Conclusion
To sum up, I would like to say that writing this
paper has been a very useful experience to me since I have acquired knowledge
of some basic concepts of hypertext literature that otherwise I wouldn’t.
Before publishing this paper, for instance, I was not well aware of how
important tools are when it comes to convey meaning. Of course, I did already
know something about the prominent role that links, images, sound, etc. play in
an electronic literature piece, but it is obvious that the experience of
reading an actual hypertext has helped me a lot to understand this idea in all
its complexity. Although the hypertext analysed lacks some important rhetorical
devices of electronic literature (namely image and sound), it does have a
particular structure and layout that, along with text, convey meaning to the
reader.
From my point of view, one of the main values of Considering a baby?
lies in its simplicity. As I have already said in the main corpus of this work,
the reader is not likely to “get lost”. The typical “navigation problem” that
usually arises the first time you read a hypertext is not likely to happen. In Considering a baby?
you always know “where you are” in relation to the beginning and the end of the
text. The system of links is not very complicated in this case (for further
information on this aspect, please see the section “An analysis of Considering a baby? from the perpective of Tools (II)”). And
this is a virtue to take into account the first time you encounter a work of
such characteristics.
The simplicity of its scheme clearly contrasts
with the complexity of its plot. Considering a baby?
portrays a whole world of complex feelings and emotions in relation to the main
topic of the story, which is the pregnancy from the pregnant woman’s point of
view. The woman is a rather complex character, and as such expresses very
contradictory feelings. She hates her new physical appearance, she hates her
friends’ attitude towards her, she hates her mother and husband’s attitude.
Sometimes she even questions her own maternity instincts. But, in spite of
everything, at the end of the story she announces the possibility to become
pregnant again since, as she herself
states, “your
memory of the pregnancy will be short, disjointed pictures of things gone bad,
and those memories will not add up to anything substantial.”
All in all, my personal opinion is
that Considering a baby?
is an interesting piece of hypertext literature that at least deserves our attention.
Go to: [Introduction] [Analysis (Part One)] [Analysis (Part Two)] [References]
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana Albalat Mascarell
almas2@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València
Press
