Assignments: Week 2
Task 1
Whether hypertext fiction is "old" or "new" cannot be solved by investigating
lineage, but rather by describing the kind of world that exists to support one or
the other way of creating fiction. Howard S Becker
If Becker's statement is true, then it takes a different kind of world with
different kinds of readers in order for hyperfiction to exist. Our task for
today is to try and decide what kind of world that might be. We'll go about it
backwards though. We'll look at some hyperfiction and then make conjectures about
what kind of an audience might find these works fulfilling. Spend about fourty
minutes exploring
- Mercury
- by Michael Benedetti
- Hegirascope
by Stuart Moulthrop
- The Color of Television
by Stuart Moulthrop
Once you have looked through
these hyperfictions, use this form to compose a few thoughts about the works. How
would you characterize a receptive reader of these works. What kinds of beliefs,
backgrounds and tastes would that reader have? Next think about the kind of a
world that such a person would feel comfortable in. How would you describe it?
Finally, write about the way our own culture at the close of the twentieth
century corresponds with the pictures that we've drawn based upon the
hyperfictions. Are the imagined readers of hyperfiction like most people today?
How so or how not? Is our world like the one that hyperfictions demand? In what
ways? Use these prompts as you compose, then read and respond to the messages of
others.
That's it for the in in class stuff. For next class meeting you will need to read several additional hyperfictions that are available from the
Hyperizons site.
Also, don't forget to sign up for the class e-mail list.
If you have questions, let me know.
AltaVista__
Lycos __ Infoseek __ Yahoo __ WebCrawler
DejaNews __ Purdue Writing Resources __ Research It! __
Modified 8/29/96
Daniel Anderson