Reflections on Hypertexts

Hypertexts are intriguing, exciting and never ending… Well, most of the ones I dealt with were never ending, which is what made me loose my patience. Some people crave the shocking, redeeming or sometimes rather dull, predicting ending, as do I. I like embracing the feelings which the author intended for me to feel, I enjoy reaching the climax of a text and revealing an astonishing, horrifying, heartbroken twist to the plot. The most satisfying part of reading a book, is when all bits and pieces fit together perfectly in the end; when the lovers are finally able to be together, after defeating a number of painful hardships, when the forsaken orphan finally gains a trustworthy guardian, etc. I need an epilogue, I need some closure, otherwise I do not feel that the text has ended, which of course might be the intention, when referring to hypertexts. When flipping through an endless stream of hyperlinks, the meaning of the text varies with each click you make, you participate in the creation of the text. The idea of the participation was at first fascinating, it was a new, unexplored field, which I happily entered and joined. The site I was introduced to, where the opportunities for participating were many, openingsources.com, was very amusing. The concept of creating, changing, destroying, (whichever you prefer) a text, while working alongside strangers, I found very fascinating. The outcome of the text is rarely cohesive or even comprehensible. Thus, the only hypertext I found intriguing, was one which did not serve the purpose as being regarded as a text, which I assume is the reason it caught my interest.