Hello, everyone, and welcome to my world. Or, rather, I should say, welcome to your world. That is because this is a Hypertext "Choose Your Own Adventure," and therefore you, the reader, will be for the most part behind the wheel.

            This adventure covers the last sequences of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash; the reader will have the opportunity to pick up the various strands of the storyline (following as many as nine characters on their respective journeys) in the midst of the action and ride them to their respective conclusions. Some of the stories are taken from Stephenson's novel; others have been created for this adventure.  While on the journey, you will have several occasions to discuss elements of critical theory, particularly how they relate to this cybertale.

            I would suggest that you begin at the beginning, except Hypertext does not exactly work in a linear fashion. As Professor George P. Landow writes, "The concepts (and experiences) of beginning and ending imply linearity. What happens to them in a form of textuality not governed chiefly by linearity? If we regard hypertextuality as possessing multiple sequences rather than lacking linearity and sequence entirely, then one answer to this query must be that it provides multiple beginnings and endings rather than single ones" (Hypertext 2.0, p,77). Every new experience in this adventure may be different from the last one, and none of them shall follow a linear pattern. That is, of course, a large part of the fun.

            Hypertext is the ideal format for a "Choose Your own Adventure," because the medium "provides an infinitely recenterable system whose provisional point of focus depends upon the reader, who becomes a truly active reader in yet another sense" (p.36). This is what I ask of you: be active readers. The story is in your hands, to do with it what you wish. So, please, choose your own adventure...

             Author's note: due to my overwhelming desire to not have page citations cluttering up the Adventure, I have for the most part used quotations from Stephenson's novel without the proper page references. A full Bibliography is available, however. In addition, the ruminations of Donna Haraway, Jean Baudrillard and George Landow are for the most part quoted from their respective works (specifically with regard to critical theory), though the author did take a few minor creative liberties within the context of the story.

created by jake george and mark zonfrillo 1998
all rights reserved