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Reciprocity in Experimental Writing, Hypertext Fiction, and Video Games

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Reciprocity in Experimental Writing, Hypertext Fiction, and Video Games UNDERSTANDING INTERACTIVE FICTIONS AS A CONTINUUM: RECIPROCITY IN EXPERIMENTAL WRITING, HYPERTEXT FICTION, AND VIDEO GAMES. A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2015 ELIZABETH BURGESS SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES 2 LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Declaration 4 Copyright Statement 5 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter One: Materially Experimental Writing 30 1.1 Introduction.........................................................................................30 1.2 Context: metafiction, realism, telling the truth, and public opinion....36 1.3 Randomness, political implications, and potentiality..........................53 1.4 Instructions..........................................................................................69 1.41 Hopscotch...................................................................................69 1.42 The Unfortunates........................................................................83 1.43 Composition No. 1......................................................................87 1.5 Conclusion...........................................................................................94 Chapter Two: Hypertext Fiction 96 2.1 Introduction.........................................................................................96 2.2 Hypertexts: books that don’t end?......................................................102 2.3 Footnotes and telling the truth............................................................119 2.4 Realism................................................................................................125 2.5 The apparent ‘naturalness’ of hypertext..............................................130 2.6 Conclusion...........................................................................................155 Chapter Three: Video Games 156 3.1 Introduction.........................................................................................156 3.2 The ‘mark of the digital’......................................................................160 3.3 Declaring allegiance to a history of print.............................................166 3.4 Abort, Retry, Fail? Multicursality and the ‘correct’ linear path..........178 3.5 ‘Godlike’ authors; ‘Godlike’ readers and players................................196 3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................217 Conclusion 220 Bibliography 239 Word count: 72834 3 ABSTRACT This thesis examines key examples of materially experimental writing (B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates, Marc Saporta’s Composition No. 1, and Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch), hypertext fiction (Geoff Ryman’s 253, in both the online and print versions), and video games (Catherine, L.A. Noire, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Phantasmagoria), and asks what new critical understanding of these ‘interactive’ texts, and their broader significance, can be developed by considering the examples as part of a textual continuum. Chapter one focuses on materially experimental writing as part of the textual continuum that is discussed throughout this thesis. It examines the form, function, and reception of key texts, and unpicks emerging issues surrounding truth and realism, the idea of the ostensibly ‘infinite’ text in relation to multicursality and potentiality, and the significance of the presence of authorial instructions that explain to readers how to interact with the texts. The discussions of chapter two centre on hypertext fiction, and examine the significance of new technologies to the acts of reading and writing. This chapter addresses hypertext fiction as part of the continuum on which materially experimental writing and video games are placed, and explores reciprocal concerns of reader agency, multicursality, and the idea of the ‘naturalness’ of hypertext as a method of reading and writing. Chapter three examines video games as part of the continuum, exploring the relationship between print textuality and digital textuality. This chapter draws together the discussions of reciprocity that are ongoing throughout the thesis, examines the significance of open world gaming environments to player agency, and unpicks the idea of empowerment in players and readers. This chapter concludes with a discussion of possible cultural reasons behind what I argue is the reader’s/player’s desire for a high level of perceived agency. The significance of this thesis, then, lies in how it establishes the existence of several reciprocal concerns in these texts including multicursality/potentiality, realism and the accurate representation of truth and, in particular, player and reader agency, which allow the texts to be placed on a textual continuum. This enables cross-media discussions of the reciprocal concerns raised in the texts, which ultimately reveals the ways in which our experiences with these interactive texts are deeply connected to our anxieties about agency in a cultural context in which individualism is encouraged, but our actual individual agency is highly limited. 4 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 5 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and she has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks in particular to Kaye Mitchell, for her invaluable guidance and understanding throughout six years of research and writing. Thanks also to Peter Knight and Graeme Kirkpatrick for their advice and feedback. Many thanks to my parents, Dawn and Graham Aucott, for their unfailing support and unshakeable faith in me. Finally, thanks to Simon, Isaac, and Seth Burgess, for everything. IDDQD. 7 Introduction This thesis examines several key examples of materially experimental writing, hypertext fiction, and video games, and establishes that the exploration of those texts reveals a number of reciprocal concerns, including issues of truth and realism, multicursality, and reader and player agency. I posit that these shared concerns allow the texts on which I focus to be examined as part of a textual continuum. This continuum, I show, facilitates cross-media discussions of the key reciprocal concerns that emerge from the texts; examining closely these texts in the light of their broader critical, theoretical, and cultural contexts, rather than as examples isolated within their own research fields, is a productive method for establishing new critical readings and understanding of those texts. As such, the primary question that I address is: what new critical understanding of materially experimental writing, hypertext fiction, and video games, can be developed by considering key examples as part of a textual continuum? In researching and writing this thesis, I have focused on a few specific examples of materially experimental writing, hypertext fiction, and video games, in order to fulfil the aim of examining closely individual texts, whilst also paying attention to particularly significant aspects of their broader contexts (relevant criticism, theory, and the contemporary cultural backdrops of the texts). The key examples of materially experimental writing on which I focus are B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates (first published in 1969), Marc Saporta’s Composition No. 1 (first published in 1962), and Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch (first published in 1963). 8 I have focused specifically on materially experimental writing because of the interesting issues surrounding reader agency that emerge from it, as well as the focus on multicursality stemming from the different possible combinations of szujet. As I explain further in chapter one, I have chosen these texts for their interactivity, their interesting
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