Amiga reference!
Link. Click. Download. Promised a computer mystery romance “set five minutes into the future of 1988”, I loaded up “Digital: A Love Story” (2010). Christine Love’s interactive visual novel has but a simple interface; you, the protagonist has just installed your very own Amie workbench (think 1980’s desktop operating systems). Provided only with phone number codes to dial into various Bulletin Board Systems, or BBSs, you read, post, and reply to windowed text messages from online strangers.
Guess I’m not that old…
I was surprisingly hooked into this interface – pointing and clicking across the cybernet, each ear-splitting dial tone crossing me into another BBS – another separate time-space. You can click “reply” and await any message, be it from spammers, trolls, nihilists or love interests. Indeed, the protagonist (you) build an online romantic relationship with a user named *Emilia simply through bluescreen text. Things get increasingly complex as you uncover an internet conspiracy theory, cheat Sprint’s billing company, and “hack the Gibson”. “Digital”, in many ways, is a timepiece of interactive fiction; it encapsulates a fascinating era pre-dating the advent of the World Wide Web – like a Cambrian snapshot of what virtual relationships could and used to be. Playing Digital, if only for its short duration, transported me to this unique time and place where technology (for the first time) could function as a looking glass into the human condition. Ultimately, “Digital” is a love story, an examination of how we connect with others through technology – and this is where I bring up “Her”.
Spike Jonze’s recent film, “Her” (2014), taps into the same themes found in Digital; however, the inherent absence of interactivity within film medium ultimately limits “Her” from reaching the resonance of “Digital”. Lonely writer Theodore Twombly (deftly played by Joaquim Phoenix) falls in love with his highly advanced operating system, Samantha (Scarlett Johansen). Programmed to meet his every need, Samantha becomes more than just an artificial intelligence. What follows is a sentimental, convoluted love letter about human connection and its evolution alongside technology. For me, “Her” lost poignancy through cloying writing and overtly sentimental dialogue (“we spend a third of our lives asleep, and maybe that’s the time we feel most free?”). Every line just felt forced into eliciting some wistful sadness onto me, like some teenage girl’s tumblr quotes about true love. Nonetheless, I think the universe of “Her” was well-realized; near-future Los Angeles will be populated with Google employees and technology is an integral part of life, not an accessory.
Where “Her” pales in comparison to “Digital”, is the lack of interactivity. You are the main character in “Digital”, and by extension, you reply to private messages, patch files, hack into restricted BBSs, chase down viruses and ultimately…fall in love with *Emilia. The game isn’t flawless; the relationship feels somewhat rushed and skeletal, and the plot twist is far-fetched, however it is the player’s agency which makes “Digital” superior to “Her” in my opinion.
Technology is all about interaction. Touchscreens, keyboards, stylus wands, game controllers are all variations and evolutions of the mouse point-and-click. What better way to communicate the simultaneous, yet contradictory feelings of connection and isolation through computers than with a computer itself?
E.Y.
Thought for Your Thoughts 