Hypertext Writing

For the hypertext writing assignment I chose Juliett Martin’s oooxxxooo. I chose her hypertext work because it looked simple, was not complicated, and can be easily navigated. Throughout all the pages of the hypertext there consists of a black background with white and grey text. She uses her text as part of the hypertext, so that users can click on them in order to get to other pages. She created her hypertext in a way therefore allowing the users to choose their own paths to finish reading the text.

The first page of the hypertext has many yes or no links to choose from. Each of these yes or no links takes the user to different pages of text and symbols. Towards the end of the first page, the links being used are the same as the beginning links. Once the user clicks of one the links, the text that is being used is made into different objects and shapes. For example, when the user clicks the first yes, it shows them this eyeball looking shape:

As I gazed atthe golden delicioussun, it turned into an apple.The apple floated and fell furiouslyinto my waiting code-barren mouth. Insidemy mouth, an cyb-oral surgeon jacked his neuralnet into that apple. The wires on the braces onmy teeth transmitted. Gums pulled back and trickedteeth pulled back to-chew apple into pulp. The cyb-oral surgeon dug into the pulverized sauce with siliconand shovel in palm. He's the assembler for the wall thatfalls, the teeth that are now a compost, compote, compileof apple and seed and skin, tartar white and ruby red.Swallowing the apple, seeds and skin and meat, I smiled.Now the FBI will always know who and where I am. Thismakes me smile. I tilted back my head and my eyes werealigned with where the sun used to be. A small poreopened in that spot and was clogged by an applet oflight. Instantly infected and swollen by theforeign fluoresces, the pore bulged andblossomed into a cyber-cider cyst. It turned golden delicious. It was thesun, a golden delicious apple.

Or sometimes it looks something like this:

***gro*undrou*ndgoun*dgrund*grondg*roudgr*oun***

I enjoyed working with this hypertext fiction by Martin. It was very easy to manage through the pages. The text featured of the pages seemed to work perfectly with the objects and shapes used on the pages. For example, the use of the tear drop shape when the text mentions saliva and blood.

O-rthoMan,can youalign myb y t e ?Should my jawbe wired? Theseare questions forthe trip chip toknow and the computergirl to answer. Aguilty-sweet saliva girlwells in the pocket betweenmy gum and lips. She justloves it there. Maybe she willclean my teeth and align my byte.As I lick my bloody chips, Irealize I soon must die in the handof my envy (that would be me) for Ihave loved and blood is the shadow ofmy indulgence. My tendril pleasures arevisible through my transparent skin.Silicon chips replace silicone implants.You can pierce me like a tender bulb offlesh, read through my skin. Cotton fillsmy cheeks like acid dries my mind. Bitseat each joy morsel and carve caverns andpatterns. Please, cotton and wire,bring me closer to the fool I need tobe, closer to the food I need toeat--food which won't fill my armswithout rotting my teethfirst. Can my teeth staywhite and my bellyfull?

So almost always the text and the symbols and shapes used throughout the hypertext fiction relates to the text.

All of the pages were successful in guiding the user back to the main page and into other pages. The only issue I had with the hypertext fiction by Martin is that the user runs out of new options to choose from. After going through every possible exit into other pages, the user gets directed back to the same pages he/she has already seen. It seems as if Martin did not have enough material to continue with the hypertext or she wanted the users to get bored with her work quickly.

The writing in the hypertext fiction is not good or bad. It seems to be characterized as a stream of consciousness. Even though there are sentences in the text, the way the sentences are written create a kind of rambling of words. The users are not quite sure as to what is going on in the text but they get a sense that the narrator is either at the dentist’s office or what is happening to him/her after visiting the dentist’s office. It’s not quite clear but the text deals with the narrator’s mouth, teeth, and eyes.

The hypertext fiction is more like a story but it could be a really far fetched poem. None-the-less, the text on each page of the hypertext could be a poem. The reading the hypertext out of order helps with the writing of the author. She wanted the users to click on which direction they would like to go to next. I do not believe there is even a way to read this hypertext in a certain order. She obviously wanted the users to read it in a disorderly way.

Martin’s hypertext fiction was probably not the best but it should get revised. I think that she should add more text, so that the users are not reusing the same pages over again. She should re-write her text into something that’s easy to follow. She also should change the colors of the text and background into something more eye friendly. She should consider including some pictures as links into other pages besides just using the text itself.

This hypertext fiction did give me some ideas for my own hypertext that I will create for the class. I like how she uses the text to make shapes and symbols. I would probably incorporate some pictures along with the text. I also would probably add more color to the pages because black, white, and grey become very dull when seen on every page of the hypertext. I would also make the pages look nicer and prettier with more designs and decorations. I guess something more appealing to the eye and well more importantly more appealing to the users’ eyes. I just hope the story I create is much longer than this hypertext and that the users find it much more interesting than Martin’s, if they read her hypertext fiction.