Hypertext with Characters
Conversations with Friends
Mark Bernstein
 abstract
 Most current hypertexts appear to the reader as a single
entity, a written work that speaks with a single voice and
presents a single viewpoint. Large and challenging
hypertexts, whether technical, scholarly, or fictional,
might benefit by introducing a dramatic multiplicity of
voices and perspectives that engage the reader and
each other. Characters are not merely names or pictures;
to be credible and coherent, each character must be
independent, persistent, and intentional. This paper
proposes a framework for creating and discussing
dramatic hypertexts in which separate characters
participate fully and directly. The most interesting issues
arise when characters are permitted to respond to other
characters and to urge the reader to follow different
trajectories through the hypertext.
1. Many Paths, One Voice
 The hypertext speaks with a single voice in
"imagined conversation" between reader and
creator.
 The authorial voice is explicit: when reading the
hypertextual version of Jay Bolter's Writing
Space, the reader knows that the ideas on the
screen are Bolter's and that the process of
exploring the hypertext is, in a sense, a dialogue
with the writer.
 In George Landow's tour of his hypertext writing
workshop, a unified authorial voice and
organization mediate all the contradictory views
and contrasting approaches the work presents.
1. Many Paths, One Voice
 In J. Yellowlees Douglas's I Have Said Nothing,
the dialogue occurs between the reader and a
fictional character. We know, as readers, that the
narrator who begins:
Remember Sherry? My brother Luke's piece: the one
who got into that godawful tangle with him at
Paycheck's in Hamtramck.
is not actually Professor Douglas, but while we
read the hypertext, our imaginary dialogue with
the imagined character is exactly as real as the
dialogue with Bolter or Kolb.
1. Many Paths, One Voice
 Familiar print forms share it:
 The essay: closely tied to the lecture, just as
print fiction descends from storytelling and print
poetry descends from recitation and song.
 In drama: each character as a separate voice.
 In a scientific workshop, a television talk show,
or a political debate: from the drama of distinct
voices, with the attendant possibilities of
education, disagreement, conflict and resolution.
1. Many Paths, One Voice
 How might we create hypertexts that speak with
the voices of many credible and engaging
characters?
 Multimedia answer:
To emulate the immersive qualities of
performance by including video, animation, and
sound.
 As an alternative to the intrinsic tension between
links and pizzaz, I propose hypertext rich in
character.
2. Hypertext Characters
Characters are independent, persistent,
and intentional.
What is an independent character?
 a distinct and recognizable abstract unit,
represented to the reader through a
distinct and recognizable interface.
Readers should be able to distinguish
Hamlet from Horatio.
HAMLET
 ACT I. SCENE IV.
 A PLATFORM BEFORE THE
CASTLE OF ELSINEUR.
 HAMLET, HORATIO, MARCELLUS,
AND THE GHOST.
 Hamlet. IT wafts me still:—Go on, I'll
follow thee.
Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
Ham. Hold off your hand.
Hor. Be rul'd, you shall not go.
Ham. My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this
body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's
nerve.—
[Ghost beckons. Still am I call'd;—
unhand me, gentlemen;
[Breaking from them. By heaven, I'll
make a ghost of him that lets me:
I say, away:—Go on, I'll follow thee.
 Painted by Henry Fuseli, R. A.
Engraved by Robert Thew.
HAMLET
One easy way to
establish
independence in a
hypertext is to
have each
character's text
(and other media)
appear in its own
pane.
2. Hypertext Characters
 What is a persistent character?
 to possess a continuous existence, even when
the character is not the center of attention.
Though Horatio is not on stage, we assume that
he continues to exist.
 Moreover, persistence implies the ability to
retain state; if something happens in the
hypertext that affects Horatio, the effect should
persist even when Horatio leaves the stage.
2. Hypertext Characters
 Tools like a Search dialog, on the other hand,
may be independent but usually are not
persistent.
2. Hypertext Characters
 What is an intentional character?
 To possess intrinsic behaviors which seems
to serve some purpose or goal.
 The goal may be simple or complex, or not
even be internally consistent; people, after all,
are hard to understand.
 Internal rhetorical and stylistic consistency
make characters seem intentional and
therefore real.
2. Hypertext Characters
 Envision a hypertext:
different characters
appear as distinct
hypertextual units.
 Characters might be
implemented as
separate hypertexts
that interact with each
other, or as distinct
types or aggregates
within a single work.
3. Conversations On Serious Matters
The utility of characters in fiction is clear,
but their relevance to technical and
scholarly writing may seem far-fetched.
Let us consider, then, how writing with
characters might strengthen conventional
technical project - writing a computer
language tutorial for a professional
audience.
Let us describe one snapshot of this multicharacter tutorial in action. The topic at
hand is the C++ auto-increment operator.
4. Implementation: Staying In
Character
 Characters might be represented by placing
their texts in different portions of the screen.
 This is a convenient spatial metaphor,
establishing a connection between location and
role.
 What is GOOD about it?
 1) Because the notional voices occupy disjoint
spaces, readers perceive them as distinct.
 2) Because the visible manifestation of each
character - its window - remains constantly in
view, it is easy to establish temporal coherence.
4. Implementation: Staying In
Character
What is BAD?
Dividing the screen among many
characters may leave each character with
too little space.
The placement of each character on the
screen necessarily reflects a judgment of
the centrality of each character.
The unchanging placement of characters
is fundamentally undramatic.
4. Implementation: Staying In
Character
Suggestions:
Retain spatial relationships and improve
the screen layout by specifying constraints
rather than actual placements.
When we follow a link, each character's
representation might change size and
position as needed to satisfy its
constraints.
4. Implementation: Staying In
Character
 Include a portrait of the character within each
of its nodes.
 Establish character through typographic
convention, associating different characters
with different textual appearances. For
example, one type face indicates the central
narrative while a different face distinguishes a
melange of nightmares and refracted images
thrown off by the central story.
4. Implementation: Staying In
Character
5. Characters Responding to Characters
 More hypertextual structures arise when
characters respond not merely to the stimulus
of a central hypertext, but also to each other.
 A range of fascinating and pathological
behaviors becomes possible.
 For example, consider a work in Roman
history that includes (among other characters)
a Marxist Historian and a Glossary.
5. Characters Responding to Characters
 “Plebiscitum“ = an enactment of the Roman
popular assembly.
 The Marxist Historian responds to this
definition, perhaps to illustrate a nascent
sense of "class" in the ancient term. In so
doing, the Marxist offers the Glossary a new
opportunity to define "plebiscitum", to which
the Marxist again responds.
 A succession of dense and vehement
screens flies before our eyes.
5. Characters Responding to Characters
The Trellis model:
analytical tools
needed to model
these phenomena,
and could allow the
system to warn the
writer of potential
pathological
interactions.
5. Characters Responding to Characters
The reader as a moderator.
When a character has a response to the
current situation, it signals to the reader
that it has something to say and waits for
permission to proceed.
By giving only one character at a time a
chance to change the hypertext's state, we
promote depth-first exploration.
5. Characters Responding to Characters
 Eager Links
cause immediate transitions as soon as their
preconditions are satisfied, and which should be written
with care;
 Plain Links
cause their character to ask for attention as soon as
their preconditions are satisfied;
 Timid Links
are identical to plain links unless the character is already
seeking attention. In that case, plain links would change
what the character wanted to say, while a timid link
would merely add another option from which the reader
could choose when giving the character her attention.
6. Advisors: suggesting What To Visit
Next
To create intentional characters that offer
navigational advice.
In this approach, each character
participates in a hidden game based on
the reader's trajectory through the
hypertext.
How?
The rules are as follows:
6. Advisors: suggesting What To Visit
Next
Each character has a unique color.
Characters seek to collect tokens of their
own color, and ignore tokens of other
colors.
The author populates the hypertext with
tokens of various colors and weights in
selected nodes. Tokens are placed at
nodes of particular interest to a the
character.
6. Advisors: suggesting What To Visit
Next
 When the reader visits a node, all the
tokens from that node are distributed to
the corresponding characters.
 Characters offer navigational advice,
seeking to maximize value of the tokens
they will have collected at the conclusion
of the reading. A simple min-max search
to fixed depth should prove sufficient for
the hypertext system to calculate each
player's recommendation.
6. Advisors: suggesting What To Visit
Next
 A topical guide can easily be constructed by
scattering its tokens at places most relevant to
its concerns.
 Conversely, negative token weights let us
construct a character that tries to steer the
conversation away from sensitive subjects, a
behavior not discussed in the hypertext literature
but which has clear dramatic possibilities.
 By placing tokens uniformly throughout the
hypertext, the writer can create a character that
seeks out heavily textured areas.