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Powerlessness In Electronic Literature: By Blake Aschenbrener, Sriram Satyavolu, and Savannah Walters Main Menu Table of Contents Exploring Powerlessness in Digital Literature Authors: Blake Aschenbrener, Savannah Walters, and Sriram Satyavolu "Motions" - A Critical Introduction Section by Blake Aschenbrener A Critical Introduction to "I Got Whacked in the Face with a Baseball Bat" Summary and Composition of the work Untrace by Serge Bouchardon Explored by Savannah Walters About the Authors SOURCES Thanks for the kNoWleDgE (aka CITE THIS SHIZ)

Motions Gameplay

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Example of Morphing Pages Blake Aschenbrener
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1. Motions Gameplay

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The Roll Of Randomness (Chapter 1)
A victim of sex trafficking has no power or control and is relegated as a spectator of their own life. While it would be awful impractical and drastically ineffective, to recreate this experience for the reader of a piece of literature, "Motions" attempt to give the reader a glimpse into these sentiments. A core mechanic in this work is that each page is randomly generated with the addition of several media elements creating an ever-changing experience (Will Luers). While reading a procedurally generated book is not measured on the same magnitude as experiencing sex trafficking, there is a parallel between the book and the real experience. The book makes it impossible for two people to experience the same story and prohibits the reader from going back. Even if the reader hits the back arrow key, the page randomizes preventing the reader from backtracking. This mechanic not only takes away an aspect of control that readers typically have, but it also breaks the linear pathway of typical storytelling. Traditional books are written in a linear progression and this adds organization and aids understanding. By intentionally choosing to create a non-linear randomized path, the story propagates feelings of chaos and disorder which are discomforting to the reader. The structure is working alongside the text to convey a unified and powerful message. This same result could not be achieved to this extent in a traditional novel and shows how structure uses power to strip the reader of individual independence.