book review: _Twisty Little Passages_

[pynchonoid]

...it's not about Pynchon, but some of you will be
interested.  This review's from the RES ALERT
newsletter, 5 March 2004:


TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES: AN APPROACH TO INTERACTIVE
FICTION

Twisty Little Passages

>From old riddles to Dungeons and Dragons, Nick
Montfort's new book Twisty Little Passages (MIT Press)
critically explores a world of textual adventures both
on and off the computer screen. Using the recently
archaic projects Adventure and Zork as the beginning
of his historical treatment, Montfort assesses the
literary qualities of interactive fiction with the
dedication of any English professor and the excitement
of a 12-year-old with his first command-line role
playing game.


Of interest to Montfort is the role of the user, or
reader, of interactive fiction and how, in the
unfolding of a sort of poetic journey of pleasure, he
or she is invited to a level of mastery or
understanding -- "one that comes from overcoming
mental challenges formed as the verbal equivalent of
jigsaw puzzles." To be sure, these are not stories
designed to be absorbed on the couch with your
favorite carbonated drink.

Using Barthes, Baudrillard and a host of others,
Twisty Little Passages weaves a most functional and
enticing analysis of how we use stories -- and why the
way they are told is so important. Certainly, we've
seen delivery mechanisms for stories change ad
infinitum in the last decade. For that reason alone,
Twisty Little Passages is an aptly timed release and
one worth picking up for anyone who uses storytelling
as a means of communication -- and we would be hard
pressed to exclude anyone from that habit.
~ Matt Epler

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0262134365/qid=1078589843/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0174755-9066463?v=glance&s=books>


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