the mind appears to depend on structure in reading, formulating anticipations, etc. [1] Does hypertext tend to abandon this in the encouragement to surf? -- leading to "hypertext vertigo."

Hypertext tends to eliminate the redundancy of traditional literature; its disorientation is analogous to the deviation theory of poetic language. [2]

But how overthrowing convention has become predictable: "I find it has become surprisingly uniform for such an anti-conventional form of writing."

[1] For the neuropsychology of anticipation in reading, see this paper. Following Charney, perhaps we just need more empirical studies of hypertext reading to learn what it means.

[2] Deviation theory: Roman Jakobson, but drawing on the Russian Formalists, and with Romantic theorists (especially Coleridge and Shelley) in the background. See the opening section of this paper for a brief account.