I've been thinking lately about excitement and tension in hypertext narrative. What makes a hypertext exciting?

She tried to remember winter. As if it were yesterday. As if she weren't the daughter of the ambassador. As if she'd not yet met the lovely, loving young man who now lay, unconscious, on her bed. As if the drone overhead were not the engines of American nuclear bombers, nearing their destination.

Images are exciting, but pictures don't need to be limited to illustrating what the words say, or to providing "background" to reinforce the context of the words. Beyond McCloud, I don't think much is known about the rhetoric multimedia images. (McCloud, incidentally, is offering a one-week course in storytelling. October 11-15. Anyone can register.)