Games and Narrative

For the week of April 15th, we were asked to think about how storytelling is presented in games, and how its presentation in games differs from other media.  To me, the primary difference between games and other mediums is that games enable the audience to participate in the creation and development of the narrative to a far higher degree than any other medium.  While a game can contain units of linear narrative in it such as text and cinematics, it's the player narrative of the exploration of these units that distinguishes games from other forms of media.

A game that's a strong bare-bones example of this is Triptych, by Stephen Lavelle.  The game is presented as an interactive fiction game, where there's textual descriptions of the scene and you can choose from a limited set of actions.  The plot of the game is extremely simple: you just walk around your room and sit down to write a letter.  However, as you progress through your options, more and more of the words in the banal descriptions begin to be replaced with words such as 'lies', 'shame', and 'anger' until the descriptions become entirely incomprehensible, such as 'lies lies shame lies, anger deceit lies wretch'.  The words of choice differ based on which options you choose.  This way of presenting someone dealing overwhelming guilt, pressure, or anxiety would have been interesting enough as a short story, but I think that the choice to make it interactive added additional meaning and impact.  As you're making decisions on behalf of the protagonist, you get an odd sense of empathy for the character that I feel can't be reproduced in other mediums.  Additionally, the way that the narrative unfolds differently through each playthrough manages to shed light on the overall structure of the system, giving insights that would be absent from a more static narrative experience.

Medium is the Massage

After reading The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, I thought that if anyone was to make updated versions of the book's pages, it'd only make sense to make them actual webpages.  In fact, it was really interesting to see that much of the bool still reflects our relationship with all the new forms of media that have emerged since then.

Anyways, here's the page.

Lolita

"...but in the middle of the night she came sobbing into mine, and we made it up very gently.  You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go."

This passage marks the end of Part 1 of Lolita, a passage which to me highlights the true character of Humbert Humbert more than any other.  More than anything else, Humbert wanted control, and throughout the book he makes attempts to assert his control in extremely unsettling ways.  Just before the passage, Humbert had told Lolita that her mother was dead.  In his narration, Humbert makes it very clear that his timing of informing Lolita of her mother's death was coldly calculated.  However, the book makes a far darker implication about the death of Charlotte.  In chapter 20, soon after Humbert and Charlotte are married, Humbert mentions that while one can't plan a perfect murder on their own, random chance can help them.  Several chapters later, Charlotte is "accidentally" hit by a car as she was about to mail letters revealing Humbert.  Earlier, Humbert states that he was unable to bring himself to drown Charlotte.  With the news that Charlotte would expose him and end his relationship with Lolita, I feel like it wouldn't be out of the question for Humbert to push Charlotte in front of the car, especially after learning that he murders Clare Quilty.  Regardless, having Charlotte out of the picture was always a part of his plan. When he finally lets Lolita know that her mother is dead, Humbert has put himself in a position where he is literally the only person she can turn to.  He acknowledges this in the passage, and instead of treating her like a human, continues to rape her that night.

It is with some difficulty and hesitation that I classify Lolita as a love story.  For me, a love story has to have two primary components:  one of the main characters needs to have romantic feelings towards someone, and at some point those feelings need to be expressed through selfless actions.  It was very difficult to tell through most of the book whether Humbert actually had romantic feelings towards Lolita, or just desires of sex and control.  Near the end he seems to feel regret for all the terrible things he's done to her, and gives her money to help with her future regardless of her feelings towards him.  At this point, Lolita is past her "nymphlet" stage and pregnant, so that leads me to believe that his emotions and actions in that passage were actually fueled by romantic means rather than purely sexual ones.

Humbert is a manipulative and unforgivable monster, but his core is just as human and complex as the rest of us.  To me, this is the most unsettling aspect of the book.

The Big Sleep

The pulp novel I chose to read for this week was The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler.  The book was pretty clearly in the detective genre, and felt like I was reading the script to a noir film.  Not surprisingly, after I finished reading the book, I checked on Wikipedia and found out that there was a 1946 film with Humphrey Bogart based off of the book.

There were quite a few "detective genre" markers throughout the book.  Most obviously, the protagonist, Phillip Marlowe, is a private eye.  He's hired to investigate a financial claim that spirals into a bigger and bigger story.  He almost completely fits the archetype of a noir detective - always smoking or having a drink, sharp wit ("Are you attempting to tell me my duties, sir?" "No. But I'm having a lot of fun trying to guess what they are."), and always ahead of the cops.  Another staple of the genre is a sexy, seductive woman that tries to tempt the main character.  This ends up playing significantly into the end of the book, when Carmen's failure to do so helps Marlowe to solve the whereabouts of Rusty.

Many of the characters in the book are involved involved in some sort of ethically questionable activity or another, including blackmailing, bootlegging, peddling smut, gambling, homicide, bribery, and cover-ups.  There's quite a few actions that Marlowe has to take throughout the novel that provide as strong genre markers as well.  He interrogates almost every character he runs across, trails multiple people's cars, searches people's houses, searches crime scenes, and searches dead bodies.  At the end though, he solves the case through the big picture rather than small material details.

Great Gatsby Script

For this assignment, I decided to put my screenplay of the Great Gatsby in a modern technological setting.

BACKSTORY

GATSBY is the CEO BaZynga, a multimillion-dollar social gaming startup.  His company's headquarters are on one of the top floors of a skyscraper in San Francsico.  Directly underneath BaZynga is a small moderately successful enterprise software company, where NICK was recently hired as a database engineer.  NICK is cousins with DAISY.  DAISY is married to TOM, the CEO of the mega social network platform Flitter.  She works there as a frontend developer.  GATSBY's office stares directly at Flitter's headquarters, which he can see on a clear day.  GATSBY has asked NICK to invite DAISY to see NICK's new workplace, and NICK has agreed to this request.

---

INT. ENTERPRISE OFFICE, MID-DAY

GATSBY
Is everything in order?

NICK
The break room's been cleaned, if that's what you mean.

GATSBY
What break room?  (Pause) Oh, the one right next to us.  Yeah, I saw it.  Looks quite good.  One of the weather apps said they though the rain would stop about four.  I think it was Weatherbug.  (Jittering his leg) Do you have everything you need in the shape of - of coffee?

NICK walks over to the coffee machine.

NICK
Does this work?

GATSBY
Sure thing, sure thing!  Looks fine, man.

GATSBY checks his phone.  He gets up to leave the office.

NICK
What's up?

GATSBY
She's not coming.  It's way too late.  (Stares at the ground) I knew this would happen.

NICK
Don't be silly, it's just two minutes to four.

DAISY arrives.  NICK takes the elevator to the first floor [and finds her and stuff and brings her to the top floor]

NICK
(Looking for GATSBY) Well that's funny.

DAISY
What's funny?

NICK and DAISY walk to the break room.  They find GATSBY, who is resting against the ping pong table.  DAISY and GATSBY lock eyes for what feels like an eternity.

DAISY
Well I'm awfully glad to see you again.

GATSBY
(Pause) We've met before.

The ping pong table starts to scoot back, GATSBY loses his composure, and then quickly regains it.

GATSBY
Sorry about the table.

NICK
It's been pretty worn down for a while.

DAISY
We haven't met for many years.

GATSBY
Five years next November.

NICK starts to leave the room.

GATSBY
Hey - where are you going?

NICK
I'll be back, just going outside for a second.

GATSBY
Before you go, let me talk with you for a moment.

NICK and GATSBY walk outside the break room.

GATSBY
(Stressed, half-whispering) Oh god!

NICK
What's the matter?

GATSBY
This is a huge mistake.  I've made a huge, huge mistake.

NICK
(Smiles) You're just embarrassed, that's all.  Daisy's embarrased too.

GATSBY
She is?

NICK
Just as much as you are.

GATSBY's eyes dart back to the break room.

GATSBY
(Whispering) Don't talk so loud.

NICK
You're acting like a child.  Not only that, but you're being rude.  Daisy's sitting in that break room all by herself.

GATSBY grudgingly accept what NICK says, and goes back into the break room.  NICK takes the elevator down, and has a smoke break under an awning.  The rain clears up, and NICK heads back inside.

NICK
It's stopped raining.

GATSBY
Has it? (To DAISY)  How about that?  It's stopped raining.

DAISY
I'm glad, Jay.

GATSBY
I want you and Daisy to come up to my company's headquarters.  I'd like to show her around.

NICK
You sure you want me there.

GATSBY
Absolutely, man.

INT. BAZYNGA OFFICE, MID-DAY

They all take the elevator up to BaZynga's headquarters.  The space has very modern and trendy interior design, with sculptures, paintings, retro lounge furniture, expensive workstations, and a fully stocked cocktail bar.

DAISY
You run THIS place?

GATSBY
Do you like it?

DAISY
I love it; I hope you don't keep it all to yourself.

GATSBY
I keep my company always full of interesing and hard-working developers.  Developers who make interesting things.  Celebrated developers.

The group continues to tour through the floor, each room completely different from the previous one.  DAISY whispers something unintelligible in GATSBY's ear that makes him fluster.  NICK exits the building.

The Great Gatsby

I'm glad I read The Great Gatsby.  It was a really fascinating interweaving of characters and relationships.  The setting of 1920's New York was also beautifully described, from the mansions of Tom and Gatsby to the "valley of ashes" that George and Myrtle Wilson reside in. Initially, it was a bit difficult for me to get invested in the story, but things got really interesting by Chapter 5 when Gatsby planed to see Daisy for the first time in five years.  The book did a great job of making me sympathize with Gatsby despite all his shortcomings.  Here was a man who pursued the love of his life for years, accomplishing so much and trying to treat her with the utmost respect, only to end up with nothing as all his hopes, dreams, and ultimately life went away in a matter of a day.

It was interesting to see how the book handled its focus on the characters in the story.  I had initially assumed that the book was going to mostly revolve around Gatsby, but it instead seemed to focus on the love triangle of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby as a whole.  In fact, Nick seemed to only exist as a window into the world and story of the love triangle.  Even plot-wise, he just exists as the key to what Gatsby believes will be a successful reunion with Daisy.  Aside from Nick's noted honesty, there's nothing really special about his character, and his living space is far closer to average than Tom's or Gatsby's mansions. He does have somewhat of a relationship with Jordan for a part of the book, but the passages that discuss that aspect of the narrative are kept rather short.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Short Story

Placeholder post!  Wheeeeee