Hey, all. As I've mentioned before, in Real Life I'm an academic, although the crossover between the stuff I teach and research professionally and the stuff I write about on here is usually pretty limited. However, I've just been asked if I'd be interested in writing a scholarly essay on Gothic digital media, and have - perhaps unwisely - said 'yes', despite not really having a very in-depth knowledge of the subject. So, knowing that internet horror fandom and the OSR blogosphere have a very heavy overlap, I'm turning to you fine folk for recommendations.
What I want to write about isn't just horror fiction on the internet, which is easy to find, but horror fiction which makes use of the internet, so that it would lose something - possibly everything - if you shifted it into another form. Things like Slenderman vlogs, or the Zalgo meme, or _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES on Reddit, or the old Ted the Caver website, or this webcomic by Emily Carroll: digital Gothic / horror media which actually engages with and makes use of its online format, rather than simply using the internet as a delivery system for something which could just as easily have been a traditional book, comic, or film. (Internet screamers would be another example, albeit a very crude one.) If something on Your Gaming Blog qualifies, then feel free to let me know about it. You might just end up getting mentioned in a work of Real Academic Scholarship!
Suggestions via comments or over G+ would be welcome. Thanks!
Something like SCP? It's the inventory catalog of a network of secret storehouses to safely contain object with supernatural abilities. Like the storehouse from Raiders of the Lost Arc but with a way bigger budget and higher security. Each entry consists of a description of the object, a summary of how it was obtained, and the special containment protocols that are in place to keep it from affecting the environment. They come in the three categories of "odd, but harmless", "dangerous to health and life", and "potential to end all existance as we know it".
ReplyDeleteEveryone can add new entries to the catalog and over the years it has grown massive. And a lot of them easily out-Lovecraft Lovecraft himself.
I couldn't find a text source for this one, but its' a story called "Computer Vision Syndrome". It's about a NEET who spends all his time playing video games, and because of that, his vision starts to degrade. He finds out he has a disorder of the same name, and starts looking for a cure or a way to treat the disease. This leads him down a rabbit hole into the metaphorical darkness.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpXrPegzpo4
Thanks, Yami! There seems to be a lot of interesting stuff being done with youtube videos. I'll try to look at a range of others once I get the chance!
DeleteI'd definitely second Yora's recommendation of the SCP Foundation. Most of the library is essentially just flash fiction, but a lot of it takes advantage of the webpage medium, and includes invisible text/hyperlinks/simple HTML puzzles. I'm not as much a part of the community as I used to be, but I know that they're still rapidly expanding.
ReplyDeleteBased on these recommendations (and another one from the G+ thread on this post) I've been looking through the SCP stuff. Some are a lot more interesting than others, but the main barrier to usefulness is that there are *thousands* of the damn things. Yora, G.R. Michael - could you point me in the direction of some that you thought were especially noteworthy and/or formally innovative?
Deletehttp://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2010 is very short and strange, and has something interesting visible only when you're editing the page. Many others use a similar gimmick, but I can't think of any more off of the top of my head. http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1171 is longer and even stranger. It's not technically brilliant, but I found it hilarious. http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2212 contains a series of logic puzzles, and each one you solve reveals another portion of the article. Speaking as someone who has read most of that site, 2212 is probably the most complex.
DeleteThanks, G.R. - I'll take a look!
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ReplyDelete"Too many cooks" was originally shown on TV, rather to my surprise, but I suspect it was made with the internet in mind - in particular, the ability to go back and look for details you missed is something that's easier with modern tech than with live TV.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this webcam of the large hadron collider?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html
Thanks!
DeleteIf you're still looking for this sort of thing, http://emcarroll.com/ has a lot. "Margot's Room" especially is notable.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not, she's still worth reading. Much of her work is available on her site. It's all very good.
I mentioned Carroll in the blog post itself... but, yes, the piece in question has long since been written and sent off, and Carroll does get a mention in it. I like her work a lot, so I hope it will prompt a few more people to give her webcomics a look!
DeleteLord have mercy, that's an embarrassing thing to mix up. I probably added her site to my bookmarks because of this very post.
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