Read a comment a writing instructor wrote to a student in which he writes that
the POV of the student's story is confusing, jumping from one to another to the author and
back. Of course a good writer must first learn the rules and how to apply them correctly,
then throw them out.
"The Color of Television" is a short piece, a short story I guess. A
long thin column, different dialogues, POVs, narratives and pictures woven together using
every HTML text and table trick in the book. Some links are highlighted text, others are
small icons, three different ones, can't tell yet if they have any particular meaning,
many links jump to bookmarks in the scroll, one way to read is to move down from there, or
up, or both. The right half of the page is empty, would be a great place to put readers'
comments and annotations.
Liked this the best of all of Moulthrop's work that I've read. There is even an
ending, a narrative closure of sorts. Writing has a lyrical quality to it missing in the
other works. There is the obligatory self-references, even fragments from his own essays
on hypertext. Color-coded fragments, three or four strands of story plus a commentary and
pictures form the mosaic of each lexia. In a way a cut-up but more like a collage than say
Burroughs' written cut-ups though he did do more collage type work. In a collage the parts
create a synergy of a whole, I don't know if this does this, still an inherent boxiness,
the programmers curse to artists. Not concrete either in that each program as he calls the
lexia, does not break beyond text into picture.
TV or TV as our relation to technology, the breakdown, the point in the system
where it all spins away, this is what he's telling. We are all bombarded with constant
bits and pieces, fragments of sound and image drifting past our consciousness,
interruptions that jump us into other tracks, five to nine different thoughts at once. I
am reminded of the Firesign Theatre and their excellent audio treatments of this.
Moulthrop has tossed another log on the fire of hyperfiction possibility, I eagerly await
his further work...
