The labyrinth of a network
in which all nodes are serially connected forms an unlimited space.
The idea of a serial connection in thought was developed by Eco in his
Opera aperta (1962), where he develops his ideas in opposition to modelsof
textual closure in static structuralism: even if traditional texts are
materially bounded, they are virtually
open in their narrative organization.
The narrative modes of connection in hypertext
are allusion, quotation, reference, and linking. These modes open up
the narrative space and can be interpreted as "different functions of intertextuality,
just as Usenet newsgroups, electronic mailing, lists, paperback bestsellers,
and flysheet" (Aarseth 1994: 71). Therefore, Aarseth
suggests that we distinguish more adequate forms of textuality rather
than insist on the crucial distinction between traditional and electronic
texts, in particular because the seemingly textual integrity and stability
of traditional texts is not an inherent quality of the physical object
"text", but a cultural construct which is the
result of interpretation. In the words of Landow(1992:
119): "Even within the vastness of hyperspace, the author, like the reader-author,
will find limits, and from them construct occasions to struggle."
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