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Hyperautobiographies on The
Web
- Definitions, Related Genres,
Hyper-Scripting
Universidad de Costa Rica
Escuela de Ciencias de la Comunicación Colectiva
Hyperautobiographies on The Web
- Definitions, Related Genres, Hyper-Scriptwriting -
( An Essay )
Dr. Anwar Al-Ghassani
Professor of Journalism, Computer-Mediated
Communication and Internet
alghassa@racsa.co.cr
http://al-ghassani.net
June 2001
----------------------------------
Abstract
The essay defines conventional autobiographies, hyperautobiographies,
and related genres.
Text and hypertext are compared. In addition to an overview of
hyperautobiographies and related genres available on the Web, an attempt
is being
made to elaborate categories for the classification of websites
with autobiographical content. Some hyper-scripting operations are described
in
non-technical terms. Complex relations within the process of hyper-scripting,
such
as interaction between the real and the virtual, are discussed.
A diary entry, written by the author, is hyper-scripted and presented
as
a demonstration example. The essay concludes with some thoughts about
the future
of hyperautobiography as a new literary genre. Hyper-scripting is expanding
the writer's perspective and options by making new writing methods and
multimedia resources and tools available to the writer. Samples of front
pages of autobiographical websites are included in the annex.
The essay is an easy-to-read free reflection about the subject. Features
typical
to academic research texts are kept to a minimum.
Product Description
Title: Hyperautobiographies on The Web
- Definitions, Related Genres, Hyper-Scripting
Author: Anwar Al-Ghassani
Date: June 2001
Type: Academic / free reflection essay
Language: English. Some quotations are in Spanish and German
Structure: Cover, content list, text (inserted notes), bibliography
(conventional resources, Web resources), annex front pages of selected
autobiographical
websites (not available in electronic version)
Size: 160kb (Word file), 39 pages (without annex)
Version & Carrier: soft version electronic file; hard version paper
URL: http://sindbads.com/hyperautobio.html
To get a copy of the full text, contact: alghassa@racsa.co.cr
------------------------
Content
0. Introduction
1. Autobiography and Related Genres
2. Some preliminary Definitions
3. Characteristics of the Web
4. Autobiography, Hyperautobiography and Related Genres on
the Web
5. Categories of Websites with Conventional
Autobiographical and Hyperautobiographical Content
6. The Impact of the Web on the Production and Reception of
Autobiographies, Hyperautobiographies and Related
Genres
7. Hyperautobiography: The Author - Hyper-Scriptwriter
Perspective
8. Example: Hyper-Scripting a Diary Entry
9. Outlook
Selected Bibliography
Author
Annex:
Frontpages of Selected Autobiographical Websites
------------------------
( ...)
4. Autobiography, Hyperautobiography and Related Genres on
the Web
Since the invention of the World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) in 1989
(Berners-Lee, 00) and the creation of websites for the publication of
autobiographical content,
the Web has become a new channel for writing, presenting, distribution
and feedback. It is now common
to speak of electronic autobiographies, and hyperautobiographies and related
genres
such as hypermemoirs, hyperjournals, hyperdiaries, hypertestimonies, hyperconfessions,
hypecorrespondences, hyperconversations, hyperbiographies,
etc. (we will refer to all these
genres collectively as hyperautobiographies and related genres)
By hyperautobiographies and related hyper genres we mean autobiographical
content
autobiographies and related genres) that has been authored and scripted
specially
for the Web and then published on the Web.
The Web contains also e- autobiographies, that is to say conventional
autobiographies and
related genres whose original printed texts were electronized
and published on the Web.
Most classical autobiographies, memoirs, diaries,
etc. are now available in electronic versions
on the Web. These are not
hyperautobiographies even if they happen to contain links. Usually
e-autobiographies
are not scripted for the Web. They do not have the variety of multimedia
and
interaction resources hyperautobiographies have.
Both e-autobiographies and hyperautobiographies originate from verbal
texts. However,
e-autobiographies are electronic versions of printed texts,
simple hypertexts, while
hyperautobiographies are specially scripted for
the Web. They are completely new literary
communicational interactive
products with extensive use of multimedia resources and tools.
It should also be noted that not all hyperautobiographies and related
hyper genres meet the
conditions of the above-mentioned definition and
comply with high quality standards even though
when some scriptwriting
is done to produce them for the Web. Some are indeed poor in quality,
others are not more than simple autobiographies and diaries whose owners,
for convenience reasons,
deposit them on the Web instead of keeping them
in paper files.
Finally, it is interesting to observe how owners of autobiographical websites
define their websites.
Newhall considers his diary a “personal online
diary” constantly updated with “what’s happening in my
life, interesting
links I’ve come across, and anything else that I want to save for posterity.”
(Newhall, 01).
The Daze & Quirks website describes itself as “somewhere
between journal, datebook, itinerary,
Rorshach test and perhaps a few
other things (…)” (Daze & Quirks, 01)
(...)
7. Hyperautobiography: The Author - Hyper-Scriptwriter Perspective
The author-scriptwriter perspective is closely related to the creation,
production, and reception processes
of hyperautobiographies. This perspective
is above all about how the author and/or the hyper-scriptwriter
perceives,
conceives, and organizes the hypertext creation and production process.
An outline of the main operations of hypertexting autobiographical content,
in which an author-hyper-scriptwriter
is involved, requires understanding
the meaning of a number of terms related to the main writing and
hyperwriting
operations: writing, writer, linear writing (linear reporting), hyperwriting
(hyperediting in the broadest
sense), hyper-scriptwriter.
Writing is the process of creating and putting together of verbal sentences
and texts. The resulting text is
linear (conventional text).
A Writer creates linear texts (conventional texts).
Linear Writing (Linear Reporting) is what a writer (conventional writer)
of an autobiography does. He/she
writes/reports about events and related
facts, thoughts, ideas, and stories by creating a linear (conventional)
text.
Hyperwriting (hyperediting) is the process of creating, putting together,
and editing of verbal sentences
and texts, graphics, video, sound, and
other multimedia resources. The resulting text is hyper, a text
accessible
in both linear and non-linear modalities. Hyperwriting may also be called
hyper-scriptwriting.
A writer is hyperwriting or hyper-scriptwriting when
he/she works on his/her own text and produces
a “script” for hypertexting
that text. On the other hand, a writer would be hyperediting if he/she
is
hypertexting works or texts provided by others (preparing the texts
for hyperpublication on the Web).
Texts of autobiographies and related genres can be hyperwritten or hyperedited.
Hyperautobiographies
and related hyper genres are the result of this activity.
However, we have to distinguish between two kinds
of hyperautobiographies:
authentic and non-authentic. Authentic hyperautobiographies are those
written
and scripted for the sole purpose of displaying them on the Web.
Web elements and resources are added
to them, not as aggregates, they
are integrated in the text, grow with it and build its very genre identity.
Non-authentic hyperautobiographies are based on printed conventional autobiographies
hypertextualized for display on the Web. Web elements and resources are
aggregated a posteriori to
non-authentic hyperautobiographies.
Hyper-scriptwriter creates hypertexts. He is a writer as far as the creation
of conventional verbal text
is concerned, and a hyper-scriptwriter because
in order to create a hypertext, he/she uses and composes
resources that
go beyond the resources of conventional writing.
We have to remember that whether we are dealing with an authentic or non-authentic
hyperautobiography,
both have a verbal text at their foundation. A verbal
texts is in all cases the starting-point.
The relation between authoring and the subsequent scriptwriting of the
authored text is similar to the difference
between what Hickam calls “the
first draft” and the “rewrite phase” of a memoir. The first draft contains
the facts,
the factual truth, the second phase is about the “emotional
truth” (Struckel, 00, 30-31).
Whether we choose to speak of an author-hyper-scriptwriter perspective,
or author’s and hyper-scriptwriter’s
perspectives, they are all determined
by the following cardinal questions that drive their creative action.
There
are many other questions involved, but these key questions are decisive.
The author of a conventional autobiography seems to be motivated by the
questions: What happened or what
is happening (in diaries and journals)?
What is the essence (meaning) behind the façade of events?
The hyper-scriptwriter of hyperautobiographies is motivated by questions
that go beyond the questions that
motivate the author. His concern is
broader: How can the hypertextualization of my narrative and the infinite
multi-level and multi-directional combination possibilities of multimedia
resources (graphics, photos, video,
animation, sound, etc.) help me capture
the essence (meaning) of events? And, how can the virtualization
based
on the realistic narrative help through comparison, juxtaposition, contrasting,
interchange, and linking
to other sources, make me understand better and
renders my autobiography intellectually and emotionally
more intelligible
and attractive by making it intelligently entertaining and more authentic?
This confronts the hyper-scriptwriter with the question of the boundary
between the real and the virtual and whether hypertextualization can be
considered a re-exploration of reality in the sense of Philip Roth’s experiment
with his autobiography. Commenting on Roth’s autobiography “The Facts:
A Novelist's Autobiography” (88), Finney writes, “His aim, he declares
in the opening section of the book, is to work backwards, stripping what
he had already imagined ‘so as to restore [his] experience to the original,
prefictionalized factuality’ ” (Finney, 01) This restoring of experience
to the original is what hyperscript has to achieve among other things.
In this process, the hyper-scriptwriter moves the narrative space and
places it, not under daylight, but in a blurred region between fact and
fiction, between the real and the virtual, where facts are continuously
fictionalized and fiction factualized. This is not an easy process, but
when it is done within the Web, it immensely expands the evocative power
of a hyperautobiography.
These questions and the related theoretical and practical issues have
to be answered and resolved by the hyper-scriptwriter. To do so, he/she
has to acquire new skills, knowledge, and the ability to manipulate digital
resources and tools conventional writers are not required to master.
These questions also underline the new entertainment value of hyperautobiography;
new in the sense of “qualitatively new”, since all literary products entertain
(are “useful”), anyway. The hyper-scriptwriter has at his disposal the
necessary resources to achieve this task. They are abundant and relatively
easy to handle. These resources are expected to produce high-quality entertainment,
otherwise they run the risk of being considered superfluous. The entertainment
demand hyperautobiographies (and by the way all forms of content presentation
on the Web) are required to produce is increasing, in correspondence with
the accelerated conversion of contemporary culture from print and electronic
culture to full-fledged multimedia culture.
Thus, the task of hyper-scriptwriter is complex. He/she has to unite the
profession of the writer, film scriptwriter, film director in his/her
person within the hypertext production process. (For an interesting discussion
of the planning and organization of this process, applied on Web design,
cf. Fernández-Coco, 98).
The size of potential audiences of conventional autobiographies and hyperautobiographies
mark another difference between the task of the writer and the hyper-scriptwriter.
At a well-promoted and highly visible website, we may assume that the
average audience of a hyperautobiography is much larger than the average
readership of a conventional autobiography.
Although a large global audience, a large mass of users/visitors flocking
to the website, can produce multiple benefits, it also produces multiple
new responsibilities and tasks for the hyper-scriptwriter:
- The hyper-scriptwriter and his displayed work are exposed to continuous
critical scrutiny by users. - Feedback provided by users needs to be attended
to and can not easily be neglected as the conventional correspondence
authors receive from their readers. The email tool makes it easy for anyone
to repeat sending comments and insist on getting information and answers.
- The webmaster of a hyperautobiographical website, whether he/she is
also the hyper-scriptwriter of the work or not, is converted, by the very
mechanism of the website, into a “public figure” and “celebrity”, with
high visibility. The resulting public image has to be cultivated. This
new role of the hyper-scriptwriter has affinity with the role of film
or TV actor. However, while in film and TV the work visibility and presence
is timed and transitory, the work is permanently present on the Web, and
can be scrutinized at any given moment, by anyone, anywhere. - Permanent
updating is at the core of website maintenance and promotion. Websites
that are not updated are dead sites. Here is not the place for discussing
updating procedures and methods. We only want to emphasize that updating
a hyperautobiographical website does not necessarily mean updating its
core content. This, despite minor changes, revision and modification,
remains somehow constant; we mean updating the supporting structure and
peripheral resources and tools that make the website.
Writing of conventional autobiographies follows a linear pattern with
a time-line as supporting structure for facts, events and thoughts. Time-line
is chronological, with a start and an end. The writer may undertake excursions
and deviate from the forwards running line. These deviations are limited
in
scope and dimension and the writer strives always to return to the last
point on the time-line he/she departed from. Essentially, this is the
basic procedure the writer follows. It is safe and secure, a well-marked
path.
Writing conventional autobiographic texts and hyper-scriptwriting a text
to produce a hyperautobiography have one similarity: both adopt time-lines
and produce core texts. Apart from this, the two procedures differ in
many ways.
Time-line adopted by hyperautobiographies, though essential, is not a
continuum. It consists of somehow loosely arranged points in time and
serves the purpose of general orientation. Hyperwriting demands that there
should be no strict linearity and continuation so that multiple spaces
and levels, typical to hypertextuality, can be created, and the so-called
instantaneous “jumping” and free to and fro movement between multiple
points in time and event-levels is made possible. This flexibility brings
writing and content reception (by the user) closer to the speed of thinking
and imagination. Although this closeness and approximation is quantitatively
infinitesimally small, its practical consequences are obviously very significant.
Only this dynamic, multi-level, and speedy writing and editing allow the
full power of imagination, perception, and cognition to unfold. Only so
the hyper-scriptwriter can hope to penetrate the hard shell of past or
present reality and draw nearer to its essence, and thereby produce astonishing
discoveries, knowledge and truth about ourselves, the others and the world,
the sole and main justification of literary production.
8. Example: Hyper-Scripting a Diary Entry
How does hyper-scriptwriting, and in general the production process of
hyperautobiographies proceed under real life conditions?
The following example may shed light on at least some aspects of the process
and show its complexity and enormous potential in terms of creativity.
The example is taken from “The European Diary”, an account of a trip to
Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The Diary is still in the process
of writing. After writing the core text, parts of the text will be hyper-scripted.
Currently, there are no plans to hyper-script the whole diary. (Al-Ghassani,
01):
Explanatory Remarks:
1. The example consists of two parts:
A short excerpt from the entry for Friday, April 13, 2001. The full entry
is three pages long. This rather eventless excerpt, limited to few paragraphs,
has been intentionally selected in order to make it manageable within
the limited space here.
The excerpt is followed by the hyper-script (construction and operation
guide or plan). This is only a demonstration example and may be changed
when the complete hyperdiary is produced.
2. Web design, development, maintenance and promotion issues have been
excluded to avoid enlarging the hyper-script. They should be later included
for the whole website and for each section when producing the complete
hyperdiary.
3. The example shows how in hyper-scripting a text is related to other
texts. As Palmer (01) states, putting an autobiography on the Web means
integrating it in the Web mechanism. The autobiography becomes part of
the texts on the website and on the Web at large.
4. Furthermore, the example shows that hyper-scripting, hypertextualization
in general, and the reception of hypetexts require a new way of thinking,
associative thinking. In Boese’s words about non-linear and associative
thinking, “It involves switching your mind to another style of thinking,
a random, associative style as opposed to direct linear style. In the
West we have been taught not to value this kind of thinking, but most
of us know how to do it. And there is a lot of bad multimedia on the market
because many folks in this new field have not changed their thinking styles
to fit the media.” (Boese, 96)
The European Diary / Excerpt from an entry
(Start Excerpt)
Berlin, Friday, April 13, 2001
(…)
Around midday, I went to Ostbahnhof station, bought a sandwich of rosy
turkey meat and Coca Cola at a kiosk opposite to Café Tiziano. I stood
there, ate and watched the stream of people. They seemed to be peaceful,
not too busy, although some walked hastily to catch their trains. Faces,
and more faces, diverse features and colors, Germans, some Africans, few
Latinos, one skinhead, some soldiers, adolescents, men, women, well-dressed,
sportive or casual, most of them young, very young - few beautiful women.
This is the metropolitan air of large cities that I love - the anonymity,
unless you want to break out and talk to someone.
After I had finished the sandwich, I went to the passage around the corner.
More colorful and elegant food kiosks and small restaurants. I bought
a coffee at Dunkin Donuts, sat to smoke and jot down remarks in my notebook.
I felt comfortable, relaxed and somehow happy.
But oh, this is not the Ostbahnhof I knew during the era of the German
Democratic Republic, the GDR. The station was remodeled during the last
decade of the GDR, before the Wende (turning-point, change) and the collapse
of the GDR in 1989. When the Federal Republic of Germany took over the
GDR and Germany was united, further changes were made to the station.
Some criticize those changes because the large arches of the main southern
entrance were removed and replaced by a glass wall. Anyhow, the station
now is a pleasant, clean and well-illuminated place. There is a variety
of shops offering almost anything one may need, from flowers, to money
change, to supermarkets; impressive diversity and richness. It manifests
the economic power of the country. Vagabonds, tramps, drunken men and
women, people eager to express frustration to any passerby, filthy corners,
despotic waiters, limited offer and capacity of the few old restaurants
and kiosks - all those common scenes from the past have completely disappeared.
I see only pleasant scenes around me. But why amidst all this I miss the
familiar, dull and poor old Ostbahnhof of times past, of a time before
even the GDR had started remodeling the station, the Ostbahnhof of the
seventies during my studies in Leipzig, my happy formative years. I used
to arrive at the station or leave from it on my visits to Berlin. Then,
the early eighties as I lived and worked in Berlin and was so unhappy.
Here and now, as well as in many other places in this new East Berlin
I am visiting now after an absence of fifteen years, the old has disappeared
almost completely.
Here and now, I remember friends who past away while still young: Reni,
the mother of my son Faris. She died four years ago of sudden illness
at the age of forty-eight; Hartmut, who died ten years ago in a car accident.
He was not yet forty. I also miss Reni’s father, radio journalist and
former prisoner of Dachau Nazi concentration camp, who died ten years
ago, and her mother, who was also a journalist. She passed away still
earlier. During the war, she helped to hide and protect Jewish friends
from Nazi tyranny.
I wish I had Reni and Hartmut around to exchange views and ideas about
what had happened here in their city. But, alas, their absence is definitive
and final. I also realize that even if it were possible for them to be
present, they wouldn’t seem to fit into this new landscape. Somehow -
and sadly - they seem to belong only to that unrecoverable past that has
faded away; as if they took away with them the past that was their identity;
they took it away as they departed on their no-return journey.
So here we have the change, and most importantly, the continuity, this
tremendously powerful forward movement. All things move forward. Nothing
stays behind, unless it is dead. So, the cliché, “Life goes on!” And here,
at Dunkin Donuts, I see the Chinese employee at the stand. He is still
smiling and joking with customers as he prepares their orders.
It is still early in the afternoon. I have written enough for now. The
coffee cup is empty. I feel satisfied and happy, slightly sad, but content
with myself and the world.
Now, it is time to leave this place, to move on.
(End Excerpt)
Hyper-Script
The script will use the following resources (or a selection from them)
to describe and construct the conversion process, step by step: text (the
complete verbal text of entry excerpt), documents (text documents and
scanned documents), photos and graphics, video footage, sound, animation,
links.
Web design, development, maintenance and promotion indicators are excluded
for reasons of space. They should be added to the script on a later date
before the realization of the script.
(Start Hyper-Script)
Berlin, Friday, April 13, 2001
(…)
1st & 2nd paragraphs
Around midday I went to Ostbahnhof station (…)This is the metropolitan
air of large cities that I love - the anonymity, unless you want to break
out and talk to someone.
Text: the complete two paragraphs. Link-internal: webpage - mini autobiography
of the author. Link-external: video footage of Ostbahnhof today, max.
10sec.
3rd paragraph
After I had finished the sandwich (…) I felt comfortable, relaxed and
somehow happy.
Text: the complete above paragraph.
4th paragraph
But oh, this is not the Ostbahnhof I knew during the era of the German
Democratic Republic, the GDR. (…)and all those common scenes from the
past have completely disappeared.
Text: the complete above paragraph. Link-external: history of Ostbahnhof
- text, photos. Link-internal: webpage - Excerpt from the book “Guten
Morgen, Deutschland - Das Tagebuch der Freiheit ” (Good Morning, Germany
- Diary of Freedom). Hamburg: BILD, 1989. Quote the days of November 1989,
the day of the Wende. Add: commentary since the book is too biased. Sound
file: trains, noise, announcer, train arrivals announced, 10sec.
5th paragraph
I see only pleasant scenes around me. But why amidst all this I miss the
familiar, dull and poor old Ostbahnhof of times past, of a time before
even the GDR had started remodeling the station, Ostbahnhof of the seventies
during my studies in Leipzig, my happy formative years. I used to arrive
at the station or leave from it on my visits to Berlin. Then, the early
eighties as I lived and worked in Berlin and was so unhappy.
Text: the complete paragraph above. Highlight as link: “Leipzig”. Link-internal:
existing internal section on my website, “My years in Leipzig”. Photo,
published short story - Arabic-, scanned ms. of a poem from notebooks
of the seventies. Slides series: “Places in Leipzig” (Prepare! Only places
related to my history in Leipzig. For instance: Ring Café, main station,
Rosental Park, Deutsche Bücherei, Lößnig, etc. ) Link-external: Leipzig
city website Contemporary comment: Add - What does Leipzig mean to me
today? Short, 10 lines, column in box.
Highlight as link: “Berlin”. Link-internal: existing internal section
on my website, “My years in Berlin”. Photos: Checkpoint Charlie - in sepia.
Caption should refer to Intertext, situated a few meters away from this
border crossing-point, where I worked from 1981 to 1983, my difficult
years in Germany.
Scan: drawings from the 1981-1983 period. Display under the general title
“Towards the Light Source” Slides series: “Places in Berlin” (Prepare!
Only places related to my history in Berlin. For instance: Gethsemanestrasse,
my first apartment where I lived alone, Mollstrasse, where Merce, our
daughter and I lived, Friedrichshain Park, where I went with my daughter
for a walk, etc. Link-external: Berlin city website Contemporary comment:
Add - What does Berlin mean to me today? Short, 10 lines, column in box.
6 th, 7th, 8th, & 9th paragraphs
Here and now, as well as in many other places in this new East Berlin
I am visiting now after an absence of fifteen years, (…),and her mother,
who was also journalist. She passed away still earlier. During the war,
she helped to hide and protect Jewish friends from Nazi tyranny.
I wish I had Reni and Hartmut around (…)I also realize that even if it
were possible for them to be present, they wouldn’t seem to fit into this
new landscape. Somehow - and sadly - they seem to belong only to that
unrecoverable past that has faded away; as if they took away with them
the past that was their identity; they took it away as they departed on
their no-return journey.
Text: the complete above paragraphs. Highlight as link: “Reni”, “Hartmut”.
Links leads to two short autobiographies with two photos. Contemporary
comments: Add - The past, as concluded social life segment, is completely
excluded by the present. But the present can’t exclude all elements of
the physical past except : dead humans and destroyed physical objects.
Yet, dead humans continue their presence in the memory of the living only.
There, in the memory, the past in its entirety is preserved until it is
partially and progressively eroded by biological memory deterioration.
If no physical reminder is available, or if there is no persistent effort
to transfer it, as information, from generation to generation, the past,
as a totality and entity, will eventually disappear. It may, however,
continue to exist, as unidentifiable components in the content of human
consciousness.
And, about the friends: What is the difference between a person’s presence,
physically and in persona, and that person’s image and related information
dwelling in memory only?
Identification: What’s for me the difference between the physical presence
of Reni and Hartmut and their presence in my memory?
Photo album: include photos as follows: Photo: Moabit prison in Berlin.
Photo: Dachau concentration camp. (Reni’s father was detained in Moabit
before he was transferred to Dachau concentration camp.)
Deviation and Return: the documents, pale photo, ink, travel by train.
Hunger and fear. Holocaust - Jewish Holocaust - Palestinian Holocaust
- Rwandan All holocausts
Deviation and no Return - open-ended - Photo: Tombstone in Waldfriedhof
cemetery, Berlin-Grünau. Brown color, three names under the cold and refreshing
shade of the trees: Reni, her father, her mother. Karolinenhof, a Berlin
suburb where they lived. No way to recover anything beyond pines and sand,
“out here the air is perfumed.” Poem: Add - excerpt from the Irene Duchrow
elegy, section about Karolinenhof (Al-Ghassani, A. 99)
In Buchenwald concentration camp on Ettersberg mountain, I asked the teacher
while walking on “Leidensweg” (Road of Suffering) and “Blutstrasse” (Blood
Street), why people who know they will be killed do not rebel against
their state of suffering and misery? Answer, deleted from memory. In the
camp hotel, sunny morning, kitchen women pealing potatoes. In the night,
in a dream, a nightmare, SS-officers in black uniforms. The uniform I
found elegant. Reni reproached me when I told her that. That was later.
But it was E. beside me as I broke out of the nightmare.
Internal Link: Image - a heap of shoes and hairs. This image has no utility
within memory, yet useful when externalized.
Insert: Goethe’s image of earlier excursions. G. sitting at Ettersberg.
A man flying over the landscape of dead bodies. Nearby Weimar - his place
for the study of optics.
Quote in Box: “So viel Anfang war noch nie” Friedrich Hölderlin, 1770-1843
(There has never been such a beginning)
Reflection: At Tränenpalast (Tears Palace), Friedrchstrasse station. In
the past East Berliners could go only as far as this station. The next
station, the boring and characterless Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was in West
Berlin. So, the goodbyes and tears, history drama, or melodrama, now commercialized
in Tränenpalast, young women display their hearts for sale. Then sit around
in their glimmering armor of false silver. Sensuality of sex is being
sacrificed for an invisible god who is not pious and feels no mercy for
anything biological. Fly, fly, airplane!
Photo: tramps, homeless, young men and women. Men with peculiar hair styling.
As if they are wearing Roman helmets. And their dogs, always present,
one, two, three, four of them. They sit on the floor at Ostbahnhof station.
Three policemen with red berets standby watching. The homeless seem friendly,
these anti-authoritarian fellows who have freely opted to live on the
margin of society, these metropolitan nomads. Reflection: The girl asked
for money, “Please, don’t you have a Mark for me?” Next time, never shun
them, don’t keep clear of them, don’t give heed to the friend’s advice,
“Don’t give them money.” Walk boldly towards them, introduce yourself,
you frustrated nomad. Praise the girl and her tribe. Thank them for maintaining
their presence on the city landscape, for their daily sacrifices, hunger,
thirst, frosty winds on open streets. Say that you are humbled by what
they have given you, free of charge. Thank them for the love, warmth and
freshness, and for all the ideas their presence has evoked in you. Learn
to be thankful for the gifts of life you are receiving at every turn and
corner. Then give the child that Mark she asked for from what God has
given you. Yes - for you want to join them and just disappear in the big
city; you yearn to be loved, to be free in the company of generous people
who equally divide among themselves the little they have; you yearn to
their warmth and to bodies with that distinct aroma of which you have
forgotten the name, an aroma that dates to ancient times of fear and caves.
If you can’t yet join your wonderful nomads back home, then consider joining
these city nomads, God’s children who opted to become a moving and lively
symbol: a reminder of our lost freedom.
10th, 11th & 12th paragraphs
So here we have the change, and most importantly, the continuity. (…)
It is still early in the afternoon. I have written enough for now. The
coffee cup is empty. I feel satisfied and happy, slightly sad, but content
with myself and the world.
Now, it is time to leave this place, to move on.
Text: insert the complete paragraph without adding hyper resources.
(End Hyper-Script)
(...)
Selected Bibliography
Note: Websites and links were active when last visited. Printouts were
made of cited documents. Due to updating on the Web, some websites and
links may disappear, change, modify their content, or become inactive.
A. Cited or Commented Bibliography
Aarseth, Espen J. (1997): No linealidad y teoría literaria. In: Landow,
George P., Compilador (1997): Teoría del hipertexto. Barcelona: Paidós.
Al-Ghassani, Anwar (1999): Irene Duchrow (Reni), 1949-1997. (Elegy, 18
pages, ms.)
Al-Ghassani, Anwar (2001): The Eurpoean Diary. (ms.) http://www.sindbads.com/eurodiary2001.html
Bajtín, Mijaíl M. (2000): Yo también soy - fragmentos sobre el otro. México:
Taurus.
Banet, Miguel (1998): Consideraciones sobre los espacios virtuales. In:
Cafassi, Emilio, editor (1998): Internet: políticas y comunicación. Buenos
Aires: Biblos.
Barger, Jorn (2000): Online-Autobiography Theory. http://www.robotwisdom.com/web/autobio.html
(Last visit: June 2001)
----------- BBC-online: Want to Get Published? Write On! Friday, March
2, 2001.
Berners-Lee, Tim (2000): Tejiendo la Red - El invertor del World Wide
Web nos descubre su origen. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno.
Birkerts, Sven (1994): The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of reading in an
Electronic Age. Boston: Faber & Faber.
Boese, Christine (1996): Going Into The Woods. En: Computer-Mediated Communication,
December, 1996. http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1996/dec/boese/woods.html
(Last visit: June 2001)
Boswell, James (1923): Life of Samuel Johnson. Chicago: Scott, Foresman
& Co.
Castells, Alvaro (2001): Diccionario de Internet. Bilbao: Deutso.
Chandler, Daniel (1998): Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities
on the Web. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html
(Last visit: June 2001)
Conrad, Rudi et al. (1981): Kleines Wörterbuch Sprachwissenschaftlicher
Termini. Leipzig: VEB Bibliographisches Institut.
Daze & Quirks http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6504/dq.html (Last
visit: June 2001)
Deleuze, Gilles, Guattari, Félix (1987): A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism
and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Eckermann, Johann Peter (1982): Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren
seines Lebens. Berlin & Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag.
Edelman, Bernard, editor (1985): Dear America - Letters Home From Vietnam.
New York: Pocket Books.
Fernández-Coca, Antonio (1998): Producción y diseño gráfico para la World
Wide Web. Barcelona: Paidós.
Finny, Brian: Roth's Counterlife: Destabilizing The Facts. http://www.csulb.edu/~bhfinney/Roth.html
(Last visit: June 2001)
------------- (1989): Guten Morgen, Deutschland - Das Tagebuch der Freiheit
” (Good Morning, Germany - Diary of Freedom). Hamburg: BILD.
Joyce, James (1946): Ulysses. New York: Random House.
Kennan, George F. (1989): Sketches From a Life. New York: Pantheon.
Landow, George P., Compilador (1997): Teoría del hipertexto. Barcelona:
Paidós.
Lévy, Pierre (1999): ¿Qué es lo virtual? Barcelona: Paidós.
Morris, William, editor (1976): American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Moulthrop, Stuart (1997): Rizoma y resistencia - El hipertexto y el soñar
con una nueva cultura. In: Landow, George P., Compilador (1997): Teoría
del hipertexto. Barcelona: Paidós.
Neruda, Pablo (1984): Memoirs. New York: Penguin.
Newhall, Brent P.: My Diary. http://www.other-space.com/brent/what_is_diary.html
(Last visit: June 2001)
Palmer, John P.: Brave New Self: Autobiographies in Cyberspace. http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/jppalmer/hps.htm
(Last visit: June 2001)
Paquet, Alfons (1927): Städte, Landschaften und Ewige Bewegung. Hamburg:
Gross-borstel.
Roth, Philip (1989): The Facts. A Novelist's Autobiography. New York:
Viking Penguin.
Struckel, Katie (2000): Interview with Homer Hickam Jr. on Memoir Writing.
In: Writer’s Digest (Cincinnati), Vol. 80, No. 12, December 2000, 30-31.
Vouillamoz, Núria (2000): Literatura e hipermedia - La irrupción de la
literatura interactiva: procedentes y crítica. Barcelona/Buenos Aires/México.
Zalis, Elayne (2001): Autobiographical/ Biographical Webs: Selected Links
- Ongoing. http://www.beyondwriting.com/autobio.htm (Last visit: June
2001)
B. Additional and Contextual Bibliography
Camus, Albert (1965): Notebooks 1935-1942. New York: The Modern Library.
Columbus, Christoph (1981): Schiffstagebuch. Leipzig: Reclam.
De Beauvoir, Simone (1984): All Said and Done. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Dostojewskaja, A.G. (1976): Erinnerungen. Berlin: Rütten & Loening.
Ehrenburg, Ilja (1982): Visum der Zeit. Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclam
jun.
------------------ (1986): El oficio de escritor - entrevistas con escritores.
México: Ediciones Era.
Friedman, Thomas L. (2000): The Lexus and the Olive Tree - Understanding
the Globalization. New York: Anchor Books.
Hepburn, Katharine (1991): Me - Stories of My Life. New York: Ballantine.
Ivens, Joris (1969): The Camera and I. Berlin: Seven Seas Books.
Jacob, Roderick A. & Rosenbaum, Peter S. (1971): Transformations,
Style, and Meaning. Waltham: Xerox College Publishing.
Jung, C.G. (1965): Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Recorded and edited
by Aniela Jaffé). New York: Vintage.
Metz, Christian (1991): Film Language - A Semiotics of The Cinema. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press.
Naisbitt, John (1999): High Tech High Touch - Technology and Our Search
for Meaning (with Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips). New York: Broadway
Books.
Pavese, Cesare (1993): El oficio de vivir 1935-1950. Buenos Aires: Seix
Barral.
Said, Edward W. (2000): Out of Place - A Memoir. London: Granta.
Stone, Allucquère Roseanne (1996): Sistemas virtuales. In: Jonathan Crary
and Sanford Kwinter (eds.): Incorporaciones. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra,
p. 511-532.
C. Web Sources
Autobiographies and Diaries Online (Samples)
Spikerz Diary http://www.spikerz.diaryland.com
Janette Wilson - One page autobiography as a message posted to Anthropology
info and discussion list. http://www.anatomy/usyd.edu.au/danny/anthopology/anthro-l/archive
(November 1994)
Novelist Beverly Connor’s Website http://www.athens.net/~bconnor/autobio.htm
Cliff Figallo’s Autobiography of Sorts http://www.well.com/user/fig/
Peter Marquis-Kyle’s personal Website http://www.powerup.com.au/~petermk/autobio.htm
Joe Waller’s Design and Autobiography Website http://www.joewallerdesign.com/htmlver/autobio.html
Bibliographical Lists Pullara, Fran (compiler): Books About Journal Keeping
and Guides for Self Reflection (last updated 1-15-2000) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/6186/bibliography.html
Electronized/hypertextualized Conventional Autobiographies
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/index.html
Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery: An Autobiography http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/slavery/
Hybrid Websites
Poem with video http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/fall2000/anywhere/anywhere.html
Online Diaries
- A Collection of Online Journals and Diaries: http://asia.dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Communications/Writing/Journals_and_Diaries/Individual_Journals_and_Diaries/Online/
Mother Millennia - Stories on the theme of mother (memoirs, graphicl narratives,
fiction, oral histories, poetry, essays, video, sounds, etc.) http://www.mothermillennia.org/index.html
Online Diary Services
Dear Diary http://www.deardiary.net
Diary Land http://www.diaryland.com
Open Diary http://www.opendiary.com
Diarist http://www.diarist.net
e-Literature http://www.eliterature.org/index2.html
Personal Stories - Telling true personal stories on the Web http://www.fray.com
Online Story Writing http://www.stories.com
Oral Histories Online
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/BANC/ROHO/ohonline
Portals, Major resources
Almost all major portals offer free Web space and include a huge number
of autobiographical and diarial content pages.
Memoir writing and teaching resources http://www.turningmemories.com/
Web writing Style Resources http://www.cio.com/central/style.html
Hyperizons - Hypertext Fiction http://www.duke.edu/~mshumaic/hyperfic.html
Software, Books, Magazines, Workshops
Kairos - e-zine - A journal for teachers of writing in webbed environments
http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/
Workbooks http://www.autobiographyez.com/
Life Journal - Personal Journal Writing Software http://www.lifejournal.com/index.shtml
My Story - Autobiography Writing Software http://www.mystorywriter.com/home.htm
The Memory Grabber - e-book on writing autobiographies, life stories,
family history. http://www.familyhistoryproducts.com
Online Journal Writing Workshop http://www.writingthejourney.com
The Write Resource (The Internet Writing Journal, live chat, message boards,
job listings, Marketplace, books, etc.) http://www.writerswrite.com
Writer’s Digest Magazine http://www.writersdigest.com
Web Cemetery
Text, video, images, sound, etc. http://www.cemetery.org
Author
Dr. Anwar Al-Ghassani, Iraqi Poet, Professor of Journalism, Computer-Mediated
Communication and Internet, School of Communication Sciences, University
of Costa Rica
Anwar Al-Ghassani,
Apdo 823,
2050 San Pedro M.O., Costa Rica
Tel.:(506) 234-6975, (506) 283-9773, Fax:(506) 292-7136
http://al-ghassani.net
alghassa@racsa.co.cr
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