Just when I thought the iMedia program couldn’t confuse me any more, BAM!, we get hit with Stitch Bitch. Despite the headache after reading, contemplating just deleting the article from my computer, and cursing my way through every paragraph, I did find it interesting…surprisingly.
It was much easier to read once I understood more about hypertext. I actually looked up her profile and hypertext in literature online while I was reading this article. I think its a good idea to have hyperlinks in readings that connect you to other links. This give the reader control over what they are reading whereas in linear reading, there is only one direction to go. Hypertext is exactly what it sounds like. Reading on crack. It is multi-directional and allows the reader the option to choose what they want to read.
What I found a little comical was that Shelley Jackson presented this nonlinear way of reading in a nonlinear fashion. You were given everything at once. Like Shelley Jackson stated, it is always at the beginning and it is always at its end. Everything is thrown at you at once and hypertext doesn’t know where its going. I felt like I was reading James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. That was written as if you were reading someone’s thoughts. Everything was jumbled and nonlinear.
I’d be interested to see if this style of writing catches on. I personally had to read it twice in order to somewhat understand what I was reading. It is a good concept, or just too much work? All I know is that I am getting some Advil.