Hypercompendia

New hypertext poetry, “The Purpling” by Nick Montfort.

Finnegan, you just made me realize something very strange…

When Steve Ersinghaus and John Timmons started the New Media Course at Tunxis CC, I was in the first semester of it. What they used as an introduction to hyperfiction was indeed Harold; Harold and the Purple Crayon, the little boy who draws his own world and his adventures armed with a crayon!

Happy Birthday

Eastgate Systems!

May you all just keep on keepin’ on!

As ya’ll know, I’m a stark-raving maniac when it comes to my love of hypertext fiction and that, teamed with my overbearing, hard-headed, determined to make people see it-nature, made for a rather unhappy and tormented artistic soul at best since I can’t always have my own way.

Persistence is key; persistence and insistence can swiftly become unbearable to those upon whom it is focused. Even with my own experience of hypertext (and IF I might add) being one of cursing and slamming fists onto keyboards (I’m small but highly volatile) I still sought an avenue that was gold-paved and happy-treelined and as invitational and welcoming as possible.

And then came Maude. Maude Nichols was the fun, learning experience of hypertext. It is not put-offish, it’s a humorous easy read, it directly relates to the reader, and it looks like it’s brought in some writers interested in the medium now that it doesn’t seem so scary.

I belong to an online writers community called Fictionaut and the writing quality there, I must say, is phenomenal overall (I’m in awe and feel like I’m reading the best of the best contemporary short story writers and poets around). I’m easily intimidated but what the hell, I threw in a couple flash fiction pieces I wrote specifically for posting and then a hypertext piece. The piece was The Perfect Woman (also, like Maude, one of the 100 hypertexts from last summer’s project) and got a bit of interest. A few weeks later, I put up Maude. Maude now has twelve “favs” to it and more importantly, the comments indicate that these seasoned writers like the medium; had fun with it; some even impressed enough to try their own hand at it.

I just love it.

Lord knows I push hypertext fiction to the point of being utterly obnoxious sometimes (Besides, I’m a Scorpio and I’m either flyin’ or dyin’ so deal with it.) but I really am still so high on the form and the possibilities that I can’t help but get excited when I’ve gotten someone intrigued enough to try it out for himself.

He bought himself an early Christmas present of Tinderbox and Finnegan Flawnt has been fiddling with it already so I’ve tried to help him learn the intricacies of the hypertext form by hypertextualizing one of his lovely short stories Listen.

Without adding to it (as I had done with a few of Steve Ersinghaus’ practice stories in prep for the 100 Days Project) I was still able to find several places where the story played right into the looping abilities of hypertext.

With his academic and web-based background, I can’t wait to see what Finnegan can do with his new toy.

One of the hardest things for me to accept in my writing was to not only give up my work to the reader, but let him decipher it for himself, thus risking complete misunderstanding of “my” story. Beaten into submission by several Creative Writing and Literature courses taught by one harder-headed than I, and faced with the scowling sardonic Roland Barthes as my new theological icon, I reluctantly let the concept of writerly filter into my soul and take it into my heart.

As part of the literary group Fictionaut, I just put up one of my hypertext pieces “Maude Nichols” to share with the membership and boy, I can’t tell you how excited I was to read this comment from writer Finnegan Flawnt:

“Finally, “Maude Nichols” is a wonderful title/name. Harold and Maude, Harvey Nichols…etc. very well done. the habitual “love it” that overcomes me often when i read your stuff seems strangely inappropriate. you somehow let go of this fiction as an author…most fascinating!”

Ohmigod–did you read that? “you somehow let go of this fiction as an author..most fascinating!” (Are you reading this, Steve? Are you believin’ it?)

Hypertext to me has been a major step in the right direction of “letting go” of my work and giving it to the reader to then “rewrite” via his own opinions and experience. For one thing, it appears to give full control to the reader but in truth, the writer must lay out all paths, all the different ways of getting from a)the beginning to c) the end no matter what steps are used to get there. While the writer has limited control (guidance at best) on which particular steps (writing spaces/links) the reader may choose, he will have planned each out carefully so he is in fact writing the same story many different ways; just as a reader will read it differently than another reader, or even than himself in a future reading.

Believe me, you don’t know how difficult it was for this control freak to give up the wheel and allow some reader to risk his own interpretation of my stories. It’s taken years, but I think I’m there now, in a happy place where I can smile as someone takes my words and runs helter skelter with them spilling out all over the hillside. This revelation is extremely exciting to me as a writer. It’s like winning a contest, breaking the ribbon, just plain feeling good.

Just a reminder about Eastgate’s E-Lit Camp, an informal and friendly-sounding get-together of new media minds the weekend of December 11th-13th in Boston. Details here: E-Lit Camp

Not really torn between the two worlds of linearity and random pattern, yet I do find that once immersed in one then the other is affected or abandoned.

With a new interest (or old one refueled) for the linear, straight unhypertexted story, I’m wondering about the need for a hypertext website for reading and writing, It’s so hard to get converts, to stir interest among the uninitiated, to maintain the interest of the new readers and writers into a long term relationship. I, clinger to the old ways that I am, am perhaps an anomaly wherein I approach the new with resistance that is eventually broken down into a form of love and loyalty that endures. Still…

I’m considering taking apart a few of my favorite hypertexts out of the one-hundred written over the summer and work them into a straight linear form. It’s necessary for me as a writer to have my work read and enjoyed, and unless and until I can overcome the reluctance of the masses to work with and become comfortable within the hypertext form, the mountain must come to Muhammad.

Haven’t had a chance to check this out much, but wanted to spread the word (thanks to Dennis Jerz) of this update on the CYOA concept at Samizdat.

Beautiful graphics, warm and inviting. I believe that in promoting hypertext narrative a good part of the appeal to stir interest will be dependent upon the visual presentation of the work. Sad to say, but text alone may have survived the evolution into book form of story, but when it comes to the internet and computer accessed narrative, pictures and color are going to play a large part in the transition.

Neat stuff.

Thought I already had posted on this exciting event but realized I’d only tweeted and Facebooked it:

(Click on the image for more information)

It’s going to be an informal, pajama-party-friendly gathering of great minds and minds that do great things with hypertextual software and concepts, as Mark says, “a weekend-long writers colony for electronic literature.” It sounds like it’s going to be exciting, informational, and fun!