Thursday, February 11, 2010

On Hypertext

After reading "Stitch Bitch," I was perplexed and unable to discern what mode of thought the text was intended to provoke. I saw it as a tangled web of words, and struggled to find any sort of linear meaning in the text. However, after participating in the lab, I was better able to grasp some of the concepts portrayed by Shelley. The lab was quiet, as it was meant to be an individual experience. While navigating through what I compared to the front page of the science section in my local newspaper, I was able to construct an image of patchwork girl in my mind that I believed to be different than that of any other student in the room. It began just as Stitch Bitch had appeared to me, but the process allowed me to view it as a greater entity, instead of trying to make linear sense of each passage or picture. I read Stitch Bitch in a linear fashion, from top to bottom, which was exactly why I had trouble understanding it.
It reminded me of The Matrix, and how everything that I knew as 'real' was simply a series of chemical signals sent to my brain. And I, like Neo, refused to accept the terms of the Matrix, sending me into a neurological meltdown fueled by my rejection of what I was being told. After experiencing the lab, I was reminded of when Neo woke up some time later; finally able to come to terms with the Matrix.


No comments: