Kinetic Details in Pry

The extra details and nuance in the app Pry make the app worth multiple traversals. It was not until I read my classmates entries on the first half of the app that I realized how many details it was possible to miss just by nature of how the work is traversed, or pieces of significance that I had missed. The aspect of the app that gives the work its name, pry, was lost on me during my first traversal. The pinching and opening motion to progress the story mimics open one’s eyes and pinching or pulling back into ones mind to access the subconscious. I had been thinking of this piece in visual terms and had missed some of the kinetic aspects that make the work so subversive. The braille chapter is an obvious example of this that I had not missed. Chapter 3 was the most immersive chapter for me, as dragging my fingers across the screen forced me to remain engaged, almost like the conscious thoughts of the app with text. Other subtler details that increase immersion are fun to find and easy to miss as well. Chapter 5, in which it is confirmed that the protagonist is losing his sight, includes a part where the protagonist uses eyedrops. It’s funny to think about how this might have been filmed, but to a traverser this element increases the immersion and is a very concrete real life example of going blind. The more time I spend with this work, more and more immersive and kinetic details reveal themselves.