Hyperfiction: Where did it all go wrong?How to tell stories without words

Heidi Colthup@heidi_colthup

www.little-and-loud.com

Some definitions• Hypertext - Text which does not form a single sequence and

which may be read in various orders; spec. text and graphics (usu. in machine-readable form) which are interconnected in such a way that a reader of the material (as displayed at a computer terminal, etc.) can discontinue reading one document at certain points in order to consult other related matter. (OED)

• Hyperfiction - or Cyberfiction, or digital literature, or electronic literature, or digital fiction….

From eliterature.org which is based at MIT and headed up by Nick Montfort

The Evolution of Ergodic Literature

‘Castle Colditz’ Felix Software (1984)

‘Afternoon – a story’ Michael Joyce (1992)

‘Patchwork Girl’ Shelley Jackson (1995)

‘Oldton’ Tim Wright (2004)

‘Nightingale's Playground’ Andy Campbell (2011)

The problems with Ergodic Literature, or where Hyperfiction went wrong

The technology simply wasn’t good enough to match our expectations.

‘the early hypertextualists just weren’t good enough writers to carry off such a difficult form.’ Lafarge (2011) http://www.salon.com/2011/10/04/return_of_hypertext/

The reader’s experience is frustrating;

when are you finished?

Plot?

Written by academics, for academics

The way forward…perhaps

Alice for the iPad

‘Zombies, run!’ Naomi Alderman 2012

So what about games you can read?

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Imagine an image of a game controller (probably a PS4 controller because they’re cool right now) being used as a bookmark in a really worthy book - War and Peace, or Bleak House, or Pride and Prejudice.

And now imagine that I asked the internet….

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@socialtechno

@dannyukhttp://dannyuk.com/

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Pauly Pops

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Dr Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin

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@drkatedevlin (again…)

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