lain.and.landow >> Hypertextuality >> 1-2

According to Landow, hypertext "denotes text composed of blocks of text—what Barthes terms a lexia—and the electronic links that join them" (Landow, 3). Landow’s definition of hypertext is an extension of Ted Nelson’s which describes hypertext as "non-sequential writing—text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen" (Landow, 3). Assuming that hypertext can be anything that connects pieces of information together in a non-linear yet cohesive form, than the series of Lain itself should be considered a hypertextual anime. While watching the series, it appears that events occur in random sequences. One moment Lain is on a train, the next moment, she's viewing the train from the outside, and then suddenly appears in Shibuya. At the same time, when this story is told in this manner, it creates a feeling that you are watching the anime as hypertext, in a hypertextual world, much like the Wired. In "Layer 05: Distortion," a mask that is "talking" to Lain tells her "history is not merely a linear collection of points that we pass through on a timeline. They are connected by a line. No, perhaps it is more accurate to say that they are made to connect." By saying that moments in time are made to connect, the mask implies that one can live one’s life hypertextually. While non-linear, these collections of points are still created so that that may connect, just like hypertext in a web site.
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