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Space in Scott’s writerly story is also very important. I would like to talk a little bit about it, because although is not my chosen topic, I consider it is very interesting and it can help you to understand the story better.

At the beginning of the hypertext, we are told to be in a weird place, but there is no reference to any real place. We do know where the character, the narrator, is. In fact, the only thing we know is that he is in a murder scene.

Here you have the evolution. I have highlighted the word “going”, for you to see the frequency it appears in the text with. Because they are always “going” to… anywhere. The narrator is constantly making this question to the reader/author, because he wants him to participate in the story.

XXVI. Weren’t we going somewhere? You never take me anywhere. Where are we going? Are we in the car yet? Let’s go to the beach. Jan n’ Dean. The Beach Boys. Elvis. That woman from the Skippy Commercials. Ocean City? Not Ocean City. Tedious. You’re always going there, you never get there.

XXVII. Are we there yet?

XXIX. Is this your first time on this flight?

32. Where were we?

Mexico? Canada? What? Where? Have you ever been to Canada? It’s sort of like you take Ohio and roll it into Minnesota then tell a quarter of them that they’re French. That’s Canada. Great fishing. Are we going there? I haven’t been to Canada in years. The beach, then? Are we going to the beach?

34. It sure is a long ride, wherever we’re going.

37. It sure is hard to breathe in here. What is this? Is this the trunk? Did you throw me in the trunk, you bastard?

38. A trunk on a train? To nowhere? Right train, wrong track? The A-train? The midnight train to Georgia? The City of New Orleans? Can we go there?

43. Ah, at last. Thank you very much. You have no idea what those people were doing to . . . my fare? Of course I’ve paid my fare. That is, yes, I’m sure they paid my fare. My ticket? Look, I’ve been cooped up in this damn box, and I don’t know where I’ve put my ticket. No, I’m not a stowaway. You think I climbed into that little death chamber just so I could steal the privilege of this ride to . . . where are we going?

44. Oh, you. Very funny, very funny little trick you played there. I want to go home, or to the beach at least, you know?

50. The white salty froth of the sea hangs on the waves like spittle on Charles Manson’s beard. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We are everything and we are nothing. When will this journey end? This little craft is cramped, and I can feel it sinking. A beach, a beach. My ocean for a beach-head.

51. I haven’t tried to wear you down, you know. I have tried to be accommodating. Why you must so scorn me at times, I cannot understand. Are we finally here?

58. In the imminent conclusion, I hope that we can avoid this miasma that is hanging in the air, this effluvium of winter virtues. Just because we’re taking a trip together doesn’t mean that we need to be totally unfriendly towards each other, you know. Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, South Dakota, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Florida and there goes an Alabama plate. That’s seventeen. How many you got? Haven’t you been playing? You don’t care? Well, well, well, aren’t you special? Do you want to play I Spy? Well, we have to do something. This is boring, you know. Sure, you get to drive. I just sit here. Well, it’s boring. Do you have any tapes? No? Why would you drive a car for hours and hours and hours, and take me along as your passenger, without any tapes in the car? I would not step into a vehicle without music. Not if I was just — driving, for days on end. When do you sleep? You drive all night. You don’t know where you’re going, do you? I sure don’t know where you’re going, you know? To tell you the truth, I sure would like to have that information, if you would tell me, please. Are we going to end up at a beach? With a gigantic igloo cooler filled with frosty cans of ice cold Coca-Cola by our side? It seems to me that wherever we’ve been going, we should be there by now.

59. We’re here? Well, where exactly is this alleged place? We’re still in the vehicle, we haven’t stopped. If we stopped, at one place, and just sat there, then we would be there. We could say, “We are here.” And we would actually physically be there. We would have arrived. This is where we’re going? Nowhere is not the same as somewhere.

64. Man, some of that stuff back there was cheap, I’ll admit it. But what was I supposed to do? What ground do I have to stand on? Got to keep moving, don’t I? The ground is constantly shaking beneath me. Keep on dancing. The show must go on, right? Thanks, bucko. Retire. Where am I supposed to go? Florida? What am I supposed to do? I got nothing here. I have you, and that’s all I have.

69. Here it comes. I can feel it. Be a dear and pass me that prune juice, will you? What is this? Motor oil? I’m going. I’m down. I can feel it. Here comes Topeka. Mount Vesuvius. Is that what? Where the hell am I? Is this what it really feels like?

Here you can see the evolution through the story. It is supposed that they travel by plane, train, car, craft, but they really do not get to arrive to any place. The narrator asks for the beach in many occasions, but never ever is clear where they’ re going, because the narrator does not receive an answer from the author (reader). He even does not know where they are the most of time. He just make reference to the means of transport the use, nothing else.

Obviously the reader is looking for an author’s answer, he is expecting him to give you the information, to tell him where they are, to build the rest of the story, but this information is created by each narrator.

So when he says “Where the hell I am?” he is expecting an answer. This sentence has ambiguous meaning. However he knows that the situation goes to nowhere. For instance, on page 59 “This is where we’re going? Nowhere is not the same as somewhere” or page 50 “We are everywhere and we are nowhere”.

Towards the end of the story we realize that that the verb “to go” does not appear with the same frequency, and this is maybe because the narrator has convinced himself that they go to nowhere and that there is no point on insist so much.

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