He is simply “Phong,” like Madonna or Prince. You guess his age at about fifty, but who knows how many lifetimes of experience he carries? He carries his stout body lightly, but you can see great strength under his light shirt and dark trousers. His open, almost gentle face holds a quick smile and eyes that seem to miss nothing. Phong's straight black hair and folded eyelids make him obviously Asian, but no definite nationality. The front door, on the west wall, is closed. Here in the entry is a small Shinto shrine, with a hanging scroll and an arrangement of flowers, as well as a coat closet and a platform for storing shoes. Please come in." He leads you into the house and closes the door behind you. "Good evening," says a smiling face, "I am Phong. It must be asked: who is the mononymic “Phong,” Linder’s apparent butler? We see him standing before a Shinto shrine, but it is not clear whether he feels at home there or not: >ring bell In fact, the Santa Ana Register does not readily distinguish between Linder’s business interests in “Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Peking.” The Asia of The Witness is amorphous and apolitical. This is in spite of the fact that his first encounter with east Asia likely involved killing Chinese nationals. At some point between 1912 and the 1922 founding of his company, he “became a personal friend of Hirohito, who is now Emperor of Japan.”īy the time the events of The Witness come to pass, it seems likely that Linder would choose a side with regard to the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the game resists declaring his business interests Japanese. By 1912, he was working as an engineer (his qualifications are not clear) in the Japanese Navy. Afterward, he had occasion to work as a mercenary (location unspecified). Linder was stationed in China as a United States Marine during the Boxer Rebellion. If a player reads the Santa Ana Register before playing, they will learn of Freeman Linder’s history with Asian countries and cultures, as well as his “life-long love affair with the peoples of the Orient.” His first encounter with citizens of an Asian country would be in the capacity of a soldier. There are two critical lenses through which The Witness‘s treatment of Asia must be viewed, then: the time in which they are presented (1938) and the time that presents them (1983). The authoring and publication of The Witness has itself become a period drama in the years since, and it has enjoyed, just as every other Infocom game has, a decent amount of historical interest. That was 38 years, 7 months, and 5 days ago as of this writing. So far as I can tell, it was published on May 24, 1983. Additionally, this language was constructed in a period that is not our own. To his credit, this is what I enjoyed most about The Witness. It takes place in a fictionalized 1938, and Galley appears to enjoy approximating the idiom of the period. Shouldn’t some allowances, one might reasonably ask, must be made for the period? It is true, The Witness is a period drama. In Phong’s case, the player’s first introduction will likely be “poker-faced Oriental butler.” On the back cover of The Witness, prospective buyers are promised “a sordid family affair that may land everyone from the knockout heiress to the poker-faced Oriental butler in the slammer before it’s over.” It is hard to resist (see? I have already failed) pointing out that “everyone” is, in fact, limited to Monica and Phong, but what are we to make of these descriptors?Īs previously discussed, the police bureaucracy is likely to have already collected information about the Linder household, but the player is not privy to it. The outside cover of the Invisiclues map for The Witness.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |