Responses to Hypertexts

Hyperfiction allows for the reader to take an active part in the storyworld, in a different more selectional way than literary text provides where the reader typically starts reading from the upper left corner and downwards, whereas a hypertext provides different options and hyperlinks the reader can click on thereby choosing what to read. The idea of a beginning and an end is somewhat blurred as in the case with “these waves of girls” by Caitlin Fisher, here the reader has to decide what link to click at. This way of interacting with a hypertext includes the reader in a different way than an ordinary literary text. I like the idea that you can restrict yourself to reading only a small amount of the text on a webpage and still be able to make sense of it. But this very same aspect can be just as annoying because as a reader you normally expect and anticipate and end to it, but this aspect is not accessible in the traditional sense of reading as it is with literary text for instance. I found it to be quite annoying constantly having to click on one link that leads to another link not being able to generate all the text in extension of each other. In a hypertext, however, the use of subtitles makes it easier for the reader to make a selection and de-selection of what to read and what not to read, and the fact that it is electronic makes it a lot easier to find a particular sentence in the text as well compared to real tangible books. You can certainly play with the setup in a hypertext and do things that would not be possible otherwise, but I think it is easy to sort of tune out when you are reading a hypertext – it has got to captivate the reader and keep demanding the reader's attention in another way than books have to. The webpage "opening sources" was fun for about two minutes but then it quickly became more or less the same over and over again, I like the idea though - that we all get to take a part in the creation of a poem and that it is constantly shifting concurrently with the reader's contributions. However, I personally prefer books over hypertexts, but that is just a matter of preference.