Genre

Our lecture on genre began by introducing to the Semiotician, Ferdinand de Saussure. Semiotics is the study of signs, and how we interpret them to be what they represent. This is expressed in the painting "ceci n'est pas un pipe" by René Magritte, as the picture is of a pipe, but labeled 'This is not a pipe'. Which is true, the painting of the pipe is just a sign, or signifier, and the 'pipe' is what is signified. This could be said for genre, as the title of a work of fiction will give it a genre, which will signify a certain aspect of the story, which can alter what we understand of the events within the story. We were shown a short piece of a work of fiction entitled "Murder at Marpelthorpe", describing what seems to be a murder scene. We were then given a new title: "The Personal History of David Marplethorpe" and read it again. It was the clear it could be interpreted very differently, as it seemed more like the tragic opening to a life story, where the woman had died during childbirth.

With this in mind, we were given the task of switching the genre of a game, while still using the approximate original story with some alterations. In our group, we were told to turn the story of Dead Space into a romantic comedy. Our idea ended up something like this:

Isaac Clarke is on a cruise leisure space ship with his girlfriend Nicole. The mysterious Marker on board the ship suddenly turns all the women on-board crazy about Isaac, and Isaac must fight his way through them (using non-violent methods of course) to escape with Nicole. Elements like the music and ambiance would have to be altered, as the Dead Space sounds would no longer be appropriate. Instead the music could comprise of Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Barry White, and other famously romantic musicians. In the end, we quite liked the idea, and I am personally waiting hopefully for its release to be announced.