...our culture has had two apparently contradictory expectations for its visual media. In one sense the goal of representation has been transparent presentation. The medium is supposed to function as a window through which the viewer can see the objects represented.... On the other hand, ... audiences ... often want to be made conscious of and even surrounded by media. Instead of transparency, they strive for hypermediacy, an intense awareness of and even reveling in the medium. (Bolter, 2001 25)

The dichotomy between these two sets of tendencies is the primary tension at work in discussions about hypertext writing at present. Hypertext authors will need to consider these issues when composing their hypertexts.