In the past the broadest categories for literary forms has been prose and verse. These forms now merge with nodes of prose and nodes of verse linking to one another. Because of the unstable nature of the Internet this merging of various forms is becoming evident even in linear traditional written texts. Here prose and poetry meet on the same page and meaning is dependant on whether the reader reads the poems which intercepts the narrative's linear direction. Most literature in modern times is printed but long before there was the printing press there was a long history of oral narrative.
Oral narrative dates back to ancient Greece and was an important part of Medieval Europe life.
Travelling poets entertained audiences by reciting and performing their works prior to the rise of the printing press. On the Internet narrative creators are considered to be travelling the electronic highway as they place their stories on the World Wide Web. When printing began making its mark on the world some of the first narratives printed were about adventures in the New World. Contemporary with the invention of the printing press were the discoveries of the Americas. The Conquistadors brought back and had printed their stories of .