User:Thijshijsijsjss/Gossamery/The New Media Reader/Nonlinearity and Literary Theory

• Read on: July 2024
• Read it physically in the studio, or on the bootleg library (TODO), or with my annotations (TODO)

This 1994 essay by Espen J. Aarseth outlines a theory of nonlinear texts and places this in the discourse of contemporary literary theory. I stumbled upon it in The New Media Reader, after reading the preceding chapters 12 and 50. By the merit of its placement in the book, that follows a chronological timeline, the alluring title, and Aarseth's name being connected to ludology, my interest was piqued. It is a dense text. Therefore, this entry will start with an attempt of a (subjective) (digestive) summary, after which more personal reflections are explored.

Follow ups to explore:

• Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Espen J. Aarseth) (monoskop link)

Summary of 'Nonlinearity and Literary Theory'

Introduction
A nonlinear text is an object of verbal communication that is not simply one fixed sequence of letters, wors and sentences, but one in which the words or sequence of words maay differ from reading to reading because of the shape, conventions or mechanisms of the text. In particular, this refers to the form of the text, not to any fictional meaning they might hold. For example:  nonlinearity and nonchronologicality are not the same.

Behind the Lines: What is a Text, Anyway?

A Typology of Nonlinear Textuality

The Readerless Text

Hypertext Is Not What You (May) Think

Death and Cybernetics in the Ever-ending Text

"The Lingo of the Cable": Travels in Cybertextuality

The Limits of Fiction

The Rhetoric of Nonlinearity

The corruption of the Critic

Problems of "Textual Anthropology"