So what exactly is hypertext theory?
Hypertext is a viable forum for exploring contemporary critical
theory. George
Landow sums this up by saying:
| The many parallels between computer hypertext and critical
theory have many points of interest, the most important of
which, perhaps, lies in the fact that critical theory promises
to theorize hypertext and hypertext promises to embody and
thereby test aspects of theory, particularly those concerning
textuality, narrative, and the roles or functions of reader
and writer. Using hypertext, critical theorists will have,
or now already have, a laboratory with which to test their
ideas. Most important, perhaps, an experience of reading hypertext
or reading with hypertext greatly clarifies many of the most
significant ideas of critical theory. |
Jean Baudrillard supports this with:
| “[The real] no longer needs to be rational, because it
no longer measures itself against either an ideal or negative
instance. It is no longer anything but operational. In fact,
it is no longer really the real, because no imaginary envelops
it anymore. It is a hyperreal, produced from a radiating synthesis
of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere.”
(Simulacra and Simulation, 2.) |
To put this into context we could substitute real with
text. By making this substitution, we end up with a hypertext
in a hyperspace
that is located in a place “without atmosphere,” or in our minds.
|
[Text] no longer needs to be rational, because it no longer
measures itself against either an ideal or negative instance.
[Text] is no longer anything but operational. In fact, it
is no longer really [text], because no imaginary envelops
it anymore. It is a hyper[text], produced from a radiating
synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without
atmosphere.
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