hypertext
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In hypertext fiction, readers must navigate through a larger story by choosing between different narrative paths at pivotal moments. Though hypertext is often associated with electronic literature, the term also applies to traditional print literature. By limiting or rearranging the reader’s access to the ‘whole’ story, hypertext emphasises the infinite layers of possibility contained within a narrative.
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![<b><em>Hopscotch</em>, Julio Cortazar, 1966 [first published in Spanish in 1963]</b><br />This novel is separated into two parts that may be regarded as either distinct or inseparable; according to Cortazar’s instructions, one may choose to read only the first 56 chapters of this novel (ignoring the last 99 ‘expendable’ chapters), or to ‘hopscotch’ through all chapters in suggested order.<br /><br />Confronted with such a format, how do we determine what constitutes the story? Despite the author’s assurance that the expendable chapters may be ignored ‘with a clean conscience’, convention dissuades us from conceiving of <em>Hopscotch</em> as anything other than the entire available text. Though the choices for reading the novel may seem merely symbolic, Cortazar’s method underscores the role that convention plays in our perception of narrative.<br /><br />](/fryer/not_books/images/Hopscotch_0002_600s.png "Hopscoth by Julio Cortazar")
items in this series
‘The garden of forking paths’, Jorge Luis Borges in Labyrinths : selected stories & other writings, 1941
Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar, 1966
Afternoon, a story, Michael Joyce, 1987
Struggle down under, (Choose your own adventure), Shannon Gilligan, 1988
