Now, the first App-Album

I wrote here recently about my disaffection with the so-called hypertext novel.

Now Bjork (yeah, that Bjork) is releasing tomorrow what's being called the first "app-album" described here by the scriveners at CNN.com.

So, why does this sound more promising than the hypertext novel? (Aside from the narration by America's Favorite Old Fart, for one, and Bjork's music, for another.)

I think it's more than the eye candy.

When I clicked through the links to Paul LaThingy's hypertex novel, I didn't feel compelled to read. Or participate. Or even try to figure out why the author was taking me down these little segues. This app-album concept, however -- and I'll have to pass further judgment when I download the free thingy (no way am I paying for any of her music, however) -- has a different feel to it. There's interactivity there. There's that mix of sound and visual that could definitely be there in a hypertext novel that just isn't there in LaThingy's attempt at the hypertext novel. Maybe there can be a merging of the two genres.

I know, for example, that the stories I write are getting more visual and aural cues to them as I progress. There's a lot of song to them. I have one, set on Iapetus, where the Patsy Cline version of "Rose of San Antone" is going to play a pretty big part. Another is going to have what I hope will be a good mix of old-timey Christian music (and I mean 15th to 16th century old-timey. Need to research that) in it. There are possibilities there, in a hypertext novel, of introducing sounds, images, original video, that Paul LaThingy just doesn't approach.