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• 1 2019-11-18T16:14:19-08:00 Graphics and Mechanics of "The Brain Drawing the Bullet" 6 plain 2019-11-18T19:30:31-08:00      The graphical style of this work is very minimal and has multiple symbolic meanings that pertain to the mistreatment of characters. Lev Manovich mentions in his book "The Language of New Media" that images and audio are key components of new media and electronic literature (19) but this story takes a different spin on the graphical side of electronic literature. Unlike lots of electronic literature, "The Brain Drawing the Bullet" doesn't contain any media such as images, videos, or sound, only the text that makes up the narrative. The story starts off with a large blank page containing just the title of the story and the icon that needs to be clicked to progress the story. As the story continues, the page is quickly filled with stories and quotes found in the editorial that the narrator is creating. The use of only words to decorate the pages symbolizes the concept of the story being the process of thought as the story continues to change as more information is added unto it. That concept aids the author in creating an unreliable narrator that tries to recall the situation multiple times to prove to not only the reader, but himself, that the murder isn't his fault and that it is unfair for him to be blamed for it.
  
       Another graphical component of the story that is interesting is the use of (or lack thereof) color. As mentioned previously, color can be used to highlight themes that authors want to show. In this story, only three colors are present: black, white, and red. The page that the story is written on is white, while all of the text is black. In addition to being the traditional duo of text colors, black and white are allusions to the idiom "seeing things in black and white" which means that there is a clear right and wrong. The idiom symbolizes the narrator's attempt to convince the reader that he has done nothing wrong and that he is clearly in the right while being unfairly criminalized by society.     The only other color present in the story is red which is only shown in the arrows that the reader has to click to progress the story. The red arrow is not only a mechanism to progress the story, but it symbolizes an important aspect of the story through mechanics and graphics. Every time that the reader clicks the arrow, the story progresses and new information is added to the editorial. However, another affect of clicking the arrow is that previous information in the editorial changes. As a result, the arrow symbolizes an attempt of the narrator to recall the murder and change details about it to prove his innocence. With each click of the arrow, the narrator, and therefore the reader, go through another instance of the murder in which the narrator gradually changes from the perpetrator to the victim. This is only further symbolized by the red color of the arrow signifying the blood that was spilled when Joan was killed. Effectively, each time the red arrow is clicked, the "brain draws the bullet" again meaning that the murder is replayed in the narrator's head with different details surrounding the situation that make the narrator seem innocent and wrongly viewed by society.