Hypertext

A friend (whose name I won't mention so those who know him won't hound him) came up with the best idea for a hypertext narrative I've heard in a very long time. It's positively brilliant. Not easy to pull off, of course -- these projects never are -- but it's one of those ideas I kick myself for not thinking of years ago when I had the energy to write hypertext narrative. I don't any more. Frazzles the mind. But I really hope the friend follows through on this -- it's one of those highly creative edgy concepts on which reputations can be built. I applaud the idea without reservation. Just brilliant.


To date, the most edgy amazing produced hyperdrama is not, alas, my own Chateau de Mort in the Pittock Mansion but a German woman's "An Evening in Elsinore" in which Shakespeare's Hamlet, Stoppard's Rosencrantz... and her own original play about Orphelia all ran simultaneously, intersecting often, in a German castle! My own most ambitious hypertext is the The Seagull Hyperdrama.

My friend's project has the audacity of each of these. It takes balls to pull off a project like this -- but all great works of art require balls to pull off. Damn, I'm impressed with this concept! I may not still be around when the concept gets realized (these things take time -- my Chekhov hypertext took ten years) but by the gods I'll go to my grave thinking my friend can pull this off! He has just the right kind of brain to do it and is young enough to enjoy the possible rewards. I'm very excited about the possibility of this. I haven't been this excited about someone else's idea in ages.

My advice to my friend? Don't be overwhelmed by it: structure the modules and work on them one by one. And don't tell anyone what you're up to! An idea like this can only be done once. You have to be the first. You thought of it, do it as directly as you can without cheating the material or getting into a panic. Think of the modules. One by one. Onward.

For the uninitiated:

• What Is Hypertext?
  
• The New Hyperdrama.