Hills Like White Elephants –
I love this story. The tense, argumentative atmosphere is built up entirely through the dialogue. Somehow, even though there’s almost no exposition in this story, I got a very clear picture of “the man” and “the girl” sitting at a table, attempting to navigate the issue of “the operation” (presumably, an abortion). The little exposition there is has some great symbolic touches. The girl reaches out to the bead curtain, takes hold of the strings, and says: “And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy.” She’s reaching out to a faraway dream, a future in which she gets the abortion and she and her man are happy. She toys with the idea of getting the operation done, but is unable to commit to it and go through that curtain.
The Eliza Effect –
It was very interesting reading about the different ‘scripts’ that Eliza had. The default was to assume the role of a ‘Doctor’, a therapist-like character that seemed to restate questions back to the user more often than not. This makes me wonder about the future of therapy – is it possible that we could have automated therapists in the future, and that merely typing back and forth to a bot could help you navigate emotional issues?
