One of the changes that the W. W. W. brings to narrative is the perception of mythologised history. If a text is fictional we know it was written to be fictional and the narrative is not believed but instead is witnessed as entertainment. Throughout civilisation's history many myths were created to explain what we now know as natural phenomena. Most all religions are based on narrative stories created and presented as supernatural fact to control people in the society that the ideology is directed toward. As there were no ways to prove whether the stories were true or not they became accepted as true.

Before the printing press the Church was in control of the hand written manuscripts which were produced by monks and scribes specfically for the Church. Being in control of the manuscripts put the Church in control of information. The Church condemned the printers who started the printing presses rolling in the mid-1450's as they feared writing which was not under their control would be made available to the people. (Spender, 1995, pp. 2-5) When the Church realised they had lost control of the reproduction of texts they proclaimed that the printing press was of a divine origin and was then greeted by the Church as a divine art. (Eisenstien p. 136.) The Internet has drastically changed the control of information so that anyone can now create and disseminate literature. Because of the wide availability of the Internet no one government or ideology can again dominant the world's literature.

'History bears witness to the cataclysmic effect on society of inventions of new media for the transmission of information among persons. The development of writing and later the development of printing are examples...' (St. John, book review)

In 'Literary Machines', Ted Nelson, the inventor of hypertext, writes:

'literature is an ongoing system of interconnecting documents...in any ongoing literature there is perpetual interpretation and reinterpretation and links between documents help us follow the connections.'

Within that perspective, literature, as it appears on the World Wide Web, is the ultimate evolution of 'The Story'. The need to communicate 'The Story' (as social discourse) has never changed, only the presentation of 'The Story' has changed. The World Wide Web is the latest step in the evolution of this narrative which provides literature with its context, and it should be the most creative, interesting and liberating step in human discourse so far.

The way people exchange information or develop personal insights is based on linking. Linking is a natural part of learning and experience. From the first learning experiences, dealing with love, business, schooling and raising children linking nodes of knowledge is vital.

"I link, therefore I am"
has its origins in the make-up of the brain. All living things link; whether it is with others of their own species or with nature there is a natural linking order that permeates all activity in the universe. From Black Holes and Neutron Stars to single cell amoebas, adolescent love, astrological aspects, and good grades at school we depend on links to get from one node to the next; whether in consciousness, experience, or with our own survival.

What has changed is the manner in which this link is being modified. Hypertext is the latest of many inventions that has played a crucial role in the evolution of humans. Even consciousness is considered by some schools of thought, such as Neo-Tech to be an invention.

Hypertext was invented the same way as consciousness was invented, as a means of survival and to break free of mythological beliefs. The dawn of literature was bathed in the twilight of mysticism and mythology. Poets from Homer to William Blake believed their inspiration was from a higher source, such as a god. According to Frank Wallace, the inventor of the Neo-Tech rhetoric, three-thousand years ago the human race had become too complicated to continue in the manner in which it was operating. As people moved from being solely hunters and gathers to city dwellers they needed to find a new and useful system of survival. With the 'invention' of consciousness they were able to form more complex interactions. The same could be said of hypertext. The world has become so complex, maybe even too complex, to continue in a linear single-directional manner. As narrative is one of the primary means of social representations and exchange, its current position of presentable availability is important.

Reading writings as non-linear fiction has been with us in many forms since the beginning of written human discourse. The texts from the writings of Lao Tze, the Christian Bible, Talmud, Qu'ran or other belief webs are often read in random selections. These passages or verses are often linked to other texts as in a sermon or speech. These reading are unlike short stories or novels, which are often read in their entirety in a linear manner. An example of this random textual sampling is shown at spectator sports events in the United States where placards with nothing more on them than John 3:16. These signs mean nothing to people who read them who are not familiar with the symbolic representation of human experience that these texts purport to deal with. Whereas to others they symbolise an important node of belief.

With the rise in use of the World Wide Web the reader will have as much say in the continuation of the witnessed text as will the writer. With some textual presentations now available on the World Wide Web the reader is able to change or add to the already constructed text. Much like the stories students narrate in primary school when one person sets a scene and another person adds to it, stories are added to or layered upon by people unknown to one another in various places of the world. An example of interactive stories and webfictions which are based on reader's participation for creating an interactive fiction on the web is located at http://netfict.com/

Instead of bringing an end to printed works as we know them now the World Wide Web will enhance and supplement text in hard copy. The World Wide Web is the latest instalment in the advancement of the 'Never Ending Story' with the spreading and sharing of communication in an almost instant way. It will change how we read texts over the next few decades. Through the use of hypertext, which is the foundation of the World Wide Web, linear reading of text will give way to the freedom of movement between nodes of text.

With each wave of technology we see this enhancement principal in evidence. Television did not replace radio, the two work so well together that at times they combine as they do when there is a concert and the video is from the television and the acoustic is from the radio. Videos and cable television have not replaced movies, movie theatres are still full. A local shopping centre, Marion Shopping Centre, South of Adelaide , will soon have 30 movie theatres opening in the midst of its 200 store complex. New large screen cinemas are opening in Australian cities. These IMAX cinema complexes will be five storeys high and the audience will have an immersive experience. These large screens are the opposite end to viewing a computer screen and though cinemas have nothing to do with hypertext I mention it as an indication that few styles of presentation vanish.

Cars never replaced horses, horses are still very popular though their use has changed from a necessity to one of sport or entertainment. Air planes have not replaced ships, and cruise liners are still being built. Throughout the history of inventions and discoveries humans have rarely totally replaced one mode with another, usually the new enhances and enlivens the old. At craft markets on a weekend there will be people making craft items just as they were made hundreds of years ago. There are still people in Capitalistic Western Societies who have made it their choice to live without any modern possessions, living without electricity, telephone and television. Literature will mutate, expand, combine and reform because of the World Wide Web but old ways of experiencing text (ie. books) will still be available.

Just as many printed books are illustrated we see text with illustrations on the World Wide Web. This multimedia interactive feature changes what is expected from a reading of text. From an image saturated site such as Odin's Castle to the just text presentation of Maslin's Beach or the moving poetry of komninos or his post structuralist texts the World Wide Web is changing how we experience text. Multimedia will change how we view literature as literature and images merge and become part of the same reading process. Multimedia brings literature to life and the World Wide Web at this time is the primary source for enlivened text. Texts written and produced in CD rom is presently the only other form in which to experience multimedia literature. Virtual reality programs will provide another means in which to experience text soon.

Hard copy, or what we have referred to as books for the past five hundred years are stable and non-volatile. Or they are for as long as they remain in their book form. In a fire, flood or in any one of a countless hard copy eliminating process methods, once the book has been destroyed it is gone forever. Many books and articles have been written about the death of the book the death of the author the end of history. We can look over history and see how everything becomes recycled, re-invented. Hypertext is the latest of the recycles and re-inventions. Long before there were electronic choose your own path and multiple layered stories there were multiple story telling both in oral and written narrative. As long ago as 900 BCE there were framed stories within stories in the 1001 Arabian Nights.

Jorn Barger's Hyperterrorist's Timeline of Hypertext History on the World Wide Web divides textual presentation into ten periods of time:

The Age of Writing	(every book is handwritten, with an individual voice)	3000BCE to 1300AD
The Age of Printing	(the illusion of an objective voice)	1455 to 1768
The Age of Electricity	(exploring an infinitely impressionable medium)	1837 to 1941
The Era of Big Iron	(allowing coarse projections of human resources)	1945 to 1968
The Network Era	(a radically new dimension in human communication)	1969 to1976
The Micro Era	(personalised computing brings a burst of innovation)	1977 to 1983
The WYSIWYG Era	(conflicting standards for aesthetic computation)	1984 to 1986
The Hypertext Era	(personal hypertext generates excitement)	1987 to 1991
The WWWeb Era	(global hypertext with minimal imposed structure)	1992 to 1994
The Netscape Era	(NHTML evolution driven largely by user-gee-whiz factor)
1995 to present.	Timelines are rapidly shrinking constantly bringing new ways of presenting text.

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) proposed a system similar to current hypertext systems, in 1945. This system was the Memex ( memory extender ), and even though it was never implemented the ideas of the Memex, which Bush described in several documents, was built upon to get us to where we are today with the WWW. (Nielsen 1990, Woodhead, Rosenzweig) When Tim Berners-Lee, building upon the Memex system, proposed the WorldWide Web in 1989, literature began a path that will be forever changed.

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"©" Terrell Adsit-Neuage. Hackham South Australia October 1997

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