This section is dedicated to a detailed description on the concept of time, which I have analysed from three different pointviews:TIME INTRODUCTION
1- The concept of time following the text in a
linear way.
2- The concept of time following the text
in a non-linear way.
3- The concept of time following the text
in a non-linear way (II).
The first time I read this hypertext, I discovered that I gained a much more general aspect of the concept of time, firstly by following the text in a linear way, secondly following the chosen links in order to read this hypertext in a non-linear way and finally, readind the centre chapter of "Ferris wheels" on the whole and then choosing one of the four axes, subsequently following the choosen link inside it, so that the stories are quite different.
I would like to point out that the stories when read choosing links were not very long indeed, so I couldn't expand myself on this part of the project.Meanwhile, to compensate I've chosen to make an expanded study of time when read in a linear way.
Reading in a linear way, (by the hand icons at the bottom of each page),
we discover that there are seventeen chapters, being the first one the
centre of the wheel and the four following ones the axis, then we start
our turning of the wheel through the remaining chapters.
The guidance is as follows:
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GALAXIES |
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The short fiction story begins at the “centre” of the wheel, where we
discover that the narrator explains to us that it’s a busy summer day at
the crowded People’s Fair of Denver, Colorado. And also that this visit
to the fair is a yearly ritual, when at the fun fair visits the town
and stays there throughout all summer.
As we keep on reading the narrator gains a little more confidence with
the reader and tells us that she divorced from her husband two years ago
at the Courthouse where there KBPI radio booth is set up for the summer
and specifically she tells us that she had been at that same place after
her definite divorce crying for four and a half hours.
We suddenly discover that the narrator is not by herself and that she
is visiting the fair with her new boyfriend. She takes us a little bit
near the present this time and thinks about how she met this new boyfriend
less than a year ago (last summer I assume), at that same location and
recognised him from her student years at college.
We come back to the present where her boyfriend asks the narrator for
a commitment, so the narrator avoids the situation by proposing him a ride
in the ferris wheels..
She has a lot of thinking to do.
Following the icon, we are taken to one of the first “axes” where the
narrator introduces us to the location of the ferris wheels, near the hotel
which is being rebuilt for about the fourth time, and she complains about
the construction’s fence and the permanency of it, meanwhile her partner
elicits that no “barriers” should separate them, (meaning no impediments
for their commitment).
Finally they reach the ferris wheels and wait in the queue.
This chapter is rather interesting because the characters described
in them represent different periods of life: the teenage couple represent
the period of adolescence, of fun and freedom, meanwhile the family represent
the period of commitment and marriage, of responsibilities.
Chapter three following the hand icon takes us to one of the “axes”
of the wheel, where our protagonist is waiting on the queue to the ferris
wheels and asks how much the tickets cost. The lady selling tickets won’t
accept to sell just the one ticket:
“Ya gotta buy tickets, she says. Ten dollars for twenty tickets.
We tell her we know this, but we just want to ride the ferris wheel and
want to know how many tickets we need.”
This is what I consider a paralelism: the ferris wheel in this story
is the representation of life, of its several periods and that
“I can't tell you what you need, she says. You have to figure
it out for yourselves.”
You need more that just one “ride” to discover what your objectives
in life are and a great amount of time to try and reach them.
Another reference of time is when the narrator makes another flashback
to her childhood days with her dad at the fair, while waiting their turn.
We follow our “journey” through the story on to the next chapter, which
is the third axis.
While they wait in the queue, some people get of the wheel and a little
boy runs away from his mum and she goes after him, people stare and do
nothing. So the protagonist’s partner chases after him, the boy stumbles
and he reaches out to pick him of the floor.
He talks to the little boy’s mother for a little while and then rejoins
the queue, our narrator is overwhelmed by her boyfriend’s spontaneous reaction.
The fourth axis or fifth chapter takes place on the ferris wheels, and
the period of old aged, is represented by an elderly couple in the queue
in front of them, although they are old, they seem still so in love.
The colour of our couple’s carriage is like the “cartoon’s bright
yellow of hopes and dreams”, they want to live happily forever,
with their hopes and dreams for a perfect future. Meanwhile the calmness
of a well-deserved married life is like the colour of the old couple’s
carriage, “dark blue like the summer sky hours after twilight”
From now on the chapters represent each and one of the cars on the ferris
wheel, this is when they start the”ride” of their “life” on the ferris
wheel.
The teenagers on the octopus ride next to the ferris wheel, represent
again the period of adolescence and how the narrator’s partner explains
that they don’t want the ride to end, just as the period of their lives,
full of fun and play andscreaming happiness.
Just as the teenagers don’t want the ride to end, the narrator longs
to stay static, no longer needing to move in time.
The hand icon this time takes us to chapter seven where the author yet
again thinks about her being always terrified of heights and machines moving,
just as once you take a tough decision there is no turning back and you
have to keep on moving with it and its consequences.
The flashback on this chapter takes us once again to her childhood
years, specifically to when she was seven years old and her father forced
her to ride a roller coaster until she wasn’t afraid anymore. So now, all
those years later, she thinks back on the fear she felt on her first ride
and how nowadays that fear is gone and all that’s left is calmness.
She discovers she needs more time and confidence to begin life as a
married woman for the second time in her life.
Chapter eight is very important, because she thinks about what marriage really is, a promise of eternal love, but also what it is in a more realisti point of view: a whole life together going through good but also bad stages in matrimony, supporting one another through good years and lean years, forever. The narrator meditates or rather asks herself if she will be able to keep her promise of etenal love against the tides of fate, just as when she didn't keep it in the past, through her first marriage.
Chapter nine takes us through the hopes of future for our dear narrator, she longs to visit Japan someday in the future, but all of a sudden she is overwhelmed by the erotic moves of her boyfriend, coming back from her thoughts to a more realistic state of consciousness, together they remember happy memories from the past.
Chapter ten welcomes us to another turn of the wheel, when the narrator thinks about what it would be like just to stop thinking about her toughest decision, represented by an attempt to let herself fall from the wheel, commit suicide, not caring about the consequences of her "fall", but suddenly her boyfriend brings her back from her thoughts to reality once more.
Chapter eleven was certainly one of my favourite ones, the reason for this is that the narrator thinks about the simple things in life, of the daily routines of marriage, she believes that although their lifes will be quite insignificant to others, to them these routines will be part of their own and simple world for two, where truths, charms and beauties are part of it.
Chapter twelve continues with the our protagonist's ride on the ferris wheel, she wonders at the invisible stars up in the sky and how although they are invisible, they are static swinging for them infinitely.
Chapter thirteen tells us thet we are in the late afternoon and that they should, sometime in the future, explore different new places in order to get out of their own particular infinity, to a much broader one, including a visit to the stars!, so there would be no limits to their life together.
Chapter fourteen is represented by the little boy who's stuck in the
ride till its over, just as his life is continuing forever...
meanwhile her boyfriend talks about taking important decisions and
to stick with them and their consequences, either good or bad and to try
to make oou the most of your life.
The narrator understands this and thinks about when her father taught
her karate in order to defend herself from kidnappers, she thinks that
her actual situation is not as horrible as what her dad taught her about
kidnappers, she would feel safe and secure with her new marriage.
Chapter fifteen is almost drawing us to the end, and the future is represented
by the elderly couple. Our narrator questions their reasons for getting
married, Was it something more profound or just the years of running his
fingers through her hair? she decides that those simple tokens of love
are enough to make her marriage a happy one.
, wanting to give a reply soon, she thinks about all those years of
mortages, debts and insurances, and how these matters would erase the charms
of love, but as she looks at her boyfriend happily wathching the landscape,
she thinks that these are things she would go through just to live and
love him every day and forever.
Chapter sixteen takes us to the end of their ride, watching all the people mentioned before get off the ferris wheels, the teenagers, the old couple, watching them get off, she decides she wants to be with her boyfrined, and she wants the long road of life to support them im their journey through life and marriage.
Chapter seventeen is finally represented by the agreement of our narrator to marry her boyfriend, balancing th ideal of true love and the reality of marriage, two people, one team, together, forever.
Secondly, I will analyse the concept of time reading the text in a non-linear way, selecting links:
The following chapters reflect my "journey" through a proper hypertext
reading:
I would like to point out (once again), that information on time is
very brief throughout this section.
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DISTANT GALAXIES | AGAINST TIDES | FAR OFF STARS |
| AGAINST TIDES |
It’s a busy summer day at the crowded People’s Fair of Denver, Colorado. And also that this visit to the fair is a yearly ritual, when at the fun fair visits the town and stays there throughout all summer.
The chosen link takes us to one of the “axes” of the wheel, where our
protagonist is waiting on the queue to the ferris wheels and asks how much
the tickets cost. The lady selling tickets won’t accept to sell just the
one ticket:
“Ya gotta buy tickets, she says. Ten dollars for twenty tickets.
We tell her we know this, but we just want to ride the ferris wheel and
want to know how many tickets we need.”
This is what I consider a paralelism: the ferris wheel in this story
is the representation of life, of its several periods and that
“I can't tell you what you need, she says. You have to figure
it out for yourselves.”
You need more that just one “ride” to discover what your objectives
in life are and a great amount of time to try and reach them.
The selected link in "Enter" takes us to when the narrator confesses
that she's always been and still is afraid of heights on machines moving,
understanding this as a paralelism of life itself, and how time quickly
passes through us at the blink of an eye, I also believe that she refers
to the importance of taking the right decisions, and if taken wrong, the
suffering of its consequences.
On the other hand, she remembers in the form of of a flashback, that
when she was seven years old, her father took her on a roller coaster ride
in order to loose her fear to the machine and how she experienced the feeling
from terror to calm on her fourth ride. I believe this means that all of
life's handicaps heal with time.
The seleced link from "falsehood" takes us to late afternoon the narrator feels like they should, sometime in the future, visit an tattered museum of old rotted car, which is part of their town...
The chosen link from !"Distant Galaxies" takes us to this chapter where she is with her boyfriend at the top of the ferris wheels, just enjoying the moment of calmness and observing the view....
The selected link from "Against Tides"takes us to this chapter in whch the future is represented by one old couple and the dream of the narrator is represented by the stars above in the sky...
The selecte link in "Far Off Stars" takes us back to "Againt tides",
our end through the "journey" of our hypertext where she thinks about what
marriage really is, a promise of eternal love, but also what it is in a
more realistic point of view: a whole life together going through good
but also bad stages in matrimony, supporting one another through good years
and lean years, forever. The narrator meditates or rather asks herself
if she will be able to keep her promise of etenal love against the tides
of fate, just as when she didn't keep it in the past, through her first
marriage.
The story ends with no definite answer, leaving the reader intrigued.
Finally, I decided to include a way of reading in which, entering the
site
map and following the revolving
text .
I decided to begin my second "journey" through hypertext by starting
from the "Ferris Wheels" chapter and selecting by chance one of the
axis, subsequently choosing the links implied in it and so forth.
These are my selected chapters of the text:
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The short fiction story begins at the “centre” of the wheel, where we
discover that the narrator explains that it’s a busy summer day at the
crowded People’s Fair of Denver, Colorado. And also that this visit to
the fair is a yearly ritual, when at the fun fair visits the town
and stays there throughout all summer.
As we keep on reading the narrator gains a little more confidence with
the reader and tells us that she divorced from her husband two years ago
at the Courthouse where there KBPI radio booth is set up for the summer
and specifically she tells us that she had been at that same place after
her definite divorce crying for four and a half hours.
We suddenly discover that the narrator is not by herself and that she
is visiting the fair with her new boyfriend. She takes us a little bit
near the present this time and thinks about how she met this new boyfriend
less than a year ago (last summer I assume), at that same location and
recognised him from her student years at college.
We come back to the present where her boyfriend asks the narrator for
a commitment, so the narrator avoids the situation by proposing him a ride
in the ferris wheels..
She has a lot of thinking to do.
I chose this axis by chance and this is what I discovered: while waiting in the queue to ride on the ferris wheels, the narrator stares at an old couple and senses a lot of happiness between them, because the old man caresses her back and puts a tortoishell barrete lovingly touching her hair, she is overwhelmed with their silent complicity. Meanwhile her boyfriend also senses their happiness and makes a romantic move with our narrator...while they climb into their car on the ferris wheel
The couple are at the top of the ferris wheel now, the narrator stares
at a bunch of gigling teenagers, wanting to ride in the ferris wheel together
and the attendant yells at them furiously that they can only ride in couples.
Meanwhile our protagonist's boyfriens makes an erotic move on her,
sliding his hand under the elastic of her skir and,joking that the old
couple below them are doing just the same thing. meanwhile she makes sure
there is nobody watching.and follows.
meanwhile, she thinks about the colour of her vermillion-coloured skirt
and how it ressembles that one of the temples of Japan she dreams to visit
one day.
In this chapter the narrator thinks about the simple things in life,of the daily routines of marriage and goes on until suddenly she starts to think about more trascendental and philosophical matters. Shediscovers the fact that although their lifes will be quite insignificant to others (including imaginary alien civilitations!), to them these routines will be part of their own and simple world for two, where truths, charms and beauties are a part of it.
The narrator is above the wheel now, and has a perfect and complete view of the whole city of Denverwe in the late afternoon She thinks that they should, sometime in the future, explore different new places in order to get out of their own particular infinity, into a much broader one, including a visit to the stars!, so there would be no limits to their life together.
This chapter welcomes us to another turn of the wheel, when the narrator changes her point of view, and discovers that sticky asphalt has been replaced by a smooth sheer blackness which welcomes her into a feeling of calmness.
This final chapter is represented by the little boy who's stuck in the
ride till its over, just as his life is continuing forever...
Meanwhile our narrator's boyfriend talks about taking important decisions
and that they should stick to them and its consequences, (either good or
bad), and to try to make out the most of your life.
The narrator understands this and thinks about when her father taught
her karate in order to defend herself from kidnappers, she thinks that
her actual situation is not as horrible as what her dad taught her about
kidnappers, she would feel safe and secure with her new marriage.
We assume from this thought that she would finally say yes, although
it's not openly said at the end of this chapter.
| Author's note:
This is just a little example on how I found out what it takes to read an hypertext in various ways. According to Deena Larsen in her definition of hypertext, there are multiple possibilities to read them, and I encourage you to try and read, well not ALL of them, but some of them to experience them in the most ways possible |
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Academic year 2001/2002
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Catalina Diaz Beveridge
Universitat de València Press
cadiazbe@alumni.uv.es