Howling Dogs
Howling Dogs is a work of interactive fiction (also known as hypertext or IF) by Porpentine. Embodying the DIY and zine ethos that has grown from the Twine community, which is a robust but simple tool for creating text-based games and works of art, Howling Dogs builds a stark, but darkly surreal world of someone trapped in a prison-like cell, that can only escape into virtual reality. Starting with a quote from Kenzaburo Oe, the text folds back on itself over and over with the user’s choices, echoing its content and core themes with users repeating mundane tasks to have access to a seemingly more exciting set of texts, that inevitably fade, returning to a sense of entrapment and deep unease with the self. (Other works by Porpentine delve deeper into socially fraught but complex issues such as mental illness, self-harm, sex, violence, and shifting gender fluidity.) Porpentine’s text works have a way both lingering in a subconscious dreamlike state, but also directly and personally addressing the core of human existence.
Creator: Porpentine
Link: https://slimedaughter.com/games/twine/howlingdogs/
Connections:
Maya Deren - Meshes of the Afternoon
Candas Jane Dorsey - Black Wine
Lana and Lilly Wachowski - The Matrix