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≡ Hypertextopia Manifesto ≡

 
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  • Citation
  • Description
  • Explanation
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Hypertextopia Manifesto

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Hypertextopia is a space where you can read and write stories for the internet. On the surface, it looks like a mind-map, but it embeds a word-processor, and allows you to publish your stories like a blog.

It's designed to facilitate the writing of axial hypertexts through the introduction of a pair of architectural features: the distinction between fragments and shards of a story, and mandatory link typing for all connections off the main axis.

You write in Hypertextopia by dragging the fragment arrow (the large one) or the shard arrow (the small one) and dropping them onto other fragments and shards, or onto empty space.

For now, this manifesto includes the proposal for an independent concentration — a proposal that is supposed to justify the existence of this site, and some annotated source code, for the curious.

If you still have questions after reading through, feel free to email and ask.


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The axial style helps the author to maintain narrative coherence in a hypertext by insisting on a beginning, an end, and a thrust of rhetoric that connects the two. After a reader has completed an axial hypertext, they should understand the point that the author is trying to make. This style is often contrasted against fully networked hypertexts, where the reader is free to enter at any point, proceed to any other point, and may leave at any time she chooses.

If the author has a definite meaning and feeling to convey, an axial style will help get it across, while making good use of the literary forms that hypertext offers.