THE POP PARADOX ploy
Notes:
Some of the missing friends are hiding from corrupt academic criticism enslaved by POP.
First, there are the critics that are obsessed with box office. If hypertext were any good, they argue, it would sell like hotcakes. So it must be a lousy idea.
Other hypertext pundits seem obsessed with box office: they hate the crowd and despise success. The cheers of the multitude show how vacuous and inane hypertexts must be. One jeers at the "Eastgate hypertext factory", others fret about Disneyfication and American Cultural Imperialism.
This isn't criticism and it isn't scholarship. It's a transparent shell game, a three-card monte fraud designed to extract money from foundations and credulous talk show hosts.