Riddles

A topic new to me: Interactive fiction. I didn’t know there was a whole community supporting this genre and that they give out annual awards. Heck, I didn’t even recognize the phrase. Rather, I stumbled across it while reading a random article by someone doing a retrospective look at what Zork wrought. I played Zork once, on an Apple II back in the day. It didn’t seem as interesting as other graphics-based games. And I did enjoy Choose Your Own Adventure books also back in the day. I thought this genre had died, until I encountered it in boardgame form through The 7th Continent.

 

Somehow reading that random article conjured in me unrealistic visions of someday writing a work of interactive fiction that subtly taught readers chemistry as they puzzle-solved their way through learning how to cast magical spells in a Harry Potter type world. After all, this blog got started because I thought I should write a chemistry textbook disguised as a potions book, but I needed to practice writing to begin with! The writing has continued but the potions book hasn’t materialized. I did write a prologue once, and also a recipe for Hemodote that I used as an exemplar for a class assignment. In any case, I decided to learn more about interactive fiction. As an academic, how do I proceed? I read a fellow academic. This led me to Twisty Little Passages by Nick Montfort. 

 

Montfort argues that before we talk about the early computer games Adventure or Zork, or before the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, that far back in the recesses of time, “the riddle is not only the most important early ancestor of interactive fiction but also an extremely valuable figure for understanding it… considering the aesthetics and poetics of the form today.” Essentially, he argues that interactive fiction is not just a game, story, or puzzle, it is at heart a riddle – albeit a potentially long and immersive one when executed well.

 

What is a riddle? It can be slippery to define. Not just a diversion for children, it is a form of enigmatic poetry involving the riddler and the guesser. It’s a literary puzzle where the literal is hidden yet waiting to be uncovered. And there is a joy in the process of unveiling as puzzle-lovers know! Montfort provides multiple examples to help sharpen the genre of literary riddles, including the much-debated example in The Hobbit: Did Bilbo’s final question to Gollum constitute a riddle? But let’s cut to the chase: Montfort connects riddles and interactive fiction in four ways: “Both have a systematic world, are something to be solved, present challenge and appropriate difficulty, and join the literary and the puzzling.”

 

The riddle creates a world – a metaphoric one. It has its own rules and analogies, and the best riddles are constructed carefully to keep its ‘world’ self-consistent. Understanding this world is key to solving the riddle. But it must be of appropriate difficulty, and necessary clues should lead the guesser (or riddlee) to the puzzle’s solution. The best riddles start off obscure but the layers peel away as the puzzle progresses, keeping the riddlee engaged in the riddle. (It is certainly challenging for the riddler to formulate a clever long-form riddle posed by a literary piece of interactive fiction.) As the riddlee responds, new avenues open up, some anticipated by the riddler, and others might be truly novel. But eventually the solution is reached, and the itch is scratched. Montfort writes:

 

The riddle, like an interactive fiction work, must express itself clearly enough to be solved, obliquely enough to be challenging, and beautiful enough to be compelling. These are all different aspects of the same goal; they are not in competition. An excellent interactive fiction work is no more “a crossword at war with a narrative” (quoting Graham Nelson) than a poem is sound at war with sense.

 

That’s a tall order. It’s motivating me to try out some award-winning works; Montfort provides a starter list in his 2003 book; I can easily find newer ones thanks to the Internet. But to truly enjoy it and immerse myself in a fictional world, I might need to wait until the semester is over. As someone who enjoys puzzles and does one crossword puzzle per day, I can see an element of the riddle in each crossword clue. Themed crosswords allow a brief buildup of clues leading to the solution. Crosswords are not an extended literary narrative, a key feature of interactive fiction by Montfort’s definition, but they are a collection of riddles of some sort. They get me to twist my mind in various ways as I mull the meanings and allusions of words – a surprisingly fun activity even for a few minutes. Thank you, crossword constructors, for providing your version of riddles that give me daily enjoyment!