Thoughts and Ideas

Stephan A. Jordan

ENG-101

Meehan

April 2009

Patchwork Girl: A Novel?

            Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies, gives readers his argument on what makes books “books” and, how books should be constructed amidst other things. Birkerts writes, “the order of print is linear, and is bound by the imperatives of syntax.”(p. 122) In a more simplistic, and understandable manner, Birkerts is trying to tell his reader that books and their contents have to go from beginning to end, front to back, start to finish, and nowhere else. Print is linear, straight and true. If it is not, the text is not text; it is not a legitimate story, plotline, etc., etc. A story that is not tidy and neat at the end is not a good text. The author should not have any extraneous thoughts coming into the story that are not a part of a plotline; if any book is text is like this, it is not a novel because it does not function like a proper book. Patchwork Girl, an electronic work by Shelley Jackson based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, contradicts all of the points made by Birkerts. Her story, is presented in small bits and pieces, and is non-linear. It is a challenge to read, but I would have to say because of its peculiar structure, it still functions as a novel.

From the start, I have to disagree with Birkerts in the quote used above.  Books do not have to be linear or set on a straight path; the plot can be discovered within the text. A great example of this would be Patchwork Girl. This text is on a cd-rom that one places in their computer, downloaded, and programmed onto the computer which, the reader actually reads the text from the computer itself, not from a book. When the programme/text/story is opened, the reader is presented with a map and from there they choose different parts of the story to read. The reader is not presented with a clear beginning, which, personally, was incredibly confusing. There is no page to turn straight to as a regular book denotes.

 In Patchwork Girl, the reader has to map their own way into the text, and once in, they can further develop the story on their own; finding their own beginning and end, and filling in the middle. Shelley Jackson’s work gives readers a new sense of adventure when it comes to reading. When first reading the text, the reader has the option to choose the story, graveyard, or journal as a section to read from. Within these sections, there are sub-sections that contain the text, all of which are small tid-bits that are no more than a page in length, some of which is just a sentence or two long. The reader has the complete ability to choose which part of the text they will read first; a text that lacks all linearity. This creates a story in which all of the facts are not presented in a timely fashion, and also lacks any strict organisation.

Birkerts argues that a novel cannot be a novel if it is not tidy, neat and compact (p. 157). I would both agree and disagree with this statement. Patchwork Girl, as we know, completely goes against this statement entirely. For example, the graveyard section of Patchwork Girl presents the reader with the ability to read about the different body parts of the monster. These body parts, each have their own specific story, some of them branching off so far that it seems that they are part of another story. This, in some sense I don’t like. I prefer a text that sticks to the story somewhat. When there is too much branching off and going off subject, the reader can be distracted and/or turned off by the occurrence completely and finish the text at all. But, I still feel that the abiltity to freely “roam about the cabin” with the text is beneficial to the reader. Shelley Jackson writes:

“But hypertext in particular is a kind of amphibious vehicle, good for negotiating unsteady ground, poised on its multiple limbs where the book clogs up and stops; it keeps in motion. Conventional texts, on the other hand are in search of a place of rest; when they have found it, they stop.” (Stitch-Bitch: under the section “Boundary Play”)

Jackson has presented readers with a modern form of reading that we’ll have to get used to, just like readers did when books first came about after the advent of the Gutenberg Press. Birkerts, is just trying to prevent change from happening. A change that I think is beneficial to a world that is fuelled by constant advancement.

The advancement and growing metamorphosis of technology, which spans the entire history of the planet, has had a large impact on the lives of humans. The caravel allowed sailors to sail across the ocean against prevailing currents, enabling explorers to reach the New World. Thomas Edison invented the light-bulb, which now give us light in any space, brighter than a thousand burning candles. Gutenberg invented the printing-press, which completely revolutionised the world of writing and books. Now stories, essays, bibles, political theory, philosophy, etc., could practically reach every single person on the globe. People could physically hold a piece of text in their hands, which evolved into books; which, evolved into the creation of libraries and universities to promote intelligence and thought. This would progress the whole way up to what we know of books, and how they affect our lives. But many are so used to picking up a book, reading it from beginning to end, and not recognising the actual effect it has on our reading ability. Shelley Jackson has begun to get the ball rolling again in the world of text and books. Birkerts likes things the old way, he’s not aware that just as the human brain adapted to be able to comprehend the book, it can comprehend to read text from a computer screen. Just because it physically cannot be held, does not make it an unreadable text or a novel. It is because of the uniqueness of Patchwork Girl, and it’s new version of reading, that I deem it a novel. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a novel as, “A long fictional prose narrative, usually filling one or more volumes and typically representing character and action with some degree of realism and complexity; a book containing such a narrative.” I think Patchwork Girl fits the definition.