Wandering the streets of Prague-23, you're suddenly approached by one of many multibreasted gendermorphs, who says, "I know you dig me, Abe. I've got your list of preferences right here in my swollen love pocket." You can either mix it up with the morph or continue to meander the streets of this lonely city.
Is this a dream? An online experience? A joke?
None of the above. This is Grammatron, Mark Amerika's online hypertext work. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book, only it's not a book – it's a truly interactive experience. The protagonist, Abe Golam, is submerged in daily information overload. You constantly see push-media advertisements, email, and memos that pop up on Abe's screen as he tries to write. The ads even penetrate his brain – reaching the "mindscreen" in his head.
The reader seeks a way out through this hypertext jungle the same way that Abe searches for self-definition in an information society whose culture is dictated by advertising media – including a huge corporation called In-Tell that co-opts people and all original thought. Eventually, Abe must absorb all this data, becoming "a man-machine interface" like Grammatron, the program he created.
The Web makes each read different: Hypertext makes it possible to loop back to previous portions or jump forward. Bookmarking is essential to keep your place on whichever forking path you take.
Even with more than 1,100 pages and 2,000 links, the work is not as daunting or as theoretical as most hypertext fiction. While Grammatron is definitely not linear, its fictional plot and structure highlight the bits of theory within. It's a model for a whole new level of reading.
Grammatron: free
This article originally appeared in the November issue of Wired magazine.
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