Hypertext

The Rise and Fall of Hypertext Fiction

Xiaohu Zhou

School of Electronic and Computer Science, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

Abstract. The article mainly focuses on the analysis of why hypertext fiction does not take off as people expected and whether current technology will trigger its development to a new level. The article first provides an overview of the development of hypertext fiction. Then it tracks and analyzes the failed reasons of hypertext fiction. Finally, it focuses on recent information technology which improves hypertext fiction. With the above analysis, the author makes a conclusion that eBook technology does contribute to developing hypertext fiction, but more advanced technologies are still needed to design and more attractive hypertext fictions are needed to create. Keywords: Hypertext fiction, eBook technology, and failed reasons.

Words count: 1479 (excluded titles)

1

INTROUDCTION

Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature that branches and allows the choices of the readers, so that readers can interact with the fiction according to their preferences [1]. In 1987, Joyce, M. was written the first hypertext fiction, ‘Afternoon, A Story’ [2], which was regarded as the rise of another form of literature. However, this kind of non-linear fiction did not grow as popular as people once predicted. Nowadays, hypertext fiction has still remained a niche activity, with few publishers continuing to release new works and few readers continuing to follow the release. As for the current situation, this article gives an overview of the history of hypertext fiction, and then discusses the reasons why it failed to take off in the world as expected.

2

HISTORICAL REVIEW

Since the hypertext fictions were presented ahead of the advent of the World Wide Web, authors used software such as Storyspace and HyperCard to develop their works on it [3]. And Storyspace had been the dominated software to produce CD-ROM-based...