This course on Digital Narrative has taught me many different aspects of both narrative and the digital arts. I now find that when interpreting narratives outside of the course material I am aware of new aspects previously unknown to me. The most evident example of this is an increased awareness of critical distance.

When I interpret a narrative, be it either digital, kinetic or static, I am now more aware of the piece as a construction, rather than just becoming immersed in the fictional story. This increased critical awareness was most significant when I re-read the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski which, prior to doing Engl242 I had read, but not fully understood. This course taught me to recognise many aspects of narrative that I was previously unaware of in Danielewski ' s novel, such as his embedding of linear narratives inside different planes of fiction. Plays on focalization also became apparent, on one level it is fixed all aspects being constructed by Zampanò in his essay style writing, but there is also multi-focalization in the form of the footnotes commenting and adding to the reader's collective knowledge of The Navidson Record.

By taking Digital Narrative as a subject my interpretation of House of Leaves became different, I became aware of its construction as an attempt at a static printed hypertext fiction. This is signified by the underlining and blue colouring of the word house, a reference to the style of hypertextual links. While footnotes and appendixes can be viewed as an attempt at creating interactive nodes, as many of them require the reader to interact with the materiality of the book, turning backwards and forwards through the pages. This class has taught me that House of Leaves is not a strange mixing of multiple narratives with an odd textual layout, rather it is an Axiel text which manipulates the reader's immersion in the story by forcing interaction upon them.