Victory Garden

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Description (in English): 

The Gulf War and its media frenzy serves as the backdrop for this Dickensian tale of campus politics, seduction, burglary, dissent, unsafe driving, and war.

(Source: Victory Garden - Eastgate Systems)

Victory Garden is a hypertext novel which is set during the Gulf War, in 1991. The story centres on Emily Runbird and the lives and interactions of the people connected with her life. Although Emily is a central figure to the story and networked lives of the characters, there is no one character who could be classed as the protagonist. Each character in Victory Garden lends their own sense of perspective to the story and all characters are linked through a series of bridges and connections.

There is no set "end" to the story. Rather there are multiple nodes that provide a sense of closure for the reader. In one such "ending", Emily appears to die. However, in another "ending", she comes home safe from the war. How the story plays out depends on the choices the reader makes during their navigation of the text. The passage of time is uncertain as the reader can find nodes that focus on the present, flashbacks or even dreams and the nodes are frequently presented in a non-linear fashion. The choices the reader makes can lead them to focus on individual characters, meaning that while there are a series of characters in the story the characters focused on can change with each reading, or a particular place.

Upon entering the work the reader is presented with a series of choices as to how to navigate the story. The reader may enter the text through a variety of means: the map of the 'garden', the lists of paths, or by the composition of a sentence. Each of these paths guides the reader though fragmented pieces of the story (in the form of node) and by reading and rereading many different paths the reader receives different perspectives of the different characters.

(Source: Wikipedia entry on Victory Garden)

Critical writing that references this work:

Title Author Year
Patterns of Hypertext Mark Bernstein 1998
Pour une littérature cyborg : l'hybridation médiatique du texte littéraire Anaïs Guilet 2013
Reading Network Fiction David Ciccoricco 2014
Rebooting Electronic Literature Volume 3 Dene Grigar, Holly Slocum, Kathleen Zoller, Nicholas Schiller, Moneca Roath, Mariah Gwin 2020
Repetition and Recombination: Reading Network Fiction David Ciccoricco 2005
Reveal Codes: Hypertext and Performance Rita Raley 2001
Rytm jako kategoria opisu e-literatury Emilia Branny-Jankowska 2011
Storyspace 1 Mark Bernstein 2002
Szellem a gépben. A hypertext Zoltán Szűts 2007
Techno-historical Limits of the Interface: The Performance of Interactive Narrative Experiences Andrew Hutchison 2009
Tekstspill i hypertekst. Koherensopplevelse og sjangergjenkjennelse i lesing av multimodale hyperfiksjoner Hans Kristian Rustad 2008
Tending the Garden Plot: Victory Garden and Operation Enduring.... David Ciccoricco 2004
The Disturbing Liveliness of Machines: Rethinking the Body in Hypertext Theory and Fiction Christopher Keep 1999
The End of Books--Or Books Without End: Reading Interactive Narratives J. Yellowlees Douglas 2003
The Endless Reading of Fiction: Stuart Moulthrop's Hypertext Novel Victory Garden Robert L. Selig 2000
The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age Sven Birkerts 2006
The History of Hypertext Authoring and Beyond: Interview with Stuart Moulthrop Judy Malloy, Stuart Moulthrop 2011
The Persistence of Genius: The Case for Stuart Moulthrop's "Victory Garden" Dene Grigar 2020
The Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction Alice Bell 2010
Transdução: Processos de Transferência na Literatura e Arte Digitais Álvaro Seiça 2011
Screen shots: 
Victory Garden cover image
Victory Garden map image
Victory Garden screenshot
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Record posted by: 
Jill Walker Rettberg