Cathy's Book

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is excited about starting classes on Monday...personally I wish the break were longer but oh well...
Anyways, I decided to hop on here and leave a message because I stumbled across some awesome news...THERE IS A THIRD BOOK IN THE CATHY'S SERIES COMING OUT IN MAY! It is called Cathy's Ring and I have already pre-ordered the book on Amazon...
Well that is all I have to say!
Good luck!

I enjoyed reading these books, for the most part, even if they might not be ARGs and are kind of juvenile. The one thing that really kills me is the ending though, where she and Victor are going to find way to somehow work out the problem no one else has ever figured out. Come on. I was actually really hoping that Victor might use the serum and become mortal, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since a teenage focus always seems to be achieving less realistic, more glamorous alternatives (Twilight, anyone?). As for all the extra bits, maybe they didn't make the game an ARG, but I think they definitely added a bit of a layer to the story (plus, I just really like stuff). The characters all kind of perplex me, though. They're kind of cliche characters, once unique, but quickly becoming stock characters in teenage fiction. The kind of weird/rebellious/artistic girl who's not afraid to break the rules (but for all her independence, it's always about a guy), the geeky sidekick, the mysterious guy who has more depth than meets the eye, the uninvolved parents.  read more »

Second Life really worries me. I think the game itself needs a lot of work before it can be taken seriously for an educational environment. I think it is interesting to say the least. It is a lot like a chat room or aim but with avatars. I find it entertaining but not beneficial to anything but a past time. I believe that is enough about the game and now on to the book. I enjoyed Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key. If I was younger when I began reading the book I think I would have been immediately thrown into the text and it would have been a powerful interactive fiction game.

I had actually read both books last week and found that I could not put either of them down. I absolutely loved both of these books and found the stories very engaging and easy to relate to (minus the whole immortal thing haha). I won't ruin the ending of Cathy's Key for those that haven't finished it yet, but it definetly made me rethink the whole thing about it being an ARG. I loved the evidence that each book gave and found that even though I could't really interact that much with the phone numbers, they were still pretty neat. I had never experienced novels that were quite this interactive. After reading both books, I began to think about ARGs and how we define them, I thought back to the ARG Professor Whalen talked about at the beginning of the semester and compared that one to Cathy. I think what we each get from these books are our own opinions but I think that Cathy as a ARG is highly plausible. Regardless of its existence as an ARG or not, I found both books engaging and I couldn't stop reading them.

No, neither of Cathy's journals are ARGs, and in fact I wouldn't go so far as to call them games. I wouldn't even call them interactive--they are interactive in the same way an action figure is. Whatever you get out of it is what you do with it, it has nothing to do with its actual form. You can get a very substandard sort of interactivity out of Cathy's Book and Key by playing with the papers and sorting through them, but--from my admittedly less-than-spotless examination (it's hard to sustain the interest needed for thorough perusal and pattern recognition when the stuff you're looking through has no appeal to you)--there's not much more there than what is obviously there. In an ARG like The Beast (more about which later), the deeper you go the more you find. It's like the examination of poetry, or good poetry anyway. You can get deep enough into it that even the etymology of words brings greater meaning to the poem. With Cathy's Key, you can try to find that kind of richness, but it just isn't there.  read more »

So far in my reading (almost half way through Cathy's Key), I have not been too surprised at the direction the second book is taking. I knew it would be kind of a slow-mover in terms of big events occurring and also it has the same strange feeling of more surprise lurking in the background. It seems to me that there is less of an interactive portion of this book and more of a discovery portion. In the last book, there was pretty much a website or a number to go to on every page, but in this book I haven't noticed quite as many. That might be because I got frustrated looking for things at times because some of the websites seem to be so dead-end. The book seems very similar though in most respects to Cathy's Book.
I found the "ARG Question" post very interesting. I have never been one that was into or really understood the concept of gaming and the level of complexity it has reached in modern times. I agree that Cathy's Key is not really gaming, it is more playing along with an already established and solved game. It is more like observing someone work out a game and put it down on paper.  read more »

So I just finished Cathy's Key and I have to say I really enjoyed reading it. There were some unanswered questions I had which made me google the book to see about there being a potential third book in the making. I didn't see anything that suggested that - which bummed me out. The books were both relatively short so I did end up with more questions versus answers but I still enjoyed the journey. I haven't look at the evidence of Cathy's Key as of yet. I had glanced at the evidence from Cathy's Book (after reading it) and thought the concept was nifty and original. I had shown my family and they really liked the concept of the extra items as well. As for these texts being ARG, I don't really think so. I enjoyed these books because it wasn't like the other literature I have been assigned for my other classes and I read each book in one sitting. I got suckered into the potential love story and ended up disappointed...why can't Cathy get into a freak accident so we can all find out she really is immortal! Dang it! ;-) haha Obviously I am engaged in Cathy's story and I want to find out more. If there were a third book, I would definitely check out a copy from the public library.  read more »

Okay, I've read half of Cathy's Key and have skim read the ending (because I'm impatient and always want to know how the book is going to end before it ends), so I know most of the major plot twists and what happens in the book. I kind of suspected that there was something up with her father's odd and untimely death. I was surprised though about Tsao and his desire for Cathy, which I knew there was something up, but couldn't put my finger on what exactly. I think it was cool that they introduced Auntie Joe to show that the gene or whatever makes them immortal can be present all over.

I didn't really notice a difference in how they're approaching the interactive portion. I still didn't call the number on the front, even though I probably should before reading. On what they included as evidence, I guess they've put in more drawings this time rather than birth or death certificates, which usually tell you more information-wise than a drawing. I still didn't use the evidence or even look at it while reading the book. I think it distracts from the actual story to keep flipping back and forth everytime there is a mention of something.  read more »

So we haven't deeply discussed the validity (or lack thereof) of placing Cathy's Book in the category of ARG, though we have touched upon it. For what it's worth to the discussion, then, here's my two cents:

Cathy's Book is not an ARG.

Okay, that seems to be the prevailing opinion already, based upon what people have said in class; we're hesitant to label Cathy's Book as ARG for a variety of reasons, chief among them, I think, being the fact that the evidence is not critical (or even necessary) to understanding the story. I think that is an important part of what fundamentally makes Cathy's Book not an ARG. More concretely, then, the reason why I don't believe it to be an ARG is this: Cathy's Book lacks gameplay.  read more »

Okay, so here's my theory, based on the available evidence, for what becomes of Cathy after the conclusion of Cathy's Book:

I believe that Cathy departs San Francisco to find her father. Based on the evidence (specifically her father's death certificate and Victor's obviously fake birth certificate), I believe that his death was not as simple as it seemed (check out the signatures if you don't believe me).

To do this, she has some help. For one thing, she's found Bianca's number, so she's probably exploring that possibility. She's also on track to a few other past relations of Victor's, many of them deceased. Finally, she received something in the mail - something light - from Chang Kuo Lao, in St. Louis. He's helping her with something, so she may at least have gone to meet him there - or somewhere else he suggested she go.

That's my theory. I'm about to start Cathy's Key, so I'm hoping for some answers.

I find Cathy's book an interesting read. I think it is unique how the author involves the reader in the investigation through technology. By using technology one can view exactly what the book is discussing. The narrator of the story Cathy sends the reader off on a wild goose chase. I find the book to be powerful. I feel a sense of being a character in the story. Cathy is a typical teenage girl who is similar to some of my friends when I was in high school. I think it gives a real sense of involvement. The literature is not that great but it is successful in what it is trying to accomplish through the interactive fiction.

Upon my reading of Cathy's Book, which I did during the summer when I ordered my books early, I found myself immediately pulled into the story and felt that resurgence of youth experienced when your first paranoid conspiracy was realized and in the midst of that couple hours of your life before your parents or older sibling squashed your hopes of being the first to see The Jersey Devil in the Woods behind your house or sneaking onto that farm on the outskirts of town to see the crash-landed space aliens. We as college students have a very unique perspective on this text, as we were at least close to the age of the protagonist when it was released, and therefore can examine it through our recently completed scope of adolescence as well as our newly flexing academic literary analysis muscles.  read more »

Although I didn't think every word of the story is poetic or substantial, like many would consider literature, I think the overall premise of the book is (excluding the advertisements). Considering this book can be considered literature, is highly disputable. But it has, in my mind, helped contribute to its own genre. It's a horror/mystery fiction, intertwined into our "real lives." There's something there. This genre can take a story about a subject as seemingly simple (or even irritating) as female teen angst, and make it more than that.

On a more experiential note, I thoroughly enjoyed the book precisely because of the mystery between the pages. I love reading a novel that I can't even fully make sense of in the end; I typically get the gist, but I want to know absolutely everything. With any typical novel, I love going back and trying to tie up the loose ends I couldn't make sense of. This book takes an extra step since much of the story is told through websites, phone calls, and the physical evidence. I do have to admit, I spent a while afterward trying to make sense out of the family tree.  read more »

Well, I have to say that I was not one of the readers who called the number on the front of the book. I have a fear of using phones (I really hate them) and the idea of not knowing what would be on the other end is really unpleasant to me, so I skipped it. I do like the idea though and in hindsight, I think that before reading, it would have been cool to call, just to be like, "Hey, Cathy, I found your book." When we watched the video in class, I did notice that it does give you a clue though. She apparently put it under Emma's porch...so how did we come to get it? Conspiracy, conspiracy...

On the topic of the beinggirl.com and lipstick references, I read on Wikipedia (the amazing somewhat reliable source) that they were added in the hardcover version (which I have), and ommitted in the paperback version (which my sister has). The Covergirl references were apparently added in order to have ad space on beinggirl.com,so it would make sense that the ad is not there now, being a few years since the book came out.  read more »

Sorry for not posting last week. My time in England was spent doing more exciting things, as I'm sure most of you will understand :)

On picking up Cathy's Book, I really didn't have any ideas or experience with anything like an Alternate Reality Game. As a traditional English major, the books I spend time on are generally written well enough that I don't need excess activities to keep me engaged. Sadly, I think most of us can agree, Cathy's Book is not approaching this status of literature. It's not even close.

That's what really frustrates me about this. I feel like if the book wasn't about teenage female angst, and instead, actually about a subject worth reading about, the ARG process wouldn't be nearly as bad. I was glad to hear Rachel mention today that most other ARGs are somewhat well written in addition to their interactive ARG qualities.  read more »