The Landscape
6
Screenshot of Dawn, taken by William Siege
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2019-11-19T09:55:50-08:00
Dawn is constantly shifting through different images of nature; water, trees, grass. Every image has an uplifting feel to it, especially when combined with the changing lighting. Dawn adds light to the surroundings as words fade in and out to give a clearer picture of the life around the reader. The land seems hospitable and calm, with life clearly visible. This abundance of life directly contradicts the previous words of the poem, speaking of death, and how imminently both the speaker father will disappear. This is done on purpose to emphasize the perseverance of life and peace in spite of loss and death. The trees don't flinch when a person passes away, the world keeps progressing forwards. The text in this image refers specifically to the “blue deer”. There does not need to be an exact physical body of a blue deer to be referred to, none of the deer in the image are blue. The blue deer symbolizes all nature that would exist in the absence of humans. In other words, Dawn is describing that all of time rests in the hands of nature, and humans have no sway over that. All of the images in the background of Dawn act as the voice and power of nature, whereas the words on the screen are the thoughts of humans. In this image, as the words grow fainter, the animals in the distance can be seen more clearly, and the horizon becomes more vivid. In order to understand what is important in the world, you have to be quiet and observe without thought.
Electronic literature should require the reader to think before they will be able to understand what is going on. One of the main purposes of adding images to writing is to add a layer of depth and complexity. Dean Bowman, in his “Domesticating the First Person Shooter” argues that major video game producers, have failed to understand the importance of complexity depth and innovation when combining stories with images, resorting to “tried-and-tested systems and ideas rigidly constrained by industry norms and assumptions”, the exact opposite of what innovation should lead to.
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