Memory and Imagery

Alright, here we go!

So for this week I decided to run all of the points of this blog post together. I played around with both Google Docs and Google Sites and found that both are quite easy to navigate, and that the interfaces are extremely user-friendly. I didn't have any complications while playing around with them, and found that there are a lot of fun things that can be done through these helpful tools.

Okay, so now to get to the idea for my Hypertext Fiction!

Last post I rambled on about an idea that I hadn't fully formulated yet. I'd be lying if I said that I had the idea down pat, but I do have a clearer understanding of what I am trying to go for. First, as I mentioned, I want the narrative of the story to take place in the memory of a man in nature. He is observing, from a high point, a valley below him. I am still unsure where, exactly, I want this to be set. I believe that I would like to do Montana, as I have been there and found the natural splendor of the area to be both breathtaking and haunting, but I'm still mulling that over.

Also, I must note something before I continue on. While playing with Google Sites I decided to "kill two birds with one stone" and use my test site as a place to store the images I've been collecting for this assignment. This way I can show them off to anyone who may be interested. The images I use in this blog post can be clicked, and you will be brought to my test page that has a slew of images I am planning on drawing inspiration from. All photographs were taken by me during a trip around the country that I took several summers ago.

Memory, like the shadows of clouds over a valley.

Essentially, the man on the cliff is recalling moments over time that he spent with his lover in nature. He can't recall the face of the man, because it has been seven years since they parted ways. The man on the cliff gets more and more frustrated as he sinks further into his memory. Every time he tries to recall his former lover, he only sees obscured images. The other man is always facing away, or silhouetted, or just out of reach. The words and conversations are present in the man's mind, but in a voice that is unfamiliar.

Always facing away.

What I attempt to address in this story is the lonely nature of memory. How the passing of time can take away the thoughts and actions of those who once filled us with life. When we stand alone, observing the transitory nature of the world around us, we are left in a place that can be desolate.  I am not sure how I want this to play out still, nor do I know if I want the story to end on a note of positivity or cynicism. But this is where I am going and I like what's happening so far.

Here, for those who don't want to click the images, is a link to my Google Site with the full list of images that I am drawing inspiration from.

Test Site

I look forward to hearing about everyone else's projects, and learning how we can accomplish our goals as we journey on this digital road together!

The Jew's Daughter and Adventures in Hypertext

I am really not the best at posting these blog posts in a timely fashion. Ah well, such is life.

This week we were assigned the reading of "The Jew's Daughter," a work of hypertext fiction. Like last week's "Twelve Blue" this story also utilized its form to the fullest extent. As with "Twelve Blue" it appears that "The Jew's Daughter" plays with a sense of time and memory, and it mixes in nostalgia to paint a beautiful and haunting picture of a woman remembered.

At first I was quite confused about this text. I foolishly went to mouse over the first hyperlink that I saw, before I even began reading, and I saw the text warp and transform before me. I started reading, and realized that each time I put my mouse near a hyperlink the text would completely change. This, at first, was a bit frustrating. Not in the same way as "Twelve Blue," but in a new way. For example, I read the line:

"Her face is a pale round moon."

And immediately fell in love with it and the sentence that followed. Unfortunately I moved my mouse and must have hit a link because the subsequent line vanished and I cannot even recall what it had said. Why this is somewhat beautiful, and it opens the reader up the ephemeral nature of words and memory, it is also a bit annoying for those of us who want to linger on the pleasure a series of sentences can bring.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I found that sentences were rearranging to form a thought as moving as the original. For instance, I first read a line that went:

"Words are always only words, but these waiting words pause, are cautious, self-aware, know that what has already not yet happened what losses are taken and who gets what."

And this struck me! Of course! Words are so self-conscious, so revealing of the self. Then, after the sentence changed, it became:

"Words are always only real-time creation, realized under the pressure of days, just as this once should have been realized under the pressure of days. Incipit. Three knocks."

And how much this also speaks of the nature of words! Words, those self-aware beasts, are indeed realized under the pressure of days. They built up, taking more and more on them. And how that "Three knocks." seems to release the reader in the sound of the sentence and what it evokes.

Somnambulistic

(I love the author's use of this word.)

In reading both "Twelve Blue" and "The Jew's Daughter" I feel that I have gotten a very interesting understanding of hypertext fiction. In creating ideas for my own piece, I have used the formats for both stories as a sort of "template."

I like the idea of a man (or woman, but for the sake of experiment I'm going to say 'man' here) standing on a cliff that overlooks a valley. He is alone with his thoughts, and as his perspective shifts and he gazes around the valley, so does the narration that appears for the reader. I am unsure what I want the narration to focus on, but maybe the contemplation of a man on a cliff? The fight between the urge to jump and the urge to remain? Maybe the man isn't suicidal, per se, but he feels that all-too-familiar urge to do something reckless kicking in as he surveys the world from his vantage point? Maybe he is, in fact, dealing with the thought of suicide and the landscape is soothing him and taking away this desire. I still am not sure, but I like starting with a man on a cliff.

Descriptions are something I truly enjoy playing around with, and poetry moves me to an incredible degree. I would like to use poetic prose to narrate this story, and have the man who stands on the cliff have a sort of beautiful aesthetic to the way he is observing everything, without giving away his actual thoughts. Much like the nature of actual thoughts, I want his inner-monologue to be a bit convoluted and obscured by what is before him. So maybe this narrative is all about the nature of the mind when confronted with the holy glory of the natural world?

I don't know yet, I'm just spitballing here, but I like playing around with this idea. More will be revealed (to myself and whoever is reading this blog) as I delve further into the realms of my own mind to find this story.

My loose outline for this is, essentially, this:

- A man is standing on a cliff, observing the beauty of a valley below
- The story takes place in his thoughts as they pass like the shadows of clouds on the valley below
-Depending on what his conflict is, the story could end in a resolution of self, or an attempt to achieve something "greater" (as in jumping off said cliff).

Not too meaty yet, but I guess it is a start!

And I end with another wonderful line from "The Jew's Daughter"

"They all come back. To go away quietly."

Post 1: Twelve Blue

While reading "Twelve Blue" there were many things that I kept in mind in my approach. First, after realizing that the structure of the story was sort of "helter skelter" I decided to keep a very open mind when it came to reading. Second, I realized almost immediately that I loved the language used by Michael Joyce. 

The first time I read through "Twelve Blue" during last week's class I made the comment that, had the author not written his explanation of the piece, I would have been extremely frustrated while reading it. I am not someone who adheres to many norms, whether it be socially or literarily, but I still could see myself being angered by a lack of understanding of the material I was reading. I allowed this frustration to take a backseat during my second reading of the story.

My approach was simple: I read through the story and clicked link after link, seemingly at random, until I reached a point where there were no options. Then I decided to click on the sidebar of "threads" in order to jump back into the story and see what might happen. The entire experience was fun, and the language was so rich, that reading the story felt more like a nice warm bath than a journey into the often heady world of literature. 

I did not come into reading "Twelve Blue" the second time with any expectations, which I believe added to the overall experience and enjoyment of the story. This story has given me some great fuel for thinking about my own projects for the class. I realize that working with a non-linear narrative can be quite successful if done correctly and not made to be confusing or misleading.