Eve's Week 3: Hypertext/Pomo to E-Lit

Hypertext works have been my personal favorite to read so far, mostly because they are the most similar to traditional literature. However, this chapter in Electronic Literature points out the possibilities that hypertext makes available that traditional literature can’t. Hypertext is generally non-linear or multilinear, which can be done in a physical book but is not very common. Like other forms of digital literature, hypertext also allows for the inclusion of images, videos, audio, graphics, and other features that don’t appear in a physical book. I found it surprising that hypertext fiction is no longer very popular, though the explanation does make sense because the technology available to us now has a lot more options than it did when people first started creating electronic literature. Rettberg writes, “Hypertext is not only or even primarily a kind of writing. It is more fundamentally a text technology, and an approach to organizing, structuring, and sharing information” (62). Throughout this course there is a recurring theme of authors taking a technological concept that isn’t necessarily creative and making something creative with it. 

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Louis Borges was a little bit confusing but an interesting read. Rettberg cites it as an “antecedent” of hypertext (57). The book in the story was a labyrinth of possibilities that caused every outcome to occur at the same time, going against the concept of time. It is interesting to see that authors were thinking about novels with various outcomes before hypertext was actually invented. 

I chose to take a closer look at the doll games by Shelley and Pamela Jackson. This is an early work of hypertext metafiction that contains multiple pages, images, pop ups, and more. It tells the story of the games the sisters would play with their dolls as children but delves into more serious topics that reflect in their adult lives. The text has a kind of creepy feel to it because of the colors and images they included. There is a lot to interact with on the site, like descriptions and pictures of the dolls they played with and interviews with other people about their experiences with dolls. Although I did not read through every page, I really enjoyed clicking through it and exploring the different kinds of media they included. While its not a linear story, it feels more connected than some of the other types of digital literature that we’ve looked at.