Thesis: Although most would think Patchwork Girl is a more pleasing medium, for its technology is far more advanced than that of a book, this modern medium’s complexity, inelasticity, and unfamiliar structure actually makes a book seem much more appealing to a reade
A simple task such as opening a book could be under appreciated until one is introduced to Jackson’s hypertext, Patchwork Girl. The modern medium of a hypertext turns the painless task of opening a book into a complex process that stalls the reader from jumping right in to the story. The process of starting a computer and then inserting the disk is far less convenient than just grabbing and opening a book. It also can be fairly tricky for those who are unfamiliar with computers, and that characteristic alone could push potential readers away. In our world today, time is far more valuable than any currency we have, and the more time efficient an activity, the appealing it is to us.
People today have become accustomed to the traditional linear format of a book, where there is a beginning, middle, and an end. When that format is changed into that of a hypertext, even someone who falls at the highest levels of reading and writing, will feel lost in what they are reading. Birkerts (an author who’s life revolves around both reading and writing) explains his first encounter with hypertext in his book, The Gutenberg Elegies. He describes the structure as a “map of an elaborate garden” with” maze-like paths benches and nooks,”(Birkerts 151). He felt paralyzed in confusion from this unfamiliar format of a hypertext. Patchwork Girl is structured in a way that most readers are not used to-there is neither a beginning nor an end. It is structured similarly to a web site database, where the sections are not based on sequence but on relativity.
The structure of hypertext fails to grab the reader’s attention. The fact that there is no specific order in which the reader has to read makes it impossible for there to be a climax. Can it even be defined as a story if there is no climax? This poses a fairly large problem, for how can the reader stay interested in the story if there is no real emotional build up? Without an emotional build up it seems difficult for the reader to be pulled into the story. Birkerts shares the same idea, stating that he felt “none of the tug,”(Birkerts 151) he had felt with books The satisfaction gained from the final chapter of a novel bringing an entire story together, is something that cannot be mimicked. Jackson’s Patchwork Girl lacks the thrust that pushes the reader into the story and keeps them from putting it down.
An important question to think about is; Will hypertext become the “book” of our age? The answer to the question is no. Although hypertext appears to be the more efficient way for an author to get their point across, it lacks the ability to pull the reader into the story. To Jackson’s credit Patchwork Girl has qualities that no other novel shares, but it lacks the key qualities that make a novel, a novel. For that reasonPatchwork Girl fails as a novel.
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