The Queen of Random

So upon visiting the ELO site I have to admit...I was a little lost at first. Everything was so bizarre to me. I suppose I'm a purist with writing, but I love the random...which is why I'm not sure of the reason I felt lost. The ideas were great, but most of them I thought were trying to hard to be original and I was a bit put off.

Along those lines I had trouble with Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw. This was a unique way of telling the story. The animation type I have seen before, and the story’s path is unclear a bit like the other things I have seen. It reminds me of “Salad Fingers” . The structure of the story is winding and confusing to follow and you find yourself doing things that make no sense and seem to have no purpose. I got lost in this story and I’m not sure what the ending is, but I couldn’t stop clicking around the page. I loved the pictures, but the story was way too scattered and tried too hard to use a “new form”. A feast for the eyes and a frustration for the brain

One of the only ones I thoroughly enjoyed in Volume 1 was Faith. I loved this interactive poem because it layers on so many meanings. The actual words fall into place, but there is much more to it. The colors, the sounds, the dropping letters and phrases all add to the unique genius of the poem. I thought it was beautiful, and even though it may have been a tad cliche, it was unique and I never lost interest. It took the suspense you seen in certain poetic forms and made it literal. The suspense was in the animation and supported by the multiple meanings that were dropped in on us. Fabulous is what I'm really trying to get at.

My inspiration for my personal story came from both of these pieces. I wanted it took be interactive but strange. I used text to speech as my personal tool. This may seem like another book recording or audio book, but i felt the awkward speech pattern, and robotic voice added meaning behind the words and the story I was trying to tell. I hope it works out. Who knows, it could only make sense to me.

After reading the Long Tail article many things came to mind. Popular sites were easy and I choose to point out Ebaum's World. It is a site full of random cartoons and videos, hilarious and painful (in the watching people hurt themselves in comic fashions sort of way). It carries the famous videos which is the End of the World video. It ecompasses stories that are standup comedy in a cartoon. The pictures and game are just as random and keep the large audience it draws in. I remember the site's popularity growing about 4 or more years ago. It's cool to watch underground sites go big.

On the other end of the tail i found something completely random, but also pretty hilarious and entertaining. A site about Sporks. The Spork Page is completely dedicated to the adoration of sporks. There is the history of the spork, spork poems, and way to talk with other about how amazing sporks are. I found the page by thinking about something small and I figured there would be a group of people who were obsessed with it. People are obsessed with Pi so why not sporks.

Overall, I think if writers can figure out the random way readers or viewers think, new media can really open up doors for pleasing randomness. At least that's the way I feel. Being catered to is never a bad thing.