Meta-Commentary on a Produced Space

The Map

As I've alluded throughout the hypertext, I am more ambiguous about the map than with any other part of the work. In part, I see it as a compromise. The Map is a nod to the literate reader and writer in myself and in my audience. While I firmly plant my tent in the camp with Ulmer and Johnson-Eilola, I am well aware that most literate readers are not ready to sit down with an electrate text (if I've even managed to write one) and read it happily.

Simultaneously, this project (and insightful commentary from the project's reviewers) has led me to ponder the division I'm drawing between literate and electrate textuality. Perhaps I need to reread my Ong, and consider the residual effect of one media form on another. There can be a lot to gain in the conscious mixing of these forms.

Thus, I add these elements, the metacommentaries and the map-- navigation markers, as George Landow might call them-- that give my reader a theoretical foothold in the mucky mesh that is my hypertext. What I find most interesting about the map is its geographizing effect. As soon as I make a map of my site, it feels like it loses a lot of its fluidity. Does having boxes situated in one place or another undermine the virtual space I've built here, or strengthen it (or both)?