So in the most recent “unlecture”/”symposium”/”haterz of traditional teaching” or whatever you want to call it, there was much discussion of hypertext,  the book and how the two intertwine in our ever-changing, rapidly altering, experience enhancing technological future.

You know what the first thing that came to mind when Adrian began talking about hypertext and the multiple different avenues it creates, so no two outcomes are the same?

Goosebumps.

Yes, those R.L Stine classic scare-tales we all read as a kid. Brightly coloured illustrations on the front, guaranteeing a choice “from over 20 different scary endings” so you never had to read the same story twice, unless you chose to, of course. I would spend hours reading these little interactive tales, flipping to this page if I wanted to explore what that scary noise was or to that page if I was too chicken (or should I say smart) and wanted to stay where I was. Nonetheless, the stories engaged me, brought them to life as if I was really in the story deciding on how it was going to play out.

After discussing whether you could classify the Goosebumps series as being some-what similar to hypertext in my tutorial, the conclusion we came to was “well, sort of, a little”. Although the story can be different every time you read it, depending on the deliberate choices you make, the content is set. There is only 20 possible outcomes; compared to hypertext that as George Landow says in the week four readings, will eventually interconnect with all media text forming a metatext, there is no real branching off into new and unexpected paths with diverse use of mediums.

Okay, back to speculating that Goosebumps is us 90’s kids very own primitive form of hypertext. I started imagining future generations and what they’re “Goosebumps” will be like. Will they be reading it off their high-tech e-reader, which instead of turning to page whatever to find out what happens next, they will click on a link to a video that will then take you to the next chapter of the story? Or to a computer-generated arcade style game where they have to actually fight off the zombie or monster to continue to the next chapter? Maybe this type of thing already exists and I’m not as savvy as I should be as a Gen. Y, but it’s definitely a cool and exciting future for fiction and hypertext fiction.