About afternoon
afternoon, a story is a work of interactive ficiton, written by Michael Joyce. It was originally created as a demonstration of the Storyspace software, which was developed by Joyce, Jay Bolter, and John Smith. After being presented as such in at an
ACM conference in 1987, it went on to be published (in floppy disk form) as a standalone work of fiction by
Eastgate in 1990. It consists of 539 interconnected [lexias].
In navigating through these lexias, the reader is thrown between various strands of narrative, memory and poetry, either by his own active choice in selecting links, or by shifts in the story which occur as the reader iterates through the loops of the text. On first reading, at least, afternoon is told from the perspective of Peter, a man who believes he may have seen his ex-wife and son die in a car crash that morning. Subsequent readings result in changes in narrator, characters and time such that one may revisit a given segment of text over and over, with a new meaning granted each time as a result of its new context/location in the reader's path. While there are what might be called ending points in afternoon, each links back to the introductory frame below, inviting the reader to continue in his journey through the text.
Cybertext, Hypertext and Intratextuality
afternoon is written in Storyspace, a program for creating interactive fiction that predates the WWW. Thus, while it bears many similarities to what usually comes to mind when we think of hypertext fiction today,
afternoon is shaped by the unique
structure of Storyspace.
Distinctions between a work in storyspace and
- A book
- an online edition of a traditional book
- Web-based hypertext fiction
- Hypothetical Tool incorporating programming into the interactive reading experience
The means of afternoon's dissemination is interesting in its relation to class discussions of the media industry and digital artifacts...
- Its original context, as part of a presentation in a techincal paper, is far removed from traditional channels of distribution for works of fiction. That such a piece could go on to be considiered a legitimate literary effort (sanctified by the New York Times Book Review) is remarkable
- Despite this achievement, issues of access are not resolved. afternoon is only available to those who can find a computer to run it, and fewer are able to do so as time passes and its format becomes increasingly obsolete.
Links
In progressing through
afternoon, the reader has the choice of hitting enter to follow the default path, double-clicking a word in the text, selecting a link from the links menu, pressing the yes or no buttons, or typing a question (though not all options are available at all points.) Linking words are not differentiated from the rest of the text, and, in most cases, double-clicking anywhere but a linked word will lead you to the next step on the default path. This leads to a number of issues for the reader, such as
- when you double-click a word, you don't know whether the page you arrive at is from a link in that word or the default next page (unless go back/check links menu)
- should you try to find the linking word, or do you use the links menu?
- what meaning is added in the reader's mind if he thinks that particular word led him to the page, rather than it being the default?
- meaning from names of links (in links menu)?
- it can be maddening trying to find word links from link menu's link names
- in the end, it seems most useful/productive/fulfilling/illuminating not to use the links menu at all, and just follow default paths, taking occasional diversions with interesting words, and allowing the story to reveal itself through multiple iterations. This leads one to question the "interactive" nature of the work; the author-reader role is not as blurred as it initially seemed.
Loops
feeling of deja vu/memories
takes form as you go through a branch again (might first be sent into middle of a scene, based on word (draperies), then through another loop which takes up that branch part way through)
find out who is speaking, or move a scene between main char's memory& the present
e.g., "a bit2" loop (phone call to night with headmaster and back)
a phrase takes on new meaning when go through it again (w/diff context)
e.g. "It is a sort of insurance"
or [coffee example]
new frame inserted in default second time through (secretlolly2 (I call Lolly->I know->projection)
example: Werther asks
Narration
sudden shifts in (default) story (wunderwriter to she shyly/typing at night)
makes you wonder if you're shifting from memory to real-time, real-time to memory, real to dream or something else; that the main character is a poet further confuses things (is this section a story written by Peter, part of the narration about Peter, an interlude by the "author", a reflection by Lisa about Peter's story?...)
- hidden wren branch (wife's POV; refers to other parts of the text as writing (rather than memories))
- author's interjections (V Woolf, from speak memory)
- repetitions (walls turn pink)
afternoon narration notes
Endings
- "...like a rainbow"
- "I call"*
- "yes"
- ending icon (adds a "margin" to application's icon, changing the resulting image)
Authorship and Co-creation
Storyspace: Relation to margin notes, online collaboration
Co-Creation in Software:
- opensource; netscape/mozilla/firefox
- videogames & narrative
- plugins, libraries, APIs, mashups, OOP in general
- ning - app cloning, etc.
Co-Creation in Literature:
Reader-response theory, pheomenology, Beaujour
- Wolfgang Iser: "The Reading Process"
- virtuality in the text
- meaning lies in convergence of reader & text
Afternoon
Being too active is not particularly illuminating (productive?) for the reader; while storyspace allows you to view the links menu and choose a non-default path, doing so generally not to your advantage. better off hitting return, or selecting words (generally, a link word leads you on a closed loop, i.e., a tangent that eventually returns to your original page, or the default page following it.) in this way, you eventually visit each of those links in subsequent recursions. this has the added advantage of removing some of the anxiety associated with many forms of hypertext fiction (regarding which link to choose, whether to backtrack, etc.), though the result could be seen as a linear form (with redundancies.)
As Aarseth says, "Interactive narrative might imply some sort of user-directed story generator, but Afternoon does not fit that description very well, as it relentlessly leads the reader in labyrinthine circles." (89), or "Readership has been restored but not transcended." (94) (see afternoon bibliography)
In Storyspace (and, perhaps, most electronic literature), you lose elements of interaction that the reader of a traditional printed text often takes for granted. In particular, the ability to reread a previous section (or skip to the ending, etc,) make margin notes, highlight, bookmark a page (or tear it out), and so on.
Comparison to works by Rob Swigart
Author Rob Swigart, currently a visiting scholar at Stanford, was kind enough to speak with me about his work in interactive fiction. (Additional notes are in the process of being transcribed to
RS Interview.)
Reader Orientation:
In hypertext you often don't have the clear visual reference of your location in a story provided by a page marked in a book. As discussed in the Maps section above, the design of afternoon/storyspace omits such a reference. In contrast, Swigart asserted the importance of readers having some kind of feedback to know where they are in a story, and how much remains. This distinction might be interpreted as a result of differences in
- attitudes towards closure
- depth vs. breadth organization of nodes
Exampes:
- changing graphics in About Time, use of Connection Muse
Approach to issues of continuity:
Limitations on file and screen size led him to write in terms of develop what he called NITs, or Narrative units - segments of text of less than one screen in length. Narrative continuity was provided by connecting the NITs.
Afternoon and About Time both make use conditional links, not standard in typical hypertext.
RS's "invisible walls" similar to to "illusion of choice" in "dialectic" node
Other Topics
Accessing media
On beginning this project, I ran into several of the issues discussed in session 3 (see class
Notes 3) regarding the fleeting nature of data formats and difficulty of time-proofing media.
- floppy disk
- Runs on OS 7 (requiring pre-intel processor), or Windows 3.1
- Problems (for author) in converting storyspace doc to html
Links, Resources, and Bibliography
See
afternoon bibliography
Digital Humanities /
Class Members /
Jenny Loomis
