George P. Landow, Hypertext 2.0:
The presence of multiple reading paths, which shift the balance between reader and writer, thereby creating Barthes's writerly text, also creates a text that exists far less independently of commentary, analogues, and traditions than does printed text. This kind of democratization not only reduces the heirarchical separation between the so-called main text and the annotation, which now exist as independent texts, reading units, or lexias, but it also blurs the boundaries of individual texts. (25)
Stephen Minot, Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama:
"Where am I ?" is the stereotyped cry of those who are regaining consciousness. It is also the instinctive question of readers who have just begun a new story or novel.
The parallel is more significant than one might think at first. When readers begin a new work of fiction, they let go of their imemdiate surroundings and enter a new consciousness, a new world. It is natural for them to feel disoriented until they know where they are. For this reason, most stories establish the immediate setting early. Like a stage set, the surroundings help to place readers in the story. A particular house, a room in that house, a field, a beach, a factory assembly line — these and countless other settings not only help to start a story and make the opening scene come alive, but they may contribute to characterization and theme as well.
The key to making the immediate surroundnings vivid and convinving is specifics. Just as poems depend on the freshness of images, fictional scenes dependon precise, carefully selected visual details. (212)