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Forgive me if this is kind of an odd question, but can anyone name any novels that they found so actively engaging that they almost felt like playing an interactive game? I would imagine that such novels would tend to be on the fairly contemporary/postmodern side of things, but I think some older novels might have this quality as well. If I had to pick a novel that I've read recently that had a little bit of this quality, I think that it would be Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed. Any novel that leads readers to constantly look up strange words in the OED or look up obscure references on Wikipedia has a little bit of the quality that I'm looking for. I enjoy a good “escapist” read as much as the next person, but I find a novel that calls for a certain amount of “detective work” rather than just passive reading to be something that's very interesting.
The thing that got me thinking about this subject was an article I read a month or two about the tv series Lost that argues that its popularity is partially due to the fact that it feels a little bit like an interactive game. Part of this is due to the puzzle-like aspects of the show and the various online discussion fora for the show. You're probably not going to find as much of that for any novel, but I think that novels can have somewhat similar characteristics. (I also recall a Video Watchdog article from a few years back that discussed Kurosawa's Rashomon and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive as "puzzle movies." I would be interested in finding novels with similar characteristics.)
Can anyone recommend novels (whether recent or not) that fit any of the criteria that I'm looking for? (I have a feeling that some of them will be major-league literary classics that I'm embarrassed to have not read.) I'm interested in the boundaries between narrative and gaming and the ways that they may be shifting. I'm not much of a gamer today (I played some computer/video games when I was younger and dabbled a little in pen-and-paper role-playing games), but I am still interested in gaming as a popular culture phenomenon and for the ways that different types of games may be influencing more traditional narrative forms. I recently discovered something called the "Alternate Reality Gaming Network" that I'm a little bit interested in, but I haven't really had the time to explore it very thoroughly.
Wow, what a question, EF! Not sure what to say about that. The movie "Memento" comes to mind. Have you seen it?
As for novels, but I was intrigued by the review of The Gargoyle in today's New York Times. Think that might fit the bill?
I hadn't heard of "Gargoyle," partially because I don't really keep up with contemporary literature that much (I think that the most recently-written novel that I've read is Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" from 2006). It sounds like it might have a little bit of a quality that I'm looking for.
I've seen "Memento," and it has a somewhat game or puzzle-like quality. I enjoyed it, but I haven't rewatched it since it first came out.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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