Lawrence wrote:
>Design of the hypertext can be quite a strong source of control.
This is the source of my scepticism about the alleged new creative
freedoms of hypertext - I have yet to see that hypertext per se leads to
greater freedoms for writer or reader. It's only another tool, and
perhaps more limiting that it might appear. Didn't Octavio Paz do
something similar in pre-computer days with his extraordinary poem Blanco?
The eye travelling over the pages of a book can leap where and how it
likes (to another book, if it desires, or out of the window). I can, if
I wish, read a book backwards (and have, though not as thoroughly
backwards as Samuel Beckett might wish). The hypertext link will lead
only to one destination, which makes it perhaps useful for encyclopaedias
but not nearly as interesting or unpredictable as the connections that
can be made in an individual mind.
Best
Alison
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