Professors gather to discuss future of hypertext literature

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff English
professor Katherine Hayles checks out a hypertext
Web site in her office. Hayles is leading a seminar titled
"Literature in Transition: The Impact of Information Technology"
that concludes Aug. 9.

By Rachel Makabi
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sitting before your computer screen, reading a new novel online,
you find the ability to act for the protagonist by making decisions
that will determine the next sequence of events. Making choices
that dictate what happens in the story, you become the author and
the character, capable of producing works that are creative and
unpredictable.

With the innovation of hypertexts, this scenario has come to
life in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” series for the
new millennium.

Hypertexts are non-linear literary works, adorned with pictures
and sounds, that link readers to the different passages that they
choose.

First developed more than half a century ago, hypertexts are now
the subject of a conference at UCLA led by English professor
Katherine Hayles.

Vannevar Bush, the director of the Office of Scientific Research
and Development, developed the idea behind hypertext in 1945, but
Theodor Nelson did not coin the word until 1965, defining it as
“non-sequential writing.” However, hypertexts did not
popularize until the globalization of the Internet in the
1990’s.

UCLA English professor Katherine Hayles said Bush first imagined
a mechanical system where one block of text would be associated
with another. Bush’s theory found its home in computers and
upstarted hypertext as a literary form.

Fifteen professors from universities across the nation are
meeting at UCLA to discuss the development of hypertexts in a
seminar called “Literature in Transition: The Impact of
Information Technologies” from July 2 to Aug. 9.

Hayles, the seminar leader, said that electronic media has
trickled into the domain of literature through hypertexts.

“I believe the literature of the 21st century will be
predominantly electronic literature and it will have some sort of
linking method,” Hayles said. “It’s like a
“˜Choose Your Own Adventure’ story where every reader
would construct his or her own reading so there are as many
narratives as sequences. It’s a literature in the
making.”

They addressed the practicality of teaching hypertexts in a
classroom setting, because as everyone makes different choices,
they also read a different story.

Hayles integrates hypertexts into some of her classrooms and
though she faces difficulties in teaching hypertext she said it is
necessary because it is the type of literature that people are
writing today.

But other professors disagreed about the practicality of
teaching hypertexts and their influence on literature in
general.

Michael Denner, a professor in the Russian studies department at
the University of Stetson in Florida said although he has seen a
few brilliant uses of hypertext, they have many limitations.

“There is nothing hypertexts have done that haven’t
already been done a lot better by books,” Denner said.
“I can’t even imagine teaching hypertexts.”

But Denner added that Diana Slattery’s hypertext
“Glide,” was one of the most innovative pieces of
literature. “Glide” can be read at www.academy.rpi.edu/glide
without charge.

The seminar participants also compared literary print works to
hypertexts to see how the medium is changing. Several hypertext
authors participated in the seminar including Slattery.

Slattery, a professor of electronic media at the Rensselaer Poly
Technic Institute in Troy, New York, said hypertexts are beneficial
because they actively engage the reader by providing a form of
interactive literature.

“For people who are more print oriented, seeing text
handled in interaction form is different,” Slattery said.
“It’s like having a different art form.”

They also discussed rhetorical methods in hypertext, the
definition of art in today’s society, theories in hypertext
and implementing hypertext in print and the impact of technology to
the reading of the work and publication of literature.

Hayles said that as a growing art form, many museums have
started collecting hypertext, mentioning its historical
significance as a genre of literature that people are using
today.

But Denner was skeptical about the influence that hypertexts
will have, saying that the future of electronic media lies more
with virtual reality.

“Hypertext as a literary genre group is already
over,” Denner said. “It is narrowly conceived and the
literature on the web is very unsatisfying.”

Hayles also mentioned limitations in teaching and accessing
hypertext such as the evolution in software, which makes it
difficult to run material even from five years ago.

Hypertexts have also raised new challenges for writers who had
to deal with literal and theoretical questions such as building
climaxes and resolutions.

She said while one person can reach the climax of a story after
a few pages, another person may have to wait awhile before they
reach the same point.

But Hayles added these difficulties have made the genre more
intellectually stimulating for creative writers.

“There are more advantages,” Hayles said. “It
allows for the easy integration of text and images to create hybrid
works that draw on the visual arts as well.”

She added that hypertext and the electronic media in general
have already affected literature in many ways by making works that
were previously restricted, like medieval literature, available to
the public, allowing for a greater dissemination of literary
criticism as well as giving authors a platform from which they can
publish.

Though Denner is critical of hypertexts, as he pulled out his
e-book, he said electronic media in general is more cost effective
and convenient than print. Writers can post their work online,
integrating visual and audio effects, without paying a publishing
fee and people can also access these works for free.

“You can publish and get books on the web at a fraction of
the cost,” Denner said. “In that sense, the web has
great potential.”