Further Discussion Topics/Issues That Need Investigation

1. Patchwork Girl admits to being "parasitic on print predecessors." What about copyright and originality in opposition to plagiarism. Does this diminish author's authority?

2. Is there a form to the hypertext--does it have a head, limbs, an overall shape?

3. Who's in charge? The author, reader, text, storyspace?

4. Is there a beginning to hypertext, or does it start in medias res?

5. What is the future of hypertext?

6. Does Patchwork Girl show the potential of digital word and image, as Landow claims? What is the relationship between text and image?

7. Cyborgs are part human, part machine. Are we all cyborgs in cyberspace?

8. Discuss the novel (linear, formal device) in opposition to hypertext (non-linear, multi-linear).

9. Does hypertext grant a choice to reader? Is it democratic, permeable, and amphibious?

10. Is hypertext what literature has edited out--the feminine that is indirect, impure, multiple and evasive?

11. Is Patchwork Girl an "ergodic" literature as defined by Espen J. Aarseth--an open, dynamic text in which the reader must perform specific actions to generate a literary sequence?

12. Is the cybertext/hypertext reader a player in game-world?

13. Discuss hypertext (CD-ROM, many copies) versus WWW (stored in one place)

14. Does hypertext alienate the reader? Does it trap him/her?

15. Is hypertext truly interactive? Is it really a narrative?