Introduction

I will focus my paper on the aspect of SPACE in the hypertext Uncle Roger created by Judy Malloy. I have chosen this hypertext because of its author; before having chosen the text I read a bit about Judy Malloy, and I discovered that she is one of the first and most important hypertext writers; so I decided to work on a text written by her. About Uncle Roger, I thought that to analyze the time aspect would be quite interesting, but when I tried to write my comment, someone else had already chosen this aspect in the same hypertext. Finally I made the decision to work on the SPACE aspect.

Uncle Roger appeared in 1986; it consists of three “files” ( "A Party in Woodside", "The Blue Notebook", and "Terminals" ) , much of the narrative takes place at a series of parties that are observed by a narrator, who in telling the story intertwines elements of magic realism with Silicon Valley culture and semiconductor industry lore. Uncle Roger is a story about Silicon Valley, California.

To read the story, the reader chooses one keyword or a combination of keywords. The computer produces the records associated with those keywords. The reader “unfolds” the story by making multiple searches though the database. Like a guest at a real party, the reader hears snatches of conversation, observes what strangers are wearing and meets old friends. No single reader experiences the evening in the same way.

The story is told by a young woman who is a live-in babysitter for the head of a company in Silicon Valley. It is about making chips, industrial espionage, the lifestyle of wealthy executives in Silicon Valley (in the days before the Internet where the chip industry was where a major focus was) and how a young woman from a sheltered East Coast environment views what she observes in California.

Eventually, Uncle Roger has a quite considerable extension; it’s a long hypertext with many links (“A Party in Woodside” has 74 links; “The Blue Notebook” has 75 links; and “Terminals” has 59 links).

Second paper SPACE analysis Conclusion General analysis