The Result of Project Noah: Exploring the Vampire’s Presence in The Passage

Introduction

Vampires are sexy.  Throughout literature the vampire has been endowed with a sexuality that can be seen across many narratives; Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s creations in The Vampire Chronicles and the range of vampires found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer have all been sexual creatures, a defining aspect of the genre.  Margaret Carter states in her essay on The Vampire in Icons of Horror and the Supernatural ‘vampire fiction [is] suffused with a higher degree of explicit sexuality than found in mainstream’ (Carter, 2007, p630) fiction and a cursory investigation makes this evident, as does a similar examination of the explosion of television and filmic vampires of the early Twenty-first Century.  The popular TV series True Blood shows scenes of sexual intercourse between humans and vampires from the outset and the hugely successful Twilight franchise shows the characters both abstaining from and consummating a physical relationship between the two species. (For clarity, humans and vampires will be referred to as different species throughout this paper, although it is understood that the vampire is usually a mutation of the human it used to be.)  This is something that the reader has come to expect from a vampire narrative, as is the presence of a distinct personality; each of the vampire narratives mentioned so far features vampires who are recognisable as individuals, with distinct character traits.

Whilst usual, the representation of the vampire as a sexual and individual creature is not the only way that the species can be characterised and there are authors who have created vampires which, although recognisable through traits such as the need to feed on blood and stay out of the sunlight, are sufficiently removed from the traditional expectations to facilitate a new reader experience; this is something Justin Cronin attempted in his 2010 novel The Passage, the first in a planned trilogy.  Marketed as a vampire narrative, this novel is, according to an SFX magazine review ‘an exhilarating epic that easily rises above the flood of run-of-the-mill vampire tales’ (Orion Publishing, 2010)  which explores the destruction of American Society and the post-apocalyptic remnants of the civilization that is left behind.  It is understood, but not known indisputably, that the virus which brings about this destruction spreads over the planet and causes worldwide devastation; however, this paper will focus on American society as being razed, as this is the setting explored through the text. 

The Passage incorporates aspects from several literary genres, including Gothic and Science Fiction as part of its construction; this is a deliberate decision on the part of the author, who

‘wanted to write a book that had the attributes of literary fiction – meaning good careful writing and characters with human complexity – and that also operated simultaneously in a whole variety of genres – from the post-apocalyptic to the western.’  (Stanford, 2010)

With the vampire’s evolution into positive role models in fiction such as True Blood and ‘vegetarian’ vampires of the Twilight franchise being dominant in recent literature, the return of the antagonistic vampire preying on humanity in Cronin’s work has clearly been successful; The Passage has topped the New York Times bestseller list and the translation rights have, according to the Daily Telegraph, been sold to at least 28 countries.  (Stanford, 2010) Cronin’s dark vampires allow him, and by extension the reader, to explore the fears of society which are prominent in the early part of the 21^st Century and the novel attempts to ‘awaken its audience from dogmatic slumber through hyperbole and melodrama’ (Edmundson, 1997, p62/63) to the dangers of issues such as religious intolerance and political apathy. 

Setting the (Apocalyptic) Scene

The first portion of the novel, parts one, two and three are concerned with the creation of Zero and The Twelve as the original vampires, as well as charting the reasons behind the downfall of American society.  The second part of this work tells of the post-apocalyptic world which shows ‘virals’ as the dominant species and humans trying to survive in a hostile world of being hunted, and features the more traditional gothic landscapes, which Fred Botting describes as ‘desolate, alienating and full of menace.’ (Botting, 2010ed, p2)   

The opening sections show important events leading up to the apocalypse and permits the recognition of contemporary American society; this allows the reader to postulate on the way society is headed and the ramifications of this and can be referred to as science fiction, as this is, in part, defined as being ‘realistic speculation about possible future events.’ (Heinlein, 1957, p22)  Whilst there are other novels which deal with the same subject, (that of a virus which destroys civilization) for instance The Stand by Stephen King and Robert Matheson’s I am Legend, this novel features the events leading up to and including the release of the virus which causes the apocalypse and the time after rather than the actuality of the downfall of civilization, which Neil McRobert of the University of Sterling says is an innovation by Cronin and ‘affords a heightened pathos to the journey taken by the future survivors as they, like the reader, discover the residue of past trauma in their travels across the empty continent’  (McRobert, 2010)  whilst still giving the reader a level of comprehension that the characters do not have; that is, they (the reader) can understand  the cause of the virus and its initial outbreak.

            As stated earlier, there is a distinct science fiction motif running through the initial part of the novel and this is primarily concerned with the progression of science within society and the consequences of this progression.  Stobbart asserts in her paper on American author Ayn Rand that ‘one denominator remains present throughout [the genre] regardless of the variety of science fiction - technology’; (Stobbart, 2010) and this is certainly true of The Passage; the virals in The Passage are not the supernatural vampires of the more traditional vampire narrative.  These vampire-like creatures are created by the American military’s ‘Project Noah,’ which involves using death row inmates and a genetically modified virus, found in Bolivian bats, to try to create a soldier that will enable America to win the war it is currently fighting.  What the experiments create are ‘the Twelve,’ the precursor to virals and the original vampires of this narrative.  The genetic mutation that creates the Twelve allows them to go through ‘the sickness and the Becoming’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) which in turn permits them to be part of the collective that is Zero and the Twelve, ‘the Babcock-Morrison-Chavez-Baffes-Turrell-Winston-Sosa-Echols-Lambright-Martinez-Reinhardt-Carter.’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) More than this however, the virus also permits each member of the Twelve to control a portion of the ‘Many,’ the virals that spread throughout the country and in turn infect others, causing the apocalypse. 

Mark Edmundson notes in Nightmare on Main Street that apocalyptic Gothic ‘haunt the society at large’ (Edmundson, 1997, p23) and that like Frankenstein, ‘through technology, what we create will turn on us’ (Edmundson, 1997, p23)  This is exactly what occurs in The Passage; the military, having discovered this virus to exist, engineer to have it brought to America, where they, like Frankenstein before them, attempt to create a perfect being and the results are catastrophic, ‘victims are multiple: women, children and innocent men go first, but ultimately the creator himself […] has to pay the full price.’  (Edmundson, 1997, p23) Although this is a common theme within Gothic Science Fiction, there is a particular relevance in 21^st Century society for readers and has been a theme explored through a number of texts and films since the fin-de-millennium.  Scientific advancements are reported in the media to be happening on a staggering scale; it is possible to create a living being and the military are constantly striving for new ways to give them superiority over an enemy who, in some instances, is not afraid to die for the cause that is believed in.  Although seemingly fantastical, it is not far-fetched to imagine such a scenario in contemporary civilisation, and this is as Edmundson asserts ‘one of the common functions of Gothic, to turn the vague but insistent fear of what will happen in the future, into suspense’.(Edmundson, 1997, p12)  Having the setting as being the US is particularly apt for showing societal collapse; in that if America was to become instable and civilization collapse, this would have a detrimental effect on the rest of the world.  They are the dominant superpower in the world as the 2008 economic disaster showed; it was a financial crisis in the US housing market that began the global difficulties that are still being felt three years later.

A New Breed of Vampire?

            The vampires in The Passage, known in the fictional post-apocalyptic America as ‘virals’ are split into two distinct sub-species; there are the originally created vampires, Zero and the twelve and also their progeny, the virals - those who roam the landscape searching for fresh blood.  These virals have some similar characteristics to the traditional vampire; a fact Cronin signals explicitly during the second part of the novel when he has the characters watch Todd Browning’s Dracula adaptation and they recognise Dracula as being of the same species as the virals. (Cronin, 2010, p655-658) However, these monsters are more than representations of the Dracula-esque vampire; these beings also incorporate characteristics of another Gothic creature, the zombie.

The zombie in popular fiction can be defined as a character ‘who has lost the ability of free will, resorting to primitive cognitive function’ (Zombiehub.com, 2007) and although usually a reanimated corpse, this does not have to be so; Cronin’s hybridisation of the zombie and the vampire negates the need to have the virals as reanimated.  Instead, he keeps the instinctive and non-conscious qualities of the traditional zombie, whilst allowing some principal qualities of the vampire to be incorporated into this new creature, such as the need for fresh blood and an aversion to sunlight.  In The Passage the virals are primarily hunters; they roam the landscape, usually in packs of at least three searching for fresh blood.  They are mutated humans, but many of their human characteristics are eroded by the virus that created them; this means that although they are physically recognisable to the humans that they knew, their ability to recognise individual humans is (usually) destroyed by the loss of both memory and soul that is part of the infection.

There is evidence within the text to support the theory that each of the Twelve are in control of their own segment of the viral population.  The virals, whilst having similar attributes to zombies in the way they behave mentally, have the reactions of the traditional vampire and are also prone to the same weaknesses.  This is highlighted when the ‘outcasts’ (the characters from the First Colony who left the colony with Amy) are shown Todd Browning’s Dracula adaptation, as detailed earlier, and Peter thinks to himself that the film ‘almost seemed to be a kind of instruction manual.’ (Cronin, 2010, p658)   Here, the recognition of Dracula as being of the same genus as the virals is foregrounding the relationship between the two breeds of vampire, whilst still allowing the reader to appreciate the differences between them and illustrating ‘the loss of human identity’ (Botting, 2010ed, p157) that Fred Botting argues is included in the ‘strangely mutated life forms’ (Botting, 2010ed, p156) of gothic science fiction; that is, the virals are clearly lacking in the human-like characteristics that Dracula embodies, despite their genealogical similarities.

Virals, the hybridisation of vampire and zombie are, it can be argued, the super soldier that the US army was attempting to create at the beginning of the novel, individuals able to function as a mindless machine and follow orders issued from higher up the chain of command and ironically, the US do succeed in creating a soldier that can win wars.  These soldiers, however, whilst technically a success for the US, cannot be controlled by the US army; they are the army of the Twelve.  The reader is informed, through the thoughts of Babcock, that ‘They [the Many] were his to command,’ (Cronin, 2010, p568) and that he is connected to them, able to ‘stretch out his mind’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) and issue orders that will be carried out.  Here, as mentioned earlier, the virals mirror radicalized extremists, those who will carry out an order from their superiors, regardless of what that order is.   However, as well as making a link with extremists, Cronin also explicitly connects the virals with the US army; they are the result of the US experiments to create a perfect soldier and they follow the orders of their superiors without question, just as the body of the army is trained to do.  It can be deduced that Cronin is drawing parallels between the behaviour of two seemingly opposing cultures and that the US attitude towards other cultures is similar to those regarded as being extreme and a threat to US freedoms, although their status as a dominant world power means that their mistakes can have huge ramifications on the rest of the world as already detailed through their primary involvement in the global economic crisis of 2008.

Zero and the Twelve

            Nina Auerbach observes in Our Vampires, Ourselves, that that ‘Vampires go where power is…with the birth of film, they migrated to America in time for the American Century.’ (Auerbach, 1995, p6)  The setting of The Passage as being in America, both pre and post apocalypse intimates the contemporary importance of America as a world power, but more than this, it also highlights the danger of this country having such as position, both in contemporary society and the context of the novel.  It is the might of the American army that can create beings which could win wars, but, it is also this same world power that brings about the downfall of its own, if not global, civilization through its creation of the mutated virus and its subsequent escape into society.  The virals, once loose in the world, have a distinct power structure, with ‘The Zero’ (one of the people from the original Bolivian expedition at the beginning of the novel) as the leader and the Twelve (those death row convicts used in the experimentation process) his direct disciples and this power base is important within the context of the setting and the events of the novel.  Whilst the narrative is not overtly religious, the use of the number twelve signals a fundamental significance within the text that can be connected with religion; Jesus Christ had twelve apostles, there were twelve principal Gods of the Pantheon in Ancient Greek myth, in Shi’a Islamic religion there are twelve legitimate successors to the Prophet Muhammad and the Norse God Odin had twelve sons, all powerful mythological and religious traditions which deal with deities from a variety of cultures.  There can be little doubt that Cronin is suggesting a link between Zero and the Twelve and religion, both historical and contemporary, reflecting on how parts of the global population view religion in the post 9/11 world ‘that glorious and terrible day’ (Cronin, 2010, p84) which changed the world.  Within contemporary society, it is clear that religious tolerance has diminished with UK newspaper The Times reporting in 2007 that ‘the War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling’ (Gledhill, 2007) and similarly there are alleged instances of religious intolerance within the US, (Sherman, 2010) even though the US instigated ‘War on Terror’ resulting from the 9/11 atrocities do not, officially, have a religious focus.  Richards, one of the novel’s characters involved in Project Noah encapsulates a level of feeling displayed in certain parts of contemporary society as

‘the war – the real war, the one that had been going on for a thousand years and would go on for a thousand more – the war between Us and Them, between the Haves and the Have-Nots, between my gods and your gods.’  (Cronin, 2010, p84)

Once created, Zero and the Twelve are representative of a variety of religions, as demonstrated above, and in the novel this is a malevolent presence; these man made deities and their followers in the form of the virals are responsible for the death and destruction of much of society.  Equally, as already discussed, the virals are a mindless army who obey the orders of their ‘superiors,’ regardless of the personal cost. 

If the Twelve are the representations of religious deities, then fundamentally, the vampires and virals form a Theocracy, with the vampires functioning as the ruling body; this is something highlighted in Chapter 51of The Passage, when Babcock, one of the Twelve is remembering setting up The Haven (the first population base ruled by the Twelve), relating that he ‘will let [people] live in this way and no other…and those that did not…they were made to die so the others could see and know and refuse no longer.’ (Cronin, 2010, p570)  Whilst Zero, the archetype vampire in this narrative is, at the beginning of the novel, not an evil character, each of the Twelve are convicts from death row and this is important in the consideration of their status as deities and rulers.  Apart from Carter, who has been wrongly convicted of his crime, all of the others are guilty of heinous wrongdoings, from child molestation to matricide and this is something that is carried through into their incarnation as Gods.  When given an omniscient presence in Babcock’s mind, the reader learns that he was abused by his mother until he killed her, and more than this, it made him happy to commit matricide.  Unlike the virals, whose memories and experiences are lost after they are infected, the Twelve are in possession of their pre-infection minds and it is this along with ‘skin [turned] into a pale kind of protein-based exoskeleton so hard it made Kevlar look like pancake batter,’ (Cronin, 2010, p87) telepathic ability and the capacity for flight that is the basis of the new religious order after the apocalypse; not benevolent Gods who allow freedom and happiness, but demons, complete with scales and wings. 

The name of the project which created the vampires, ‘Project Noah’ although ostensibly referring to the longevity of the soldiers the US are aiming to create, (Cronin, 2010, p44) is also heavily resonant with religious connotations and the use of the name Noah is a recognised literary device, with Mirriam-Websters Encyclopaedia of Literature (Mirriam-Webster Inc, 1995, p813) reporting that it has a twofold meaning; it has been used in the same way as the Rainbow, to mark the Covenant with God that ensures humanities protection against natural disasters and also as a ‘symbol of obedience, as a new Adam, as a type of Christ, as a worldly scientist.’  The irony in using this name for the project is evident; the created vampires, whilst being the basis of a new race are in no way obedient to their creator.  Noah, the saviour of the Human Race in The Bible, is in this context the cause of its downfall.  However, the presence of Amy within the text as the culmination of the genetic experimentation makes the name of Project Noah more than just ironic, it is heavily prophetic; Amy is the one person who, seemingly, has the capacity to save the world from the ‘flood’ which has wiped out much of civilization and can be described as the successful culmination of Project Noah. 

Amy Harper Bellafonte

If Zero and the Twelve are a malevolent religious presence in the post-apocalyptic world of The Passage, then Amy is surely to be considered as a messianic manifestation within the text as she is the character who has the capability to override the power of the Twelve and become the saviour of the human race.  In the opening sequence of the novel Amy is the focus of the narrative and the reader is given a biography of her early life and details the events leading up to her inclusion in Project Noah and after her infection and seeming recovery from the virus.  The opening words of the novel describe Amy in heavily biblical terms as ‘the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years’ and foregrounds her importance in the text, despite her absence from the middle portion of it. 

Amy’s link with religion is signalled early in the text, through her relationship with Lacey, a prescient nun who tries to prevent Amy being taken and used in Project Noah after her mother abandons her.  Both Lacey and Amy are signalled as potentially Gothic characters at this early point of the novel; whilst at the zoo with Lacey, Amy intimates an ability to communicate with the animals and they are certainly drawn to her, to the extent that they try to break from their cages to get to where she is, making such a noise that it causes a panic and the zoo has to close.  It is at this point that Lacey’s prescience is made explicit; she has a vision of

The rolling armies and the flames of battle; the graves and the pits and dying cries of a hundred million souls; the spreading darkness, like a black wing stretching over the earth; the last bitter hours of cruelty and sorrow, and terrible, final flights; death’s grand dominion over all, and, at the last, the empty cities, becalmed by a silence of a hundred years. (Cronin, 2010, p105) 

As with the opening of the novel, the wording used is reminiscent of religious language; this is a prophecy that would not be out of place in the Book of Revelations and Lacey, a woman who already knows the power of God, is the prophetess.  It is Lacey’s understanding that, from childhood, God has spoken to her and it is He that has told her of the terrible fate that awaited the world. It is here that a bond between Lacey and Amy is first indicated; part of Laceys vision is ‘her Amy…time-stilled and nameless, wandering the forgotten, lightless world forever, alone and voiceless’ (Cronin, 2010, p105) and as a result of this revelation, Lacey becomes one of Amy’s first companions.  Lacey follows Amy to ‘the Chalet’ which disguises the laboratories used to experiment on the Twelve and aids in her rescue after she is infected; then Lacey waits in isolation for Amy’s re-emergence in the second part of the novel for nearly a Century.

In the second part of the novel, the results of Amy’s infection become evident and there are a number of ways that it is clear that Amy is the successful result of Project Noah.  Firstly, her lifespan is extended, just as the military planned; there is nearly a Century between Armageddon and the narrative that begins in part five, but Amy appears to have only aged eight years.  Secondly, she is able to control the virals, preventing them from killing Peter Jaxon and thirdly, after the death of Babcock, she is the one who helps the virals to remember themselves and die peacefully.  Again, the religious connotations are recognizable within the text; upon being reunited with Amy, Lacey tells Peter the story of Noah, she explains to him that he, Peter, is Noah and that ‘Amy is the ship.’ (Cronin, 2010, p711)   Here, the meaning of the title of the book becomes clear; steeped in the religious imagery of the transition between life and death, The Passage is Amy herself, the Ark, ‘the ship…she carried their souls inside her…all along, waiting for this day…when they would make their passage.’ (Cronin, 2010, p721) 

It is at this end point of the novel that the correlations between Amy and Zero become apparent; they are both ‘the other, the one above and behind, the Zero.’ (Cronin, 2010, p720)  Both of these characters are potential deities, although this is something Amy rejects; after the discovery of the virus in its injectable form, Amy will not allow Peter to use the vials to inject himself, she destroys the vials saying to him ‘it would have made you like me. And I couldn’t let that happen.’  Unlike Zero, Babcock and the rest of the Twelve, Amy does not want there to be more like her, understanding the loneliness and isolation that both she and Lacey, (who was also injected with the virus) have endured through their long lives. 

If the Twelve are a manifestation of the demon within the novel, complete with scales, wings and eyes ‘the orange of highway cones’ (Cronin, 2010, p69) then Amy is undoubtedly the opposite.  She does not have any of the physical characteristics of Zero or the Twelve; despite being nearly a Century old, she looks like a child, a recognised representation of innocence and purity, clearly contrasting the demonic appearance of Zero and the Twelve.  According to Mark Edmundson in Nightmare on Main Street, angels work by ‘redeeming us from Gothic terrors’ (Edmundson, 1997, p81) and this is certainly one of the functions of Amy within the text.  Whilst not explicitly referred to as an angel, she clearly redeems the virals from the hell that they are living on earth by giving them back their human memories and helping their transition to death and in turn allowing the reader the redemption of knowing that despite the man-made manifestations of evil which exist in the world, there is someone who can save humans from, what is essentially, Hell. 

Conclusion

            Whilst the presence of Gothic can be traced through the narrative from the beginning, with Amy able to communicate with animals prior to her infection, the prescience of Lacey and of course the vampires and virals, it is the relationship between good and evil which resonates with Gothicity throughout the text.  The novel has a clearly religious basis, exploring the role religion plays in a society that is obsessed with power and domination over everything, including nature and Cronin uses the fears of contemporary society, in the form of both government and religion, creating a post-apocalyptic civilization which has lost the ability to be redeemed through the establishment of Zero and the Twelve as a society wide theocracy.  Edmundson says that in contemporary society

Few[…] seem to believe in God’s presence. That is, […] some powerful force for good shaping the day-to-day life in accord with a perceptibly benevolent master plan. (Edmundson, 1997, p67)

and if this is so, then Cronin’s representation of Amy, an angelic child who is able to fulfil the role of redeemer in what is ostensibly a narrative dealing with the end of the world as we know it, is filling the gap that has been left by the ‘withdrawl of God from the day-to-day world’ (Edmundson, 1997, p68)  Through the creation of Zero and the Twelve, Cronin shows a view of religion and governance as being oppressive and dictatorial, its adherents being controlled by a ruling body and dissention punishable by death.  He then provides and antithesis to this malevolent theocracy, in the form of Amy, showing her as a redeemer, an angelic Christ-like figure who is able to save the souls of the damned humans who have become demonic figures on earth.  The presence of Amy, therefore is central to the religious theme of the novel, showing both the reader and the characters a benevolent presence within the narrative and establishing the existence of hope in a world of despair and death; hope for a better life, hope for a future that involves more than just fear of religion and most of all, hope of redemption.

Bibliography

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Botting, F (2010ed) Gothic; London: Routledge

Carter, M (2007) The Vampire in Joshi S T (2007) Icons of Horror and the Supernatural [Online] Available at: http://tulpa.lapunk.hu/tarhely/tulpa/dokumentumok/encyclopedia_of_our_worst_nightmares.pdf#page=630; Last Accessed: 1 May 2011

Cronin, J (2010) The Passage; London: Orion

Edmundson, M (1997) Nightmare on Main Street; London: Harvard University Press

Gledhill (2007) Anti-American Feelings Soar Among Muslims, Study Finds [Online] Available at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1415550.ece; Last Accessed: 1 May 2011

Heinlein, R A; (1957) Science Fiction: Its Nature, Faults and Virtues in Davenport B (ed); (1969) The Science Fiction Novel; Chicago: Advent Publishers

McRobert, N (2010) Justin Cronin: The Passage (review) [Online] Available at: http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/blog/justin-cronin-the-passage/; Last Accessed: 1 May 2011

Mirriam-Webster Inc (1005) Mirriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature [Online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA813&lpg=PA813&dq=literary+symbol+noah&source=bl&ots=J0ayojLitJ&sig=w49Hz9JateKsrLdsa6J9kuLL75o&hl=en&ei=-Nq3TYy7IpOyhAeEs-z6Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=literary%20symbol%20noah&f=false ;Last Accessed: 1 May 2011

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Sherman, M (2010) US Investigating at Least 5 Anti-Muslim Acts [Online] Available at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39047401/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/; Last Accessed: 1 May 2011

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Stobbart, D (2010) Ayn Rand and Science Fiction: How the political fiction of the ‘Radical Russian’ conforms to established science fiction conventions: Unpublished Undergraduate Dissertation: University of Cumbria

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A detailed Commentary on Drayton’s sonnet 63 and Shakespeare’s sonnet 90

The genre of the sonnet is a large field, with a number of sonnet forms and conventions. This essay will explore the genre of the sonnet, and will analyse a pair of sonnets, paying attention to form, subject and poetic conventions, as well as their relationship to each other.

The two sonnets in question, Drayton’s sonnet 63 and Shakespeare’s sonnet 90, are both examples of the English Sonnet, a subgenre of the sonnet; that is, they both have the rhyming scheme of ‘abab cdcd efefe gg’, as well as the standard sonnet conventions of fourteen lines and 140 syllables for a sonnet written in iambic pentameter. This rhyming scheme in an English Sonnet allows the emergence of three distinct quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end of the sonnet, as opposed to the Petrarchan sonnet which consists of an octave and a sestet. The change in the rhyming scheme shows the shift in the subject. There is a shift in line five of sonnet 63, with the subject of the poem turning from one of explanation of the situation, to a more emotional offering of surrender. The Volta in sonnet 63 occurs at line nine, with the signifier ‘or’ establishing the major turn in the sonnet. Sonnet 90 also uses this shifting technique, with line five and line nine being the shift and the volta respectively; the volta being signified with the word ‘if.’

The subject of both of the sonnets is that of the relationship, as is the usual tradition in the sonnet. However, this pair of sonnets deals with the breakdown in relationships. This is established in sonnet 63 in the first quatrain, especially in line two, ‘Methinks tis long since first these wars begun’ continuing with the admission that ‘…neither party won.’ Thus, the narrator infers that there is a lengthy interaction between the narrator and the subject prior to the sonnets opening. The first quatrain also establishes the imagery of war within this sonnet, equating the relationship with conflict, by means of the narrating voice speaking of ‘these wars’ and in line four, of neither party winning. Sonnet 90 also has this motif of war; but in this sonnet the motif first occurs in quatrain two, at line six, ‘Come in the rearward of a conquered woe’ and is expanded in line eight ‘To linger out a purposed overthrow.’

The warlike motif in sonnet 90 is not for the same effect as sonnet 63; rather, it is a plea for clemency from the subject of the sonnet. This is shown at the beginning of the second quatrain, following the shift at line five; the harsh tone of the first quatrain is replaced by a softer tone, ‘Then hate me if thou wilt’ is replaced with ‘Ah, do not…’ However, sonnet 90 makes use of alliteration in a similar way to the war imagery of sonnet 63. The sound ‘w’ is repeated throughout the whole sonnet, from line one, with the words ‘wilt’ and ‘now,’ through to the end of the poem with the rhyming couplet having five instances of the w sound; this occurs alongside the alliteration of the word woe. This serves to heighten the reader’s awareness of the woe felt by the narrative voice in this poem, just as the warlike imagery shows the feelings of the narrative voice in sonnet 63. The rhyme scheme in sonnet 90 also allows a heightened awareness of the alliteration of the ‘woe’ in the poem. The rhyme scheme of lines five to eight, although conforming to that of ‘cdcd’ also contains words that seem to have a ‘cccc’ rhyming pattern, based around the word ‘woe’. The rhyme of lines five and seven are visual rhymes, that is, they look the same. The rhyme of lines six and eight are aural rhymes, with one of the words being ‘woe,’ in an unexpected placement, thereby foregrounding the word.

Both of the sonnets are written in the first person, as is the tradition of the sonnet. This ‘I’, the narrative voice, is speaking to an unnamed subject in both of the sonnets. In sonnet 63 this unnamed recipient is referred to as ‘gentle Love,’ surely an oxymoronic title, as the subject has been waging war with the narrator for a ‘long’ time. The recipient of sonnet 90 is not given a title, referred to in the second person throughout the poem. Both of the sonnets refer to the subject in the second person, speaking to the subject, rather than about them.

Both of these sonnets conform to certain aspects of the courtly love genre. The narrator’s are communicating the experience of lowness, dejection and rejection in relation to love for the subject. The narrator of sonnet 63 offers surrender in the ‘match,’ offering his ‘heart for hostage’ to ensure that the ‘malice cease[s].’ This implies that the narrator is subservient to the subject, going so far as to let the subject ‘raze, massacre and burn’ to ensure their victory. However, in allowing the subject victory, it allows the narrator the ultimate victory. As the final couplet states

‘I send defiance, since if overthrown,

Thou vanquishing, the conquest is mine own.’

The final couplet of an English sonnet allows the poem to come to a closed ending. Sonnet 90’s closing couplet concludes the thread of the previous twelve lines, whilst also allowing the narrator to illustrate the depth of his feeling for the subject.

‘And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,

Compared with the loss of thee will not seem so.’

This final couplet is powerful in the way that it heightens the sense of loss felt by the narrator for the potential ending of the relationship in question, and contradicts the violent first lines of the sonnet. This contradiction is made evident in the softer language of quatrain two, and the final couplet emphasises this.

To conclude, the sonnet as a genre allows an outpouring of emotion in a small number of lines. The careful use of language and imagery in the sonnet allows the poem to contain a vast amount of information, which can be interpreted easily by the reader. Two sonnets written by different authors will have similar conventions if they are of the same subgenre, although the effect of the two will be very different, even if the subject is similar.

Bibliography

Booth S (Ed); Shakespeare’s Sonnets; London; Yale University Press

Evans M (Ed); Elizabethan Sonnets; London; Dent

Jafolla, C; (2007); How Many Paltry Foolish Painted Things; Available at: http://lifeloom.com/105JafollaSonnet.htm (Last Accessed: 1 January 2009)

Jorgensen, V; (1964); Of Love and Hate; Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/810079 (Last accessed 31 December 2008)

Lever, J W; (1966); The Elizabethan Love Sonnet; London; Methuen

Longstaffe, S; (2008); Lectures on ‘Lyrical Poetry’; Lit201, [Lecture to Ba English Students year 2]; 22 – 29 September 2008

Longstaffe, S; (2008); Lecture on ‘The Sonnet’; Lit201, [Lecture to Ba English Students year 2]; 15 December 2008

Miller, N; (no date); Basic Sonnet Forms; Available at: http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm (Last Accessed: 1 January 2009)

Playing With Literature: Video Games as Narrative Fiction

Video games are often described as lacking in narrative depth; that is, the gameplay is (obviously) more important than the need for a sophisticated plot or narrative structure and so any storyline takes second place, or even is not considered as part of a games design and delivery. It has even been argued by video game theorist Jasper Juul that ‘…game and narrative are two separate phenomena that in many cases rule each other out.’(Juul, 2001) For some games, there is no need for a narrative; best selling titles such as Tetris do not need a narrative structure, involving simply the scoring of points in order to progress through the game. This has been the case throughout the relatively short history of video gaming; the playing aspects of video games - the puzzles and violence found in many games, has, until recently, been the major selling point and indeed remains a major aspect of video game design. Games such as the bestselling Tomb Raider (Eidos Interactive, 1994) contain a story that is simply a device by which the game strands are held together; the game revolves around the search for the Scion, a tenuous narrative strand which allows the player to complete a number of puzzles and search for treasure without the need for a sophisticated story.

However, the recent past as seen a change in the demographics of video game users and so designers have had to change the construction of games as a result of this. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average American gamer in 2009 is 34 years and somewhat surprisingly, considering popular beliefs, (Barry Atkins says in 2003 that the video game is ‘...fiction for children and adolescents...’ (Atkins, 2003, p5)) ‘Women aged 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).’ (ESA, 2010) However, the change in video game players has meant that it is no longer adequate that games are merely point scoring exercises; similarly, having a narrative that is merely a device by which the game play is justified is no longer sufficient to hold the attention of a modern audience; that is one made of mature adults as well as younger people.

The difficulties in creating something which can mix game play and a strong narrative are evident upon a cursory exploration of video games; there are at least two distinct problems arising as game designers try to make narrative more sophisticated. Aside from what is seen as the weak plot in many games, there are also problems with delivering the story to the player without interrupting the playing of the game; that is interacting with the events of the game as they unfold. There are two basic solutions to this; the first being that the gameplay becomes simple with a reliance on cut scenes (pieces of cinematic style footage in which the player has no control over the characters or their actions) which interrupts the game play. This is the case with the 2010 game Final Fantasy XIII, which relies heavily on cut scenes to carry forward the story; however, despite the quality of graphics and the sophisticated storyline of the game, gameplay itself is somewhat restrictive, essentially consisting of ‘…fighting your way through soldiers, monsters and robots … down a long hallway toward an orange target symbol on your mini-map that triggers a cutscene, a boss fight, or both...’(Glasser, 2010) for the majority of the game, which can take upward of 60 hours of gameplay, based on personal experience. The large amount of cutscenes featured in Final Fantasy XIII also means player interaction is disjointed; the role playing element of the game, an important factor in the franchise, is lost in favour of the fantastic quality of the in game graphics and the fight sequences (Kohler, 2010) as the story becomes more important.

The second way to incorporate a strong narrative into a video game has been to concentrate on the game playing experience and insert aspects of the storyline at intervals. This has the advantage of making player interaction more central, but has the misfortune to make the narrative feel less important. Indeed, if a puzzle or fight sequence within a game is particularly difficult and it takes a long time to progress, the game runs the risk of having the player forget the narrative as they concentrate on gameplay. For these games, playing disrupts the storyline, which results in a disjointed narrative experience; this can be seen in Tomb Raider where the narrative, although simple, is lost as the gameplay takes precedence.

Whilst it is true that establishing the presence of narrative within a video game has been problematic, the past few years have seen marked changes in the way that video games are presented to the changing audience and the type of games that are being released. There have been many games which are aimed at adults, reflecting a level of real life, as in the case of the hugely popular game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, (Activision, 2009) with its portrayal of terrorism and warfare in such locations as Afghanistan, which can be seen regularly in the media. Alongside this, recent games have involved a serious endeavour to strengthen the narrative content alongside the improved capabilities of modern games consoles and personal computers, something which was recognised in 2003 by Barry Atkins in More than a Game when he saw ‘...the first signs here of a form of fiction...’ (Atkins, 2003, p2) when playing computer games. This technological advancement has produced games such as Red Dead Redemption, (Rockstar, 2010) a role playing game or RPG, which has the player take on the persona of John Marston and carry out a variety of tasks in the Wild West, including hunting, breaking horses and chasing down outlaws.

Red Dead Redemption features a ‘sandbox’ narrative; that is, the narrative is to some extent non linear and is typical in RPG games, where the player can roam throughout the games landscape at will completing various tasks at leisure. Despite this non linear approach to the game, there is a firm story running through it, not merely an effort to hold the player’s attention long enough to progress to the next level or section of the game. Set at the turn of the 20^th Century, Marston is hunting and killing an outlaw gang on behalf of the Government and the player follows Marsden through a series of events (some of which must be completed in a linear fashion) which culminates in his death. However, this game is still predominantly, a ‘first person shooter’ or FPS and the narrative, although stronger, is still lacking the sophistication of a novel or film.

While Red Dead Redemption contains a discernable plot which can be followed through the game, even one quite primitive by literary standards, there have been a number of other games in the last eighteen months which have the potential to lead the field in the creation of video games with some of the sophistication of a novel or film, with narratives substantially stronger than earlier games. In 2010 there have been at least two major releases which push video game narrative boundaries, Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, 2010) for the Playstation 3 and Alan Wake,(Remedy 2010) for the Xbox platform.

Alan Wake, said by Time Magazine to be the top game of 2010 (Narcisse, 2010), is an RPG with a linear narrative and contains aspects which allow the player to explore the narrative potential of the game as well as conform to the more traditional shooter style game. The narrative content of the game is typical of the novels of prolific authors such as Stephen King or Dean Koontz and indeed the relationship to the work of King is foregrounded in the opening words of the game: ‘Stephen King once wrote that ‘Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations…’ Alan Wake tells the generic story of an author with writer’s block who, when on holiday in Bright Falls a fictitious American town, is tangled up in a supernatural event. Taking the role of the author, Alan Wake, the player tries to save the life of Wake’s wife Alice. As a third person shooter (TPS); that is a shooting game where there is a visible onscreen character, there are enemies which need to be neutralised; the player must shine a light onto the ‘Taken’, (characters that have been transformed by the Darkness - the representation of evil in the game) draining the Darkness from inside them, before being able to shoot or otherwise destroy them. The fundamental narrative of Alan Wake is simple enough to conform to the stereotypical gameplay of the TPS game; which James Merry describes in 2000 as often being

‘…nothing more than the player’s character’s fiancé…being kidnapped by a horrible evil character. The fiancé…must be rescued…’ (Merry, 2000)

As well as this basic adherence to the shooter gameplay, the creators of Alan Wake also made it possible for the player to choose whether they wish to explore the more sophisticated narrative, explaining that having the gamer collect pages from the manuscript that is Wake’s novel means that

Everyone who plays will get the skeleton of the story but there is a lot of optional content with TVs and radios in the game to flesh out the story. We do flashbacks as well. There is even a live talk show with live actors. And we use live actors for some of the other scenes as well. This is all optional content. (Howson, 2010)

For the player who chooses to explore this optional content, the attempts to build a sophisticated narrative are evident; the game raises issues around identity, the concept of good and evil and also questions what is real. Wake, as the protagonist requires the use of his mental faculties over physical strength to defeat an elusive enemy who takes the form of Darkness; he must write a novel in order to save the life of his wife, Alice, whilst also trying to discover whether what is going on in Bright Falls is simply a manifestation of his own psyche.

Alan Wake makes use of many of the tropes of psychological thriller fiction; the game is narrated in the first person by Wake as he recounts the events taking place and the players viewpoint is restricted to having the same knowledge as Wake, even if that is erroneous. Furthermore, the use of the interior monologue allows the player to gain an insight into Wake’s mind, as he relates his thoughts and fears to the player. In keeping with the psychological thriller theme of the game, Wake is not endowed with superb physical prowess; he quickly becomes out of breath when running and frequently needs to recover from battling. This further highlights the fact that Wake cannot use physical prowess to conquer the Darkness, but must rely on his mental faculties. There is also a significant portion of the game given over to backstory; Wake’s personal history and his reasons for being in Bright Falls. This allows the game designer to present Wake as a three dimensional character and encourages an emotional attachment between the player and Wake.

The Playstation 3 game Heavy Rain, again marketed as a psychological thriller, is another example of the way that narrative has become stronger within video games in the very recent past. In this game, the player takes the part of a number of characters and the decisions the player makes as the character affect the outcome of the game. Although the classification of Heavy Rain as a psychological thriller puts it in the same genre as Alan Wake, the differences in both gameplay and narrative are extensive. Where Alan Wake’s story is supernatural, featuring as it does ‘The Darkness’, which is a manifestation of evil, Heavy Rain is firmly grounded in reality and tells the story of a serial killer known as ‘The Origami Killer’ whose modus operandi is to drown his child victims and leave an orchid and a piece of origami on the their bodies. All of the characters played in the game are searching for the identity of the serial killer before his latest victim, Shaun Mars, is killed and the game design utilises the way that the player interacts with the game via the control pad.

For gameplay, Heavy Rain builds on experimental techniques found in the game Fahrenheit, (Quantic Dream 2005) with the control pad being used in innovative ways. Where Alan Wake has Wake pointing a torch, shooting and looking around him, Heavy Rain has the player complete a range of everyday tasks as well as those central to the narrative; the control pad is used in a variety of different ways, being shaken and tilted amongst other things, not just used for direction and pressing an ‘action button’ which is usual. This intimate interaction allows the player to become emotionally involved with the characters as the player literally becomes them, completing tasks such as brushing teeth and taking a shower as game ‘author’ David Cage explains; ‘They [the tasks]…tell so much about the characters, contribute to the role play, triggering empathy and identification – I could not imagine not having these moments.(original emphasis) (Stuart, 2010) Cage is clear in interviews that the narrative content of the game is important, so important that he took

‘a year to write this, to get the story [he] want[ed]. [He] also wanted to get rid of any supernatural elements, any sci-fi and what have you. [He] wanted to write about real people in real life.’ (Kendall, 2010)

As with Alan Wake, there are evident tropes of the psychological thriller; none of the characters are endowed with more than average physical prowess and the ‘central’ character Ethan Mars has to pit his wits against the serial killer, who gives him fives tasks to complete in order to save his son, Shaun; these tasks involves both physical and mental bravery, involving such things as cutting off his own finger and facing electrocution in the attempt to save his son.

Structurally, both Alan Wake and Heavy Rain are similar to visual narratives. Alan Wake’s construction is similar to that of a television series, with six ‘episodes’ complete with opening and closing credit sequences and the even the familiar words ‘…Previously on…’ recapping what has already happened. This is a movement away from the previous work of the game designers; the game which preceded Alan Wake, Max Payne (Remedy, 2002) is created to feel like a film, albeit quite primitively. As the managing director of the development company Remedy, Matias Myllyrinne, says in an interview shortly after the release of Alan Wake, Max Payne ‘…kind of stretched the film-style of storytelling over a game.’ (O Hannessian, 2010) However, Myllyrinne goes on to say that this format was not something that was suitable for Alan Wake, as the story was much larger than in the Max Payne games. Heavy Rain is more explicitly connected to the medium of film; this game utilises methods such as the split screen technique showing different events occurring at the same time in the same screen (Figures 1&2) which heightens tension in the narrative as well as ‘the excitement and frenzy of certain activities.’(Chandler, 1995) This technique can be found throughout film, and has recently become popular in television serials such as 24 and CSI:Miami.

Figure 1: Heavy Rain (Robinson, 2009) Figure 2: 24 (Wikipedia, 2010)

Both the games Alan Wake and Heavy Rain allow the gamer to literally see what the character sees; there are methods by which the player can make the camera of the game look around them in the first-person; that is the camera angle temporarily becomes the eyes of the character, allowing the gamer not only to see what the character sees, but, more importantly, how the character sees something. As with the use of mundane tasks in Heavy Rain, the gamer becomes the character thereby heightening the emotional links between the player and the character.

Allowing the player to become emotionally involved with the characters in the game serves to garner the player’s interest in the narrative of the game; the player carries on playing in order to find out what happens next or how the story ends, rather than just to progress through the game and gain points or ‘kills’. Here, Alan Wake and Heavy Rain’s narrative successfully manages to hold the players interest; the usual cutscenes are dramatically reduced and the character can interact with the surroundings as the narrative is expanded. These scenes combine player activity with the cutscene; in Heavy Rain an example of this is when Ethan is talking with his psychiatrist. This segment of game consists of a lot of backstory, linking the introduction of the game, Ethan at home with his family, to the present of the game, which has Ethan as a single man with weekend access to his son. Previously, this would have taken the form of a cut scene, with no control over the proceedings on the screen; however, in Heavy Rain, the player can control Ethan to move around the room and interact with the furniture and objects found there while the psychiatrist explains the backstory. Within these portions of the game, there is also the use of Quicktime Events, (QTE’s) which, as the name suggests involves character events being played out in a fast manner. In Heavy Rain, this involves pressing highlighted buttons within a short time, with the failure to do this resulting in a penalty. There is also the potential within the QTE’s of Heavy Rain to change the path of the game, although, as a review of the game says it is ‘…in the game's latter half where your decisions really start to matter and it's here that the game impresses with its sense of consequence.’ (Wales, 2010) The presence of the QTE allows the narrative to progress without the player having to become a passive observer; the player continues to interact with the game as the story unfolds, avoiding one of the main problems of narrative delivery.

While Alan Wake has a linear narrative, with only one path that the gamer can take to get to the end, Heavy Rain has a different narrative structure. The game has the player making decisions which affect the outcome; whether the serial killer is apprehended and the child, Shaun, saved. Playing as the character Ethan, who is being manipulated by the serial killer, the player must decide whether to shoot another character to save the life of his son, with the instruction ‘Are you willing to kill someone to save your son?’ It transpires that the target is a drug dealer, who might, in other games, be thought of as worth killing; but within the context of the game, the player must make a moral decision as to whether to kill another person. In a way not usual for video games, the death of a single character becomes a major event; the player must decide whether to carry out a cold blooded murder, as the control pad simulates the reactions of the character. The pad shakes in the player’s hand, making it harder to aim the gun and hesitation can result in the character being shot, ending Ethan’s involvement in the game. Here, the game takes a common aspect of video games - killing, and makes it shocking; it makes the player seriously consider the consequences of their actions. This is evidence of social commentary, making comment on the frequency of violence in games and life, and having the player reconsider the morality of such actions. As with the everyday tasks of the game, it is clear that the peripheral equipment, the QTE aspects of the game and the ability to change the outcome of the game in this way immerses the gamer in the narrative, to the extent that the player effectively becomes the author, writing their own version of the narrative, although there are only a certain number of scenarios available to the player.

In the introduction to Intertextuality Graham Allan says that ‘texts, whether they be literary or non-literary, are viewed by modern theorists as lacking in any kind of independent meaning,’ (Allen, 2000) and this is something which can be seen in both Alan Wake and Heavy Rain. For players of Alan Wake, there are clear references to other texts and a quick search of the internet can uncover literally dozens of these cultural references, ranging from the Smoke Monster in Lost to the Raincoat killer from I Know What You Did Last Summer (Weijo, 2010). Although not academic, nevertheless, these references help to establish the type of game being played and highlighting an intertextual relationship can also serve to establish the game as a more sophisticated narrative, rather than just gameplay; some of the texts referenced in the game ‘...include the like of Twin Peaks, Lost and the works of Stephen King’ according to an interview with the games writer, Sam Lake. (Cowen, 2010) Twin Peaks is one of the first, and clearest, instances of intertextuality within Alan Wake; indeed, the games designers are clear that ‘...Twin Peaks is actually a big inspiration...’ (Howson, 2010) for the town of Bright Falls, which is the setting for the game. There are a number of clear connections between the two; for instance, the diner in Bright Falls is called the Triple D ‘Oh Deer’ Diner, echoing the name of the Double R Diner in Twin Peaks. Furthermore, the Light Lady in Alan Wake, who carries a lamp around with her is similar to the Log Lady of Twin Peaks, and‘…their appearance, behaviour and importance to the plot is almost identical…’ (Giant Bomb, nd) As well as these clear references to Twin Peaks, there are many other filmic intertextual references visible throughout the game, including a flock of birds which attacks Wake and his friend Barry, in the same way in which Hitchcock’s birds attack in the film The Birds.

Whilst there are many references to film and television within Alan Wake, there are also many allusions to Stephen King and his work within the game. As already stated, the game opens with a quote by King, but there are references to The Shining (King, 2007 ed) amongst others, with Wake comparing himself being chased by a crazed man with an axe to Torrance chasing his wife with an axe. There is also a sequence near the end of the game where Wake is being chased through a maze; again this can be compared to The Shining, where Torrence is chasing his son through the maze. However, the biggest instance of King’s influence is the storyline of the game, which has similarities to Misery, featuring as it does an author who is held captive, whilst being forced to write a novel with a particular ending.

When playing the game Alan Wake, it quickly becomes clear that the central theme of the game is light and the way light destroys darkness. As already mentioned, Wake must use a torch to destroy the Darkness in the ‘Taken’ before they can be neutralised; but this is merely part of the preoccupation with light that the game displays. There is the ‘Lamp Lady’ who carries a lamp everywhere she goes, and has lights burning at all times; if the player gets lost in the game, heading towards the light is the easiest way to get back on track; Wake can recover faster than usual if he is within a circle of light and it is light that drives the darkness out of the ‘Taken.’ As a motif in literature light has a clear meaning, with the relationship between light and religion being well known; there are many references in The Bible to light and to Jesus being the light. These include Jesus being ‘…the real light which gives light to every person (John 1:9) Jesus described himself as light: ‘I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness. (John 8:12)…’ (Dues, 2006, p182) Light plays a major role in the game, and as such can be easily interpreted as having a religious significance. Here, in what can only be described as obvious religious imagery, light is the saviour of Wake, his wife and the community of Bright Springs, with The Darkness being representative of evil, especially in the way it can penetrate a person and only be destroyed by the presence of the light.

Alongside the presence of light as a motif of Alan Wake, there is a preoccupation with the written word in the game; as previously discussed, Wake is a frustrated writer who must write to save the life of his wife. However, there are also more subtle ways which the written word takes a dominant place in the video game; there are 106 pieces of manuscript scattered throughout the game, which when read together make up the entire narrative of the game, which makes up some of the optional narrative content of the game. Literally speaking, the game can therefore be read as well as played, with the player gaining access to parts of the backstory of the game and insights into other characters that the restrictive narrative style of the game does not allow. Throughout Bright Falls, there are many signs which can be read, giving the history of the area, a tactic which allows the player to gain an understanding of the setting, and again fills in elements of backstory which Wake (and the player) would otherwise not know. There is also the presence of glowing words; that is, written messages which can be seen to glow when light is shone on them. Words are known to have a religious significance, alongside the representation of light; indeed one of the more famous passages from The Bible is ‘In the Beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.’ (John 1:1, King James Version) Alongside the religious motif, the presence of text is significant in showing the importance and power of the written word within both the game and life; words give meaning to the fictional town of Bright Springs through the signs displaying aspects of the history; words are also able to build a cohesive whole, as in the way the manuscript pages build up the entire narrative of the events in Bright Springs. Finally, words are a way of changing events; this is clear in the game as the physical manifestation of the Darkness wants Wake to write a particular story, which will allow its influence to spread further than the boundaries of Bright Springs and in the way Wake eventually understands that in order to save Alice, he needs to write his own ending.

It is clear then, that the video game has become more sophisticated throughout its short history and that game writers are beginning to consider more than shooting and point scoring when they embark upon creating a new game. This includes inserting examples of intertextuality in the text and an exploration of themes and motifs as well as making allusions to contemporary life. However, the narrative of games is often derided for being simplistic and lacking any depth when it is present; something which film has endured for much of its existence. It is true that video game narrative is in its infancy, indeed there is a vast scope for improvement within the games analysed; Heavy Rain’s conclusion where the serial killer is unmasked is not a sophisticated piece of storytelling, involving action replays which undermine the previous narrative, inserting actions which were not evident when playing as the character at the time the events took place. While the narrative of Alan Wake is fairly generic, echoing a number of stories by authors of the psychological thriller, nevertheless there is definite potential for the expansion of the video game narrative as a genre, with the techniques used in these games being built on and expanded to allow games to involve the player as much as reading a piece of fiction can. Technological advancements should also aid in this, with recent innovations regarding the Xbox Kinect making the potential for interaction greater as the player does not need a control pad; the player can mimic real actions as the camera attached to the console interprets the movements and shows them on the screen. While the player will not have the sensory interaction that the control pad offers in Heavy Rain, for such actions as moving through landscapes this could be invaluable.

It is evident that the video game has the potential to grow into a sophisticated narrative form, rivalling the efforts of filmmakers of the 21^st Century, who are exploring the potential of animated film, by creating an interactive experience in which the player is not only an observer, but also an active participant in the outcome of the narrative. There are a number of issues with the way that the narrative is delivered to the player, but this can be overcome with close attention to the story that is being created and careful consideration of the whole narrative. It can also be suggested that the continuing technological breakthroughs by console making companies can create a more immersive experience for the player and affect the way that the narrative is delivered. With the popularity of video games, it is possible that video games could become a mainstream and popular way for people to enjoy narrative, with games such as Alan Wake and Heavy Rain being instrumental in expanding the interactive fiction of video games.

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Rockstar (2010) Red Dead Redemption [Disc] Xbox 360; London: Rockstar

Stuart, K (2010) Heavy Rain creator: 'Publishers should dare to take more risks' [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/mar/22/heavy-rain-david-cage-interview Last Accessed: 12 January 2011

Wales, M (2010) Heavy Rain Review [Online] Available at: http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/106/1068165p2.html Last Accessed; 12 January 2011

Weijo, H (2010) Branding, Culture, Politics, and Everything in Between [Online] Available at: http://www.facade.fi/2010/06/video-games-and-blatant-intertextuality/ Last Accessed: 12 January 2011

Wikipedia (2010) Split Screen.jpg [Online Image] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:24_Split_Screen.jpg Last Accessed: 12 January 2011