At the beginning of this class, I'll admit that I was a little skeptical about how interested I would be in the material we would be learning about. I was never a huge video game or comic fan and I was worried that the semester would be drag out to be just another class I was forced to attend. What i discovered however, was that different forms of narrative and how they are able to relay stories in different and interesting ways is actually a fascinating thing to sit down and learn. I was ultimately really glad that I decided to stick with the class because I was exposed to things that I would otherwise never have been exposed to in my life. I enjoyed taking an in-depth look at comics and video games especially because it was a new, fun way of looking at the way a narrative could be formed. This class quickly became my favorite class of the semester and I think I owe that to the interesting course material, my classmates, and of course, my professor, Dr. Whalen.

Recently I came across this youtube video. It starts off with a little kid with braces video-taping himself and explaining the situation: his mother just cancelled his older brother, Steven's World of Warcraft account and he is not taking it so well. The younger brother conceals the camera in Steven's room so that it can capture the freak-out first hand. The results are absolutely unbelievable. Check out the video for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

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For my final project, I will write and analyze a story that I will create. In the story I will use techniques learned in class that will demonstrate my understanding of the course content. My analysis will be about three pages long and explain why and how I used this form of narrative as well demonstrate what gives the story narrativity.

While reading my Choose Your Own Adventure Book, I was struck by the number of possible endings and how they greatly vary. Many of the endings given involved me being eaten by snakes or wolves, or burned at the stake. Others involved me meeting a family with whom I worked with for the rest of my life. Another ending was that I met a girl named Michelle, ran off with her, and find the "Forbidden Castle" where we live forever. These variations in resolution fluctuate depending upon the choices I, as the reader, make throughout the story. After reading "The Abominable Snowman" as well as "The Forbidden Castle" for my CYOA Forms of Narrative Project, I was intrigued by the idea of choosing how I want to proceed in a given narrative. I found a website online which calls itself "Choose Your Own Adventure," yet it has no affiliation with the books themselves. The warning at the beginning of the game reads, "This game is not suitable for children. Some story choices contain language and situations that some adults may find offensive. This story is written by visitors to the site, and is largely unmoderated.

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For my Choose Your Own Adventure analysis, I chose Edward Packard’s divergent story, The Forbidden Castle. The tale begins as I, the reader and main participant in the narrative, find myself behind a tree in Medieval England after wandering into the Cave of Time! After overhearing two passing knights discuss what they call the “Forbidden Castle,” I am faced with my first choice: should I remain hidden and wait for the next passerby? Or should I step out from my hiding place and confront the two knights? It is from this choice that a multitude of end results are stemmed.

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In class on Thursday Oct. 8th, we had an in-depth conversation on the idea of meta-images and what they can mean to the viewer, illustrator, etc.. "Meta" is a prefix that can be attached to any number of words, which suggests to itself and the conventions of its genre. These "metapictures" do not only refer back to the fact that they, themselves, are pictures, they also allow the viewer to play a sort of game with the image and further interact with its components. I have always been a huge fan of optical illusions. These mesmerizing representations of what is and what is not really there are able to capture the attention of any individual who has enough patience to truly dissect its elements. Above all, however, optical illusions are designed to make the observer think about what they are looking at. Then, when you really think you've solved this visual puzzle, the pictures does a complete 180 and you find yourself lost again in the perplexing image. M.C. Escher may be one of the most famous artists who is able to successfully convey such ambiguity through contorted perspectives and creative uses of light and shadow.

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While discussing television in narrative in class, I began to think about those people with disabilities who may not be able to experience TV and film as I am able to. The overall thrill viewers get from watching television and movies includes audial and visual effects that makeup the experience as a whole. How, then, do deaf and blind individuals experience TV? Luckily, television and motion pictures have provided supplemental features for those with these types of disabilities.

For the hearing impaired, for example, closed-captioned programs have assisted individuals by means of visual text on the television screen. Closed-captioning, or subtitles, allow the individual to read what is being said on the screen. Below, I have posted a link on youtube which illustrates how subtitles are used. Turn off your sound and view the clip as a deaf person would.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

The video, itself, is rather funny. This is just one example of how television can be viewable to all.

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After reading "Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television" by Jason Mittell and after our class discussion on Tuesday, September 15th, I was most intrigued by the idea of non-diegetic music and its influence on visual narrative. Non-diegetic music is the music playing that the characters of the narrative are unable to hear, or the background music. The non-diegetic music of any visual narrative can greatly influence the mood itself. Happy music is usually playing during a happy scene. Sad music is typically playing during a sad scene. Dramatic music plays during a dramatic scene, and so on. What happens, however, when the non-diegetic music does not match up with the intended emotion of the narrative?

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I wanted to write about the game we played in class because it was one of the weirdest ones I have ever experienced. At first I had no idea what the whole idea was all about but after a few minutes I slowly began to get a hang of the whole story concept. After playing with the different characters for awhile, I found I could change the ending of the story. The ending of the story was completely dependent upon the beginning. This was interesting to me because it made me think about how the events of a story can manipulate the overall plot in many different ways. The fabula of the story is the raw events; the things that happen. The story is how these events are relayed in the narrative text. I liked the game because it allowed you to change the fabula, thus changing the ending.