Ghost Texts and Hyper Texts

On the Birthday of a Stranger by Michael Joyce initially presents as a collection of several short textual elements which could potentially bare a connection, creating a continuous plot. While progressing through the 26 texts which are all accompanied by a single black and white image each, the reader soon notices that even though some stories share a similar topic, none have an actual connection that could be seen as a classical “story line”. The reader more or less creates his own story while reading the next. Apart from the 26 initial texts, each page also shows one phrase at the bottom, which is used in order to navigate through the story. As well as this the text also includes 7 “ghost texts” with coloured images, which the text can skip to randomly, during any point of the story.

     These “ghost texts” also create one of two major similarities between On the Birthday of a Stranger and Twelve Blue. Both texts change throughout the reading process. While Twelve Blue has certain textual elements which disappear after being clicked for the first time, On the Birthday of a Stranger presents with magically appearing stories, making the two works ergodic texts. The second similarity that can be found is that both texts present with a central “hub” or menu. While Twelve Blue presents with a piece of abstract art on almost every page, On the Birthday of a Stranger has a map, which can be accessed through almost every page by clicking on the “coordinates” highlighted in red. This means that in both cases the reader is given a guideline, something to orientate himself while trying to understand the concept of the text itself.

    The Brain Drawing the Bullet  is a fictional hypertext based on a real event, the murder case of W. S. Burroughs’ wife, Joan Vollmer, in Mexico, written by Alan Trotter. The story is told using the Cut-Up method, established by W. S. Burroughs, meaning that the element of “chance” is added to a text.  The hypertext presents with 10 editorial and 10 story related texts while the author’s own views of the events are constantly interrupting the reading.

         Another element which can be traced back to the Cut-Up method, is the ergodic nature of the text. Certain textual passages have the chance to change after, before or during reading, creating yet again a similarity to Twelve Blue. This might be the only similarity between the two texts that can be found. While both have certain story lines, The Brain Drawing the Bullet focuses on one character yet does not allow you to follow him due to the disruptive nature of the texts. There is a lot of repetition due to the fact that you are witnessing the constant retelling of an event. Additionally Alan Trotters text presents which a much simpler structure, with the complete text being visible on one page. The reader uncovers more and more text but does not actually skip from page to page. This also makes a menu, as presented in both On the Birthday of a Stranger and Twelve Blue, obsolete.

 J. Petri & K. Freeman