Jackson presents a pretty solid outline of nonlinear narrative in Stitch Bitch. She explains it in a less-than-linear manner, which aids her in her explanation of the facets of nonlinear narrative. Non-linear narratives have the unique ability of being able to change our perspective on how things move through time and space, which is a powerful tool in the hands of a capable artists.
A narrative of this sort still fundamentally gives you all of the ‘pieces’ that you would normally discover one after another throughout the course of a traditional narrative. However–and this is why nonlinear storytelling has always fascinated me–the audience is given control over the direction of the story, which causes the narrative itself to become a modular experience, and thus different for every person. Even though all of the segments of the story remain unchanged (in most examples, anyway), the order in which the information is delivered has a major effect on the way in which this information is then interpreted by the audience.
A great example of nonlinear narrative that I remember seeing about a year ago is the video project Meanwhile. After the first viewing, the piece is decreasingly effective, however I think it is a fantastic example of how the interchangeability of nonlinear work creates a unique and non-repeating experience. If you were to have two people sit down in a room and each watch Meanwhile on their own computer, each one of them would more than likely have a very different explanation of the story, even down to who the main characters are.
Stitch Bitch goes quite a bit further as an exploration of nonlinear media, and Jackson brings up some points about the self and about self-categorization that I had given little to no consideration prior to reading. In an increasingly virtualized world, it will be interesting to behold the evolution of nonlinear media and to observe how, if at all, the advent of mass networking and thus the increasing number of nonlinear information delivery systems influences human society and the human identity.