The text doesn’t stop at the end of the page (or does it) an exploration of how the novel form responds to digital interactivity through the cross sited novel ‘once in a lifetime

The Text Doesn’t Stop at the End of the Page (or does it?): an exploration of how the novel form responds to digital interactivity through the cross-sited novel ‘Once in a Lifetime’ By John Weldon BA, Grad Cert College of the Arts, Victoria University Submitted in fulfilment of the degree of PhD in Creative Writing July 2014 i Abstract Change is a constant of storytelling, in terms of both form and content Many scholars and commentators have argued, however, that the effects currently being wrought on fiction texts as a result of the influence of digital technology and interactivity are the most monumental that storytelling has undergone since the invention of moveable type in the mid-1400s Writers have wrestled with ways to include digital technology in their work since its introduction in the late 1960s It has been used as subject matter and as a tool to shape, contain and present their work to readers This experimentation was accelerated in the 1980s following the development of hyperfiction Web 2.0 and the birth of interactive social media have seen an increased focus among scholars on the ways and means by which digital interactivity has and will impact on storytelling and reading This leads to an often-polarising debate and one which ranges in tone from apocalyptic to euphoric in response to the question of how longform narrative in particular will fare as a result As a storyteller writing a novel set in a contemporary context, I became aware of the possible use-value of social media, in the form of the blog, to deliver content – in this case, inner monologue Those sections of the novel concerned with self-reflection thereby transformed from what was originally a Socratic/Seinfeldian internal dialectic, framed through the use of second person, into something more akin to the sort of content that might be found on a blog It was only a short step from there to a consideration of how social media might be used in the form of the work as well as in its content This then led to an exploration of how this might change the nature of what was written, how it was read and the effects on the relationship between reader, author and character Through the medium of what became the cross-sited, interactive fiction ‘Once in a Lifetime’ (comprising the novel ‘Once in a Lifetime’ and the blogs Note to Elf and Hot Seat) I attempted to create a scenario whereby the effects that the incorporation of ii digital interactivity into both the narrative and the form of a novel might affect the work and the relationships between writer, reader and characters I wished to explore whether the introduction of interactivity to the novel might allow for the novel form to move beyond the page Would the story continue to grow in cyberspace with input from readers, or would the novel form prove more resistant to such intervention? iii Student Declaration I, John Weldon, declare that the PhD thesis entitled ‘The Text Doesn’t Stop at the End of the Page (or does it?): an exploration of how the novel form responds to digital interactivity through the cross-sited novel ‘Once in a Lifetime’ is no more than 100,000 words in length including quotes and exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, references and footnotes This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work Signature Date 6th May 2015 iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Drs Ian Syson and Jeff Sparrow for their rigour and their fine critical eyes I would like to thank Ian in particular for his sustained enthusiasm for, and belief in, my work The Dean of The College of Arts at Victoria University, Associate Professor Bronwyn Cran, was instrumental in supporting me during my candidature, as were many others of my colleagues I’d also like to thank Dr Antoni Jach for his valuable help with this project in in its very early stages Finally, without the support of my wife, children and my parents this work would not have been possible v List of Publications and Awards Selected Publications: Weldon, J Spincycle, Vulgar Press, Melbourne, 2012 Weldon, J ‘Notes on the Future’ Postscripts 34-35, Ps Publishing, London, 2012 Weldon, J ‘Multividual: a new story for a new audience’ The Emerging Writer, The Emerging Writers Festival, Melbourne, 2012 Weldon, J 2012 ‘The Effects of Digitisation on the Novel’, The International Journal of the Book, vol 10 no pp 57-68, Weldon, J ‘The Cruise’, Unpacked Again, Lonely Planet Publications, Melbourne, 2001 Awards: Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) Grant of $45K, for the development and staging on the 2012 Offset Creative Arts Festival Victoria University, Vice Chancellor’s Award recipient 2013 in the category: Programs that Enhance Learning: For sustained commitment to the development of innovative and flexible learning in the work place and community based learning and teaching strategies and experiences in creative industries, via the student journal Offset vi Table of Contents Title i Abstract ii Student Declaration iv Acknowledgements v List of Publications and Awards vi Table of Contents vii List of Figures viii Creative component: ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Exegesis: Introduction 216 Chapter 222 Chapter 237 Chapter 249 Chapter 267 Chapter 275 Chapter 286 References 300 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 278 The relationships between John Weldon and Bill that underpin the story world of The Project viii Once in a Lifetime Note to Elf This is a novel Obviously All the characters and events in this work are fictitious etc, etc But it’s also an experiment Bill, the main protagonist, is a blogger Some of his blog posts are included in these pages, many more exist online You are invited to read his blogs and and to comment on anything you see there that interests you You are also invited to email him, should you wish Feel free to flatter, argue with, cajole, flirt, attack, question, or in any other way interact with him I’m sure he won’t mind Or perhaps he will You see, Bill does not know he is fictional, nor is he aware that there has been a book written about his life I cannot imagine how he might react should you bring that to his attention creating interactive narrative forums They need to prepare the fictional and functional worlds of those forums accordingly Much time was spent on redesigning the blogs so that, while remaining consistent with Bill’s character, they were also interesting, attractive and worthwhile for the reader with regard to content What was not considered in enough detail was their functionality from both the reader and moderator’s points of view Although commenters followed the blog schema of question and response, they did so while also seeming to follow novel-related boundary conventions This prevented them from initiating new hinge points as was the case with the majority of interactions on Max Barry’s Machine Man blog (Barry 2010), suggesting that they were not as familiar with blog schema as I thought they might be which was also suggested by my research Most of the interactions took place on the two most easily accessible posts (‘Goodbye to all That’ and ‘Comeback tour’), reinforcing the idea that readers were unfamiliar, unwilling or unable to engage further with the blog through its archives No interactions were posted on Hot Seat This also supports the contention that readers were only willing or able to participate in the blogs in a limited way While Hot Seat appears towards the end of the novel and features less prominently in the text, the invitation to visit is placed directly after the invitation to visit Note to Elf It may have been the case that including two blogs in The Project over-complicated matters, meaning that too much was expected of readers Pope (2010, p 82), Skains (2010, p 97) and Douglas and Hargadon (2001, pp 166-7) expressly warn against asking readers of interactive fictions from extending themselves too far, suggesting that this is a major reason why interactive narratives often fail These deliberations led me to reconsider the decision to use blogs as the interactive medium of choice for The Project While the blog might be the most novel-like of all online forms, it may not actually be the best form for interactive storytelling precisely because of that similarity Since The Project was initiated, Facebook and Twitter have become the standard for social media and online interactive correspondence Both of these platforms streamline the collection of contact information on registration Further, the default setting for both assumes that users want to be kept up to date 295 about correspondence, and assumes they want to interact with others, which makes extended interaction easier Implicit in the schema employed by these sites is the notion that users will regularly check back in to update themselves on any correspondence It is still the case that neither of these two social media platforms resembles the novel but, as has been demonstrated with blogging, that may not be as relevant an issue as I first thought The similarities in form between blogs and novels may have made the interactive component of The Project a more familiar-seeming storytelling platform to readers, but it may also have created a barrier to extended interactivity This directly contradicts the advice given by Skains (2010, p 97), Pope (2010, p 82) and Douglas and Hargadon (2001, pp 56-7) who spoke of the need to keep experiments with regard to the novel and interactivity small, and warned authors not to expect too much of the reader They suggest that it is better to build on existing schema rather that introduce unknown and potentially confusing ones I attempted to that in the case of The Project and while this accorded result-wise with Neilsen’s statistics with regard to blog participation, it failed to generate cardinal hinge points and/or dialogue that might cause change This may have been because the schema I used was too similar to those of novel writing and reading The success of Twitter and Facebook, both of which require new schema and boundary conventions, and the ease and speed with which they have been adopted suggests that we can move further away from the traditional page in the interactive online realm However, it must be noted that cardinal hinge points and dialectic exchanges may have been generated on the blogs had it been possible to build traffic numbers there Ong (1982, p 82) outlines the process by which readers have internalised reading such that it is subconsciously part of us We are not aware that we are utilising schema nor that we are following boundary conventions that govern the way we behave as readers and the way we interact with authors and characters One of the most important of these conventions, as Murray suggests, is that which prohibits participation on the part of the reader (1997, p 100) Although in the blog space we are not bound by this non-participatory convention, we as readers often behave as if 296 we are Blogs invite interaction but, as noted by Nielsen (2006), the majority of blog users not take up this invitation Twitter and Facebook, however, place a much greater emphasis on the need for each user to participate through interaction On those two platforms, users must choose to opt out of a default state that leaves them open to contact by others, rather than opt in to such a situation as they must in the case of blogs The commenters on Note to Elf, as was the case with the majority of the commenters on Max Barry’s Machine Man blog, did not push the boundaries of the reader, author and/or character relationships as discussed by Murray (1997, pp 100-3) This meant that they failed to raise any issues requiring me as moderator to make use of the detailed fictional world diagram included in chapter five However, the comments by anonymous, Webster, Nardo and Corrigan, all of which demonstrated a knowledge of Bill’s story – which seemed unusual to him, showed that there was a potential need for this dense and complicated framework Rieser asserts that a ‘precise understanding’ of the underlying narrative structures of an interactive narrative is necessary for the construction of a facilitation of effective moderation’ (1997, p 11) Those interactions demonstrated that it was possible for conversations that required the use of this diagram to arise If they had taken place and if I, as moderator, had not already established a consistent and logical fictionalworld view, it would have been difficult to respond in a way consistent with the character, my needs as moderator and the fictional world of The Project An author of a cross-sited interactive fiction must be prepared for any potential logical and functional inconsistencies that might be introduced to the work by the differing conventions and schemata required to access works in disparate media Where this includes a change in narrative point of view it is even more crucial that the author has a thorough understanding of the world he/she has created It may have been the case that readers did not engage at length on Note to Elf because blogs not demand such engagement Readers did not possess the necessary schemata to so or because they were unaware of the opportunity the blogs presented which was to allow them to play with existing boundary conventions Users may have engaged more deeply with The Project and over a longer period of time had 297 the publicity that surrounded the launch of the novel resulted in an increase in sales Or it may have been the case, as Landow (2006, p 137), Rhomberg (2012), (Hoffelder 2011), and Carey (Indvik 2012) suggest, that readers were simply unwilling to engage in interactivity, preferring instead to be left alone with the story The invitation to interact is possibly viewed by readers as being similar to the ‘irresistible invitation’ (Kacandes 1993) offered by the word ‘you’ in fiction told from the second-person point of view For some it is a welcome invitation For others it feels like an uncomfortable imposition It is beyond the scope of this exegesis to explore this potential similarity in any great detail, but research into this will be useful for the development of interactive fiction That interactivity can feel imposed upon the novel form suggests that the two are at cross-purposes: that the novel form is resistant to the introduction of interactivity Eco speaks of the book as being ‘like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel Once invented it cannot be improved’ (2012, p 4) Whether the novel as a form is beyond improvement or not is not the business of this exegesis, but the idea that the novel is not improved upon through the addition of interactivity is compelling In seeking to add interactivity to the novel through cross-siting I have added an improvement that doesn’t actually work (2012, p 5) or which doesn’t work well enough to warrant its inclusion This suggests that in looking to take stories beyond the page through cross-siting and or other forms of interactivity, authors need to find a form other than the novel – perhaps the novel-like blog – if they are to so If interactive fiction is to be developed then it must seek forms that not too closely mimic the novel so that the schemata and boundary conventions that are brought to these (albeit unconsciously) by novel readers not prevent them from embracing the possibilities of these new forms Instead, we need to seek new forms, which may well have novel-like characteristics, in the same way that film has theatrical characteristics, but which are new forms with their own schema and boundary conventions When we play with the boundary 298 conventions and schema that surround the novel form in the online arena we must also play with the form itself We must allow it to become something else 299 References Alexander, B 2011, The 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