Orality and Hypertext: An Interview with Ted Nelson
Early last June we received a gripping email, originally from Ted Nelson, forwarded via a friend, concerning an article in Wired magazine. Our copy of Wired still lay unread in our growing “read sometime” pile, though we had noticed the article on Xanadu, Nelson’s hypertext project. The email left us reeling:
The June issue of WIRED magazine contains an extremely nasty and mean-spirited article entitled “The Curse of Xanadu,” by Gary Wolf, which purports to be the obituary of Project Xanadu. The article is an affront to the alumni and veterans of the Xanadu project, some fifty of us over the years, contriving to make our endeavors look impossible and asinine …