Afternoon, a story is not as obvious as Hegirascope that it is a hypertext fiction. Afternoon does not seem to present as diverse a possibility of tangent paths from readers to readers. I wonder how many different variations that Afternoon offers. There is one line that stuck in my mind as I explore the story, it is found on the lexia titled "Hop Scotch", it states, "In its own way, this book consists of many books, but wo books above all." Then the the paragraph goes to describe how this book of many books, consists of two books depending on the way that the reader reads it. The different method determines the book, one reader can go almost a linear path without clicking on the possible links, whereas another readers can skip around like in hop scotch but still remain somewhat of a linear progression through the story. I am wondering if we all read Afternoon long enough, we will all come out with the same information and understanding of the plot and characters? Is it just one great narrative with the same information but presented to the readers at different orders depending on what paths the reader choices. The idea of the order of information reminds me of the main character, well at least the main characters for me in my experience of Afternoon, his ex-wife name is Lisa and his son is Andy. There is a episode when the main character reflects upon his marriage, in one sense, on the literal level, he is addressing his marital failures between him and his ex-wife, on the other hand, metaphorically, this can address how some readers like certain control over what information is given to them and in a specific order.
I am really curious to know what other experience and narrative of Afternoon is like, because I am wondering if this hypertext is more linear, or if it has more diverse paths imbedded in the stories than I thought. My version of Afternoon so far center around the male narrator with the ex-wife that was never named. Then I discovered more about Lolly, Nariscaa, Lisa and Wert’s different past and their lives. A correlation that I found consist in Afternoon that also exist in Calvino’s novel is the unidentify shift in narrations. The readers found out from whose perspective the passages are coming from through the hints of that persons situation and characteristic to find out who is speaking. In Calvino’s novel, the point of view is in second person throughout the main narrative, and then it shifts to different first person narration in the incipits. Afternoon the passages are usually written in the first person but coming from different person at different time.