1. Instructions for Reading

This dissertation contains 137 padalams (sections) grouped into six kandams (chapters) and operates like a cybertext, which Aarseth (1997) defines as ergodic literature, work in any medium that requires nontrivial labor from readers to navigate the text. In its own way, this dissertation consists of many books, but three above all.¹

The first can be read as a normal hypertext by clicking the Next button in the navigation bar on completing a page. It concludes when you are returned to the title page. As this sequence omits counter-stories, creative-critical art, dynamic/interactive content, and other material dismissed as filler in traditional social science scholarship, you might call this the Academic Path. Such a reader may guiltlessly ignore the rest.

The second should be read ergodically. Even though internal links signal interconnections and the extranoematic labor of combinatory play, hypertext renders the navigation process instantaneous and apparently linear. Since the structural power of a cybertext derives from how the reader arrives at the message, this sequence should be read by beginning with this page and manually locating the disabled link at the end of each padalam. In case of confusion or regrettable misstep, you may consult this list:

6 - 5 - 2 - 11 - 4 - 18 - 3 - 131 - 10 - 17 - 61 - 8 - 16 - 13 - 115 - 9 - 90 - 7 - 130 - 62 - 12 - 51 - 14 - 42 - 21 - 100 - 40 - 15 - 20 - 104 - 71 - 94 - 63 - 56 - 112 - 36 - 44 - 81 - 26 - 122 - 65 - 23 - 107 - 52 - 98 - 85 - 27 - 124 - 30 - 111 - 25 - 113 - 64 - 114 - 34 - 91 - 43 - 97 - 73 - 19 - 45 - 128 - 28 - 79 - 99 - 37 - 120 - 69 - 96 - 47 - 29 - 78 - 132 - 60 - 106 - 66 - 129 - 32 - 109 - 38 - 82 - 31 - 88 - 116 - 58 - 80 - 54 - 93 - 24 - 48 - 119 - 53 - 123 - 84 - 95 - 55 - 121 - 76 - 118 - 77 - 125 - 35 - 101 - 83 - 92 - 67 - 102 - 22 - 87 - 39 - 75 - 41 - 126 - 68 - 46 - 86 - 117 - 74 - 110 - 50 - 70 - 105 - 33 - 108 - 57 - 127 - 49 - 89 - 103 - 134 - 137 - 136 - 59 - 138 - 135 - 133 - 0

This Ergodic Path (or, as it approximates my constantly felt minor exertions, the Path of Most Resistance) leads to 100% completion.

The third simulates an ongoing subjectivity in a state of perpetual becoming, the destabilizing bodily contingency characteristic of FMS/ME. This sequence is randomly generated by clicking the Pey Pidichittu (caught by a ghost) button in the navigation bar on completing a page. The Pey Pidichittu or Ghostbody Path is open-ended. You will encounter padalams at random, skipping or repeating texts, until you decide the work is done.

Readers are also free, of course, to invent new itineraries, to follow instructions partially, wholly, or not at all when directed to listen, speak, sing, build, destroy, watch, meditate, play.

If you require definitions or context for characters, theoretical terms, crip word blends, or Tamil words, consult the Cast of Characters and Lexicon pages, respectively linked under the About and Guiding Concepts & Frameworks headings in the navigation bar. For ease of reference, you may wish to leave these pages open while reading.

When you read a cybertext, "you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you may never know the exact results of your choices; that is, exactly what you missed" (Aarseth, 1997, p. 3).

I wrote this dissertation, but you determine how it unfolds.

¹ These reading orders pay homage to the "Table of Instructions" in Cortázar's (1963/1966) paper cybertext Hopscotch. Readers are encouraged to make their own path by physically searching for the next chapter, bypassing perused text already read, text not yet encountered, and text that may never be reached.

Calvino's (1972/1974) Invisible Cities was similarly inspiring: the index/itinerary sorts the discontinuous cities into a recursive matrix of numbered themes, suggesting readers can travel by order of appearance or become actively involved in the mathematical game of making new combinations — generating infinite maps.