Unlecture, Week 6: Storytelling

This week’s lecture was centred around hypertext and its inherent links to storytelling, and how it completely revolutionised our previous concepts before its arrival in the pre-Internet era.

Brian made the point of saying that we’re at a stage “where media are incorporating some of the strategies or the experiences of hypertext”, which I drew parallels to the major broadcast channels’ interactive mobile/iPad platforms that let the viewers

Adrian outlined the connected nature of hypertext, stressing how its core its comprised of small parts and their meaning lies in how they’re connected – or rather, interconnected. Furthermore, it’s not about the “Choose Your Own Adventure” navigation style of hypertext that is note worthy, but it’s the structure that is the most important.

Another revolutionising aspect of hypertext is how it changed the relationship dynamics between the author and the reader. With hypertext, the author has to surrender some of their authorial “power” to their readership. Hypertext is a system where it’s not just about the author but it’s a system where the reader and even the platform itself – the Internet – has supreme agency and make large differences to the overall experience.

I’ll end the post with a quote from Adrian that resonated with me as an aspiring journalistic writer. Referencing Jane Douglas, Adrian stated that the idea of “the gap” between authorial intent and the reader’s understanding and perception is always present, and that we need to “acknowledge that we can’t guarantee the delivery of our message in the way we intend it.”

Oh, and do the lecturers think the book is dead? Mostly, yes, but it will take on a path of fetishism that will ensure it has a future as an ornate treasure. Also – the book does not mean literature. Literature is alive, but the paperback novel is in its decline.