|
|
Though interactive fiction received a few critical articles as a new form of storytelling, it was not until Michael Joyce created afternoon, a story using Hypercard that computer mediated storytelling gained real academic interest. The story was written in 1987, however, Joyce's place as a literary figure in this medium was secured by Robert Coover (of Brown University) through Coover's series of articles from 1992-1993 in the widely circulated New York Times Book Review. In these articles he primarily covered the works distributed by Eastgate Press on their hypertextual software, Storyspace. Eastgate has become the center of a closely defined, postmodern and primarily anti-fiction aesthetic for digital media, and has attracted a number of print based writers to become involved with computer mediated storytelling. Nevertheless, it is useful to bear in mind that theirs is not the only possible aesthetic. Other works with a stronger sense of plot and character development have also gained critical acclaim such as Myst (1993) by Rand and Robin Miller and The Complete Maus (1994) by Art Spiegelman. Many others are suggestive of a wide field of possibilities such as the Living Books series by Random House and the profusion of hyperfiction freely available on the Web. |