Playing out the unspeakable: the rhetorics of trauma in The Day the Laughter Stopped digital game

Magdalena Bednorz

doi:10.29107/rr2021.4.5

Abstract

The article undertakes a detailed analysis of The Day the Laughter Stopped – a simple text-based browser game about rape, told from the perspective of a young teenage girl. While seemingly straightforward, the game uses choice poetics to build expectations of agency on the side of the player, only to subvert them at the most climactic moment, provoking emotional responses and serving as a commentary on the experience of loss of control and loss of words in the face of a traumatic event. Following existing approaches to rhetorical, emotion-evoking qualities and capabilities of digital games, the article explores the potential of the digital medium to communicate the unspeakable, overwhelming dimension of trauma, as illustrated by the game. The analysis not only explores the medium-specific means of expression which the game utilizes to encourage the audience to explore the perspective of a rape victim in an engaging way, but also leads to the conclusion that in doing so, the game aims to make persuasive statements about the social and cultural discourse around rape trauma and its representations, and therefore contributes to the larger socio-cultural discourse. As such, the article aspires to add to pre-existing studies on the specific rhetorical means of digital fiction, as well as on the approaches to cultural renditions of trauma.

Highlights

While discussing The Day the Laughter Stopped (Hypnotic Owl 2013), BeckyChambers writes: “I did not expect much from this game
The moment of the game which Chambers finds so upsetting is when the formal rhetorical means of the digital medium are brought to the forefront, employed in a way that surprises or even shocks the player
Does the game utilize the formal qualities of the digital, interactive medium to elicit emotional responses and communicate meanings outside of the narrative itself, and, as the abovementioned description of the game’s climax aims to illustrate, the very thing that it problematizes is the inability to act, speak, or face trauma in any proactive and reasonable way, both on the part of the protagonist and of the player, whose agency is stripped away

Summary

Introduction

Chambers writes: “I did not expect much from this game. I certainly did not expect to become physically upset. Does the game utilize the formal qualities of the digital, interactive medium to elicit emotional responses and communicate meanings outside of the narrative itself, and, as the abovementioned description of the game’s climax aims to illustrate, the very thing that it problematizes is the inability to act, speak, or face trauma in any proactive and reasonable way, both on the part of the protagonist and of the player, whose agency is stripped away This reliance on the formal elements of the game to express the otherwise inexpressible serves as a better exploration of the depicted experience, but it helps address how such experiences are depicted and discussed in a larger socio-cultural context.

Digital games and trauma

The Day the Laughter Stopped: playing out rape trauma

The Day the Laughter Stopped: game against rape culture