Thoughts on “Galatea” and “My Body”
I feel like both digi-lit pieces brought, at least for me, their own unique sets of challenges and rewards. Because I ready My Body first, that’s where I’ll start with my analysis and observation. I do like the hyperlink navigation style. While it allowed for autonomous progression through the storyline, it provided enough structure and direction to maintain a continuous experience of the “text.” (This was not my experience with Galatea, but more on that later.) This kind of continuity, even though it wasn’t necessarily linear, appealed me. I’m still working on articulating why, specifically, I feel this way. It might be due to the fact that it’s an approach that somewhat mirrors the continuity of reading a hard copy text for an extended period time. One of the things that also seemed particularly well-suited to the hypertext navigation was the stream of consciousness feel of the narrative. Perhaps it seems less like stream of consciousness if you navigate through the pieces in different orders, but the path I chose felt very “Proust-ish.” The media and methods used to enact this narrative seemed to almost emphasize this aspect. Thumbs up!
On the other hand, while I was impressed and intrigued by Galatea, I found the navigational experience incredibly frustrating. As I slowly progressed through the narrative, I wondered if the “trial and error” methods required to move forward were a deliberate part of the author’s design. On the other hand, it’s possible that there are simply too many possible commands to practically list. Of course, if the mystery IS deliberate, that raises the question of purpose. What does the author accomplish by having us hunt and peck for ways to interact with the text? Is the process designed to make us analyze more thoroughly the material that we do have access to? Personally, I found the trial and error a bit tedious, but it’s also possible that I might be more open to the format if I were exploring this piece under different circumstances (as opposed to during a five-day intensive seminar 🙂 )
Either way, I think both pieces worked well to illustrate the approaches described in the theoretical text, which I found very helpful. Having concrete examples when dealing with technology always enhances my understanding.
Cara, I think that you are correct in discussing the possibility of a flow experience reading Shelly Jackson, an experience which is afforded by the harmony between the rhythms of her prose, the thematic clusters that unify the material, and the ease of following links. A different kind of text in the same format (say a plot-driven novel) might work very differently. Some hypertext theorists have wanted to move beyond the linear/non-linear binary (since you did explore a kind of line of reading) and talk about texts like Jackson’s as multi-linear (in distinction to the more strict path of page turning and plot of a conventional novel.) Though even this distinction is complicated by those print texts which contain overlapping, complex narratives (Joyce, Faulkner, Woolf, et al).
I feel like I need to spend more time unpacking this, but at the moment, your comment made me think of how digital literature might represent simultaneous narratives. I feel like, in print text, we don’t experience narratives within a single text simultaneously, even though we can logically infer that they’re happening at the same time. I’ll have to look for digi-lit pieces that might deal with this issue.
Cara- I had similar experiences with both text. I was fortunate enough to have experienced Galatea in the spring Postmodern class, so it was much easier for me this time around.
P.S. nice blog set up,(great minds)
Thanks, Mikiel!
Cara, it is very interesting when you raised the question, “What does the author accomplish by having us hunt and peck for ways to interact with the text?” I think readers of Galatea need to think about it. This process of reading and interacting with Galatea shape the text that we read. This fact also adds more complexity or kind of frustration to the experience of reading. I feel that the author wants readers to get exposed to different texts at the same game. And that exposure depends on the mood that we create for Galatea through the selection of our commands. Therefore, at the end, every reader gets a different sense and see a different text according to his commands.
Thanks for your comment! You make a good point about Galatea’s mood affecting the way the text gets created. Ultimately, I’m sure this played into my own response to it.
Cara,
the idea that have a productive and enjoyable experience with My Body’s hypertexts motivated me to comment on your post. I am really eager to know the thing that made you have this experience this matter because I sometimes felt that hyperlinks distracted me, though I agree with you that the process of moving from one interface to another is enjoyable.
Do you think that it is our reading strategy or the way we approach this text is the determinant of our judgment of the text and our feeling toward it?
Thank you for your comment! I certainly feel like reading style can impact judgment of the text, at least for me. I’m probably more likely to become dismissive of a piece of literature that requires me to completely overhaul my reading style. At the same time, I try to be aware of that, and try to resist the urge to be so dismissive.