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

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.”

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

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

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

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)