Ever since hypertext popped it’s blue face into our web navigation, there have been those who have been trying to define the “space” of it. If hypertext is just a link to another page, is it a space at all? This may seem trivial when hypertext is only applied to the web, but when authors try to design fiction around it, this idea of space becomes a more centralized and harder to define concept.

If we think of it as Aarseth (1994) explains, “that the main feature of hypertext is discontinuity—the sudden displacement of the user’s position in the text,” (p. 60). It makes it even more complicated…..hypertext is supposed to connect  but it’s main feature is in its discontinuity  how can something really have a space if aims to displace? 

It really takes one to push themselves beyond the book metaphor and finding familiarity in other spaces we go to for reading and writing, like the web, which has a hyperlinked system.  Taking it one step farther, Wardrip-Fruin (2004) proposes that, “rather than think of the Web as a hypertext system, we may do better to think of it as a monumental public publishing space—one that attained critical mass by employing a subset of hypertext concepts, primarily those of the chunk style,” (Wardrip-Fruin, 2004, p. 126).

So what is the final answer?

Well, the hypertext author has to envision and write for a non-linear, puzzle piece or chunk like. A space where choices can be made and new paths can be created. This presentation  by Susan M. Gibb articulates this point.

The Author is not just creating a story, they are creating an environment for that story to take place.

References

Aarseth, E. J. (1994). Hyper/Text/Theory. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Bolter, D., & Grusin, R. (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media. Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Bromme, R. & Stahl, E. (2004). Is Hypertext a Book or Space? The impact of different introductory metaphors on hypertext construction. Computers & Education, 44, 115-133.