HYPERTEXT: Hypertextopia – The Medium
Well here I was, so jumping up and down excited about discovering Hypertextopia via Grand Text Auto, and beginning the writing of a story into it that at the very least, I thought was well-served by the medium–if not compelling in itself, and find there is still a dismissal of the form as "boring" by those who don’t enjoy it. Ben Vershbow of if:book gives his take on it, and luckily there appear to be hypertext advocates as well as dissers in the commentary.
I’ve used Storyspace after reading some excellent work written in the form as writers learn to explore and discover the opportunity within it. I well understand that it takes some getting used to in the reading, and some people will just never like it–and that’s fine. What I don’t understand is why anyone would want something they don’t enjoy made unavailable for those who do, and this is what I got from some of the comments there.
Luckily we have an argument to Ben’s post at Steve Ersinghaus’ weblog: Hypertext is Boring? Steve covers the questions raised point by point, and it seems to me that while there is viable argument on both sides of the hypertext issue, the fact remains as Steve hints, that there should be no argument at all as to its right to grow and form. Literary tastes vary and thankfully, there is room for all in this world.
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