High Muck a Muck is hypertext poetry, made by Fred Wah. It is extremely well done over all. Some brief background information is that High Much a Muck is a story about hardship. It tells the stories of immigration to Canada and the difficulties that come with the immigration. It has hand panted artwork that is immaculate. One really feels submerged into the art. It has many different aspects that makes it unique as well. For instance you travel through different areas throughout the North American continent for instance, Vancouver, Nelson and Victoria to name a few. Each area brings about new pieces of artwork that hyperlink to something meaningful. There are icons that are constant throughout each area you travel. For instance there is a book with the area’s name you are in. If you click said book, a bunch of information pops up.
For instance when you click on Richmond’s book this pops ups, “It’s not just me who looks for freedom in a dream, that liberating dream I’ll have to buy. Days of loneliness empty dreaming drives me mad in the sadness of remembering what I had.” This is powerful and expresses the hardship associated with being an immigrant. The speaker expresses longship for remembering what he or she had in the past and left. They also express that the liberating dream is not so liberating its an illusion. The freedom is only given with succumbing to the capitalism. Another quote establishes the isolation and capitalism within this piece of work. “Vast concrete plinths, yes lets make it out of concrete. Remember granite overlapping the archipelago of immigration. Another middle Kingdom sculpted from cement. We’re all still hungry and we want to get home.” This is another perfect example of hard work not paying off and the risk of immigration not paying off. Racism is another huge aspect as well at one point one of the immigrants is called a “slant eyed devil” which furthers the issues of immigration of false promises and a sense of not being welcomed. This also ties perfectly with the name of the work. A “High Muck a Muck” which according to the oxford dictionary is someone who is in a position of high authority yet overbearing and conceited. This is made apparent with the self blown up sense of self worth when expressing an immigrant as a “Slant eyed Devil”
The expansiveness does not end here. Another few icons are an ear that plays an audio file, as well as a a guy holding a video-recorder and just like the ear, the video-recorder is as intuitive as it sounds. When it is clicked on a video is pulled up and starts to play.
This work really feels like an odyssey, a journey. A cathartic one where you feel the pain and struggle. The realness and artwork really help one become one with the story.
