My favorite of the interactive fiction works we read this week is “All I Want Is For All My Friends To Become Insanely Powerful” by [[Porpentine]]. It is a story of becoming powerful and being your [[true self]], and more specifically it reflects Porpentine's experience of being a [[transgender woman]]. One of the reasons [[I love this story]] so much is that in the face of so many stories about trans suffering, this story is ultimately about trans joy.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->Title]]]
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Next->body 1]]]I like that all of the works we read this week gave us new viewpoints on life. I like games that have a real story to tell, and I tend to find those the most in small indie games like these.
(text-colour:grey)[Answers question 1: What do you like about the sources you choose to write about? Why do you like them?]
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->Intro]]][[You]] start off in a very [[austere]] apartment that’s all black and white and obsidian, dressing in black business suits, and doing destructive jobs every day that end in your death, and it feels [[dystopian]]. This continues for three days, during which you [[destroy a make-up store]] and are [[engulfed in tar]] twice. Each night you have a dream encounter. The first dream reveals that, “To your supreme shock and horror you realize you haven't [[cried]] for years.” The second, you go on a date which ends in an oddly [[violent sexual encounter]] involving you injuring yourself with a hammer and screwdriver. In the last dream, you visit a house and put your hands in a pit of [[blue shimmering dust]].
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(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Next->body 2]]]Dystopia: "an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice" (Oxford Languages).
This reflects how it can feel to be disconnected from your body and struggle with dysphoria which many trans people have experience with.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]Another sign of suppressing self expression. This shows signs of toxic masculinity; many transfeminine people are raised under these expectations.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]][[“This must be right / This is expected of me”]] (Porpentine)
[[“If you cared about your date, you'd fill your thigh with the screwdriver”]] (Porpentine)
[[“You pride yourself on your sexual prowess”]] (Porpentine)
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]The next day is your fourth job, and when you open your pod for your job that day, [[“Oh No!” by Marina]] starts playing and the [[clothes]] and supplies you are given are like those of a futuristic space girl instead of a serious businessperson. You go back to the make-up store from your first job, but this time you [[put on make-up]] instead of destroying the store. The fifth job returns you to the site of the second job, but instead of going inside and being covered in tar and crushed by machinery, now you spray the factory with [[pink goo]]. That night, you hear “reports of [[depraved cyber hackers]] tampering with the pod systems” (Porpentine). The sixth job returns you to the same mansion filling with tar as the third job, but this time [[pink pills]] you were given with your supplies are in your pocket, and on contact with the tar, they turn it into pink goo that doesn’t hurt you. That night you think about how [[the past]] is no longer bothering you. The seventh day, when you open your pod for work, the screen changes from black to pink and your apartment is transformed, turning it pink, galaxy, and quartz, making it absurd and fun, and completing your [[transformation]].
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]“This must be right / This is expected of me”
Performing what you think you are supposed to do instead of what you actually want to do.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->violent sexual encounter]]]“If you cared about your date, you'd fill your thigh with the screwdriver”
It is not uncommon for trans people to feel uncomfortable regarding some parts of sex. This quote shows the player guilting themself into doing something that would hurt them in order to please someone else.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->violent sexual encounter]]]“You pride yourself on your sexual prowess”
You pride yourself on your ability to pretend, conform, and hurt yourself.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->violent sexual encounter]]]The line “I just wanna change” repeats five times in a row early on in the song. This reflects the transition occurring in the story. The music also matches the futuristic space girl aesthetic that you are moving towards.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]Within the context of transitioning, these pills can represent hormone replacement therapy (HRT) specifically estrogen, which is a feminizing hormone generally taken in the form of pills. This also makes sense that the pink pills nullify the tar, as HRT changes your body and can alleviate dysphoria.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]“as you fall asleep / the past rises up in front of you again / but somehow / this time it passes through you like / you’re made of air / you see it all / and somehow / it doesn’t matter / as much as it used to.” (Porpentine)
Once you are out of a bad situation, such as trauma or struggling with your gender and dysphoria, looking back it can all feel less life-ending. You are healing.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]“Forget pretty things, valuable things: Porpentine’s games are far more interested in what society discards as worthless.” [[(Laura Hudson)]]
Being your true self is not something that is actually valued in our society. People who exist outside of the norm are seen as weird and cringey. Trans people are often included in that and our stories are seen as unimportant or worthless.
(text-colour:grey)[Answers question 3: What is the message / theme contained in the source? What ideas are the sources' creators attempting to convey with their work (creative intent)?]
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->Intro]]]//"Twine, the Video-Game Technology for All" by Laura Hudson//
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/magazine/twine-the-video-game-technology-for-all.html?_r=0
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->true self]]]Due to the interactive nature, this type of fiction lends itself better to writing in the second person than traditional literature does. When put in different situations, this makes it easier for the reader to empathize with and better understand people who are dealing with these things in real life. This is most obvious in games like "Depression Quest" and "Begscape" which put you in the shoes of someone depressed, and someone homeless, respectively.
(text-colour:grey)[Answers question 4: What are the cultural, social, and/or political implications of the work you are writing about (if present)? What do the works say about identity, gender, race (if present)? How does presentation in the creators' chosen digital medium affect or enhance the exploration of any of these things?]
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]When people suppress a part of themselves, they often adhere excessively to what is expected of them. Many trans people go through a phase of dressing and acting hyperfeminine or hypermasculine before they transition.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]Changing the clothes they wear is often the first step that people take when they start to transition.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]Putting on make-up is another way that many trans people choose to express themselves and their gender. Transfemmes in particular may find make up to be gender affirming as in our culture make-up = feminine.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]Sometimes when you are denied something, you lash out at it. You destroy the make-up because you do not get to wear it.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]Drowning in tar can represent dysphoria and how it can feel like you are drowning in your own body.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]“reports of depraved cyber hackers tampering with the pod systems”
Reading this quote feels the similar to being a trans person and reading news that demonizes trans people. Hacking the pod system saved your life, why is it evil?
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]Interactive Fiction Analysis by Sebastien Books
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Next->Intro]]]You have fully transitioned. You are powerful. You are your true self.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]The blue shimmering dust is the first thing bright and colorful that we encounter in the story. This begins your transition as the story moves away from everything being black and white, and towards color and fun.
The dust being blue could also be because estrogen pills, which are taken by some people as part of their transition, are very often blue or green.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 1]]]Since your change, you are no longer being hurt by the darkness and violence of your past. Pink neutralizes the tar as well as everything that used to hurt you.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->body 2]]]This story is specifically about the transfeminine experience, so some symbols are specific to that. However, there is a lot of overlap in experience between transfemmes and transmascs, and so most of the symbolism works for any type of gender transition.
(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[[[Back->Intro]]]“All I Want Is For All My Friends To Become Insanely Powerful” by Porpentine
http://slimedaughter.com/games/twine/powerful/#5
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