Thury on Hypertext

Eva Thury, who “has a black belt in mythology”, has an exceptionally sensible look at hypertext fiction in Stone age memes: Google my codex.

The trouble with hypertext, though, is that it makes readers nervous. You start to read the story and then you have to make choices: are you getting the ‘real story’?... Hypertext makes you aware of the choices a reader makes, it lays bare the artifice of the medium, and that can annoy the uninitiated.

Despite the nervousness, Thury concludes that “these days media are educating us to appreciate more complexity, and to be willing to spend more time exploring a story.” This is exactly right; readers (and film viewers) are more attentive and more sophisticated than ever before.