Week 2 - Weekly update

"In this ideal text"

I had a spike in interest after reading excerpts from George Landow's 1992 book, 'Hypertext'.  He discusses reading in hypertext, how it differs from reading a paper novel and provides ideas for future uptake of the concept. Aside from books such as the "choose your own adventure" series wherein which the reader would refer to differing sections of the novel based on their intended decision, it never really picked up pace.

So we look at linear vs non-linear narrative. Do you read from A to Z or do you choose the path that best suits you? As i see it, we are by our very nature destined to move further towards non-linear narrative. We are human, we are random and we are non-linear. I recently sat in a class at ANU. The tutor was using a pre-prepared work book produced by a local publishing company. She had used this book to lead classes many times before. After completing the first chapter she exclaimed "I loathe this book! They don't know how to arrange chapters, we're going to jump around a bit". We had no option but to trust her not to completely perplex us. So we took a windy, seemingly random adventure through chapters 2,4,3,6,5 etc. Ironically, and to my relief, it made sense! The book was written by someone who had their own idea about how it should have been read, our brave tutor had other ideas.

When reading technical textbooks I will usually learn about something, then need to read another chapter to understand it, it suits me learning style and if the chapters are organised to a decent extent, I shouldn't lose my way.

The web has thrust us into the world of non-linear narrative. We will start off seeking one piece of information, find it, and through doing so quite possibly wander onto something else that is associated. Through completing this very blog, my fiance Shayla may decide to comment in response to what I have written, to offer another viewpoint that readers of this blog may move to. And so on until you're reading a post from Eric Schmidt about the future.

One area where linear narrative may continue to reign supreme are fiction novels.  The linearity of the authors text is one thing that probably drew you to his or her work in the first place.  You like the way the book proceeds, develops, twists, turns, and you wouldn't change it for the world.  And speaking of novels, they can be taken anywhere, unlike your pc, oh to lounge by the pool with my Dual Core PC and a glass of wine - I don't think so.

Zak