The excerpt of the piece of writing, or ‘lexia’, Late Nite Maneuvers of the Ultramundane, written by Tom McCarg and featured in Landow’s reading, reminds me a lot of those books where you choose the ending of the story. Those ‘Choose your own adventure’ ones. You’re reading along and all of a sudden you have the choice to either swing right down the mineshaft (turn to page 34) or take the left fork (turn to page 46).
I think that’s what’s so incredible about the internet. YOU CHOOSE.
Back in the dark ages (twenty years ago) the most choice you had was the ticket you bought at the cinema, what radio program you tuned into or which huge-arse encyclopedia you dragged home to do your study from.
These days the choice is like those DIY books: if you don’t like that movie, stream another one; if you’ve missed your favourite radio segment, peer into the station’s internet archives and listen at your leisure; need to know when the last relevant encyclopedia was printed, Google it. Heck, if you don’t like the ending to Twilight, why not check out one of the 100,000+ stories on FanFiction.net written by amateur authors who feel your anti-feels!
It’s like the never-ending story. A link links to a link links to another link links to a thousand million other links. The immensity and complexity of the web is really quite incredible. It’s unfathomable.
