Hyperlabyrinth Textbody

Upon finishing my read of Shelly Jackson’s story “The Body”, I said to myself, “What the hell just happened”? It is as if I had just stumbled upon a map and had to decipher the clues in order to locate the treasure, or in this case, the end. The hyperlink text is interwoven throughout the main body in what at first seems to be random and serves as a means to confuse the reader. With a bit of patience and persistence, a pattern begins takes form, and the story as a whole evolves. “The Body” is not only a story, it’s an experience. Due to the hypertext, I could not just simply read it through; I had to be a participant in the journey. “The Body” starts off in a way that is relatable and draws you in with the detailed description of a scraped knee and a detailed depiction of the healing process. Each stage of healing is illustrated in such a visceral way that I could almost feel and smell the scab; admittedly a tad disturbing. Each body part is presented with similar detail and unsettling imagery. The story definitely has content that is for mature audiences; sex and explicit descriptions of private parts are apologetically present. The first few hyperlinks initially felt like nothing more than a distraction and a device to purposefully throw me off course. Yet, as I clicked the links a pattern begins to form. Each piece of hypertext jumped to another page, and then another, and another; leaving me feeling as if I would never get to finish reading the text following each hyperlink. But as I said, a pattern forms and all link loop around so that the story can be completed; or so I believe. The entire experience took about an hour, which included a break or two to gather my thoughts and process the information. There are portions of the story that is fantastical but in some strange way, plausible. The elements of fantasy seem to have a direct correlation to the hyperlinks themselves in that they form a sort of labyrinth in which the overall journey travels within. Once I felt that I had clicked all of the links I was left with a mixed bag of thoughts and feelings regarding “The Body”. Yet as I stared at the screen, another pattern seemed to emerge; it was hidden in plain sight. The hyperlinks when reading in a manner of corresponding clicks form its own poem-like paragraph. It is difficult to determine if the order in which each is clicked is important but there is a connecting flow that emerges. Although there is some aspect of “The Body” that make it somewhat confusing and at times exhausting, the reward of seeing it through makes it all worth it. I don’t know that I would be all that eager to jump into another story with hyperlinks anytime soon but will surely enjoy what Shelly Jackson has created.