Bolter and Joyce (1987) Hypertext and Creative Writing
From Inventiopedia
Bolter, Jay David and Michael Joyce (1987) Hypertext and Creative Writing, Hypertext '87 Papers, ACM, pp. 41-50.
In 1987 Jay Bolter and Michael Joyce presented their important hypertext writing system Storyspace, which became an important tool and inspiration for authors of hypertext fiction. This paper presents the creators' visions for the system. They relate the idea of hypertext fiction to the "traditions" of experimental literature, from dada and surrealism onwards. In particular, they invoke the visions of Jorge Luis Borges.
Of particular interest is their description of the new challenges facing the hypertext author.
Hypertextual fiction has much in common with these experiments in print. It too will have to introduce new procedures of reading that violate the reader’s expectations of a linear narrative. (Perhaps the first indication that electronic fiction has matured beyond the adventure game will be the appearance of fictions that are about writing, about capturing experience in writing, and therefore about themselves.) Electronic writers therefore need conventions, genres, traditions by which their medium can be governed. They must find new ways to maintain a tension between the reader and the text. The source of that tension will surely be the participation of the reader in making the text. [...] Moreover, electronic authors will need a new concept of structure. The structure of an electronic fiction will change with each reading, because the order and number of episodes will change. Authors must therefore learn to conceive of their text as a structure of structures, and this is a concept that is new in the history of literature. (p. 47)
The temporal character of interactive fiction is also something new. [...] The electronic medium permits writing of a second order, a writing with narrative units, in which the structure of the text becomes truly fluid and indeed geometric. The author becomes a geometrician or architect of computerized “space” (as computer memory is in fact called by programmers); he fills his space with a special pattern of episodes and links that define a kaleidoscope of possible structures. The success of his work will depend upon the poetic rightness of the way in which the pattern is realized in the act of reading. (p. 47)
I find this characteristic quite interesting, in particular because this "writing as a structure of structures" seems profoundly problematic. The idea that the tension between reader and text can be found in the "participation of the reader in making the text", when all that the reader does is to follow (or not follow) hyperlinks, seems to point to the problem of hypertext fiction: It aims for something it does not have the tools to create. Tellingly, Bolter and Joyce goes on to state that "All electronic literature takes the form of a game, a contest between author and reader" (p. 49). But a game where all the interaction consists of clicking on links seems like a poor game. Perhaps there is a tendency in hypertext fiction towards wanting to become a game, without the will to truly let go of literary form? (Cf. Moulthrop (2005) - After the Last Generation: Rethinking Scholarship in the Days of Serious Play) --Anders Sundnes Løvlie 23:09, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
