|Computers & Texts No. Robert Sterling Gingher Department of
English University of North Carolina at Greensboro This article
discusses the ability of hypertext systems to clarify the effect
on the reader of selected texts. The Metatale Project, based at
the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a web-based
hypertext system for the collaborative exploration of narrative.
Like it or not, the millennium beckons us toward what Paul
Delany calls the 'docuverse,' that 'large collection of
electronically stored and linked documents, connected to a
computer network.'1 Linked multimedia elements (photographs,
images, graphics, animations, and video/sound clips as well as
text) can endow hypermedia projects with immediacy and
'presence.' Carefully orchestrated technology tools can bring
the beholder closer to the actual act of discovery. Moreover,
when directly engaged in interactive 'discovery trails', and
links which have already been carefully preselected with the
course's mission, students can become purpos