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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
encyclopedia format of the printed text can be more directly and literally - and consequently more successfully - realised in the electronic format. He continues his argument by stating that "Im Roman findet sich die visuelle Protokollierung eines wasserbeschlagenen Glases, das natiirlich fiir jeden anders aussieht. Statt dieses "einzukleben", wie der Autor des Romans ironisch vorschlagt, mache ich es nun tatsachlich sichtbar" The glass, in Okopenko's text and comment a symbol for the indeterminacy of the written word and its openness for reader's interpretation, is reduced here to an object, whose direct visual representation replaces the mediated text. It is, however, this literal interpretation ofconcepts picked up by Okopenko in his work (in his Lexicon-Roman the question oflinearity vs non-linearity as well as the "building block" nature ofmost fictional texts) that I want to take issue with and argue instead that it is on the conceptual level, because and not despite the impossibility ofimplementing them in print, that Okopenko's strategies are such powerful explorations of the construction ofthe literary text and the expectations and strategies ofreaders. All textual collages that choose an organising principle other than narrative logic and development (and I have chosen encyclopaedia novels as perhaps the most radical of all possible examples), have in common that they try to replace a very powerful linear construction, that is encouraged by the inevitably very one-dimensional linearity of language and writing and reading, with a more spatial, and I would argue hypertextual, construction that introduces a greater element of choice but also of multiple relations between text elements. In an electronic hypertext this can be exploited even further, though always running the risk of confusion and oflosing some ofthe immediate friction of print texts that work with great success against familiar conventions and against the restriction oftheir medium. Chapter 2 - page 76
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University of Warwick institutional
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Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1.
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Chapter 5: Computer-Generated Liter
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Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1: Introd
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though distinctly different from ea
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In the above example of a HyperCard
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This is the background against whic
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chapter 2 and 3 to discuss some oft
Page 33 and 34: and phrase-order) from the "deep st
Page 38 and 39: But how do readers engage with the
Page 40: narrative possibilities, whereas th
Page 46: establish new connections - to "fil
Page 51: organisation by personal associatio
Page 59: know how far away the end is. In th
Page 65: The tables are organised on an imag
Page 72: For the textual collage / mosaic, b
Page 78 and 79: of their combination), says Okopenk
Page 81: narrative construction, and is not
Page 86 and 87: Just as her scars define the identi
Page 89 and 90: This shift, not a "death of the aut
Page 91: uniqueness, they all have in common
Page 95: and entertainment use but as a site
Page 103 and 104: This element of improvisation, ofev
Page 110 and 111: which visual seemingly three-dimens
Page 112: After an initial description of the
Page 122: exploration (in his own categories
Page 126: different opinions when it comes to
Page 129 and 130: meaning at all (to be "texte sur ri
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Poemes. At first glance this text s
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developing body ofknowledge.' The f
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and the series; factors which under
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have shadows added. These possibili
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Electronic text processing and dist
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405. 1: Linear Collaboration on the
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In the Business District of Downtow
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5,2,2:QuestiQn fQr literary studi,.
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why the initial reading material ca
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Joseph Stalin robbed Mother Theresa
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MacProse Output Wouldn't some suspi
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imitation, but even more importantl
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as well as my examinations, tries t
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from the medium it was conceived in
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for textual information? Already a
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Mallarme's Un Coup de Dis, Apollina
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Suter, Beat (ed.) "WWW Hyperfiction
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