Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’ #1
This assignment I still tried to look at poetry because the meaning behind the work can be different to anyone. I focused on life’s journey because in my opinion that’s what I think of storyworld. I think in life, people hit a point or perhaps a wall and think they are done. This stonewall effect can cause people to feel like they have to settle down and become in a relaxed state. When in reality once the relaxation sets in, the reality does as well. Boredom can consume humans so well that regret will make you second guess your decisions on life. The contradictions can make you overthink everything and make you miss what once made you happy and passionate. I think this can possibly work for storyworld because it shows the adventure of someone’s journey that was thought to be ending where in fact it is just starting.
The area of this poem I really liked was “for my purpose holds, to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die” (‘Ulysses’, Alfred Lord Tennyson). When Tennyson says this line, I can really imagine the scenery of him being on a boat sailing into the sun seeking another day of traveling. I could relate to what he said because in my life, I have gone through areas where I lost passion for something I once loved and the regret of losing that settled in. For me it was my football career because I grew up playing football and that’s all I knew. In college I had the opportunity to continue playing where the team won the championship. I soon had to focus more on my future as an adult and had to make the hard decision to stop playing. Losing this aspect of my life and the people I met along the way was really difficult. I kept debating if this was the best thing and if I should return to playing. The bonds I once lost were soon gained once I started club lacrosse where I found a new family. Instead of losing the passion for the game entirely, I was able to manage my work future while still being an athlete.
I looked more into this poem from Tennyson after hearing it one night of playing xbox with my friend group back home. The game that used this poem was known as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. This game focuses on the history of Greek Mythology following a character through his various journeys. The specific mission I was on was where my character had to sail across the sea to this hidden cave to hunt down a certain mythical creature, the minotaur. While sailing the boat to the island, another character was holding a conversation with me and that is where I heard the poem. This unique game has a very interesting game play where the player can decide the choices of character. Depending on the morals of the player and the type of missions they play can alter the future of their character in the game. That is where I was lucky enough to be able to hear this unique passage from one of the computer generated characters. I chose this specific mission mainly because I got to battle a legendary mythical creature and could not wait to see if my character was strong enough to defeat him or if I died.
As shown below is the cover of the game and the second image is the computer generated character that said the quote during the mission.
As discussed previously in a class, Delaney’s post “Affecting the World Around You” takes on a similar concept where a videogame can give you multiple outcomes to storyworld depending on the player’s decisions. Just like her game, this game gives you options to control the story, making it more personal to every player. Depending on the decisions made, the story is altered until the end of the game. I think this type of video game layout is becoming more popular in the gaming community because as a gamer you become more involved in the outcome of the character and what happens next after you choose a certain path. You are making a stronger connection to the character which impacts your own emotions more depending on what your character does.
The overall connection I have made about the idea of storyworlds is how one storyworld can possibly influence another storyworld. To think about this, remember the poem “Ulysses” by Tennyson as the first storyworld. How the poem gives detail on doing what is passionate to you and in that case it was the vivid detail of sailing across the vast sea. This storyworld was embedded into a bigger storyworld i.e Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. This storyworld was much bigger as it followed a character through many challenges and side missions. This leads to more creations of new storyworlds due to the decisions of the player. To keep with the historical part of this game, the creators made it important to embed work of past philosophers. I think it was really creative and smart for the game creators to use these conversational pieces between the story characters and your character. This detail is important because with some missions in these games, it can become very long due to traveling from point A to point B. So to combat this possible quiet boredom, the game gives you possible hidden hints of what is going to happen in the future. This is just one example of how one storyworld can help influence another storyworld. But think about time throughout history how one piece of work can become used and created into something new like a movie or a game.
Work Cited
Dyson, T. S. (2023, June 21). A short analysis of Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” Interesting Literature. https://interestingliterature.com/2018/07/a-short-analysis-of-tennysons-ulysses/
Attribution Statement
The featured image shows a port where a ship is preparing for a long journey. I used this image due to how it corresponded to the poem of “Ulysses” Alfred Lord Tennyson – Ulysses | Genius.
