- George P. Landow: Hypertext - The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Henceforth referred to as Hypertext. All quotations by Landow in this paper are taken from this book and are annotated as (Bolter, p. xx).
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- Jay David Bolter: Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, 1991. Henceforth referred to as Writing Space. All quotations by Bolter in this paper are taken from this book and are annotated as (Bolter, p. xx).
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- Thus, the following section is partly as neutral a description as possible of what I have been able to deduct and understand from the various writings on hypertext and hyperfiction I have consulted (see bibliography), partly my own comments on these where I have found the 'theory' to be lacking or too biased.
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- At least this applies to the majority of readings that pre-modernist literary works lend themselves to.
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- Naturally there may be many more 'hypertextually' thinking writers exist of whom I am not aware. The writers mentioned are mainly those that the hypertext theorists are partial to.
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- Michael Joyce: Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995. Throughout this paper, where nothing else is indicated, all quotations by Joyce are from this book and are annotated as (Joyce, p. xx).
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- The term interactor seems to me to be very appropriate in this context. I have come across this term in the article Rokeby, David: 'Transforming Mirrors: Subjectivity and Control in Interactive Media' in: Critical Issues in Electronic Media (ed. Penny, Simon). N.Y.: State University of NewYork, 1995. Pp. 133-158.
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- The growing awareness of these 'material' aspects calls for a discussion of, for instance, what communicating content through visual signalling alone might entail. Hence, as Richard Lanham points out in The Electronic Word (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), the enhanced visuality of the word would point towards a rhetorics of hypertextual writing, that one should also seriously consider when dealing with hypertexts, However, it is not possible within the scope of this paper to elaborate further on this issue, this remains for future scholars to do.
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- For the sake of argument, I have refrained from discussing the uses of sound and music, but the 'auditive' media are of course included when I think of (and use) the word multimedia.
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- For further details on annontations, see note 6.
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- Sven Birkerts: The Gutenberg Elegies - The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, London: Faber and Faber, 1994 (paperback edition 1996) Henceforth referred to as The Gutenberg Elegies. All quotations by Birkerts in this paper are taken from this book and are annotated as (Birkerts, p. xx), if nothing else is indicated.
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- One should of course not be blind to the fact that hypertext proponents (like Michael Joyce in Of Two Minds) point to this exact fact: that any reading of a hyperfiction is actually a reading yourself in the choices you make. Hence, reading hyperfictions can also become an opportunity of (re-) constructing Self - that just as well as Birkerts' 'rescue by immersion' prevents it from the fragmentation that Birkerts sees as the general condition of self, modern man is confronted with. I will briefly return to this discussion towards the end of the conclusion.
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- Jorge Louis Borges: "The Garden of Forking Paths" in Fictions, trans. by Grove Press Inc., edited by Anthony Kerrigan. London: Calder Publications, 1985. In afternoon, Michael Joyce quotes this passage in a slightly altered, abridged version in the link 'the garden'.
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- What should also be mentioned is that Storyspace is in fact the result of a collaborative project including Jay David Bolter and Michael Joyce himself! In this sense, one might perhaps be as bold as to call Joyce a 'double-author'! If it has been possible within the limits of this paper it would have been interesting to examine whether Joyce has actually successfully managed to put own theory into practice.
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- As Michael Joyce himself consistently spells afternoon without a capital A, I have chosen to do likewise.
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- Reading in this context somewhat simplified signifies a 'movement' through the web until either a new start is prompted by a 'dead end' lexia (a lexia that is not linked to other lexias - or only to the 'beginning' lexia, such as the one that 'opens' afternoon) or the programme is closed down, meaning that a new reading demands a complete new entry into the story-web. In Of Two Minds, Joyce occasionally uses the word 'traversal' instead of 'reading' which might in fact be more appropriate to describe the action that takes place. However I have chosen to keep the word 'reading' in order to preserve a consistent phrasing throughout this paper.
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- 'However, it is obvious that even within the realm of a discourse a person can be the author of much more than a book - of a theory, for instance, of a tradition or a discipline within which new books and authors can proliferate. For convenience, we could say that such authors occupy a 'transdiscursive' status'. (Michel Foucault: 'What is an Author', p. 134. For further details, see bibliography.
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- Contrary to the author's intentions, since one must assume that his objective as a hyperfiction writer is to prevent one perfect sense from happening.
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- See for instance these lexias: 'he recited my poem' (a poem), 'erro' (note on Icelandic Pop artist, ending with these words: 'This is truth. You want fiction") or 'irish' (etymological note on the word 'Droighneach').
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- See quotation by Michael Joyce earlier in this section "I wanted quite simply...."
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- According to its index Victory Garden h