The Gamer's Quarter

[internisus]

I have just finished reading "The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges. Perhaps I have been barking up too few trees over the years, but it struck me as representative of a unique allegorical type of fiction the likes of which I have scarcely scene. In fact, the closest comparison that I can make to the story is the game Planescape: Torment, which, by the way, has been unofficially and faithfully novelized by duplicating the in-game text of its author's ideal playthrough and elaborating with narrative when necessary.

A close relative to these works is my beloved Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott; however, while I am interested if anyone has suggestions for more like it, I mention it here for use as a foil to better qualify the literature above. You see, Flatland is an allegorical tale that serves to illustrate a physical phenomenon whereas the other works examine the human condition and human endeavors with respect to that condition. This latter is more what I am presently after.

I suppose a word is in order about my reading history: I have not yet read, really, anything at all that might be classed as post-modern. I have not yet read Marukami, nor Gravity's Rainbow, nor Ulysses, nor Italo Calvino. I do not know if these books and authors offer what I am looking for. I wonder if some classic allegory such as The Wizard of Oz (I own, but, again, have not yet read the beautiful Annotated publication) might fit in here.

If there is a term for this type of literature, please inform me of it, and if you can recommend anything of either sort of allegory, please do. I anticipate the assistance of your knowledge and experience.

Edit: Why not? In addition, feel free to recommend any other form of allegory whatsoever, such as social and political types. I ask only that you clearly explain what is what!

Additionally, while I have a thread all of my own, greetings to The Wandering Soviet Onion! I for one am glad you could join us!

On another note, I am thinking now that the questions posed by this thread as well as the pervasive sense that such works are difficult to come by are making me look incredibly foolish, dumb, ignorant, etc. We shall see, I suppose!

[dessgeega]

[internisus]

No hurry!

The funny thing about that novelization is that I was going to say something (yet again) about how I wish someone would novelize the game, and then there that was! I skimmed it and checked on some favorite parts and it looks pretty good! It should also be interesting to see how well the narration inserted by the author replaces, you know, graphics and combat and moving hither and thither within the game. To my knowledge, something like this has never been done before.

Flatland is more than that for me; by extension of the illuminating experience of A. Square as he discovers a dimension above his own, we learn how to think of a four-dimensional existence. In addition, as I've said before, I think Flatland would be incredible in an interactive electronic format, such as, oh, let's say videogames.

[dessgeega]

i think there have been a few cases of adventure games being novelized. i know of portal, which was originally released as an experimental proto-html story for dos (you're hacking an old-but-from-the-future computer to find out what happened to the human race, uncovering passwords to access more of the story and then looking up future cultural trends and social issues referenced by the story), and was later published in linear format as a novel.

i think the entire text is available online too, which is funny because of how much sense it makes (since the game is basically a hunt through wikipedia). you might enjoy reading it.

EDIT: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(interactive_novel)]thanks wikipedia![/url]
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[helicopterp]

Internisus- I'd love to help you out here, but I don't want to spout off unintelligibly since I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for. Two questions I would ask you before I try to give you some answers:

I haven't read either of the two works you mentioned. How tight are they as allegories? Basically, do the elements of those stories all correspond to elements of a second story that is implied but not present?

Can you explain a little more the difference between the type of 'physical' allegorical fiction you are looking for and the other type you mentioned?
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Lackey]

There was a modern sort of demi-sequel to Flatland that I read one bored afternoon in the library (I had grabbed it at random, because the cover looked neat) and I was absolutely dumbstruck by it. I'd love to re-read it if I can discover the title. It seemed to be a more scientific approach to the idea of a two dimensional universe but it had major pathos as well.

Can I recommend more Borges? LIbrary of Babel is unique but he does have similar work, thematically.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[Mr Mustache]

God yes, read more Borjes. There are quite a few books of his short stories, most notably "Ficciones", and as far as I can tell, they are all worth reading.

Calvino is also pretty neat. I recently read "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" and found it pleasant, if not life changing.
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Straight up

[Dracko]

Collections of fiction I'm aware of include Fictions, Labyrinths (Which contains all of Fictions and more last I recall), The Aleph and Other Stories, The Book of Sand, The Book of Imaginary Beings and A Universal History of Iniquity. Am I missing any?

Also, I'd suggest giving Nabokov's Pale Fire a read. And Lolita, which is pretty much about writing.

I doubt Murakami has what you're looking for, and he's a pretty tame and boring writer anyway.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

burroughs.

there's a reasonably priced us edition of all of borges' short stories.

i had a spanish teacher who had us translate small passages of borges in college. it wasn't very helpful, spanish-wise.
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[Dracko]

On that token, Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition is a feast. Crash as well, most definitely.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dessgeega]

re: borges, astarion is my favorite of his stories, but the aleph and the zahir will make you feel more literary.
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[Lackey]

The book I'm thinking of is called Planiscape. I may have to buy this one to re-read. The new cover art is really nice! The one I read looked like this.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[internisus]

I've been aware of that Flatland semi-sequel for some time, actually. It's good to hear such a positive report; I'll be sure to check it out.

[dessgeega]

internisius, have you ever played the neverhood?
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[internisus]

No, except for the one-room demo, and I really want to! I also really want to play Grim Fandango!

By the way, I looked up Portal, and it looks very interesting, especially in light of my current game design project. Though you can read it online, I'd rather explore it as the game it was meant to be, and I'm looking for a download and emulator.

[dessgeega]

i think underdogs hosts a download of it.

neverhood contains this 38-screen-long wall, and written on the wall are a whole mess of ficticious myths and allegories. you might enjoy reading them. they're presented as a giant text dump near the beginning of the game, so it shouldn't really be spoilery to read them outside of the game.
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[internisus]

Thanks! I especially appreciate the disclaimer. I'm picky about that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to download anything from Underdogs on this computer. When I go through the human-authentication process I get to a page that tells me the object referral was incorrect. It doesn't matter where I come from or what I'm trying to get. Always fails.

[dessgeega]

pm me your email address, sucka.
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[internisus]

fine. geez.

[Lackey]

I should note that Planiverse is mostly un-allegorical from what I can tell.

Also, I really am enjoying this Neverhood thing. I will read all of it.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[helicopterp]

If that's what you're going for, forget Lolita and Pale Fire. Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading fits your mould perfectly. I wouldn't look for a 1-to1 correspondence in it, but as a whole it presents an allegorically absurd world of set-pieces, circus acts, and shadows, and it ends (in my own reading) triumphantly.

Pro-tip: If you want to read it, you'll probably find the Vintage International edition most readily, but whatever you do, do not read its back cover.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Dracko]

Well, I wouldn't say forget them. Just read them later when you're in a different mood. I still think they're relevant as examinations of exile and Nabokov's own fall-out with his natural language.

I'm interested in the Neverhood, but for some reason, the link on HotU has never worked well for me.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[helicopterp]

Right, I should have qualified that by saying that Pale Fire and Lolita are, indeed, fucking incredible.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Dracko]

[dhex]

i'd suggest this order:

naked lunch
exterminator
interzone

trilogy:
cities of the red night
place of dead roads
the western lands

then:
port of saints
the soft machine
the wild boys
the ticket that exploded

junky is relatively straightforward as a hardboiled drug novel. it's enjoyable. queer is a sort of cousin to junky in some ways, stylistically.
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[Perseus]

Nice call on the Neverhood, dess (thanks for the text dump on your site too!)! Great, unique game, which also happens to be a biblical allegory. The game's creator, Doug TenNapel (his choice of spelling), who has since written a bunch of similarly allegorical comic books which are apparently quite good, is a fairly devout Christian and all his works seem to be very influenced by his faith. Not sure about the comics, but at least in the Neverhood it didn't come off as overly heavy-handed. I actually read through the entire 38-screens of wall text (in one sitting, which really made my eyes hurt), and they were fairly entertaining, though I was a bit too young to understand what real myths it referenced (except for the Flood).

[Lackey]

I've heard Doug TenNapel's Creature Tech is alternately heavy-handed or subtle and heartfelt, depending on the reviewer. Just thought I'd point it out.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[Dracko]

It could be both. Still a worthy read.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[oligophagy]

Hey!, I just remembered: "Night-sea Journey" in John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse is a sort of recursive allegory (of swimmers and and a maybe endless night) for life and our human justifications of the toil we endure therein.

In general, "postmodern," insofar as it denotes a self-conconscious, even self-referential, kind of literature, is worth exploring. Being often very explicit about its construction, it does tend to that peculiar definiteness shared by Borges's "The Library of Babel."

(Incidentally, I actually read "Babel" a few weeks before you first posted this, at that very same website, and afterword wondered what you'd call it and where to get more, but nothing struck me until just now, for whatever reason.)