Patchwork Girl & HYPERtexts

            When I was first dealing with hypertext I tried to view it as a simple novel, with a beginning, climactic middle and the resolved ending.  Although hypertext can show many similarities to a book, such as having dynamic characters, the process of how you guide yourself through is dramatically different.  Hypertext uses lexia’s, which are different pages that you navigate through by clicking to complete the story.  The organization of these lexia’s are crucial.  Without an organized hypertext, the reader can get lost, or even stuck in a loop, unable to read the full story.  Often times there are multiple links on a single lexia that can navigate you through the story differently.  One hypertext that I read and studied was “Patchwork Girl” by Shelly Jackson.

Patchwork Girl starts off with an authorship that is sewn together.  The title page reads “By Mary/Shelly, & Herself.”  Right off the bat readers are given the implication of multiple authors; Mary Shelly, the author of “Frankenstein; or, a Modern Prometheus,” Shelly Jackson, the actually author of “Patchwork Girl,” and the reader themselves, who decide the order to which the story is told. 

                        Mary Shelly is the writer of Frankenstein, which has a major influence towards Shelly Jackson’s Patchwork Girl.  First off, in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein creates a female companion for his monster but destroys it before completion.  Shelly Jackson puts a twist on this story by having Mary Shelly herself create the female monster and eventually become lesbian lovers.

            The reader also constructs Patchwork Girl because it is a hypertext.  According to dictionary.com a hypertext is “a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially.”  This means that the reader has to piece together the story.  There is no chronological order for the reader to follow like a normal novel, so the story must be patched together like a quilt. 

            Patchwork Girl is an extremely successful hypertext because it allows the reader to follow many different paths while each explaining a unique aspect of the story.  Jessica Pressman describes reading and following hypertext literature by saying, “Since hypertexts are structured as networks rather than linear plots, they lend themselves to openness and disorientation. Some hypertexts may not even contain a definitive ending but instead continue in endless loops of lexias; such works depend upon the reader to resolve when to finish reading the work. In other words, the navigational aspect of hypertext changes our interaction with both the story at hand and also with the concept of narrative itself.” Once the reader has read enough of the linked passages they are able to begin to understand characters and plot. 

When I was first reading Patchwork Girl, it took me a while to understand who created her and how to follow the hypertext.  When I first opened the hypertext I was given five different segments, “a Graveyard,” “a Story,” “Crazy Quilt,” “Journal,” and “Body of Text.”  Like a regular novel I started from the left, “Body of Text,” and worked my way to the right, “a Graveyard.”  After opening each segment of hypertext, I noticed a web of writing, arrows and lines telling me where to go next.  This outline was convenient to help me not get lost and if I watched my steps I would be able to read each link without repetition.

            Each of the beginning five links relate to a different part of the creatures life.  My personal favorite was the “Graveyard.”  The writer of this part of the hypertext is the Creature as she observes herself diminish.  This passage is extremely detailed in its writing and as we read each body part we are able to patch together what she looks like and what she is going through.  Within this section of the hypertext we examine each detail of her head, such as her eyeballs, lips and tongue.  The reader can then move onto her limbs and we can even go inside of her and inspect her organs.  My favorite passage in “Organs” is her stomach.  “My stomach belonged to Bella, an oblate simpleton. She was never dyspeptic, though she ate everything. Eating was her thinking, it was lovemaking, family, and job. The townspeople accounted it prayer to feed her, worth a blessing from the priest who gave her a bed and a broom to push around, and some said the crops grew better when Bella was fed, because they felt appreciated.” (Jackson Stomach)  This passage ends with a comical relief that puts a taste in your mouth, “Bella in the ground germinated a garden. An apple, an orange, a pear and a fig tree grew intertwined from the mound. I belch the sweet smell of an orchard in summer.”

Because the Creature is using other peoples body parts, the reader gets a full in-depth look at the original owners of the organs and parts of the Creature.  Doing so we are able to look into the Creatures soul and relate to her with the people the lived prior to her.  I believe that each body part resembles another piece of her personality and because she was made a large, burlesque woman, it made her strong both physically and mentally.  The Creature is able to overcome some of the most difficult tasks of being a person, fitting in with society.

            Shelly Jackson’s Patchwork Girl would not work if it were not a hypertext.  The way the story is told and who the creature is are closely tied together.  Hypertexts are a bunch of individual lexia’s that needs to be looked at as a whole becomes a story.  Just like a hypertext, the creature is sewn together with her unique, individual body parts.  Although she has two arms, each have a story of their own. Shelly Jackson did a great job with her descriptive writing because throughout parts of the hypertext I felt like I was in the room piecing together the monster.  Each lexia I read was stitching together one more piece, but at the same time I was putting together the story. Her ideas flowed as if she was talking with me, telling me why she was doing what she did, and then when the creature was completed, I was able to see her for who she actually was.  Her life story was a quilt.  Each awkward different color was something meaningful and needed.  One missing lexia would mean a hole in the quilt. 

I believe Patchwork Girl is a unique piece of literature as its style exceeds the creativity of a normal book.  I believe if I were not introduced to hypertext through my electronic literature class, I would not have dipped my feet into this story.  The problem I believe hypertext will have for the future is convincing people that something new is good.  This new style of writing is perfect for this piece of literature and many more brilliant ideas could come in the future.  Shelly Jackson took a bold step for writing hypertext but I hope it will pay of as many more writers become inspired. 

Jackson, Shelley. Patchwork Girl. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems, 1995. CD-ROM

Pressman, Jessica. "Reading Hypertext: Reading Blue Hyacinth (Updated Aug 2008)." Untitled Document. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.steveersinghaus.com/archives/1142>.Pressman, Jessica. "Reading Hypertext: Reading Blue Hyacinth (Updated Aug 2008)." Untitled Document. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.steveersinghaus.com/archives/1142>.

My encounter with IF

Throughout the past month my English class at Eastern Connecticut State University has been reading, playing and understanding interactive fiction, or otherwise known as IF.  We began with basic games such as Ingold’s “All Roads.”  From there we moved onto more in depth pieces.  We also read articles about interactive fiction from Dennis G. Jerz and Mary Ann Buckles.  Interactive fiction tests the patience and keen ability of a reader to understand a story and play though it.  The first piece that we read about interactive was “What is Interactive Fiction” by Dennis G. Jerz.  Although this article was written a decade ago, it still has information that applies today.  Jerz starts off the article by summarizing interactive fiction in two sentences; “Interactive fiction (IF) is computer-mediated narrative, resembling a fine-grained "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, in which the reader helps to determine the outcome of the story. The classic IF interface is a command-based textual feedback loop: the computer displays a few lines or paragraphs of text; the interactor types a command; the computer describes what happens next, and then waits for additional input.”  The analogy of “Choose Your Own Adventure” to IF’s is strikingly well put. Throughout the rest of the article he continues to compare interactive fiction to hypertext narratives.  The same week we read an article by Ramsberg, “A Beginner's Guide to Playing Interactive Fiction.” Ramsberg’s first paragraph on “What is interavtive fiction” says similar things of Jerz.  He goes on to say that interactive fiction “is both a computer game and a book, or rather something in between. You usually take on the role of the main character in a story. The game tells you what happens to the character, and you tell the game how the character should act. This is not always simple, but can make for a very rewarding experience. The game's output is always mainly text based, but there are some games that will also show images and play sounds. You communicate with the game using text as well, but there are indeed a small number of games that complement this with mouse support.”  This explanation is a little more in depth and it covers the aspect of how rewarding it is to win with a cool ending.

            When I first started reading/playing IF I was unsure how to judge it.  The idea was foreign and inherently confusing.  I found myself not understanding how to move, talk and basically interact with the interactive fiction.  After the first game that I played, All Roads, I noticed that there was a steep learning curve.  Each game moves and understands the same language that you type.  North, south, east and west were always the universal movements and “look” is always a way to examine a room.  After understanding this I was able to move and talk more freely in the games.  Interactive fiction also uses new vocabulary words and terms for specific events that happen while playing a game.  For example, when you save a game, which is called an “extradiegetic.” Currently I am using Microsoft Word 08’ and my computer does not even recognize this word.  It wasn’t just words that my computer doesn’t recognize, it is also words with a new twist to them such as “directive.” We all understand this word to literally be defined as a command, but when using this word with interactive fiction it is defined as “Addressing some entity that is not part of the IF world, for instance to ask for hints.”   When I ran into words like these, it gave interactive fiction a more professional feel to it. 

            Just like books, interactive fiction is able to have different genres.  Mary Ann Buckles explains this clearly in her article “Interactive Fiction as Literature.” She provides explanations of how interactive fiction uses different genres such as adventure, mystery, and science fiction.  For example “Mystery novels like those of Agatha Christie and Dashiell Hammett are more like jigsaw puzzles, while James Bond novels and spy stories can be compared to games of chess. Mysteries challenge the reader's powers of deduction; they are games in the form of stories, in which the reader competes with the author, matching wits in the game of “who done it” and how” (Buckles).   While playing mysteries, the reader clashes with the author, trying to solve the puzzle that they have created, giving the reader the feeling of being Sherlock Holmes.  Ramsberg gives categories for these types of games. “The first category of games is sometimes called traditional IF or puzzle-based IF or just text adventures, while the latter is called puzzle-less IF. There are of course games that are a mix of these two, as well as experiments with the genre that don't fit in anywhere yet” (Ramsberg).

Interactive fiction resembles a book with its dynamic characters and a game with its puzzles.  In the story Galatea, which is also my favorite piece of interactive fiction, you go into depth with the character and talk on different levels such as religion, education, art, and morals.  Although there is only one room, the puzzle lies within your words.  As you talk and listen with Galatea, you try to get a rewarding ending without leaving the room.  Although the game is easy to finish, the sense of winning is not always there.  There are many different endings and some are more challenging to get than others.  Although I have only been able to get bland endings such as walking away, other students in my class have been able to get some bazaar endings, ranging from sitting with her to a man coming out from behind a curtain apparently controlling her.  The ending is what you make of it and how you connect with the character Galatea.

Only within the past couple weeks have I toyed with writing interactive fiction.  The program that I was using was Inform7.  The language that you use to write with has to be exact in order to have the game do what you want it to.  Every period must be accounted for and nothing can be spelled wrong.   Fortunately, once you get this language understood you are able to make the player character do anything you want.  You can have them talk to people and give different responses each time, grab a lantern and turn it on to light a room and even make secret passageways for those mystery and adventure games.  The possibilities are endless and the stories can always be added to whenever the writer chooses.  However, I found the software to be extremely difficult to use.  Often times I found myself changing the story in order to match my abilities with the program.  When I first started using Inform7 the whole plot of my IF had to be changed because it was too difficult to create an environment that would suit the story.  Even the simplest task such as talking to another character in the story became a burden that took hours to write.  The most enjoyable part of interactive fiction that I found is writing descriptively.  Being able to describe a skeleton that a player was going to “examine” let my creative mind free.  This part of interactive fiction was ultimately my favorite for this reason.  I would intentionally place objects throughout the IF map that the player character could examine just for this reason.  Although it does not change the plot of the game, it adds a sense of realism to it.  Knowing now how difficult and time consuming it is to write an IF, I understand that it takes a special class of person to not only write, but be understand how to use Inform7 to the fullest of its capabilities. 

I believe the future of interactive fiction may take a while to get started but once it does it could open the door to an extremely entertaining piece of media.  It would be a new form of entertainment that would be more fulfilling to a person than watching television and to some, more entertaining than reading a book.  “The first interactive texts were written by programmers who thought of them mostly as games, and the literature they created is unsophisticated. The computer itself, however, does not limit interactive fiction to frivolous works. Consider the development of film. Early film was an unsophisticated medium, “so crude in its initial stages that it was considered to be beneath contempt” (see reference 9). Only with D. W. Griffith's “Birth of a Nation” and, later, Charlie Chaplin's films, did audiences become aware that film could transmit and aesthetically mature experiences.” (Mary Ann Buckles)

If I had a to make a decision to type a story or create one on Inform7, I would always choose to write one out.  I felt like my abilities as a writer were limited to my computer skills (which I have none).  After using Inform7 for several weeks, I learned to appreciate well-written If’s such as Galatea.  The map that the writer has made for conversations must have taken countless hours.  This new bread of writers is a pioneer to what the future holds for literature.  Writing cannot be held to a piece of paper and now it is expanding to something new. 

Attempts and Encounters with Electronic Literature

While I sit here smoking the last drag of my cigarette, I think back on my prior knowledge of electronic poetry.  The assumption of two-dimensional writing fades into my head and weaves back out as I surely remember the true understanding of this new writing style.  A new form of expression that doesn’t need a pen and paper yet is able to freely express the ideas of the poet.  The new form of poetry is still in its beginning stages as not enough people are aware of this type of writing.  So far I have the slightest of grasps on e-poetry but the future looks bright.  From what I have read, e-poetry has given me the idea that it is like an abyss.  It is endless in the ways you can express yourself and it can provoke more thought in its multi-dimensional page.  “Electronic literature tests the boundaries of the literary and challenges us to re-think our assumptions of what literature can do and be” (Hayles)

                   I have attempted e-poetry and to say the least, it was difficult.  For a while I stared at the blank power point document, having an even more difficult time knowing where to start than if I had a notepad.  Honestly, I was scared to see what my first e-poem was going to turn out like.  I looked on the Internet for ideas; I used power point tutorials to get a stronger grip on the program before I used it, still nowhere to start.  Somehow I ended up in Microsoft Word, writing what I thought onto that blank white page.  Slowly I transferred it onto power point, but I found myself juggling with the different effects.  First, I am not very savvy at power point and to make something that flows like Goldsmith or Larson truly takes an eye.  I can say that I attempted to write my own e-poem but it looked more like a fifth grade presentation.   They say practice makes perfect.  On the upside, it felt like a behind the scenes look at how many e-poems are made.  I was able to utilize the same gadgets and special effects that I saw in the more popular poems.  Also, I was able to express the big ideas in my poem very clearly and it felt more artistic than the normal poem.  One of my favorite hobbies is to draw and the feeling that I get from it is that I am making art.  When I am writing poetry it is very difficult to replicate that feeling, however, when I was finagling with my poem on power point, it was the closest I have been while writing.  I was enjoying myself so much that I lost sight that it was poetry.  I was moving, fading, bouncing and putting emphasis on so many words that I lost track of the main idea.  The ability to balance everything that is going on takes time to learn.  The enjoyment that I got out of my first poem would make me want to spend more time practicing and honing my skills.  In order to make an e-poem balance with its words and other stimulants, the writer must carefully choose their form of expression.

                  Katherine Hayles is able to best describe what electronic literature is.  Earlier I quoted her with “Electronic literature tests the boundaries of the literary and challenges us to re-think our assumptions of what literature can do and be”.  This was one of two passages that stood out at me as I read her work, “Electronic Literature: What is It?”  This line was said to be the summary and thesis of the class I am currently taking, ENG 230, Reading and Writing Electronic Literature, and I strongly believe everything it is saying.  For most people literature is only something that can only be publicized by writing it down and showing it to someone.  Now we can express the words we write and make it public to millions, if not billions of people by simply putting it on the Internet.  Electronic literature also tests the boundaries of the literary by being able to provoke more thought into the eyes of the reader.  One poem that is sticking out in my head currently is “The Mermaid” by Alic Yung.  In order to read this poem, one must carefully balance the poem with the mouse.  The only line that is not moving is the first, “A mermaid found a swimming lad”.  During a class discussion multiple ideas of why the poem had to be balanced were formulated.  My favorite that someone came up with was that it is difficult to balance love.  From all the responses about this poem, that one reason stuck with me.  Although that is how I view this poem, there were many other equally acceptable responses that made just as much sense.  Alic Yung was the first e-poet that was able test the boundaries that I made for literature and made me re-think my assumption of what literature can do and be.

            The second passage of Katherine Hayles that stands out to me is the scenario of Brother Jacobs produced codex. 

“The Scriptorium was in turmoil. Brother Paul, the precentor in charge, had detected a murmur from the

back row and, furious that the rule of silence was being compromised, strode down the aisle just in time

to see Brother Jacob tuck something under his robe. When he demanded to see it, Brother Jacob

shamefacedly produced a codex, but not one that the antiquarii of this monastery had copied — or of

any monastery, for this Psalter was printed. Shocked as much by the sight of the mechanical type as

Brother Jacob's transgression, Brother Paul so far forgot himself that he too broke the silence,

thundering that if books could be produced by fast, cheap and mechanical means, their value as

precious artifacts would be compromised. Moreover, if any Thomas, Richard or Harold could find his

way into print, would not writing itself be compromised and become commonplace scribbling? And how

would the spread of cheap printed materials affect the culture of the Word, bringing scribbling into

every hut and hovel whose occupants had hitherto relied on priests to interpret writing for them? The

questions hung in the air; none dared imagine what answers the passing of time would bring.” (Hayles)

Katherine Hayles goes on to describe this passage “to suggest that the place of writing is again in turmoil, roiled now not by the invention of print books but the emergence of electronic literature”.  This stands out to me because I can see the relationship between the invention of print and electronic literature.  They both are able to make writing more easily accessed by the general public and they both influence evolution of literature itself.  Since the upcoming of the Internet, everyone is able to publish anything they want.  The Internet is only getting bigger and as it takes over the paperback industry more authors will be able to spread their work.  This new form of poetry and literature is only the next step towards mass communication.  As the public grows, the ability of publication will only become more easily achieved. 

            Electronic literature is able to suggest thought instead of the imagination producing it freely.  Another form of an e-poem is taking script and turning it into electronic literature.  A great example of this is “The Best Cigarette” by Billy Collins.  As he narrates the poem you watch his artistic film.  Before I watched this poem I had different images of “at the end of a long dinner with more wine to come and a smoke ring coasting into the chandelier”. 

This poem gives you images to work with instead of producing the scene straight from your mind.  I find this poem to be extremely artistic and produced very well, even though it was not originally electronic literature.  I find it amazing and beautiful how e-poetry can put a different spin on an existing poem.

            Throughout the short time that I have known electronic poetry, I have already begun to appreciate it with a certain depth.  I feel more connected with the writers and feel like I am getting to know a piece of them.  When I walk into a museum and look at the famous artwork in front of me I feel like I am a part of the artist.  The same thing goes for the electronic poets.  When I sign onto the Internet and stumble though electronic poetry, I sit there and read and understand it on every angle.  Just as I look at a picture at a museum for long period of time, I look at electronic poetry the same way.  Some poems are abstract and it takes me a while to fully comprehend what I am looking at.