Re: Best writing in IF
Jacek Pudlo
> Hey everyone,
>
> So I'm looking for quotes that really represent some of the best
> writing that modern IF has to offer. There are all kinds of amazing
> writers in the IF community, including more professionally published
> authors than I can keep track of, not to mention all of the extremely
> talented amateurs. What are some of your favorite moments from IF
> games in the last 10 years where the writing really shines?
>
> Basically I want answers to the question "Prove to me there is good
> writing in interactive fiction."
_All Roads_ is an example of good IF writing. _Varicella_ is another, and so
is _Sting of the Wasp_. But emulating good writing is much harder than
avoiding bad. So from a purely didactic point of view, it's more interesting
to ask what the worst writing IF has to offer is.
Worst Writing In IF Ever
1) _Blue Lacuna_ You know how when you're in a bookstore trying to decide if
this is the book you want, and you read the opening paragraph? Authors
anticipate this and try hard to shine in their opening sentences, to set the
tone for the rest of the novel. How fitting then that _Blue Lacuna_ should
open with a paragraph of meaningless pretentious drivel.
"Dreams move beneath you, blind colossi revolving through unknowable
patterns, but they do not break the surface, not yet or any more. You float
in void outside them, cold, memoryless."
Here's *the* worst sex scene in the history of interactive fiction, which
also contains *the* worst metaphor.
"You roll together, riding peaks and troughs of infinite blue, gasps and
vague
portents and hot insights suffused in the power of the moment, in the hot
breath in your ear, in the dandelion touches on delicate nerves."
The rolling is just about the only thing that makes sense here, and even
that makes me think of two drunken cowboys rolling down a slope in
Technicolor rather than two lovers having a tussle in bed.
2) _The Dreamhold_
What these games have in common is a prose that is vague, stilted and
portentous.
Aaron A. Reed
> _All Roads_ is an example of good IF writing. _Varicella_ is another, and so
> is _Sting of the Wasp_.
I'd been revisiting All Roads, but the other two are both great
examples I'd forgotten about-- many thanks!
--Aaron
Autymn D. C.
>
> 1) _Blue Lacuna_ You know how when you're in a bookstore trying to decide if
> this is the book you want, and you read the opening paragraph? Authors
> anticipate this and try hard to shine in their opening sentences, to set the
> tone for the rest of the novel. How fitting then that _Blue Lacuna_ should
> open with a paragraph of meaningless pretentious drivel.
>
> "Dreams move beneath you, blind colossi revolving through unknowable
> patterns, but they do not break the surface, not yet or any more. You float
> in void outside them, cold, memoryless."
Is this a rip from So Far?