CONTENTS
Acknowledgments = ⅸ
One Introduction : Ergodic Literature = 1
The Book and the Labyrinth = 1
Some Examples of Ergodic Literature = 9
The Aim of This Study = 13
What Is Cybertext? = 17
Two Paradigms and Perspectives = 24
Problems in Computer Semiotics = 24
Textuality, Nonlinearity, and Interactivity = 41
Cyborg Aesthetics and the "Work in Movement" = 51
Three Textonomy : A Typology of Textual Communication = 58
Previous Efforts = 59
Method = 60
The Typology = 62
The Texts = 65
Analysis and Results = 67
Conclusions = 73
Four No sense of an Ending : Hypertext Aesthetics = 76
Paradigms of Hypertext = 82
The Sense of a Novel : Michael Joyce's Afternoon = 86
The Rhetoric of Hyperliterature : Aporia and Epiphany = 90
The Poetics of Conflict : Ergodics versus Narration = 92
Transclusions = 95
Five Intrigue and Discourse in the Adventure Game = 97
A Brief History of the Genre = 97
A Schematic Model of Internal Structure = 103
Some Issues in Adventure Game Criticism = 106
Intrigue, Intrigant, Intriguee = 111
The Autistic Detective Agency : Marc Blank's Deadline = 115
Intrigue and Discourse = 124
The End of Story? = 127
Six The Cyborg Author : Problems of Automated Poetics = 129
The Case of Racter = 132
A Typology of Authors in the Machine-Human Continuum = 134
Laurel's Playwright : Seducing the User = 136
From Author Simulacrum to Cybertext = 141
Seven Songs from the MUD : Multiuser Discourse = 142
Literature in the MUD? = 142
A Historical Perspective on MUDs and Nonlocal Communication = 149
The Aesthetics of Nonlocal Discourse = 152
Netiquette and Discourse = 158
Eight Ruling the Reader : The Politics of "Interaction" = 162
The Death (and Politics) of the Reader = 162
Democracy in Cybermedia = 167
Levels of Usership = 173
Nine Conclusions : The Ideology of Influence = 178
Anamorphosis versus Metamorphosis = 178
Toward Theories of Ergodic Literature = 182
References = 185
Index = 197
