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Papers by David Hou

Narrative structures in gaming seem to follow Peter Wollen's theory of "narrative transitivity" (... more Narrative structures in gaming seem to follow Peter Wollen's theory of "narrative transitivity" (501) wherein plot developments are linear and cohesive. Narrative formation is a crucial part of gaming, and the construction of an effective story world is paramount in drawing and retaining player interest. Yet the earliest games, such as Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978, Asteroids (1979), etc. had no narrative transitivity. There was no explanation of why aliens were invading Earth (presumably) or why the player was a spaceship floating in a vacuum having to navigate a treacherous asteroid field. These questions were never answered, and truthfully, there was no need to answer them. People were content to play just for the novelty of having an interactive avatar, though as technology advanced, stories became possible and, eventually, necessary. First with guidebooks, then with cut scenes, stories became integrated into games and gaming. The evolution of game narratives has curiously mimicked the evolution of literary history, with many of the same explorations in style and content. This is no coincidence, as Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman explain in their seminal book on game design that "representations in games do not exist in isolation from the rest of culture[;] they rely on conventions drawn from narrative genres in other media" (25), which in turn allows for the examination of video game narratives through literary criticism. However, games are unique in their ability to offer a cooperative experience. The interactivity of games aside, with the advent of the internet, games HOU 2 are possible in which many people share a single world. The effects of this plurality on the narrative structure of games are profound and one game in particular, Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP), can serve to demonstrate the wide-ranging narratological implications of collective play. I argue that TPP presents as a self-induced narrative in which the protagonist is also the author, a classic case of second person narration. But what happens when there is more than one protagonist/author 1 ? I propose that this is an example of a new narrative mode, one in which 'we' tell 'our' story to ourselves: the collective second person. This necessarily involves the formation of a meta-narrative which operates outside of, yet is influenced by, the game narrative. This meta-narrative functions as another level of story immersion, one which is even more effective due to its self-induced nature. This meta-narrative also crucially disrupts the traditional game narrative by imposing a diegetic meta-narrative to the (mostly) mimetic game narrative.

Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, reveals ... more Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, reveals that there seems to be an obsession with civilizing the wild, firmly placing America as the space which immediately follows the frontier. That space is fundamentally different from the spaces of Europe, which had conquered the wilderness long ago. America's position is thus within such a liminal space, between the established and the undiscovered. It is one which highlights the dichotomy between civilization and nature in spite of, or maybe due to, their close proximity. Crucially, this space is by definition unstable, necessitating a continual drive to advance or perish, correlating with the historical realities of westward expansion. This relentless need for progress, combined with a finite world, ultimately begets the final question: what happens when the frontier is lost? This anxiety is fully articulated in Frederick Jackson Turner's HOU 2

The effects of a working artificial intelligence are a subject of much speculation in contemporar... more The effects of a working artificial intelligence are a subject of much speculation in contemporary science fiction. From their very conception, the idea of an intelligence somehow superior to humankind has engendered suspicion and distrust. Depictions of AI in popular culture seem to always end in disaster. Notable among these are science fiction classics such as I, Robot, 2001: a Space Odyssey, and the Terminator series. They are representations of a new kind of apocalypse, one that seems to be the inevitable conclusion to the 'myth of the machine'. The machines are frightening because they are entirely logical -there is not an inability to argue with them, but rather a futility. Communication is unnecessary and pointless -mankind cannot argue its way out of destruction. An interesting recent addition to the list of fictional artificial intelligences arises out of Spike Jonze's movie Her. It is a novel representation of the machine and one where reciprocal communication is possible. It is this projection of futuristic technology that is of interest. Jonze illustrates what it would be like to speak directly to the machine, and it is through this experience that the possibility for alternative discursive modes emerges. Her shows this new discursive mode, or at least the effects of having one. In using the narrative freedom of science fiction, Jonze is able to contrast the relatively slow, mechanical, aspects of written communication with the possibilities of fast, intuitive, vocal communication. This perceived dichotomy is then broken, but critically, it is broken only through the advanced technologies of a post-singularity world.

Conference Presentations by David Hou

Unheimliche is a German word meaning "unfamiliar" or "uncanny." Sigmund Freud used the term to ad... more Unheimliche is a German word meaning "unfamiliar" or "uncanny." Sigmund Freud used the term to address a type of fear caused by feeling unease toward what is familiar. Freud, in his essay on the uncanny, describes it "[as] that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar" (Freud 1-2). The notion of the uncanny is based on another Freudian idea -the existence of the other. Both of these concepts are instrumental in elucidating my ecocritical analysis of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Ecocriticism seeks to locate the intersections of human culture and nature within literary texts. The interdisciplinary nature of the field makes it a good looking glass through which to examine the interdependent and interconnected nature characterizing the start of the 20th century. For this particular text,

Narrative structures in gaming seem to follow Peter Wollen's theory of "narrative transitivity" (... more Narrative structures in gaming seem to follow Peter Wollen's theory of "narrative transitivity" (501) wherein plot developments are linear and cohesive. Narrative formation is a crucial part of gaming, and the construction of an effective story world is paramount in drawing and retaining player interest. Yet the earliest games, such as Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978, Asteroids (1979), etc. had no narrative transitivity. There was no explanation of why aliens were invading Earth (presumably) or why the player was a spaceship floating in a vacuum having to navigate a treacherous asteroid field. These questions were never answered, and truthfully, there was no need to answer them. People were content to play just for the novelty of having an interactive avatar, though as technology advanced, stories became possible and, eventually, necessary. First with guidebooks, then with cut scenes, stories became integrated into games and gaming. The evolution of game narratives has curiously mimicked the evolution of literary history, with many of the same explorations in style and content. This is no coincidence, as Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman explain in their seminal book on game design that "representations in games do not exist in isolation from the rest of culture[;] they rely on conventions drawn from narrative genres in other media" (25), which in turn allows for the examination of video game narratives through literary criticism. However, games are unique in their ability to offer a cooperative experience. The interactivity of games aside, with the advent of the internet, games HOU 2 are possible in which many people share a single world. The effects of this plurality on the narrative structure of games are profound and one game in particular, Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP), can serve to demonstrate the wide-ranging narratological implications of collective play. I argue that TPP presents as a self-induced narrative in which the protagonist is also the author, a classic case of second person narration. But what happens when there is more than one protagonist/author 1 ? I propose that this is an example of a new narrative mode, one in which 'we' tell 'our' story to ourselves: the collective second person. This necessarily involves the formation of a meta-narrative which operates outside of, yet is influenced by, the game narrative. This meta-narrative functions as another level of story immersion, one which is even more effective due to its self-induced nature. This meta-narrative also crucially disrupts the traditional game narrative by imposing a diegetic meta-narrative to the (mostly) mimetic game narrative.

Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, reveals ... more Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, reveals that there seems to be an obsession with civilizing the wild, firmly placing America as the space which immediately follows the frontier. That space is fundamentally different from the spaces of Europe, which had conquered the wilderness long ago. America's position is thus within such a liminal space, between the established and the undiscovered. It is one which highlights the dichotomy between civilization and nature in spite of, or maybe due to, their close proximity. Crucially, this space is by definition unstable, necessitating a continual drive to advance or perish, correlating with the historical realities of westward expansion. This relentless need for progress, combined with a finite world, ultimately begets the final question: what happens when the frontier is lost? This anxiety is fully articulated in Frederick Jackson Turner's HOU 2

The effects of a working artificial intelligence are a subject of much speculation in contemporar... more The effects of a working artificial intelligence are a subject of much speculation in contemporary science fiction. From their very conception, the idea of an intelligence somehow superior to humankind has engendered suspicion and distrust. Depictions of AI in popular culture seem to always end in disaster. Notable among these are science fiction classics such as I, Robot, 2001: a Space Odyssey, and the Terminator series. They are representations of a new kind of apocalypse, one that seems to be the inevitable conclusion to the 'myth of the machine'. The machines are frightening because they are entirely logical -there is not an inability to argue with them, but rather a futility. Communication is unnecessary and pointless -mankind cannot argue its way out of destruction. An interesting recent addition to the list of fictional artificial intelligences arises out of Spike Jonze's movie Her. It is a novel representation of the machine and one where reciprocal communication is possible. It is this projection of futuristic technology that is of interest. Jonze illustrates what it would be like to speak directly to the machine, and it is through this experience that the possibility for alternative discursive modes emerges. Her shows this new discursive mode, or at least the effects of having one. In using the narrative freedom of science fiction, Jonze is able to contrast the relatively slow, mechanical, aspects of written communication with the possibilities of fast, intuitive, vocal communication. This perceived dichotomy is then broken, but critically, it is broken only through the advanced technologies of a post-singularity world.

Unheimliche is a German word meaning "unfamiliar" or "uncanny." Sigmund Freud used the term to ad... more Unheimliche is a German word meaning "unfamiliar" or "uncanny." Sigmund Freud used the term to address a type of fear caused by feeling unease toward what is familiar. Freud, in his essay on the uncanny, describes it "[as] that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar" (Freud 1-2). The notion of the uncanny is based on another Freudian idea -the existence of the other. Both of these concepts are instrumental in elucidating my ecocritical analysis of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Ecocriticism seeks to locate the intersections of human culture and nature within literary texts. The interdisciplinary nature of the field makes it a good looking glass through which to examine the interdependent and interconnected nature characterizing the start of the 20th century. For this particular text,