On
Sun, 30 Nov 2008, Julia Valenzuela wrote…
>
>-----
BEGIN FORM -----
>comments
>Hello,
>
>This
is Julia Valenzuela, I'm a student at the
>University
of Philology and Communication in
>Valencia,
Spain.
>
>We
are studying Hypertexts and Narrative and I
>have
chosen Rainbow Factory to make an html
>website
to analyse and explain the story and the
>tools
aspects about it, I just went through the whole
>poem
and I have to say that it has amused me quite
>a
lot, I was supposed to just skim over it a little
>today
but I have not been able to let it go until I
>finished
it...and repeated most windows a few
>times,
ha!
>Great
job!, I has been the first thing I have ever
>read
online but, I really liked it.
>
>Well
anyways, First of all I wanted to thank you for
>your
time, reading this... and was wondering if you
>could
help me with some questions that came up,
>as
I was reading it?
>NAME
Julia Valenzuela
>-----
END FORM -----
Peter
replied to me on Sun, 30 Nov 2008
Hi
Julia,
I'm
glad you liked Rainbow Factory. Please do ask your questions and I
will
try to answer them.
All
the best,
--
Peter
http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/
Peter
replied to me on 2, Dec 2008
Hi
Julia,
I'll
answer your questions as best I can...
>
I wondered, as I read it in a orderly and linear top left to right
>
and then bottom row also left to right, if the election of the
>
order of Rainbow Factory might change in anyway the story told?
>
I also wanted to know your personal opinion or preference of the
>
order of the windows of the
factory?
It's probably best
read from left to right, top to bottom, i.e. leftmost
top
window, leftmost bottom window, 2nd top window, 2nd bottom window,
and
so on. This is because the bottom windows often contain a trope or
commentary
on what happens in the corresponding top window. The top
windows are occupied
by the management, who want to present as good a
picture
as possible of The Rainbow Factory. The
bottom windows house the
disaffected workforce.
>
>
I also think I need an explanation for the 4th top row window: I
>
understood the text as a metaphor of rainbows to explain what
>
electronic literature can be about, and at the end you put an
>
ironic crossing out of the information written. Did I get this
>
wrong?
I
didn't consciously have the idea of the rainbows being a metaphor for
electronic
literature, but that doesn't mean you're wrong. In fact, I
like
this idea a lot. The crossing out is the
infiltration of the guided
tour by the dissidents. The word 'spin' is
used a lot in UK politics - I
think
this is what the crossing out is complaining about.
>
I had another question about the 8th top row window; I'm not sure
>
if I understood right the meaning of the text that scrolls quickly
>
up in an antique looking frame, is it a satiric poem?
It
would be claiming too much to call it a poem. It's supposed to be an
ancient text extolling
the economic virtues of The Rainbow Factory. I
used
some archaic spelling and the long form of the letter 's' (it looks
like
an 'f' but has a shorter cross-stroke and was used in English
typography
but died out by the nineteenth century -
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s
). Yes, it is satiric, on some
levels.
>
>
And then in the window
below that one (8th)the
one where the text
>
flashes around appearing and fading, I wanted to know if there was
>
any reason for the chaotic sense of this window?.. or if it has to
>
mean something in particular or if it is just random?
>
And what is the price of god's blood or who are the fuckers in the
temple caste?
I
wrote the piece around the time of the last stock market panic, i.e.
the
dot com bubble. So it's investors
panicking, which is why it's
chaotic.
The price of god's blood comes from
"How the colours came"
(window 2, top row) "red from the
blood of a dying god" and the fuckers
in
the temple caste is an extension of that. I was thinking that getting
blood
from a dying god would be the job of priests, and that in a
society
where this was important economically, those priests would have
a
lot of power, and also be likely to be hated when things went wrong.
>
Alright, that is about the most important things, I have more
>
questions, but I didn't want to bother
I'm
happy to try to answer more questions if it helps you.
Cheers,
Peter
replied to me
Hi
Julia,
On
Fri, 5 Dec 2008, Julia Valenzuela wrote...
>
Since I am actually supposed to do an analysis of the tools
aspect,
>
I am going to ask if you can explain, the type of tools used to
>
create the "black comedy", I have noticed that your
using movement and
>
sound as well, makes the story unique and dynamic. And very
>
appealing.
Almost
the whole piece was written in Macromedia
(now Adobe) Flash. The
rainbow
image was designed in Macromedia
Freehand, and the 'library'
(upper
window 5) is html (with a bit of javascript) written in Notepad.
The
sounds were taken from various royalty-free libraries on the web.
>
In some pages the words or lines change as we readers watch it,
and
>
that makes it very impacting at times, amusing and even confusing
>
at other times, the pieces of temporal
structuring create effects,
>
and my question is; were these changes and what they make the
>
reader feel, improvised or did you want different reactions from
>
the reader at specific times in the story?
There's
obviously a political element to the piece, but I wasn't trying
to
tell the reader what to think, but rather to invite them to draw
their own conclusions
and responses.
I think didactic art, where the
artist
is trying to tell the audience what to think, tends to fail, as
people
dislike that sort of manipulation. On the other hand, the
selection of material
and the way it's presented is always going to
suggest some sort of
bias.
(Does
that answer your question? If not, ask me again and I'll have
another
go.)
Cheers,
--
Peter
http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/
Peter
replied to me 8:09 PM
On
Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Julia Valenzuela wrote...
> Just one more short question... You must
have noticed , that in
> these emails, I have been referring to
Rainbow Factory, as a
> hypertext, poem, story, and said it was a
comedy a satire, etc.
>
> How would you name it? To someone like me,
that is new to
> electronic literature.
Hi
Julia,
I
don't think it needs to be categorised into any one single form. All
the
descriptions you've used seem appropriate to me.
I
certainly see it as a satiric black comedy. In form, it's an animated
story
with poetic elements, I think.
Thank
you for your questions. I've enjoyed thinking about them and
answering
them.
All
the best,