theunknownmsa


 * “The Unknown” by Scott Rettberg, William Gillespie, Dirk Stratton, and Frank Marquardt**

http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/rettberg_the_unknown/

**Overview:** "The Unknown" by Scott Rettberg, William Gillespie, Dirk Stratton, and Frank Marquardt is a "hypertext novel" created in the fall and winter of 1999 that pokes fun at literary celebrity, several aspects of the publishing industry, and literary criticism, all while "tak[ing] on the excesses of a rock tour". While “The Unknown” provides a view into a book tour gone wild, this hypertext provides a labyrinth of literary devices, poetry, interviews, book reviews, curious photographs and audio files to remind the reader that literature, and the process of creating literature, does not necessarily have to be a serious experience. All in all, “The Unknown” includes a myriad of pages to tell the fictitious story of a book and its creation, influences, and aftermath on its authors and the world. “The Unknown,” then, not only illustrates how books circulate through the publishing process, but how they affect the author(s), and us as readers, on various levels.

**Textual Features:**
 * Textual “narrative” is presented in the form of a hypertext where the reader can click links inserted throughout text on any given page, or use the “previous/next” links at the bottom of the page to progress the narrative.
 * Several types of "literature" are used to provide a "serious" base for the comedic aspects of this hypertext: [|__stream of consciousness__], poetry, [|__quotes from famous authors__] , [|__references to famous works__] , memoir, [|__letters__] , and [|__textual interviews__] to name a few.

**Media Features:**
 * "The Unknown" uses several types of photographs sporadically placed throughout the text in order to help illustrate the story. Some are pictures of the [|__authors__] and the shenanigans they encounter, while others are of random things like [|__book pages__] or cats.
 * The hypertext also features downloadable audio files (which the authors admit might not work anymore, due to the advancement of technology, or may not exist anymore in some instances) that act as a live reading of the text. You can access ALL of the audio files separately from the text in mp3 format [|__here__].
 * The visual presentation of this work, or the webpage itself, is not terribly sophisticated. Its main features are hyperlinked pages with the inclusion of photographs and linked audio files. The simple layout reminds us of a book: it’s not how it looks, but what’s inside that matters.
 * Links located at the bottom of the page separate the text into different ways to experience it. You can experience it by city, if you click on the “Map” link. If you’d simply like to read the pages about every person mentioned in the hypertext, you can click the link that says “People.” Each of the colored boxes will also arrange the readings by category: red (organized by the authors’ experiences), purple (classified as “metafictional bullshit”), blue (catalogs the more documentary-esque aspects of the work), orange (organizes the letters shown within the hypertext), brown (displays art created, I think, during and in response to the hypertext….though I didn’t encounter any of these within the hypertext), and green (which links you to mp3 files of the live readings dispersed throughout the text).


 * Reading Experience:**

Reading “The Unknown” is going to be a unique experience for the reader, as each reader will navigate through the hypertext links differently. The reader might choose to read an entire page and follow that particular part of the storyline, using the “previous/next” links at the bottom of the page; however, the reader also has the option to click on any of the numerous links scattered throughout the hypertext. So, if you’re reading for continuity (which I’m not even certain is possible) the experience will differ than if you click on a link in the middle of the page. As the text is scattered with obscene or controversial words as links more often than not, the urge is to read however one chooses takes over, which plays into digital literature (and defies the book format) so well. The pictures provide a kind of visual literacy to this piece, as you get to see exactly what the authors look like and how the pictures add to the absuridty of this piece.


 * Interpretation:**

From the beginning to wherever you end, “The Unknown” is a hypertext that strives to show us how fun the writing and reading process can truly be by poking fun at nearly every aspect of book publishing and literary criticism. Using literary references, forms, and devices show us that these authors are well read and well informed, but those elements are twisted and turned into the most comedic aspects of the text: For example, several famous authors from Thomas Pynchon to Don DeLillo are implicated in just about everything from shuffleboard to hashish brownies when meeting up with the authors throughout their tour. By presenting “The Unknown” and its [|__drug addled__] book tour as something we might read about in Rolling Stone, rather than hear at an MLA conference, the end product is something that returns us to the main reason why we read: for fun. The authors, then, remind us that not everything literary needs the prerequisite of seriousness to still be smart and informative.


 * Possible Questions for Discussion:**

After viewing “The Unknown” and its attempts at levity in regards to nearly all things literary, how do you feel that this text differs from other hypertexts that we’ve encountered this semester (“My Body A WunderKammer” by Shelley Jackson, for example)?

Do other non-narrative pieces of the work (the title, pictures, bell ringing in the audio files, etc) of the piece offer any significance that the text itself does not?

Do you feel that this hypertext does what it aims to do or does it lose itself in the “fun” of it all? Why or why not?