In the first submission of this proposal to the committee last semester, I proposed the construction of a hypertext platform for literature, using it to embrace and experiment with some of the ideas that my concentration has uncovered. I shopped the idea around to a handful of professors, and received feedback. Professor Coover wrote: “This is an ambitious and attractive project; or, rather, several at once. Hypertextopia alone might take you a few years.” So I figured that there was no time to waste, and got started.
Hypertextopia is a website that enables the construction and publication of literary hypertexts on the internet. As a Literary Systems concentrator, I use
Hypertextopia to explore my ideas about extending literary forms. The structure that separates hypertext from traditional text is the link, but as it currently stands online, links are general purpose tools that specify no definite relation between one text and another. I believe that links should be typed to inform readers of the relationship between the linking phrase and the linked document, so that immediately upon reading the link a reader would grasp the sort of connection between the two. To this end, Hypertextopia allows authors to define a map of colors to link types which are then added to every link, describing what sort of connection ties the linking phrase to the linked text. I believe that this technique can greatly enhance the readability of these hypertexts, making the narratives both richer and more concise. A reader can scan the text, seeing at a glance which portions have certain kinds of associations. With a small vocabulary of link types for every piece, far less textual explanation is required when linking. — Which is just the trick. This variant of the standard web hypertext should be able to express the same concepts in a briefer and more elegant form. It’s a small attempt towards increasing the literary density of the potential stories written for Hypertextopia.
I have a prototype up and running. I used it to write and revise this proposal. The copy you are reading is a poorer, unenriched version of the original hypertext. Apart from starting from scratch, I’m also trying to adapt existing texts for Hypertextopia, notably William Vollmann’s “The Butterfly Boy”, and portions of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. These adaptations start with an analysis of the fault lines in the text, looking for locations that seem to lend themselves for separation into chunks. Then I look for patterns in the shards that splinter off, eventually defining the necessary link types as Explanation, Response, Symbolism, and Description, in the case of “The Butterfly Boy.” Finally, I structure the story as an axial hypertext, so that the main, essential narrative runs down the center, and the enriching fragments and shards of the story branch off in small digressions to the side.
Over the next couple of months, I hope to flesh out the system enough to publish it on the web at www.Hypertextopia.com. With a little luck, hypertext authors from the Brown community and around the world will make use of it, and I can study the innovations that this particular system allows. I’m looking forward to it.
