Under the heading of “Time” I have argued that the hypertext story “Lies” contains a high number of different time references, because its style reflects journal writing and time is not as fixed in memory as space is. With most events people find it easier to state where they happended than when, meaning on which day, in which year, they happened. There are thus much fewer references to space than to time in the story.
There are again two levels of space in the
story: the space of the narrated time and the space of the time of writing. The
events in the narrated time take place in Germany for the male protagonist, and
probably North America for his girlfriend. Besides that, there are only three
fixed references to places where part of the action takes place: Two apartments
and a dance club.
The first apartment is the one where the couple
are living together at the time of writing. It is called “apartment full if
lies”, thus metaphorically turning it into an unreal place distinct from what
the reader might have considered an ordinary apartment. Neither with this first
apartment nor with the dance club is the reader given any clues as to what the
places look like or where they are located. Just like the black reading space
on the screen the reader is left in the dark.
With places potentially changing from node to
node the reader is constantly busy with figuring out where he/she is in the
story at the very moment. This refers to both the space of the story and the
place the reader has got to within the story in terms of his procession from
the beginning to end of the story.
There is only one instance when a place is
described in full detail, which is Gabriella’s bedroom. Once again this is not
a real place, but one that only exists in the protagonist’s phantasy. Why is it
described in full detail then? For only one reason, which is, that the
protagonist himself in this situation is not sure where he is, or more precise,
imgines not to be sure where he is: “I awoke and turned over to try and determine
where I was,” he says at the beginning of the paragraph. It follows a detailed
description of left and right side of the bed, the blanket, the night table,
and finally the mentioning of a “next room”.
The unfrequent use of space references in the
hypertext can again be ascribed to it imitating journal style, where there
tends to be no need to write down locations as they will be part of the
writer’s memory structure of an event. This does, however, leave its readers in
the dark as to where the story takes place, which can either be seen as giving
the reader more opportunities to imagine and create their own spaces of the
story, or just as a lack of description. The image of leaving its readers in
the dark as to where the story takes place, how far they have proceded in the
course of the story and whether they have read all the nodes once they are (or
are not?) finished certainly fits the pitch-black background on which the story
is presented on the screen.
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Julia Reiss
jureiss@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press