Unit II : Digital Literatures
HYPERTEXT LITERATURE, A
DEFINITION
Coined
by Theodore Nelson, a pioneer in the computer industry in the 1960s, the term
hypertext describes “non-sequential writing — text that branches and allows
choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen.”
Hypertext literature, then,
follows the same definition. It’s literature that is non-sequential with
branching storylines or pages. The reader drives the story by different
clicking hyperlinks.
“When the story no longer
progresses, or when it cycles, or when you tire of the paths, the experience of
reading it ends,” Michael
Joyce wrote in the introduction to the first hypertext piece of
literature, “afternoon, a story.”
His story was distributed via
floppy disk. It was the late 1980s. Readers navigated by clicking various
hyperlinked pieces of text on each page. The story was not linear. No, readers
clicked and clicked and clicked until they got bored and clicked away.
This is hypertext literature. Like
a digital version of a pick-your-own adventure, writers of hypertext literature
compile various segments of narrative, images, and other digital-based pages.
Readers then navigate through these at their own pace and leisure. There is no
beginning, middle, or end. No start or finish. The reader reads until they do
not want to anymore and then they move on with their day. Some readers may
spend hours navigating the pathways of a hypertext story. Some may spend only
five minutes.
Which leads into another unique aspect of the genre. Every
reader who interacts with pieces has a different experience. No two people will
click exactly the same hyperlinks in exactly the same order. Readers can come
to the same narrative again to experience it in a different order. The
takeaways vary each time.
Hypertext literature isn’t simply a story written online. You
can’t print these pieces out or write them in a notebook. By doing that, they
would cease to function. To exist. In the digital world is where they survive.
EXAMPLES OF
HYPERTEXT LITERATURE
Another example of hypertext
literature is “I
Have Said Nothing” by J. Yellowlees Douglas from 1994. The piece explores the
death of someone the narrator calls Sherry and the notion of what death is in
and of itself. It asks, “Shall we begin?” and “but does it stop?”
“my
body — a Wunderkammer” by Shelley Jackson from 1997 includes sounds as the reader
clicks various parts of a woman’s body to reveal memories the narrator has with
those body parts. The shoulder section talks of swimmer’s arms and Frankenstein.
Her eyebrows feature stories of makeup and 7th grade.
“These Waves of Girls” by
Caitlin Fisher, which won the Electronic Literature Organization award in 2001,
navigates the narrator’s queer identity at ages 4, 10, and 20 years. Images and
words or phrases link the three time periods together as audio plays through
some of the pages.
Kendall’s “Penetration” is an example of hypertext poetry,
another facet of hypertext literature. In it, readers select phrases like
“deciding” or “daylight” from portions of the poem to reveal more.
THE DOWNFALL OF THE GENRE
Popular
in the late 1980s and through the 1990 and early 2000s, hypertext literature
was said to be a threat to the typical, linear way of storytelling at its
height. But, as it turns out, writing stories that aren’t linear is hard and
the genre posed issues that were hard to get past. Due to the nonlinear nature,
the introduction of storylines or characters had to be done on each page,
leading to repetition for readers as they clicked through.
While
many of the aspects of hypertext literature pervade our daily lives (Wikipedia
linking to other Wikipedia pages or a Tweet linking to a news story that links
to yet another, for example), the genre of hypertext literature itself did not
survive. As proof, I couldn’t even get “These Waves of Girls” to load on my
computer when writing this.
While the genre did, in fact, predict the hyperlink-heavy time
of today, the hyperlink literature didn’t last as long as they expected.
Storytelling is still, majorly, linear.
Elements of Hypertext
The
elements of Hypertext consist of nodes, links, buttons, trails, navigational
tools, browsers, and editors.
Nodes
Hypertext
sometimes called a network of nodes. A node is a collection of data organized
around a specific topic. This node is linked to another node, forming a
network. Node is a fundamental unit of hypertext, although there is no
agreement as to what really constitutes a node.
Links
Links
are also fundamentals unit to form hypertext. Links are almost always anchored
in at their departure point to provide users with some explicit object to
activate in order to follow the link. The destination point is reached by
activating the anchor.
Buttons
Button
is a visual cue in a node that alerts a user that a link is exists. In other
words, button is a visual representative of a link in a node. By clicking or
pressing button, the user is activating the link.
Editor
Editor
is used in order to create a hypertext page/node. Editor is part of the
hypertext system that enables user to create a node and link it into the
network. Sometimes editor is not included in the hypertext systems, because the
system is merely a presentation-only system.
Navigational tools
Browser
Basically,
a browser is a program or sub-program that can display a diagram of a network
of nodes.
Maps
Maps
serve to improve spatial context in a hypertext network. Map is tracking all of
the documents or nodes linked to the current document which is dynamically
updated.
Overview diagrams
Overview
diagrams serve as navigational aids. It can provide an overall view and serve
as anchors for local overview diagrams.
Trails
A
trail is a record of the nodes that a user has accessed in viewing a hypertext
network.
Attributes
Attributes
are any information related to the component. E.g.: ownership and content type
of the component.
Presentation specifications
Contain
information on how the component is displayed. It may include things like the
preferred number of colors to display a gif file, the size of the window to be
displayed, the location of the window, etc.
Anchor
There are two properties of an anchor; they are anchor id and an
anchor value. The anchor value is used to locate a part of the content of the
component. It depends on the structure of particular applications, documents,
or data types on how to interpret an anchor.
Xanadu
What Does Xanadu Mean?
Xanadu is a
hypertext/hypermedia project first conceptualized by Ted Nelson. Although originally
conceived in the 1960s, Xanadu was still in development when it was eclipsed by
Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web in the 1990s. Nelson introduced the term
hypertext. As a result, Xanadu is considered an important part of Internet
history, as well as an inspriation for what future networks may be like.
Techopedia Explains Xanadu
Xanadu differs from the Web in many
important ways, including: Two-way linking, allowing the user to track an
original source as well as see content derived from that source
Three-dimensional browsing (Xanaduspace) displaying a graphical line between
hypertextual links A system of micro-payments that are paid to the rights
holder whos content is copied Versioning of content to allow side-by-side
comparison Project Xanadu released XanaduSpace 1.0 in 2007 as a prototype ofan
eventual system, but Xanadu's broad ambitions have yet to be properly realized,
whereas the World Wide Web is already out there and growing. That said, many of
the features originally set out for Xanadu have been incorporated into the Web.
This incorporation may continue as the Web evovles Xanadu owes its name to the
mystical land of Xanadu from the poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Coleridge.
Project Xanadu was the first hypertext project,
founded in 1960 by Ted Nelson. Administrators of Project Xanadu have declared
it superior to the World Wide Web, with the mission statement: "Today's
popular software simulates paper. The World Wide Web (another imitation of
paper) trivialises our original hypertext model with one-way ever-breaking
links and no management of version or contents."
Hypertext
fiction
•
characterized by linking structures (afternoon, a story by Michael Joyce; Patchwork
Girl by Virginia
Shelley)
• earliest form of electronic literature
Network
Fiction
•
diversified forms of hypertext fiction, such as narratives that emerge from
data repositories (Twelve
Blue by Michael
Joyce)
• combines other media forms, like audio and video, in a networked structure (These Waves of Girls by Caitlin Fisher)
• defined by David Ciccoricco as digital fiction that "makes use of
hypertext technology in order to create emergent and recombinatory
narratives."
Interactive
Fiction
•
Has more game elements; varies in the amount of narrative components
• Inspired Nick Monfort to coin the term “interactor” to describe the combined
reading/authoring role of IF users
• Noted for innovative uses of convential literary devices (Savoir-Faire, by Emily Short, for example, plays on the
concept of literary metaphor, while All
Roads, by Jon Ingold,
encourages a self-referential critique of the empowering nature of the
hypertext environment.)
Locative
Narratives
•
The “next step” in the evolution of the hypertext narrative: from digitalized
three-dimensional spaces to actual ones
• A trendy variety of electronic literature, similar to email novels (popular
in the 90s) and serial fictions communicated though cell phones
• location-specific narratives that can be played as audio tapes or keyed to
GPS technologies used by the reader or listener (for example, The Missing Voice by Janet Cardiff is a “part urban guide,
part fiction, part film noir” audio tape that the user plays as he or she goes
on a tour of London. Her
Long Black Hair takes listeners
on a narrative journey through New York’s Central Park.)
"Codework"
• A
natural language is hybridized with programming expressions; in its purest
form, executable code
• Two addresses: human readers and machines
• “Broken code” pieces are more common; they contain literary devices associated
with the print form, such as puns, parallel structures, neologisms (check
out to
Perplexia by Talan
Memmott)
Generative
Art
•
Uses an algorithm to create and re-create text and/or visual components
• Draws attention to the transformation of temporal and logical relationships
between reader and writer in digital space (Regime
Change by Noah
Wardrip-Fruin; On
Lionel Kearns by Jim Andrews)
Flash
poem
• Another creative approach to literature that incorporates
programming languages and functions
• Sequential screens that generally progress without interactivity
(although poems
that GO offers a fun
selection of interactive pieces. The
Dreamlife of Letters by Brian Kim
Stefans is a non-interactive Flash poem.)
The genres presented here are not exhaustive and this list does
not represent a standard followed by all critics of electronic media. It does,
however, suggest the vast range and complexity of electronic literature and
give a glimpse at the evolution of the form since early experiments with
hyperlinked narrative structures.
Aspects
of digital media
Non-linearity
In a book, the same information is presented
to the reader in the same order every time the book is read. This linearity
allows readers to have a similar reading experience when they read the same
book. But a hypertext narrative is not necessarily linear; it may “flow”
differently each time it is experienced. Hypertext media doesn’t have to have a
beginning, middle and end like a traditional codex; instead, it may offer
multiple entry points and contain many different pathways to the reader
(Snyder, 1996).
Connectivity
A reader of print media is finished reading a
text once he or she has read all the pages. But the connectedness afforded to
digital literatures makes it possible to get entangled in a labyrinthine web of
hyperlinks that never have a definitive end. The relative amorphousness of
digital text has lead to the questioning of the finiteness of the reading
experience, which Sheilds refers to as the “myth of totality” (2000).
The connectivity of the web also transforms
the concept of narrative structure. In a traditional narrative, one might
consider the structure of a narrative in terms of the arrangement of details in
a paragraph or the progression of ideas in an entire work. Hyperlinks afford
new ways of thinking about structure; for example, Mark Bernstein (1998) offers
a classification of hyperlinked structures that could be useful in the
criticism of e-literature.
The connectivity of the web also makes it
possible to offer a viewer or a reader an unprecedented amount of sensory
stimulation. Learning how to “hear” audio or “watch” video is paramount to
learning how to “read” text in the digital environment (Miall, 1993).
Interactivity
Particularly with some genres of electronic
literature, like interactive fiction, the interactivity of the user in the
creation of the narrative itself blurs the traditional distinctions between
reader and writer. Hypertexts vary in the amount of interaction required from
the user, complicating attempts to classify e-literature based on user
participation. Whereas “a print bound text is the result of many individual
choices made by its author from among several available alternatives… a
hypertext consists of many virtual texts with may be the work of different
writers. Each reader makes one or more of these virtual texts an actual text
when choosing which links to follow and which to ignore” (Snyder, 1996).
Contextuality
Electronic text offers instant links to or
embedding of images, videos, audio, and other media. While print texts may
refer or allude to extemporaneous texts or events, obtaining the information is
not instantaneous as it is in an electronic medium. The task of reading online,
then, includes experiencing and understanding the media that is alongside or
within the text itself. Because of the diverse range of media that are
available on the Internet, developing an understanding of the cultural, social
or historical context all types of media is crucial to developing a critical
perspective of electronic texts. Literary analysts (and teachers and students)
must delve into the domain of culture and media analysis to more fully understand
the texts they encounter on the web.
Interpretation Techniques
As the name itself
indicates, interpretation is a way to convey a sentence spoken in one language
to another.
Now, there would be
people who might get confused between interpretation and translation.
Let me clarify,
interpretation conveys the vocal conversation from the source text to the
target language whereas translation is done in a literal way like converting
books, documents, and so on from one language to another
Popular Interpretation Techniques
Interpretation is an
important stone to step in for breaking language barriers and allowing easy
communication. If you looking for techniques to satisfy your error free
interpretation needs, then here they are:
1. Over the Phone Interpretation
What you’ll do, when
you and the person with whom you want to communicate are not available for
face-to-face interaction? How will you ensure fluent communication if they
speak a different language than yours? That’s where you’ll need telephone interpreting.
The technique is
possible when both parties establish an appointment and the participants of the
call can hear only the voice.
Just imagine, how much
your business will get profit when there will be no language barrier. You can
communicate with utmost ease. Today, when the facility of VOIP and telephone is
everywhere, performing phone interpretation has become convenient.
2. Consecutive Interpretation
Have you ever gone to
an event where you have heard an interpreter speaking after the actual speaker
has finished his speech?
This is what the
consecutive interpretation technique looks like.
In this technique, the
speaker pauses for some time in order to allow an interpreter to interpret from
the source language to the target language. This is one of the most popular
types of language interpretation. Consecutive interpretation is divided into
two parts:
✓ Long Consecutive Interpretation-
Here the interpreter
takes notes of the speech to convey a long interpretation
✓ Short Consecutive Interpretation-
Here the interpreter
works relying on his/her memory. Each speech segment will be short enough to
keep in mind.
3. Simultaneous Interpretation
Commonly known as
conference interpreting, this technique is meant to be used for people who have
limited English proficiency or the ones who doesn’t understand the language you
speak.
Simultaneous
interpreters interpret simultaneously along with the speech given. They listen
to the speech through headphones and understand the meaning of the sentences,
so there are no mistakes.
The direct audio feed
is transmitted to the conference room where the interpreter sits and within a
few seconds after every sentence finishes, interpretation is given. It’s of
course complicated but it is a very effective interpretation technique.
Furthermore, this might helped you know what is simultaneous interpretation.
4. Whispered Interpretation
It’s a quite simple
technique where the interpreter sits or stands next to a small group of
audience that belongs to a different culture and whispers an interpretation of
the speaker’ spoken sentences. It can be done through headphones and
microphones as per the preference of participants.
5. Video Interpretation
You might have heard
about video interpretation, it’s really famous in the corporate world. It’s the
most innovative technique used by companies to connect with hearing-impaired
listeners without much hassle.
Isn’t it really nice
to finally have something to look after the convenience of deaf or hard of
hearing participants in the meeting? It’s popularly used in sensitive
situations.
The most crucial
benefit it gives is that an interpretation doesn’t need to be physically
present, it can be done from a remote location very easily.
Video interpretation
can easily connect you with clients without much fuss.
Working with the right
company, with the right interpreter, and choosing the right type of simple
interpretation or elite language interpretation according to your needs will
make you realize it’s really worth every cent invested.
Conclusion:
Interpretation is the
easiest way to make the speech or message understandable without much hassle.
Especially when you have a professional interpretation company like Tridindia,
the understanding becomes guaranteed. Tridindia has been serving clients for
more than 18 years and has enough experience to provide with accurate
interpretation.
Temporal Manipulation
Overview
The users of this
ability are able to selectively alter the flow of time in a variety of ways.
Temporal Manipulation is broken down into several branches.
Branches of Temporal Manipulation
Temporal Stasis
Temporal Stasis is a
branch of Temporal Manipulation that allows the user to completely stop the
flow of time.
Temporal Acceleration
Temporal Acceleration
is a branch of Temporal Manipulation that allows the user to speed up the flow
of time over an object.
Time Traveling
Time Travelling is a
branch of Temporal Manipulation that allows the user to move through time and
space into the past or the future.
Techniques to Manipulate Time
There are plenty of
ways to control the flow of time so let’s look at some of them.
Linear time in a story
The most basic use of
time is to show events in sequence. For example, in a novel, it is possible to
have the character born, growing up and then reaching adulthood. The most basic
method of using time in a narrative is to show events in the linear order of
when they happen.
Some books are written
entirely in this fashion, but most tend to have most of the story told in the
order of events, thus written using linear time with minor usage of other
techniques now and then.
Non-Linear time in a story
Non-Linear time allows
the author to change the focus and order of events in a story. For example, it
is common to have backstory inserted into the narrative. Although the main
events may be linear, some parts showing the past to show context for why a
character acted a certain way or details showing the future revealing the
results of actions can be inserted.
Speeding Up the Action
Another very often
used technique is to speed up the passing of time using an accelerated
timeline. For example, if a character is on a long journey on foot, it can be
accelerated to allow the story to focus on more exciting events.
You can have a jump
cut to just move to a later time, maybe having a chapter break. One chapter
ends getting on the bus, and the next chapter starts immediately with the
character getting off the bus at their destination.
These timeslots can
also be used to insert other pieces of action that bridge the time gap you want
to remove. For example, you can use a flashback.
Flashbacks and flashforwards
A flashback is when a
character remembers something that happened in the past. This is good to add
context to the story. For example, your lead character can visit an old school
and tell the reader via a flashback that he wasn’t so cool when he was younger.
Revealing an embarrassing story about the first time he met his love interest
in school would give an unfamiliar perspective on your now cool and successful
modern hero.
A flashforward is when
they see something that will happen in the future. This can be used to
foreshadow events or just make the reader curious about what will happen next.
For example, you could suddenly jump forward to reveal that the hero’s rival
has won a prize for inventing an exciting new technology. Back in the current
timeline, we can follow to see how the events unfold toward this potential
future.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing gives
the reader a hint of some future event and creates suspense and drama or
unease. It can give subtle clues to the reader about good or bad events that
will be coming, and as an author, you can use it to keep the reader turning the
pages late into the night.
It can also be blunt
such as a character discussing a future meeting or a deadline that gets
referred to more subtly before occurring so the reader will wonder about the
significance.
Pacing
Pacing in a story is
how fast or slow an author writes a part of a story. The pacing in a story can
build tension or cause the reader to become bored, depending on the effect the
author is trying to achieve.
For example, you could
write a very long section with lots of details about the small town and farm
the family has just moved into to clearly message the reader that this is a
slow-moving story. Or you could write this description quickly using short
sentences with a sparse level of detail enough to convey the traumatic
experience of the family’s need for a last-minute move. Using this technique
brings an uncomfortable feeling to the reader.
Different genres
typically use pretty different styles of pacing. A fast-paced detective novel
will typically be more action-packed and have fewer descriptions of the
surroundings and more on the characters and events.
Parallel or Multiple Timelines
Parallel or multiple
timelines can show different timelines that affect each other. The grandfather
died failing to break a speed record in the past timeline. In the second modern
timeline, the grandson is determined to achieve what his grandfather was unable
to do. The story can dramatically switch between them to show the relationship
of the two efforts and build tension with the reader as we see the grandson
unknowingly repeating some of the same mistakes that lead to his grandfather’s
death.
Reverse Timelines
The reverse timeline
is the opposite of the linear storytelling technique. A story is told beginning
at the end and moving backward through time. A lot of flashbacks are commonly
used in this style of story. It can be tricky to do, but if done well, it can
be almost as compelling as a story told chronologically (though with its own
kind of dramatic tension).
Failing Memory
Having a character
with a failing memory can open all sorts of possibilities for writing.
Sometimes a character will have no memory of parts of their life, sometimes
they will have only fragments, and sometimes they will have no memory.
Authors can use this
to build a mystery or mystery sub-plot. For example, a love story of a wife
trying to stay connected to her husband who has a failing memory by capturing
and preserving their life together as he remembers less and less.
Chapter and Section length
Another very common
technique used by authors to control the reader’s perception of how time passes
within a story is to vary the length of sections and chapters.
In one chapter, you
can have several pages cover the activities of the detective, while in the
next, you can describe far more briefly what the murderer is doing at the same
time. The much longer descriptive section for the detective helps the reader
perceive that the detective has to do a lot to catch the murderer. In the
murderer’s chapter, using shorter sections and faster-paced language will help
show the reader that the murderer is moving quickly and staying one step ahead
of the detective.
Groundhog Day or Time Loops
The time loop plot,
well known as the groundhog day trope, has been done in every media format many
times over and yet still remains immensely popular.
Carefully done, you
can build a tale of mystery and intrigue that relies on the idea of repeating
the same day over and over again.
Yes, it is very well
covered, but it can still be an exciting basis for a story, so do not rule it
out if you have an idea.
By far the most
popular episode of Star Gate is the groundhog day style episode Window of
Opportunity.
