At my curmudgeon-iest I like to imagine we carve off our own web where S-expressions reign, there is no Google, and a million timecubes bloom.
Although CSS sucks more than a very sucky thing, and the text+markup idea barely makes sense in 2016, I can see how we got here - and how CSS needed to hit the classic "worse is better" sweet spot that allowed designers to play, and not just people who code.
But that was then. If someone invents a meta-protocol now and implements a meta-browser/meta-server for it, I'd expect cult/niche status at least.
Last time I checked, this stack wasn't particularly slow. I would also express the same style in much less lines of code than HTML + CSS.
I miss Gopher, in a rose-tinted glasses nostalgia-driven way
Could it be Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson:
Cover of the 1974 edition: http://blogs.brandeis.edu/sarahw/files/2011/03/cover1.jpg
Front cover of the 1987 edition (in yellow): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Lib-Dream-Machines-Tempus/... (sorry, I have no image of the back cover, but I have both editions in my book shelf: Also the 1987 edition shows a superhero on its back cover (cover of Dream Machines)).
EDIT: If you want to order a reprint of the 1st edition (very difficult to get): Ted Nelson sells them again: http://hyperland.com/LibPage
https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Kids-Ted-Pedersen/dp/0600590...
"GEEK: A geek is someone who is really excited by computers and proud of it" -- this is the reason I was proud to call myself a geek from 6yo onwards :)