Perhaps I embarked on these ‘readings’ with prejudices full force, but would like to state for the record that I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised –as, I would like to point out, I was in at least a couple of Hayles’ chapters last week. Despite the fact that I gravitate towards reading lights (or cinemas) over computer screens, the discussion of media as an integral part of the text is intriguing, as are the ways in which technology informs readings across the board. Overall, however, this week’s ‘texts’ left me annoyed. Better for it? Perhaps enlightenment awaits.

One thing I find interesting, and problematical, is the idea of an ‘interactive text’ in which one sits solitary and smarting-eyed in front of a screen. With whom or what exactly is one interacting? Author? Characters? Computer? The idea of narrative itself? Or one’s own interpretation of a perception of a reading of a narrative? While this may be an interesting comment on reading in general, the self-referential here seems to overshadow what there is of social consequence. Breeding ego, perhaps, without necessarily furthering self-awareness. In the Hamlet game, the narrative actually appears flattened, with the other characters appearing as nothing but foils in the projection of the ‘narrative’, or in the ‘reader’s’ winning the game. A mildly interesting commentary on the self-referential readings we embark on blissfully unaware every day? Sure, but frankly I was bored.

The Lucky Ones I will leave alone but for the comment that if I want to watch mindless short clips (and sequence them myself), they have television series on dvd now. And many of them have plot lines. And the advertisements are at least ostensibly secondary to the content. Is this the point?

Same Day Test, of course is less easy to brush off. The attempt to walk in the shoes of someone in this situation is obviously a Worthy Enterprise. And perhaps here the medium fits the bill nicely. More immediate than facts or statistics, less easy to relegate to the other when the reader in some senses becomes both narrator and the scrutinized object.

- Grace