Hypertext Fiction

 

I found this chapter to be very interesting to read and greatly expanded my understanding of  hypertext fiction. Before reading this chapter I was aware with what hypertext was in a general sense of how it is used online but had not thought of how it could be used in fiction. I also realized that I was very familiar with hypertext non-fiction as I use Wikipedia a lot and they way I navigate the site is through clicking through the links. I was very surprised to find out that platforms such as Storyspace were published as early as 1987 since it was just a few years after the internet was becoming a big thing. The part of the chapter I found most interesting was how hypertext can be identified by when it was made in relation to the release of the World Wide Web. It made me think about how classic literature is often thought of in relation to dates and events (such as pre and post industrial revolution literature) and the hypertext genre does a similar thing but on a much smaller timescale. 

 

I decided to look at Mark Amerika's Grammation which, as the textbook says, retells the golem myth. It was a very interesting experience to click through the website. Since the story just throws you into it without any real directions on what to do you piece through the story in your own way and make out what is happening. The result is a very easy reading experience that, though confusing, is not frustration or complicated to get through. Since clicking on the links feels so natural as someone who has had the internet for all my life I was able to just experience the story. I definitely don't think I got through most of the story since the textbook says it has over 1000 elements, but it was a great introduction to what hypertext fiction is like.