. Spinning .

Now that I’m all cocky because I finally got past the first "event," and was presented with my first task and seem to be on the right road, some observations about both IF and this piece in particular…

Just as in any interactive media play, we take on a certain persona, usually that of the protagonist and are called upon to react to situations as they occur as well as proceed along a desired or named goal that will be considered the successful finishing of the story.  In strictly text medium with first person point of view, we have no choices; instead, we are asked to accept what the author has laid out as our actions within the plot.  The conflict then is of a dual nature:  react to the circumstance, and, react in a manner that may be alien to our own nature  (No! No! I’m not gonna open that door at the top of the stairs!).

But interactive gives us our own personality back–sometimes a disheartening realization that we are in fact sissy-wimps or on the other extreme, barely restraining murderous tendencies.  But nevertheless, we are pretty much ourselves if the programmed story allows for all the different personality types of their readers/users.  This is what makes it more interesting and more truly in keeping with the Barthes theory of the story belonging to the reader. 

One thing of particular note in Book and Volume is that at one point I was asked to introduce myself and hesitated only a second to consider what "word" was the key before I typed in "susan."  The next sentence was addressed to me personally (with the warning that it was likely to forget me immediately). 

Now THAT’S interactivity at its finest.

First, the IF piece, Book and Volume:  Finally got the secret code word that answers the pager.  Simple, and I’d thought I’d already tried it, but I guess not in the right sequence.  Anyway, the response on my part was just as I’d remembered all my ventures into IF and game stories: Click save and close the program, breathing a victory sigh of relief.  This gives my heart time to slow back down to its normal flub-dub perhaps adding minutes back to the hours the stress has taken off my life.

In Prairie Schooner’s Wolves, I am immediately grabbed (and so turn around and escape the book to share with ya’ll) by the metaphor.  The fly was one thing; likely the death of the relationship or of the woman’s own desire to fight anymore.  But the wolf, a word her husband says aloud while working a crossword puzzle, is kept to herself as a symbol.  Likely, the symbol of her restlessness and emerging change in thinking of herself as a separate entity from the couple she’s been in pair with her husband.  Very nice work.

Well, it didn’t take long for me to fall right back into character with this–and I had to search the net to find the WinFrotz Interpreter to download. 

I love IF, because it’s just so me.  I am in my element here, but it’s just so much more obvious when you’re stuck on one blue screen that keeps telling you something like, "That verb doesn’t seem to be part of your API" — in other words, in responding to my typed instructions to move along in the story, the program and I don’t speak the same language.  Precisely like my dealings in the real world.

In the meantime, there is a hurried pace picking up as the pager I’m trying to turn off is buzzing, vibrating, and threatening my sanity.

THE PAGER IT HURTS US!

Where, oh where did I put that list of words to use in IF play?  I try more words–even "cry"–though it’s never worked before.

The pager’s buzzing and vibration seems to have set up a sort of resonance in your body, which reacts like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

I’m getting panicky now; I recognize the warning signs from previous excursions into IF as well as life.  Think!  Think!

*** So it goes ***

On the last day of your working life you accomplished 0 of the 0 tasks assigned you.

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Well, there’s just no way I can think about getting another job when Dennis Jerz brings even more "reading" into my life, resurrecting interactive fiction (of the text sort) with a couple of entries this morning on new writing software as well as leading me to Nick Monfort’s Book and Volume–which just hooked me into a download. 

So there you have it:  IF, Hypermedia, Games and plain old books (70, I think, on the hearth alone), along with all the learning programs that go along with new media and what I want to learn to do, as well as digging into the philosophy and basics for thought and history that are on my list.

Need a job that pays me to read–and write!!