Postmodern Culture

Decorating the Corpse: Hypertext After the Web

Not long ago I learned that in 1997–98, two new literary prizes will be given for work in hypertext, one in the U.S. and one in Europe. When I reported this to a certain writer well versed in “new media,” I received an interesting answer. The givers of the prizes are very kind, the writer said, “but they are pinning medals on a corpse.” My correspondent thought that creative hypertext had a fine future behind it but little in the way of prospects. It was an idea whose time had been.

Writers say these things. Sometimes, as in the case just mentioned, we speak from despair, fearing that the audience for serious work may be collapsing to a singularity. At other times the lament that X is lost may serve as prelude to hubris, for instance when the mourner believes that a bright and promising meta-X (of his own invention) is coming with the dawn. Writing is dead!—and not a moment too soon—long live my kind of writing! Because they can be disingenuous in this way, literary mass obituaries should never be taken at face value. The reader is warned.

Yet if one has time and inclination to worry about such things, there are reasons to be concerned about hypertext. Until recently the United States had two major publishers of substantial work in new media: Eastgate Systems and the Voyager Company. After struggling to create a market for CD-ROMs with admirable production values and strong literary sensibilities, Voyager has left the field. Eastgate carries on, and other ventures, perhaps by university presses and non-U.S. firms, may compensate in some measure for Voyager’s absence. Still, the implications are troubling.

No doubt the change at Voyager came for various reasons, many having little to do with the Internet, but Voyager’s withdrawal does seem to coincide neatly with the recent surge of interest in the World Wide Web. One has to wonder whether Voyager’s often exquisite products were eclipsed by offerings on the Web—from on-line ‘zines like Salon, Feed, and Suck to the more dubious prospects of “push” media and VRML. If this is the case, then we may be seeing a shift, as far as hypertext is concerned, from a commercial model of literary production:

“EXPANDED BOOK” = CD-ROM = MARKETABLE COMMODITY

to a public-service or indeed an amateur model:

HYPERTEXT = WEB SITE = WORK OF PURE DEVOTION

Postmodern Culture has an evident stake in these developments. Since our recent move to Johns Hopkins University Press and the Muse Project, back issues of the journal, formerly available to anyone with Web access, have been open only to institutional and individual Muse subscribers. (Each current issue continues in free circulation until the next issue appears.) As we explained when the change was announced, this seemed a reasonable way to cover operating costs and keep the journal alive. We knew, though, that we were swimming against the tide. As a number of our authors and readers pointed out, free availability has been a key feature of this publication. Imposing charges seems to some a betrayal. On the Web, as they would have it, information wants to be free.

In response to these concerns, the Press and the editors have decided to make text-only versions of our back issues available to all. This is only a preliminary announcement; details of the new arrangement will appear in our next issue (September, 1997). It bears mentioning, though, that we are not abandoning the subscription model of on-line publishing. Subscriptions to Postmodern Culture will still be offered both individually and through Project Muse, and versions available to subscribers and non-subscribers will differ in important ways.

The free archive will most likely contain full text of conventional articles minus hypertext links, search support, and other valuable features. Because they depend on more sophisticated forms of encoding, hypertext and hypermedia compositions like the contents of this special issue will almost certainly be excluded from the text-only archive. Where hypertext is concerned, some of us still prefer to go against the flow.

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