“The Rainbow Factory” was written by Peter Howard in 2000. This piece of electronic literature portrays a tutorial of a rainbow factory through comedy, direct contradictions, expressive processing, hypertext, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, interactive motion graphics, metaphors, and narrative.
When you first begin the “The Rainbow Factory” electronic literature, gates that make the impression that they are gates to a prison or jail, open. After the gates open, the screen changes to a building of a factory that has two rows of lit up windows. Above the factory, the text explains that when you click on the windows on the top row, you will see different aspects of what is done at the “The Rainbow Factory.” The text underneath the first text explains that when you click on the second row of windows you will discover “what REALLY goes on!” The first window on the first row shows a conveyor belt transporting rainbows into a brown moving box. The second window on the first row describes what each color of the rainbow is made of. The third window on the first row has a visual including sound that illustrates what makes a rainbow. The forth window on the top row has an explanation of how the present rainbow came to be. At the end the words “educational literature” are crossed out and the word “propaganda” is written in. The fifth window on the top row brings up a new screen with the “library of The Rainbow Factory.” The sixth window on the top row provides a tutorial from “the Research and Development Department” that shows what rainbows they hope to produce in the future. The seventh window on the top row appears to be a “help center” where you can click on the problem you are having with your personal rainbow. The eighth window on the top row there is a poem that seems to be about how the profits made from rainbows is sort of a gamble because you must rely on the weather which cannot be controlled. The ninth and last window on the top row Thanks visitor for coming and allows you to either go to the “gift shop” or return to the tutorial. The gift shop is a new website that includes other work by Peter Howard. The first window on the bottom row features the same conveyor belt dispensing rainbows and dropping them into boxes, but unlike the first one, this conveyor belt sporadically dispenses faulty rainbows that are some sort of “mutant rainbow.” These faulty rainbows are vacuumed up before they are able to make it to the box. The second window on the bottom row tells the misconceptions of what is said about rainbows. The third window on the bottom row shows the beginning of the illustration of how a rainbow is created. Instead of a rainbow forming, there is an explosion. The forth window on the bottom row is a trailer for a movie that was originally banned. The movie is about a science experiment that has gone wrong. It is called “Revenge of the Killer Mutant Rainbow.” The fifth window on the bottom row has protestors outside of the gates of the factoring protesting against the studying of rainbows. The sixth window on the bottom row allows you to view different “mutated” or faulty rainbows. The seventh window on the bottom row has answers to the problems that were shown in the “help center.” All of the answers revolve around how there is nothing “The Rainbow Factory” can do to fix the different problems. The eighth and last window on the bottom row shows images that are about selling “The Rainbow Factory.” There is an explanation of some sort that uses excessive profanity to explain why they need to sell “The Rainbow Factory.”
“The Rainbow Factory” utilizes comedy as a medium of expressive processing throughout the experience. In my opinion, Peter Howard is making fun of how humans are trying to control things in nature. He does this through the ridiculous idea of selling rainbows. The bottom row of windows allows viewers to experience the reality of the factory. Through these bottom windows, Howard makes a representation of the reality of most factories that give off the idea that everything they are making is safe and perfect.
Digital fiction is represented through the piece as a whole. The idea of producing rainbows is made up and the tutorial of the factory is done through digital means. “The Rainbow Factory” is also interactive fiction. It is interactive because in order to move through the tutorial, the viewer must click on the windows. There are also other things that you can click on throughout the tutorial that allow for there to be interaction between the viewer and the tutorial. “The Rainbow Factory” can more specifically be defined as an interactive motion graphic. When you click on the links, the tutorial allows you to travel through the factory. Although the graphics are simple, they do appear when there is an interaction between the viewer and the tutorial. This can be seen during the experience seen through the sixth window on the bottom row. When the viewer clicks on the arrows, different forms of animated faulty and “mutated” rainbow are shown.
The theme of “The Rainbow Factory” is direct contradictions. The contradiction is that this factory is trying to take credit and sell a product that is part of nature. It proposes the question, “How can you sell something that is made for free?” As a whole, the piece of literature is a metaphor for how humans are selling products that take no money to produce.
“The Rainbow Factory” is a hypertext, more specifically, a hypertext fiction. “The Rainbow Factory” is a made up factory that does not exist in real life. The tutorial uses the windows as an entry into the world of the “The Rainbow Factory.” The different forms of text (“help center,” movie trailer, “background information, “the Research and Development Department, etc.), form a narrative about a factory that produces products that are natural made and how science is effecting nature and creating a monster (“Killer Mutant Rainbow”).
In all, “The Rainbow Factory” exemplifies comedy, direct contradictions, expressive processing, hypertext, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, interactive motion graphics, metaphors, and narrative through its animated tutorial of a factory that produces the natural product of rainbows.