Hypertext fiction

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Hypertext fiction
FeaturesNarrative literature consisting of sections of text connected by links; usually digital. A genre of electronic literature.
Related genres
Electronic literature, Interactive fiction, Digital poetry, Generative literature, Cell phone novels, Instapoetry, Cybertext, Creepypasta, Fan fiction, Blog fiction

Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a story from a deeper pool of potential stories. Its spirit can also be seen in interactive fiction.

Contents

The term can also be used to describe traditionally-published books in which a nonlinear narrative and interactive narrative is achieved through internal references. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Enrique Jardiel Poncela's La Tournée de Dios (1932), Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths (1941), Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962), Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963; translated as Hopscotch), and Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973) are early examples predating the word "hypertext", while a common pop-culture example is the Choose Your Own Adventure series in young adult fiction and other similar gamebooks, or Jason Shiga's Meanwhile, a graphic novel that allows readers to choose from a total of 3,856 possible linear narratives. [1]

In 1969, IBM and Ted Nelson from Brown University gained permission from Nabokov's publisher to use Pale Fire as a demonstration of an early hypertext system and, in general, hypertext's potential. The unconventional form of the demonstration was dismissed in favour of a more technically oriented variant. [2]

Definitions

There is little consensus on the definition of hypertext literature. [3] The similar term cybertext is often used interchangeably with hypertext. [4] In hypertext fiction, the reader assumes a significant role in the creation of the narrative. Each user obtains a different outcome based on the choices they make. Cybertexts may be equated to the transition between a linear piece of literature, such as a novel, and a game. In a novel, the reader has no choice, the plot and the characters are all chosen by the author; there is no 'user', just a 'reader'. This is important because it entails that the person working their way through the novel is not an active participant. In a game, the person makes decisions and decides what actions to take, what punches to punch, or when to jump.

To Espen Aarseth, cybertext is not a genre in itself; in order to classify traditions, literary genres and aesthetic value, texts should be examined at a more local level. [5] To Aarseth, hypertext fiction is a kind of ergodic literature :

In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text. If ergodic literature is to make sense as a concept, there must also be nonergodic literature, where the effort to traverse the text is trivial, with no extranoematic responsibilities placed on the reader except (for example) eye movement and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages. [6]

To Aarseth, the process of reading immersive narrative, in contrast, involves "trivial" effort, that is, merely moving one's eyes along lines of text and turning pages; the text does not resist the reader.

History

The first hypertext fictions were published prior to the development of the World Wide Web, using software such as Storyspace and HyperCard. Noted pioneers in the field are Judy Malloy and Michael Joyce. [7]

Early hypertext fictions published on the web include Olia Lialina's My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996), [8] which used images, words and web frames to unfold spatially in the reader's web browser, and Adrienne Eisen's hypertext novella Six Sex Scenes (1996), where readers moved between lexia by selecting links at the bottom of each screen. The first novel-length hypertext fiction, or hypertext novel, was Robert Arellano's Sunshine 69, published on June 21, 1996, with navigable maps of settings, a nonlinear calendar of scenes, and a character "suitcase" enabling readers to try on nine different points of view. [9] [8] Shortly thereafter, in 1997, Mark Amerika released GRAMMATRON, a multi-linear work that was eventually exhibited in art galleries. In 2000, it was included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art. [10]

Some other web examples of hypertext fiction include Stuart Moulthrop's Hegirascope (1995, 1997), The Unknown (which won the trAce/Alt X award in 1998), The Company Therapist (1996–1999) (which won Net Magazine's "Entertainment Site of the Year"), and Caitlin Fisher's These Waves of Girls (2001) (which won the ELO award for fiction in 2001). More recent works include Stephen Marche's Lucy Hardin's Missing Period (2010) [11] and Paul La Farge’s Luminous Airplanes (2011).

In the 1990s, women and feminist artists took advantage of hypertext and produced dozens of works, often publishing on CD-ROM. Linda Dement’s Cyberflesh Girlmonster (1995) is a hypertext CD-ROM that incorporates images of women’s body parts and remixes them to create new shapes. [12] [13] Dr. Caitlin Fisher’s hypertext novella These Waves of Girls (2000), mentioned above, is set in three time periods of the protagonist exploring her queer identity through memory. The story is written as a reflection diary of the interconnected memories of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It consists of an associated multi-modal collection of nodes including linked text, still and moving images, manipulable images, animations, and sound clips. It won the Electronic Literature Organization award.

The internationally oriented, but US based, Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) was founded in 1999 to promote the creation and enjoyment of electronic literature. Other organisations for the promotion of electronic literature include trAce Online Writing Community, a British organisation, started in 1995, that has fostered electronic literature in the UK, Dichtung Digital, a journal of criticism of electronic literature in English and German, and ELINOR, a network for electronic literature in the Nordic countries, which provides a directory of Nordic electronic literature. The Electronic Literature Directory lists many works of electronic literature in English and other languages.

Characteristics

Hypertext fiction is characterized by networked nodes of text making up a fictional story. There are often several options in each node that directs where the reader can go next. Unlike traditional fiction, the reader is not constrained by reading the fiction from start to end, depending on the choices they make. In this sense, it is similar to an encyclopaedia, with the reader reading a node and then choosing a link to follow. While this can be done more easily on paper, it is quite a different experience on a screen. The reader can be thrown into unpredictable loops because not all of the links are explained by their title. The fiction can contain text, quotes, and images.

There are different forms that hypertext fiction can take. These forms are axial, arborescent, and networked. Axial hypertext fictions have a central story line with links that branch off and return to the central storyline. Arborescent fictions branch into mutually exclusive story lines, and networked fictions have multiple starting points and do not always have a set ending. A single work of hypertext fiction can have a mixture of these three forms.

Criticism

In 2013, Steven Johnson, founder of the online magazine FEED, an early publisher of hypertext fiction, wrote an article for Wired detailing why hypertext fiction did not become popular, claiming that non-linear stories are difficult to write, since each section of the work would need to introduce characters or concepts. [14]

Legacy

Twine fictions have often been cited as being a direct descendant of hypertext fiction. [15] [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypertext</span> Text with references (links) to other text that the reader can immediately access

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typically activated by a mouse click, keypress set, or screen touch. Apart from text, the term "hypertext" is also sometimes used to describe tables, images, and other presentational content formats with integrated hyperlinks. Hypertext is one of the key underlying concepts of the World Wide Web, where Web pages are often written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). As implemented on the Web, hypertext enables the easy-to-use publication of information over the Internet.

Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov. Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp, and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in The Dialogic Imagination (1975).

Ergodic literature is a term coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his 1997 book Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. The term is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work", and hodos, meaning "path". It is associated with the concept of cybertext and describes a cybertextual process that includes a semiotic sequence that the concepts of "reading" do not account for.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Espen Aarseth</span> Scholar of video game studies

Espen J. Aarseth is a Norwegian academic specializing in the fields of video game studies and electronic literature. Aarseth completed his doctorate at the University of Bergen. He co-founded the Department of Humanistic Informatics at the University of Bergen, and worked there until 2003, at which time he was a full professor.

Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature are usually intended to be read on digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. They cannot be easily printed, or cannot be printed at all, because elements crucial to the work cannot be carried over onto a printed version.

<i>afternoon, a story</i> Hypertext fiction by Michael Joyce

afternoon, a story, spelled with a lowercase 'a', is a work of electronic literature written in 1987 by American author Michael Joyce. It was published by Eastgate Systems in 1990 and is known as one of the first works of hypertext fiction.

George Paul Landow was Professor of English and Art History Emeritus at Brown University. He was a leading authority on Victorian literature, art, and culture, as well as a pioneer in criticism and theory of Electronic literature, hypertext and hypermedia. He also pioneered the use of hypertext and the web in higher education.

<i>Patchwork Girl</i> (hypertext) Work of electronic literature by Shelley Jackson

Patchwork Girl or a Modern Monster by Mary/Shelly and Herself is a work of electronic literature by American author Shelley Jackson. It was written in Storyspace and published by Eastgate Systems in 1995. It is often discussed along with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story as an important work of hypertext fiction.

<i>Victory Garden</i> (novel) Novel by Stuart Moulthrop

Victory Garden is a work of electronic literature by American author Stuart Moulthrop. It was written in StorySpace and first published by Eastgate Systems in 1991. Victory Garden is one of the earliest examples of hypertext novels, and is notable for being very inventive and influential in its genre. It is often discussed along with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story as an important work of hypertext fiction.

Jay David Bolter is the Wesley Chair of New Media and a professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His areas of study include the evolution of media, the use of technology in education, and the role of computers in the writing process. More recently, he has conducted research in the area of augmented reality and mixed media. Bolter collaborates with researchers in the Augmented Environments Lab, co-directed with Blair MacIntyre, to create apps for entertainment, cultural heritage and education for smart phones and tablets. This supports his theory regarding remediation where he discusses "all media functions as remediators and that remediation offers us a means of interpreting the work of earlier media as well".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Yellowlees Douglas</span>

Jane Yellowlees Douglas is a pioneer author and scholar of hypertext fiction. She began writing about hypermedia in the late 1980s, very early in the development of the medium. Her 1993 fiction I Have Said Nothing, was one of the first published works of hypertext fiction.

Stuart Moulthrop is an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction, both as a theoretician and as a writer. He is author of the hypertext fiction works Victory Garden (1992), which was on the front-page of the New York Times Book Review in 1993, Reagan Library (1999), and Hegirascope (1995), amongst many others. Moulthrop is currently a Professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of English, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He also became a founding board member of the Electronic Literature Organization in 1999.

Eastgate Systems is a publisher and software company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, which publishes hypertext.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cybertext</span>

Cybertext as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997 is a type of ergodic literature where the user traverses the text by doing nontrivial work.

"I Have Said Nothing" is an early work of hypertext fiction written by J. Yellowlees Douglas. In 1993 it was published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. in The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext , along with “Lust” by Mary-Kim Arnold. In 1997, Norton Anthology published an online version of the work, along with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story as part of its print publication Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Fiction.

<i>Figurski at Findhorn on Acid</i>

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid is a hypertext novel by Richard Holeton published on CD-ROM by Eastgate Systems in 2001 and republished on the open web by the Electronic Literature Lab, Washington State University, in 2021. Re-Imagined Radio presented a radio interpretation of this novel in 2022 in which Holeton made an appearance. It is a work of interactive fiction with various paths for readers to choose from, an early example of electronic literature, and one of 23 works included in the literary hypertext canon.

In Hypertext, a lexia is a text unit that links to other lexia, corresponding to a node in a network. This use of the term was introduced by George Landow, and was based on Roland Barthes' use of lexia in S/Z to refer "units of reading". The term is used in scholarship on hypertext, although node is often used synonymously.

<i>Six Sex Scenes</i> 1996 hypertext novella by Adrienne Eisen

Six Sex Scenes is a hypertext novella created by Adrienne Eisen and published on the web in 1996.

34 North 118 West by Jeff Knowlton, Naomi Spellman, and Jeremy Hight is one of the first locative hypertexts. Published in 2003, the work connected Global Positioning System (GPS) data with a fictional narrative on an early tablet PC connected to Global Positioning devices to deliver a real-time story to a user.

References

  1. ↑ Liu, Jonathan H. "Take Your Pick With Meanwhile by Jason Shiga". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2023-10-30. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  2. ↑ Rowberry, Simon (2011-06-06). "Vladimir Nabokov's pale fire". Proceedings of the 22nd ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (PDF). New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 319–324. doi:10.1145/1995966.1996008. ISBN   9781450302562. S2CID   11631986. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-08-20. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  3. ↑ Yellowlees, Jane Douglas (2001). The End of Books—or Books Without End?: Reading Interactive Narratives. University of Michigan Press. p. 3. ISBN   0472088467.
  4. ↑ "Introduction: Ergodic Literature". Archived from the original on 2000-12-16. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  5. ↑ "Jay David Bolter". www.uv.es. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ↑ J., Aarseth, Espen (1997). Cybertext : perspectives on ergodic literature. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. ISBN   0-8018-5578-0. OCLC   243885064.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Rettberg, Jill Walker (2012). "Electronic Literature Seen from a Distance: The Beginnings of a Field". Dichtung Digital. 41. S2CID   107042276. Archived from the original on 2012-12-10.
  8. 1 2 Rettberg, Scott (2019). Electronic literature. Cambridge, UK. pp. 78–80. ISBN   978-1-5095-1677-3. OCLC   1028213515.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ↑ Ciccarello, Lisa. "Swiveling My Hips through the Interbunk (And Having a Great Time, Too)" Archived 2022-05-24 at the Wayback Machine . Pif Magazine: January, 2000.
  10. ↑ "Artists Selected for the 2000 Whitney Biennial". Archived from the original on 2016-03-15. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  11. ↑ "Lucy Hardin's Missing Period | the Walrus". 11 November 2010. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  12. ↑ Willis, Holly; Halpin, Mikki (1996-01-01). "When the personal becomes digitial: Linda dement and Barbara hammer move towards a Lesbian cyberspace". Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. 9 (1): 233–238. doi:10.1080/07407709608571262. ISSN   0740-770X.
  13. ↑ Smelik, A. M. (2007). "Un labyrinthe cyberpunk. La mémoire fragmentée dans l'art digital de Linda Dement". 99. Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  14. ↑ Why No One Clicked on the Great Hypertext Story Archived 2022-12-09 at the Wayback Machine March 16, 2013
  15. ↑ Moulthrop, Stuart (2020-07-03). "Twine and the Challenge to Reading". Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  16. ↑ Salter, Anastasia; Moulthrop, Stuart (2021). Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives. Amherst College Press. ISBN   978-1-943208-24-1. Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2023-04-10.

Bibliography

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