Week 5 bring it to the table

 Chapter 4 of Electronic Literature talks about Interactive Fiction, which is a genre of digital literature that is more closely associated with gaming than literature. It focuses on creating story worlds that immerse interactors, allowing them to make decisions that influence the outcome of the story. Early versions of Interactive Fiction contained very few visuals and consisted mostly of words, causing the player to have to type commands to further themselves in the game. As it progressed, visuals were added and players moved through virtual worlds solving puzzles and overcoming challenges. I found it interesting that Rettberg described online games as still having a narrative aspect. He claims “The unveiling of the narrative experience takes place as the interactor moves from room to room, cavern to cavern, street to street…” (Rettberg 89). The idea that a game has a narrative and tells a story is something I hadn’t ever considered before, though the idea is extremely valid, as every aspect of a game comes together to create a sort of storyline. Rettberg also touches on the “choose your own adventure” side of Interactive Fiction, which is most similar to the genres of digital literature that we’ve seen so far. CYOA games are non linear, and the narrative builds based on the choices that an interactor makes, allowing for many different versions of the story. Overall I can see Interactive Fiction being great for people who struggle to find enjoyment in simply reading a work, as it immerses the interactor in ways that more traditional texts, and even works of e-lit, do not.

I looked at The Princess Murderer by Deena Larsen, which was originally published in 2003. It is a sort of murder mystery text where the reader has to solve the murder by reading through what are seemingly the murderer’s thoughts as well as a slew of pictures. The text definitely gives me a gothic fiction feel, it is kind of dark and suspenseful. I liked how it felt like a game but also like a work of literature at the same time, as I had to read in order to piece the story together and figure out the murder. Unfortunately though I never got all the way through it, for some reason it would restart my progress every time I took too long to read/look at a section :(