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Pif Magazine
ISSN: 1094-2726
Published by:
Pif, LLC
PMB 248
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Kairos
Reviewed by Tom Hartman
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Kairos is not a 'zine per se but rather a Net-based peer-reviewed journal for "teachers, researchers and tutors of writing at the college level," particularly those who work in "Webbed environments" or who incorporate Web-based systems into their pedagogy. In other words, serious scholarly business is conducted here, and, accordingly, more casual, non-academic readers may find Kairos a dry read. However, the current issue, 4:1, is a notable exception, well worth a look-see for its cover story,"Cover Web", on hypertext fiction and poetry. |
 Kairos Editors: Douglas Eyman eymand@wilmington.net James Inman James.Inman@furman.edu |
In keeping with Kairos' mission, a number of the featured essays focus on the use and creation of hypertext fiction and poetry in the classroom, but these are paired with a hypertext poem, "Heading South," by Cheryl Ball and an essay by Lawrence James Clark that ponders the broader subject of the seemingly inherent tension between hypertext authors and their readers.
Titled "Some Views on Reader Discomfiture with Hypertext Fiction", Clark's essay acknowledges the way hypertext narratives generally frustrate readers' expectations of linearity and closure and the resultant difficulty hypertext has had in reaching a wider audience. Clark argues that, in part, the answer, "lies in educating readers" to the new way of reading required by hypertext "as opposed to the traditional notion of a [linear] reading." He proposes, furthermore, that authors of hypertext fictions take steps to make their texts more "readerly". One suggestion – more and better navigational elements to minimize the feeling, described by many readers, of being "lost" in a hypertext's myriad "nodes" or "lexias".
More so than the solutions he proposes, Clark's essay is significant in that it reminds us that, in terms of both the theory and production of hypertexts, the jury is still very much out – despite the fact that the genre is now more than 10 years old. If authors were to strive to make hypertexts more "user-friendly" (essentially simplifying them), would this undermine the creative possibilities represented by their inherent intertextuality? Or will hypertext, if it continues apace, remain chiefly a sort of playground for post-structuralists? Fairly heady questions indeed.
As if responding to Clark directly, Cheryl Ball's hypertext poem, "Heading South," includes background and instructional documents, one of which comprises directions on "how to read" the text: three inter-linked poems, accompanied by sepia-toned photos, which describe the "journey" of a young woman from the South of the 1930s to Washington, DC. Short for a hypertext (the directions are probably unnecessary), Ball's poems are nonetheless resonant, particularly "The Lynching", which manages to the compress the horror of institutionalized racism into a few lines:
When she was old enough to go
to town without him she walked
smelling charred wood and found the grocer
displaying a big toe and two fingers burnt
Because its primary focus is on scholarship and pedagogy, Kairos will prove most valuable to writing teachers who are interested in making the Web part of their instructional repertoire. Work like Clark's and Ball's, however, suggests there is reason for the rest of us to check in from time to time as well.
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A graduate of Columbia University and The University of Pennsylvania, life-long New Jerseyan and New York Mets fan, Tom Hartman now lives in Philadelphia where he's an Associate Poetry Editor at Painted Bride Quarterly. Over the years his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Photo Review, City Paper (Philadelphia), and Philadelphia Weekly. When he's not writing he spends far too much time hating the Atlanta Braves.