From Page to Screen - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal ...

Ifthe charm of a book is that itinevitably reaches an end-point, the charm ofa hypertext
(and I include print encyclopaedias and encyclopaedia novels in this category) is that
they do not have this distinct physical end-point. They are of course not infinite, but
because oftheir set-up oflinks / references that continuously refer to other related nodes
/ entries the reading could in manycases go on indefinitely. Readers can never be sure if
they have read everything, and even more, that another reading of the same fragments in
a different orderwould not cast a different light on the events. The text denies closure;
it is the readers' task to create the "sense of closure'" for themselves. They read on until
they have achieved an idea of the structure of the text and the potential narratives that
could be constructed in it (without ever realising more than a few). They might read until
they solved the questions they had when approaching the hypertext in a satisfactory
manner, oruntil in a fictional hypertext one version ofthe events seems more convincing
than others. Or theystart again at some point and tty (in the light oftheir first reading) to
support their interpretation, or alter it. Or they might give up. Closure is not part ofthe
structure of the text, it is part ofthe reading process. And in an electronic text, without
any physical indication of the size of its network and the lack of orientation points
(page numbers, bookmarks - any indication ofthe position ofthe reader in the text), this
feeling of closure constructed by the reader in the process becomes even more
apparent.
The Electronic Lexicon Novel (ELEX)
The electronic Lexikon-Roman took a number ofyears to come into fruition, withartists
leaving and joining the group that under the name "Libraries of the mind" has set
themselves the task of expanding Okopenko's text multimedially. Presented to the
public on the "Softmodeme" Conference in Berlin in September 1997, it combines
Okopenko's text with images and music and, most importantly, implements the 'virtual'
hypertext links ofthe printed encyclopedia novel as real click-on hypertext links.
"Der Lexikon-Roman ist nach wte vor eine enzyklopadische Sammlung, die
Querverweise werden aber dank des Computers erst richtig nutzbar" argues Franz
Nahrada, one of the initiators of the project, who in this quote shows his belief that the
Chapter 2 - page75