History and Hypertext

(Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems was in Sydney this month talking about ‘History and Hypertext’…what I did my MA on in 1998).

SOME THOUGHTS ON HYPERTEXT AND HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Mark Bernstein

At times, hypertext has seemed incompatible with historical
narrative, either because non-sequential writing is at odds with
understanding cause and effect, or because hypertext caters to short
attention spans and immersive, unreflective visual appeal. Since the
future of serious writing so clearly lies in electronic writing
spaces, this incompatibility has inspired alarm, and the most
commonly-cited advantages of new media for the historian — cheap
publication and economical illustration — are not powerful allies in
this contest. Fortunately, the literary qualities of hypertext turn
out to be well adapted to the needs of historical discussion.

Mark Bernstein is chief scientist at Eastgate Systems and designer of
Tinderbox, a personal content management assistant for making,
analyzing, and sharing notes. Since 1982, Eastgate has created
hypertext tools and published original hypertext fiction and
nonfiction. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he received his
doctorate (in Chemistry) from Harvard University.