Sunday, May 4, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
What is narrative?
My one-word definition? History.
Narrative is the chronological sequence of events in a text. In the case of a traditional (printed) text, it's a fixed sequence that can't be changed, except possibly by the author. In some printed texts, like the Choose Your Own Adventure novels, it's not a fixed sequence because you're given options as you read through the story, but it still progresses through one specific chronology.
In the case of hypertexts, and the interactivity that comes with most of them, there may be no intended sequence except for the one that is chosen by the reader. That's the essential difference between traditional texts and hypertexts, as Aarseth points out. The reader of a traditional text is passive and powerless to change the course of the narrative. In hypertexts, there are many, many combinations available to the reader, and therefore, many different possible outcomes for the sequence of the narrative.
In the case of role-playing games, the narrative is almost entirely created by the reader, beginning with the creation of a character, and then continuing with that character's experiences through the gameplay setting. Still, even though there may be millions of different possibilities, there is ultimately only one narrative that that single character can have. So I say that narrative is just history, just a sequence of events, given meaning by the order they occur in.
Narrative is the chronological sequence of events in a text. In the case of a traditional (printed) text, it's a fixed sequence that can't be changed, except possibly by the author. In some printed texts, like the Choose Your Own Adventure novels, it's not a fixed sequence because you're given options as you read through the story, but it still progresses through one specific chronology.
In the case of hypertexts, and the interactivity that comes with most of them, there may be no intended sequence except for the one that is chosen by the reader. That's the essential difference between traditional texts and hypertexts, as Aarseth points out. The reader of a traditional text is passive and powerless to change the course of the narrative. In hypertexts, there are many, many combinations available to the reader, and therefore, many different possible outcomes for the sequence of the narrative.
In the case of role-playing games, the narrative is almost entirely created by the reader, beginning with the creation of a character, and then continuing with that character's experiences through the gameplay setting. Still, even though there may be millions of different possibilities, there is ultimately only one narrative that that single character can have. So I say that narrative is just history, just a sequence of events, given meaning by the order they occur in.
Group Project
Okay, at this point, I'm still not really sure what I would like to do for a group project. I'm a creative writing concentration, and I write mostly prose. I also have some knowledge of HTML and how to put together a decent website as long as it's nothing insanely complicated, so if anyone needs a website buddy, I can do that part. I think what's interested me the most (as demonstrated in my remix project) is the connections between text and images. So if anyone has any ideas about something like that, I'd be interested.
On the ELC, some of the interactive fiction I've liked has been stuff like "My Body" and "Reagan Library", where there is an interactive element to the images and the text adds more meaning to them.
I'd also be interested in trying to do something like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure novels, but in website form. I think that would be pretty fun to do. And like I said earlier, I can do most of the website stuff if someone wants to help out with writing the actual text of the story.
Well, I guess I'll see everyone in class tonight, and hopefully then I'll have a more concrete idea of what I want to do! ^_^
On the ELC, some of the interactive fiction I've liked has been stuff like "My Body" and "Reagan Library", where there is an interactive element to the images and the text adds more meaning to them.
I'd also be interested in trying to do something like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure novels, but in website form. I think that would be pretty fun to do. And like I said earlier, I can do most of the website stuff if someone wants to help out with writing the actual text of the story.
Well, I guess I'll see everyone in class tonight, and hopefully then I'll have a more concrete idea of what I want to do! ^_^
Monday, March 17, 2008
Remix Project Response
I wanted to respond to Jason Frostick's remix project, but I can't open the animation on my computer. I'll try to respond to it from what I remember, though.
Of course, there's the initial entertainment value of reading words that have been translated through several different languages before. I've done this myself with some stories I've written, and it always ends up being hilarious.
I also see the point he was trying to make, though, which he pointed out in his blog post about his remix project. He said he wanted to show "how different languages can be from each other, even if they have the same roots." His remix project demonstrated that very well. Even though the languages that the English text was translated through have similar origins, when they were translated through too many different languages, they lost a lot of the original meaning. It shows just how complex languages are. Translate one word wrong, and you end up changing the entire meaning of the sentence. It's like in Japanese, how the word "kami" means hair AND god AND paper. Depending on the context, one word can have several different meanings, and that's true in almost any language.
I liked how his project showed off the complexity of language, while at the same time providing us with a hilarious, entertaining animation. It's a good way to get a point across.
Of course, there's the initial entertainment value of reading words that have been translated through several different languages before. I've done this myself with some stories I've written, and it always ends up being hilarious.
I also see the point he was trying to make, though, which he pointed out in his blog post about his remix project. He said he wanted to show "how different languages can be from each other, even if they have the same roots." His remix project demonstrated that very well. Even though the languages that the English text was translated through have similar origins, when they were translated through too many different languages, they lost a lot of the original meaning. It shows just how complex languages are. Translate one word wrong, and you end up changing the entire meaning of the sentence. It's like in Japanese, how the word "kami" means hair AND god AND paper. Depending on the context, one word can have several different meanings, and that's true in almost any language.
I liked how his project showed off the complexity of language, while at the same time providing us with a hilarious, entertaining animation. It's a good way to get a point across.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Remixing...
So I abandoned my initial idea for my remix project, and instead came up with a much more exciting project. For the project, I'm finding remixable photos on flickr, and using them, together with text that I'm writing myself, to create a character sketch of one of the characters in a story I'm currently working on for my fiction writing class. I've had a bit of trouble bonding with this character, so it's exciting for me to be able to get inside her head a little bit more.
Basically what I'm doing is creating a bulletin board of photos put together by my main character, Jo. Then, when you click on some of the photos, it goes to a separate page of her writing -- right now it's mostly notes written to her girlfriend about the pictures.
If I had the time -- because it'll take massive amounts of HTML to do properly -- I'd make an image map of more images, and put them in a proper time sequence so that the bulletin board starts out with a few photos and is gradually added to as you go through the sequence of photos/letters. And although I might not have the time to do it for this particular project, I'm interested enough in the idea that I'll probably continue the project even after I'm done with this particular remixing project.
How exciting!
It's actually got me thinking about how fun it would be to write this story with the ultimate goal of publishing it online instead of in print. Either that or do this as sort of an interactive companion to the story.
Also, after I finish Jo's collage, I think it'd be fun to do a corresponding sort of thing for the character of Andie, Jo's girlfriend.
Ooooh, this is so much fun.
Basically what I'm doing is creating a bulletin board of photos put together by my main character, Jo. Then, when you click on some of the photos, it goes to a separate page of her writing -- right now it's mostly notes written to her girlfriend about the pictures.
If I had the time -- because it'll take massive amounts of HTML to do properly -- I'd make an image map of more images, and put them in a proper time sequence so that the bulletin board starts out with a few photos and is gradually added to as you go through the sequence of photos/letters. And although I might not have the time to do it for this particular project, I'm interested enough in the idea that I'll probably continue the project even after I'm done with this particular remixing project.
How exciting!
It's actually got me thinking about how fun it would be to write this story with the ultimate goal of publishing it online instead of in print. Either that or do this as sort of an interactive companion to the story.
Also, after I finish Jo's collage, I think it'd be fun to do a corresponding sort of thing for the character of Andie, Jo's girlfriend.
Ooooh, this is so much fun.
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