On Hyperbole and a Half

Today, I would like to discuss both the online and book form of Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half, a collection of partially exaggerated life stories from the author. Both are a combination of simple drawings and casually written text, making the stories seem like they are relayed from one close friend to the other.

            The book was made after the online version, and consists of the same stories, plus a few bonus stories. Notably, even when given the opportunity to remake the images or revise the text, Brosh chooses not to do so. Nothing is “remastered” or “reimagined”, because doing so would erase the metastory of Allie Brosh the blogger and replace it with the unfamiliar Allie Brosh the writer. The web experience includes seeing Brosh finding her voice and style of storytelling, and the book keeps that in its entirety. Thus, content-wise, the print and digital stories are identical.

            The book, being far more equal to web version that the Homestuck book is to its web version, serves far better as a replacement for the web version. Still, there are differences, which largely lie in the order in which the reader browses the stories. The design of the book medium encourages the reader to reach in the sequence the stories are arranged; there is only one convenient path to follow. Brosh was aware of this, as evidenced by the fact that the stories are deliberately ordered so introductions to characters (like Murphy, her old family dog) come before they are mentioned in later stories.

Meanwhile, the web version has multiple paths to follow. Readers can choose to read from oldest posts to newest posts, and largely get the same experience as in the book. Or, if the reader is new, they may elect to read the newest posts first, where Brosh has had more time to hone her storytelling skills, before deciding that they like her storytelling stories and delve into older works. For people who are just cruising by, and are strapped for time, Brosh conveniently leaves a “best of” list on the right-hand side, so readers can get the most out of their time. The freedom to explore makes the reading experience feel more like an adventure, which readers trade away the tangibility of a book for.