Cybertext, Perspectives on Ergodic Literature
by Espen J. Aarseth
Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore, London, 1997
203 pp., illus. hardcover $45.00 paper $14.95
ISBN 0-8018-5578-0; ISBN 0-8018-5579-9
Reviewed by Judy Malloy
The diverse roots of computer-mediated narrative--Vannevar's Bush's
Memex; Ted Nelson's idea of hypertext; database theory; interactive art;
artists books; films; postmodern literature to name a few -- have been
extensively discussed elsewhere [1]. However, since the late eighties
when Infocom adventure stories were chronicled in the pages of Byte,
Compute and A+ Magazine [2], early computer games with narrative elements
have not been widely studied.
In Cybertext, Perspectives on Ergodic Literature a slim volume that
covers adventure games, automated poetics, MUDs, hypertext and a few
other forms of computer-mediated games and literature, the author defines
cybertext as "a machine for the production of variety of expression"--stating that "when you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded
of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard." He
appropriates the word "ergodic" from a physics term that derives from the
Greek words "ergon" and "hodos", meaning work and path. "In ergodic
literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse
the text," he explains.
Resulting from a three-year Ph.D Scholarship from the Norwegian Research
Council, Cybertext, Perspectives on Ergodic Literature contains multiple
references but seldom rises above the sources [3]. Nevertheless,
different perspectives, even if limited, are useful in any emerging
media. This book is of interest to students of computer-mediated
literature because it approaches both computer games and hypernarrative
in interface terms.
In the chapter titled "Paradigms and Perspectives," for instance, Aarseth
examines cybernetic sign systems in the computer game Dark Castle. He
also examines user interaction in other computer games including Breakout
and Lemmings. However, given that this purports to be a book about
literature, the study would have been more relevant if he had included
some of the more complex narrative games -- such as Myst or Robert
Pinsky's Mindwheel.
In the chapter "Intrigue and Discourse in the Adventure Game," he gives a brief history of the adventure game genre and chronicles an extensive session with Marc Blank's Deadline. The chapter on hypertext aesthetics includes an analysis of Michael Joyce's afternoon which Aarseth looks at structurally--mapping the work and counting the lexias.
But surprisingly, although he suggests that MUDs are a "meaningful,
intelligible mode of literary communication", MUD based works of
literature, such as Carolyn Guyer's HiPitched Voices project or David
Blair's WaxWeb are not included. In fact, highly interactive,
collaboratively creatively computer narratives are completely overlooked
in this book.
Notes:
1. Technocriticism and Hypernarrative, (Modern Fiction Studies 43:3, Fall
1997. N. Katherine Hayles, Guest Editor) released at approximately the
same time as Cybertext by the same publisher (Johns Hopkins Press) is a
comprehensive and inclusive resource that contains informed literary
from a variety of viewpoints.
2. Resources from this period that look at computer games in narrative
terms include: Abbe Don, 1990. "Interactive Fiction", Art Com Magazine 10
(9) and 10(10) and Mary Ann Buckles, 1989. "Interactive fiction as
literature". Byte 12, 135-142.
3. Jane Yellowlees Douglas' "'How Do I Stop this Thing': Closure and
Indeterminacy" (In: Hyper/Text/Theory, edited by George P. Landow
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1994) is, for instance, much more
interesting than Aarseth's academic summary of her criticism.
