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(University of Michigan Press, 2000) by J. Yellowlees
Douglas (see Extended Abstract The End of Books
guides readers through the most prominent criticism on
interactive fiction from both its proponents and skeptics
and examines similarities and differences between print and
hypertext fiction. At its core, The End of Books contains a
series of readings of critically acclaimed interactive works
that illuminates how hypertext fiction "works," and how the
medium can shed new light on models of the reading process.
While Douglas cautions readers against generalizing about
future genres and works from an examination of this
still-evolving technology and medium, she identifies
possible developments for the future of storytelling from
outstanding examples of Web-based fiction and CD-ROM
narratives, possibilities that will enable narratives to
both portray the world with greater realism and to transcend
the boundaries of novels and films, character and plot
alike. Beginning with a careful
analysis of the criticism on interactive fiction, The End
of Books examines many popular misconceptions about the
new medium, from Sven Birkert's Gutenberg Elegies to
Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck, against
prominent examples of interactive narratives that include
Afternoon, Myst and Douglas Adams¹
Starship Titanic. A noted theorist of interactive
fiction, Douglas' The End of Books continues the
investigation of theories of reading, poetics, aesthetics
and their relevance to the experience of interactive fiction
she has pursued in over dozen articles on the subject that
remain the only examples of research on reading and
interactivity. Using critically acclaimed disk-based
hypertext fiction, Web-based short stories, and digital
narratives on CD-ROM, this book explores the relevance and
accuracy of theories of reading based primarily on highly
conventional print texts where hypertext fiction,
avant-garde print fiction and even highly conventional texts
are concerned. Douglas ultimately uses close readings of
works like Michael Joyce's Twelve Blue and Jordan
Mechner¹s The Last Express to consider the aesthetic
possibilities of new digital technologies for producing
works of fiction that can prove more realistic, richer, and
more inexhaustible than anything possible in print or on
film. [order the book
from |
Of
all developments surrounding hypermedia, none has been as
hotly or frequently debated as the meeting of storytelling
and interactivity. The earliest critical articles on the
possibilities for interactive fiction predated any actual
examples, and, today, editorials, articles, and critical
analyses dedicated to the subject continue to outnumber the
fairly modest number of examples of interactive fiction that
currently exist. The End of Books or Books Without
End? examines the debate swirling around the marriage of
fiction and digital technology: Does an interactive story
demand too much from its readers? Does the whole concept of
readerly choice destroy the integrity of an author¹s
vision? Does interactivity turn reading fiction from "play"
into "work"; too much work? Will hypertext fiction overtake
the novel as a form of art or entertainment? And what might
future interactive books look like?
