Non-linear Storytelling for Interactive Media

Lecture Handouts

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Some Random Notes from a Lecture by Michael Joyce

"Hypertext fictions are said to be 'stories that change each time you read them.' In such a shifting fictional space, comfortable notions of storytelling such as beginning, middle, and end suddenly seem open to question. Characters and situations take on different qualities according to the reader's choices."

Hypertext History

1. Much ancient literature and many sacred tests operate in the same way as hypertext fiction. The rhythm and structure is that of the spoken tale told over and over again and handed down. Created by many tellers, or authors. No single plot or character focus, but rather a multitude of plots and character ordeals. Texts require multiple readings.
   • Gilgamesh
   • The Bible
   • Greek Epic Poetry
   • Odysseus
   • the saga
2. Many modern "experimental" literary forms resemble hypertext fiction. The texts are very language oriented, imagistically and sonically, and create a mood--poetic, mindscape, dreamscape.
   • dada movement
   • French symbolist writers of the 20s
   • James Joyce "stream of consciousness," Tristram Shandy and Ulysses
   • Kerouac's 50s bop spontaneous prose, On the Road
   • Hopscotch
3. Hypertext and electronic Writing is a 50 year old tradition.
   • Research began in 1940s.
   • 1945 Memex invented, system that stored info on micro fiche and would operate on associations.
   • 1962 Doug Englebart invents Augment: mouse, e-mail, networks. Belief that Augment is a natural extension of the human mind.
   • mid-60s Ted Nelson "invents" non-linear writing, the Xanadu system, precursor to the Web.
   • mid-60s Adventure invented, an early computer game developed by "hackers," researchers who amused themselves by rearranging their colleagues' data and hiding it.
   • 1982 Michael Joyce begins to search for the hypertext process, work that leads to Storyspace software.
4. Hypertext fiction is more than just branching stories. It is a natural stream of consciousness, the way the mind and imagination respond to an image and make an association with it.
   It is like:
   • swimming in a pool.
   • taking possessions out of a trunk.
   • looking through someone's scrap book.
   • dancing within a space, choreography.
   • walking through a maze or fun house.

And in Conclusion,