Some Difficulties in Reading Hypertext

Unfortunately, Nell doesn't address the issue of difficulty in relation to plot, or narrative structure.

What if a given novel is an anti-narrative? What if it is non-linear? What if it is multivocal? All of these questions are essential to the study of reading, and specifically, hypertext reading.

Michael Joyce's Afternoon, for example, is certainly not difficult to read and to follow because of the length of its sentences. Rather, the real difficulty arises from the number of significant characters, and the subsequent confusion that stems from not clearly labelling the speaker of a given lexia. Furthermore, the non-linear structure adds to the reader's initial disorientation and confusion.