A l i g n a L i n e

We need a hypertext form that provides strong sequentiality and nuanced visuality. Whatever key may be found to enarrative will include this, although it goes against not only virtually all hypertext theory, but virtually all successful practice with electronic text.

Let me begin by qualifying the statement several ways.

1. Most e-literatures, e-nonfiction, will continue to be media-rich, with sounds and heavy visual inflections (lots of graphics)
2. However, markedly visual and media-rich works will not resemble or replace epic, narrative, or dramatic, but lyric forms
3. Narrative format need not be linear in the sense that we speak of a "linear novel"; that is, events need not be narrated in chronological order
4. The narration -- the event of the telling of the story -- must be in chronological order, at least for any broadly read narrative form

All of which leaves us with one gross distinction between two tendencies in language use.

1. Highly inflected, media-rich work
2. Online narrative.

Highly inflected text works online, clearly, but cannot replace printed fiction just because it's so different. Online narrative could largely supplant print narrative, but it has to be made to work for fiction readers and not just a few of us avante-gardists with formal interests.