Stephen Parisi

12/19/17

Molloy College

ENG 255

Dr. Hey

Paper Two

With Those We Love Alive is a dark, twisted, obscure piece of non-trivial,

ergodic literature created by Porpentine Charity Heartscape. Once the story

begins, it urges readers to keep a pen or a sharpie nearby, and informs them

they will be writing on their skin. A reminder comes on the screen: NOTHING

YOU DO IS WRONG. This is to encourage those who are partaking to not be

hesitant in their choices. As quotes greet the reader, the reader is given a

choice between several options. Once clicked on, the reader is taken to a new

page, and a new part of the story. It is more of a journey than a story, though.

The reader is taken through all these limitless permutations that Porpentine

Charity Heartscape has created.

As mentioned earlier, this story is a dark fantasy in which the reader is

the perspective from which the story is being told. The reader is the main

character, or protagonist, in this story or journey. Throughout the story, the

reader is supposed to be designing artifacts for the Skull Empress. With each

click of the strangely and humorously written text, furthers the readers

journey down Heartscapes path.

Periodically throughout the story, the reader is prompted to draw a

symbol or glyph somewhere on their body. At the time, this makes absolutely

no sense to the reader. What is the point of this? This is what makes this

ergodic literature non-trivial. It is an interactive piece of electronic literature

that requires more than just reading. You must continuously click on choices

to send the story through whichever permutations you choose. It takes the

reader about 45 minutes to get all the way through the story once. But just

because the story ends, doesnt mean a new one isnt ready to be told just by

refreshing the page and starting over. In doing this, the reader can go through

an entirely new set of possible permutations for their journey.

Speaking of one story ending and a new story beginning, if the reader

had been participating the way they were supposed to and they drew glyphs on

their arms when the story prompted them to, they should be able to look and

see a whole new story. The glyphs tell a story of their own. If the reader
remembers what each glyphs represents, then they can follow along with the

story thats been written on their arms. This speaks to something larger than

just writing on our arms and clicking on different options on a computer

screen. Porpentine Charity Heartscape was trying to get her point across.

Heartscapes, With Those We Love Alive was inspired by child abuse and

complex posttraumatic stress disorder, also known as complex trauma

disorder. Complex posttraumatic stress disorder stems from childhood harm or

abandonment by a caregiver or loved one. It is quite possible that Heartscape

was trying to say that life leaves marks. As we all go throughout life, we

encounter different situations. Some of these situations are meaningless. But

some other situations can profoundly affect the rest of our lives. Sometimes life

can give us scars. These scars do not necessarily need to be physical scars.

Porpentine Charity Heartscape clearly knows, as someone speaking out for

those who suffer from complex posttraumatic stress disorder and child abuse,

that not all scars can be seen; some of the deepest scars cannot be seen by the

naked eye.

In The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes contends that once the

author begins his or her writing, they have begun their own death. This is not

to say a literal death, but rather a metaphorical one. Barthes is saying that

when the author is finished with their work, they are dead, their voice is dead,
and their perspective is dead. Barthes proclaims, As soon as a fact is narrated

no longer with a view to acting directly on reality but intransitively, that is to

say, finally outside of any function other than that of the very practice of the

symbol itself, this disconnection occurs, the voice loses its origin, the author

enter into his own death, writing begins (The Death of the Author 142). Once

their work is disseminated to the masses, others will read their work. Once

others read the authors work, they begin to formulate their own perspectives,

each one drastically different from the next. This means the authors

perspective no longer matters, for the reader controls the narrative through

their minds eye.

It is safe to say that Porpentine Charity Heartscapes death takes place

as the reader opens up that very first page in order to begin viewing, With

Those We Love Alive. Once she concludes her story, she can no longer add her

perspective to it anymore. The author lives only while the creative process is

taking place, whether it is writing or otherwise. Her views, influenced by

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder and child abuse, will be perceived in as

many different ways as the number of people that take part in this electronic

piece of literature.

In closing, let us take one more analytical look at this electronic piece of

ergodic, non trivial literature. As mentioned earlier, life leaves marks. Not all
marks are visible but all marks do tell a story. Each one of these stories is

completely different from the next, because every person has different life

experiences. People have the choice to look back at the marks life gave them

and learn from them. Dont look at them as scars, but more so as reminders

and as learning experiences.

 Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. The Death of the Author.

http://Artsites.ucsc.edu/Faculty/Gustafson/FILM%20162.W10/Readings

/Barthes.death.pdf,artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/Gustafson/FILM%20162.W

10/readings/barthes.death.pdf.

Heartscape, Porpentine Charity. With Those We Love

Alive Collection.eliterature.org, 2014,

http://collection.eliterature.org/3/work.html?work=with-those-we-love-

alive