Comments for Otterwolf's Weblog

Comment on Maybe we’ve been too hard on all this. by Allison

Allison — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:42:17 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I wasn’t really sure where to post this for you, but since you posted under my bibliography I thought I’d post my response back to yours. This was in the news today. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080416/ap_en_ot/harry_potter_lawsuit Steve Vander Ark knew that it was going to be illegal! I had a feeling that it was RDR books the whole time, because Steve seems like such a down to earth person. You can here him doing many episodes of “Canon Cunundrums” on PotterCast. The only thing I don’t understand is why didn’t he just say “no” when things started turning for the worse? From the past articles that I have read and this one, it seems like he just wants to be a fan and not someone who makes loads of money off of Rowling. As much as I do stick up for Rowling, I sympathize with Steve also because he’s just and avid fan down to the core.

Also, in this suit, Rowling isn’t even really suing RDR books/Steve for very much at all. I’m not sure what the number is off the top of my head, but it’s not much. Anyways, I’ll see you in class tonight. I’m not trying to sway your opinion…well actually I am, but to each his own, right? Peace and hair grease. See you tonight.

Comment on Okay- Back to posting. Paper Topic and Bibliography by auldlangsyne24

auldlangsyne24 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:35:05 +0000

I agree with Beth here. I think so many of us are so stubbornly addicted to “tree flakes” that we never give other mediums a chance for literary value (no matter what type of medium it is). Plus, I’m glad you picked Final Fantasy instead of, say, Pong or Tetris; they might be nearly impossible to work with.

Comment on Okay- Back to posting. Paper Topic and Bibliography by bhkite

bhkite — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:07:09 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I’m glad that you’re only trying to prove that one specific game is actually literature. I think it will help keep you’re arguments strong and your paper focused. Plus it’s going to be a tough sell to convince a bunch of tree flake lovers that a video game is actually literature, but if you can persuasively argue that Final Fantasy breaks the mold then there is the potential for people to find new values in video games.

Beth

Comment on You guys saw Tron clips without me? by Zacheryoj

Zacheryoj — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:43:15 +0000

omg.. good work, brother

Comment on Really? I thought I was writing about video game lit. by er2008

er2008 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:54:05 +0000

It interesting that you mention the issue of “links” in a story, because I read part of a debate between Murray and Sven Birkerts where Sven makes basically the same argument. How are authors supposed to maintain dramatic structure and tension when readers can just click ahead to find out everything there is to know about the characters, setting, etc.?

I would say that how much a reader can figure out depends on what the author of the text allows them to. Authors of hypertext have the ability to decide how much they want readers to be able to figure out.

Comment on What’s your thought of… (Paper Ideas) by kmiddleton

kmiddleton — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:15:22 +0000

Since everyone’s voting for the first topic, I’ll throw my hat there as well, although simply because I think you’ll be capitalizing on your research for the expertise project. There are a good many people talking about what’s at stake in understanding video games as lit. I’ve name dropped Noah Wardrip Fruin and Pat Harrigan’s books elsewhere, but I think they’re crucial sources for this. You can also check out the group that Noah writes with on the Grand Text Auto blog.

Those might give you some very specific terms with which to begin your analysis of Final Fantasy. Ryan’s books have to do with this as well, as do some of Katherine Hayles’ works. So, lots to read in order to center your ideas here.

The question, of course, is how to discover what’s at stake in this analysis. Are you arguing that these “games” provide a superior experience for the “player”? Implicit in your discussion above is the assumption that FF is novel and a movie combined. I’d like to see some careful thinking about how particular elements of these media appear in FF, and why it isn’t the case that the game is a new medium in and of itself.

There’s also a different question that you mention, wherein you’re talking about the game driving its audience to a novelization of the experience, which starts to sound a bit like transmedia storytelling, and one that runs counter to a lot of our assumptions about the trajectory of narrative (usually from novel to other medium, not vice versa). This is a smaller, more compact topic, and one that would also be interesting to investigate, but would require research on how markets and taste cultures shift and why.

As to the novel/film idea—Eric’s thinking about something similar. You might check out his blog for ideas and comments.

Comment on What’s your thought of… (Paper Ideas) by estherspace

estherspace — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:41:37 +0000

Ryan,
I’m on Audrey’s bandwagon in my support of your first endeavor, investigating the video-game literature. (I don’t think I was conciously aware of anything like that existing). Your second idea, while I can tell that it is something that definitely rankles you, might be an awful lot to bite off and chew on for this paper. With the video-game thing I think you might be better able to utilize some of the discussion we’ve had in class, especially when we talked about the Matrix and how that functioned as a transmedia form of storytelling. Questions it might be useful to think about might include: To what degree do these games blur the lines of fantasy/reality for users, what age groups are participating in these games, what implications might that have for larger social impacts, does one have to read the novel/play the game in order to get the full benefit of the other, what level of popularity does game/novel hold over the other, what kind of novels are these (largely plot driven?), how is reading the novel a different experience from playing the game, and what advantage/disadvantage is that for the novel. I hope I didn’t send you off your train of thought, and I’m really excited for your presentation and to see what comes of this paper!
Esther

Comment on What’s your thought of… (Paper Ideas) by audreyamos

audreyamos — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:38:14 +0000

Hey Ryan,
I think your idea of video-game literature sounds interesting. Since video-games have become so popular, it would be worth exploring their effects/benefits/problems. This also ties into our discussion about how reading now has to compete with many other forms of entertainment. Also, I think is shows how literature has had to “adapt” to stay alive, as we discussed in class a while back. Were you in Megan Fulwiler’s class last year when Michael wrote that paper about the benefits of using video games in the classroom? He discussed the educational benefits of video games and what skills people can learn from them. I don’t know if that would help at all…but just a suggestion

Comment on You guys saw Tron clips without me? by asecretjournal

asecretjournal — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:34:31 +0000

steampunk is not anime invented (but there is the movie steamboy). where in the world did you get anime origin from?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk scroll done to influences. please, I beg you.

Comment on Galatea 2.2 by Esther

Esther — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:40:15 +0000

Ryan,

Yay!!! I’m so glad someone wrote on the Richard Powers author/character thing. It made my post rather difficult to articulate. You bring up some very difficult, but interesting, questions at the end of your post. Is C. real? Do we want her to be? Richard Powers (author) writes Richard Powers (character) as having very complicated relationships with women. Largely, he sucks them dry for material, and somehow destroys their lives, hopes and dreams. In writing himself into the novel, or at least someone with the same name and general biography, Richard Powers (the author) is taking a very dangerous step. It is not often that one can successfully characterize themselves. If this is what he’s doing, I’d say Richard Powers is a pretty selfish jerk. Like you pointed out, the lines between reality and fiction are quickly blurring. Do you think that Powers’s characterization of himself is a way of critiquing the biographical reading that some people (like me) are fond of using when analyzing a work of fiction, or is it possible that he is attempting to prove himself capable of successfully characterizing himself when others have failed, much like he is using this novel to prove that he is capable of writing in a world that thinks it does not need novels?

Esther