Hypertext Fiction

    Chapter three of Electronic Literature is all about hypertext. Hypertext was one of the first pieces of electronic literature to gain a lot of interest in the late 1900s (Rettberg 54). I was able to pull a quote from the chapter that sums up hypertext, “Hypertext fiction represented a bridge between the literary experimentation of the late twentieth century and the cultural shifts accompanying the move to networked computing” hypertext can best be viewed as a bridge connecting the two (Rettberg 54). Over the last couple of class periods, we have been looking at examples of hypertext fiction. I have become invested in the various forms of hypertext because it allows the viewer with multiple layers of a project and keeps the reader engaged with the hyperlinks. Postmodernism really ties in with hypertext because it included a new element of language and changeable text that is similar to “the flow of human consciousness” (Rettberg 56). Being able to use technology as a space to organize and plan information altered the way of digital storytelling. 

One of the earliest forms of hypertext can be found within "The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges (Rettberg 57). I was really interested in this short story because it does a great job at showing the endless paths and connections within the book through the textual clues. The story is a labyrinth of connections “…all possible outcomes of a given event would occur simultaneously, thus forking out to other chains of event, which would themselves fork in an infinite tree of possibilities” the path the author created for the reader and narrative had me on the edge of my seat (Rettberg 57).

While reading this chapter I decided to choose The Gathering Cloud by J. R Carpenter as my reference. This is a well-known hypertext piece that came out in 2016 including layers of information and images on the page. When I first got on the page I was drawn in by the poetry, but what really made me stay were the birds appearing from the bottom of my screen. Within the poetry there are specific words that are linked to a definition or fact involving that word which kept me intrigued. The page is very interactive and connects the environment to technology in a modernistic way.

Comments

  1. AnnaFebruary 12, 2023 at 1:50 PM

    I read the Gathering Cloud last year. At first appearance, I thought it was absolutely bizarre, but then I began to see how it played out. The way the words linked to other elements was interesting. It's a good glimpse of how hypertext essays work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sky RousseauFebruary 13, 2023 at 10:09 AM

    I love how many quotes you used from the book to strengthen any arguments and provide context that allowed you to transition between topics so seamlessly. I think you did a really great job at giving an overview of hypertext examples, especially the Gathering Cloud which I had read previously. I loved that story and I think that was a really great choice for a hypertext example to talk about.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

combinatory poetics

Image
 Combinatory poetics came about in the twentieth century and is still a large part of electronic literature. Within Zurich Dada, abstract art took ahold and the poems were created by flow of consciousness with a newspaper and scissors. The product would be a representative of the creator and their mind. What I found interesting is that this would later be expanded to groups as well. Meaning, a group of people could sit together, pass around a paper and write whatever came to mind. The end would be a mash of questions, responses, and anything in between. This can create a sort of group unconscious product where creativity does not have any bounds. Programs allowing for electronically generated poetry, and in some cases stories, have boomed and give readers a wide range of poems. One that was mentioned in the text was Taroko gorge, I explored that in Intro Creative non fiction and found it fascinating that it never really ends. It has also transformed into an almost collaborative spa...
Read more

Kinetic and Interactive Poetry

In chapter 5, kinetic and interactive poetry are described as a form of e-lit that is heavily concerned with the use of sounds, visuals, movement, music, and language. Scott Rettberg describes describe kenetic and interactive poetry as such, "Kinetic and interactive poetry explore the specific multimedia capacities of the contemporary computer as a poetic environment for both composition and reception." Like with other forms of e-lit, poets are able to create meaning with much more than just words on a page. One very important aspect of kinetic and interactive poetry is the use of time and movement. In addition to the meaning of the words on the page, their movement, and the movement of visuals, creates its own meaning. Time is also important. As Rhettberg puts it: "the poem is experienced as the performance of the code within a given configuration of a given platform rather than the code itself. Therefore, it is the running of the code that gives kinetic poetry a tempor...
Read more