Discussion → Heart Suit and Coover Links
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On the Web, we've grown accustomed to large composite pages that stand on their own, joined by slow, intentional links. But this is not the only way it could be done.
In "Heart Suit" (McSweeney's 16), Bob Coover wrote a sculptural hypertext (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=sculptural+hypertext) in which each node (except the last) ends in the middle of a sentence, and each succeeding note begins in mid-sentence.
I'd suggest that this technique ought to create a lot of narrative drive, helping to push people across the chasm of the link. Can it be done effectively? Can *you* do it?
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Hmm. This is yet another way of looking at the process not only of hypertext narrative but narrative itself I would think.
I'll need to read more on this.
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Let us not....
.... overcomplicate things. It's just another transition, another move from here to there across the chasm of the page.
...to good prose and tales admit impediments. We have met the injunction to finish a sentence in varied ways before; it's our old friend the writing exercise.
...go down again to that old familiar garden sundial where we meet the dark gentleman and the transparent codex. Why is it easy to move from page to page, turning recto to verso and again to recto, but hard to click the mouse?
...tarry," he said. "We do not have all day."
(I think I chose a poor opening. You can do better. Please do.)
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Let us not....
.... overcomplicate things. It's just another transition, another move from here to there across the chasm of the page.
...to good prose and tales admit impediments. We have met the injunction to finish a sentence in varied ways before; it's our old friend the writing exercise.
...go down again to that old familiar garden sundial where we meet the dark gentleman and the transparent codex. Why is it easy to move from page to page, turning recto to verso and again to recto, but hard to click the mouse?
...tarry," he said. "We do not have all day."
(I think I chose a poor opening. You can do better. Please do.)
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"Tarry," he said, "we do not have all day,..."
"...to find the golden dongle that will connect the information"
"...to the projector where it can be displayed upon the screen."
or
"...in the proper sequence wherein the 4 given clues will fit"
"...but only if we see read the forms as 1, 2, and then 3, and 4"
"...for if 4 is read before the others, the answer will be meaningless"
or
"..if seen in reverse order, it shall still make sense."
(I find it difficult to think hypertext without the comfort of my Tinderbox(es), but I think you are referring to the "if/then" of hypertext?)
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Interesting, I have not seen stretchtext done with multiple possible endings. I like how playful it is, how it feels a little like trying out different answers to a crossword puzzle in your mind. I can't remember now where I saw it, but I thought I had seen an example where George Landow actually changed the sentence structure itself with the ending, switching noun to verb or something similar. But maybe I am misremembering a little.
Talk of links reminds me a lot of Scott McCloud's chapter in "Understanding Comics" about closure and the gaps between panels of a comic book.
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Chris Klimas: I believe you're thinking of Ian Lyons' TEXT STRETCHER, which appeared with an introduction by George Landow in TEKKA 9. http://www.tekka.net/09/cover.html
Group Description
While many are introduced to hypertext fiction in contemporary lit or new media college courses, the general reading (and writing!) public seems to still be unaware or reluctant to explore this form of narrative.
In this age of electronic reading, hypertext--which is simply clicking on links to discover different paths within a story--is particularly well-suited to the medium.
If you have written in the hypertext format, are curious about it, or have some thoughts or questions about its emergence into mainstream reading, this is the place to be.
This is a public group.
Anyone can see it and join.