Untitled - witz cultural

't99RECONFIGURINGWRITINGlem-alack of linking precisely in those places one would erpect it to appear-characterizesmuch recent World Wide Web hypertext. Part of theproblem here may come directly from the World Wide Web's use of unsuitableterminology derived from print technology, such as homepoge, which locksneophyte users into an inappropriate paradigm. Brusilovsky and Rizzo correctlynote that much hlpertext today takes the form of passages of unlinkedtext surrounded by navigation links. Encountering these kinds oflexia, onereceives the impression that the authors, who have dropped digitized versionsof printed pages into an electronic environment, dont seem to gnspthe defining qualities of hypermedia and use HTML chiefly as a text formattingsystem. They are still working, in other words, with and within the paradigmofthe printed page and book.The Victoriqn Web (victorianweb.org), an academic site I manage that receivesas many as fifteen million hits a month, contains four basic kinds ofdocuments: (1) overviews (sitemaps),(2) link lists, (3) simple two'columntables used primarily for chronologies as well as art works and text describingthem, and, (4) lexias containing primarily text, though some may also includethumbnail images linked to larger plates. Most text documents on this sitecontain two to four navigation links in the form oflinked icons that appear atthe bottom of each lexia plus multiple text links that weave the lexia into aminiature hypertext network. Although I find myself unable to formulate anyrule as to proper number of text links, I have observed two things: (1) lexiasapproximately one to two screens in length tend to have at least three textlinks, and (2) as new documents arrive, older lexias receive additional links.The comparative lack of text links observed in much web-based hypermediaalso appears in much hyperfiction, as many authors seem uninterestedin using more than single links, which create an essentially linear flow CaitlinFisher's Waves of Girls, aweb narrative thatwon the 2001 Electronic LiteratureOrganization (ELO) prize for electronic fiction, exemplifies the comparativelyrare literary hypertext that includes both framing navigational links and othersin the body of the text. Thus, in the following brief example, the phrases "Iwas so sad," "our principali' "grade 5 boys . . . ," "making out really meant . . ."all lead to-that is, produce-new text (Figure 23). In addition to the navigationlinks that appear at the left of the screen, the main text also contains frequentopportunities to follow links, which lead to other narrative arcs.Following the Link Should Provide a Satisfring Experience. Linking ininfotmationalhypermedia obviously has to work in a clear, coherent manner, butwhat produces this requisite coherence?a In other words, what should appear