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The
only hyperfiction I managed to follow through was “A Woman Stands On A Corner
Waiting For A Stranger”. It looked easy to read mainly because of the fonts on
the main page. They were big and scarce. Initially when I read it, I was tempted
to give up because as I clicked on the links on different pages, some of them
seemed to ‘move entirely out of the scholarly article itself’ (Landow,
Annotation in a Print Text). I read all the links in the hyperfiction because I
was praying for a miracle to happen, a window might just jump out and explain
everything to me. I
began to felt much more comfortable with the hypertext only after reading it for
the second time. It dawned on me that the hyperfiction is not a book that would
always be there physically. I could not have the same expectations as I have
with a book. A book builds up the plot of the story through the chapters in it.
However, the hyperfiction builds up the excitements and tensions by being
open-ended and with no beginnings. (Landow,
The Definition of Hypertext and Its
History as a Concept) It sure builds up sufficient frustrations to drive a new
reader of hyperfiction, such as me when I did not understand the differences
between a hyperfiction and a book, crazy. The open-endedness and lack of
beginnings allow me the freedom to create my own endings and beginnings. I
became a writer and a creator at those moments. In the hyperfiction, I could choose to either link the subsequent pages together or read them independently. Either way, as long as I do not expect them to be the pages in a book, interlinked with each other, I would be able to enjoy and make sense out of the text. I would not keep on wondering what Newton Apple had to do with the woman who was waiting for a stranger, what being ‘reliant on kindness of strangers’ had to do with a failed-cybersex leading to cyber verbal abuses or was he a stranger the woman met in real life or in the net. I could read all the links as a story on its own. All the links are interactive. Hyperfiction is decentralized. (Landow, Hypertext and De-centering) This is the concept I failed to comprehend when I first had contact with a hyperfiction. I did not realise that I could create a center by myself, depending on my interests. |