Unit
I played Olia Lialina’s video game “My Boyfriend Came Back From the War.” I feel that the game represents an example of hypermedia, which we explored in a previous lesson – media containing multiple forms like text and images linked to one another. However, as a form of unit operations, I think this video game also demonstrates certain interesting effects of unit operations.
In terms of structure, the images and text are all in black and white, with the screen gradually subdividing into different boxes containing clickable word and text. The game thus fit Bogost’s definition of unit operations – a medium which “can be read as a configurative system, an arrangement of discrete, interlocking units of expressive meaning.” It is quite easy to deduce, especially given the title of the game, that what we are virtually witnessing is a conversation between a girl and her boyfriend, accompanied by some grainy pictures. It is also possible to deduce some facts based on what is said. For example, the lines “But... it was only once.../Last summer...” imply that the girl cheated on her boyfriend with someone who was “[her] neighbour.”
However, this game and the lines of speech also confused me slightly because I could not tell who was saying what. For instance, when the line “nobody here can understand me” appeared, I was really unsure whether it was the girl or her boyfriend who said it. In some cases, I just had to perform guesswork.
I thought that what Bogost said is true here too – “human life has been implicated in the logic of unit operations.” Here, speech has been split into many different smaller parts (or units), together reflecting the intricacies of dialogue and a relationship between a boy and a girl. The lines “don’t kill / him” and “forgive / ME” for instance, are split into smaller components (indicated by the slash), adding to the drama of the story as the girl’s desperation is clearly reflected. The small bit of consolation comes at the end when the girl says “No, better next month / after holidays and the weather / must be better. Yes next month. / I'm happy now,” agreeing to her boyfriend’s proposal. What is presented here is nowhere near the grandeur and importance of something like the Human Genome Project, which also used the logic of unit operations. However, one gets to witness the anatomy of a conversation between a boy and a girl in a relationship – a slice of ordinary life and its complexities.
