Introduction to Multiplicity
The World Wide Web provides facilities for building multiple views of hypertext applications, which are linked with other modes within applications. This multiplicity affects narration, opening up literature to numerous interpretations of the same text. With alternative routes, there is a never-ending array of possibilities.
In print, this multiple alternative or branching narrative was first used in Julio Cortazar's novel, Hopscotch (1966), which allowed readers to navigate the story in various orders. John Irving's The World According to Garp (1976) also features stories within stories. By the early 1980s, the Choose Your Own Adventure series became popular in children's books, with binary decision points encoded within the text. For example, readers might be prompted to choose between different narrative paths, such as deciding which character to follow.
The reader takes partial control of the story's direction, and meaning is transcribed by the reader depending on the chosen view or, with the Internet, the multimedia application used.
Digital Hypertext Examples
An early Internet example, The Cyberspace Sonnets, offered hundreds of choices, creating a complex narrative web. Similarly, Raymond Queneau's sonnets allowed readers to select from ten possibilities for each line, resulting in an exponential number of potential poems. Here, the reader becomes the ultimate creator, as the narrative possibilities grow combinatorially.
Mathematically, narratives can break down with too many links. For a two-page story with one choice, there are three pages (the opening page and two continuations). A five-page story requires thirty-one pages of choices, and a dozen pages could lead to over four thousand pages. A forty-page novella could theoretically require a trillion pages of material.
A simpler approach to hypertext poetry, such as one site that invited readers to select a word or phrase to enter a novel, provided short poetic narratives. For example, one narrative begins with a birth memory aboard a Sony 797, describing a surreal scene of a crew parachuting past a window.
Another example, Matthew Miller's Trip Across the USA, used clickable arrows to move forward or return to the introductory page. While printing the entire story yields a predictable tale, random link selection creates a more engaging and unpredictable narrative.
Challenges of Hypertext Fiction
Many Choose Your Own Adventure-style stories on the Internet, such as those by Shu Kuwamoto and Allen Firstenberg, tend to become incoherent. Links may lead to irrelevant information, loop back to earlier sections, or overwhelm readers who want to explore every decision. Most readers prefer a linear book format to follow the author's intended structure.
Publishing on the Internet
Being known is key to Internet success, especially for writers aiming to support themselves. The Internet is a great platform for introducing new writings, whether by new or established authors. For example, a novelist could share an introductory chapter online, allowing readers to purchase and download the full novel or order a physical copy.
Online novels, such as Jeremy Bornstein's Rollover, Pamela DeCarlo's Today's Woman, John Zakour's The Doomsday Brunette, Kurtis Scaletta's Madagascar, and Lewis Call's Indecent Communications, merge narratives to maintain a single track while offering an illusion of choice. However, most cyberwriters seek traditional publishing deals, as web publishing lacks the respect and permanence of print.
The changeable nature of the Web, where a site may disappear overnight, highlights its fluidity. Long works are difficult to read on current technology, and issues of copyright and author payment remain unresolved. Without charges for viewing time or downloaded content, Internet publishing offers little monetary reward.
Innovative Hypertext Writers
A new group of innovative writers, often published by Eastgate Systems, create hypertextual novels and stories on CD-ROM and the Internet. Notable authors include Michael Joyce, Judy Malloy, and Stuart Moulthrop. Since the early 1990s, these writers have aimed to remove linearity, giving readers ultimate freedom over textual chronology.
Critics describe Eastgate's hypertext works with phrases like "shifting narrative voices," "an electronic tangled strands of knowing and memory," and "a fractal web that could never be reprinted in paper form." These descriptions highlight the bold experimentation and subjective quirkiness of hypertext fiction.
Contact
For inquiries, contact Dr. Terrell Neuage at neuage@neuage.org.