Vonnegut, Pynchon, and Cortazar:
A Generation of Proto-Hypertext Authors
About the Project
Hypertexts present a unique set of literary problems; because these
interactive texts are so new, they must be written -- and read -- in
entirely different ways than are traditional texts. But are these
problems entirely new? A few unusual novels have addressed the
issues of nonlinearity, author presence, and the introduction of the
element of choice -- issues that are important in defining what
hypertext is. Because these works predicted some of the most important
elements of the hypertext revolution, I term them proto-hypertext.
In these works -- Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, Thomas Pynchon's
The Crying of Lot 49, and Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch, -- a new
way of exploring text was born.
Access to the Project
Read the
paper in a linear format with hypertext annotations.
Follow a
number of
alternate and partial readings of the text, including textual searches.
Additional
information about the author and the project.
Leave your
comments
and extend this project with your own text, nodes, and links.
Return to Identity,
Meaning and the Presence of the Author