Queneau’s A Story as You Like It
An English translated, hypertexted version of Raymond Queneau’s “Un Conte a votre facon” (A Story as You Like It). [And a graphic representation of the text.]
Nothing that interesting now, but in the 60’s it was a little more novel (if the story still not very exciting). When I first learned of this, I was already familiar with the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books from childhood, which are basically the same idea translated into novels of adventure for kids. I’ve since wondered about the origin of those books and if they at all can be traced back to Queneau.
It is often considered one of the originary works of hypertext fiction. Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch being another.
This story and an article on the idea of theatre created in the same way (Combinatorial theatre) can be found in Motte’s Oulipo book.
[Edit: According to this page (marvel at the work that went into that!) the Choose Your Own books started in 1979.]
Tags: Constraint, queneau
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