"It's alive... it's alive... Oh, God--IT'S ALIVE!" Frankenstein - Mary Shelley By Diane Shortt

Hypertext is changing the way we read, write and conceptualize literature. Traditionally, the distance between reader and writer with written works is maintained by multiple levels of people, paper and time. Once a piece of work is published, the writer's responsibility basically ends; meanwhile, the reader is still responsible for knowing and understanding all of the references the writer includes in the work. Hypertext creates a hyper-extension of the work, basically giving it a life of its own. A printed book is unable to recreate this same detailed precision and accessibility because of its physicality. A published book cannot be recalled instantly in order to make any changes or update information, unless it is reprinted and there is always a defined amount of time involved. Hypertext has the ability to link a multitude of related subject matters and authors, while incorporating a variety of techniques, such as sound and movement, to involve and extend the relationship between readers and writers.

Marshall McLuhan writes, "The alphabet and print technology fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, a process of specialism and of detachment. Electric technology fosters and encourages unification and involvement" (8). With the added dimensions hypertext provides, a piece of literature is capable of evolving into the multi-dimensional realm of sight, sound, movement and tactility. Researching information related to a topic, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, for example, offers an interesting sample of the evolution of literary resources on the WWW. One such site, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, not only offers scholarly information with images, but also included selected musical pieces that unite the Frankenstein theme: for example, the eerie and haunting music from the movie Edward Scissorhands. In addition, the site directly links other sites related to the Romantic Era and information about people directly involved with Mary Shelley's life. The web site is developed in such a way as to contribute to an overall unifying effect.

This information, produced with conventions not available to the printed book, establishes a new relationship between the reader and the writer. The reader has the ability to: access obscure or difficult to obtain information, possibly read opposing viewpoints, has direct access to the writer of the work through e-mail to clarify points or answer questions, and even has access to cultural points of view that are not often available through traditionally published works. Hypertext links together for the reader common information from various sources, while the printed book usually offers topic specific information.

Also, the implications of hypertext on the education system is potentially limitless. What once was only available to a select few "serious" scholars is now available, for example, to any Grade 2 student physically located anywhere the world via the World Wide Web. Education will no longer be isolated; classic literature written in the original language is just as available as a translated version, or finding reference material about specific topics, such as Hebrew myths, is as easily accessed as the glossary of The Key to Theosophy.

Hypertext also has the advantage of consolidating information in a compact and cost effective manner, which again creates a unifying effect and extends the relationship of the reader's involvement. For example, a hypertexted CD-ROM version of Homer's Odyssey is available in the original language and three different translations, with over 300 illustrations, four narrated sections with background music, a hypertext glossary of names and obscure words, as well as historical information, maps and photographs. In order to obtain this amount of information individually, an educational institution or individual would have to incur costs far beyond the approximate $50.00US price of the CD-ROM. This type of a hypertext medium enables the involvement of a wider audience of readers.

The communication of literature, in its evolving electronic form, is changing the roles of the reader and the writer. "We can no longer build serially, block-by-block, step-by-step, because instant communication insures that all factors of the environment and of experience co-exist in a state of active interplay" (McLuhan 63). Hypertext enables the reader and other writers to become active participants in the development and extension of the original written work. It is entirely possible for a "reader" to become a "writer". For example, an individual can take an original piece of literature and develop a web site and add related material, including commentary about the original piece. By adding elements not available to written books, such as sound and related information links, hypertexted documents offer an interaction for the reader that was not possible before. The interconnection creates a unifying effect between the reader and writer where the reader of literature plays a role once reserved only for the writer.

Works Cited

Blavatsky, H.P. "The Key to Theosophy: Glossary." http://www3.eu.spiritweb.org/

KeyToTheosophy/index.html (7 Dec. 1997).

Graves, Robert, and Raphael Patai. "Hebrew Myths." http:ccat.sas.upenn.edu/

~humm/Topics/Lilith/ (31 Jan. 1997).

"Homer's Odyssey CD-ROM Prototype." http://www.WavePress.com/

odyssey/index.html (12 Feb. 1997).

McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. The Medium is the Massage. New York:

Random House, 1967.

Woodbridge, Kim. "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley." http://www.netxs.com/

~kwbridge/maryshel.html (15 Feb. 1997).

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