Part One: Pasts, Presents, Futures
Visual Narrative
The interface is the visual realm where we as users interact with the computer.
In the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, the metaphor we engage with is that of an office desktop via files, folders and a trash can. In electronic narratives, the principle is similar, but the interface is designed anew for each text with the metaphor being specific to the content of that particular work.
Koskimaa discusses how these conceptual maps occupy cognitive space as highly symbolic directional or navigational indicators. In some ways, these interface metaphors in electronic fiction are most remarkable for their uselessness. They create a sense of order in the midst of randomness and remind us that we are "lost" in the text. They signal that cartographic space is not literally navigable and encourage us to seek out the gaps and unexplored areas of the text, what Koskimaa calls the "'blank areas' on the map."
Coverley and Jenik's sophisticated novels -- the first two full-length hypermedia novels -- are radical experiments in narrative, truly revisioning (or abandoning) the notions of print-bound narrative to find native forms of storytelling and conceptual design for electronic spaces.