Original
Amy Shivers
Professor Meehan
English 101
December 2, 2009
Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl provided a new and unique experience for me. I am quite divided on whether or not this story succeeded or failed as a novel. To me a novel should keep the reader interested and engaged. It should also challenge the reader. I also feel that one should be able to get lost in the story. They shouldn’t want to put the book down. Although Patchwork Girl is challenging and keeps the reader interested, I feel the complexity of the layout does not allow the reader to get lost in the story like they should.
Patchwork Girl’s layout is quite interesting. One could spend hours clicking through the story. With a book the reader has no choice but to read from cover to cover. With hypertext, the reader is able to choose where they want to go. They get to participate more in the story. This can be very engaging. It reminds me very much of those choose your own adventure books that I read as a child. At the bottom of the page it would give you a choice of what you wanted to happen next. Once you chose, it would direct you to another page. I used to love these books. They would keep me entertained for hours. That was what happened when I looked at Patchwork Girl for the first time. I started off by clicking on graveyard. I followed this path until I hit a wall at resurrection. I went back to the title page and this time decided to read journal. I spent at least two hours in this section. I would click on the link that would bring me to the next page and that was fine for a while. But then I discovered that there was sometimes more than one link on each page. I went back and clicked on every word until I found it. It was like an adventure.
I thought the same thing about the choose your own adventure books. They were entertaining but at the same time I always found myself getting frustrated. If I chose one thing, what would happen if I chose the other? I would go back and try to follow a different path this time. It was fun but at the same time I hated knowing that there was a chance that I missed something. That is exactly how I feel with this novel. I don’t like that I feel like I am missing parts of the story by skipping over some of the links.
Because Patchwork Girl is so disconnected, it is also very hard to get lost in the story. Although you can get caught up in trying to find the next link, it is not the same as completely disappearing into the story. “I tipped up and back in my chair, clicked and clicked again, waiting patiently for the empowering rush that ought to come when worlds open upon other worlds and old limits collapse” (Birkerts 151). This is exactly how someone should feel while reading a story. Like they are in another world. Like anything is possible. There is no flow in Patchwork Girl making it very hard to feel this way.
Ultimately, I cannot determine whether Patchwork Girl fails or succeeds as a novel. The layout is very complex and keeps the reader interested. But this same complexity sacrifices the flow of the story. When the story doesn’t flow, it is harder for the reader to get lost in it. Both these factors are equally important which is why it is impossible to conclude.
Work Cited
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. Union Square West, NY: Farber and Farber, Inc. 1994. Print.
Jackson, Shelley. Patchwork Girl. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems, 1995. Hypertext.
