Musings & Manifestos

This is a place to share thoughts and attempt to push back against the mindless acceptance of internet suburbia. Reviews, thoughts, and updates hosted here~

stick around and see!

WIP: Murderbot Diaries Digital Version

I'm working on a project to take publicly available excerpts of Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries and create an intertextual, multimodal, hyperlink rich version of those passages in an attempt to replicate more closely Murderbot's overstimulating experience of the world! This started as a project in my Master's program, and now it's just a little pet project; you can check out my progress here. I'm heavily inspired by 17776 in this endeavor, and hope to eventually expand the website to feature academic scholarship and reviews related to the book series. From my proposal:

By contrast, the annotated form of digital full text proposed for the website is relatively non-traditional and leans more towards a creative interpretation than a critical one. The cyborg-construct narrator has an explicitly multimodal view of the world, with a variety of “feeds” and commands being sent to it at all times. Murderbot mentions that the experience can be overwhelming, especially in times of crisis:

Conflicting commands filled my feed but I didn’t pay attention. Even if I hadn’t borked my own governor module, the emergency feed took priority, and it was chaotic, too, with the automated HubSystem wanting data and trying to send me data I didn’t need yet and Mensah sending me telemetry from the hopper. Which I also didn’t need, but it was easier to ignore than HubSystem simultaneously demanding answers and trying to supply them. (Wells, All Systems Red 10)

The simple plain text modality for the story therefore provides only a limited aspect of the main character’s perspective, which could be expanded and enhanced with the use of digital web tools. Using CSS to create hovertext popups for each of the key figures and terms within the story would allow the editor(s) to create additional layers of characterization and foreshadowing without technically altering the original text. This would create a unique reading experience for existing readers already familiar with the story, encouraging them to engage with the other elements of the text and drawing them to the website for further study. It could also potentially entice new readers who otherwise would not consider themselves long-form narrative readers by providing a unique modality more similar to video games and visual novels. In addition, a multimodally presented narrative provides a unique opportunity to make literal the intertextual overload that the character experiences.
This interpretive element to the annotations offers a creative form of literary criticism promoted by critic Geoffrey Hartman as “creative criticism” in the late 1970s. This annotation form works towards his goal that Mary Poovey outlines as being “to elaborate the operations of language by which texts create the effect of meaning” (119). As can be seen in the sample annotation, this is an ambitious endeavor due to the sheer volume of information and frequency of annotations. The definitional hovertext shown in the sample originates from both the work itself and from information shared by Wells in various interviews; for example, the pink text attached to the fictional title “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” draws from an Instagram interview transcribed on TOR.com (Reactor). It would be demanding to continue this process of diving into various external sources for further information about the series that have been shared by the author and publisher, but such efforts would eventually produce a thoroughly encompassing while still ideally enjoyable and enhanced version of the work. This version would need to be accompanied by a source list to prove the provenance of the interpretative annotations, which could also serve as a reference source for further study of the work and the author’s continued involvement.

Shortbox Comics Review: Endearing Ecologies

Lucero’s new comic, “Endearing Ecologies,” is everything it promises and more. Endearing indeed, this short story follows two siblings on a research assignment to the arctic in the future after the “21st century glacial collapse.” A mysterious creature has been released by the melting ice, and they try to figure out what it’s deal is as they reconnect after some time working apart. I was struck most by how accurate the sibling relationship is in its portrayal; that loving (yet sometimes annoyed) feeling of comfort with someone who knows you very well (and yet you’re still somehow learning new things about them after spending a literal lifetime together).

Here's Peregrine, the brother, saying to Tochin, 'you were the one who signed us up for this' with an exasperated expression. In the larger panel Tochin responds, 'yeah, i know.'

The art style is also delicious - the little creatures that dance around the pages and the cool-neon color scheme create a vibe that is both otherworldly and comforting, like glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars.

Here's Tochin gazing towards the reader, a small ethereal horse floating near her head. The lighting includes a colorful lens flare, creating a dream-like effect.

I also loved Tochin’s characterization – any robot character is always going to steal my heart, and I loved the little text-emoticon expressions (especially the :-) when they first see the horses). I could see the Murderbot inspiration here for sure with the dry wit of the characters and the neither-dystopian-nor-utopian futuristic setting that is established through hints and references that create a sense of lived-in normalcy for the characters and intrigue for the reader. Anyone who is a fan of Wells’ books would definitely enjoy this comic (and probably recognize Lucero’s art style from their amazing fanart)!

There’s so much packed into these relatively few pages that it is clear that a ton of love and thought went into it; it also leaves the reader with lots to chew on and play with after reading. I wish I could go hang out with the whole crew and explore this world myself! I hope this universe continues to expand; already, there’s a lot of fun extra art on Lucero’s website to check out. A great choice at Shortbox Comics this year, and only available for one more week!