Sunday, February 16, 2020

For me hypertext is not as enjoyable to read as traditional text; that is not to say that hypertext is not interesting, but my main issue is that there is no guidance with hypertext. It is hard for me to piece together a story from many separate, seemingly incoherent, parts. In Patchwork Girl there were many different perspectives: the perspective of the creature, the creator, and the original owner of body parts. When I was reading Patchwork Girl, I started by reading the origins of the creature’s body parts, then I was reading from the perspective of the creator. This sudden changing perspective raised many questions for me: how the creator found these parts, and why did they make the creature. This format also fails to establish things like the time period; however, these questions are probably answered somewhere in the hypertext, but I was unable to find answers during my time reading. The other hypertext I read was These Waves of Girls, by Caitlin Fisher. This story seems to be an autobiographical hypertext about the author growing up as a lesbian. The story does not change perspective, but changes time: at one point the author is a young girl and then jumps ahead to her in high school. This hypertext was easier to put together because it follows one story and one perspective. This means that each hyperlink is a different part of one timeline, but I still had issues because there was no sense of closure for me. This is not to say that I dislike hypertext. I think there are many interesting aspects of hypertext, but the format of these works is incredibly different from traditional text. I am accustomed to pages guiding me and having closure with the back cover. Hypertext changes the way you read stories and will take time to become accustomed to them.

1 comment:

  1. It does take a while to get used to the format, especially this lack of linear structure and, of course, closure.

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