Cybertext is the organization of text in order to analyze the influence of the

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

as an integral part of the

literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

dynamic, as defined by

Espen Aarseth Espen J. Aarseth (born 1965) is a Norwegian academic specializing in the fields of video game studies and electronic literature. Aarseth completed his doctorate at the University of Bergen. He co-founded the Department of Humanistic Informatics at ...

in 1997. Aarseth defined it as a type of

ergodic literature Ergodic literature is a term coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his book ''Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature'' to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. The term is derived fr ...

where user traverses the text by doing non-trivial work.

Definition

Cybertexts are pieces of literature where the medium matters. Each user obtains a different outcome based on the choices they make. According to Aarseth, "information is here understood as a string of signs, which may (but does not have to) make sense to a given observer." Cybertexts may be equated to the transition between a

linear Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

piece of literature, such as a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, and a

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

. In a novel, the reader has no choice, the

plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...

and the characters are all chosen by the author, there is no 'user', just a 'reader', this is important because it entails that the person working their way through the novel is not an active participant. Cybertext is based on the idea that getting to the message is just as important as the message itself. In order to obtain the message, work on the part of the user is required. This may also be referred to as nontrivial work on the part of the user. What this means is that the reader does not merely interpret the text but performs actions such as active choice and decision-making through navigation options. There is also the existence of a feedback loop between the reader and the text. Cybertexts are distinguished from games, where a player makes decisions and decides what to do, what things to punch, or when to jump. Cybertexts, on the other hand, usually have a message that is translated to the reader as they work their way through the piece. In this form of literature, however, there is a possibility that the reader misses elements or information depending on the choices he makes.

Application

The concept of cybertext offers a way to expand the reach of

literary studies Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

to include phenomena that are perceived today as foreign or marginal. In Aarseth's work, cybertext denotes the general set of text machines which, operated by readers, yield different texts for reading. For example, in

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau wa ...

's book ''

Hundred Thousand Billion Poems ''A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems'' or ''One hundred million million poems'' (original French title: ''Cent mille milliards de poèmes'') is a book by Raymond Queneau, published in 1961. The book is a set of ten sonnets printed on card with each ...

'', each reader will encounter not just

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

arranged in a different order, but ''different poems'' depending on the precise way in which they turn the sections of page. Cybertext can also be used as a broader alternative for hypertext, particularly as it critiques the critical responses to the latter. Aarseth, together with literary scholars such as

N. Katherine Hayles Nancy Katherine Hayles (born December 16, 1943) is an American postmodern literary critic, most notable for her contribution to the fields of literature and science, electronic literature, and American literature. She is the James B. Duke Di ...

, maintains that cybertext cannot be applied according to the conventional author-text-message paradigms since it is a computational engine.

Background

The term ''cybertext'' is derived from ''cyber''- in the word

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

, which was coined by

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...

in his book ''Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine'' (1948), which in turn comes from the Greek word ''kybernetes'' –

helmsman A helmsman or helm (sometimes driver) is a person who steering, steers a ship, sailboat, submarine, other type of maritime vessel, or spacecraft. The rank and seniority of the helmsman may vary: on small vessels such as fishing vessels and yacht ...

. The prefix is then merged with the word "text", which is identified as a distinctive structure for producing and consuming verbal meaning in post-structuralist literary theory. Although Aarseth's use of the term has been the most influential, he was not the first to use it. The neologism ''cybertext'' appeared several times in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was the name of a software company in the mid-1980s, and was used by

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

poetry author

Bruce Boston Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet. Early years Bruce Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.Diane SeversonInterview with Bruce Boston''Amazing Stories'' March 15, 2013 (accessed S ...

as the title of a book he published in 1992, which contained science-fictional poetry. Cybertext is part of what scholars called generational shifts involving literature on digital media. The first phase was hypertext, which transitioned to hypermedia during the mid-1990s. These developments coincided with the invention of the first graphic browser called

Mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

and the popularization of the world wide web. Cybertext came after hypermedia amid the move toward the focus on software code, particularly its considerable ability to control the reception process without reducing interactivity. The fundamental idea in the development of the theory of cybernetics is the concept of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

: a portion of

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

produced by the system that is taken, total or partially, as input. Cybernetics is the science that studies control and regulation in systems in which there exists flow and feedback of information. Though first used by

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

poet

, the term cybertext was brought to the

world's attention by

in 1997. Aarseth's concept of cybertext focuses on the organization of the text in order to analyze the influence of the

as an integral part of the literary dynamic. According to Aarseth, cybertext is not a

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

in itself; in order to classify traditions,

literary genres A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, setting tone, tone, Content (media), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which a ...

and

aesthetic value Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, we should inspect texts at a much more local level. He also maintained that traditional literary theory and interpretation are not main features in cybertext since it focuses on the textual medium (textonomy) and the study of textual meaning (textology).

Examples

An example of a cybertext is ''Twelve Blue'' by Michael Joyce. It is a web-based text that includes navigation modes characterized by fluid and multiple sense of structures of electronic textuality such as colored threads that play different "bars" and blue-script text that returns to images of rivers and water. Depending on what link you choose or what portion of the

diagram A diagram is a symbolic representation of information using visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since prehistoric times on walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Enlightenment. Sometimes, the technique uses a three- ...

on the side you pick you will be transferred to a different portion of the text. So in the end, you do not really finish reading the entire story or 'novel' you go through random pages and try piecing the story together yourself. You may never really 'finish' the story. But, because it is a cybertext the 'finishing' of the story is not as important as its impact on the reader, or on the conveyance. Another example is ''Stir Fry Texts'', by Jim Andrews, which is a cybertext where there are many layers of text, and as you move your mouse over the words, the layers beneath them are 'dug' through. ''The House'' is another example of a cybertext where one might assume a description of the piece as follows: It is an unruly text, the words don't listen, you are not supreme. You are guided through the piece. This is a cybertext with minimal control. You watch as something unfolds before you, "a crumbling mania", you must be able to go with the flow, to read texts upside down, to piece together a reflection of words, to be okay with texts half read disappearing or moving so far away so continuously that you can not make out those very important words.Flanagan, Mary. The House, retrieved from: http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/flanagan__thehouse/index.html

References

External links