As a kid I was an avid reader and a fan of mystery stories. I loved the challenge of guessing what was going to happen next. I always tried to solve the mystery in my head before I found the answer in the book. I was disappointed, however, that there was no way to be actively involved in the story other than to pick out important clues from the text. The discovery of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books was a pleasant one. I enjoyed being able to (somewhat) dictate my own destiny. I could actively participate in what I was reading.
That's what I like so much about computers and on-line encyclopedias, role playing games, and the Internet. Computer users have an exciting opportunity to be actively involved with the information they are being presented through hypertext technology. It's like we've been presented with one huge choose-your-own-adventure story -- only it's much better. We are not limited to jumping to some other page at the end of a segment, as dictated by an author. No, we are able to jump from the beginning or the middle at any time, and we can jump to almost anywhere. We can start our stories at the middle or the end, rather than the beginning. Instead of plain text, we have colors, fonts, pictures, animations, sounds, video clips. The hypertext medium has transformed the reading and writing processes.
To those who have been primarily exposed to classical printed text (linear, closed, solitary reading), the transformation to a hypertextual universe can be confusing. People must get used to reading in a different manner. The ideal hypertext reader is different from the classical text reader. Molly Travis, in her essay "Cyber Esthetics, Hypertext and the Future of Literature" says the new ideal reader is being "constructed through sustained exposure to the intertextualities and virtualities of mass media and information technologies." She says this reader is one who has been exposed to sound and video bytes (as on TV and radio), plays interactive computer video games, and has been immersed in diverse forms of informatics in banking, medicine, law enforcement and telecommunications. Those who are used to jumping quickly from one idea to another, to reacting quickly to what they see, will benefit from the growing medium of hypertext and hypermedia. This would suggest that as society moves from readerly texts to writerly texts, those who read them must also become writerly readers instead of readerly readers -- that is, readers must be willing to be actively involved in what they read.
There have been some concerns about how comprehension of non-linear text works. Comprehending material involves the construction of a mental model that represents the objects and semantic relations described in a text. While people get used to reading hypertext and non-linear documents, writers must "assist readers in the construction of their mental models by strengthening factors that support this process and impede those that impede it." (Thuring, 58) The producers of hypertext documents must work to create clear and coherent documents that help readers comprehend the material. This may include not only the use of text and graphics, but eventually the use of virtual-reality technologies which allow a full-immersion experience.
Already making their way to the realm of virtual-reality are computer role-playing games such as the Space Quest series from Sierra. These games have been around for a number of years and involve guiding a character through a series of possible events and obstacles, ending up through various storylines and outcomes. They are not quite VR, but they are the high-tech version of yesterday's choose-your-own adventure stories. This technology can be used for more than games. It can be used in education to train doctors in medical procedures, flight training, and high school experiments. We know that often the best way to learn is through direct experience. If using hypertext documents and virtual reality can provide some resemblance to a real experience, we can use it to effectively train people for various tasks, rather than force them to study a textbook.
Judging by the recent explosion of the World Wide Web, it would seem that hypertext and non-linear documents are the wave of the literary future. In my research, I found several choose-your-own-adventure stories on the Web. It only seems natural that these stories are found in a place where they fit so well. The next time you surf the Net, think carefully of how you might be choosing your own adventure.
Sources:
Landlow, George P. Hypertext: the Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. (23 Feb, 1997).
Thuring, Manfred. "Hypermedia and Cognition." Communications of the ACM, Aug 1995, p.57-66.
Travis, Molly Abel. "Cybernetic Esthetics: Hypertext and the Future of Literature." Mosaic. Dec 1996, p 115-129.
E-mail author
All rights remain with the author.
