By Bon Bhakdibhumi
My starting point for the Media Narrative assignment was Sylvia Plath’s 1953 poem “Mad Girl’s Love Song.” The poem explores the themes of confusion, anxiety, and madness, stemming from an experience of unrequited love. It embodies the poetic form of a villanelle, a form that lends itself perfectly to the constant questioning in the narrative as the poem progresses; for example, the two refrains—“I shut my eyes and the world drops dead” and “(I think I made you up inside my head.)”—serve as a reminder of the doubt in the narrator’s mind and the blurred line between reality and fantasy, showing how madness slowly overtakes the narrator. Ultimately, my goal for this project was to explore ways interactivity can enhance the narrative and the qualities of the poem mentioned, building on Plath’s poetic craft choices.
The main mechanic of my interactive piece is the right arrow key. Once this key is pressed, a word is revealed—so on and so on until the whole stanza is visible. In the first and second stanzas, when texts are revealed, some drop down to the bottom of the screen. This effect is intended to further emphasize the feeling of heaviness and tiredness from overthinking. Plath uses words such as “drop,” “dead,” “blackness,” and “shut,” which the effect works well to represent.
In the third and fourth stanzas, when words are revealed, some of the earlier words disappear. During this part of the poem, the narrator is unsure of her love experience. Plath uses words such as “dreamed,” “bewitched,” and “made up.” The interaction and effect for this section are used to enhance the state of being unsure; Retracting words signifying the questioning in the narrator’s head.
Lastly, the randomness in text size, spacing, and weight emphasizes the descent into madness, parallel to the narrator’s experience. The constant dropping motion of words through the experience also serves to mimic that of the refrains in the poem.
Mad Girl’s Love Song
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
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