At first I found reading hypertext to be very confusing and almost frustrating, however I have now grown quite fond of it’s disarray. I found that reading Patchwork Girl left me nauseated, possibly due to the gruesome depictions of the monster’s body decaying or perhaps because of the way the story bounces from scene to scene, narrator to monster. Although the feeling of reading the work was unpleasant it should be recognized as impressive to instil that sort of reaction in a reader. These Waves of Girls jumped around in a similar manner to Patchwork Girl, however I didn’t have such a negative reaction to this work. They way the narrator told her stories it was as if I was talking to a familiar friend late at night, just passing back and forth memories. Also, when the story did switch perspectives it was made distinctly clear, whereas in Patchwork Girl it was really hard to discern who was speaking at times. This was probably my favorite piece of hypertext we have looked at because at the end of looking over all the fragments of writing and art they came together to form a story, a little choppy at times but still a flowing story with distinguishable characters and plot lines.
Red Riding Hood was formatted quite differently from The Patchwork Girl and These Waves of Girls. It was more interactive and focused on pictures and music rather than words. I personally prefer a combination, however I did enjoy a piece I found that played music while tiny grey houses moved on tiny pointed feet when poked. However, once I had returned to the homescreen I was unable to locate it again, which was sad. Entre Ville was a nice combination of words and artwork that I had assumed I would enjoy, however it felt as if it was lacking something. It was interesting, but I was not as impressed with it as I was with other pieces we have looked at.
Sabrina Brown
I never thought of how Patchwork Girl made the reader react. I remember you had mentioned in class it kind of made you feel ill, but it's a good point that could've been the authors intention. Getting some kind of a reaction out of a reader is better than no reaction for sure. It proves the story is making you feel something whether you like it or not. Looking at other hypertexts I think it was my favorite too. In the moment I didn't think much of it but now reading others reviews it seemed to be the most interactive and distinguishable story.
ReplyDeleteAs for Red Riding Hood, I had the same experience with the homescreen. I lost the story quite a few times and that was super frusterating to me because I had to keep starting over. It did lead me to a few different scenarios though but overall I wasn't too impressed with the technology side of that one.