Can Hypertext Ever Be a Novel?- compost

From my understanding of Patchwork Girl, it is not a novel. On the contrary, I feel that Shelly Jackson’s hypertext belongs to the next generation of what will be called books, that is if we still call them that. With my frequent interaction with this blog it seems more relevant for me to relate Patchwork Girl to a specific blog rather than to a novel. Rather than leading the reader along a developed storyline, Jackson appears to set in front of us a maze rather than a individual pathway. Now there may be some readers that enjoy an interactive story where they become the story-teller; however, for me this is not the typical experience of a book. When I make the time to sit down and read a novel I am looking to be removed from the real world and placed into the mind of the author. I am almost disturbed by the number of links and choices that the hypertext offers to the point that I cannot enjoy the story that Patchwork Girl tries to ironically patch together. A novel engages based upon the emergence into the text, the words, that when correctly assembled, form a almost light at the end of the tunnel feeling: guiding the reader forward towards the bright light, yet assisting the walk by placing the reader on an enclosed path. While hypertext, on the other hand, just presents a light shining in your face and pushes the reader into the blinding abyss: nothing is recognisable, you can’t turn back, and you have not a clue where you are going to end up.

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