Through the physicality and power of placement, readers were encouraged to foreground Chapter 1, for example, and to consider a last chapter or line the definitive closing statement. On the other hand, the aim of subtlety of experience is not, in my understanding, inherent in game-playing. Even on this elementary level, then, the hypertext link enables the spatial and temporal aspects of multilinear electronic texts to function as an erasure of hierarchies - a way of suggesting multiplicty of structural entities. In this context, it is not the computational function of the link that constitutes the literary value - the link is just a device. This move ignores the important function transitions play in the fine-grained capabilities of language.
Transitions establish relationships between ideas.
They can coordinate or subordinate. Subordinating transitions can indicate time, position, and conditionality. What is particularly interesting about the electronic link is that it doesn't reveal explicit information about the nature of the transition. In some software, such as Director and Toolbook, it is possible to construct visual transitions between sections, relying on familiar film techniques. In any case, these rough indicators are far too large-scale to signal the nuanced relationships between ideas or events that may be necessary in a crafted narrative.