Man proposes, God disposes

Second-wave criticism of literary hypertext fiction (2000-2010) consisted largely of reading studies and alternative semiotic models that challenged first wave assumptions (1992-1999) on empirical grounds. Focus on the phenomenology of reading did not directly question inconsistencies in the correspondence between Continental literary and hypertext theory. This paper argues that philosophical approaches to freedom found respectively in 1960s Continental literary theory and the Bay Area counterculture that influenced early digital computing are incompatible, despite being the foundation for early criticism of literary hypertext fiction. 1960s Continental literary theory emphasised a philosophical liberation from the author, with interpretation a demarcated and sacrosanct space outside the impositions of an author; contemporaneous computer and information science theorists, however, emphasised a framework within which the reader could access knowledge according to their need.