One Foot in the Door...

and Let the Clicks lead the way…

Now that we have an idea of what hypertext is, we are now going to go click happy in Mary Hedger’s

Now, if you clicked at the bottom of the last entry on the link you might think “ooo…a guide post…. are you trying to be funny?”

I chose this example because not only are you driven insane by the all the links –I mean, it is a one of kind example of hypertext. It is user friendly. Why? She has placed on the right hand side information and her own analysis of each poem in the sign posts. This is not highly typical in hypertext, let alone traditional poetry [unless you’re reading an annotated text]. It lends a much more personal and organized approach to hypertext [no, really check this one out]. It is organized chaos.

Also the graphics of this piece are actually manually drawn; they’re not just programmed structure. It gives it a completely different feel than just typed text.

So…where do we start?

Click.

Looking at the guidepost in the middle the word: HYPERTEXT appears in the middle of directions [Simplicity, Humanity, Prison, and Patience]

Hypertext is a series of hypertext poems.

· Hard Drive Human

· Patience

· Excuse Me

· Layer Love

· Prison Detail

· Limit

· Truth Comic

But rather than start at the beginning; we’ll start at the end.

Truth Comic

Introduction: When you click on Truth Comic there is a blurb on the side from Hedger about Truth Comic.

What kind of analysis could this poem require, as it is also a visual and user interactive art? There is no sense of “ah, it’s an Elizabethan sonnet!” there are words, images in a certain pattern with the intent of expression.

Hedger states: “instructions: seven pages linked by the red, blue and green big dots and cross, click to change the page. find these dots and crosses and other mouseover links by sliding the mouse over the page. there is reason in this madness! hypertext rocks!”-from “About Truth Comic"

This is where you notice that although hypertext may seem to be purely hyperlinked text/images in a seemingly chaotic order, there is a lot to chew on with just one page.

So you may want to suspend your poetic convictions on traditional poetry to properly enjoy the artwork.

Once you find a way out of the first page, each page has a pattern in which you click to reveal writing, images or movement. There is an implication to each. Much like a graphic novel, only it moves [I can only compare this to the moving pictures in Harry Potter].

Let’s look at the first page ( Print outs are useless; you lose the intent and confusion):

By passing the mouse over the page different blocks with the colors red, white, and blue appear. Even passing over the written words changes the words themselves.

You may think “Oh good, there’s words.” But unlike normal poetry there are few words and we have to wonder how do they contribute to the theme of the poem, why are there colors and the ram [couldn’t that be a symbol of masculinity, and what would that have to do with a female author]? What does it mean when she writes: “Give yourself time to think when you need it”?

Life is conveyed as an abstract complexity.

My sense when I first went through the poem, and the subsequent pages of it, is that it appears like an adult writing on a kid’s notebook. Or a teenager who knows over and over what the rules are in “society” and has decided to distort them and put her own thoughts. There are themes of love and sexuality, and freedom to think and to some extent a sense of patriotism. You don’t get the same personal interaction with the author in this abstract manner with a traditional poem. There is a more microscopic approach to each article in the pages. Anything is up for game if you’re trying to deeply analyze it.

I can only imagine what Allen Ginsberg would hyperlink or move around in “Howl”.