Two Reading Modes of the 2021 Web Edition of Figurski
As this video capture shows, the 2021 Web Edition of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid presents two reading modes.
The Classic reading mode recalls the look and feel of 2001 Edition as it was originally experienced on a Macintosh computer running System Software 9.2. It maintains the Storyspace aesthetic by containing the lexia in dialogue box, replete with scrollbar and the color hyperlinks, and providing additional navigation via the toolbar.
The Contemporary reading mode retains dialogue box and toolbar from the canonical 2001 Edition but simplifies it both by eliminating the border around the former and at the top of the latter. Additionally, the background retains a psychedelic aesthetic that features saturated colors and swirling motifs and provides a consistency for the work across its 354 lexias. In this mode readers can also know exactly the episode; the character, location, and artifact; and date of the lexia they have accessed—information not available in the Classic reading mode.
Moreover, as readers move through the work, they can toggle back and forth between the two modes. As Grigar wrote in her introduction to the 2021 Web Edition:
Close to 50 years ago Hans-Georg Gadamer argued that "reading is already translation, and translation is translation for the second time” (Gadamer, in Biguenet and Schulte, ix). For Figurski, reading is also impacted by its migration from Storyspace software and physical media to the web languages and web, adding a third layer to the translation process of the work, for it is not just translation of the code from C to HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, but the changes, also, to the format of the work that results in a different sensory experience and a different way of reading the work. Lost is the intimacy established with touching the tangible object and the sense of it belonging to us personally. Gained, however, is something more important that should be celebrated: We can now again read one of the most unique and quirky interactive novels of the early 21st Century. (Grigar, 2021)
By offering the two reading modes, the Electronic Literature Lab aimed to provide a sense of the 2001 Edition while at the same time create a new work of art, a new experience, a new way of reading the novel.