Shelley Jackson’s Stitch Bith: The Patchwork Girl explores non-linear writing and hypertext. With the evolution of technology and e-readers becoming so popular, it begs the question, will the form of non-linear writing catch on?
Non-linear writing is not a new idea. I remember reading many different books as child where I got to pick my own ending. I loved choosing my own adventure. It inspired me to read more.
Last year I read a non-linear work for a book club called The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson, written in 1969. The work came packaged in a box with loose pages (some where three or four pages bound together) and you choose the order of the sections. It was basically a choose your own adventure for adults. Overall, my book club was not impressed by the non-linear style. Now maybe it was Johnson’s style of writing that we did not like, but many did not like the lack of flow to the story.
Non-linear writing has been around since Homer’s Iliad, the story is told in flashbacks. While there are many books are written in this format, I do not think non-linear writing will gain popularity with the emergence of the e-reader. The form seems too novel to become a widespread trend. People like reading the story from beginning to end and being told what to do.
As I was researching Shelley Jackson, I found it interesting that after The Patchwork Girl was published as a hypertext in 1995, she has not written a hypertext work since. She instead has written books for traditional print media. I wonder if she did not find hypertext as fulfilling as she initially thought.