![]() “There’s nothing like being a reader and suddenly feeling complicit in the story that’s unfolding” Like I mentioned, my PhD is in this territory of gamified fiction, so I think about it a lot! It’s hard for me to enjoy straight fiction now. Realizing that you’re participating in the story you’re reading-through narrative metalepsis, which is movement between story layers-is just the coolest thing on earth. I doubt that everyone who picked it up in 1962, when it was published, knew the shtick with that book. There’s nothing like being a reader and suddenly feeling complicit in the story that’s unfolding. ![]() I’m tempted to say it’s the most important type, especially if, as an author, your goal is to deeply affect the reader. I think that ergodic fiction is the most fun type of fiction there is. How would you compare the experience of games with the experience of novels, in general? I won’t say which page number it is, in case anyone wants to track down this book and try it out, but it left such an impact on me that to this day I superstitiously avoid this number in all areas of my life. ![]() It’s completely black, and all you can see are the little eyes of the schoolchildren. The other thing that sticks with me about Maze is that there’s one room that’s a true ‘game over’-you shouldn’t have gone to this room. Similar to Hopscotch, by Julio Cortázar, it’s a game in which you have options about how you consume the work. Now, when revisiting it, I approach it as a novel. There’s something very Paradise Lost about it, something very spooky throughout the whole thing. The book is illustrated in a style that reminds me of Venetian etchings. I like that it is overtly a puzzle book, and that it’s heavily implied that you, as the narrator, are a ghoul or the guardian of some type of underworld. I remember in the early days of the internet, one of the first things I ever searched was ‘how do you beat Maze?’ Only a handful of people had solved it, and they were really bad at describing exactly how to do it. I have never done it, and I’ve never known anyone who solved this book. In theory, you can reach the end of the game-the book, the house-in sixteen steps. At the first entry room, which is illustrated alongside some text from you (as the narrator), the children and you (as the reader) must choose between four doorways that each have numbers above them indicating which page to turn to.Įach room contains tons of cryptic clues, visuals, and riddles that are supposed to lead you to make the right choices. It was published in 1985, and it’s a children’s puzzle book (more literally so than the other books in this list) in which you’re the guardian of an enormous mansion that a group of schoolchildren come to visit on a school trip. I don’t remember a time when we didn’t have it. Maze is a book that my brother and I have adored since early childhood. Your first ergodic fiction recommendation is Maze, by Christopher Manson. Just after the Second World War, this turned into tabletop gaming and was smushed together with postmodernism to create ergodic fiction, metafiction, metalepsis, and all kinds of fun, puzzle-like fiction. At the end of the 19th century, specifically in Europe, there was a cultural movement where people took the themes explored in science fiction and created parlor games that involved a lot of storytelling. Wells wrote two books describing games with toy soldiers, Floor Games and Little Wars, which became the foundation for war gaming. Outside of my PhD, I prefer to steer clear of those definitions because in the field of slightly-gamified-fiction (stories that feel like puzzles, and stories that feel like games) there’s so much room to play in! Authors have been doing this kind of experimentation for a long time, even before those technical definitions existed.įor example, as well as writing science fiction novels, H.G. The technical term is ergodic fiction, which can involve narrative metalepsis (which I study), and it all sort of fits under the umbrella of metafiction. I’m obsessed with novels that feel like puzzles even if they’re not overtly puzzle books. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that means? You’re recommending five books in the category of novels that feel like games or puzzles. Foreign Policy & International Relations.
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