Cyphertext (cyber/hyper/text) is a strictly electronic, real-time form of what Espen Aarseth calls "cybertext," a "machine consisting of three main components: verbal signs (the text), the medium (paper, computers), and the operator (reader/user)." The term cyphertext evokes a "three dimensional image of textuality" and suggests a "play on the notion of cipher and how we encipher and decipher ethos through textual means" (219). This zone of synchronicity that takes place in cyphertext invites the unusual style of interaction that Haynes and Holmevik call élekcriture, and it functions to disfigure any solid figuration of the text itself. -ddd