PATTERNS OF HYPERTEXT

Mark Bernstein
Eastgate Systems, Inc.
134 Main Street
Watertown MA 02 172 USA
Tel: l-617-924-9044
E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Since large linked constructs cannot be wished away, it is

The apparent unruliness of contemporary hypertexts arises, time to develop a vocabulary of concepts and structures that
in part, from our lack of a vocabulary to describe hypertext will let us understand the way today’s hypertexts and Web
structures. From observation of a variety of actual sites work. Progress in the craft of writing depends, in part,
hypertexts, we identify a variety of common structural on analysis and discussion of the best existing work. An
patterns that may prove useful for description, analysis, and appropriate vocabulary will allow us both to discern and to
perhaps for design of complex hypertexts. These patterns discuss patterns in hypertexts that may otherwise seem an
include: impenetrable tangle or arbitrary morass. The reader’s
experience of many complex hypertexts is not one of
Cycle chaotic disorder, even though we cannot yet describe that
Counterpoint structure concisely; the problem is not that the hypertexts
Mirrorworld lack structure but rather that we lack words to describe it.
Tangle
Sieve LOOKING FOR PATTERNS
This paper describes a variety of patterns of linkage
Montage
observed in actual hypertexts. Hypertext structure does not
Split/Join reside exclusively in the topology of links nor in the
Missing Link language of individual nodes, and so we must work toward
Feint a pattern language through both topological and rhetorical
observation. Instances of these patterns typically range in
scope from a handful of nodes and links to a few hundred.
KEYWORDS: design, patterns, pattern languages, rhetoric, These patterns [29][3] are components observed within
hypertext structure, criticism, navigation hypertexts, rather than system facilities (see [67]) or plans
of a complete work. Typical hypertexts contain instances of
PATTERNSOFHYPERTEXT
many different patterns, and often a single node or link may
The complexity and unruliness of the complex webs of participate in several intersecting structures.
links we create has frequently led to calls for “structured”
or otherwise disciplined hypertext [33][20][75]. While calls I do not argue that the observed structural patterns are
for clearer structure have tried to avoid, consolidate, or uniquely desirable, that superior patterns cannot be devised,
minimize links, it is now clear that hypertext cannot easily or indeed that the writers of these hypertexts meant to use
turn its back on complex link structures. Where it was once these patterns at all. I do propose that by considering these
feared that the cognitive burdens of large, irregular link patterns, or patterns like them, writers and editors may be
networks would overwhelm readers, we find in practice that led to more thoughtful, systematic, and sophisticated
myriad casual readers flock to the docuverse. The growth of designs. These patterns are offered, then, as a step toward
literary and scholarly hypertext, the evolution of the Web, developing a richer vocabulary of hypertext structure.
and the economics of link exchange all assure the long-term
importance of links. Examples are drawn from published stand-alone hypertexts
as well as from the Web. Web sites are readily accessible
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
but volatile: a site which today illustrates one structure may
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies be unrecognizable tomorrow. Published hypertexts are less
are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that accessible, but are also more permanent. Moreover, some
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy important patterns depend on dynamic links - links which
otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, depend on the reader’s past interactions. The Web itself is
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
state-free, and while various implementations of state-
HyperText 98 Pittsburgh PA USA
Copyright ACM 1998 O-89791-972--6/98/ 6...$5.00
dependent behaviors for the Web have been proposed,

21
state-dependent behavior remains an exceptional case in fear, the moaning snow, may be the wrack left after the car
Web hypertexts. (and the bodies) have been removed. Hypertext, Joyce
writes elsewhere, demands rereading [39]. Measured and
Some pattern examples are drawn from literary fiction. I do planned repetition can reinforce the writer’s message: end-
not believe these patterns to be useful exclusively for of-chapter summaries and ballad refrains, for example, are
fiction; rather, a variety of economic and cultural factors a common feature of the pedagogical literature of print and
sometimes encourage experimentation in narrative rather oral culture. Cycles thus lend themselves not only to a
than technical writing or journalism. Moreover, hypertext variety of postmodern effects [61], but also to familiar
fiction tends to be written for general audiences and may writerly motifs:
remain available indefinitely, while specialized reference
manuals and Help systems may be short-lived and less Of recursus, there is hallucination, deju vu,
readily available to the general reader. Nor does our interest compulsion, ri& ripple, canon, isobar, duydream, and
in structural vocabulary necessarily imply a structural& or theme and variation...Of timeshift there is the death of
post-structuralist stance; we need to describe phenomena, Mrs. Ramsay and the near disintegration of the
whatever our theoretical beliefs [48][ 11. house...Leopold Bloom on a walk, and a man who
wants to say he may have seen his son die. Of the
Two patterns - Tree and Sequence - have been described renewal there is every story not listed previously. [39]
many times in the hypertext literature [ 16][64]. Both are
useful, indeed indispensable, and can be found in almost In Douglas’s Cycle [23], the appearance of an unbroken
any hypertext. cycle signals closure, the end of a section or the exhaustion
of the hypertext.
CYCLE
In the Cycle, the reader returns to a A Web Ring is a grand cycle, a cycle that links entire
previously-visited node and eventually hypertexts in a tour of a subject. Hypertexts in a Web ring
departs along a new path. Cycles create agree, in essence, to share readers. Though largely
u
recurrence [ 121 and so express the presence unheralded in the research literature, Web rings, C.R.E.W.
of structure. Kolb’s Socrates In The and related compacts have proved central to the hypertext
Labyrinth [45] discusses the role of the economy. Hypertexts concerning specialized interests -
Cycle in argumentation, showing how obscure actors, or World War I memoirs - may promise
hypertext cycles emerge naturally from little direct professional or commercial importance, and
traditional argumentative forms. Cyclical repetition also alone they cannot easily find an audience. Cooperation
modulates the experience of the hypertext [44], among related sites, however, creates self-organizing zones
emphasizing key points while relegating others to the of autonomous but interrelated activities on a common
background. Writers may break a cycle automatically by theme or toward a common goal. The cyclical structure of
using conditional links, or may use breadcrumbs [7] to Web rings tends to promote equality of access: each
guide the user to depart along a new trajectory. Relying on participant gains one inbound link, at the cost of offering
breadcrumbs to break cycles is common on the Web. one outbound link. Alternative structures (such as central
directories and search engines) can also offer access, but
In Joyce’s Cycle, the reader rejoins a the cyclical structure of the ring keeps each participant
previously-visited part of the hypertext and equal and resists the tendency to concentrate attention at the
continues along a previously-traversed directories themselves.
trajectory through one or more spaces before
the cycle is broken. Revisiting a previously- A contour [ 12][40] is formed where cycles
visited scene, moreover, may itself provide a impinge on each other, allowing free
fresh experience because the new context can change the movement within and between the paths
meaning of a passage even though the words remain the defined by each cycle. Movement among
same. The opening lines of afternoon, a story [38], when the cycles of a contour is easy, and
first seen, establish a chilly climate, poetic and infrequent links allow more restricted
overwrought: movement from one contour to another.
By fr’ve the sun sets and the afternoon melt freezes
again ucross the blacktop into crystal octopi and palms COUNTERPOINT
of ice-- rivers und continents beset by fear, and we In Counterpoint, two voices alternate,
walk out to the car, the snow moaning beneath our interleaving themes or welding together
boots.. . theme and response. Counterpoint often
gives a clear sense of structure, a resonance
Later, we may again encounter the same scene. No longer of call and response reminiscent at once of
does it serve as an establishing frame; later, we may liturgy and of casual dialogue. Counterpoint
recognize that the winter scene the narrator describes might frequently arises naturally from character-centric
be the wreck of his ex-wife’s car, that the continents of narratives; for example, Forwurd Anywhere [54] uses a

22
series of e-mail letters between its two central characters to long been used for quotation, both epigraphic and ironic
explore their differences and establish their connections. [ 131. Links in Larsen’s Samplers appear in a dialog box -
a conventional list of links that Storyspace authors can use
Counterpoint may be fine-grained. In Bubbe’s Buck Porch, to build an ad hoc multi-tailed link. The dialog is designed
Abbe Don’s Bubbe moves constantly between tales of the to be purely functional, showing a list of links by pathname
distant past and tales of her own present, telling her great- and destination, but Larsen has chosen path names so that
granddaughter at once what it is like to be old and what it this list itself can be read as an interstitial poem. Edward
was like, long ago, to be a young Jew in old Russia [2l]. Falco independently discovered the same, unexpected
Don moves between times and voices within a single lexia, Counterpoint opportunity in his hypertext poetry, “Sea
echoing the patterns of traditional Yiddish storytelling (see, Islands “, where the interstitial writing includes both path
for example, the work of Sholem Aleichem 121). It is also names and destination titles [26].
interesting to observe how the same counterpoint
techniques can be adapted to decenter the subject[28], for Counterpoint writ large, the dialogue amongst hypertexts
here (as in Spiegelman’s A4au.s 1711) traditional narrative proposed in “Conversations With Friends” [8] is
techniques yield postmodern effects. constructed as Counterpoint among several independent
hypertexts, each representing a recognizable point of view
At a large scale, Don’s hypertext is essentially linear, and and each capable of responding to links and trajectories
the internal counterpoint (and the Missing Link patterns within its own frame and those of other active hypertexts.
suggested by recurrent antique photographs) forms the
chief hypertextual element. Adrienne Greenheart’s Six Sex MIRRORWORLD
Scenes 1341, on the other hand, offers three or four To retain coherence, writers of both texts
outbound links from almost every node. Greenheart’s and hypertexts frequently adhere to a single
hypertext habitually alternates time frames: a writing space voice and point of view. Mirrorworlds
describing a childhood scene tends to be linked to scenes of provide a parallel or intertextual narrative
adult life, and adult scenes tend to be linked to stories of that adopts a different voice or contrasting
childhood. Because Greenheart, in Six Sex Scenes, works perspective. The Mirrorworld echoes a
hard to avoid Cycles, the Counterpoint of childhood and central theme or exposition, either amplifying it or
adult experience is its most prominent structural element. elaborating it in ways impractical within the main thread.
Where Counterpoint interweaves different voices of equal
In “Interlocked” 1521, Deena Larsen addresses a topic (or nearly equal) weight within a single exposition, the
closely allied to Greenheart’s: how memories of childhood Mirrorworld establishes a second voice that separately
or adolescence find expression in the sexuality of the adult parallels (or parodies) the main statement. ( The term
protagonist. Where Greenheart uses Counterpoint as a “Mirrorworld” is meant to allude to Through The Looking
substitute for the structural power of the Cycle pattern, Glass and to funhouse mirrors, not to Gelernter’s
Larsen builds her hypertext from two interlocked Cycles. monograph [ 321.)
These cycles, inspired by a classic quilt pattern, represent
self-reinforcing traumas of past and present. Concurrently, In Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse [56], by John
links between cycles create a “quilted” counterpoint that McDaid, readers explore the computer files of the late
represents the interplay of memory and action; the Arthur Newkirk through his HyperCard home page, which
counterpoint, like quilt stitching, distorts the cycles while is organized in the image of his house. The back door,
holding them in place. obscurely labeled “Egypt”, allows passage to Newkirk’s
locked files; these files, once the reader gains access,
appear in a distorted image of the house, retitled “Auntie
Choose a link and proceed to its destination: Em’s Haunt House”. In this haunted funhouse, the content
have better orgasms on -> Brush
and concerns of Newkirk’s HyperCard house are mirrored
thedancefloar than,” -) Brush in darker extensions and parodies. McDaid adds depth to
the bedroom. Theysmply -a + the reader’s knowledge of Newkirk through this distorted
don’t admit It IS 811 -P +
Where the hell do you ->Combedout
addition to his life and work.
getoffthinkrngit’s her ->Combedout
dutyorfaultiftheguy -,Again The central thread of Edward Falco’s A Dream with
can’t keep It down7” -) Agmn
Demons is a novel-within-the-novel: a story of a woman,
her daughter, and her lover. wrapped together in love and
violence [25]. This narrative is interrupted periodically by
navigational opportunities that lead the reader into a
Figure 1. In Samplers,a list of links connecting two basement of notes and memories, purportedly belonging the
writing spaces becomes an interstitial voice in
notional author. Falco thus superimposes two layers of
fiction: the dramatic conflict of incest and abuse in the
counterpoint to the main text.
conventional narrative is echoed by the more complex and
Interstitial counterpoint adds hypertext commentary ambiguous backstory of the Mirrorworld. The Mirrorworld
notionally situated berween writing spaces. Interstices have also here plays an intriguing formal role: by revealing the
thoughts and motives of the story’s notional creator in a

23
second fiction, the basement invites the reader to speculate interactive choice. This structure serves to entice the reader
on the nature of authorship more deeply than the familiar while frustrating the quest for release and resolution.
reader/writer dichotomy(411 [28].
SIEVE
Kathryn Cramer’s “In Small & Large Pieces” [IS] defies Sieves sort readers through one or more
coherence in its central thread, which is told backward and layers of choice in order to direct them to
which veers unpredictably between a mundane squabble sections or episodes. Sieves are often trees,
between children and a horrific fantasy of the grand unified but may be multitrees, DAGs, or nearly-
parent. Its Mirrorworld interleaves brief and impressionistic hierarchical graphs; different topologies
sketches of interior life - perhaps of the protagonist at a may all serve the same rhetorical function.
later time, perhaps of the author as a younger woman. Here,
the Mirrorworld is spare and fragmented, resisting even the Where the choice is informed and instrumental, sieves
retrograde coherence of the central thread; without become decision trees. The Yahoo directory, for example,
determined effort, the reader finds it difficult to remain in provides a large sieve that readers traverse to find topical
the Mirrorworld. The fragmentation reflects the shattered entry points to the Web. Sieves need not be represented as
mirror of the work’s title; the mirror world cannot be put explicit hierarchies; the Hot Sauce MCF browser displays
together again, but sharp, silvery splinters are always sieves in three-dimensional space and permits readers to
underfoot. “fly” in SemNet style[24] through the sieve to their
destinations, whereas the Hypertext Hotel [17] hides its
TANGLE introductory Sieve behind a check-in desk and hotel lobby.
The Tangle confronts the reader with a
variety of links without providing sufficient MONTAGE
clues to guide the reader’s choice. Tangles In Montage, several distinct writing spaces
can be used purely for their value as appear simultaneously, reinforcing each
intellectual amusement, but also appear in other while retaining their separate
more serious roles. In particular, tangles can identities. Montage is most frequently
ep
help intentionally disorient readers in order to make them effected through superimposed windows
more receptive to a new argument or an unexpected which establish connections across the
conclusion [50][9]. boundaries of explicit nodes and links.

On entering a hypertext, a tangle can lead visitors to Montage is prominent in the pedagogical hypertexts of
different entry points, helping to convey the breadth of a George P. Landow [47,5 I], each of which commences with
hypertext to readers who may not anticipate the hypertext’s a montage offering multiple points of departure [49].
scope or coverage. The home page of designer David Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl [37] also uses windowed
Siegel [69], for example, opens with four identical icons montage with intriguing effect. Christiane Paul’s Unreal
that lead to four different “home pages” - each offering a City [65] breaks the frame of the screen, using montage
different design and a different emphasis. New or between the screen and a conventional paper book, held in
infrequent visitors must choose arbitrarily, and thus will the viewer’s hand. An iconic representation of the printed
likely see different parts of the site on each visit [68]. page mediates the montage, thus freeing screen real-estate.

Readers may, through habit or preconception, form an

excessively narrow view of a hypertext. Because tangles
are difficult to fit into a simple, preconceived structure,
they encourage browsing and discovery. Tangles may
extend through many writing spaces [19] or, like Siegel’s
entryway, may be limited to a single Montage. Tangles are
frequently encountered near the beginning of a hypertext,
where they disrupt orientation and create a sense of depth,
but Carolyn Guyer’s Quibbling [35] places a maze at the
center of the hypertext, forming a bridge between scenes or
episodes. Tangles may be used as pacing devices, or to
recapitulate moments or pathways encountered earlier in a
reading. Tangles are often found within or adjacent to
Mirrorworlds.

Moulthrop terms hypertexts robotic when the logic of the

hypertext, not reader choice, tends to dictate the course of a
reading [58]. Robotic tangles like Mary-Kim Arnold’s
“Lust” [4] combine complex dynamic structure, rich in Figure 2. A montage from Patchwork Girl [37] as it
broken cycles and other structural cues, with a dearth of appears in Writing At The Edge [50]

24
Montage is a fact of life in the design of museums and art In VIKI [55] and Web Squirrel [lo], spatial proximity is
galleries, where disparate visual works are collected in a used less to establish Montage than to define spatial
limited space. Thoughtful architecture and clever Neighborhoods that represent informal relationships among
arrangement may minimize the disruptive effects of elements.
montage, while juxtaposition may suggest new insights.
Some art-historical hypertexts attempt to recreate the SPLIT/JOIN
architectural montage of real or virtual museum spaces; The Split/Join pattern knits two or more
often, as in the masterful M&e d’Orsay: Visite Virtuelle, sequences together. Split/Join is
the subject of such a hypertext becomes the museum itself indispensable to interactive narratives in
rather than its collections [ 151. which the reader’s intervention changes the
course of events. If each decision changes
Trellis [72] is extensively - perhaps primarily - everything that happens subsequently,
concerned with describing and managing montage. authors cannot allow the reader to make many decisions
while keeping the work within manageable bounds[l4].
NEIGHBORHOOD Splits permit the narrative to depend on the reader’s choice
A Neighborhood establishes an association among nodes for a limited span, later returning the reader (at least
through proximity, shared ornament, or common temporarily) to a central core. (By recording state
navigational landmarks. Unvarying thumbtabs, a navigation information, the author may design subsequently-
bar, or a miniature site map can all inform readers that the encountered sequences to split in consequence of an early
lexia in which they appear are “close” in some planned choice; these splits, too, will usually be reconciled by a
way. Just as a prominent church spire shows a walker that join.)
two spots separated by long, winding streets are still in the
same neighborhood [53], deliberate display of commonality The Rashomon pattern [46] embeds a split-join within a
in a hypertext can express relationships that individual links cycle. The split/join effectively breaks the cycle, as readers
might not emphasize [7]. (Rosenberg’s episodes [66] are explore different splits during each recurrent exploration,
closely related to our Neighborhoods; “neighborhoods” yet the cycle remains a prominent frame that provides
emphasizes the presence of patterns of meaning in the context for each strand. Sarah Smith’s King of Space [70]
hypertext while “episode” places greater emphasis on the uses a three-way split at the end of its entrance sequence to
experience these structures create in the reader’s explore the way casual choices may involve the reader in
perception. See also Rossi’s Navigational Contexts acts she would never sanction. The split appears trivial and
pattern[67]) game-like when first encountered, but becomes morally
meaningful only after the reader has explored alternative
For example, Nielsen has described the inherent conflict in paths.
large Web sites between establishing the identify of a
particular hypertext and the identity of the site itself [63]. If Overviews and tours [76][27] are examples of Split/Join
each page of a Web site is separately designed and where the rhetorical intent of each path is similar, but one
optimized for its own purposes, the site as a whole may lose side of the split is more detailed than the other. Writers
its coherent identity and its brand name may be obscured. typically offer overviews and tours as a service, but
As a solution, Nielsen proposes adopting a uniform Split/Join need not be purely utilitarian. In Moulthrop’s
navigational frame or subsite as a Neighborhood pattern Move, for example, the hypertext offers a Split; the
that organizes the collective site, adding layers of hypertext responds ironically to the reader’s apparent
incremental navigational ornament to subsites as needed to motivation instead of responding directly to the link’s overt
create subsidiary identities. message[59], in a style later popularized by the Web
magazine Suck. Hypertext may resist; it need not merely
Visual motifs often reinforce the identity of Neighborhoods serve the reader’s whims.
in order to establish organizational context or to call
attention to relationships among concepts. When Muse’e MISSING LINK
d’orsay: Visite Virtuelle [15] adopts the structure of the At times, a hypertext may suggest the presence of a link
museum to shape the hypertext, it effectively echoes subtle that does not, in fact, exist. For example, Stuart Moulthrop,
issues of history, historiography, and politics that have reviewing Forward Anywhere [54], describes his hunt for a
shaped both the composition and presentation of the link that his reading of the hypertext led him to expect:
national art collection. Millet leads to Courbet and on to
Manet; Courbet’s contemporary Couture, standing outside At this point I began to think the two “nightmare”
this tradition, hangs across the alle’e centrale rather than in passages must be connected by a hypertext link, so I
the adjacent room. The use of inherited ornament and launched the reading program and made my way to
navigational apparatus to identify and situate a piece of a Malloy’s screen about the freight trains of yesteryear....
hypertext as a component of a larger structure traces back there were many links to other screens, mainly screens
to HyperCard backgrounds [5] and HDM [31]. written by Marshall (this alternation of narrators is
prevalent throughout the work). None of the links I
followed, however, brought me to Marshall’s vignette
about LBJ and the headless doll....

25
 central narrative an apparent order and regularity that
For those less in love with bindings, however, this case contrasts sharply with the disorder of the story’s
of the apparently missing link may tell a different Mirrorworld.
story. As Forward Anywhere brilliantly demonstrates,
hypertexts are structured in more dimensions than the
line. If a link is not apparent it may be implicit. [60]

Allusion, iteration, and ellipsis can all suggest a Missing

Link. Structural irregularity, introduced in a context where
regular structure has been established, presents an
especially powerful Missing Link, for a place to which we
cannot navigate may seem, by its inaccessibility, uniquely
attractive. Harpold and Joyce have argued separately that
the Missing Link is a common if not universal hypertext
motif, that navigational choice requires the reader to
imagine not only what might appear on the chosen page but
also what might have appeared had she followed a different
link [36][39].

NAVIGATIONAL FEINT
The Feint establishes the existence of a navigational Figure 4: a typical Web page in which a uniform
opportunity that is not meant to be followed immediately; navigational frame encloses topical content.
instead, the Feint informs the reader of possibilities that
may be pursued in the future. By revealing navigational Stephanie Strickland’s True North [73] and J. Yellowlees
opportunities even where they may not be immediately Douglas’ “I Have Said Nothing” [22] use utilitarian
pursued, a hypertext writer conveys valuable information Storyspace maps as unconventional Feints: the layout of
about the scope of the hypertext or about the organization lexia simultaneously describes a structure and illustrates a
of the ideas that underlie it. central motif.

Feints often appear in the guise of navigational apparatus.

For example, a hypertext may begin with a map or table of
contents that provides an overview of the entire work and
provides direct access to selected places within the
hypertext. While the navigational function is not
unimportant, the rhetorical importance of the overview
itself should not be overlooked.

Prominent and detailed navigational Feints are especially

useful for establishing the scope and shape of a hypertext.
Just as important, Feints may help establish what the
hypertext omits. Notice that the feint need not always be
strictly accurate; it is sometimes useful to deliver more than
what was initially promised. For example, the classic
HyperCard 1.0 Help [5] presented a thumbtab overview Figure 5: True North’s Storyspace map
that suggested to new readers that instructions on
programming were only a minor part of the hypertext; In addition to their utility as introductory and framing
readers who might be deterred from using a complex devices, Feints may form a recurrent motif throughout the
product were reassured that programming appeared to be a hypertext’s structure. Spatial narratives like Myst 1571offer
minor feature. In fact, over half of the hypertext was navigational feints in the form of doorways, structures, and
devoted to a programming reference manual. The other pathways that intersect the reader’s route; here, Feints
navigational feint on the cover concealed this from signal possible openings for new narratives, roads the
programming-averse users, while those who wanted to reader-protagonist may later choose to travel.
consult the programming section were pleasantly surprised
by its unheralded scope. In narrative, navigational feints can establish spatial and
temporal relationships without interrupting the narrative
Moulthrop’s Victory Garden opens (in some readings) with strand. By establishing a conventional link type - for
garden maps that schematize the narrative [59]. The core example, an icon denoting “link to a simultaneous event
narrative in Kathryn Cramer’s “In Small and Large Pieces” occurring elsewhere”- a narrator can clarify and
[ 181is epitomized in episode outlines, cryptic epigrammatic interconnect disparate events without interrupting the topic
lists that begin each narrative section and that lend the under discussion. Artful use of feints may also manage
dramatic tension through foreshadowing: if we provide a

26
link from Alice and Herschel’s inauspicious first meeting in nested boxes of Storyspace [l l] helps to keep displays
a Tulsa oncology clinic to the birth of their daughter in simple but hides patterns that span multiple containers.
Stockholm, the knowledge gained from the existence of the Some patterns (Mirrorworld, Missing Link, Feint,
link sets up undercurrents of expectation and inquiry off Montage) are not easily represented by conventional tools
which the rest of the narrative may play. By disclosing and require new visualizations to help writers (and readers)
some parts of the future we may refocus the reader’s perceive, manipulate, and understand the patterns of their
attention and shift tension from one dramatic thread to hypertexts.
another, or may shift energy from wondering how events
unfold to permit better concentration on why they unfold as ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
they do [43][30][6]. My understanding of hypertext structure is deeply indebted
to discussions with Eastgate editors Eric A. Cohen, Kathryn
The Feint is also important in the design of hypertextual Cramer, and Diane Greco, and with many Eastgate authors.
catalogs. As department stores discovered long ago, it is Eric A. Cohen, David B. Levine, and David G. Durand read
important both to offer the shopper a comprehensive array drafts of this work, and I am grateful for their many
of desirable goods and to arrange those goods to form a suggestions and improvements.
coherent and compelling trajectory as the customer moves
through the store. At its best, this provides efficiencies for REFERENCES
both the shopper and the store: shoppers discover items 1. Espen J. Aarseth, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic
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3. C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein and et al., A
increase its efficiency without inconveniencing or delaying
the reader. Pattern Language. 1977, Oxford University Press.

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