1. Non-Linearity and Literary Theory --Aarseth “I avoid the primitive and theoretically uninteresting division between electronic and hard copy.”

2. Categories of Nonlinearity  “The simple nonlinear text, whose textons are totally static, open and explorable by the user.  The discontinuous nonlinear text, or hypertext, which may be traversed by “jumps” (explicit links) between textons.  The determinate “cybertext,” in which the behavior of textons is predictable but conditional with the element of role- playing  The indeterminate cybertext in which textons are dynamic and unpredictable.”

3. More on electronic vs paper text  “We have a number of different text types, some paper based and some digital, with the greater variety among the digital ones.  “Thus there may be more difference between two digital texts than between either of those and a paper text.”  “Literary hypertext does not represent a break with the novel. On the contrary, it finds its place in a long tradition of experimental literature in which one of the main strategies is to resist and subvert narrative.”  Review conventional characteristics of hypertext

4. Hypertext vs Cybertest  Hypertext isn’t necessarily electronic It is distinguished by “its discontinuity—the jump—the sudden displacement of the user’s position in the text” Reader’s attempt to identify with the narratee is undermined

5. Cybertext  “A self-changing text... which is controlled by an immanent cybernetic agent, either mechanical or human.”  Determinate -- Games  vs indeterminate MUD’s

6. The Rhetoric of Nonlinearity  Forking—spatially nonlinear text  Linking/jumping—hypertext  Permutation—user generated or computer, determinate or indeterminate  Computation—computer generated determinate or random  Polygenesis—response to user, predicted or indeterminate (MUD)