|
|
|
|
|
4.4. On Technology In an article titled "Text
in Tüttelchen" (Text in Quotation Marks), Dieter E.
Zimmer (1997), in a review of the 2nd literature competition
organized by the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" and the IBM
company, expressed himself skeptically about web literature,
even suspecting "... that 'web' and 'literature' are
mutually exclusive." This would mean "literature" and not
just literature. (1)
"Quibbling" is in a different sense 'not a real text', not
only in quotation marks, but placed in real boxes, packaged
operationally. This packaging and linking are the two
functions provided by "Storyspace" in a really efficient
way. Does literature gain from this technology? We must distinguish here
between the possibilities offered by the reader version of
"Quibbling" and the additional functionalities of
"Storyspace." The reader version offers a "'Storyspace
view," following the principle of "one page at a time;" we
see the representation in a network or the text field.
"Storyspace," the program, also allows a multiple-window
arrangement or a separate "Storyspace" and text view or only
a pure text view, as in "Afternoon." The author obviously
wants us to read the "packaged text" in accordance with the
central initial sequence in which Heta gives Priam a cigar
box which releases cigar smoke, but does not reveal cigars,
but only those glass fragments collected on the beach which
she gives him as a present. Objectively, what is being
handed over is without any value while, subjectively, it is
very important. She watches attentively his
reaction. This packaging of text and
giving titles to boxes produces hints to the content to
appear later: The titles and the text may be descriptive
(such as "Angela walks;" "Priam's hands"), sometimes
realistic ("Grocery store" actually describes scenes in a
grocery department); some are metaphoric ("Soup" does
describe a soup, but is a metaphor for Angela); some have a
guiding effect (such as the "Dazes" mentioned above), while
others are misleading (such as "Begin," which is anything
but the beginning); others arouse curiosity (such as
"Foufouing" for Angela's beautification); and others again
are unintelligible (such as "virga," which Langenscheidt's
Muret-Sanders tells us is rain which has not yet contacted
the earth and may be the only source of consecrated water
(as Angela was taught at monastery school)), etc.
So, this is a game of hide
and seek, of references that work out and others that do
not; it is playing on the expectations of readers. On this
tightrope between expectation and disappointment, the author
entices the reader into a story she offers him only in bits
and pieces, like a heap of broken fragments, with flags
pointing here and there, and she puts her faith on the
motivating forces which mend broken entities. The reader
patiently collects the bits and pieces; might that be the
message in the end? If contents are known
sufficiently well (for instance, in the case of "Dazes" with
"Heta," or the story about Angela & Jacob, which I read
very thoroughly), there is a possibility of glossing over
the box titles as in meta-reading and dwelling on
recollecting the contents (with the lids closed!). That
would be a kind of second order reading. However, the price
to be paid for this pleasure is high because it demands
truly thorough reading, and this is worthwhile only if the
text warrants it. Finally, one other component
of interaction should be mentioned which we already found in
a hypertext by Bolter, an element of prosody, something like
tacking the text together by clicking, as in the "points,"
for Angela: "She is a lover / of gardens, libraries, and
mistakes / pictograms, questions, and the number 3." The
oblique stroke, "/," indicates that a new screen is opened
so that the entire sequence is clicked on in the rhythm of
reading.
|