Most children throughout the world have heard the tale of “Little Red Riding Hood.” This tale has been passed amongst many generations and in order to span these generations, the fable has been transformed so that it is identifiable with the different audiences of each time period. These transformations have brought about versions of the classic tale that vary in violence, morality, and sexuality. The variance of this long-standing fable has been taken to new heights as it has now been transformed into an electronic media. I did not at first think that the transformation of “Little Red Riding Hood” from book to the computerized form found on the internet today would make a profound difference; I, however, was very wrong. The hypertext “Red Riding Hood” that I have discovered on the internet has distorted the original texts of “Little Red Riding Hood” to something that is no longer a legitimate text at all. In order for a text to be legitimate, it must communicate a message or fact, have a linear or obvious sequence, and require active engagement of the reader; the hypertext “Red Riding Hood” is lacking all of these elements.
The original tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” communicates the message that young girls should be wary of suitors for they may be interested in them for inappropriate, strictly sexual reasons. Over time, however, the message became that children should be wary of talking to strangers as it may turn into a dangerous situation. Neither of these messages is communicated in the electronic text of “Red Riding Hood,” however, because this is a feminist version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Feminists believe that the original versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” are degrading to woman because the young girl in the tale is made to seem inadequate to men because she is eaten by the wolf, which is seen to represent the sexual consumption of a woman by a male, and because she cannot escape the wolf without the help of the huntsman. In many feminist versions of “Little Red Riding Hood,” the girl overcomes the wolf without any help from a man thus proving her strength as a woman. Even with the knowledge of the feminist view, I could depict no plausible meaning or message from “Red Riding Hood” due to the fact that there are no words written or spoken to explain the ambiguous and confusing scenes. One example of ambiguity in the hypertext is that the tale has many possible different endings do to the fact that the reader has different pathways that can be chosen throughout the hypertext. One of the many possible endings of the tale portrays Red (the author’s nickname for Little Red Riding Hood) in the bed of her grandmother with, if the viewer scrolls the mouse over her stomach, a creature that looks like the wolf inside of her. I use the word creature because it is not clear if the thing inside of her is the wolf himself because she has eaten him or if it is the wolf’s offspring because he has consumed her sexually. In interpreting feminist views and the sexual connotations of the hypertext, either option can be found extraordinarily plausible which further distorts any interpretable meaning that could have been found. Meaning of a tale is highly derived from the ending; “Red Riding Hood” has many possible endings, each as ambiguous as the next.
The ending is not the only place where the viewer chooses Red’s path, there are multiple times where the reader must make a choice as to where Red will go or what will happen in her dreams if the viewer has previously chosen to take that pathway. These choices do not ever lead to a logical story; they instead take the viewer through a maze of bizarre, non-sequential images which appear in a random order every time the hypertext is viewed. After observing this hypertext, a viewer may be almost dumb-founded as to what exactly they have witnessed. “The order of print is linear” and this hypertext is anything but linear and therefore it is not a legitimate text (Birkerts 122). Legitimate text is something that is already written, something that is concrete, something that passes from author to reader (Birkerts, 122). If the viewer of the text is constantly choosing the direction that the story takes, as does the viewer of “Red Riding Hood,” then essentially he or she has become the author. If one is the author of the same text that they are viewing, the text cannot be considered concrete because the path of the text is perpetually being altered and thus the text in a unique order each time. The fact that the images are in a new order each time the hypertext is viewed makes it impossible for the viewer to find a sequential order in which to process them. Despite the fact that this hypertext has no words, if it was at least in a sequential order it would be much easier to depict meaning because then the viewer would know in what order they are supposed to interpret the images. In “Red Riding Hood,” “linear sequentiality…[is]…sacrificed” and with the sacrifice comes another: the sacrifice of an interpretable meaning (Birkerts 122).
As previously mentioned, throughout “Red Riding Hood,” the viewer is forced to click on different images or options in order for the story to proceed. Some may argue that because the viewer must click for the story to progress, the viewer is actively engaged. I, however, disagree. In order for a viewer to be actively engaged he or she must be actively thinking and translating “symbols…into their verbal referents… [which are]…in turn interpreted” (Birkerts 122). Thus, for one to be immersed or engaged in a text one must first be able to comprehend the symbols that the text presents. Because the “symbols” of “Red Riding Hood” are ever-changing and ambiguous, active engagement as previously defined is impossible because the viewer can never make the transition from symbols to verbal reference and thus cannot interpret the text. This transition is further hindered by the fact that because “Red Riding Hood” is a hypertext, you cannot go backwards. In “Red Riding Hood” there is no stop or pause option, there is no rewind; once a scene has played it is impossible to return to the scene without restarting the entire text. In a legitimate text “the pace of reading is variable, with progress determined by the reader’s focus and comprehension” (Birkerts 122). In “Red Riding Hood” the scene will continue whether you are actually paying attention or not. It is true that the next scene will not begin without your cue but just because that cue is given, does not mean that the previous scenes have been comprehended. There were multiple times in my reading of the text when I only proceeded to the next scene in hopes that it would reveal the meaning of the text; there were also times when I only proceeded because there was no other option.
Mankind’s constant thirst for knowledge and technological advancement has placed our species in an eternally changing world, but is advancement always positive? “Transitions like the one from print to electronic media do not take place without…reweaving the entire social and cultural web” and this sort of reweaving is anything but positive. Through this transition mankind is losing legitimate pieces of text that once lost, may never be retrieved. These pieces are important both in our past and in our future, for they are what keep us tied to the material world. How far will technology go before all materiality is lost?
