Hypertext Fiction

After reading the third chapter of Scott Rettberg’s Electronic Literature, what stood out to me about hypertext fiction was how it was built from the “abandonment of linearity” (a term Rettberg coins) and the acceptance of narrative structures that are multilinear. The very nature of hypertext fiction is that the narrative structure is created by the reader, who clicks the connecting links in the order that they please, and thus the fragmented texts make a new story for the reader. I liked this idea of storytelling and way of expressing language - perhaps because it reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read in elementary school - but nevertheless I think the concept of transferring authorship to the reader (who inherently “creates” the narrative structure) is interesting. 

“The Garden of Forking Paths” touches on this idea of indefinite storylines as well; Dr. Yu Tsun, a spy for Germany, meets Dr. Stephen Albert (who he later kills), and they discuss Ts’ui Pên’s legacy/labyrinth/book, and how “the garden of forking paths” is multilayered - there are infinite possible outcomes that exist simultaneously, but every decision leads to one path. This is the very nature of hypertext fiction; there are an infinite number of outcomes the reader can create, but their choices create one “new” narrative. 

I chose to explore The Unknown by William Gillespie, Frank Marquardt, Scott Rettberg and Dirk Stratton - an example that is a “‘sickeningly decadent hypertext novel’” (Rettberg, 81). The narrative follows the authors on their book tour; however, the links take you to seemingly random and incoherent pieces (like “Winelist of the Unknown” or “Williams’ New Years Resolutions 1996”, or a correspondence where Scott describes how he made his poetry students eat fried chicken) so the reader is left to piece together meaning - which is difficult, considering the themes of The Unknown and the general randomness of the entire piece. However, this is definitely a piece that I will come back to, because there are too many hidden meanings and fun-subplots to explore in one sitting.