Response to Last Week's Questions...in Four Semi-Bite-Sized Pieces!!

Stay Faithful, Stay Home
Regardless if the party involved was of virtual reality (VR) or from real life (RL), faithfulness would depend on a person’s definition of infidelity. People’s limits for cheating vary; some believe even “thinking about it” merits a lonely night on the couch as punishment. If interactive fiction allowed people to experience all the physical sensations of RL, I imagine that some would certainly find Janeway unfaithful. Because computers and rising technology are becoming more relevant in our daily lives, I think it is (or will be) possible for people to experience emotional and physical attachment for a virtual representation. If we believe it to be true, if we wish for that hologram to be “real,” the human mind has great capacity to suspend disbelief indefinitely. But I don’t believe VR will ever totally replace an authentic human touch…fingers crossed. True, we’ve already begun “slavishly wiring ourselves into the stimulation machine” (Janet Murray 21). Take television, for example; dinners and collapsible furniture has been made specifically for this medium. Many people (consciously or otherwise) plan their lives in accordance to television programming (rushing home for a season premiere; devoting a day to catch up on TiVo recordings; going out on Saturday evenings because network scheduling provides no quality shows for that day). Folks love the Great Indoors, and the “stimulation machines” (TVs and computers and video games, oh my!) are a part of that realm.

Growing Pains
I do believe that interactive narratives are still in their infancy. Technology seems to be growing at a faster rate than what we, mere mortals, can accommodate. Once we truly get a handle for the resources that are out there, and they are made easily accessible to the general public, it would then be plausible for interactive narratives to consider themselves adults. Not to take away from the projects that are around today (they are unique, ambitious and demonstrate vast potential), but until the aforementioned occurs, I think today’s interactive narratives are still waiting for puberty to hit and their voices to change.

Cameo, Cameo! Where art thou Cameo?
Looking at different forms of entertainment, many people wish to be part of an “active audience.” Crowds mouth the lyrics with the singer(s) when musicians play a familiar song in concert. Movies on opening night or at midnight showings will require or inspire people to play dress-up even when it’s not Halloween (go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show Experience or any science fiction/fantasy film at its premiere). Television is no stranger to this phenomenon, as “fan culture has grown…through conventions, underground magazines, and the trading of home videos” (Murray 41). Additionally, the Internet has spawned its own active culture, filled with newsgroups, fan fiction etc. all related to a particular movie/show/character(s). In recent years, television audiences have taken things even further. With an abundance of reality TV shows on every major network, it has become very possible for devout watchers to now star in their favorite shows. TV once imitated life; somehow now the roles have reversed. People want to "keep it real," and they want 15 minutes to play themselves on TV. We indulge in this fantasy of reality TV because it’s like a car crash…and rubbernecking is an American pastime.

Comments on The Laugh
“The Laugh of the Modem” brought up some notable points regarding hypertext and feminist literary theory of the 1970s and 1980s. I found it interesting to see a parallel between ecriture feminine and phallocentric literature with hypertext theory and print culture. When hypertext first came onto the literary scene, it promised a fresh and innovative approach writing/reading. However, this idea (nonlinear, associative writing) was nothing new; advocates of ecriture feminine conceptualized this method years earlier (!!).
Once dominated by “the common enemy” (male/white/Western/elite), print culture is now seen as “primarily passive and feminized” (Michelle Kendrick, par. 18). Print-based texts are slowly being abandoned for an arguably less restrictive method of writing, this being hypertext. The article brings up an intriguing thought; that is, if hypertext is seen opposite of print culture (or masculine thought versus “feminized” writing), is there “space in a new media for a feminist form and feminist content” (Kendrick, par. 21)? Would this duality be too much of a hindrance to hypertext, or would it add to the very fabric of what interactive technology is all about?

Works Cited

• Kendrick, Michelle. “The Laugh of the Modem: Interactive Technologies & l’ecriture feminine.” rhizomes.net: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge. Issue 4 (2002): 21 pars. 20 Sept. 2004
• Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.