{"id":294,"date":"2008-07-08T23:07:39","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T04:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=294"},"modified":"2008-07-08T23:07:39","modified_gmt":"2008-07-09T04:07:39","slug":"playing-hacking-the-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Playing “Hacking the Novel”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting back to my Playing “Hack the Character”<\/i><\/a> theory from January 9, let us say for the sake of argument that I am on to something here in asserting that mainstream narrative fiction is actually a form of game – and that our pleasure from reading such fiction derives largely from exercising our skills of psychological analysis and empathy as we “level up” within this game.<\/p>\n

A corollary to this theory is important to reiterate here: that the author of a well structured novel (or film or play) continues to increase the difficulty of these exercises as the plot progresses. Earlier chapters are introductory puzzles that train the reader on how to analyze the story’s characters. The real puzzles – the ones that provide the greatest rewards – come later in the novel, once the reader is able to play at a higher level.<\/p>\n

My question for today is this: Is there a way to emphasize or to underline for the reader the game-play aspect of this experience, while maintaining the pleasure of being carried along by masterful storytelling? I’m not thinking here of interactive fiction per se<\/i>, in which you the reader choose alternate paths for the characters and plot to take.<\/p>\n

Rather, I’m thinking of some sort of reward system that you are explicitly aware of, so that as you read the novel you are acknowledged for having a depth of understanding of the characters’ conflicts and motivations, for being able to understand what a character is likely to do next – perhaps even before he or she does.<\/p>\n

There might even be an opportunity for group game-play here. As multiple readers work their way through the narrative, they can play this game together, cooperatively or competitively, or both.<\/p>\n

I realize that there are parallels here between these notions and recent serialized narratives on TV such as Lost<\/i>. But I see at least one difference: Lost<\/i> is trying to maximize the unpredictability of its plot turns and twists – to maximize surprise by throwing viewers off and keeping them always guessing, even at the expense of character continuity and consistency.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking of something closer in spirit to the works of Jane Austin, where the entire edifice is built upon characters who hold together over time: The more you know about them, the more substantial they become. Eventually the reader achieves a sort of knowing and confident intimacy with such characters as Emma Woodhouse or Elizabeth Bennet.<\/p>\n

I’m curious to know what people think. Is this an interesting direction, or should we just let well enough alone, and let the novel be the novel?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting back to my Playing “Hack the Character” theory from January 9, let us say for the sake of argument that I am on to something here in asserting that mainstream narrative fiction is actually a form of game – and that our pleasure from reading such fiction derives largely from exercising our skills of … Continue reading “Playing “Hacking the Novel””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}