These Waves Of Girls Analysis

“These Waves of Girls” is a hypertext novella written by Caitlin Fisher, published in 2001. The postmodern electronic bildungsroman portrays Tracey by piecing together her childhood memoirs through literary digital tropes. Her memories involve girlhood and lesbian sexuality.
Fisher succeeds in showing the reader how Tracey’s memories are fragmented and non-linear, as are all memories, but still linked together as a form of mind-wandering. The more active the reader is, the more he or she clicks on links, the deeper into Tracey’s thought processes and experiences the reader gets and the more of Tracey’s life is revealed. It becomes voyeuristic in the sense that it either lures the reader in or it may disgust the reader and create an uneasiness. There is an emphasis on sensory-based adjectives throughout the novella denoting physical feelings such as smell, taste, and touch. Tracey’s aunt’s “whole station wagon smelled like egg and fur coat” and “her fingers on her warm

chest and slowing her heart and she pressed her lips against mine, sealing secrets” describing a sexual experience. This sensatory involvement supports the luring of the reader or emphasizes the uneasiness with the reader.
Visually, the reader engages in Tracey’s emotional life through the abnormal photographs, which are displayed mostly in a negative and distorted way.

The images of her past are blurry contrary to most people’s conventional childhood photos. The pictorial distortion creates two reactions. First of all, it supports the memory aspect of the childhood images most people normally carry around: bits and pieces of real or broken images of past life experiences. Secondly, it paints a secretive and not so innocent picture of Tracey, but it is done in a very honest, vivid and personal way.
By being active on the website, the reader is engaged in Tracey’s ‘bildung’. Her coming of age inspires the reader to resemble own childhood memories with Tracey’s memories. The main theme is sexuality, Tracey is finding her own sexual preference by experimenting. Sexuality for some is not an open conversation topic, though it is probably what mostly is on a teenager’s mind and it is often a topic connected with much

concern.
Personally, I appreciate the freedom this type of fiction gives the reader although I have to admit that I did indeed feel uneasy a couple of times, then again it is healthy to move out of the comfort zone. The reader decides his or her own commitment and is in charge of getting to know Tracey. It provides room for sensory experiences and the personal option to investigate deeper and commit to a character. The novella is clever and successful in the sense that it creates diverse stories for the different readers. Memories are constructed individually and Tracey’s story will unfold individually to the different readers mimicking the retrieval of childhood memories.