Interactive Novel A Different Experience .The Cell N° 06
Regardless of its genre (novel, poetry, theater, maqama...), interactive text is by definition a text that cannot be read linearly as done with the on-paper text. It gives the screen reader multiple pathways, from which one can have access to the different layers of the text, with no beginnings or endings.
On the other hand, the screen reader is put at the crossroads of multimedia , as the interactive text does not opt for the lexis only, but carries within several media such as sound, image and movement. These media are part of the inner structure of the very text and not just aesthetic devices. These additions contribute in creating an exclusive space that impose on the screen reader some special forms and paths in the process of reception.
One may notice the use of multimedia in the texts; they are deemed as a language of a different kind and they actually represent part of the text’s texture in general, and are included within the subsequent process of its interpretation.
In addition, the text consists of many hyperlinks that direct the screen reader from one text layer to another, so the reading becomes three-dimensional and sometimes four-dimensional by adding the time dimension. The screen reader also identifies other links for special information about a specific thing in the text found via the Internet, within the text texture as reading is no longer closed, but rather is free and open to space and time.
Besides, the recipient finds in selected hyperlinks some specific spaces that allow him/her to add, which is the most important thing in the interactive text. These hyperlinks provides the recipient with an access to interactivity via a simple click (.......01) carrying a specific number according to its position in the text, through which it is forwarded to the blog via the email, so the addition(writing, pictures, music...) is easily sent .
Then, they are put in the appropriate place in the text in the name of its owner, thus contributing to the construction and directing the text to another pathway according to the owner’s skopos .This process continues with another recipient, and the entire process continues for a period until the right to direct blogging is granted to a number of writers...
The interactive novel is introduced in the field of literature and interactive art. This literature is based on the unification of literary arts with digital technologies and is received through a computer using special software.
The scree reader is also involved in the writing process by giving him/her a space to add and modify the original discourse (the nucleus). One of its most important characteristics is that it has no definite beginning or end. It is participatory literature and does not believe in individualism in authorship.
This is why it is difficult to direct its textual path in one direction because it is multi-directional according to the different references of the audience participating in the composition.
Interactive literature and art also employ the linguistic and non-linguistic aspects in the writing process in addition to the software apps. Therefore, the components of literature and interactive art are , indeed, shown through language, multimedia, software and the interaction process. These latter are four essential ingredients for literature and art to always pay attention to so that its positive interaction is realized and achieved.
In the interactive novel, we are having one of the most important and widespread interactive literary genres, especially in the Arab world. It is based on linguistic, non-linguistic and software bases and is presented through special websites or on CDs .It also believes in the multiplicity of authorship and the participatory work.
In my experience, cell No 06, I chose a different way to display the text, as I adopted the blog with some modifications in the template to fit technically with the body of the novel and with what I want for lay-out reasons, especially with regard to the non-linguistic aspect. The site with its software provided me with the ability to put links that enable recipients to add and modify appropriately so that to participate in writing the novel.
As of March 22nd, 2022, the number of readers reached more than 130,000 recipients, a quarter of whom had more than 10 minutes of session, which is an relatively important and manifests the extent to which the recipients were caught by the novel's chapters.
Cell number 06 tells the story of whomever Arab young man (Mourad) regardless what Arab country in which he lives, because all Arab countries are similar in terms of conditions and tragedies that people is suffering.
Mourad lives in harsh conditions, as he was majoring in law and unfortunately is jobless and feels marginalized. He writes to one of his immigrated relatives in another Arab country, offering him to send him a sum of money help him launch a business to open a shop, but unfortunately it turned out that his relative is a terrorist in this very Arab country and is pursued by the intelligence, so they arrested Mourad. They put him in an underground cell in one of the military barracks in the city, only meters from the city market.
The solitary had the number 06 with narrow window connecting it through a tunnel to the market where those in the cell could hear those in the market and no one in the market could hear what was going on in the cell. It was like a site to spy on what people are saying. Mourad was kept in the cell alone, hearing people's stories, without trial.
Unfortunately for him, the country experienced a revolution and rebellion while he was still awaiting trial, so the intelligence there forgot about him and was left apart. No one knows about him except the cell guard who serves him a meal every day and checks whether he is still alive.
He almost looked insane with a long beard after he was forgotten alone there for two years. In the cell, he learned how to live alone ,he read a lot of books in philosophy, literature and history he found there .
found in the cell were the diaries of a prisoner who, years before, was a famous journalist. The authorities claimed that he had been dead, but he actually was in a solitary.
Carefully hid, the notes he had left after his death were divided tby him himself into two parts in which he narrates the atrocities of the regime and provided names and numbers, and even put a map that leads to incriminating evidence for the ruling gang members outside the prison.
Two years later, the tunnel connecting the cell to the market collapsed, and water began to flood the it; Mourad almost drowned, had it not been for the rebels to intervene and break the cell door. The city has become a conflict scene against the regime.. They took him out of the cell and he got lost in the burning city.
He saw that he almost turned into an insane man. He liked the idea and decided to keep this way especially since everyone treats him kindly in this personality.
So he decided to stay as insane in an insane city... He called his old friend who was working in the cemetery as an undertaker. He stayed with him until his friend was killed .He was forced to flee because the city was taken over by Islamists and he was wandering from one adventure to another in different personalities .
In the novel, there are many links after each event providing the recipient with means to add and modify the event. The novel is non-finishing to the extent that Mourad's character ran away from the novel and has a Facebook page ; tries to access the documents, as well as trying to find "Dawiya" and get her out of the novel as well.