External structure

Each story brings you back to the resume, the main page that serves as core structure for the hypertext. This characteristic makes The Interview different from other works of this author like Winter Brake or Six Sex Scenes, where you have three different links at the end of each story but no back button. This is not a hypertext with many possible endings. The only interaction by the reader is based in choosing the stories in different order from what’s proposed.

The Interview opens with a front page of linking titles. From there, by clicking on the name of the work, we enter to the work itself. The structure is represented like a resume or curriculum vitae. Eisen’s way is reflected from the very beginning by a crossed out title where supposedly is placed the most important part of this types of documents: the introducing personal details.

There are three main headlines that correspond to the three main issues to point out in a self-referential resume like the one we are referring: Education, Experience and Career Objective. Each of those contains different stories related to the topic in a very unusual way. For instance, Eisen has selected three passages of the character’s educational path to resume her education. Those passages have something to do with her years of education but at the same time she takes the chance to talk about masturbation, her undergraduate research or her vomiting experience after eating too much cookie dough.

The three headlines we’ve mention before are followed by the date or period of time where those stories supposedly took place. As it is the main part of my analysis, I’ll deepen into this aspect in the separate section called time.

In conclusion, The Interview is the exception of Eisen’s works due to its structure that serves as a guide for the reader. Once more, and as any other hypertext works, the reader can choose not to follow it and make his own reading sequence.