Spatiality revisted and reintegrated
KK, here is another boring piece, but I think it explains the relevance of spatiality once and for all:
This brings another interesting focus of query in
terms of narrative: what is the role of spatiality in a text which is spread on
multiple platforms? Spatiality becomes essential to the making of narratives particularly
in electronic texts because these texts offer diverse ways of reading and producing
meaning depending on the way they are navigated. This concept, indeed, is even
more consequential in 3-D worlds in which the navigation is quite literal and
avatars move through the virtual space. The significance of spatiality,
nonetheless, stems from another important function: these worlds allow
residents to communicate with one another and share their experiences of the
text. In a sense, they facilitate the formation of online cultures and communities.
McCullough argues that as cultures dwell, they build stories and literacies
around their environments (40). Spatial language builds from words to
metaphors, narratives, and even world views. Thus, spatial literacy becomes
crucial in these environments. But as McCullough notes, spatial literacy is not
literal signage that declares space, but “a literate denizen” rather “reads a
space from its events and its symbols like animal scat on the trail, and does
not enjoy being told where to turn, what exactly occurs in each place along the
road” (38). The land owned by W-Hat, a famous griefing group, for example, is mostly
built as a playground, surrounded by communist or cyberterrorist flags and
symbols and has an underground space called the “sewer.”
