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[digital-literature]

Homestuck as Digital Age Literature

Literature evolves. There can be no denying it as we march our way through the 21st century with constant technological developments in almost every aspect of life. It is no surprise, then, that the same change should happen to literature. Historically, literature has been written on paper (or another solid material like clay tablets or papyrus rolls), held physically in our hands as we manually turn the pages, and all the information contained within those pages. But technological advancements have now allowed traditional literature to be read digitally. Though its medium has changed, the literature itself has remained largely static. If you were to read The Great Gatsby on a digital device, you experience the same story you find in a physical book. This use of technology creates an easier access to traditional literature, but the literature itself has not changed. The technology is not being used to its full potential for reinventing what literature can be.  What might literature evolve into were it to use the full scope of today’s technology? I would argue that literature would evolve into new types of literature of the digital age, a pioneer being Homestuck, an unconventional webcomic that supplements literary and pictorial basics with sound, motion, and interactivity. By using media such as videos, music, and interactive games to tell its story, Homestuck redefines and invigorates literature with the new technologies our age can deliver.

What is Homestuck? Homestuck is a unique webcomic, so much so that it hardly feels like a traditional comic. Much like literature, traditional comics have a history of transitioning from the early (cave paintings) to the traditional (being printed) to the new (being digital). Many webcomics generally look and feel similar to a printed comic that was simply published online, but comic creator Scott McCloud believes that webcomics can work in conjunction with other forms of media to add sound, motion, and interactivity to the basics of comics (McCloud, 208). Homestuck is a perfect example of how a webcomic can go beyond the standard idea of what a webcomic is by taking a multimedia approach and experimenting with style, format, and content.

Homestuck’s author, Andrew Hussie, identifies Homestuck and his other works on his website as “adventures” despite their being considered webcomics. The term adventures originates from what these stories are inspired by and what they mock. Hussie states that his stories exist as “mock games” of text-based adventure games: “You advance through the pages of the story by clicking links which sound like commands you would type in a text prompt to get a character to do something. Generally, the character will respond to that command on the following page” (Hussie “New Reader?”). The idea of a “mock game” is the foundation for Homestuck and the way its story is told. Alongside this foundation is the important multimedia aspect that adds sound, motion, and interactivity to the story. The resulting “comic” is what Hussie has described as “an unusual media hybrid. Something that reads like a heavily illustrated novel, frequently interrupted by cinematic Flash sequences, and sometimes even interactive games” (Hussie "What Is Homestuck?"). In short, Homestuck is a webcomic, a “mock game,” and a “media hybrid.”

Homestuck is also however, primarily a work of literature that subordinates other media, which is why I will refer to the participants of it as readers even if they are watching, listening, or playing. Homestuck may rely heavily on visuals, but with a total word count of 817,925, the webcomic also requires a critical amount of reading and interpretation on the reader’s part. Homestuck is not the same experience as sitting back and watching a movie unfold, despite its incorporating video segments every now and then. A mark of Homestuck being literature of the digital age is the required technology it takes to experience the story. You cannot read Homestuck without a digital device and internet connection, and the story would be incomprehensible without the additional media of videos, music, and interactive games. These different media are equally important for Homestuck, and they each help recreate the possibilities of what literature can be.

           Homestuck, being a technologically modern work of literature, adds movement and sound to its story with animated videos. The comic is interspersed with a variety of animations made in Flash, some being indistinguishable from a short gif (a moving image) and others ending an act with more than ten minutes of animated storyline. These animations are often accompanied by music or sound effects but never voice acting, which still leaves a crucial amount of room for reader interpretation and imagination. For the readers of Homestuck, videos allow them to “experience important moments alongside the characters that are depicted in a real time fashion” (Litwhiler 48). Readers can experience the story in motion when words and static pictures cannot adequately describe the events of Homestuck. Alternatively, sometimes a video is juxtaposed to text, which enhances the narrative. We can see this exemplified in what is arguably the first video of Homestuck, in which the main character, John, stands outside of his home and gazes up at the sky where the comic’s title appears next to a stylized sun. During this animation, a looping sound effect of wind blowing through wind chimes plays, which continues to play after the animation ends. Underneath the video is the narrative, which reads: “The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox. A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune” (MSPA ?s=6&p=001982). The resulting effect of this text alongside the video is a profound feeling of loneliness and insignificance. Combined with the text and sound, the animation of John looking to the sky and the camera’s outward zoom create a cohesive narrative.[1] This is just one example of Homestuck using the media of videos to invigorate and enhance text, thus creating a new expression of literature.

           Usually combined with videos are sound and music, which is extremely common in today’s digital world. For the videos of Homestuck and many other video-based media, music serves as a backdrop. In terms of music as a separate entity though, Homestuck stands apart from other media. Not only can all of the official and original music used in Homestuck’s videos be found on its bandcamp page, all of the music created for, but not explicitly used, in Homestuck is there as well. Whether or not the songs on each of the albums were officially used, they are all an equal, albeit optional, part of Homestuck’s story as a whole. These songs can depict almost anything from the comic, from a character, to a relationship, to an event, enriching the reader’s understanding of these characters and events that might not have been explicitly addressed or given enough screen time. An example of displaying an event that was not showcased in the comic but certainly happened is the song “Bargaining with the Beast.” This song depicts how one of the characters makes a deal with a Denizen (i.e. boss monster). Though there are no words to read, this song still adequately conveys the setting, emotion, and pace of the scene. The celestial choir and soaring instrumentals build a sense of how important this deal was, and readers can understand by the positive sound of the song how this scene played out. If they wish to, readers can further engage with the story here by listening and interpreting not just this song, but also any of Homestuck’s songs.

           Interactivity—one of the most important aspect of Homestuck’s narrative—is best achieved through the comic’s interactive games. These games are moments in the comic when the reader is granted playable access to a character. The reader advances through the story now not by reading or watching but by actually being a character, exploring the environment, solving puzzles, and talking to other characters. Usually, there is an end goal to reach with each game, so the reader has some sense of direction. We can experience playing the narrative in one of Homestuck’s many games. In act 6 of the story for instance, after a short piece of animation, the reader is able to be one of the characters, Meenah, as she, or rather the reader, explores the afterlife and speaks with her friends there. In traditional literature, we would merely observe this part of the story, but by being Meenah, gaining narrative agency, and having her experiences of the afterlife be the readers’ experiences, readers immerse themselves into the story. Compared to traditional literature, in which the reader must create the events of the narrative inside their head from what information the text has given them, Homestuck provides the reader with a chance to be an actual part of the literature (Litwhiler 61-62).

           There is something to gain and lose with every advancement in technology, and this is true for literature’s evolution as well. With Homestuck’s use of videos, music, and interactive games, we gain new ways of imagining and interpreting literature, but we also lose some of the original imagination that comes with traditional literature. With traditional literature, we have only the information displayed in the text. We must exert out imaginations to create what the world and characters look like, how the characters move, how off screen action unfolds. In some ways, it is exciting that we can shed this toll on our imagining, because with Homestuck, we receive certain details of information we previously had to invent. Of course, it can also be argued that this is detrimental to the imagination and the art of reading literature. But with Homestuck, we are still reading text, still imagining and interpreting at certain points, and it is still literature when we watch a video, when we listen to a song, when we play a game because the media is there to serve the text and enhance it. It is as if you were to receive letters from a friend. Before modern technology, before the internet, all you would have to know how your friend is doing is the text itself. Now, you can supplement other forms of media such as videos to the written letters and share a deeper experience with the friend, but you still have to have the written letters as a base for those other types of media.

           What is in store for the future of digital literature? We can’t be sure, but it’s a strong possibility that creators will follow in Homestuck’s footsteps and integrate other media to enhance their literature. We already have one webcomic, Neokosmos, that is explicitly inspired by the style of Homestuck and its use of multimedia with its text and pictures.  It is also possible with the ever-growing popular industry of videogames, that creators will produce more literature in the form of playable games. Many readers’ favorite segments of Homestuck seem to be the playable parts, and this is no surprise considering role-playing games are one of the most popular genres of video games. Out of 16.5 billion dollars’ worth of video games sold in 2015, 11.6% of it was attributed to role-playing games (Statista 2016). In the simplest of words, being part of a narrative, playing out a story, is fun, and I believe we can take that fun from traditional role-playing videogames and integrate it with literature, subordinating the video game dimension to the literary just as Homestuck does (Andrews 2). Homestuck is a pioneer in what could be an exciting new future for literature’s evolution.

[1] Though this analysis was independently concluded before further research, Austin Litwhiler made a similar but drastically deeper observation about this example video in his thesis, “From Pulp to Webpage: Homestuck and Postmodern Digital Narrative.”

Works Cited

"Computer and video game sales in the United States from 2009 to 2015, by category (in billion U.S. dollars)." Statista. Apr. 2016. Web.

"Genre breakdown of video game sales in the United States in 2015." Statista. Apr. 2016. Web.

Andrews, Jim. "Videogames as Literary Devices." Videogames and Art (2007): 1-6. Vispo. University of Chicago Press, Oct. 2015. Web. <http://www.vispo.com/writings/essays/VideogamesAsLiteraryDevices.pdf>.

Hussie, Andrew. "Homestuck." MS Paint Adventures. What Pumpkin, 2007. Web.

---. ”New Reader?” MS Paint Adventures. Web.

---. "What Is Homestuck?" MS Paint Adventures. Web. <http://mspaintadventures.com/scraps2/homestuckKS.html>.

Litwhiler, Austin Gunner. "From Pulp to Webpage: Homestuck and Postmodern Digital Narrative." Thesis. University at Albany, 2013. Web. <www.albany.edu/honorscollege/files/Litwhiler_Thesis.docx>.

McCloud, Scott. Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form. New York: Perennial, 2000. Print.

[digital-literature]

Background and Nature of Comics, Webcomics, and Homestuck

The art medium known as comics can have multiple definitions across multiple cultures. In the simplest of terms, comics express the passage of time using images, sometimes accompanied by text, to tell a story (McCloud, 1). The history of comics as a medium is a topic of much debate. There are scholars who argue that this idea of using images to show the passage of time has been done since the paintings made in caves centuries ago. With such a simplistic definition, works like the Bayeux Tapestry can be seen as precursors to comics. Others believe in a more recent historical starting point for comics, that being illustrated humor periodicals of the 19th century. Comics in this sense are just cartoons, and are considered lowbrow. At the very least, people generally didn’t view them as high art worthy of scholarly scrutiny, but the later 20th century brought comics such as Maus that both the public and academia still consider great literary works.

Though the printed industry of comics has already seen a rise and fall, a subcategory of comics has proliferated with the advancement of technology and the internet: webcomics. These are comics published on a website. It might sound simple, but unlike its predecessor, a webcomic can experiment with its style, content, and format in ways that are unique to computer technology and the internet. Many comics published on the web look and feel similar to a printed comic, but some webcomics have deviated so much in the areas of style, content, and format, that people are unsure if they should still be a part of the category of comics, since they can be unrecognizable compared to a traditional comic. Scott McCloud predicted in 2000, “As broadband becomes a reality, the Web will be able to deliver the kind of multimedia content first associated with CD-ROMs” (213). What webcomic creators can do with this multimedia approach is “supplement comics’ visual basics with sound, motion, and interactivity” (McCloud, 208). Over 10 years later, we can see this kind of content and experimentation being implemented in a variety of webcomics, particularly one called Homestuck.

Homestuck is one of those unique webcomics in that it hardly looks like a traditional comic. However, it does tell its story through sequential images that show the passage of time. Homestuck’s author, Andrew Hussie, identifies Homestuck and his other works on his website as “adventures” despite their being considered webcomics. This term originates from what these adventures are inspired by or mocking. On the explanation page for MSPA, Hussie states:

“MSPA stories exist in the format of ‘mock games,’ specifically text-based adventure games. You advance through the pages of the story by clicking links which sound like commands you would type in a text prompt to get a character to do something. Generally, the character will respond to that command on the following page.”

The idea of a “mock game” is the foundation for Homestuck and how its story is told. Alongside this is the important multimedia aspect that adds sound, motion, and interactivity to the story. The resulting “comic” is what Hussie has described as “an unusual media hybrid. Something that reads like a heavily illustrated novel, frequently interrupted by cinematic Flash sequences, and sometimes even interactive games. It's a story I've tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible.” In short, Homestuck is a webcomic, a “mock game,” and a “media hybrid.”

 Works Cited

Hussie, Andrew. "New Reader?" MS Paint Adventures. Web.

Hussie, Andrew. "What Is Homestuck?" MS Paint Adventures. Web.

McCloud, Scott. Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form. New York: Perennial, 2000. Print.