Hypertext fiction was certainly revolutionary, because it induced a
fundamentally different way of writing and reading from that required by
on-the-page texts. Cyberwriting is a fast developing field, however, and
hypertext fiction is not as prominent as it was. It has been superseded by
other forms of hyperlinking: these involve the use of multiple frames, or
more freewheeling forms of textual display. However, hyperlinking is
fundamental to all writing on the web, and is an important technique to
grasp. Creating a hypertext is reasonably simple, and is still an interesting
mode of writing to experiment with.
Multiple routes, multiple pathways
To give some impression of the way hypertexts can be interlinked, let us
look at some possible initial routes through a tiny extract from my own
hypertext Wordstuffs: The City and The Body (Smith, Dean & White repub-
lished) which is on The Writing Experiment website. This text appears in
part in a page-based version in Chapter 9. But the hypertext version is very
different—not only because in its entirety it consists of far more texts than
the page-based version, but because it also offers many more choices and
reading pathways (the hypertexts are also in colour and display a variety of
fonts and spacings which I have not attempted to fully duplicate here).
Every reader starts with the first text:
Example 11.1
Welcome to the cityand the bodyhotline: arms and legs are flying
round us here at an enormous rate and so are cars and street
lamps. At the moment we are not anticipating the end of the world
or the demise of reproductive organs. But who knowsnow that
sound is only time warps? Schools are going half-speed and
universitiesare closing. Elections will only be held on racial
issues.Young women may die from stress unless we treat them
for their age.Whatever happened to socio-economicsolutions?
Are we going to write poemsuntil all heaven is let loose?Within this text there are eight different choices as to how to proceed next.
Activating the link ‘city’ produces a text which suggests the paradoxes of
place and identity:
You hold up the mapto the mirror.
All the streetshave new names that
you cannot recognise or read
You smashthe mirror but you cannot erase the inversion.240 The Writing Experiment