Have you ever thought of the future of books? Or even the future in general? Pry is an Interactive story that allows the reader to navigate their way through it’s chapters on their own terms. In this digital story you are able to see from three different perspectives with just a move of a finger. The story’s main character is a young man named James who served in the Golf War only six years earlier. In Pry, It is the reader’s job to interact with James’ surroundings, subconscious, and thoughts to reveal secrets about the past.With levels almost similar to a game, each chapter contains four diamonds, when the game considers you an expert on a specific chapter all of the diamonds turn red. The time dedicated to navigating through the chapters is rewarded with a diamond. It’s like a scale to see how your progressing within the story, but also represents a new level that has been breeched. This gives the reader almost an addicting desire to get further into the action. Falling under the fairly new genre of digital literature, Pry is definitely a thought provoking experience and nothing short of an eye catcher with its remarkable graphics.
So why should YOU read Pry?
-Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Espen Aarseth)
Pry is a story that requires the reader to use all of their resources to figure out what the creators are trying to reveal to them. Simply putting words on paper as a description of this game will not do it justice. Pry is set up so that the reader is able to indulge themselves by being interactive. Attempting to make a storyline of it would cripple that affect. There are many different aspects we could look at, the digital quality, the fluency of navigation, and the story line. All of these things should be considered when partaking in this interactive story. They are all vital and make up the story itself.
“So many of the internal references and resonances within Pry arise in the interplay between the specifics of its technology, audiovisual media, and text. As an intermedial cultural object, Pry can’t simply exist without its ecosystem, it requires the formal qualities of the device.”
Samantha Gorman, one of Pry’s creators, said that “the form is the function”, I couldn’t agree more. Allowing the reader to navigate from James’ thoughts by pinching to see his subconscious, and pulling apart to open his eyes to his surroundings, reveals answers and clues that the reader would not have been able to obtain otherwise. Making it vital for any person interested in understanding Pry, to experience it for themselves.
Pry reaches out to religious book readers, and those who haven’t picked up a book in their life. It broadens the perspective of literature and may put to question your idea of what literature is. Many people have ideas of what literature entails, but Pry breaks the common misconception that literature is nothing more than words on a page. Through interaction, video sequences, and simply listening, Pry is the door to a new world that awaits every reader.
