Hypertext is not book. It will never replace the texture, smell, feel, the
turning of a page, the anticipation of turning a page, the rich sensual nature of reading
a book, the very thingness of this act (there is a German word for this but I forget it
now.) No, hypertext is not a book, the sheer visceral response to the candy-colored Apple
computers is a telling clue to how much we miss this sensuality in our computers. Where
would be the sensuality in hyperfiction? Perhaps in the interaction, a very different
relationship between work, reader and author. Hyperfiction is not a book and will never
replace a book just as theatre was not replaced by cinema or cinema by television.
Hyperfiction is a different medium, a different way of writing and a different way of
reading.
The only type of economy I can see for hyperfiction is that of giving it
away - freeware, the more you give the better you get, the joy is in the creation, the
response of a reader, a way to make a literature of links happen, and by default all other
literature that can succeed electronically. We need editors, we need beta testers,
critiques of structure and path, we need distributers, portal sites and critics, all this
has to be free, potlatch, the ones that are making money will have more responsibility to
give more away, to let others in, I have in mind the Grateful Dead. An economy will create
itself, grow along already established channels of communication and success.
