(Image taken from http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/archives/michael_joyce/reach.html)
T |
his section is based on the analysis of one of
the hypertext fiction novels of Michael Joyce, ‘Reach’ which I have chosen to carry out
in this
Second Paper . It
belongs to the aspect of Tools.
He is a professor of English at Vassar College, New York, USA and also the
co-creator together
with Jay
David Bolter and John B. Smith
of the Storyspace programme.
‘Reach’ was published in April,
2000.It is not one of the most famous hypertext works of Michael Joyce, for
example Afternoon, a Story, but it is worth
reading,
because it has many different ways of creating your own hypertext story thanks
to all the information that the author has given us.
In
the index page of the hypertext ‘Reach’ we observe that there is a kind of a dictionary (a page of a dictionary),
because we see all the meanings of the word
“reach”,
which can be a transitive verb, an intransitive
one and also a noun. Further down we can gaze at the comment
of the author about his novel. In the left
part
of the index page we observe a cluster of words
that make up all the stories and upon them we can click to start reading the
novel.
We
have all the opportunity and freedom to read ‘Reach’ in the way we want using our own choice, because we can
move both forward and backward. We
move
forward thanks to a sign, which we find under the comment of Michael Joyce,
which is &. We move likewise but
backward thanks to the sign < . There is
also another sign which X and
clicking on it you can “cross the span of
the now gone storyspace which provided the compositional field”. “Each page has
indexical
links to its neighbouring clusters” and all the text is linked too.
The
structure of ‘Reach’ is “topological”(topology), that is “the first
screen is laid out with successive spaces placed by chance and opportunity both
and
clusters
formed as spaces were added in openings suggested by the accumulations and
proximate edges”, as Michael Joyce suggests in his comment about
the novel. “The motive was something of a conversation
both with the nearest edges and the emerging center alike and the links are
ripples”, he continues.
An example and
illustration of this “topological” structure is the image that we can find in
the index page of the novel:
(Image taken
from http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/archives/michael_joyce/reach.html)
There are many different stories within the novel ‘Reach’. I have discovered several of them
but I can not see any sense in some of them, so I would not make a
comment on them. There is only one that I have discovered, I understand
it and I find it interesting. You click directly on the meanings of the word “reach” and
then a page which name is tell appears. Afterwards you do not click on the text but
on the sign & and you can follow
the story. You do not need to read the
same story as me because there are many more and anyone can find its
own.
My story deals with one girl and one boy who are a
couple and lovers. We do not know her name, but the name of the boy is Sergio.
They are living together,
but they have recently decided to separate them, because they are not
happy together. When each of them is alone they realised that they are really
unhappy
without each other. Both of them remember the joyful moments together
and are missing each other. She waits his phone call to give them some new
opportunity. Eventually, both of them decide to gather together, solve
the problems and live happily together.
I think that Michael Joyce has published an excellent
hypertext fiction novel, which name is ‘Reach’,
and he has also demonstrated how could one create a
hypertext of that kind, entertaining and interesting.
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