"The goal of the literary work. . . is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the text (S/Z 4)."

"The writerly text is. . . ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system which reduces the plurality of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of languages (S/Z 5)."

Barthes uses the term "writerly" to posit the ideal text. At the most fundamental level, such a text is characterized by plurality, which manifests itself in several different forms. As outlined by Barthes, these plural forms can be found in

• the manner of navigating the text
• the degree to which the text associates itself to a larger network of other texts, and especially,
• in the language of the text itself.

In order to achieve Barthes' dream of making the reader a "producer of the text," the plural forms work in concert and engender a more mobile, creative, and liberated style of literary interpretation. Plurality is not only immanent to hypertext as a new textual medium, but also that hypertext relies on the use of plural forms to successfully clear the way for new and freer interpretative practices.