great-grandmother and grandmother before their passings in 2019 and 2022, and understanding their experiences as matriarchs and eldest daughters helps me see my own mother with more compassion and grace.
One quote that struck me translates to:
“She will peer into the past. She will listen silently. She will take careful note of everything she hears and sees. She will retrieve the photos from all the albums. And she will return to the present with her suitcase full of voices. She will return to give a second life to the woman who was her mother before she had children. She will invent another life for her mother.”
The women in my family have always loved photographs, and we have albums spanning four generations. Each picture holds a story, a voice, a moment frozen in time. This piece reminded me that revisiting those memories is an act of both grief and rebirth.
The mother-daughter relationship can be complicated, especially when trauma stretches across generations. I’ve felt resentment toward my own mother at times, but learning her story has helped me understand her humanity and pain. The line, “Two things remain with me today: the certainty of never having truly understood my mother, and the solace of having tried to understand her at the end of her life,” made me pause. It’s a reminder that understanding our mothers while they’re still alive is both a privilege and a necessity. My mother lost her own mother just a few years ago after more than fifteen years apart. I often wonder what conversations they didn’t get to have or what memories they missed. Even as I grieve parts of my own relationship with her, I know some things are best left resting. Healing is slow, one day at a time.
Both Writers Are Not Strangers and Retratos Vivos de Mamá explore what it means to connect through writing, memory, and loss. One asks whether readers can truly know the writer, and the other asks how we can keep our mothers alive through stories and remembrance. Together, they show that words, whether written or remembered, are one of the few ways we can make sense of love, grief, and being human.
Retratos Vivos De Mama
Hi all! I’ve attached my paper review below. Looking forward to presenting tonight. See you then!
A World riting 2025-11-10 10:23:39
Writers Are Not Strangers
‘Writers Are Not Strangers’ has many stories, and at first, the stories did not make much sense, so I had to rate them as well. Then, as I read further, the stories started to make sense. It was like a game where, at the end of each story, you had to either answer a multiple-choice question or fill in the blank, and then the story would add the name or word you placed in the blank, which was very interesting. Each story was different, covering assorted topics that took Alix on a personal journey with her friends. I found it to be long and sometimes hard to follow and understand.
Alix is a young YouTube-style content creator and writer whose mother is hospitalized and nearing death. Alix’s stories reference classics like Middlemarch and games like Space Invaders, providing a layered commentary on derivative creativity and originality. They blend fiction, game mechanics, and critical theory into compelling digital experiences. Again, I found that at times it was hard to follow and confusing. It is all about Alix’s journey in her life with her friends and family.
Retrotas Vivo de Mama
Carolina Lopez Jimenez is a Colombian writer and artist working across different disciplines. “Mom Living Portraits” was published online in 2015 and is still being updated. It is a documentary, hypertext narrative, and autobiographical electronic literature. Inspired by Lopez’s mother’s prolonged illness and passing, it explores mourning and memory within an evolving digital space. “Retrotas Vivo de Mama” is a scrapbook of Lopez Jimenez’s mother, beautifully created in Spanish, where her mother’s voice narrates various stages of her life and her family. The scrapbook is filled with family photos that tell a compelling story; it was beautifully made. It feels as if her mother’s voice is speaking aloud throughout, telling her story. I lost my mother a year ago, and I am thinking about creating an online digital scrapbook for her, highlighting our family and her life’s various stages. This has inspired me to make a digital scrapbook with photos of my mother and our family, which I believe is a wonderful idea and could serve as a heartfelt tribute mother.
By: Lareice Weeks-Bigelow
Retratos vivos de mama y Writers Are Not Strangers
Retratos vivos de mama
Me gusta más esta historia en español.
A lot of this beauty in this prose is lost with an English translation. It strips the piece of its identity. But I only understand about 40% of what’s being said without a translator.
The page’s design choices are engaging. I especially like the drawing that can’t fully be seen. It forced me to pause and wait for the circle to uncover the picture’s content. The audios within the frames portraits were clever, too.
I don’t have much to say on this piece personally. I feel distant from it in every sense of the word. I gave this piece to someone who would get it better than I could. He broke it down for me in a way I wouldn’t have understood myself.
Writers Are Not Strangers
This piece bored me, so I clicked on ChoiceScript. As far as coding goes it looks fairly accessible.
Okay, back to the story… it’s not a pleasant read after the last one, honestly. The author’s writing style annoys me. Like they’re trying too hard to imitate Andrew Hussie. Except the characters aren’t interesting enough to grow an attachment to, especially on a beige background. The format isn’t really engaging even though choice matters. It reminds me too much of Perfect Blue. But I did laugh when I saw my rating showed up again at the end. “That first 3 out of 10 that made me so sad. That was you. Then you followed it up with that 3 and that really took the wind out of my sails.” I bet a part of our class discussion is going to revolve around how the first author reveres her dead mother whereas this one recognized his mom wasn’t always a “bitter husk.”
Writers are Not Strangers & Retratos vivos de Mama
A personal journey of creative Elit inspired by the process of mourning, and how we find our own ways to reflect, heal, mourn the loss of someone we cared deeply for. I can resonate with the theme; there have been a few recent times where I lost some loved ones who were close friends or was in an extensive relationship with. Both of these were different types of mourning. One I knew I wouldn’t ever see again, the other I wasn’t sure. We don’t always get to prepare for the emotions that follow with grief, despair, guilt, loneliness and many others along the way. We do though have the opportunity to find creative outlets to help us express our emotions and deal with the feelings not always accessible when we want them to be. Our relationships whether they are family or friends become extensions of ourselves. When those extensions are no longer for the many mortal reasons, it becomes challenging to find ways to bandage that wound once they are removed. I do appreciate that the Author provides flexibility to her readers in approaching and engagement of this Elit with allowing us to digest or take bits and pieces or a whole with navigating and reading depending on how much we are willing to commit to the piece. Also, how she mindfully notifies her readers when she adds to the piece, and the freedom for the individual to come and go anytime with interacting and having no strings attached. Even though I could not translate much of the Spanish I still found ways to engage with this electronic literature.
Cuarto Oscuro (Diario De Duelo, Papel Quemado Por La Luz, Carrete De Recuerdos)
On the main screen, once accessing the work a 45 second video follows the wood grain that is filled with cracks that go in many divert in many directions like our feelings. The cracks in our psyche that form from the trauma, mourning and many other feelings we deal with in our lives. As the video starts to climb we are faced with knots in the barks, obstructions. This seemed to represent the knots that we feel in our body, throat, when hit with the mourning, grief of loved ones. These take up a big part of our inner real estate forming in both our minds and bodies physically, mentally and spiritually.
I enjoyed flipping thought the diary, journal and all the images, sketches/scrap book that she placed on each page along with the text. It was filled with personal symbolic artifacts and welcoming to want to read and go all the way through as far as I could. The scroll bar also made it convenient and was a thoughtful courtesy for reading. In the video clip provided in the Papel Quemado Por La Luz sectionseemed to me like a behind the scenes experiences of her process and the creation of her shrine with using collage, the process and final pieces are the act of healing and once again bringing her close to her mother’s life.
Soplo
The interactive element of both different color accordion files, while being able to access each months importance in the timeline of someone’s life and events having different personal content, materials was enticing to keep interacting with. A time capsule of sort, information that justifies a person’s existence, and place in time, proof they existed and reflection.
Revelado
This section of the for me was a complex area of involvement. The film strip on the screen right away gives you the interaction opportunities to decide where you want to explore. I did make my choices out of order. Liking the Voces with the video projection instillation and the timeliness of fading in and out of life with the woman figure doing a task or chore.
Planto
This section I felt empowering with the soil, earth as the background substrate of the screen and the text moving, bouncing uncontrollably like a frantic movement.
Once I began interacting and answering the multiple choice questions that coincided with the readings I felt a similarity, and responsibility of curiousness to what my selections would result in like interacting with the previous Elit Façade, minus the audio and characters. The imagery I had to make up in my own mind to follow as I read each brief story and added on it with my selections to carry forward. One thing I did feel was not being sure if what I chose to select even mattered. Was it just part of the interaction, making me feel like I actually was creating meaning, or had a significant role to how the characters’ conversation evolved or how they felt during about what was happening to the world. My assumption was the world was facing a certain catastrophic event that would be inevitable to discuss, recognize as fact and be involved in no matter what your position was on the side of the table, fan or creator.
After reading the brief opening text I chose the number 7 for rating. Then began the journey and clicking on the Next button, the day Thursday appeared in bold letters on the screen with another longer story, and some options to answer a multiple choice question to then once again advancing with the piece by clicking on Next. The story was one of a challenge to follow, it seems all her effort paid off but now she faced her fans, once one herself. Now, being on the other side of the table in the queue as a creator and signing fans’ merchandise she felt differently of her life’s work. It seemed to be a confession of how she was now stuck in showing face and keeping fans happy, even though she knew they were taking it too seriously. Experiencing her interaction with Billie a friend who showed up in line questioning her, made interacting with the piece seem like I was also there witnessing the uncomfortable encounter of what I would do in that situation choosing the appropriate multiple choice answer to keep things at ease and not be rude to a friend, but mindful of my time if that was me. I did try to analyze why I made each choice out of the 3 selections. From my own personal values, it seems these were accurate to being mindful of others feelings, appreciative of the support showing respect to them, or being optimistic.
Selections Chosen: Thursday
“These people, were her livelihood after all”
“We should meet for coffee sometime real soon”
Sixty Signatures Later
“Dietmar’s right. People coming together like this should be celebrated, now more than ever”
Time To Go…
Where’s Alix rushing off to?
Another story appeared; I could tell this would be different from the previous discussion. It began mentioning food, a new scene, tone of content. I couldn’t tell if this was about Alix or another story entirely different, or extension until her name was mentioned in the middle. This interaction with her relatives, Aunt Annie and Uncle Simon seemed dysfunctional and I didn’t want to really read much of it. Her Aunt Serita though she seemed to have some sort of connection with. They didn’t seem to see Alix as a person or support her. I kept going for a little but lost further interest. Maybe it was just the day or how I was feeling. It was funny and ironic since it seems that Alix also was trying to find a way to slip away making excuses about having to go home to her “pet” which I chose dog. Next wondering about what was happening with her parents I continued to interact more out of curiosity.
I was curious during my interaction with this story of what would happen if I click Restart at the top of the screen and chose a different rating number from the beginning. This thing just keep going! I will wait to hear what my fellow classmates did in their interaction. Impressive to have certain angles covered depending on what the reader chooses for an answer. I did decide out of curiosity and my enjoyment of electronic literature to keep embarking on this journey. The hospital visit scene was another very descriptive reading, it also reinforced that there was some dysfunction and broken relationship with Alix and her mother. This conversation and my involvement was deeply felt, as I was also in the room almost chaperoning the discussion hoping it would go in a caring direction where Annie, Alix and her mother could encounter peace or solace with each other. This was when I made the choice to finish. Disoriented feelings and being confused of Annie and the Mother and who was who made me not wanting to know anymore. I think it became to much to follow and I lost interest quickly.
“Retratos Vivos de Mamá” & “Writers Are Not Strangers”
“Retratos Vivos De Mamá” was ultra fun for me to consume. Firstly, I only understand basic elementary Spanish, so a lot of my “reading” was a lot of inferring. Secondly, as a dedicated scrapbooker, the art style tickled me!
Making a digital work feel as paper-like and creative as “Retratos Vivos de Mamá” made it just as much a piece of art as it was an interactive literary work. The attention to detail tells a story in itself.
Someone is baring their soul so obviously that no language barrier could stop you from recognizing the layers of intricacy required to make something both interactive and beautiful.
“Writers Are Not Strangers” feels kind of cold in contrast. The interactive portions feel disconnected, like no matter what you choose, something random will appear in front of you. Every time I reloaded the project, it began with a new story.
