Hypertext
associations in “These Waves of Girls”
The hypermedia novella These Wavs of Girls (2001) by Caitlin Fisher uses hyperlinks as a means of drawing connections between memories. There is no right answer or correct sequential approach to the story, rather through exploration and repetition one begins to understanding what the text is about. Rather more like a puzzle than a book, it is only after one looks at all the pieces that you can begin to see it as a whole. The sequence itself is secondary to the content.
An initial reaction to this piece is there is a lot of information it holds. Despite the side bar that works as a big chapter navigator, the hyperlinks tempt one to explore elsewhere, in doing so quickly losing all track of linear or sequential order. In this work, there are many more hyperlinks located throughout the piece. Some are brief short narrative sections that use arrows or only one hyperlink to advance the page. Others are big memories with many hyperlinks working off associations.
This text works in a surreal method that mimics the associational logic of the mind. For instance, clicking on a hyperlink describing grandma, will then take you to an memory from grandma’s house. Rather than organizing information alphabetically, numerically, or sequentially, information is linked based on specific affiliations. Vannevar Bush — often cited as the first to speculate on the hypertext phenomenon — was captivated by this potential of the mind.
The human mind … operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature — Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 185.
This hypertext offers the possibility to explore the character’s mind and experiences rather than a single narrative story, which thematically works with the idea of exploring one’s sexuality. Rather than one clear narrative, there are a series of defining moments. At times sounds emerge, and some of the images become interactive. Certainly there is the idea of play that comes through interaction.
These Waves of Girls embraces the associational links of one’s memory, and your role as the reader becomes accessing the information and synthesizing it yourself.
