Author: pmiller4

The first three pages that were linked together which I selected are the following:
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/hgs/HGS0B4.html,
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/hgs/HGS097.html,
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/hgs/HGS113.html.

The first page that drew my interest happened to be the shortest. The main section states in big, bold letters, “Good news about the end of the world.” This phrase is surrounded by two other phrases on top and bottom. On top, an ominous message says, “It’s always later than you think.”
On bottom, it reads “Feeding your fears since 1945.” I immediately concluded that this page was referring to the beginning of the Cold War (1945) and the age of nuclear weapons. The first line refers to two meanings. The first being that the end of the world and the onset of darkness are much closer at hand then most of us realize. The second I thought referred to government warnings or reassurances that were used to mislead the public and preventing mass hysteria. The “…since 1945,” section was satirical because it played off on the commercialized American society with this popular corporate slogan.

The second page was titled “Drivers.” The story begins with two people, a couple perhaps, waking up late. There is a foreshadowing of trouble in the first stanza which relates back to the theme of the first page. At the beginning there didn’t seem to be much of a connection, but by the third stanza, war and death are mentioned as one of the characters, Bent, is unable to get up and attend the program. I assume the “program” refers to a government sponsored therapy for veterans.
War is an obvious connection of the two “lexia.” Other commonalities include fear and anxiety.

The third page was titled “Epigraph.” The definition of epigraph is: a motto or quotation, as at the beginning of a literary composition, setting forth a theme. At first glance there were some obvious differences in the formatting of the page compared to the other two that I examined. The first noticeable difference is that unlike the other pages which have four different links leading to four separate literary pieces, “Epigraph,” has four links which all lead to the same page. I found this odd. The second one was that this was the only piece with an author listed at the bottom: Taylor and Saarinen. This work addresses the intellectual discussion about the end of history and time. One of the key phrases, “The issue is neither philosophical nor literary but technological,” is interesting because I related the technological aspect back to the nuclear reference on the first page and use of advanced weaponry, possibly chemical, that could’ve affected Bent on the second page. The other theme of this piece, was the inevitably of time taking its effect on the world and the impossibility of putting down “brakes.” Hence, this is why all of the links on this page are titled “Faster.”

All three linked pages are connected together by common themes and social issues. Every piece makes an allusion to war. From war, and our self-destruction comes the realization that whether through nuclear warheads, biological weapons, or being just naïve or arrogant, we are doomed. The end is near and the world of men will come to a close.

In relation to the Hegirascope, these pages share the element of unity. On first reading, some of the connections and ideas might seem a stretch, but when broken down by sentence and phrase the similarities are blatant. In this exercise, I think it was key to discuss three links instead of just two, this really helped in illustrating the connections that exist throughout the matrix that is the Hegirascope.

J. Douglas discusses interpretive skills throughout Gaps, Maps, and Perception: What Hypertext Readers Don’t Do.  On page 3 of the article, Douglas mentions that nearly half the time we spend at the movies is, in fact, spent in the blackness between frames and how the human eye and brain have learned to form fluid, tangible reproductions.  He points out that interpretive skills have been around as long as humans have existed living in the wilderness which were essential for survival in a highly competive natural environment.

I immediately made the connection between hypertext and cinema filling in the gaps, then forming a mental map, which shapes the perception.  Then my mind wandered and I thought of all the other was humans have learned to use interpretive skills outside of just reading or watching film.  These skills can be used to form a hypothesis about what will happen next, just like any pattern in a real life scenario.  The more you drive to shopping malls and look for parking, you use interpretive skills to judge what kind of drivers will pull out without looking or the signs of who is coming and leaving.  This applies to hypertext in this aspect: the more you "surf" the net or read hypertexts, your understanding of what to focus on increases and your judgement is sharpened as a result.  Just as in baseball, you learn when to look for the fastball, say a 3-0 count, and when to expect the breaking ball, a 1-2 count. 

On pages,  118-120 in Scott McCloud’s Understand Comics, he discusses the usage of single frame using abstract art to convey intangible emotions such as joy, madness, and anxiety.  80 percent of the frame examples he uses would not match the image that comes to my mind when thinking of that feeling.  However, I believe this concept of using frames like the ones shown in comics ties back into the concept of interactivity.  Granted there weren’t surrounding frames for each emotion on this page which would have helped the reader shape a better analysis of what the art was supposed to mean, but even if they were it would still be up to the reader to fill in "gutter" space or interpet each abstract image in his or her own way.  As for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Game, I found it the most frustrating of all.  It would only let me get out of bed but not exit the room and no graphics ever appeared on the screen. 

Swimming through a Sea of Defiance contained links that were related or that were illustrations of the word.  I believe these contributed to the story.  The three most effective links was the photo of a sound wave, the photo of a man being yelled at and the photo of the bus crashing into the building both directly tied into the story and added emphasis.  The other links made no impact on me.  Although they represented the words, the connection was too far apart to make an impression on the story.

———————————————————————————————-

In Where There is No Story at All, the links are very random which mimick the structure and pace of the story.  So in that way the links work for the piece.  The best link in this piece is to the clock unlike any clock I have ever seen which really echoes the emphasis of time and urgency in the piece.  The other links were representations or advertisements which could be symbolic of the destractions the actual writer had in the piece.

The general methodology for choosing the links were based on word association, word context, possible historical significance.  For example, I made a reference to German light armor, therefore I created a link for the word “armor” to a WWII Nazi Flag that was found on a Panzer tank; this is a logical translation.  Another step that I took was to take a word that multiple meanings.  I used “icebreaker” to describe a breaking of social silence; however, I made a link to a literal icebreaker: liquid mints(http://www.hersheys.com/icebreakers/).  I used another play on pop culture by making the word “captain” a link to Captain’s Morgans rum(http://www.captainmorgan.com/en-us/).  Lastly, I selected another student’s piece(http://mason.gmu.edu/~rford1/assignment_files/swimming.html) which mentioned the same town upon which my incipit was based as a connection.  This student’s piece is also associated with “defiance” which is an underlying theme in my own work.

If I had made all the links historical, a virtual footnote persay, then I think the piece would have been taken more seriously.  Due to the choices I made in selecting the links, I believe it made the work somewhat more creative, but in a much more comical way, which was not the original aim of the story upon its creation.  As a result, the reader will most likely be confused when a story with a serious and depressing backdrop has links to such trivial items.

Marie -Laure Ryan mentions computer games in the discussion of interactive texts and ergodic literature.  I had never really put computer/video games in this light of an interactive drama before. She notes that although the player does not contribute text, but skills such as shooting, jumping, diving, problem and riddle solving require far more active participation that selecting items from a menu as would be done on a preprogramed webpage or virtual reality art display.  In many games today, especially role-playing games, the plot and subsequent series of events often depends on the actions of the player(i.e. which door is opened or which items are picked up in the room).  Video games are often overlooked as a form of interactivity with text.  In the future, it will be interesting to see how much games will evolve depending on the decisions of the player.  Thus making reality more blurred perhaps?

By directly addressing the reader in the first section of the book, Calvino uses this as a method to set the pace for the rest of the book. This technique has several effects on the reader. One is that the reader is caught off guard by being spoken to in an upfront manner, not only does this bring the reader closer to the book, but almost makes he or she a character in the plot. After the reader feels this connection, it is confusing to detect who the “I” from whose perspective each story is told. Thus, one is taken down the perputual rabbit hole bouncing from story to story. On a side note, in the introduction it seemed as if Calvino was boasting, knowing that “we” have purchased his book and dictating how it should be read. Just an idea.