“Hands On”

December 2, 2009 jyerkie3

Writing Project #4 Draft

Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl is a hypertext that is composed of many different images as well as different pieces of text. These different works of text are placed in one of the five different sections in this piece of work. Patchwork Girl is known for evoking unpleasant and frustrating feelings from the reader. This hypertext does not provide the reader with the traditional beginning-to-end story arch. The reader is able to make their own decisions in the order in which they read the text, unlike in a book, where the author composes the text in the order he or she wants the reader to read. “I am buried here. You can resurrect me, but only piecemeal. If you want to see the whole, you will have to sew me together yourself.” Writing a novel is not always easy, and it may be even more difficult when the story line is up to ones fingertips. Shelly Jackson’s novels are one of the many novels to be electronic. Technology plays a big role in today’s society, which is noticeable in Patchwork Girl. There are many forms of technology that have affected written text of literature, for example internet, cell phones, and ipods. Shelly’s patchwork girl is a new style of reading, which has taken away from the traditional style of reading. Patchwork Girl has been both a success and a failure as a novel; the text of Patchwork Girl makes it easy for the reader to be lost which takes away from the idea that Birkets emphasizes that reading is “hands on”.

When I received Jackson’s “Patchwork Girl” I was a little confused when I received a CD instead of a novel. I was really expecting a novel, which I could turn the pages of, or underline quotes that stood out to me. The look, feel, and overall appearance of the novel however were changed when I began using the Patchwork Girl hypertext. I was unsure of what to expect, but then a picture of a girl that was put together like a ‘crazy quilt’ I became very interested. I started clicking around the menu, unsure of where I wanted to go. Jackson made it very easy for the reader to get lost in Patchwork Girl. I decided to start with the graveyard section. In the graveyard section, the reader is provided with different text boxes labeled with different textboxes. The next section I wanted to view was the crazy quilt section, and it was very crazy. There are thirty different boxes with many different colors, as if the novel here isn’t a novel at all, but rather a form of art work. As I was clicking around, I assumed the novel could be read anyway, but in the title was actually a sequence as to how the web should be read. It was up to the reader to bridge the gap of the unknown sequence within the story of Patchwork Girl.

Shelly Jackson emphasizes with the storyline of Patchwork Girl by spreading out the story with a web of several different topics and titles. “What is true of art is true of serious reading as well. Fewer and fewer people, it seems, have the leisure or the inclination to undertake it. And true reading is hard. Unless we are practiced, we do not just crack the covers and slip into an alternate world.” As Birkerts discusses his opinion on the work of reading, it is very relevant to the hypertext of Patchwork Girl. For some people, reading is a struggle for several reasons. Reading a novel forces us to actually hold the novel in our hands, and to turn the page, and read the text that is in front of us. In Jacksons Patchwork Girl, a reader can pick what he/she wants to read. With the help of technology it is easy to get by with reading very little. When reading a novel the sequence of pages explains the story, but with the hypertext of Patchwork Girl the story is up to the reader to decide what they want/need to know next. The hypertext of this CD allows the reader to outline the story line of Patchwork Girl in their way, learning what they wish to know about the story of her.

After viewing Patchwork Girl it is very interesting to think about what the future holds for us. E-texts and hypertext are our new form of literature in today’s society. In the upcoming years very few novels may be printed, and it is possible for all literature to be available on CD format. Without technology our society would not be constantly changing as common as it has in these past years. Birkerts enforces his idea in how he views new technology as “a steady displacement of old by new, a generational pressure that escalates its momentum gathering as the members of the old dispensation age and die off.” (214) Birkerts is scared that new technology is going to override the need for books completely. What Birkerts fails to realize is how society is constantly changing. Now society is at the point where we are able to enjoy novels and hypertexts. Novels are never going to just disappear forever, because the ideas of e-texts and hypertext come from many novels in the first place, like in Patchwork Girl, Jackson uses many ideas from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein novel. The new technology is becoming well-known, and our society, including Birkerts should not go against this change.

Birkerts assigns a story to be read by his undergraduate class, that he is teaching at a time. His student’s generalization of the theme in the novel they were reading portrayed his “impatience with their imprecision.” (18) Birkerts believes that readers should not generalize while reading novels. Instead, Birkerts wishes that readers spend a lot of time with a novel and really focus on the overall messages and themes the novel withholds. If Birkerts took the time to view Patchwork Girl, he would see, a reader must spend a lot of time with it, to get the “overall message and theme” of the novel. Birkerts would like society to have an appreciation for novels and to devote the same amount of time to them like he does. His failure in developing an appreciation for this new technology is where he, in my opinion, is wrong. If Birkerts took time to try out the new technology being offered, he too may develop an appreciation for it.

Although Jackson has been successful with Patchwork Girl, opinions will be formed, and other authors will critique the bad reasoning for her work. It is important for all people to be open to new forms of literature and technology. Reading Patchwork Girl has been very stressful piecing the story together, and then having Birkerts critiquing this new form of literature. Jackson has made it possible that not only is literature no longer hands but interactive, which could help the reader be more engaged in the novel. The failure of Patchwork Girl is slowly becoming more successful as readers and others become more immune to the hypertext. The world should be more aware of this sort of literature, as it may replace the hands on feeling of a book.

Entry Filed under: Shelly Jackson's Patchwork girl

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