NMR: Chapter 1

--1941

Jorge Luis Borges published the first conceptual

hypertext novel, "The Garden of Forking Paths"

in Argentina

--1963

Julio Cortezar published the first realized hypertext

novel, "Hopscotch"

--1987

StuartMoulthrop created a hypertextual version of "The

Garden of Forking Paths" called "Victory Garden"

--A hypertext novel implies that it may be read in several ways; an earlier version was the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books

--Borges never actually wrote a novel

--"The Garden"

• Dr. Yu Tsun realizes that on the day the story takes place he's going to be murdered as a member of the German Reich by Captain Richard Madden
• He possess the location of a new English artillery base
• He decides to flee and remembers the name of a man who could get the secret to Germany
• He gets on a train to see the man, and as the train pulls away he sees Madden run up to the platform
• He gets off in Ashgrove and some boys direct him to the Stephen Albert and his labyrinth
• The man tells him he has all the secrets of a labyrinth/novel created by one of Tsun's ancestors who was supposedly crazy and explains his ideas to him
• Tsun kills Albert as Madden pops in and arrests him; he is condemned to the gallows, but managed to communicate to the Germans that they should bomb the city of Albert.

It was definitely an interesting story. The concept of time I'm familiar with because it's been represented many times over by other writers (and in a better way, in my personal opinion) but it's interesting to read this much earlier interpretation of the concept. And call me a traditional old poo, but I think the idea of the hypertext novel is a bit stupid. I just like books, though.