Week 3- What is hypertext? (Sydney)

    What is hypertext fiction?

    Hypertext, as Rettberg puts it, is "fundamentally a text technology and an approach to organizing, structuring, and sharing information." It represented a transition between literary (print) experimentation and emerging contemporary (digital) literary advancements following the modern and postmodern periods. It gained intense popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s, where the genre became composed of some common characteristics such as links/hyperlinks, fragmented text, alternative structures and spacing, and a focus on user interactivity. Storyspace was soon developed as a digital medium meant specifically for writing, and it became pivotal to publishing hypertext fiction. Notably, metafiction (or a fiction that is reflexive) is associated with hypertexts. I could quickly see how "The Garden of Forking Paths" was considered to be an early print hypertext because of its fragmentation. It reminds me of e-lit in the way that the story unfolds, where the narrative is only pieced together in small, broken pieces. I like how the text coined time as being a nonlinear entity, and I would be interested to know more about what the meaning behind the story is.

     Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse (John McDaid)

   Immediately, the text launches the user into it by mirroring how an old Macintosh computer would look. I think this is a really cool feature, and it helped draw my attention into the text.

    From there, the user is given free reign over the simulated desktop to click on whichever files interest them. Besides a document that's entitled "read this first", the text does not portray a particular order to which is should be played. The document explains that "Uncle Buddy" (or Mr. Newkirk) has disappeared for unknown circumstances, and this desktop belongs to a user who knew him. It mysteriously claims that "there may be reasons" for the "lapses of memory" which the owner of the desktop (or the audience) is experiencing. Much like the other forms of e-lit that I've seen, this lack of structure prohibited the text from having a linear, clear narrative. However, I did have a lot of fun just exploring for myself. This kind of immersion might make the text a little more confusing, but it is also nice to be able to discover new aspects of the text at one's own pace. One feature that I thought was cool was that the user could type over the text which was displayed in some files (though I'm not sure if there's a purpose to this). Similarly, I really liked the black and white color scheme which contributed to the ominous feel of this text. All in all, this text feels like it could be an example of an early "murder mystery" game, but I sadly couldn't get any leads on what the user is supposed to do (or solve) in the about 10 minutes that I interacted with the text.

    The Doll Games (Shelley & Pamela Jackson)

    I think that this work did a much better job at functioning as a cohesive story with clear recurring themes than some other hypertexts that I've come into contact with (for example, The Unknown). Much like Uncle Buddy's Funhouse, it was a genre that felt like something in between a game and a novel. A theme that I picked up on was the female authors' struggling with the strict shackles of femininity, where the action of the user playing with the virtual dolls can be seen as representing a little girl's socialization (or rejection) of her gender. As the Jackson sisters put it, "here, the 'little' girl is, frankly, quite huge." The text is organized into a kind-of "chapters", which made the text feel cohesive and whole. This was a fun piece, and I've noticed that Shelley Jackson has very unique works of e-lit.