Of Two Minds Review -- What I Really Wanted to Do I Thought

This essay outlines how Joyce got involved in the creation of Storyspace. In his words:

"What I really wanted to do, I discovered, was not merely to move a paragraph from page 265 to 7 but to do so almost endlessly. I wanted, quite simply, to write a novel that would change in successive readings and to make those changing versions according to the connections that I had for some time naturally discovered in the process of writing and that I wanted my readers to share" (31).

Through what follows in his pursuit of the everchanging novel, Joyce reveals his thoughts on creativity and learning, shared with Roger Schank and the "people at Yale." "...[T]hought discloses itself in connections rather than in substance and ...learning is characterized by the activity of explanation" (34). This, of course, describes what Joyce, Bolter, and crew were trying to demonstrate with Storyspace.

One other notable quote from Roger Schank in this chapter:

"In political matters, go the way of most resistance, because what you believe you likely haven't thought through. But in the way of intellectual matters and your own research, go the way of least resistance, for what comes easily to you will likely be hard for anyone else to understand and will probably represent a real discovery once you can explain it to them" (35).