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Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
fade

A cinematic fade to black is routinely used to indicate a flashback, though it is also as routinely used to indicate ellipsis, flashforward, subjective experience (unconsciousness), the end, or a fade to black. What the fade means is extremely dependent on its context, and by virtue of its context you can largely make the fade do, or mean, anything. The same applies to a fade in from black, dissolves, wipes, irises, and, possibly, any edit. All that is certain is that the edit, or dissolve, or fade to black, appears to force or generate an assumption of relation which is interpreted pragmatically. This doesn't make the fade insignificant, quite the contrary, it simply means that it is a mistake to equate a formal, material effect (fade to black) with a particular rhetorical trope or significance.

Adrian Miles: Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links
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