A dilapidated boat, the vast, endless sea with beating spindrift, storms accompanied by the thunders&thats what first heaved in my sight when I open the web of an adaptation of a short novel called Boat (Nam Le, 2008 which is adapted by Matt Huynh. In Boat, the writer, Nam Le, described a 3-day tragedy of a Vietnamese refugee ship in a detailed, news-reported language. To avoid political scams, Juan took her only son, the illegitimate child, to the refugee ship. Unexpectedly, the ship lost its way because of the storm. Her son did not suffer in the country. On the other hand, in the journey of fleeing and searching for hope, he died of a lack of water and medicine. In the end, the people on the boat saw the other side, but Juan had no soul.
Differing from Nam Le, Matt Huynh didnt merely change the process or the ending of that story, what he has done is altering the presented form of that short novel an interactive graphic novel. Adding moving text, sound, graphics, and hyperlinks, makes the original novel more interactive. The engagement between the producer Matt Huynh and the participants is getting stronger and closer. Firstly, when you see these moving texts, it feels like you are in that shaking boat, swinging in that rough sea, with that vivid sound, what you feel is ethereal and helpless. Nothing is left on the sea, only yourself and the boat, which better embodies the hard background of this novel
. Then, when you scroll the mouse according to the prompts on the web, you could see this novel is divided into several chapters which makes the linear story more layered. Adding to those graphic paintings, what impressed me most was her skinny father who was lying on the bed. The black and white images of ink paintings reflect the hardship of the environment at that time. From my perspective, it can be hardly illustrated just by words. It is these things: the moving texts, sound graphics, and hyperlinks that give our participants deeper feelings as well as change the meaning of the story. If we say that the original novel just shows the readers a sad story and feel guilty about the authors life experience, however, this brand new presentation by Matt Huynh leads his follower: us, to feel the helplessness of the author. In this way, we realize that it is not easy to survive in a generation bombarded with wars. Surprisingly, he did not portray much about the war or something like that, but through the despair of people living at the bottom of society under the turbulent situation. Furthermore, what we have seen, is not only the suffering itself but also the endless sorrow, like a sorrowful pause. Therefore, this neoteric adaptation of the novel the interactive graphic novel endows the novel Boat with a brand new soul, makes the novel less boring, gives readers interest, and changes the meaning of the story.