Hypercompendia

Well I’ve read about Flight Paths here (Mark Bernstein) and there (Steve Ersinghaus) and elsewhere, so naturally went to check it out.  It is supposedly a Networked Novel in that it is not only presented online, but others (anyone who registers) may add to via comments, videos, home movies, etc. that may or may not have anything to do with the narrative.  Though of course, once it’s there, it becomes part of it, relative or not.  I think.  And, because I’m a student of interesting developments in literary fields I joined up, notwithstanding the strict rules and regulations of participation that all but wanted me to roll over and play dead.

But I have a problem.  As I pooh-poohed the fence that might’ve kept more intelligent folk away and hopped right in, I can’t find the story.  I mean, there’s a blog and all, but I can’t find the novel that this project by Writers (and the only two that shall hold that title) Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph. 

Maybe I’m just hypertextually deficient.  I’ll get back on this.

UPDATE: More links on Flight Path at Grand Text Auto and if: book.  And frankly, if everyone is quoting the opening lines of the story I don’t think anyone else found the rest of it either.  Really, I’m looking for a bit more of a ‘novel’ than a couple paragraphs towards that end.

Via Dennis Jerz’s post on the Frotzophone, I followed his link to Adam Parrish’s original post on the Frotzophone and the audio sound it adds to interactive fiction.

Don’t need to repeat the postings here as they’re pretty much covered over there, but I did want to make a note of this development and keep it in mind as it sounds like it could be kind of neat and go along with the video interactive story I’ve been thinking about.

Adam’s weblog gives a more in depth progress report on the concept and the work.

Thinking about changes this morning.  Fat and funerals–but that I’ll post on Spinning.  Here I do still refer to Spinning because of a picture I put into the sidebar there.  It looks like this:

It’s of me, and I stuck it in as the banner for one day only just to scare people.  That was before I brought it into Photoshop and made it look like it does above and restuck it into the sidebar after coming up with a new logo banner.

But what it makes me think about is the cartoonization of man.  I’ve posted here before about the TV commercials that use animation clearly based on reality format.  It’s a world where we’re doing all we can to dehumanize humanity.  Easier, faster means of communication such as cellphones, text messaging, e-mails, and yes, weblogs.  We’re putting more and more barriers between skins.  Applebee’s (restaurant) commercials now have a talking apple but it tells a human to drop the text messaging and get together in real life with his friends over a meal.    Does the apple foresee an even more open yet barren of touch existence?

I am me, and yet I am a cartoon.  This sheds so much more light on the graphic novel as an art form.  It also relates to an essay called Transitioning that I did back in New Media class.

It’s a different world out there.  And ‘in here’ grows more solitary and secured.

Very interesting, the boy who didn’t believe in Santa watches as the sleigh is prepared, the reindeer harnessed in, but he can’t hear the bells, can’t get more than a glimpse of Santa.  Then he closes his eyes and says, I believe, I believe.  He picks up a bell that has fallen from the sleigh and though he couldn’t hear it before, he can now hear its lovely tinkle as he shakes it. 

So.  Does that mean then that to see and enjoy or sense the real, one must first have a belief based not empirically, but on faith?  That may seem contradictory, but how else have discoveries been made but upon someone’s belief–only an idea–that something can be created or achieved?  Approaching the need or desire by building a bridge of experience.

That may bring us back again to religion, and faith creating the reality.

Well that’s rather dopey: the silent little boy picked up last from the other side of the tracks is singing by himself on the back of the train.  He’s singing a very soulful sad Christmas song about how he’s never had a Christmas.  The little girl goes out and joins him in singing, but her version is about how all the children get presents and how wonderful Christmas is.  The poor kid keeps responding with "that I’ve never seen" type of stuff.  Now what made the writers think that this little interaction was going to make the kid feel any better?

He doesn’t.  He doesn’t get off the train when they arrive.  Going with my religion theory here, does he represent those who have no reason to believe?

Interesting.  This whole movie may be a metaphor for the trend towards falling away from religion and any belief in creationism or intelligent design.  The boy appears to be wavering in the face of practical evidence that his faith in Santa Claus just doesn’t measure up against.

The department store Santas, the red Santa hat in his father’s hip pocket, his mother’s statement about losing the magic, all these point to the different gods we acknowledge, and the idea of man himself being the most intelligent and only being at the top of the heap.  Man in fact, creating Santa/God himself in the costuming.

Is there something deeper in this ‘children’s’ tale?  Are the caribou on the track symbols of those who would bellow against belief?

I’m watching Polar Express and am rather fascinated by the animation.  It does bring some questions to mind though.

I’m not sure how this was put  together, but it is often the process of having the real actors do the scenes, then place the movements into animation to make them more realistic.  I mean, these are great–very lifelike.

But why, even though athese animated people look suspiciously alike–just like the game characters–there’s a certain something that is very similar in every animation, as if either the same artist drew them all or the same software used in the transformation.  Except of course, for the conductor, who is a very good likeness to Tom Hanks.  But what’s the magic of animation?  Why not just use the real Tom Hanks?

The eagle bringing the train ticket to his nest is incredible, though. 

Will be checking out the website as I watch.

Mark Bernstein has an interesting post regarding Facade and the rules and regulations of use.  I think that since the program came out a few years ago we all revisit the game and the website to see what’s developed.

Unfortunately, nothing much seems different except that the download isn’t a 9-gig killer as it was when we all first took it on.  I would have thought that since the program was fairly simplistic in its presentation–thought I’m sure a lot, a real lot of complicated stuff went into the programing–it would have been updated by now or expanded upon as an interactive piece. 

I’m heeding Mark’s post because what I’d like to try in Storyspace some time is an interactive narrative that includes audio and graphics and Heaven knows I don’t want to be accused of using the Facade basis in my work.

The TV drama CSI New York is an offshoot of CSI (Las Vegas) which had first spawned CSI Miami.  It’s typical in TV land to clone a success and sit on your laurels for a while.  Evidences by the rash of reality shows, Legal dramas, the cop shows such as Law and Order, and of course, the talent shows for dancing or making a complete fool of yourself. 

But this is going along the lines of all those commercials where they animate real people via software programming.  CSI has latched onto Second Life to make a virtual crime scene where you’re invited to help follow clues and discover the perpetrator. 

It’s curious to think that as we get further and further away from real human contact–via e-mail, weblogs, gaming, Peapod delivery, families moving around instead of remaining local, working from home, and going to college online–that it’s going to be hard to remember what a handshake feels like, or if people have huge eyes and round heads like their avatars.

We were talking about this last week, though not with this kind of game layout in mind, but a combination of interactive text and graphics, and I found this, Homestarrunners Peasant Quest at Jerz’s Literacy Weblog.

What I’m thinking of is more along the lines of narrative (of course) rather than a game, or quest, and with more highly developed graphics, and not necessarily a constant running show. 

Just something to think about.