Given the diverse subjects addressed in this week’s readings, I really don’t know where to begin. Yet, given the nature of the hypertextual fictions that we encountered, not knowing where to begin seems strangely appropriate.
I was most interested in the ramifications, or at least the ones I noticed, of cyber-texts on literature. If anything, engaging in Pax and Hegirascope demonstrates that the book itself is a technology with limitations and advantages of its own. In fact, hypertextual literature, in many ways, seems to be as large of a regression as a technological advance. The audience interaction, lack of a clear ending or beginning, and the constant digressive nature of the narrative structure are closer to an oral tradition than one of print. In fact, everything that makes hypertextual literature different than print seems to stem from story telling before the advent of the printing press. This begs the question, what advantage, or new dimensions, does computer technology bring to story telling. Don’t we miss narratives? I can see the benefits in terms of information dissemination (i.e. hypertextual links in an encyclopedic definition) but does it add anything to a piece of fiction beyond gimmicks?
To answer my own question, I found the unique use of the word/text combo in Pax to be especially interesting. I don’t know that I cared for that particular piece, but the idea of interactive moving images seems to be a promising avenue. Perhaps a hypertextual version of "The Sims," where many characters are participating in a single story that display multiple, yet unique, perspectives with the click of a mouse. To combine this discussion with the topics addressed by Poster, the coupling of fiction with databases filled with personal information may very well be the future of storytelling. A simple glance at the cache of any person’s computer should reveal, not only topic preferences, but spending habits, favorites sport teams, and even sexual preferences. Imagine personalized fictions that could pander to the reader’s desires, interrupted by commercials for their favorite products. Perhaps this could be taken to the next level. They are adding microchips into the tags of clothing to track consumer habits. Couldn’t this be linked to a fiction, one starring the reader, set in the stores that the reader visited that very day? The possibilities are endless.
This has to be my single most incoherent and ridiculous post I have written to date. I didn’t even mention Baudrillard. Perhaps if I added a hypertextual link, it wouldn’t seem so idiotic.