Electronic publishing opens up new artfields. Writers no longer are confined to a linear sequence of presentation, where readers read from the first word to the last word. Writers can tell the story from more than one character's viewpoint,show paths between nodes that continue a theme, and show many connections throughout the work. When I first started to write about hypertexts, I had to spend half my time explaining what they were. Well, yeah, sort of.
Hypertexts are texts that rely on links to provide their structure.
And this includes much much more than simple links from one page to many pages. Hypertexts let us show that structure IS content. Sound, graphics, navigation, structure and more combine to convey the meaning. Most hypertexts are self-enclosed little universes where you can explore a story with many perspectives, endings, etc. You follow one thread for a while, and are led to another thread.