Rebooting Electronic Literature Volume 3: Documenting Pre-Web Born Digital Media

Traversal of Mark Bernstein's "Those Trojan Girls"

On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 Dene Grigar gave a Traversal of Mark Bernstein's hypertext narrative, Those Trojan Girls, at Hof University in Hof, Germany. The event was organized by Claus Atzenbeck, Visual Analytics Research Group at iisys at the university. Bernstein joined the event from the U.S. to participate in the Q&A that followed the performance. Grigar read the work from the USB Stick version of the work on an iMac. Descriptions of the video clips are forthcoming at the end of August 2020.

Traversal of Mark Bernstein's "Those Trojan Girls", Part 1

The video of the traversal opens with introductions by Claus Altzenbeck and an an invitation to the 2019 ACM Hypertext. Introduced are: Dene Grigar the reader and Mark Bernstein, the author of Those Trojan Girls. Bernstein begins with a discussion of his motivations for writing Those Trojan Girls. He explains technological motivations for hypertext and creative motivations for this particular hypertext. The camera switches to Dene Grigar who next explains the Traversal methodology and the way today’s reading will proceed before beginning her reading.

Traversal of Mark Bernstein's "Those Trojan Girls", Part 2

Grigar continues her introduction by mentioning Those Trojan Girls was debuted at the ACM Hypertext conference in 2016 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The work is described as a mashup of Euripides and Seneca’s play The Trojan Women and the Victorian School Story tradition. Bernstein’s early work The Election of 2012 which debuted at the first ACM Hypertext Conference in 1987. The flash drive that Those Trojan Girls is distributed on is described, along with its contents. Bernstein’s legacy as a publisher with Eastgate Systems Inc is also mentioned.

Grigar moves on to describe the screen elements of the Storyspace 3 environment. There are at least five separate methods of reading the text--five views the software allows a reader to navigate the lexias. Next Grigar gives the background of the Illiad and sets the stage for the setting of Those Trojan Girls. Grigar then begins the reading proper with the introductory remarks in the text. After reading this, she demonstrates the different ways links between lexias are signaled to the reader. The segment concludes with Grigar soliciting choices from the audience to navigate between the lexias she reads.

Traversal of Mark Bernstein's "Those Trojan Girls", Part 3

In the third video Grigar continues her reading and demonstrates how some of the lexias are grouped into clusters. Animated links between lexias are also pointed out as the reading continues. Grigar pauses here for an aside about the work of the theorist Janet Murray who’s 1997 book Hamlet on the Holodeck. Murray critiqued interactive works, including hypertext. Grigar notes that history has shown hypertext to indeed be a future of narrative. The reading continues through several lexias, then Grigar pauses to reflect on the size and scale of the work, noting where on the map of the entire work the reading has taken the audience so far. The reading continues and Grigar reads many lexias. The reading does not follow the choices set in the work, but jumps between lexias that are not connected.


Traversal of Mark Bernstein's "Those Trojan Girls", Part 4

The fourth and final video segment of the Traversal reading continues through the lexias of “Those Trojan Girls”. The reading follows through new lexias and new clusters of lexias. Grigar notes that some narrative paths through the work can bypass certain lexias. It is possible to make choices as one reads the work that cause parts of the text to become invisible or unseen. After this aside, Grigar returns to the reading, narrates a few more lexias, and then stops the reading to make time for a question and answer period with the audience and Mark Bernstein.


Questions and Answers from "Those Trojan Girls", Part 1

The question period opens w/ Dr. Klaus Altzenbeck asking about links between notes that are shown as different colors. Bernstein answers by explaining that the colors represent varying methods of linking between lexias or notes. Stretch text is also discussed, why it was not utilized very much in “Those Trojan Girls” and how it can be employed in other hypertexts. Grigar poses a question to the audience, asking how many of them have had an experience w/ electronic literature, hypertext, or interactive fiction.  Audience members generally respond in the negative and some of them share their first-time impressions of electronic literature. A comparison between games and hypertext, electronic literature, and interactive fiction is discussed.


Questions and Answers from "Those Trojan Girls", Part 2
Questions and Answers from "Those Trojan Girls", Part 3

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