This thesis focuses on the intersection, perhaps the convergence, of two basic aspects of internet use that receive, each in its own way, widespread usage: hypertext and the presentation of self. More specifically, it seeks to examine both the compatibility of hypertext as a medium for an extended series of essays, and how subjective issues that reflect an internal world of associations creep into, and interact with, the universal topics under discussion. A review of the relevant literature pertaining to these two main topics runs the risk of being exceedingly lengthy, and also highly derivative. Much has been written about both of these topics, and even if a thesis of this sort isn't really expected to be particularly original, even a cursory review of the literature can cause someone to quite seriously ask whether there's really any need for yet another examination of this topic. For better or for worse, much of the ever ballooning quantity of literature devoted to these topics tends to be distressingly derivative. Perhaps there's just not that much to say about the topic. It's not at all difficult to beef up a bibliography with more and more articles that not only say essentially the same thing, but also quote exactly the same sources. Neither cyberspace nor a university library are really in need of yet one more review of this literature.
Running as a sort of counterpoint to the ever present question of why this is being written is a problem that stems from the very nature of hypertext. I find myself continually in danger of branching off on tangents that are far from directly related to the topics under discussion. Again and again I've had to remind myself that this section is supposed to review the relevant literature, not to solve all the world's problems. If length in itself were a virtue, the associative aspects of hypertext would be working overtime in my favor, helping me to add volume to what sometimes seems to be a rather limited topic. But it isn't. Sometimes getting to the point quickly is desirable, and I've found myself having to make a concerted effort to go both against my own grain of continually creating forever widening networks of association, and the grain of the internet that encourages everyone to have their own take on every topic imaginable.
And yet, as I note elsewhere, I find it impossible to discuss the topics at hand without also bringing them center stage. It's not that I feel that I have to demonstrate how they work, but rather that this project, from its inception, has sought to examine hypertext and the invasion of the objective by the subjective, and to do that here in a detached and non-associative manner would quite simply be to deny the validity of that approach.
What's more, because of the nature of hypertext I've found myself continually in danger of branching off on tangents that aren't directly related to the topic under discussion, and have had to remind myself that this section, at least, is supposed to review the relevant literature, not to solve all the world's problems.
Perhaps this opening is an apology to myself, for not succeeding, even
here, in assuming the proper academic stance. Perhaps it's an apology to
the reader who has the right to expect something more focused. Whichever,
enough introductions already. On with the show.