Tag Archives: fiction

student blogs

Welcome Home/Facade


I feel like I was going down a rabbit hole going through “Welcome Home”. I’m not gonna lie, I went through the entire website and got a little overwhelmed because I just wasn’t understanding the purpose. I guess I was expecting a storyline, rather than a website which is the story itself…if that makes sense. Granted, I was doing this assignment in the dark and when I was playing some of the Discoveries where it included snippets of the radio.. I was getting a tad freaked out. Especially when they wrote “But we believe there is someone trying to stop us or make light of our efforts”…like who is watching you? Why are they watching you? It was just giving me an uneasy feeling and I didn’t help myself by googling and reading creepy conspiracies about “Welcome Home”. I digress. When I opened this story, I was inclined to click on “About us” because I literally did not know what this piece of e-lit was going to be about. I then moved onto to meeting the neighborhood cause whats a story without a character.

Overall,  I think my thoughts would be that this piece was interesting to say the least. I’m not sure why they included sections that were clickable but didn’t really lead to anything. For example in “Guestbook” the page literally said the guestbook will be closed for the foreseeable future…so why add it there in the first place? Maybe I am analyzing this too much and missing the bigger picture?

Anyways, I will say the section for News was pretty helpful in the sense of keeping their readers included. They would provide updates and I was able to figure out when certain pieces of information were found or “given” by this anonymous source that shall NOT be named for some reason. The section where we were introduced to “The Neighborhood” was probably my favorite plot because thats the only time it felt like a story but also the full house intro theme song kept playing in my head while reading about these characters. Finally, I will say that every section had a voice of the same person which I appreciated. At no point did I think the speaker changed since we knew there is more than one person contributing to the piece.

Honestly in the year 2090 if something like this but Spongebob related comes out, it was probably me preserving it lolol.

student blogs

High Muck a Muck Reflection

For me each experience inside High Muck a Muck reached all my senses, engulfing me with each icon, symbol that I clicked that would trigger a voice, music, movement sometimes fading in and out or present until I decided to move on.  I was engaged throughout the entire time in front of my laptop, one hand on my mouse the other on the keyboard; my instruments of how I interacted waiting and expecting to either hear the music, someone’s voice, or an object moving across my screen. At times these all happened together or in separate that presented a different experience. emotion to the piece. “A lot of small pieces broken from a long stick promises “was one of many lines of poetry that stood out to me and sparked a curiosity in me of similarity. “That anger of not having language itself-never mind the words – was another powerful line to read.

It was smart to offer the option of a video tutorial to learn how to interact by clicking on the icons that represent a particular experience, place, person and the Pak Ah Pu lottery card. The map laid out across the body reminds me of a Chinese medicine map of energy meridians in the body, similar to an experience I had when I got a shiatsu massage. The wall had various posters of our energy levels, circuitry running though our meridians and what affected or interrupted them from having a open flow of freedom. The locations spread across the silhouette lines forming the anatomy of the body or certain extensions made me feel that each experience would be something permanent, personal that happened and all that remains is the story just like a tattoo that the graphics, print reminded me of a represented location or name of a person. This even more so with the arm and the Canadian Pacific Railway interest since I worked on the railroad in the past and could relate. I enjoyed the pleasant sounds from traditional Chinese instruments being played, the tinkling then a commentary interview comes on speaking that I didn’t expect. The pop-up/poem or explanation of text that faded in and out kept me engaged as well waiting to the next poetry or information to show related to the particular icon I clicked on and presented as an addition to the experience a narrated story that made me want to know more about what I was learning about.

The Pacific Rim was filled with electronic noises, tinks, and nautical sounds of the ocean and movement of a petrol cargo ship moving across the screen with small type print Made in China barely visible in the background representing the waves, current and ocean. This for some reason reminded me of the experiences when sitting and watching which I don’t do much the instrumental theme music of a Netflix original movie during introduction to gain your attention while they show brief clips while it is being played.  Words associated with trade such as cheap labor, global while music celebrating an event or I assume strong economy was ironic. The pains of their labors, the ones who don’t have a choice or voice due to economic struggles, insufficient dispersing of wealth, oppression, are for me realties not discussed in public or heard outside of their own surroundings. At least some of the narrative in various parts of this project provides that voice allowing me to realize its effects on the culture of the people there in China throughout history.

The idea behind the Pak Ah Pu lottery card is brilliant. While interacting with the Chinese lettering characters I enjoyed waiting to see where it brought me to. Being exposed to Hanzi lettering I research it some on my own as it seems to be part of a Logographic system where its difference compared to traditional alphabet letters I am used to using. Each character of Hanzi which is referred to as a logogram contains its own particular sound, shape, and meaning to it. This provided a better understanding of the importance and significance of the Chinese characters being used on the Pak Ah Pu lottery card in relation to the experience and what was being told, shown to you once I clicked on the stained dotted circle on the card. There is so much to take in and experience each time I go back to the screen and click on another symbol. I found that even though I visited a few over and over again I didn’t mind as the experience felt fresh and new each time.

student blogs

Blog #2 I don’t get it

Jessica Pressman’s essay, Navigating Electronic Literature was a definitely needed for this attempting to read through Joyce’s Twelve Blue. Before going into Joyce’s confusing story, I want to bring up an interesting aspect of some of Pressman’ s essay. To start, I liked the way she explained the aspects of navigation. In addition to this, she also drew attention to how a readers interaction with navigation can affect the performance of a work. As someone who loves traditional books (physical books are one of my addictions) I find the act of navigation as second nature. The most interaction with a book is reading and turning a page; two things that do not have much impact on the narrative’s “performance”. Though within the context of graphic novels and comics, navigation does play a role. How a reader wades through the myriads of dialogue bubbles, text boxes, art and composition of the specific panels does force the reader to navigate the story to see the intended way to read. I see this as a bit of an unspoken agreement with the reader and writer. The writer paves the road of understanding for the reader to drive on. In electronic literature, there is not much of a guarantee. Instead of paving the way for the reader, and work of E lit gives the reader the tools to find their way through the narrative. This aspect of E lit is something I will have to get used to as the class continues.

Another thing worth bringing up in terms of the Pressman essay was the difference between hypertext and interactive fiction. While I initially though that I did not have much experience with E lit, this essay made me more aware of the types of things that might fit into both categories. In terms of interactive fiction, the work I chose for my presentation, Writers are not Stranger, fits into this genre of E lit. From my early interactions with Writers are not Stranger, I have to say that I really enjoy playing around with it. Being an active part of the story, based on predetermined choices made by the author is really gripping and placed more power in my hands as a reader that I am accustomed to. As the semester goes on, I will play with it much more, but my early thoughts are very positive in terms of the genre of interactive fiction. While I do have thoughts about hyperlink text, I want to share them when talking about Joyce’s story. Overall, Pressman’s article was a nice intro into understanding two genres within e-lit.

Micheal Joyce’s Twelve Blue was interesting to say the least. Before I get into the E lit aspect of the piece, I wanted to give Joyce his flowers a bit. One of my reactions to the work is how good writing can be in this context. Chopping a story up and relying on it into pieces is not new but it is effective. In terms of this story, it was great reading Joyce’s great prose. His writing made me want to continue on in uncovering how to make sense of it all. The repetition of the color blue and its uses throughout the story were a great motif to use.  The overall narrative was compelling despite the fact that I was lost for most of it. I can definitely say that the navigation aspect of the story did not take away how I felt.

 As a reader, I like “boring” stories or stories with normal structure. I find myself gravitating towards classical literature avoiding more contemporary literature because unorthodox stories can be. The idea of a reader having to navigate through a story compared to just turning a page is confusing and a bit dauting to me. Reading Joyce’s story was a struggle for me for the most part. As I said before, a narrative bouncing around is not a new thing, but a story moving rapidly while only giving the reader crumbs was new for me. I feel that the story and its composition were a match made in heaven. It forced me keep tabs on the information that has been presented (characters, setting and the “plot”). It also surprised me many times, as the story would shift in tone, and perspective at the click of your mouse.  One second, we are reading about Samantha and her dream, and the next someone’s father is buying a carnival ride. This narrative wipe lash was just not for me. As we continue through this semester, I hope I see the light in the hypertext genre.

One side note from the story I want to add was a part of the story that I felt got me. One of the parts that I read contained three separate hyperlinks that jumped into three distinct parts of the narrative. While I did struggle to piece the story and its element together, I did really like this little wrinkle. One question for all of you guys was what aspect of this story was better, the overall narrative or the act of uncovering the narrative through the hypertext?

While i may not see the greatness of hyperlinks as a genre, Joyce’s story at least has peaked my interest and has made me a bit more open and exited to see how the genre has changed and improved since the 90s.

student blogs

Response to ‘Navigating Electronic Literature’ and Relating it to ‘Twelve Blue’

This post was written inaccessibly on purpose. Please highlight to read.

Before I even touch on analyzing either piece, I have to talk about the accessibility of Twelve Blue. I can’t be that annoyed since it’s an experimental piece from the 90’s, but I straight up couldn’t read it. The sonic blue background gave me eye strain regardless of my laptop’s brightness. The color contrast of light blue against more blue made it difficult to process words. I showed it to someone else to read, and while we both understood the vocabulary and imagery just fine, neither of us could process the words. It wasn’t until I copy and pasted the chapters’ text into UpNote  (black background, white text) that I could understand what Joyce was saying.

The story is a mystery in a non-linear format. Joyce uses multiple point of views to relay the story to the reader, and a new chapter is discovered by clicking links within the text. This usage of hypertext is, in Pressman’s words, “…the earliest and predominant forms of electronic literature.” Traditional literature is more restricted by its format, confined to turning pages and arguing with a publisher for something out of the box. The internet allows more freedom because of the versatility of website design or downloadable content. Twelve Blue’s non-linear narrative is supported by the use of hyperlinks because the reader is able to engage the content in whatever order they please. Pressman highlights how the role of the reader changes from passive to active, and this challenges how reading practices can change in the future.

In the year 2025, I’m not sure if I’ve noticed a significant change with how people engage literature, both digitally and physically. Then again, this may be due to the fact I grew up in a time of rapidly evolving internet culture. I can refer back to my earlier point on accessibility, though. Before, people with visual impairments had to use magnifying tech that would enlarge text on a page or purchase books purposefully printed with larger font. In current day, change the size of the font on any site is as easy as a push of a button. Other disabilities and struggles were never accounted for, either, but in modern day there are almost always accessibility options in both digital literature and games. Digital literature certainly isn’t perfect yet, but raises the bar in making reading attainable to everyone.

-SS