Curiouser and Curiouser: We Are One!-derkammers

Shelley Jackson's My Body a Wunderkammer takes the hypertext to the next level. Even though there is no real end to this text based digital narrative doesn't mean there is no point to the story. Like so many Digitally based stories we are given the freedom to search throughout the text to move forward or in this case simply go back and forth, connecting and learning about the writers body. Jackson takes on subjects that most women or even people have problems talking about, let alone writing about. She does a wonderful job at taking something uncomfortable and making it beautiful.

For example, one does not normally talk about touching themselves and masturbating but Jackson does, and she does it rather elegantly.

"I had already found that I could rope more into my orgasm than the clitoris itself. If I dug my fingers into the muscles of my inner thighs while I masturbated, my orgasm had a different flavor than if I rootled in my belly button. Once I had established a fingerhold somewhere else, maybe I could let go of my clit and proceed to unassisted thigh orgasms, elbow orgasms, earlobe orgasms. In the meantime I kept one hand between my legs" 

Her open curiosity invites her readers to be curious with her. The format of this narration allows us to click our way through a body and the way the owner of the body feels about certain aspects of it. Each body part is handled with such care and as the reader you never know where Jackson will take you through all of the hypertext links that connect each body part to the others. It almost seems like one giant loop of flesh and voice. Telling readers how to feel about themselves while creating art and inspiration. 

"With a sharp pencil I incise an arc into the paper to mark the crease where the mass of the buttock wedges into the back of the thigh. The fat swells on both sides of the crease, then smooths off down into the back of the thigh. If I smudge the whole area, I can take an eraser and slather the top of the buttocks with light, wrap a faint shimmer of reflected light around the undersides, run a little gleam down the curve of the tailbone. Could I mistake this doting attention for disinterested curiosity? Drawing is almost sex."


I would like to boldly say that in this moment and other moments Shelley Jackson's writing is sex! She is very fluid in her writing and her ballsy approach to speaking about the body is pretty inspiring. Looking at the digital aspect of the piece, it really would not be the same if somehow Jackson put this on paper, allowing us to leaf through the body instead of clicking on it. The best part of this piece is that you almost get lost in the text, you are not able to find your way back to a text that you really liked. It is almost as if we are becoming one with Jackson. 

Getting lost in our bodies as if it is out very own Wunderkammer. 

P.s 
Wunderkammer- A place where a collection of rarities and curiosities are exhibited.