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| Books Versus Hypertext |
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| Books v hypertext probably isn't a good title to use, but it highlights the general misconception that hypertext is electronic.
It doesn't have to be. |
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| An example of printed hypertext is Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch, published in 1966. It is made up of 155
chapters split into three sections. In the "Table of instructions" (there are no contents) it is explained that there are two
approved readings of the book; from chapter 1 through to 56 in a linear fashion or from chapter 73 to 1, and from 1 to wherever
the chapters lead, which is indicated at the end of the chapter by a number. |
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| As a more recent example, there was a fad for Dungeons and Dragons type adventure
books in the late 1970s - early 1980s, where at the end of the page you would be offered various alternatives, such as fight, run back the way you came or
go up the ladder etc.. and you would be directed to go to a certain page depending on what you decided.
In this way, you could read the book several times, and each time a different story or outcome would reveal itself. |
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| Also, with a printed hypertext (or hyperbook), you can see the physical size of the reading matter, whereas with a web site, the size cannot be readily identified and there could
be links to other sites or documents on different servers around the world, and those documents in turn may have lots of internal and external links,
and so on. So, we can see that hypertext need not be limited to the electronics of computers and the internet. |
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