The reader as author as figure as text
The paper takes a short look at the much discussed dismissal of the author
in hypertext collaborative writing and discusses the role of authorship in three
German collaborative writing projects. The results are:
1. Collaboration sometimes works like collaboration with the 'enemy.' The pleasure
of some collaborative writing projects therefore comes not so much from the
story itself as from what the text reveals about its authors.
2. The attraction of some collaborative writing project lies in the setting
more than in the contributed texts. What fails as Netliterature may get a second
chance as Netart.
3. If the program of a collaborative writing project automatically and randomly
creates the links and develops the structure of the whole, it takes over the
collaboration between authors and their texts.
The conclusion is: As the text itself becomes more and more part of a technical
setting, and as the program moves more and more into the center, the project
of collaborative writing increasingly dismisses the reader. To a user who accidentally
stops by and starts to read, the text itself doesn't say all that much. She
has to become a writer, she has to join the authors, including their discussion
group, in order to understand what's going on and to enjoy the project. One
has to take part on this group, one has to read this 'text' to enjoy the other,
'official' text. Quality of text, in the way critics use to approach this issue,
doesn't matter any more. What matters is the event of which one is part. Someone
not in the game might not enjoy watching it, unless he or she approaches for
other reasons like researching the dynamic of the group, the 'social aesthetics'
behind the text itself.