About the Vagina Monologues hypertext edition.

A study of the key decisions made and processes adopted in the creation of the hypertext edition of "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler.[1]

In choosing Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues for my exploration of the effect of hypertext on reading experiences, I aim to show that the web allows one to deliver a work in a way that lies somewhere between a printed text and a theatrical performance. This work is highly apt as it consists of various monologues, all in different voices, but all tackling a common theme--women's attitudes towards their vaginas. Ensler conducted numerous interviews with women in order to write the work, resulting in some of the monologues being "close to verbatim interviews"[2] and some more elaborate presentations of the resulting material. The monologues are clearly all part of a collective work, but all have enough of their own character to be divided from one another and re-ordered. When the work is performed on stage, the order of the monologues varies. While they appear in a certain order in the published book, there is no correct or required order in which they must be read. There is certainly no narrative thread running through all of them. Instead they are linked by common thoughts and recurring ideas, further making the work appropriate for a hypertext presentation. Hypertext allows for different techniques to be used in presenting texts which themselves were created using different writing techniques. So the variety of voices and the variety of styles of writing used in the work, allow for variety of presentational techniques, all in an effort to reproduce something of the immediacy and pace of a theatrical or oral performance.

The world wide web only became a reality as recently as 1992[3], when few could have predicted that URLs would one day be painted on the sides of buses, or printed on business cards, or that we would see several references a day to the Internet all around us, both in our homes and beyond. But the essential structures behind the web are older than any can estimate: it is a technological realisation of an inherently human structuring system. This fact might go some way to explaining its pervasiveness. At the core of the web lies hypertext mark-up language, or HTML. As George P Landow has emphasised, the concept of hypertext has existed itself in some senses since the beginning of human thought, with many pre-web texts providing examples of what he calls proto-hypertext[4]. The true strength of hypertext is its mirroring of human thought patterns: rather than sorting information in an arbitrary way (alphabetically, for example), it allows for linked pieces of data to present themselves at the relevant moments in a reading. The information is sorted logically, and as Janet Fiderio explains it, "hypertext products mimic the brain's ability to store and retrieve information by referential links for quick and intuitive access."[5]

Vannevar Bush is often credited with being the first to detail a working model of hypertext when he detailed his vision of the Memex[6], but as Landow points out, footnotes and endnotes, among other features of printed publication, were precursors of the Internet link, in that they lead to tangential thoughts or notes which arise from the reading of what Barthes terms the original "lexia"[7] being read. Of course, each of these sub-lexia, being a text in its own right, has the potential to spawn yet more tangential links, and thus a web of links is born, which extends in every possible direction. Hypertext allows the associative linking of nodes without the complication of spatial limitations: because the nodes are not physically recorded on paper, their extent is not limited by space on a page, in a book, or even on a shelf. Clearly the idea of inter-textual linking is not new--Michel Foucault explains that the "frontiers of a book are never clear-cut... [because] it is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network... [a] network of references"[8]--but the capability of hypertext to deal with such inter-textual linking is unique.

The first person to use the phrase "hypertext" was Ted Nelson, who defines it as,

non-sequential writing--text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen. As popularly conceived, this is a series of text chunks connected by links which offer the reader different pathways.[9]

The most obvious feature of a hypertext which creates a different reading experience from that associated with a traditional book, is therefore achieved by the use of hyperlinks. Links can be confusing or frustrating in factual or purely informative websites, especially if there are too many of them and they are presented in no obvious pattern. Without full indication of where in the website the reader is at any given moment, and an indication of how they can get back to where they have been, they will often feel as if they have missed out sections. Conversely, in hypertext novels or purely creative websites (and also in certain types of factual sites) the effect produced by following links and 'losing' one's way, is one of liberation rather than frustration. In this way, the control over the reading experience is partially ceded to the reader, as it is he or she who decides where to go next, and what to include or exclude from their experience of the work. The links should never be confusing. Instead, the intention is to present a multitude of options, and not to present one set route through the various nodes making up the hypertext edition of the literary work. This does of course mean that certain readings (that is, certain paths through the texts) will be more rewarding than others, but it is a further challenge for authors and programmers to ensure that as many of the readings as possible are fulfilling, or that there is good reason for any unsettling feelings caused by a particular reading.

Linking between the individual vagina monologues therefore had to be carefully considered. Jakob Nielsen suggests that "deep linking is good", explaining that "a website is like a house with a million entrances: the front door is simply one among many ways to get in. A good website will accommodate visitors who choose alternate routes."[10] Some deep links do exist on the website, allowing the reader to plunge directly into the story, almost bypassing the introduction, which is nearly always read at the opening of the stage productions of the work, and which appears at the start of the printed edition. But while Nielsen's assertion is true when applied to many websites, it is possible that the sensitive subject matter of The Vagina Monologues might offend some readers were they first to be confronted with a text such as "Reclaiming Cunt" or "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy". Accordingly, I felt it was important to force a 'front door' entry to the site, before allowing the reader to access the deep links, which are eventually offered. This is the reason for the animated opening sequence, made using separate HTML pages, each with a timed redirect to the next. After entering the main site, the opening words of the introduction are revealed line by line, with the previous line of text turning grey as the next appears. This at once seizes the attention and eases the possible apprehension present in the reader's mind. A similar technique is used to present the section "If Your Vagina Could Get Dressed", which is made up of various women's answers to the same question. In order to hold the attention of the reader, and also to emphasise their variety, they are flashed up one at a time on the screen. At any time the user can leave the sequence by clicking on the shoe-links.

Structurally, the site then follows certain basic principles. The division of the text into individual nodes was fairly simple: the overall work is made up of smaller texts, and each qualifies as a node, being spoken by a different character, and centring around a different idea or theme. These sub-divisions then divide further into three main categories of texts: there are longer monologues or character pieces, "Vagina Facts" taken from other works and giving factual information, and compilations of answers to one particular question asked to all the interviewed parties.[11] The introduction, which is written somewhat generally and irreverently, seems to be designed as if to introduce a potentially un-easy audience to the style of the entire work. So in the same way that the monologues are all slightly different from each other (and would be read by a different actress on stage), the introduction itself is written for three voices, and has the occasional caveat included, suggesting the manner and varied approach of the whole work. This allowed the introduction to be broken up into several smaller nodes, which in turn allows some readers to chose a gentler path into the site, while others might bypass sections and launch into the monologues themselves.

From each node there is then at least one link out to another thematically connected node, via a specific key word. For example, the themes of rape, violence, and guns prompt the link between "The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could" and "My Vagina Was My Village", while the theme of discovering unexpected genital pleasure leads from "Coochie Snorcher" to "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy". This example illustrates how the same node can lead to two very different destinations and drastically alter one's reading experience. To prevent the site from becoming too confusing, and to prevent any 'loops' where links feed round in circles bringing the user to the same nodes more than once, there are generally no more than three or four possible links on each page (and sometimes only one). The only 'dead ends' are the "Vagina Facts", which are incidental to the rest of the texts, and therefore have been set to open in user-closable pop-up windows (creating another reading experience impossible in books).

In order that there is never a dead end in the website, and to ensure that the reader has maximum choice over where in the text he or she is going, there is always the option to use the links at the bottom of the window, each calling up a different long monologue in the main frame. These links are accessed by clicking on the pictures of women's shoes--an idea borrowed from the stage production, where shoes are lined up along the front of the stage, and are individually lit when the character they represent is being portrayed on stage. All the monologues are accessible in this way, except for "My Vagina Was My Village", which owing to its more serious tone has been made accessible only via a carefully mapped route through the nodes which prepare the reader for its subject matter. The shoe navigation frame provides an ever-present graphical interface, allowing the reader a more abstract way to access the texts. All the graphics used are small and allow for short download times, encouraging readers not to lose interest.[12]

Typographically, the web has its limitations. Where a print publisher can dictate the font, size, and layout of a text, the web designer is limited by the constraints of each individual reader's computer configuration. But the web does allow a different kind of control over layout, which traditional books cannot replicate. This control is achieved through the insertion of line-breaks at logical moments in the text. As discussed earlier, the individual monologues are obviously separate in many ways, but the very internal composition of each individual monologue also works in a logical and layered way. When performed on stage, the monologues are punctuated by silences, pauses, and facial or bodily expressions on the part of the actors, as is true of all performative literature. The monologues are deliberately 'chatty' in style, with some even containing deliberate references to the fact that they are based on interviews: "The Flood" contains direct reactions to the interviewer's questions, despite the questions not being included. The effect is like watching a television interview, where the interviewer cannot be heard, but where the answers given by the subject hint at what was asked:

I mean... well, never mind. No. Never mind. I can't talk to you about this. What's a smart girl like you going around talking to old ladies about their down-theres for? We didn't do this kind of a thing when I was a girl. What? Jesus, O.K. [13]

On stage, the actors' delivery can convey to the audience the sense that the monologues are unprepared reactions to questions. Web design enables us to create a reading experience which is close to this performative experience by almost forcing the reader to change pace, and assume an internal oral presentation of the text by adopting features of 'speech' found in chat-rooms, and in most people's every-day email-writing style. By adopting these linguistic patterns, which sit somewhere between those of speech and written text, the hypertext literary work has the capacity to assume a more aural pace, whilst remaining entirely written. Designer and writer Rob Wittig explains the theory thus:

white space is the web writer's friend. [I am] utterly unafraid of asking a reader to scroll... in contrast to the conventional Good Web Advice to cram everything onto a single, unscrolling page... It's a timing thing, the eye tracking on an angle, back and fro on the surface. It's both faster and slower.[14]

One of the aims of my website was to impose this quasi-aural reading method by using line-breaks at logical moments in the texts, to suggest a specific pace of reading. By breaking up large pages of text into longer but more colloquially laid-out texts, the reading experience is changed, making it faster and more direct. Similarly, increased text sizes and bold type help to imply volume or aggression in delivery, as they scroll into view. So, for example, in order to draw the audience further into the work, in the stage production of "Reclaiming Cunt" the actress reading encourages the audience to chant the closing words in unison with her. A similar deepening of audience involvement is achieved on the website by making the text progressively bigger and bolder.

Three prose texts remain unaltered in terms of line-breaks: "Coochie Snorcher" is in its original form so as to reflect the report-like, childish tone in which it is written, and to emphasise its confessional qualities. It is presented like a series of diary entries, broken up only by the headings already present in the text. "My Angry Vagina" and "The Vagina Workshop" have also been left with their original line-breaks to reflect their more cohesive, planned, styles of writing: they read much less like one side of an interview than some of the other monologues, with very few if any interventions taking place from the imagined interviewer. They are essentially stories told directly to the audience.

The oral dimension of "Because He Liked to Look At It" is twofold: where all the monologues are by nature spoken pieces by one character, this one relies heavily on a fast moving reported conversation between the woman speaking, and Bob, the man she describes. On the website, in order to force a fast-paced reading of the dialogue section, the two characters have each been given their own column in an HTML table (which is otherwise invisibly integrated into the layout of the body of the text). Bob's words are presented in the right hand column, left aligned, and the speaker's words are in the left hand column, right aligned. This creates an immediate sense of dialogue by encouraging faster reading whilst clearly dividing the two speakers on to either side of an imagined line. The quotation marks surrounding the direct speech have been stripped away, as these are merely intended to indicate who is speaking when, and are no longer needed (in fact they would impede the flow of reading). The characters are clearly separated by their position on different sides of the line, but are clearly shown to be interacting as the conversation snakes across from one column to the other. Phrasing such as "he said" and "she said", have been left in to re-emphasise the fact that the entire text is still a reported conversation--a monologue delivered by one character.

A hypertext edition does more than merely break up a text into smaller pieces and link them together. Using all the possible features of the web, a truly unique reading can be created to suit the particular nuances and flavours of a text. These features include careful and strategically planned links, but also extend into the realm of typographical design, including dynamic textual effects and the use of HTML tables and other layout features to make a different visual impact. Such treatment of text makes for a more dramatic presentation--almost a performance--and in turn encourages deeper reading by varying the reading speed and style to suit the material being read. At the same time, the linking together of nodes in a non-linear but logical and lateral manner can liberate readers, allowing them greater control over the entire reading experience, and reflecting the way in which the human mind itself gathers and catalogues information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

PRIMARY:

Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues (London: Virago, 2001)

SECONDARY:

W. Chernaik, C. Davis, and M. Deegan (eds.), The Politics of the Electronic Text, (Oxford: OHC Publications, 1993)

W. Chernaik, M. Deegan, and A. Gibson. (eds.), Beyond the Book: Theory, Culture, and the Politics of Cyberspace, (Oxford: OHC Publications, 1996)

Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. (New York: Harper & Row, 1976)

Landow, George P., Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Baltimore: Hopkins UP, 1992)

JOURNALS AND ARTICLES

Fiderio, Janet. "A Grand Vision" in Byte (October, 1988) page 237+

ONLINE

World-Wide Web Proposal for a Hypertext Project, CERN, 1990
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Proposal.html
by Berners-Lee, T., and Caulliau, R.

Hypertext Now
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/
By Bernstein, Mark

alt.hypertext Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~jamie/hypertext-faq.html
Compiled and edited by Blustein, Jamie

As We May Think (originally published in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly)
http://www.isg.sfu.ca/~duchier/misc/vbush/
by Bush, Vannevar

Politexts, Hypertexts, and Other Cultural Formations in the Late Age of Print
http://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/mar/kaplan.html
by Kaplan, Nancy

useit.com: usable information technology,
http://www.useit.com/
Created and written by Nielsen, Jakob

Hypertext Places
http://cheiron.mcmaster.ca/~htp/
Created by Rockwell, Geoffrey

Hypertext Criticism: introduction to a special issue
http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i07/editorial/
by Tosca, Susana P.

A Little History of the World Wide Web
http://www.w3.org/History.html

[1] This essay originally accompanied the hypertext edition of "The Vagina Monologues" as part of the work for assessment in the E-Literature paper on my English undergraduate degree course at Oxford University. The theme answered on was to create "an illustration of how the web can be used to create a reading experience that would not be possible in a conventional book. [You are at liberty to use a literary text you have already studied or to write your own.]".

[2] Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues (London: Virago, 2001) page 7

[3] A Little History of the World Wide Web, http://www.w3.org/History.html

[4] Landow, George P., Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Baltimore: Hopkins UP, 1992) page 37

[5] Fiderio, Janet. "A Grand Vision" in Byte (October, 1988) page 237

[6] Bush, Vannevar, As We May Think (originally published in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly)
http://www.isg.sfu.ca/~duchier/misc/vbush/

[7] Barthes, quoted in Landow, Hypertext, page 3

[8] Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith (New York: Harper & Row, 1976) Page 23

[9] Nelson, Theodore Holm Literary Machines, (Self-published, 1981)

[10] Nielsen, Jakob, "Alert Box: Deep Linking is Good"
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020303.html

[11] Only one of these, "if your vagina could get dressed, what would it wear?", has been included on the website to keep it a manageable size.

[12] Nielsen, Jakob, "Response Times: The Three Important Limits" http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html

[14] Rob Wittig, quoted in "scrolling with Rob Wittig" by Diane Greco in "Hypertext Now",
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Wittig.html