Pale Fire as a hypertextual network

Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962) [3] is often seen as the gold standard to which all other print-based literary hypertexts are compared [see 1 and 2 for two examples of the admiration of Pale Fire from the literary hypertext community]. It was also a point of inspiration for Ted Nelson while developing his early hypertext systems. Although frequently referenced, the underlying network has never successfully been mapped or explored beyond a surface level. This poster posits a single model for representing the connections made throughout the novel, color-coded, so one can see which parts represent the poem, commentary and index (figure 1). Figure 1: The network of explicit links within Pale Fire This network was designed by finding every explicit reference to another part of the text, excluding any hidden links whereby there is a mention to a ‘note that the reader will find later’, which is traceable, but not immediately obviously. Thus, this graph demonstrates the initial topology of a novel that increases in complexity if one considers other 1:1 links within the novel (allusions, plagiarism, imitation, quotation and influence are just a few examples present in the novel), [6] as well as more advanced tropes such as motifs. Most of these tropes require the connection to be made by the reader, or are added by reader, thus this network focuses purely on the connections Nabokov creates within the text in order to encourage the reader to pursue more complex arrangements of the text. This means that in a similar way to schraefel’s supposition that the World Wide Web has been successful as it adds just one new feature to an already ubiquitous technology (page + links), [7] Pale Fire introduces hypertext to its initial readers in the 1960s, by blending the well known poem with critical apparatus and the additional technique of having to search through the text in order to find their own linearity within it. Thus, this initial network is made to be broken and introduce new concepts of hypertextuality to the reader. The centerpiece of my poster is the illustration of the network, since I am fairly early into the process of exploring the more complex features of the network. The illustration alone makes for a very interesting poster, since it demonstrates an explicit hypertextual network of comparable complexity to electronic hypertext systems. This is of interest because if one can understand how hypertext tropes have been used in print-based literature, it will aid future development with electronic systems. This is an original contribution because I am displaying the network of a text that has often been cited as a point of inspiration for literary hypertext. This network has potential to be a starting point for further discussion of the hypertextuality of Nabokov’s novel, as well as reintroducing the trope of print-based hypertextual literature as a serious topic of discussion within the hypertext community. Figure 2: The islands of links within Pale Fire My poster will also display some of the interesting features of this network I have found thus far, which have been replicated in electronic networks, including Broder et al’s concept of linking networks having islands (figure 2). [5] This is the first step towards deeper research on the hypertextuality of Vladimir Nabokov’s work. I plan to spend more time assessing Pale Fire initially by both exploring some of the more subjective forms of intratextuality in the text as mentioned earlier, and Nabokov’s method of composition that used notecards and thus meets both the spatial and temporal aspects of hypertext composition. I would like to present my results at Hypertext 2011 to complement my short paper and garner suggestions from the Hypertext community as to where how this research can develop in terms of the discourse of computer science. REFERENCES [1] Aarseth, E. 1997. Cybertext: Perspectives on ergodic literature. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. [2] Landow, G. Hypertext 3.0. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. [3] Nabokov, V. 2000. Pale Fire. Penguin, London. [4] Nelson, T. 1993. Literary Machines 93.1. Mindful Press, Sausalitlo [5] Newman, M. and Watts, D. 2006 The structure and dynamics of networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton. [6] Orr, M. 2003. Intertextuality: Debates and Contexts. Polity, London [7] schraefel, m. 2007. What is an analogue for the semantic web and why is having one important? SIGWEB Newsletter (December 2007) Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). The 22nd ACM Hypertext Conference , Posters and Demos. HT’11, June 6–9, 2011, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Pale Fire as a hypertextual network Simon Rowberry University of Winchester [email protected]