Twelve Blue

After trying out Michael Joyce's Twelve Blue for the first time, I was at first fascinated by the whole process of piecing together this story in any way I chose. With no real beginning or ending it was fun and interesting to go about the text and kind of make my own story up the way that I wanted to. But after a while I quickly got lost and bored. Having heard most of the class' remarks on Twelve Blue I didn't feel alone in my confusion. However, after reading Marie Ryan's explanation of the type of hypertext fiction Twelve Blue really is, it made the text clearer. I went from thinking of it as a bunch of random text to different events that are recollected and interpreted differently. Ryan explains the text as a reproduction of dreams and memory as well as a stream of consciousness. Each link is like bringing those recollections from one's memories into their conscious thought. Since these memories come into mind at anytime, they aren't in any order of time, and they can come back at any time.  read more »

Galatea and Twelve Blue are interesting games in that they are interactive and unique to every user. The first time I played Galatea, it ended pretty quick, within 5-6 commands. I was thinking to myself that maybe I played it wrong or something. I tried it a second time using the Hug ending. It seemed as if there's a lot of fluff in between. When I say there is a lot of fluff, I mean that there was a lot of unnecessary commands in between. In general, I didn't get too much from it. I did not identify with the character nor did I feel part of the story.
Twelve Blue is similar but much more annoying that Galatea. There is no linear structure or discernible plot. The messages just seem too abstract for me to enjoy or even make sense of. I just thought it wasn't focused enough. Just from the authors description, it makes you wonder about it's nature before playing. Michael Joyce describes it as  read more »

I some ways your distinction between those who read for the pure enjoyment and those (majority) who read because they are told so is quite accurate. I always love to hear students ask the professor in class whether a certain idea or subject taught in class "is going to be on the test," as if it wasn't on the test the student wouldn't bother trying to absorb that idea any further. That's the kind of mentally students have these days. I see it all the time and it's pretty sad.  read more »

Someone suggested in class that it would be difficult for people to enjoy hypertext media because it takes the control out of the reader's hands in the sense that we don't know what's coming and don't always get what we want. However, in the case of "Twelve Blue" I feel like the problem isn't lack of control but that actually the control has been given over to us by the author and that is what makes us uncomfortable.

When we read narratives we expect some one else to do all the work for us: plan the story line, and write it out so we can follow it. With interactive fiction, like choose your own adventure stories, we say we like the fact that we are in control of the paths the story is taking. Yet, the story has been planned out already and while the conclusions may vary, there are only a limited amount of possible endings that have already been drawn out for us.  read more »

There are several types of readers nowadays: those that like to read for the sheer experience of it, those that like to read in order to gain more knowledge or perspective, etc. However, the fact of the matter is that nowadays most readers are reluctant ones. I'm sure that many of the students in our own school don't particularly enjoy reading but only do it because they are required to. For those individuals it's obvious that hypertext fictions like "Twelve Blue" are not an ideal leisure activity.

But in class someone even admitted to being frustrated with "Twelve Blue" despite their passion for reading. I think the explanation to that is not found in the text but in our society. Generally speaking, I feel like the majority of our society, or to in a more narrow sense our student body, are very polarized thinkers. As students we like to get to the point, give us the answer and cut out anything that's irrelevant. This polarized attitude is what probably made it difficult for hypertext fiction to take off. Because although there are those people who like the idea of leaving thoughts and problems floating in the air without a solution, those people are few.  read more »