shelley jackson

Wow so right off the bat I'm confused. This Shelley Jackson sure knows how to write in circles. I'm going to blog as I read because I feel like I'll forget something if I try and read the article fully then write. ---> So let's start with Shelley Shelley. The first two paragraphs are really confusing because you're sitting here asking yourself, "who is writing to us?" Shelley Jackson is Shelley Shelley and "Stitch Bitch" is the monster she has created?..I'll also mention Mary Shelley, who I'm assuming is not her real mother, but maybe her influence or inspiration for writing this piece. I think that it's interesting how Shelley talks about how the body is not whole. She talks about how "we can't feel our liver working or messages shuttling through our spine." It's wierd to think because as a whole our body can fulfill everyday functions, but if we were to lack certain parts we'd be at a loss. --> I just came across the whole idea of "hypertext." Shelley describes it by saying: "A hypertext never seems quite finished, it isn't clear just where it ends, it's fuzzy at the edges, you can't figure out what matters and what doesn't, what's matter and what's void, what's the bone and what's the flesh, it's all decoration or it's all substance." So that makes sense...not. What is hypertext?! I'll keep reading... --> So now I have this : “Normally when you read you can orient yourself by a few important facts and let the details fall where they may. The noun trumps the adjective, person trumps place, idea trumps example. In hypertext, you can't find out what's important so you have to pay attention to everything, which is exhausting like being in a foreign country, you are not native.” This just makes me believe that hypertext can’t be understood. I think I’m going to google it…

Hypertext, according to google, is simply: “A system of writing and displaying text that enables the text to be linked in multiple ways, to be available at several levels of detail, and to contain links to related documents.”

I think it’s interesting how Shelley describes her writing as a machine…”Such a machine can only do two things: convince or break down.” She’s talking about how gaps in texts such as these can be dangerous because they can lose a readers attention..and to be honest, she’s kind of losing me. Maybe it’s because I’d rather be sleeping right now, or maybe I’m just not as interested in this piece of writing…
The next thing that caught my attention was the fiction vs. reality part. Shelley is talking about how fiction allows us to break out of the norm and step outside of reality. Shelley makes fiction seem so daring and adventurous..It’s all about pushing the seams and picking out the stitches to find something that is new and unknown. “Hypertext just makes explicit what everyone does already.” This is true because I am hypertexting as we speak.

So overall I thought the article was kind of confusing but I think I understand the gist of it all. Shelley is basically saying that writing, and specifically hypertext, allows us to break free from this "novel norm" or the idea that writing must be a full bodied text. You can have a piece of writing that is not fully together, and still find beauty within it.