Literature Should Be Explorative

Tom Bissell, in his essay, “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” has described video games and how they are unique and different from movies, books, or even interactive films. Bissell says “I came to accept that games were incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” This is showing the readers that even though there is a plot and story line, as characters can control and alter the story line or outcome by what you do or see throughout the game.

Using persuasive writing, Wright begins to influence his audience that game play is a beneficial source of entertainment not a wasteful one. Playing video games increases creatively, self esteem and improve problem solving skills of the players. Video games are becoming test runs that appear or feel close to the real thing. Where you can control everything with added effects like magic or future technology. Games have the potential to exceed almost all other forms of entertainment media. They tell stories, play music, challenge us, allow us to instantly communicate and interact with others. Encourage us to create things, connect us to new communities, and let us play with people across the world. Unlike most other forms of media, games are inherently tangible. According to Wright young children spend their days in imaginary worlds, substituting toys and make believe into the real world that they are just beginning to explore and understand. Wright states that games are the result of imagination and that they consist of rules and goals. Generation of teenagers has grown up with different set of games. Teenagers use the scientific method rather than reading the manual first. Games today maybe a person’s only place to express a high-level of creativity and growth. Older generations have a lot of criticisms for games, the games can help a person learn to think on his or her own.

How have notions of story telling or marginalization informed and challenged audiences? In your answer, you must refer to at least TWO set texts, at least ONE of which has been studied since the half yearly.

Throughout time, storytelling has evolved and changed with society. While oral storytelling is not as prevalent as it once was, the stories that were once passed down orally have now been written and passed through generations and cultures in this manner. However, the form that the story takes has not had an effect on storytelling as a whole. Storytelling has provided a way for tellers to pass along ideas on culture, ways of life, and traditions that may otherwise have been lost. Oftentimes, stories can become convoluted after being passed on via word of mouth, yet, others keep their integrity. No matter the truthfulness of the story, storytelling has consistently been harmful due to its ability to influence the listeners’ or readers’ thinking. In this paper, I will prove that stories are inherently harmful due to the ability the teller has to influence the listener through relatable or believable stories, whether they be fact or fiction, to solidify the gender hierarchy as shown in literary stories such as Lysistrata, the Tale of Genji, and Sunjata.

     The first argument that arose out of the video game world was the debate of video game violence. Still unresolved, this debate has actually allowed for the video game industry to come fully into the main stream. As the din over violence quieted the fans of the game society began to focus on issues more akin to their own style. So then began the debate of game play vs. the video game narrative. The question arose; can a game also be a story? While the semantics would suggest that, no, a game cannot be a story, we do realize that a game can contain a story. However,

Fiction has been around for centuries, feeding the imagination of young and older minds. Usually when people read a fictional story, they don’t think about the connotation the story tries to convey. But every story has a message, and whether it be big or small, it takes a complex, deeper thinking to be able to find that message. It is apparent that the reason we study fiction is to be able to find that deeper thinking within ourselves and enrich our imagination.

Ever since the invention of language, humans have been obsessed and intrigued with the aspect of storytelling. Each story, whether written or spoken, holds an important theme within its creative words and exciting plot. While each story is special and unique, over the course of history, different periods of literature have formed where authors tend to focus on similar themes and messages. One of which was the American Romantic era, where authors used their stories to challenge the boundaries of society, and delve deeper into what makes people inherently human, both the flaws and perfections. Some of America’s greatest works of literature were born in this period, like those of Poe, and Hawthorne. A very common literary theme during the romantic period was that of good versus evil, in both individual characters and society as a whole; this theme is especially evident in works such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and Young Goodman Brown.

Most stories are not just stories written to entertain the reader. Intentional or not, writers are often commentating on the world around them. Social commentary is interwoven in the fabric of novels, and it is often up to the reader to determine what they take away from any given work. Although written for entertainment’s sake, stories usually include the social or political views of the author and serve as a platform for their views to be made known.

Video games plays an important role in the cognition process in many of this generation children. This statement is the main point of this TedTalk arguement led by Gabe Zichermann in the presentation called “Video Games: How Games Make Kids Smarter”. Gabe Zichermann is the world’s leading expert in the topic of gamification; he is also a public speaker, author and entrepreneur, and the founder and editor-in-chief of a magazine called “Gamification.co”. Gabe Zichermann discusses that generation G (the current generation) obtain, learn and process information differently compared to any other generation. The term “gamification” is the application of gaming mechanisms in non-game circumstances and is the process of engaging the current generations

Video games change the way people can interact with a narrative. Braid is a puzzle video game that communicates its narrative through snippets of text and game mechanics. Braid plays with perception and truth like other fiction novels but the medium also allows it to play with time and its affects on perception. This video game uses special game mechanics to deepen the player’s understanding of the given text in order to tell a story.

Storytelling helps other people to emotionally connect themselves to the author so that they know they are not the only ones who are experiencing a painful or exciting experience, and are able to share the same emotions. It often helps other people to know what they should do in order to get over it when it comes to a painful experience. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explores the life of Maya Angelou and the struggles she has been throughout her childhood to her adulthood. Richard Wagemese’s Indian Horse explores the life of Saul Indian Horse and the struggles he has been through after departing from his family. The power of storytelling can unfold questions which ask the audience of how and why are the events are unfold the

As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As

Literature is an imitation of societal values and is thus a reflection of the human experience of a time period. Written works emphasize the elements of culture, by means of characters, particular events, setting and theme, specific to the time period in which it was composed. Furthermore, literature mirrors the troubles or hardships of society and projects the core values that define said society. Thus, as culture has changed over time, literature has remained a critical facet in representing time periods of the past. Essentially, the culture of a time period is manifested through writing in the projection of society’s values, symbolism of the center of community and literature itself.

Games, like stories, attempt to represent reality. But the essential difference between the two is that most stories present events in

It focuses on “the ways in which people make and use stories to understand the world”. Does NOT treat narratives as stories that transfer a set of facts about the world, and is not principally interested in whether stories are ‘true’ or not (so is closer to public constructionism than positivist approach).It views narratives as social products that are formed by people in the context of precise social, historical and ethnic locations. It views narratives as explanatory devices through which people represent themselves and their worlds to themselves and to others. Narrative