Hypertext as Collage Writing

George P. Landow's essay on hypertext began as a bunch of electronic documents that were translated into one medium. Landow writes about the close relationship between hypertext, "text composed of lexias (blocks of words, moving or static images, or sounds) linked electronically by multiple paths, chains, or trails in an open-ended web," and collages. In hypertext, the idea of a "link" is the defining element which allows the boundaries between printed text and digital media to blur. Landow provides several definitions of a collage which simply is a piece of art that combines scraps of paper, pictures, drawings, and paintings on a single surface. He then talks about the collages of Braque and Picasso loosely relating collages of cubism to hypertext. Landow explains that hypertext and collages are related because they share similar artistic elements such as "juxtaposition, appropriation, assemblage, concatenation, blurring limits, edges, and borders, and blurring distinctions between border and ground." Simply stated, hypertext "appears as textual collage". It is layered with countless links that provide pictures or text over one another as in a collage. Landow then concludes with a discussion of the main difference between hypertext and collages being the issue of its virtual nature.

Landow talks about the issue of authorship when discussing hypertext. He proclaims that printed text is usually summarized and that people are always afraid of copyright infringement. However, with the ability of hypertext to draw texts and media from a plethora of authors and combine them into one, the boundary of authorship blurs. Landow believes that this attribution "seems more honest" than the former process. Does the loss of formal authorship take away from the authors intentions as well as from the piece itself when it is combined into hypertext?