(from Hunt for the Gay Planet by Anna Anthropy)
Recently, I created my own Twine-driven, interactive fiction (“IF”) story. My product is something I’d rather not share until a few minor tweaks have been made. Still, it’s an intriguing approach to storytelling, which I had never encountered, other than in Choose Your Own Adventure books. In all the books and video games that I can remember coming into contact with, there is a fixed narrative, with a fixed way to get there. In a conventional, tangible book, you only have one path. You turn each page and follow the exact plot that the author has decided upon. In the video games I remember from my childhood and tween years (I’ve just, sort of, lost interest as years have gone by), there was also a “fixed” sort of format. Sure, there were options, akin to Twine. However, the games I used to play would punish you for choosing the “wrong” option, and send you back to your last saved checkpoint.
In contrast, with Twine, storytelling has a sort of loose skeleton to its story’s fixed nature. Yes, the author wants you to get to a certain point, but there are different ways to get there, at times. In addition, even if you have to follow a certain path, you are free to explore. Rather than be punished and sent backwards in your virtual progress, you can learn more about the world you are interacting with details off the main path, but that still reinforce theme and context. There is certainly more freedom with Twine storytelling; not only are you in control as the reader, you get to probe the text, as well. This probing allows for a deeper understanding and analysis of what you are reading. In the specific cases of With Those We Love Alive and Hunt for the Gay Planet, which are the most recent Twine texts that I have read, I found this theme to be quite potent. It was also, to my surprise, utilized to empower women, as well as the LGBTQ+ community.
In With Those We Love Alive, what struck me about this being a feminist text grabbed my attention before I had even begun reading. I read the Twine off of the Electronic Literature Collection, one of many online archives of digital literature. Before reading a text, an author is allowed their own author’s statement, allowing you to go into what you read with a notion of what the author was aiming for during the text’s conception. I am quite aware that this goes against the principles of the Intentional Fallacy and “death of the author.” But, for the sake of my own review/analysis, I am going to acknowledge the author’s statement. The portion of the author’s statement that I found most interesting was the rationale behind the Twine’s creation, which can be seen below:
(from With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine Charity Heartscape)
I was incredibly intrigued by the dark subject matter that inspired this work–C-PTSD, mob violence, child abuse, etc. My favorite line out of this quite serious rationale was, undoubtedly, “In media, there’s an unspoken belief that feminine lifeforms can’t survive on their own, can’t have spaces of their own, can’t have relationships of their own. I try to go against this with basically everything I make” (Porpentine Charity Heartscape). Now, yes, this influenced how I read the text going into it. Still, this author’s statement speaks volumes about the abilities of Twine, and other forms of digital literature, and how they can work to the advantage of someone like Heartscape. Not only does she (and I say “she” because the author’s statement uses the same pronoun about the screen name) get to write a text that empowers women and dissects a woman’s struggle, she gets to actually create her own aforementioned “space” based around this idea.
Heartscape writes about how women are thought to not be able to have “spaces of their own” in her author’s statement, and then, she creates one. I can read a tangible feminist book, like Their Eyes Were Watching God or the script for The Vagina Monologues, but I’m only interacting with the text as I turn the page, and create my “world” inside my own head. With a Twine-fueled story, the story is in my head as I interact, but also, there is a literal world in front of me, which I am interacting with. The choices I make, or simply the links I click on when they are my only choice, shift the hue of the background, as well as the tempo and volume of the music as I interact. As you traverse With Those We Love Alive, you’re even encouraged to write certain symbols on your arm as you go along. I wrote on paper instead, but the interactivity still begged for a certain amount of attention, a certain amount of immersion. Once in the story, there is music, colors, etc. Heartscape actually crafted the feminine “space” that she sought, molding a world of empowerment, as well as immersion.
This sense of simultaneous immersion and empowerment was also present in the other Twine I recently read, Hunt for the Gay Planet by Anna Anthropy (another wonderful screen name!). Another world was created, this time specifically for lesbians. Now, don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to be homosexual to enjoy or, understand the merit of, this text. That is NOT what I’m saying. I am simply echoing what the text is: a search for a planet where being gay is accepted, and a gay person doesn’t have to worry about stigmatization or feeling unwelcome. You literally search for a “gay planet.” Just like you don’t have to be a woman to enjoy With Those We Love Alive, you don’t have to be gay to enjoy Hunt for the Gay Planet. As you search through a dystopian space world to find a gay planet, you are able to relish in the sassy humor, which an example of can be found below:
(from Hunt for the Gay Planet by Anna Anthropy)
I’ve already read that line before, and it makes me laugh to simply reread it. Where With Those We Love Alive utilized immersion and an empowering space to dissect the struggles of life as a woman, Hunt for the Gay Planet uses a more playful, satirical, humor-infused immersion. Still, the illustration of struggle, and a need for a “space” is still there like in the previously mentioned Twine. In this text, you literally have to FIND A PLANET WHERE BEING GAY IS OKAY. If that’s not an blatant critique of society, I don’t know what is. Via this search for a “space,” there is again a sense of empowerment. The entire point of the text is to find a gay planet–that is your objective. You become immersed in the pursuit of a land of queerness.
Whether the Twine you’re reading is a more serious reflection on the struggles of womanhood or a humor-laden societal critique, you have a mission, an end goal, that is both empowering (because there is finally a whole interactive space dedicated to a certain struggle) and immersive (due to the goal of finishing the text and other sensory appeals, such as color and music change). Twine can simply be another generator for text. But, it can also be a place for an author to create an entire microcosm, which lends itself to their cause via immersion. In the case of what I have read as of late, I’ve even had the privilege of seeing examples of this immersion used for empowerment of marginalized demographics of people. And that’s something I can not just get behind, but become excited about.
When the story goes digital... 