> I have been taking an on line literature course
> out of Pace University, NY, this summer and the
> last area covered is hypertext. I found The Company
> Therapist and it changed my mind about the whole
> idea of hypertext literature. I posted my essay
> to the class with much enthusiam and reccommendations
> for the others to read this work. I hope you continue
> your collaboration as I hope to visit often and
> get to know the patients. Thank you to Christopher
> Werby and the authors who contribute. I will take
> advantage of the email as I get to know the patients
> and wish to contact the authors.
Thank you very much! All of us here are gluttons for praise!
Olga and I imagine that most of the readers of The Company Therapist never whisper the word "hypertext" as they traverse the site. We hope so anyway. We love hypertext, don't get us wrong. And we think of The Company Therapist as cutting edge hypertext used in a narrative context (as opposed to more imagistic uses in poetry and avant garde fiction). We just try to hide the hypertext underpinnings as much as possible. We've always believed that the form should get out of the way and primarily exist to serve the content. That's why we try to avoid the type of hypertext where each paragraph is thickly strewed with links that are only vaguely identified. A reader should have a general idea of what's going to happen when they press on a link. While we like the idea of creating a narrative space which the reader is free to explore as they please, we'd rather that they didn't wander aimlessly as if they were locked in a literary haunted house.
We'd love it if you'd post your essay in a message post--we look forward to more of your observations.