"The Fall" is the story of John Smith, three-time winner of the MBPW (Most Boring Person in the World award), who is about to take a radical step into the next phase of his life. John Smith is not only himself in this narrative—through the use of archetypal images, symbols and plot, he becomes an everyman for our age.

This story synthesizes text, images, audio, and animation into a single sustained vision of the action. It engages readers with opportunities for fuller interactions (e.g. triggering visual events during the piece and, at the end, an interactive quiz). These interactions push against typical reader expectations and force a more pro-active engagement with the material.

"The Fall" is linear in plot and uses elements of fiction (character, symbol, etc.) typically found in conventional print-based works. This is a deliberate attempt to bridge the "audience gap," where we still see a mainstream audience for print-based literature, but a limited audience for electronic literature. This bridging is an important concern in our field: with works using linear plots and other standard elements of fiction, we can expand our audience among readers who are more comfortable with the conventions of traditional literature; at the same time, we can also show younger writers a path that connects the print-based past and the electronic future of storytelling. This mixed brand of electronic literature empowers our field with an inclusiveness that embraces beginning writers and offers a wider potential for popular engagement.

(source: ELO 2018 website)

The Fall

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