The revenge of the page

Abstract

Writers of literary hypertext have urged complexly linked hypertext forms. Some writers have applied this to expository and argumentative hypertext, taking advantage of hypertext's ability to expand the "margins" of a document in new directions. Where argumentative issues or contexts are complex and self-reflexive enough, these writers urge that hypertexts become complex multi-dimensional expository and argumentative texts with elaborate rhetorical and argumentative structures that take place over sequences of links. However this ideal is challenged by developments on the Web, where argumentative hypertexts are dominated by a linked mini-essay style that uses one-step link patterns for its rhetorical moves. Was the ideal of complex hypertext rhetorical structures mistaken? This essay analyzes the situation, argues for the viability of more complex hypertexts, suggests some causes for the dominance of the single page and single-step rhetorical move, and looks at some developments that may challenge this dominance.