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Cyberfict

 

 

Volume 1, 1999-2000

 

 

 

 

 

Preface

Cyberfict is an annual journal devoted to cyberfiction, including cyberpunk, but here defined more broadly as any fiction addressing the effects of the new electronic technologies on human experience.

The journal will be published continuously online at http://www.wright.edu/~martin.kich. The best of the work submitted to the electronic issue will be published in the paper edition each Winter.

All studies relevant to the topic–including critical, theoretical, biographical, bibliographical, interview, and review articles–will be considered for publication. I hope to begin publishing reviews of current cyberfiction with the next issue.

The journal also includes a sub-section called NETexts, which includes book reviews of Internet-related nonfiction.

Submissions are welcome from academics and afficionados alike. All styles of writing are welcome. My intention is that the journal be as inclusive and as eclectic as possible.

One copy of each article is sufficient. An SASE must accompany each paper submission. Those submissions should be addressed to Cyberfict, Martin Kich, English Department, Wright State University–Lake Campus, 7600 State Route 703, Celina, OH 45822.

Electronic submissions and inquiries can be addressed to martin.kich@wright.edu I will accept attachments in Word, WordPerfect, or Rich Text Format.

Anyone interested in reviewing fiction or nonfiction titles should send me a short note at martin.kich@wright.edu indicating his or her major areas of interest, relevant background, institutional or business affiliation, the number of reviews per year that he or she would be interested in writing, and a complete address to which review copies would be sent.

Response time on all submissions is 90 days for the online edition; decisions on the print edition will be made each Fall.

Contributors to the online editions will receive a copy on CD-ROM at the end of the year. Those whose work has been selected for the paper edition will also receive two copies of it.

Copyright remains with the contributors, though I do reserve the right to reprint issues or special collections of articles and to offer those for sale.

A limited number of print copies of each issue are available for $20.00, checks or money orders only, made payable to the Wright State University. Copies on CD-ROM are available for $15.00.

Martin Kich, Editor

English Department

Wright State University–Lake Campus

 

 

Contents

 

Days of Future Passed: The Novel, the Book, and the Internet

Lance Olsen

University of Idaho

 

The Collapsed Li-Yung: An Excerpt from the Novel Freak Nest

Lance Olsen

University of Idaho

 

Lance Olsen: A Biographical Note

 

Telegenesicide

Andi and Lance Olsen

 

But They Can’t Even Play an Instrument, or, Desert Nights: Flickering Signifiers and Semiotic Ghosts

Robert Dornsife, Creighton University

Russel Wiebe, Felician College

 

Cyberfictions: A Bibliography of Authors and Their Books–Kathy Acker to Jim Young

Martin Kich

Wright State University–Lake Campus

 

 

NETexts:

 

Review of The Computer and the Page: Publishing, Technology, and the Classroom.

Janet Wright Starner

East Stroudsburg State University

 

Review of Electronic Design and Publishing–Business Practices

E. Ted Bunn

Wright State University–Lake Campus

 

Review of Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing

Edward J. Gallagher

Lehigh University

 

Review of Opening Spaces: Writing Technologies and Critical Research Practices

Stephen A. Tompkins

Lehigh University

 

Review of A Rhetoric of Electronic Communities

Russel Wiebe

Felician College

 

Review of Safeguarding Electronic Information

Eric Sharkazy

Columbia, MD

 

 

 

 

 

Days of Future Passed: The Novel, the Book,

and the Internet

Lance Olsen

University of Idaho

 

The novel is, it almost goes without saying, about change. Its characters undergo psychological and/or social transformation as they circumnavigate myriad plot obstacles. Block a character's desire, and watch him or her grow, shrink, learn, fall apart, scatter, gain wisdom, shatter, or triumph through space and over time. And that change, at some base-line level, its Faulknerian anti-feats to the contrary, will always be linear because of the physical manifestation of the form within which it exists. Sentences will, except in the most egregious experimentation (and then only for relatively short distances, and inevitably within steel-hard linguistic parameters), march from left to right and top to bottom like an army of black ants on a swath of glacier. Their syntax will dictate certain structures and dismiss others. Experimental or not, they will trip from the bottom of one page to the top of the next by means of human touch: a pinch of the fingers, a flip of perhaps acid-free paper, so conventional to the deep-grid of the novel in particular and the book in general as to be invisible. Each chapter or lexical sequence will tick forward as well from the front cover toward the back . . . and into that overdetermined conclusion of whiteness just beyond the last smudge of language called The End.

This, we believe almost reflexively from our near-sighted synchronic perspective, is how it's always been done, how it should be and will. Yet, simultaneously and diachronically, we know just the opposite is actually true. Because we have learned a certain method of reading, a certain way to package and transmit information that has been extremely effective and useful for hundreds of years, we trick ourselves into believing it's the only method, the only way, like my colleague who in a moving and understandable show of civil disobedience asked recently to be passed over for an office computer so long as he could be assured an unlimited supply of sharpened pencils. Or like my sweet, hard-working, well-meaning student who, after listening to the sociohistorical lectures I delivered in my undergraduate Survey of American Literature course, studied his notes diligently and then wrote with sureness and poise during his final exam that the Civil War took place between 1964 and 1968 at Columbia University at roughly the same time Sigmund Freud published The Interruption of Dreams.

American culture has little sense of the past. It's somehow wired to forget, fumble the facts, question just what the good of all this mnemonic business is. If we have encyclopedias, spell checkers, and electronic date books, after all, what in the world do we need memory for? It's in our genetic coding, far down among the cultural DNA. Perhaps, if sufficiently inclined and industrious, one could even dog the impulse back to our pioneer consciousness, our Lewis and Clark of the Mind, that simply isn't interested in looking over its shoulder because what's exciting always seems to be what lies on the other side of the next intellectual mountain range, up the next economic river, across the next flash-trend prairie. It's surely an impulse that has become only more heartily reinforced in a postmodern edge-world where yesterday's news is, well, yesterday's news, and last week's MTV rotation schedule is, as another student of mine dubbed it, the Pleistocene Error. William Gibson, the godfather of cyberpunk, understood this at a visceral level when he announced in Neuromancer (1984), less a cyberpunk future prophecy than a metaphor for our present, that "fads swept the youth . . . at the speed of light; entire subcultures could rise overnight, thrive for a dozen weeks, and then vanish utterly" (58). The result seems to his protagonist like "a deranged experiment . . . designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button" (7).

If our culture maintains any sense of history at all, it's regularly a fictive one flattened out and shot through with a golden nimbus of nostalgia. It's the one, in other words, where American Graffiti (1973) represents the fifties that never existed, and where, as Fredric Jameson asserts, "in faithful conformity to poststructuralist linguistic theory, the past as 'referent' finds itself gradually bracketed, and then effaced altogether, leaving us with nothing but texts" (322). Extrapolate this notion to its logical end, Jameson argues, and we find ourselves in a culture of schizophrenia, "a series of pure and unrelated presents in time" (324). That may be overstated by half, but it does seem to be the case that much postmodern American culture tends to preclude a sense of context, a genuine sense of understanding and depth, the larger idea of the rear-view mirror. Production, as Baudrillard has it, has given way to reproduction. Reality cascades into the image redundancy of two mirrors facing each other.

My students' historical pratfalls, then, amount to more than goofy burlesque. They're a manifestation of our destiny, indicative of the young having their hands full trying to navigate the garden of forking paths that comprise their contemporary multidimensional simulation of existence. The last thing such people can worry about is what happened two hours ago, a month-let alone the day before they were born.

 

Embodiments of Change

Such a sense of radical presentness leads us back to the novel's doorstep. Novels--all narratives--are not only about change. They embody it, as every book does.

Books have never done and been only one thing. Five thousand years ago baked clay tablets in Mesopotamia told the story of deeds to land. Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, among others, used the inner bark of the papyrus plant, pasting sheets together in strips sometimes one hundred and forty-four feet long, to document their worlds. The codex, made up of several sheets of vellum, or the treated skin of lambs, folded into a section called a gathering, existed for centuries after its appearance in 300 A.D. The Chinese practiced a simple form of printing over one thousand years ago, and there seems to have been some sort of forerunner to our printed book in Holland. Gutenberg, of course, developed his version in Germany during the 1440s and 1450s, and it reached England in 1476 when William Caxton set up shop at Westminster. More than thirty thousand different books were generated within the first fifty years after those presses started running. By the nineteenth century, printing had evolved or devolved (depending on one's point of view) into a mechanical trade rather than a handicraft, and by the early twentieth the book had become mass-produced, hundreds of thousands of copies of a single one generated.

Since the 1960s in the U.S., the context in which books appear has changed drastically. Then there were more than a hundred substantial publishers in New York City. By 1980, because of a recession and the beginning reconfiguration of the literary marketplace, there were only 79. By 1995, because of another recession and a spate of downsizing and multinational mergers, there were 15. Since then, HarperCollins joined forces with Bantam-Doubleday-Dell, and presently a mere five publishing houses dominate the scene. "In the five major companies," speculative fiction writer Samuel R. Delany explained to me recently, "The first thing that must happen to a book today is that it must be fitted into a 'slot.' It must be put into an official category. And that category will determine everything from the kind of packaging it gets to the amount of money that will be spent on its advertising to the target number of copies the publisher hopes to sell, and is therefore willing to print." No slot, no advertising budget. No advertising budget, no reviews or real distribution. No reviews or real distribution, no sales. Woe to the novel, then, that is narratologically amphibious.

Much in the literary landscape has devolved to the bottom line, a perilous maneuver when contemplating aesthetic matters. In this country, less than one percent of the material submitted to publishers finds its way between two hard or soft covers. Nonetheless, about 1.3 million titles remain in print, one hundred and forty thousand of which were first published in 1996, most by those five major publishing houses. About four thousand five hundred of them were novels, two hundred and fifty of them first novels, and many showed up in the roughly thirty thousand bookstores across the country--most of them now megastores like Barnes & Noble and Borders intent on inching independents out of the business.

In Galatea 2.2, a novel about a computer scientist trying to teach a nascent artificial intelligence how to pass a masters exam in English literature, Richard Powers reminds us "that a person, through industry, leisure, and longevity, might manage to read, in one life, half as many books as are published in a day" (290). Yet, from the contemporary author's point of view, any one of those packets of human information represents two to five years of hugely hard work for an hourly wage that would make a Dickensian street urchin snuffle in derision.

 

Living Science Fiction

My point so far is simply that books have been many different things in many different galaxies at many different times. They have been wax tablets and silk. They've been clay and sheep skin. They've been scrolls and illuminated manuscripts and paperbacks and hardcovers.

Today they are in the always-ongoing process of changing once again, and changing strikingly. The most recent impetus for this metamorphosis has emerged over the last five or eight years with the proliferation of electronic media, especially the personal computer, modem, and emergence of the Internet especially the World Wide Web. Fairly tangible atoms of information have been morphed into ephemeral bytes at a rate of shift that's astounding. Moreover, the Net's growth, we learn from the media almost daily, has become geometric. By most measurements, it doubles in size every nine months or so. MCI, to cite only one example, has seen the flow over its network swell fifty-sixfold in less than two years.

In 1984, William Gibson coined the term cyberspace in Neuromancer and defined it as a "consensual hallucination" (5). He was lauded as a visionary and launched by a keen-witted publishing industry as the icon of cyberpunk. Now, just over a decade later, his ideas look a little drab, a little frayed around the digital matrix. Bruce Sterling, the self-proclaimed spokesperson for cyberpunk, a fairly short-lived quasi-movement concerned with exploring the realm of cybernetics in fiction within a dark, dystopian, street-savvy, amoral, near-future narratological cosmos, was right when he pointed out in his manifesto-preface to the Mirrorshades (1986) anthology that "the cyberpunks are perhaps the first SF generation to grow up not only within the literary tradition of science fiction but in a truly science-fictional world. For them, the techniques of classical 'hard SF' extrapolation, technological literacy-are not just literary tools but an aid to daily life" (x-xi). The world is moving faster than our ability to conventionalize it.

What appeared as forehead-slappingly innovative vision in fiction ten or thirteen years ago appears presently as a kind of slightly off-kilter realism. Surely, in terms of the Internet, our culture has come to incarnate a strangely middle-class and hence oxymoronic version of the cyberpunk vantage point. What once seemed an anarchic consensual hallucination with an analog in the wild wild west now seems like a colonized and commercialized 24/7 advertisement for cars, tech and porn-the latter little more than the "copulation of cliches" Vladimir Nabokov always suspected it was (313). Just as Gibson's fiction has gotten tamer over the years, so too has the electronic beyond to which it refers.

Or at least that's the case with much of it. A small percentage, however, still retains its invitation to true aesthetic and political transgression and, astoundingly adaptable species that we are, many of us are already thinking: "Been there, done that, so what's new today?" Or, to reapproach the question: What sort of literary art can reflect the situation I've just described?

What kind of pluriversal fictive experience can mimic our culture's sense of this new pluriversal science-fictional otherness many of us feel we currently inhabit?

 

Graphic Novels, Hypertext, and Beyond:

The Poetics of Poststructuralist Fiction

Change the book, change the novel.

My mentor in graduate school was fond of pointing out that every age gets the literature it deserves, which is an alluringly pithy way of suggesting that novels, short stories, and so forth are products of larger cultural forces-much to the chagrin of many individual and individualist writers who don't tend to feel, at the end of the day, that they're something akin to highly attuned switching stations through which myriad aesthetic, political, economic, psychological, and social tendencies flow. In a sense, however, that's just what they-we-are. So we need to spend a moment contemplating what impulses we are evincing and can evince with respect to the book, and hence to the novel whose structure is in good part dictated by the technology that gives it life.

Over the last decade or so, books have begun to transmogrify in some exciting and-at least to traditional readers-unnerving directions. First we find the advent of conventionally bound texts in experimental form, like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' ground-breaking graphic novel, The Watchmen (1986), or Derek Pell's Assassination Rhapsody (1989), or Art Spiegelman's Maus (1986, 1992), which represent bibliographic world-eating engines. Looking back not only to the underground comix from the sixties, but also to the surrealist collage novels from the twenties, medieval illuminated manuscripts, and even, one could probably go so far as to argue, Egyptian hieroglyphics, these combine text and image for sophisticated aesthetic effect. The Watchmen, for instance--which involves the complex story of a group of anti-superheros who dwell in a grungy morally ambiguous alternate dimension where the very idea of the superhero has been outlawed--fuses everything from interviews and cartoons to police reports, fake autobiographies, encyclopedia entries, trompe-l'oeil coffee-cup stains and paper clips on the page, and magazine profiles with references to art history, quotes by canonical poets like Blake and philosophers like Nietzsche, and allusions to the cut-ups of William.

Next we find fairly conventional books in electronic form, such as those which appear at the Bibliobytes Web site (bb.com/index.cfm), founded in January 1993 by Glenn Hauman, Todd Masco, and Andrew Bressen, where you can browse the first chapter of a Spider Robinson novel or Harlan Ellison story free, and then, if you like what you read, send your credit-card number through encrypted message to the publisher and download your choice in the print-size and format you like. Banned Books On-Line (www.cs.cmu.edu/People/ spok/bannedbooks.html) offers a Web site committed to making available everything from James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) to fairy tales like "Little Red Riding Hood" that have been prohibited somewhere in the world since first being published. Project Gutenberg (promo.net/pg/), whose purpose is to "make information, books and other material available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search," post ascii versions of texts by everyone from Edwin A. Abbott to Zitkala-Sa shortly after they have entered the public domain. Banned Books On-Line, the Gutenberg Project, and many others make those texts available at no cost.

Third we find new manifestations of the book in electronic form, especially hypertext, often generated by the Storyspace program, that allows the user to create and link fields of graphical and textual information called lexia at will and to retrieve that information consequentially, something like shuffled index cards. Non-electronic prototypes of hyperfiction appeared up to half a century before Michael Joyce's seminal Afternoon (1987) in such innovative texts as James Joyce's Finnegan’s Wake (1939), the virtually plotless, circularly structured, Celtically mythological linguistic explosion that is impossible to read as a traditional novel of rounded character and linear action; William Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959), an anti-narrative-more akin to the action painting of Jackson Pollock, the music of John Cage, and the montage of modernist film than to a conventional literary offering-in which "the pieces can be had in any order being tied up back and forth, in and out fore and aft like an innaresting sex arrangement" (229); and Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch (1963), a one-hundred-fiftyfive-chaptered fiction that "consists of many books, but two books above all": 1) the first can be read "in a normal fashion" and ends with chapter 56; 2) the second must be read in a sequence indicated in the foreword and begins with chapter 73 ("Table of Instructions"). Other slightly less-fractured fictions such as Mark Leyner's My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (1990), my own Tonguing the Zeitgeist (1994) and Time Famine (1996), and Paul Di Filippo's Ciphers (1997) approximate a hypertextual aesthetic through their informational density, hallucinatory jump-cuts, and invitation to readerly interactivity in the production of plot and meaning.

Many hypertexts are available for purchase from the Eastgate Systems Web site (www.eastgate.comPeastgate/welcome.html) and for browsing at no cost at the Alt-X Web site (www.altx.com), and include such fictions as John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse (1992), which fuses text, music, and graphics, and Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl (1995), which rewrites and refights Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) as a collage of journal entries, appropriated quotes, a story quilt of meditations, and a graveyard of body parts, among other things, as well as such hybrid works of crit-fiction as Christane Paul's Unreal City: A Hypertextual Guide to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1995) and Diane Greco's Cyborg: Engineering the Body Electric (1995). In each case, what we're witnessing, as the book enters a new cyberformational stage in its evolution, is the enactment of Reconstruction-not as an essentially linear series of pyrotechnic abstractions by Derridean poststructuralist theorists, but in the very means of text-creation itself. The movement of the book at the end of the millennium, then, is toward arbitrary, discontinuous, unpredictable, illogical, digressive, consequential, unstable, convergent multimedia events that have begun to confuse conventional text with television and stereo, blending static images, sounds, and even film clips with processed language.

This is the aesthetic space postmodern manifesto writers like Raymond Federman augured nearly a quarter of a century ago. In "Surfiction: A Position" (first published in the Partisan Review in 1973), Federman essentially glosses his own 1971 concrete-poetry novel, Double or Nothing, in which no two pages share a common typography or structure, by claiming that we must "renew our system of reading," which has become "restrictive and boring" (40), by innovating the "paginal syntax" (41) of our texts. Why? "If we agree that life is never linear," he asserts, "that in fact life is always discontinuous and chaotic because it is never experienced in a straight line or an orderly fashion, then similarly linear, chronological, and sequential narration is no longer possible" (42). We must thus short-circuit our traditional reading strategies that propel us from the upper lefthand corner of the page to the lower right in a preordained manner. We must, Federman argues, reinvent the environment of reading by embracing new typographical prospects, shapes and designs, new relations among textual parts, multiple possibilities of plot and character, and even what we mean when we say the word "book," thereby engendering "a sense of free participation in the writing/reading process, in order to give the reader an element of choice (active choice) in the ordering of the discourse and the discovery of its meaning" (40).

This is also the aesthetic space George P. Landow affirms nearly twenty years later in Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (1992) when he maintains that "we must abandon conceptual systems founded upon ideas of center, margin, hierarchy, and linearity and replace them with ones of multilinearity, nodes, links, and networks" (2). Or, as Shelley Jackson phrased it in a lecture delivered recently at M.I.T.:

Hypertext doesn't know where it's going. . . . It's got no through-line. Like the, body, it has no point to make, only clusters of intensities, and one cluster is as central as another, which is to say, not at all. What sometimes substitutes for a center is just a switchpoint, a place from which everything diverges, a Cheshire aftercat. A hypertext never seems quite finished, it isn't clear just where it ends, it's fuzzy at the edges, you can't figure out what matters and what doesn't, what's matter and what's void, what's the bone and what's the flesh, it's all decoration or it's all substance. . . . In hypertext, you can't find out what's important so you have to pay attention to everything, which is exhausting like being in a foreign country, you are not native.

Hypertext evaporates the hardcopy book into thin digital air while transforming Newtonian matter into Heisenbergian maze that blinks in and out of existence with no beginning and no end, no top and no bottom, no distinction between dominant text and footnote. Every collaged node is both original and pla(y)giarized, mine and someone else's, important and minor, appropriated and yet recontextualized, reconfigured. In feminist terms, it becomes a feminine domain, an arena of the traditional Other-"indirect," as Jackson puts it, "impure, diffuse, multiple, evasive." The reading process thereby concomitantly transforms from one unconsciously involved with final product into one self-reflexively obsessed with continuous process-and a process, no less, that reminds us with each saccadic flick of the eye that every one of us is always reading a different book than everyone else. The reader might extract him or herself at any point from this process, but he or she will never be able to forget the new realism of the fictive terrain he or she has just left, nor the fictionality of the diurnal Baudrillardian irreality he or she now must reenter.

If we begin to think of the World Wide Web, not as a series of semi-isolated hypertextual lexia, but as one gargantuan hyperFaction, we can also add a number of other electronic forms of the new book to this list: multi-user computer games and social meeting places known, respectively, as MUDs and MOOs, for instance; user-interest groups; tree-fiction, a form of hypertext that allows no returns to former decision points and no merging of paths; and electronic serials like The Spot, which follows the daily lives of five inhabitants of a California beach house and to which readers can contribute advice and plot suggestions. But the World Wide Storyspace hyperfictions, CD-Roms, and the rest are at best themselves transitional incarnations of the book, since the sheer volume of information wrapped up in the process of converging image, music, text and so forth into aesthetic "wholes" is simply too great for them to comfortably house, and hence the speed of reader-manipulation is often frustratingly slow, the variety frustratingly small.

 

Postliterate Culture

So perhaps before long we'll be turning our attention to the "books" now under development in Silicon Valley that will look like the conventional leatherbound models-yet open them up and, voile, the reader will confront two backlit displays. Insert a super-high-density credit-card-like disk into the back . . . and take them to read in bed or bath, beach or bauhaus, while perhaps simultaneously surfing the Web via an infrared link, checking e-mail, and listening to voice mail. It will then be only a small shuffle to the glasses also now under development that will project text and image on the inside of their darkened lenses, mounted earphones on the frames feeding the listener all the sounds under the sun.

Even these, however, will be at best only halfway measures before the advent of fully functional and believable virtual reality, already the dead horse of science-fiction films and novels, which will allow us in fewer than fifteen years to move, as it were, from the outside of the computer screen to the inside, thereby entering a sense-around cartoon-gel room where we'll be able see and hear, say, Homer, maybe incarnated as a lobster, recite The Odyssey to us while we watch its events acted out by computer-generated thespians who never existed outside an algorithn' and read its text as it scrolls by on some screen, maybe incarnated as a fish tank, clicking on textured words or phrases that will send us into reams of research . . . hearing, if we wish, what ancient musical instruments sounded like, or maybe viewing examples of Greek architecture, or maybe linking to other epics, or tracts on epic composition, and so on-all the while monitoring our incoming video-mail and stock market reports and late-breaking Headline News via icons floating unobtrusively in some small corner of our perspective.

At this point, of course, we reach the brink of postliterate culture itself. After all, once we can quantum beyond isolated text into a wholly realized secondary world of sight and sound and touch, sex and adventure simulated-stimulations, I imagine most of the general population will switch off the text function, begin to wonder exactly what the importance might be to learning how those little ants marching across that swath of glacier function and what they mean. When, in other words, alternative modes of information packaging become sufficiently advanced, I assume keyboards and ascii, paper and print, will go the way of the short-lived if lucrative pet rock except, perchance, for small coveys of monkish archivists intent on translating such ancient texts as The Bridges of Madison County and The Warren Commission Report into virtual light, sonics, and feeling.

 

Eco-Texts and Digital Publishing

Surely such binary magic is still a good--though not a particularly vast, and clearly not unimaginable--way off.

But even these halfway measures I have mentioned, these digital amphibians such as hyperfiction and the hyperFaction of the World wide Web, share some interesting practical common ground: they are, as we shimmer atoms into bytes, the most environmentally friendly manifestations of the book in the history of the world. Digital publishing not only has the ability to take out a fair number of middlepeople, typesetter to printer, PR troops to distributors, from the increasingly expensive reading equation, thereby drastically reducing-or even doing away with altogether-the notion of cost in text production, therefore rethinking the hegemonic state of publishing in New York. It also has the ability to accomplish this task in a manner that disturbs not a single tree, spits not a single sulfate into the atmosphere, involves only electronic recycling.

Moreover, it has the potential to re-empower the writer (or, more likely, the community of creators involved collaboratively in the creation of each aesthetic complexity we can no longer in good faith refer to as "a novel") by drastically reducing the marketing apparatus that exists between her or him and the reader/viewer. As hypertext and the rest undergo phase transition into a near-future World Wide Web of fiber optic connections, much faster modems, breathtakingly large pools of memory, and, finally, the omni- encompassing virtual reality itself, we will all be linked to the same library/movie theater/sound stage with nearly unlimited potential in the evolution of aesthetics. Each of us will become producer of her or his own Web site, her or his own electronic avatar-in a word, her or his own multimedia fictive narration.

At that point, we will all become artists of our own identities and irrealities.

 

Inconclusions

The history of the novel in particular and the book in general thereby becomes, not only a series of ruptures, but also a complicated network of continuities, re-presentations, re-evaluations, re-collections, an ongoing circus of interesting minds in motion that will lead us, ultimately, to the days of future passed in the form of an electronically illuminated manuscript, both new and not new, emblem of the extreme Ovidian times we inhabit, where sudden and continual metamorphosis serves as more than dominant metaphor. Our rhapsody on mutability has gone high-tech. Down one trail we find gay fiction, down others neohumanist or politically incorrect or Native American or Northwestern or Southern or African American or--and here's where things get really interesting--all of them at some web-work at once, complete with sound and graphics and moving images.

Diversity, that is to say, whether subatomic or cultural, may well be old news from an old front from an old war. It is at least conceivable, taking narration's pulse here and now that we are on the cusp of some kind of aesthetic unified field theory evinced by a slew of truly postmodern texts that combine rather than separate, consolidate rather than differentiate-not in a way that mean-spiritedly or closed-mindedly excludes and thus limits, but in a way that good-humoredly and open-armedly includes, termites along.

This might sound like so much utopian dreaming. It shouldn't. I don't for a minute mean to suggest that the trajectory of both novel and book-and thus, in the final analysis, the World Wide Web and virtual reality itself-isn't open to severe interrogation. Just the opposite. So, instead of opting for a more conventional monologic rhetorical strategy of resolving, answering, framing, and fixing, I'd like to discontinue by spawning a zone of polyphonic inconclusiveness, an invitation to think along with me about yesterday's tomorrow in the form of eleven clusters of questions:

(1) "Since the surfictional story will not have a beginning, middle, and end," Federman concludes his manifesto, "it will not lend itself to a continuous and totalizing form of reading. It will refuse resolution and closure. It will always remain an open discourse" (46). But while in a sense this is true enough with respect to Federman's project in particular, and hyperfiction in general, especially when set next to novels of traditional nineteenthcentury realism, isn't it equally true that the illusion of free choice and open discourse with respect to any aesthetic object is to some extent just that, an illusion . . . that as much as a creator may wish to impart a sense of autonomy and self-determination to his or her reader/viewer, isn't that creator always the ultimate shaper of the text, the endmost provider of possibilities? Is it possible to produce an honestly random text that is still readable? Shouldn't we thus keep in mind that behind the thing itself still remains the map of the thing itself (in the case of most hyperfiction this takes the tangible form of the Storyspace writing program) generated by the creator, and that map of the thing itself by its very presence delimits choice, restricts narratological possibility, and regulates human freedom? If so, isn't it possible that we are in effect simply discussing a difference in degree, not kind?

(2) If anyone can, and anyone does, "publish" on the World Wide Web, or on what the World Wide Web will become, if "publish" is the right word, where will the quality, let alone the factual accuracy, of publication go? Will digital democracy soon become another term for the cultural slobocracy Erza Pound always thought it really was? Or, to put it another way: does anyone really want to know what everyone thinks about anything? Where will the ideas of aesthetic value and veracity--whatever we might mean by that-go? Where should they go? How do we monitor them? How will we find them, if we should wish to? And, if we shouldn't, what exactly are we "reading" for in the first place?

(3) What happens to our culture's conception of the author and authorship if books perforce mutate into multimedia collaborative events, akin to infinite encyclopedias, where it is virtually and literally impossible to know where one creative hand leaves off and another picks up? And, in a related matter, what happens to the flesh-and-bone creator, if all but the most popular can no longer make a living from their craft? Should we entirely dispense with copyright as we have known it and seek new paradigms, as the Office of Technology Assessment advocated in 1986, or somehow reaffirm individual creative ownership?

(4) Why do we feel it incumbent upon ourselves to assert that information wants to be free (the basis of that American Ur-narrative, the First Amendment) in cyberspace, when, in fact, the Internet is a global series of electronic connections, not limited to the geographical borders of the United States, and hence the idea of information wanting to be free (along with the First Amendment) amounts to little more than a local ordinance in cyberspace? How will this notion of free-and-not-free affect the novel's and the book's unfolding?

(5) Is it possible that the World Wide Web represents, not the kickoff of the new radically democratic or even anarchic Cybercity of Faction that I have suggested, but rather the beginning of a new technocracy that will ultimately discriminate between the computer-haves and computer- havenots, leaving the latter in the digital dust and giving rise to a fresh global and class polarization of shocking proportions?

(6) What will come to constitute the body in the Cartesian cyberspatial constellation, and how will that enter the algebra of the "book's" future? Our body's relationship to the "book" is also undergoing revolutionary change. The human touch that senses the heft, the facticity, of the manuscript, and makes one page another, is gradually dissolving. How will that conversion change the process of reading, viewing, perceiving, existing? Will the body come to resemble, as we use it less and less and live in multifold electronic irrealities more and more, prosthetic devices for our multi-gendered minds?

(7) None of this, obviously, is to propose that the conventional hardcover book won't be around for some time to come, coexisting-at least initially, though surely less and less-side-by-side with the electronic versions I've just discussed ("Que sera sera," John Barth comments in his essay on the subject, "The State of the Art," "but not always in a hurry" [45]). Will the proliferation of possibilities of what the book is and can be, however, lead to greater cultural (and hence, eventually, governmental) decentralization, or, ultimately, a push (as we saw recently with the issue of pornography on the Internet) toward greater cultural (and hence governmental) control? Why does it seem more comfortable for our culture to contemplate censoring materials in cyberspace than those on the printed page particularly when there are easy-to-use shareware programs such as Surf Watch designed to screen out what we may not want to view on the Web?

(8) Is it possible, as Barth suggests, that the medium of hard-copy print may hang around much longer than its technology warrants because it is able to accomplish certain things that its computerized counterparts can't--telling stories in a linear fashion even when their subjects aren't, for instance, or investigating the human experiencing of experience, the internal life of perceiving, feeling, and reflecting? If so, is it possible that the conventional hardcover book will continue to exist, not because of its technological potential, but because of its aesthetic or human?

(9) And what about that myth of cyberspatial longevity that tells us that archiving in the digital ether is tantamount to archiving forever? What are we then to think of RAND Corporation senior computer scientist Jeff Rothenberg's assertion that "the contents of most digital media evaporate long before words written on high-quality paper, [that] they often become unusably obsolete even sooner, as media are superseded by new, incompatible formats? (How many readers remember eight-inch floppy disks?) It is only slightly facetious to say that digital information lasts forever-or for five years, whichever comes first" (Barth 45)?

(10) What happens to humanities departments, to the very idea of reading as a communal activity, if hard-copy books evaporate into electronic hypertextual ones that each reader can, does, and must read differently from every other reader? Do such departments become our eccentric equivalent of medieval monasteries, entrusted to little more than housing the textual productions of the past, or do they teach us something about the nature of the reading process that has always been the case, simply now hyperbolized by hypertext? Does education become more interactive and hence more captivating for students . . . or just another version of commodified television with its MTV-ized rhythms, surfaces, and shine, all form and less and less reflective content?

(11) And, finally, the advent of the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, was supposed to herald a brave new world, a fresh way of perceiving, but has it in fact done so? Or is it, rather, at least here, at least now, actually a lot slower and visually less snappy than television and film, a lot more expensive than we ever thought it would be, a lot less interesting at an audio level than radio or CD, and, so far, more distracting and hard on the eyes than traditional print? If so, where in the world, or out of it, are we going . . . and why?

 

Works Cited

Barth, John. "The State of the Art." Wilson Quarterly Spring 1996: 36-45.

Burroughs, William. Naked Lunch. New York: Grove, 1959.

Cortazar, Julio. Hopscotch. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Avon, 1966.

Federman, Raymond. "Surfiction: A Postmodern Position." Critifiction: Postmodern Essays. Buffalo, NY: SUNY Press, 1993.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984.

Jackson, Shelley. "Stitch Bitch: The Patchwork Girl." media-intransition.mit.edu/articles/ jackson.html

Jameson, Fredric. "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism." A Postmodern Reader. Joseph Natoli and Linda Hutcheon, eds. Buffalo, NY: SUNY Press, 1993: 312-32.

Landow, George P. Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992.

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Vintage, 1955.

Powers, Richard. Galatea2.2. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996.

Sterling, Bruce, ed. Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. New York: Arbor House, 1986.

 

Return to Contents

 

 

 

 

The Collapsed Li-Yung

Lance Olsen

University Of Idaho

 

[The following is an excerpt from Lance Olsen's novel-in-progress, Freak Nest, a speculative fiction set in a Dickensian London in 2033.]

 

Rykki poked her head out of the Leicester Square tube station on the west side of Charring Cross Road and without hesitation entered the hominoidal rapids sweeping by her.

Zivv, Oran, Tris, and Jada waited for breaks in the crush as if they were waiting for open slots in a revolving door and followed.

They were yanked up and carried along into the narrow fumy lanes of Chinaton, which over the last thirty years had swelled and radiated through the West End, translating most of its economically ailing theaters into Buddhist temples, Mongolian wrestling arenas, and popular venues for Peking Opera.

Rykki caught sight of a pub with a sign in gothic lettering under the Chinese that read The Collapsed Li-Yung and caught scent of fat-fried farm shrimps and chips mixed with ginger, soy sauce, and lemon rinds, and she thought about trying to convince her brothers and sister to give it a try, even though they didn't have a pence of credit to their names, or even workable ID numbers, but then she began thinking better of it, just as the undernourished shiny-silver-bikinied mermaid leaning in the doorway pointed at her with a spindly white arm and appeared to read her mind.

"Blue Eyes fancy bit food, yes?" she asked. Her voice was squeaky and off-pitch. "Blue Eyes fancy eat? Come in, come in. Blue Eyes full of sad. We get you eat. We get you plenty scrap out back. We make better. Make happy happy."

She'd peeled the insides of her legs and bound them together to graft them to each other, then complemented the resulting fishtail effect by shaving and oiling her scalp and having some large purplish slightly sexual mushroomy makebelieve gills implanted below each ear.

Rykki's brothers and sister braked and clustered behind her.

Rykki laddered down her decision tree and opened her mouth to tell the mermaid no thanks, only the woman had already taken her by her wrist and Rykki was already zigzagging inside the dark wood-paneled pub muggy and breezeless as a summer locker room, half-foot-dragging and half-jogging to keep balance, her sister and brothers tagging along, the mermaid jabbering and gesticulating as she shuffle-hopped among small round wooden tables at which mostly elderly people huddled slurping away with chopsticks at bamboo steam pots heaped with noodles and chunks of orange squid, reddish-brown glazed chicken, and duck tongues the color of makeup Michael Jackson wore to his own funeral. Sometimes someone leaned sideways and spat tiny bones on the floor, and sometimes someone whined or skreaked, apparently to themselves, hands rock-climbing into the air, discomposed by what someone else was saying to them in their ear plugs on their pate-mounted cellulars.

"Not worry, not worry," the mermaid was saying. "We watch for own. Watch for small one like you, me. Kojak find you . . . snip snip. No babies. Cut you tubes. Bye bye." They banked down a hall, past signs for the gents and ladies and a governcorp poster reminding passersby to PRACTICE SAFE SUN, to a cramped cobblestoned passage where urine foamed in the shallow gutters along either side. "Every people city forget. City have short memory." She laughed. It sounded like a stepped-on magpie. "Very bad outside. Very bad. Every people huai. Every people yf-ding shi gao cub le. You come here. We feed. Make better. Make happy happy." The oceanic sound from the pub faded. The hoggish air took on the bouquet of vomity boiled viscera with just a dash of fungoidal liquefied dog shit in it. Shocked, Rykki's lungs froze up. The mermaid's fused feet made a schluffing noise across the wet stones. "Mu--tin want meet you. I know. You meet Mu-quin, then eat, okay? You be happy happy. Full. Everything good. Mu-quin make you Mu-quin's children. Make you jia-shu. Family. We all family here. We belong like one. You channel on my legs, Blue Eyes? You channel on Mu-quin's work? Every people artist here. Every people happy happy. Up through doorway. Mu-quin artist of artist. Princess Hacksaw . . ."

The spittly damp room they entered possessed a bare weathered uneven wooden floor. Drying herbs dangled from clotheslines, horizontal bamboo poles, open cupboards. They were scattered across long rectangular wooden tables flocked with mortars and pestles and a TV set. On the set's screen looped a vid of a man's head resting on the sandy bottom of a fish tank. Neon tetras flitted around it. The head was alive and its eyes were wide and the guy was holding his breath. The effect, Rykki knew, was some sort of optical illusion, but she couldn't work out how it'd been done.

There were no windows anywhere. Or maybe there were windows, only they'd been shuttered. Either way, besides the door looking out on the dim passage and the blue mist radiating from the telly, virtually no light inhabited this space.

Rykki had that immediate uneasy feeling which arrives when you can't tell where the walls of the room you're standing in conclude.

"Wait here," the mermaid said. "Mu-quip come. Every people eat." She pirouetted on her feet-tail and shuffle-hopped out the door. Rykki heard her laugh again as she made her way back down the passage. It didn't sound at all wholesome.

The kids waited.

Rykki and Zivv exchanged looks.

The head on the television opened and closed its mouth. A single bubble floated up from its nose.

Jada scratched the middle of her forehead.

"Come to think of it," she said, "I'm maybe not quite as hungry as I thought I was."

"Me either," said Oran.

"Food?" said Rykki. "Who needs food?"

A low growl rose from the darkness.

"Lovely," said Jada. "Just lovely."

"What was that?" said Tris.

Rykki took a step back and rotated her head minimally to engage her peripheral sight and saw a little stooped Mao-suited woman form from the shadows. She didn't so much shamble as wheeze and heave herself forward, swollen sandaled meaty blocks of feet never leaving the floor. Her neck stuck osteoporotically out of her shoulder blades at a ninety-degree angle in a way that made it impossible to see her face till she tilted her head to one side and peered up. Rykki then got a peek at those cataractal eyes, the brownish complication that passed as skin, and the long tapered mustache that gave her a catfishy look.

While Rykki and the other kids vetted her, another little stooped Mao-suited woman stepped from the murk and joined her chum. By comparison this second made the first seem peppy and girlish. The notion of moving her head any way at all had seen better days. She contented herself studying her clawed yellow toenails like a Roman oracle bird entrails and parenting slushy attempts at esophagus clearing.

Rykki had just concluded maybe that's what the growling noise had been about when a low pneumatic droning commenced behind them . . . a clacket . . . a hydromechanical whiz . . . and Mu-quin Li-Yung, proprietress and namesake of the pub, rolled into view.

She was slumping in a wheelchair, pet ocelot in lap. Then Rykki realized Mu-quin Li-Yung was the wheelchair. Her naked withered upper torso emerged from a mechanistic conglomeration of bicycle tires, blinking red Christmas lights, another TV set looping that same image of the fish-tanked guy's head, a car battery, length of coaxial cable, old-time digital clock with green numerals, small spinning bowtie antenna, and cyber-fruitcake of unidentifiable coils, vacuum tubes, and spark-plug-looking Dings. And the ocelot wasn't sitting in her lap, either. It was her lap, or more precisely her abdomen, black-spotted toast-brown feline head and shoulders sprouting from amidst appliances and just starboard of the stoma bag where Li-Yung's vitals should've been located . . . and fully mobile, too, or as fully mobile as the situation allowed, its eyes glowing redly as if surprised by a flashbulb and its neck craning side to side as if trying to birth itself from the machinery that comprised its host, growl from its throat almost subsonic.

Mu-quin Li-Yung drew up between what Rykki now understood were her bodyguards and braked. She scrutinized the kids through eyes so runny and sappish it was difficult to tell what color they were, though the stuff oozing from them definitely enjoyed a shellackish tint. The parts of her that were flesh bore the pigment and composition of greasy jaundiced steak. It appeared all the glandular substance had been lipposuctioned out of her breasts. Their nipples looked like wide bad bruises and the deflated sacs constituting their remnants sagged flatly down her ribby chest.

And those were her really pulchritudinous qualities . . . those and her golden baby- sucker-large nose ring, ornamentally extracted teeth, and astringent perfume smelling of a wet cupboard.

There were a good six centimeters between the base of her gaping nostrils, whose corners attached themselves to her face somewhere far out among the wrinkled frontier that maybe a century ago had been her cheeks, and her thin inverted-V lips. But there was almost no distance from her thin inverted-V lips to the knuckle of her chin. Her forehead eructed into a huge knot that conjured in Rykki's imagination a single protruding tough-skinned buttock which modulated into a bald ridge where her eyebrows probably once domiciled.

And her ears, large as a pair of a five- year-old's cupped hands, jutted almost perpendicularly from her white frowzled hair and were purfled with half a dozen pearl earrings each.

Mu-quin Li-Yung took some time for respiration and consulted her artificial pancreas, a watch-like device half-buried in her right forearm, tapped the stoma bag half-full of some pretty alarming constituents, and finally spoke, her toothless mouth moving gummily while her voice emanated from an antique Toshiba radio mostly hidden by her left armpit.

"Gwielo find-Mu-qupn foxy babe, yes?" she said. "See it in eyes. Gwielo know why? Gwielo guess?" She unhurriedly ran the fingertips that had palpated the stoma bag under her nose. "Bag of earthly delights. Sack of plenty. Can eat, still maintain figure. Diet of champions. Seek peace in luxury. Abundance. Why not? Live once, die once. Life big jet-boat tour on Thames. Retro all broke. Every people enjoy ride. Embrace speed. Gwielo come here want Muquin's bang-zhu? Mu-quin's help?"

"Well, em," Rykki said, "the lady who brought us said you might be able to spare us a bit of food. Maybe just the odd . . ."

"Dao-pian say that?"

"Dao-pian?"

"Fish doll. She say food here? Plenty eat?" Mu-quin Li-Yung laughed, gaspy and moist. The body guards produced some gulping noises that indicated they might be in on the joke as well. "She right, gwielo girl. Plenty plenty. Everywhere food." She raised her palms. "You name. We take care gwielo kind. We take care little one."

"We don't want to trouble you or anything. But if maybe you could see your way clear to spare us a little something, you know . . ."

"Gwielo run way, yes?"

Rykki looked over at Zivv, who couldn't take his eyes off the ocelot.

"We'd much appreciate it," she said. "Whatever you can afford. We're very hungry. We'll eat and be off directly."

"Mu-quip take care little one. Take care kind city forget. Hack into company puter. Phone. Bank. Don't matter. Encrypt file. Put bite on company to decrypt. All sort bang-zhu. All sort help. Food flow like river. Like Thames."

She petted her tummy. The cat leaned into her strokes. Mu-quin Li-Yung slivered her eyes contentedly.

"We don't want to be a bother or anything," Rykki said.

"Every people eat. Every people part of family have no family." She unslivered her eyes. "Look." She raised her pincers and swept them across the room.

Rykki did.

Her eyes had become accustomed to the dark. She still couldn't see the perimeter, but she could make out movement in every direction. Under one table rocked what seemed to be a phocomeliac man well over the seventy-year mark, hands sprigging directly from his shoulders, fingers fused into seal flippers, beside his partner tugging absentmindedly at her elastic facial skin, which she'd fisted out at least twelve centimeters from her cheeks. Under another slept a pair of middle-aged conjoined twins merged at the chest, thumb-sized translucent mole connecting their foreheads, four arms and legs shivering in REM, while near the table with the TV crouched one of those gray-haired Gargoylers Rykki'd once read about with a bumped back and head pushed in on one side, his pregnant mother having strapped herself with a corset so tightly her child had been born deformed and thus capable of bringing a good price from the underground biodealers.

The place was weirdly kinetic.

Rykki made out other humanish shapes leaning against what might have been a stretch of wall or some sort of partition, squatting on tables, scrunching on the planked floor just outside the blue photonic cloud from the television screen.

She'd never seen so many old people before.

Mu-quin saw Rykki seeing and laughed. Her substantial nose ring pendulumed beneath her nostrils.

"Gwielo know '64 World's Fair? Seen pictures?"

"I have done. Sure."

"Awesome science. Happy clean moonhouse. Shiny monorail city. Tidy white flat. Flying car. Smiling homemaker. Waving astronaut. Crystal Palace of twentieth century, no?"

"I guess."

"Only one thing."

" . . . ?"

"Only one problem."

"Got future all cuo. All wrong. No flying car, no tidy moonhouse. End cold war instead. Disintegrate of Soviet Union. No more fear nuclear wipe, but everywhere micro-war. Every people immune system arsed up. Earth shit itself. Malnutrition. Digerati. Fundamentalist. Designer drug replace happy homemaker. Terrorism replace waving astronaut. Urban tooth rot replace shiny monorail city." Her chest inflated and deflated. Air chuffed through her trachea. "Know one thing boss gwielo got right, eh? One thing future give bang on?"

"What?"

"Nice television."

Rykki craned her neck toward Mu-quin as if the gesture might compensate for her inability to understand.

"Nice television?"

"Future give great set. Hen duo channel."

"As in telly?"

"More than we can watch."

A short oval-faced woman with no angles whatsoever associated with her body squeaked a medical cart into the half-light from the passage. The front wheels clacked in circles rather than revolving forward. The woman's bloated skin was white and each limb so cylindrical they created the impression of a collection of water balloons tied together.

Instead of meds, the cart was loaded with bowls of henna-colored soup and mugs of stout.

"Eat eat," Mu-quin announced. "Good food. Make strong. Give healthy. Mu-quin feed family have no family."

The kids helped themselves. Rykki noticed something not completely departed at the bottom of her bowl seemed to be blowing bubbles, so she went for the stout. It tasted warm and corky and overran her nervous system immediately.

"This is awfully kind of you," she said.

"Who need two-parent family? Got nanite. Who need pure air for breathe? Bio-engineering rock, eh?"

Rykki drank. Foam mustached her upper lip.

"You're saying tomorrow will always be different from what we can imagine."

"We got satellite receiver. We got news twenty-four seven." The ocelot stretched itself across Mu-quin's thighs, purr revving, third lids curtaining satisfied yellow-green eyes. "Except boss gwielo forget something. Forget something big."

"What's that?"

"Boss gwielo forget us. Forget here."

Rykki looked around. Her brain felt smeared. A scratch on her right thigh itched.

The Gargoyler crouching by the television blew his nose daintily one nostril at a time into his palms and judged his prosperity.

"The down-and-outters you mean?" Rykki said, feeling simpatico.

"Not you." Mu-quin's tone changed. "Us. Here."

"Us?"

"Every people with sui-shu. How you say? Every people with years. Governcorp give special somebody life-extension service. Important politician. Musician. Scientist. All sort white med. Somebody keep governcorp keeping on. Rest of us? Forget. Rest of us governcorp leave to body running down. Say we strain natural resource. Diversion economic force. Make room for young somebody like you. Go. Leave special somebody alone." Her chest rose and fell. Her dedented mouth started to move. "Know what this called?"

" . . . ?"

"This called Politic of Age."

"Doesn't sound quite fair, does it?"

"Gwielo know what we say to Politic of Age?"

She shook her head no.

Mu-quin leaned forward.

"We say fuck that, Charlie," she said. "Sod off." The ocelot's eyes popped open. Its head raised, low growl barely audible once more, searching for something to vent its rage upon. "So much fung pi. Bugger law. Law don't mean jackshit here, you know?"

"Right, but . . ."

"Age is rage," said the phocomeliac's partner beneath the table, now busy rubbering the skin below her jaw.

"Rule to the gray," answered the Gargoyler.

Mu-quin's body guards gulped in agreement.

Rykki tasted something steel-like on the back of her tongue. It brought to mind the electric version of the color blue.

She blinked and the world quantumed ahead in a film with missing frames.

"See man there," Mu-quin said, aiming a pincer at a perfectly normal-seeming guy in hemp pajamas with scanty yellowish pollution-burned hair that'd once been maybe black. Arms crossed, he leaned on the table with the television on it and gazed at the fish-tanked head gazing at nothing. "Familial dysautonomia. Neurological skrim. Hold flame to skin, can't feel. Stick needle in thigh, think you being sexy. Woman sitting at feet? Anosmia. Loss of smell. Don't know if flat on fire. Nose gone to smash. We got skin disease here. Tired organ. Boil. Know all off by heart. We got pulmonary venous congestion. Parasite up bum. Brain abscess. Arthritis. Myotonic dystrophy. Mu-quin muscle turn to wood. Eye turn to jam. Uterus shrivel up, fall out. You name. Governcorp say fuck you. Say no treat cuz we too old. We leftover. Make room for next somebody. Gwielo know what we say? We say fuck you back. We say piss off. Don't give toss what you want. We want what every people want. Take shit on death. Want jet-boat tour on Thames, retro broke or no. So gwielo know what happen? Know what leftover do?"

The steel-like taste advanced into Rykki's sinuses and she assimilated the data that she couldn't fully feel her fingertips anymore. She wanted to be anxious but the pharmaceuticals in the stout wouldn't let her.

"I can't do.." She shook her head. "I'm feeling a bit mashed up, actually."

"We go guerrilla. Declare war."

"Think maybe I need to, em . . ."

"We say fuck governcorp. Fuck young. Fuck you."

Rykki's mind unclogged fleetingly.

"Fuck us?"

"Fuck you."

"Why fuck us?"

"Fuck you cuz we soldier now. Soldier of elder. And you . . ."

"Us?"

"You POW in battle of age."

Jada sat down gracefully like she was wearing an elegant hoop skirt she didn't want to crease.

As if on cue, Oran joined her.

Tris let the bowl of soup he was working on and aluminum spoon drop from his hands which remained poised like they hadn't quite unscrambled the current state of affairs.

"Kojak find toyboy body in passageway, you know? Overdose. Knife. You name. Pack up. Ship to crematorium. Only toyboy body no arrive." Her fingers returned to the stoma bag. "Turn up here. Make good supper for leftover. Yum-yum. Understand? Food come from where food come from. Every people got to eat. Or maybe find little gwielo girl and boy on street. Say wassup, little gwielo girl and boy? Look right through old people like old people so much furniture. Fuck you. Little gwielo girl and boy enter. Not leave."

"Hang on . . ." Rykki said.

More static swished beneath Mu-quin's armpit.

"Know what leftover do? Old crumbly? Gwielo guess?"

"You gave us the fast shuffle."

"Leftover take little gwielo girl and boy for walk. Cross Thames. We visit clinic. Soldier clinic."

"Soldier clinic?"

"Pet shop. Borrow this. Borrow that. Every people department store inside."

"Organ-grinders."

"You not so clueless, gwielo girl." She raised her chin and studied the darkness above her. "Know what?" She lowered her chin. "Baboon endangered specie. Wolf. Plenty youth, though. Plenty you. Plenty little gwielo girl and boy. Few baboon, wolf. Animal need your help. Every people have heart, you know? We help animal. POW help, too. Lend hand. Eye. Liver. Skin." She stroked the ocelot's head. "Welcome to big-farm, little gwielo girl and boy. You top-line crop."

"Run," Zivv told Rykki, speech slurred by the drugstore in his soup, then fumbled forward into the bodyguard on Mu-quin's righthand side in a languid parody of combat.

The room castled to life.

But the room was already behind Rykki, falling away, and Rykki was already running, or at least taking a stab at the general concept of locomotion.

Problem was she didn't have much sensation left in her legs anymore, either, so her progress quickly deteriorated into a kind of stumbling lumber. She found herself groping through the dim cobblestoned passage beyond the doorway, unable to hold to a straight course, shoulders slamming walls, feet plashing in that urine foaming along the gutters.

Her body came to her in a series of segments, some of which she sort of felt, and some of which she saw wafting up like a flock of detached black birds around her. The film she inhabited pounced ahead several more frames. She jumpcut to the dark muggy wood-paneled pub, the wooden tables at which mostly elderly Chinese men and women twiddled with their chopsticks and whined on their patemounted cellulars.

Outside on the choked pavement she collided with a male bobby who'd gone overboard with metallic silver mascara, lipstick, and fingernail polish, and a female bobby whose face was a Strawberry-Quik miscellany of skin graftings connected with prominent sutural scars.

"Help me," Rykki said, or thought she said, only it occurred to her her oral musculature had gone slack and the phrase had come out sounding a lot closer to "Hulma" than what she'd intended.

She tried again.

The female bobby stared down at her with small black glinting seal-eyes, the graftings having veneered all expression out of the rest of her physiognomy.

"Who do we have here?" she asked.

"Chinese, you think?"

"Bit more African in flavor, isn't she?"

"Could be. African. Sure."

"No no," said the undernourished shiny- silver-bikinied mermaid leaning in the doorway behind them. "No African." She raised her spindly white arm and pointed a finger at her forehead and smiled. "Blue Eyes--how you say?--not all ready for people."

"Not all ready?" asked the female bobby.

"Untogether, you know?"

"Bit dim, you mean," said the male bobby.

"Wallpaint. Lead baby. Brain big poultice."

The female bobby meditated on Rykki.

"Mothers do have 'em," she said. "She belong to you then?"

"Indenture."

"Got the papers, do you?"

"Inside. You see?"

Rykki concentrated very hard and said: "They snatched my brothers and sister and me. Back of the pub."

"Easy, Star," said the male.

The bobbies met each other's look.

"Won't be necessary," said the female to the mermaid.

"Sorry to bother you, madam," said the male.

"No no. Never be too careful." The mermaid's face brightened into

obsequiousness. "Kojak maybe want cup herbal tea for take-way? Make happy happy. Full. Good for healthy. Good for robust."

"We're fine, thanks."

"Much obliged, but we've got to be on our way. Cheers."

"Kojak come again. Always welcome. Law every people friend."

"Right. Well. Shall do."

"Ta-da," said the female bobby.

"Cheers," said the mermaid, settling her hands on Rykki's shoulders, revolving her with a certain degree of practiced tenderness, and aiming her straightaway into the enormously anti-hygienic arms of one of those bodyguards waiting just inside The Collapsed Li-Yung, esophagus rattling in excitation.

 

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Lance Olsen:

A Biographical Note

Idaho Writer-in-Residence, Lance Olsen was raised in a jungle compound in Venezuela, where his father worked for an oil company, and in the hermetically sealed, climate-controlled malls of northern New Jersey, where he seldom breathed unfiltered air. He received his B.A. (with honors, 1978) in English and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, his M.F.A. (1980) from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and his M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1985) from the University of Virginia. Since then he has taught at universities in Kentucky, London, and Oxford. In 1990 he joined the faculty at the University of Idaho, where he is professor of contemporary fiction, British and American literature, and creative writing. He lives with his wife on an eighty-acre farm near Deary.

His first novel, Live from Earth (Ballantine/Available Press, 1991), is a magical realist tale about a young woman's love affair with her dead husband. His second, Tonguing the Zeitgeist (Permeable, 1994), finalist for the 1995 Philip K. Dick Award for best science fiction novel, critiques the commercialization of the arts at the turn of the millennium. His third, Burnt (Wordcraft, 1996), is an ecofiction that explores various kinds of pollution, and his most recent, Time Famine (Permeable), which Science Fiction Chronicle cited as one of the best novels of 1996, is a literary science fiction involving smart space probes in the twenty-first century, government radiation experiments in the Northwest in the twentieth, and the ill-fated Donner Party in the nineteenth.

In addition, Olsen has published two short story collections, a chapbook of poems, nearly sixty critical essays, fifty individual fictions, and more than a hundred reviews. He has also written four books about postmodern fiction, including the first study of the father of cyberpunk, William Gibson, and has edited two collections of essays on the future of American fiction, including In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop.

He is currently working on a new novel, Freak Nest, an excerpt of which appears here, and guest-editing a special issue of the journal Para~doxa about the future of narrative. His digital avatar resides at: http:t/www.uidaho.edu/~lolsen.

 

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Telegenesicide

Andi and Lance Olsen

 

PRINT #1

PRINT #2

PRINT #3

PRINT #4

PRINT #5

PRINT #6

PRINT #7

 

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But They Can’t Even Play an Instrument,

or, Desert Nights:

Flickering Signifiers and Semiotic Ghosts

Robert Dornsife

Creighton University

and

Russel Wiebe

Felician College

 

Perhaps by now many of us have had the discussion with our students about contemporary forms of music and have heard any band that plays primarily with and through synthesizers dismissed with some version of the phrase, "But they can't even play an instrument." And of course we are all aware of the uproar over the discovery that Milli Vanilli lip-synched; not only did they not "play," but to the extent that they could be understood to "play," they did not play fair. In addition to bands that do not play fair, Milli, New Kids On the Block and no doubt others of whom we are not aware, are punk, thrash, trash, and other forms of rock in which the question what does it mean to play an instrument is raised in a variety of forms. Although we are only the most casual follower of rock and roll trends, we are a bit more avid in our attention to the ways in which our students taxonomize and criticize various forms of their own cultural experience. We note here that one powerful version of our student's taxonomies has to do with this very question of "play," and playing, of what it means for a musician or a band to play in some licit or illicit way. Musicians who can "play" are admired for that ability because they can make a claim to some "unaided" manipulation of their instrument--a manipulation from which their music as art is seen to derive. When our students "rate" a band, there are two preconditions that must first be established: the first is whether or not they play; the second, how much of that playing can be understood to be "unaided," to fall within the category of "playing a conventional instrument." The synthesizer is not considered a conventional instrument, and we suspect that has something to do with its ability to be any, or all instruments, and that it is this ability the synthesizer confers on its--might we call its operator a-- "player"? That makes the player of the "synthesizer" something close to a fraud. In effect, the synthesizing machine and its ability to pretend to be or to be made the occasion of another's pretense to be that which it is not reinstantiates some notion of "originality" as the foundation of our student's aesthetic. Our students seem to believe that the synthesizer "threatens" the embodied "player," offering the possibility that "playing" could take place without "players."

"But they don't even play an instrument" might be taken as a powerful version of the more general concern with the role of the machine in the construction of Art. Mark Poster suggests that "electronic language . . . is everywhere and nowhere, always and never. It is truly material/ immaterial" (Poster, 85). And it is just this ubiquity that seems to make our students nervous. They finally cannot seem to credit an "art" that is available to all.

We begin, then, from this seeming paradox: that although we are everywhere enamored of the machine, of computers, televisions, cd players, surround-sound, home theatre, vcr's, video cameras, laser-disc players cd-rom drives, scanners, cellular phones, and so on, we are at the same time luddite in our acceptance of the forms and abilities these machines confer upon us. The question what it means to be "human" becomes impossible---what is there that a human could do that a machine could not do better, and what might that better confer, defer, and so on?

Perhaps part of the difficulty is just this desire, or the impossibility of resisting the desire, to say everything, which is just the possibility that cd-rom drives with hypertext capabilities networked in some impossible cyber-library seems to unfold--a kind of (dare we offer this techno cliche?) a Borgesian library of babel. But we do offer the cliche (in spite of/because of our reluctance) to suggest that at some level there is nothing but cliche, or there is nothing but the fear of cliche in the machine world, that if there has been, as Bloom has argued now for years, some anxiety of influence, that anxiety is suddenly inescapable "all the way down." We all feel it. Shelley is no longer the only one who must deal with Milton's influence; no longer is the poet the only who must come to terms with the impossible double duty of that anxiety and the compulsion to be "unacknowledged legislator of the world;" it is each of us--that anxiety encoded in the impossible library in which everything is known but in which nothing can be understood.

Veronica Hollinger writes that "the human world replicates its own mechanical systems and the border between the organic and the artificial threatens to blur beyond recuperation" (Hollinger 31). Like our students, Hollinger maintains some fear, some anxiety as the word 'recuperation' makes clear. A less fearful though still ambiguous version of the idea that human and machine are hopelessly(?) intertwined is expressed in Haraway's call for a cyborg feminism, a feminism--and finally a post-humanism--that eschews "originality" with all its connotations of origin and foundation. As Haraway is aware, this abandonment of "origin," of some simple faith in the "natural"-- "but they don't even play an instrument"

--arrives with its own set of perils (149-82).

Perhaps we are ready to agree with our students that Milli Vanilli has not played "fair," but if we once abandon our reliance upon some set of "natural conditions," no matter how naturalized, how will we distinguish between the "bad faith" of Milli and the good faith of some other synthesizer driven band? We might frame this question as "how could we value Mondo Vanilli--Mondo 2000's satiric knock-off of Milli--and still condemn the original fraud?" Is it just that fraud of fraud or "knocking-off" a fraud confers legitimacy? As this example makes clear enough, no simple reversal of polarity will be adequate to found or ground the aesthetic that can make this distinction.

What might it mean to live in the space of the cyborg? Or what it might mean to live in cyborg space, or cyber-space? Is it, as Katherine Hayles suggests (69-91), a disembodiment and through disembodiment the risk of the natural world itself--that one right out that window (though of course as we write this that window is only imaginary--a projection of the present, the moment we write these words, into the future, but also, and oddly, the projection of the past, the past of the present of writing into the future that is the present). And it is just such an examination of the illinearity of the linear time-frame that William Gibson's "The Gernsback Continuum" explores.

"I took it to Kihn" (28) Kihn, or even "kith and kin" is the destination of William Gibson's narrator in "The Gernsback Continuum" when he sees what Kihn calls a "semiotic ghost" (29). "People see these things" (28), says Kihn, last residue of natural authority, a homey sense of kin, and kinship, a kind of brotherhood of the cybernaut, Gibson's narrator reaches to Kihn in order to stabilize his wandering perceptions/hallucinations of reality--reality as seen/"scene"--as stage set.

The theme of what people see, of where the seen comes from and what future it reaches out toward, of how the future of a past's speculation or "dream" can shape both the present and the present's presence is one that drives Gibson's story. Gibson's narrator says, "It is possible to photograph what isn't there" (26), and thus the story takes shape around the oscillation between the absence of what people see and the presence or residue, the "trace" of the past's future in the present--the ability to photograph, to bring to sight that which is no longer there.

By situating itself at the boundary of the visual as "seen" "scene," and unseen, the story coalesces into what N. Katherine Hayles has called "an information narrative," a narrative that takes its themes and shapes from the proliferation of information technologies, strategies, and methods. Hayles defines an "information narrative as one in which:

The shift from presence and absence to pattern and randomness is encoded into every aspect of contemporary literature, from the physical object that constitutes the text to such staples of literary interpretation as character, plot, author, and reader. The development is by no means even; some texts testify dramatically and explicitly to the shift, whereas others manifest it only indirectly. I will call the texts in which this displacement is most apparent information narratives. Information narratives show in exaggerated form changes that are more subtly present in other texts as well. Whether in information narratives or contemporary fiction generally, the dynamic of displacement is crucial. One could focus on pattern in any era, but the peculiarity of pattern in these texts is its interpenetration with randomness and its implicit challenge to physicality. Pattern tends to overwhelm presence, marking a new kind of immateriality that does not depend on spirituality or even consciousness, only on information (80-81).

As Hayles later suggests, the so-called "cyberpunk" work of Gibson and others is one site of the information narrative. But whereas Hayles views these narratives as mapping the "displacement" of the physical by some disembodied "information," Gibson's story suggests that information is always the site of both the embodied and the dis-embodied--that the "machine" configured in a variety of modes from the photograph to the video tape player, the car, the highway, the coffee table book, and so forth is always a structure of presence and absence, that viewed through prisms of memory one woman's future is another man's past. In a recent interview, Gibson says "If I learned anything from writing The Difference Engine, I learned that the present is somebody else's past" ("Nod," 5).

In Hayles account of the "information narrative," she argues that a relationship can be discerned between the "machine text" and the text that has been explicated by deconstruction. Although it is easy to see the relationship between the decentered text of deconstruction and the multipli-centered text of hypertextuality, which has become the apotheosis of the computer text, the consequences of this relationship are more complex and more difficult to understand than Hayles and others suggest. Indeed Hayles' texts in particular find their resonance and reason in the belief that there is a traceable convergence between the multiplicity of post-structuralist textuality and contemporary scientific views of chaos and the science of complexity.

Unlike other thinkers who view Derrida and deconstruction in terms of its relation to the machine, Hayles is not content simply to note the resemblance of the deconstructive, or deconstructed, decentered text, to the text actually produced by machinic or hyper--textuality. Hayles situates her analysis of decontruction in terms of its structuring in the binary presence/absence. It is in that binary that she discovers the core of the deconstructive resemblance to machinic textuality. She writes:

Presence and absence were forced into visibility, so to speak, because they were already losing their constitutive power to form the ground for discourse, becoming instead discourse's subject. In this sense deconstruction is the child of an information age, formulating its theories from strata pushed upward by the emerging substrata beneath" (72).

Thus, for Hayles deconstruction is not so much the discovery or even the (non)critique of western metaphysics that Derrida claims, but rather the uncovering, the "emergence" of what was always already there.

Hayles began her account of this so-called "resemblance" in Chaos Bound in which she argued that the post-structural concern with "decentered texts," or newly complex textuality, mirrored the development of scientific concerns with chaos and complexity. Thus she could argue that both Shannon's reformulation of the distinction between noise and information and De Man's focus on the "undecidability" of meaning were both the result of the same cultural forces.

More recently, Hayles goes beyond the identification of chaos, complexity, and post-structuralism to argue that not only is decontruction an effect of these cultural forces, but that it has been supplanted by a more important, more meaningful, more explanatory paradigm. Hayles opposes the Derridean analysis of presence/ absence with her own focus on what she calls pattern/randomness. Hayles writes:

Critical theory has also been marked by this displacement. At the same time that absence was reconceptualized in poststructuralist theory so that it is not mere nothingness but a productive force seminal to discourse and psycholinguistics, so randomness was reconceptualized in scientific fields so that it is not mere gibberish but a productive force essential to the evolution of complex systems. The parallel suggest that the dialectic between absence and presence came clearly into focus because it was already being displaced as a cultural presupposition by randomness and pattern (72).

Hayles argues that although the machinic text might be seen to resemble the deconstructive text both are shaped by the binary pattern/randomness, that the discursive field is constituted not by "presence/ absence" but by pattern/randomness and that one central effect of this shift is to have forced presence/absence into vision.

In support of her view that the binary pattern/randomness has supplanted or superseded presence/absence, Hayles offers an account of her experience at the HITL (Human Interface Technology Laboratory) in which she had the "disorienting" experience of virtual reality. Hayles account of "virtual reality" expresses her underlying concerns about what we might call the "crisis of embodiment" engendered by a virtual reality that seems to offer the promise (or threat, depending on your point of view) of categories of experience that are no longer linked to the body (72). In some sense, then, though Hayles goes to some lengths to link her thought with Haraway's cyborg feminism, her reactions to virtual reality suggest another, more theoretically informed version of our student's plaint--"but they can't even play an instrument."

Hayles describes her encounter with virtual reality as one in which:

Questions about presence and absence do not yield much leverage. . . (in this situation,) for the puppet both is and is not present, just as the user both is and is not inside the screen" (72).

Given Hayles claim that pattern/randomness has supplanted presence/absence as the underwriting metaphor of machinic textuality, it is surprising to find the language of presence and absence resurfacing at the moment she claims it offers the least "leverage." Her concern appears to be with the momentum towards experiences that she (and we?) views as "disembodied," or "dematerialized." Of course this science-fiction notion is now seriously offered by both the pop press and reputable scientists as a possibility that we might see in our lifetime.

Hayles difficulty with her virtual reality experience seems to be that she is both/only a pattern of information, and thus, in some substantive sense, "not there" and a disembodied or empuppeted, or synthesized subjectivity. Her fear seems to be that her subjectivity is not, in some technical sense, in her body, but in the extension or dematerialization of her body, the puppet, and that her subjectivity, while in some sense animating (or is it animated, and thus nothing but a cartoon) that "puppet" that is (and isn't) her, cannot be understood to be simply present. The fact that her subjectivity is and is not present seems to be the source of her claim that presence/absence no longer yields a purchase on the slippery, virtual slopes and that we must look for another paradigm or risk capitulation to those forces that seek to overthrow, or supplant the body. In other words, it is the fact that her "subjectivity," or consciousness, or spirituality cannot be understood to be simply "present" that leads Hayles to her conclusion that there is a "crisis of embodiment." She writes:

I am now in a position to state my thesis explicitly. The contemporary pressure toward dematerialization, understood as an epistemic shift toward pattern/randomness and away from presence/absence, affects human and textual bodies on two levels at once, as a change in the body "the material substrate) and a change in the message "the codes of representation). To explore these transformations, I want to untangle and then entangle again the networks connecting technological modes of production to the objects produced and consumed, embodied experience to literary experience" (73, 76).

From this statement of her thesis, she turns to her analysis of the "information narrative," narratives that make, or can be read to make, the shift from presence/absence to pattern/randomness their "theme." But whereas Hayles reads these "information narratives" as showing the shift from presence/absence to pattern/randomness, we suggest that a close reading of Gibson's "Gernsback" shows that the "theme" Hayles discovers must be understood to thematize not pattern/randomness but presence and absence, and that arising from such an understanding will not be the anxiety that Hayles feels, but a patterned resistance to the claim that what names us as "human" is some stable instantiation of "embodiment."

At the end of her essay, Hayles acknowledges that her analysis has depended upon seeing the binary pattern/randomness in opposition to the binary presence/absence, and she expresses the hope that pattern and presence can be brought into complementarity. But "The Gernsback Continuum" and much of Gibson's other work suggests that pattern as the emerging structure of the electronic age is chimera. For the narrator of "The Gernsback Continuum," all patterns are simply structures of presence riven by absence and absence riven by presence: "it is possible to photograph what isn't there." It is that interplay that structures both his "embodiment" and his estranged consciousness or subjectivity.

Situated as a conventional retrospective narrative, Gibson's narrator begins his story by saying "Mercifully, the whole thing is starting to fade, to become an episode" (23). The opening line places the story's events in a near past, a past so near that its effects on the future, though fading, remain substantive. In the very first line, then, the force of what can no longer be "seen," what we come to view in retrospect as an "hallucination," and the power that unseen but nevertheless palpable "absence" might have on the present and the future is already broached.

In addition to this conventional positioning of narrative consciousness, Gibson adds a subversive, or unreliable, narrator. In the story's second line, "When I do still catch the odd glimpse, its peripheral; mere fragments of mad-doctor chrome, confining themselves to the corner of the eye" (23), the eye of Gibson's story is revealed as ""unreliable." Although we may not want to hold that everything the narrator sees/tells/photographs/ hallucinates is mere hallucination, we can never quite forget that our narrative "I" has driven in Tokyo on an eighty-lane freeway or that in the story's central hallucination he has driven across the Arizona desert under the influence of a three-year-old diet pill: "I had a meal, showered, took a crumbling diet pill that had been kicking around in the bottom of my shaving kit for three years, and headed back to Los Angeles" (30). In the story's central allegorical moment, the utopian future that the narrator has been photographing blinks into an alternate reality that both is and is not mere hallucination. The scene's iconography places it firmly in the tradition of UFO sightings: "The light woke me, and then the voices" (31). The narrator himself entertains the notion that what he sees is the product of "amphetamine psychosis," but finally concludes that "I knew, somehow, that the city behind me was Tucson--a dream Tucson thrown up out of the collective yearning of an era. That it was real" (32).

Gibson is far from the first author to exploit the possibilities of the convergence of a narrative "I" with a photographic "eye," but in this story both the "I" and the "eye" are entangled in yet another and equally double eye--the eye that watches "video" or life as video, and the eye that encodes life, or narrativizes life as video. The narrator of Gibson's story is a narrative "I," a photographic "eye," and a televisual "eye," which itself divides into the eye that watches video and the eye/hand that shoots video. The narrator's return to health is dependent upon his ability to incorporate the events he has just experienced into an "episode" and the story's Twilight Zone ethos--many of its key elements set in the open space of the desert just outside Tucson, and the mention of the series on the story's final page--reinforce the identification of the story with a TV episode. The story takes as one of its themes the proliferation of media--story, photograph, TV show and finally pornographic video tapes seen in "hot sheet" motels. The proliferation of technical narrative devices Gibson's story thematize the power of the scene/seen in a variety of media, and ask what it means for information to be "present" and what constitutive force remains in absent futures, presents, and pasts.

A reading of "The Gernsback Continuum" suggests that though the speed of the machine can make the shift from one technical narrative strategy to the next a dizzying one, many of the strategies that we have developed to deal with other "machines of memory" remain available to deal with the dizzying and disorienting "facts" of the technological present. At some level, Gibson's message is just that same old one--that knowledge and a dose of skepticism about radical or utopian claims is the best antidote of all. When the narrator returns to sanity he does so by watching Nazi Love Motel, which I think we must see as another story of a utopia gone radically wrong because it tried to purify its past in order to purify its present and its future. Absolute purity becomes pornography: "It could have been worse, it could be perfect" (35).

The case that Gibson makes, then, is not that we can return to or retain some simple "embodied" condition by bringing pattern into a complementary relationship with presence, as Hayles argues, but that "embodiment" is always "embedded" within structures of memory. There is no simple "embodiment" in "The Gernsback Continuum." Rather there are continuums of past/present/future and within this temporality the body is always "disembodied and embodied" as a structure of memory. It is not pattern that stands in opposition to "presence," nor does the understanding of pattern (or patterns) threaten the physical "presentness" of the body. The body is always both a presence and an absence, a memory, a story, and a place. Machines may (indeed always have) multiply those places and forms just as synthesizers multiply the number of instruments that player can play, but perhaps that synthesizer is simply another instrument after all.

 

Notes:

1. Some versions of the claim for a relationship between Derridean textuality and computer textuality can be found in: Jay David Bolter, Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1991), esp. "Critical Theory and the New Writing Space," 147-168; N. Katherine Hayles, Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1990), esp. "Chaos and Poststructuralism," 175-208; George P. Landow, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992); Richard A. Lanham, The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts (Chicago and London: Chicago UP, 1993); Mark Poster, The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1990) esp. "Derrida and Electronic Writing," 99-128.

2. Hayles, Chaos Bound, esp. "Chaos and Poststructuralism," 175-208.

3. Hans Moravec, Mind Children (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1988).

 

 

Works Cited

Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale, NJ: Eribaum, 1991.

Gibson, William. "The Gernsback Continuum." Burning Chrome. New York: Ace, 1986. 23-35.

Greenland, Colin. "A Nod to the Apocalypse: An Interview with William Gibson." Foundation. 36(Summer 1986): 5-9.

Harraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991.

Hayles, N. Katherine. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1990.

—. "Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers." October 66(Fall 1993): 69-91.

Hollinger, Veronica. "Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism." Mosaic 23,2(1990): 29-44.

Landow, George P. Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992.

Lanham, Richard A. The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1993.

Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988.

Poster, Mark. The Mode of Information: Poststrucuralism and Social Context. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1990.

 

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Cyberfictions:

A Bibliography of Authors and Their Books–

Kathy Acker to Jim Young

 

Martin Kich

Wright State University–Lake Campus

 

This bibliography includes writers whose novels and/or collected short fictions have treated the current or future ramifications of computer technologies on human life. The bibliography provides a complete listing of each writer's published books, not just the cyberfiction titles. The initial date of publication under each imprint has been indicated.

 

Acker, Kathy. The Adult Life of Toulouse- Lautrec by Henry Toulouse Lautrec. Printed Matter, 1978.

—. Algeria: A Series of Invocations because Nothing Else Works. Ales, 1985.

---. Blood and Guts in High School. Grove, 1984.

---. The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula: Some Lives of Murderesses. Community Congress, 1973.

---. Don Quixote, Which Was a Dream. Grove, 1986.

---. Empire of the Senseless. Picador, 1988. Other Editions: Grove, 1988.

—. Essays. Serpent’s Tail, 1996.

—. Florida. Diana’s Bimonthly P, 1978.

---. Great Expectations. Re-Search Productions, 1982.

—. Hannibal Lecter, My Father. Semiotext(e), 1991.

—. Hello, I’m Erica Jong. Contact Two, 1982.

---. I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imagining! Empty Elevator Shaft Poetry P, 1974.

---. In Memoriam to Identity. Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.

---. Kathy Goes to Haiti. Rumour, 1978.

—. Literal Madness: Three Novels. Grove, 1988.

—. Low: Good and Evil in the Work of Nayland Blake. Petersburg, 1990.

---. My Mother: Demonology. Pantheon, 1993.

—. New York City in 1979. Hallwalls, 1981.

---. Politics. Papyrus, 1972.

---. Portrait of an Eye: Three Novels. Pantheon, 1992. Other Editions: McKay, 1992.

---. Pussy, King of the Pirates. Grove/Atlantic, 1995.

—. Pussycat Fever. AK, 1995.

 

Amerika, Mark. The Kafka Chronicles. Fiction Collective, 1993.

---. Sexual Blood. Fiction Collective, 1995. Other Editions: French, 1995.

 

Anthony, Patricia. Brother Termite. Harcourt, 1993. Other Editions: Ace, 1995.

---. Cold Allies. Harcourt, 1993. Other Editions: Ace, 1994.

---. Conscience of the Beagle. First, 1993. Other Editions: Ace, 1995.

---. Cradle of Splendor. Ace, 1996.

---. Eating Memories. First/Old Earth, 1997.

---. Flanders. Ace, 1998.

---. God's Fires. Ace, 1997.

---. Happy Policeman. Harcourt, 1994. Other Editions: Ace, 1994.

---. Mercy's Children. Ace, 1998.

 

Arven, Andrea. Wanton. Nexus, 1994.

---. Wicked. Nexus, 1991.

---. Wild. Nexus, 1992.

 

Austin, Richard. The Guardians. Jove, 1985. Other Editions: Pan, 1990.

---. The Guardians #2: Trial By Fire. Jove, 1985. Other Editions: Berkley, 1985; Pan, 1990.

---. The Guardians #3: Thunder of Hell. Jove, 1985. Other Editions: Pan, 1990.

---. The Guardians #4: Night of the Phoenix. Jove, 1985. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. The Guardians #5: Armageddon Run. Jove, 1986. Other Editions: Pan, 1990.

---. The Guardians #6: War Zone. Jove, 1986. Other Editions: Pan, 1990.

---. The Guardians #7: Brute Force. Jove, 1987. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. The Guardians #8: Desolation Road. Jove, 1987. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. The Guardians #9: Vengeance Day. Jove, 1987. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. The Guardians #10: Freedom Fight. Jove, 1988. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. The Guardians #11: Death Charge. Jove, 1991.

---. The Guardians #12: The Plague Years. Jove, 1988.

---. The Guardians #13: Devil's Deal. Jove, 1989.

---. The Guardians #14: Death from Above. Jove, 1990.

---. The Guardians #15: Snake Eyes. Jove, 1990.

 

Aylett, Steve. Bigot Hall. Serif, 1995.

 

Baird, Wilhelmina. Chaos Come Again. Ace, 1996.

---. Clipjoint. Ace, 1994.

---. CrashCourse. Ace, 1993.

---. PsyKosis. Ace, 1995.

 

Barnes, John. Caesar's Bicycle. HarperPrism, 1997.

---. Kaleidoscope Century. Tor, 1995. Other Editions: Millennium, 1995; Phoenix, 1996.

---. The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky. Congdon and Weed/Contemporary, 1987. Other Editions: Worldwide Library, 1988; NEL, 1988.

---. A Million Open Doors. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: SFBC, 1993; Millennium, 1993.

---. Mother of Storms. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: Millennium, 1994; Orion, 1996.

---. One for the Morning Glory. Tor, 1996.

---. Orbital Resonance. Tor, 1991.

---. Patton's Spaceship. HarperPrism, 1997.

---. Sin of Origin. Congdon and Weed, 1988. Other Editions: Worldwide Library, 1989; NEL, 1991.

---. Time Raider: Battlecry. Worldwide Library/Gold Eagle, 1992.

---. Time Raider: Union Fires. Worldwide Library/Gold Eagle, 1992.

---. Time Raider: Wartide. Worldwide Library/Gold Eagle, 1992.

---. The Timeline Wars. SFBC, 1997.

---. Washington's Dirigible. HarperPrism, 1997.

 

Barnes, Steven. Blood Brothers. Tor, 1996.

---. Firedance. Tor, 1993.

---. Gorgon Child. Tor, 1989.

---. The Kundalini Equation. Tor, 1986.

---. Streetlethal. Tor, 1990. Other Editions: Ace, 1983.

Baron, Robert. Stormrider. Jove, 1992.

---. Stormrider 2: River of Fire. Jove, 1993.

---. Stormrider 3: Lord of the Plains. Jove, 1993.

 

Barrett, Neal, Jr. Babylon 5: Book 5: The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name. Dell, 1996. Other Editions: Boxtree, 1996.

---. Batman: The Black Egg of Atlantis. Little, 1992.

---. Dawn's Uncertain Light. NAL/Signet, 1989. Other Editions: Grafton, 1992.

---. The Hereafter Gang. Mark V. Ziesing, 1991.

---. Judge Dredd. St. Martin's, 1995. Other Editions: Boxtree, 1995.

---. The Karma Corps . DAW, 1984.

---. Pink Vodka Blues. St. Martin's, 1992.

---. Skinny Annie Blues. Kensington, 1996.

---. Slightly Off Center: Eleven Extraordinarily Exhilarating Tales. Swan, 1992.

---. Through Darkest America. Congdon and Weed/Contemporary, 1987. Other Editions: Worldwide Library, 1988.

 

Bear, Greg. Anvil of Stars. Legend, 1992. Other Editions: Warner Questar, 1992; Easton, 1992; SFBC, 1992.

---. Bear's Fantasies. Newark, NJ: PSFS/Wildside, 1992.

---. Beyond Heaven's River. Tor, 1987. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988; Severn House, 1989.

---. Blood Music. Arbor House, 1985. Other Editions: SFBC, 1985; Ace, 1986; Gollancz, 1986; Easton, 1990; Legend, 1991.

---. Early Harvest. Framingham, MA: NESFA, 1988.

---. Eon. Chappaqua, NY: Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: SFBC, 1986; Tor, 1986; Gollancz, 1986; Legend, 1987.

---. Eternity. Warner, 1988. Other Editions: SFBC, 1988; Gollancz, 1989; Popular Library/Questar, 1989; Legend, 1990; Warner Aspect, 1994.

---. The Forge of God. Gollancz, 1987. Other Editions: Tor, 1987; SFBC, 1988; Legend, 1989.

---. Heads. Legend, 1990. Other Editions: St. Martin’s, 1991; BOMC, 1992; Tor, 1992; BOMC/QPBC, 1992.

---. Hegira. Gollancz, 1987. Other Editions: Severn House, 1988; Dell, 1989; Tor, 1989.

---. The Infinity Concerto. Berkley, 1984. Other Editions: Century, 1988; Legend, 1988; Ace, 1989.

---. Legacy. Tor, 1995. Other Editions: Legend, 1995; SFBC, 1995.

---. Moving Mars. Tor, 1993. Other Editions: Legend. 1993; SFBC, 1994.

---, ed. [With Martin H. Greenberg] New Legends. Tor, 1995. Other Editions: Legend, 1996.

---. Psychlone. Ace, 1979. Other Editions: Tor, 1988; Gollancz, 1989; Severn House, 1990.

---. Queen of Angels. Warner, 1990. Other Editions: Easton, 1990; Gollancz, 1990; BOMC, 1990; Warner Questar, 1991; Legend, 1991; Warner Aspect, 1994.

---. The Serpent Mage. Berkley, 1986. Other Editions: Century, 1988; Legend, 1989; Ace, 1989.

---. Sisters. Eugene, OR: Pulphouse, 1992.

---. Slant. Legend, 1997. Other Editions: Tor, 1997; SFBC, 1997.

---. Songs of Earth and Power. An Omnibus of The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage. Legend, 1992. Other Editions: Tor, 1994; SFBC, 1995.

---. Star Trek #15: Corona. Gregg, 1985. Other Editions: Pocket, 1984; Titan, 1989.

---. Strength of Stones. Ace, 1986. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988; Severn House, 1991; Warner Questar, 1991.

---. Tangents. Warner, 1989. Other Editions: SFBC, 1989; Gollancz, 1989; Popular Library/Questar, 1990; Gollancz/Vista, 1997.

---. The Venging. Legend, 1992.

---. The Wind from a Burning Woman. Ace, 1984. Other Editions: Popular Library/Questar, 1990

 

Benedikt, Michael, ed. Buildings and Reality: Architecture in the Age of Information. Vol. 4. Center for the Study of American Architecture, 1988.

—. Cyberspace: First Steps. MIT P, 1991.

—. Deconstructing the Kimbell. Lumen, 1991.

—. For an Architecture of Reality. Lumen, 1987.

 

Besher, Alexander. RIM: A Novel of Virtual Reality. HarperCollins West, 1994. Other Editions: Orbit, 1995; HarperPrism, 1996.

 

Bethke, Bruce. Headcrash. Warner Aspect, 1995. Other Editions: Orbit, 1995; SFBC, 1996; Warner, 1997.

---. Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens 5: Maverick. Ace, 1990.

--- [With Vox Day]. Rebel Moon. Pocket, 1996.

 

Bey, Hakim. Immediatism. AK, 1995.

—. T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia, 1991.

 

Billias, Stephen. The American Book of the Dead. Popular Library/Questar, 1987.

---. Cyberpunk 2.0 2.0: Holo Men. Warner, 1996.

---. Cyberpunk 2.0 2.0: The Ravengers. Warner, 1995.

---. Quest for the 36. Popular Library/Questar, 1988.

---. Runesword Volume Four: Horrible Humes. Ace, 1991.

 

Bisson, Terry. Bears Discover Fire. Tor, 1993.

---. The Fifth Element. HarperPrism, 1997. Other Editions: HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. Fire on the Mountain. Morrow/Arbor House, 1988. Other Editions: Avon, 1990.

---. Johnny Mnemonic. Novelization of the Screenplay Based on the William Gibson Short Story. Pocket, 1995. Other Editions: HarperCollins Voyager, 1996.

---. Pirates of the Universe. Tor, 1996.

---. Talking Man. Arbor House, 1986. Other Editions: Avon, 1987; Headline, 1987.

---. Virtuosity. Pocket, 1995.

---. Voyage to the Red Planet. Morrow, 1990. Other Editions: Avon, 1991; Pan, 1992.

---. Wyrldmaker. Timescape, 1981. Other Editions: Headline, 1988.

 

Blankenship, Loyd. Gurps Cyberpunk: High-Tech Low-Life Roleplaying. Steve Jackson, 1991.

 

Blumlein, Michael. The Brains of Rats. Scream, 1989. Other Editions: Dell, 1997.

---. The Movement of Mountains. St. Martin's, 1987. Other Editions: Simon and Schuster UK, 1988; NEL, 1989.

---. X, Y. Dell Abyss, 1993.

 

Borelli, Andrew. All Fall Down. Atlas/Trident, 1992.

—. Streetfighting: An Official Cyberpunk 2020 Adventure Anthology. Atlas/Trident, 1993.

 

Bova, Ben. As on a Darkling Plain. Walker, 1972. Other Editions: Tor, 1985; Mandarin, 1990.

---. The Astral Mirror. Tor, 1985.

---. Battle Station. Tor, 1987.

---, ed. The Best of the Nebulas. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Robert Hale, 1990.

---. Brothers. NEL, 1995. Other Editions: Easton, 1996; Bantam Spectra, 1996.

---. Challenges. Tor, 1993.

---. City of Darkness. Scribner's, 1976. Other Editions: Berkley, 1986.

---. Colony. Pocket/Timescape, 1978. Other Editions: Methuen, 1986; Tor, 1988.

---. The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells. Writer's Digest, 1994.

---. Cyberbooks. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1990; Severn House, 1990.

---. Death Dream. NEL, 1994. Other Editions: Bantam, 1994; Bantam Spectra, 1995.

---. The Dueling Machine. Holt, 1969. Other Editions: Berkley, 1984.

---. Empire Builders. Tor, 1993.

---. End of Exile. Dutton, 1975.

---. Escape Plus. Tor, 1984. Other Editions: Methuen, 1988.

---. Exiled from Earth. Dutton, 1971.

---. The Exiles Trilogy. Berkley, 1980. Other Editions: Methuen, 1984; Baen, 1994.

---. Flight of Exiles. Dutton, 1972.

---. Future Crime. Tor, 1990.

---. Kinsman. Dial, 1979. Other Editions: Methuen, 1988; Mandarin, 1989.

---. The Kinsman Saga. Revision of Millennium and Kinsman. Tor, 1987. Other Editions: Easton, 1990.

---. Mars. Bantam Spectra, 1992. Other Editions: NEL, 1993.

---. Millenium. Random, 1971. Other Editions: Methuen, 1988; Mandarin, 1989.

---. Moonrise. Hodder and Stoughton, 1996. Other Editions: Avon, 1996; Easton, 1997; NEL, 1997.

---. Moonwar. Hodder and Stoughton, 1997.

---. The Multiple Man. Bobbs, 1976. Other Editions: Tor, 1987.

---. Orion. Simon/Fireside, 1984. Other Editions: Tor, 1985; Severn House, 1985; Methuen, 1986.

---. Orion among the Stars. Tor, 1995.

---. Orion and the Conqueror. Tor, 1994.

---. Orion in the Dying Time. Tor, 1990. Other Editions: Methuen, 1991; Mandarin, 1992.

---. Out of the Sun/Escape. Holt, 1968. Revised and Other Editions: Tor, 1984.

---. The Peacekeepers. Tor, 1988. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1989; Severn House, 1992.

---. Privateers. Tor, 1985. Other Editions: Methuen, 1986.

---. Prometheans. Tor, 1986.

---. Sam Gunn, Unlimited. Methuen, 1992. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1992; Bantam Spectra, 1993.

---. The Starcrossed. Chilton, 1975. Other Editions: Ace, 1984; Tor, 1988.

---. Star Watchman. Holt, 1964.

--- [With A. J. Austin]. To Fear the Light. Tor, 1994.

--- [With A. J. Austin]. To Save the Sun. Tor, 1992.

--- [With William R. Pogue]. The Trikon Deception. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: Easton, 1992; NEL, 1994.

---. Triumph. Tor, 1993.

---. Vengeance of Orion. Tor, 1988. Other Editions: Severn House, 1988.

---. Voyagers. Doubleday, 1981. Other Editions: Bantam, 1985; Methuen, 1986; Severn House, 1987

---. Voyagers II: The Alien Within. Tor, 1986. Other Editions: Severn House, 1987; Methuen, 1987.

---. Voyagers III: Star Brothers. Tor, 1990. Other Editions: Easton, 1990; Methuen, 1990; Mandarin, 1991.

---. The Watchmen. Omnibus of Two Young-Adult SF Novels about the Star Watch. Holt, 1964. Other Editions: Baen, 1994.

---. Welcome to Moonbase. Ballantine, 1987.

---. The Winds of Altair. Dutton, 1973. Revised and Other Editions: Tor, 1988; Severn House, 1989.

 

Bowen, G. R., ed. Cyber Magick: Lesbian SF. Obelesk/Triangle, 1995.

 

Bright, Susie, ed. The Best American Erotica 1993. Macmillan, 1993.

—, ed. The Best American Erotica 1994. Simon, 1994.

—, ed. The Best American Erotica 1995. Simon/Touchstone, 1995.

—, ed. Herotica: A Collection of Women’s Erotic Fiction. Down There, 1988.

—. Nothing but the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image. Cassell, 1996.

—. Susie Bright’s Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader. Cleis, 1992.

—. Susie Bright’s Sexwise: America’s Favorite X-Rated Intellectual Does Dan Quayle, Catharine MacKinnon, Stephen King, Camille Paglia, Nicholson Baker, Madonna, the Black Panthers, and the GOP. Cleis, 1995.

—. Susie Sexpert’s Lesbian Sex World. Cleis, 1991.

 

Brooks, Alison. Foxbat Unhinged! Atlas/Trident, 1996.

—. Thicker than Blood. Atlas/Trident, 1993.

–. With a Long Spoon: An Over the Edge Adventure. Atlas/Trident, 1994.

 

Brosnan, John. Damned & Fancy. Legend, 1995.

---. The Fall of the Sky Lords. Gollancz, 1991.

---. Have Demon Will Travel. Legend, 1996.

---. The Opononax Invasion. Gollancz, 1994.

---. The Primal Screen: A History of Science Fiction Film. Orbit, 1991.

---. The Sky Lords. Gollancz, 1988. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1991.

---. War of the Sky Lords. Gollancz, 1989. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1992.

 

Brown, Eric. Blues Shifting. Pan, 1995.

---. Engineman. Pan, 1994.

---. Meridian Days. Pan, 1992.

---. The Time-Lapsed Man and Other Stories. Pan, 1990. Other Editions: Drunken Dragon, 1990.

---. The Web: Untouchable. Dolphin, 1997.

 

Brunner, John. Age of Miracles. Ace, 1973. Other Editions: DAW, 1985.

---. The Astronauts Must Not Land. [Revised as More Things in Heaven.] Ace, 1963.

---. The Best of John Brunner. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988.

---. A Case of Painter's Ear. Eugene, OR: Pulphouse, 1991.

---. Children of the Thunder. Ballantine Del Rey, 1989. Other Editions: Orbit, 1990.

---. The Compleat Traveler in Black. Chappaqua, NY: Bluejay, 1986. Other Editions: Methuen, 1987; Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1989; Mandarin, 1989.

---. The Crucible of Time. Del Rey, 1983. Other Editions: SFBC, 1984; Ballantine Del Rey, 1984; Legend, 1990.

---. The Days of March. Kerosina, 1988.

---. Interstellar Empire. DAW, 1976. Other Editions: DAW, 1986; Arrow, 1987.

---. The Jagged Orbit. Ace, 1969. Other Editions: DAW, 1984.

---. A Maze of Stars. Ballantine Del Rey, 1991. Other Editions: Easton, 1991.

---. More Things in Heaven. DAW, 1987.

---. Muddle Earth. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993.

---. The Sheep Look Up. Harper, 1972. Other Editions: Legend, 1991.

---. The Shift Key. Methuen, 1987.

---. The Shockwave Rider. Harper, 1975. Other Editions: Methuen, 1988; Ballantine Del Rey, 1989.

---. The Squares of the City. Ballantine, 1965. Other Editions: Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1991.

---. Stand on Zanzibar. Doubleday, 1968. Other Editions: Easton, 1987; Ballantine Del Rey, 1988; Legend, 1988

---. The Traveler in Black. Ace, 1971.

---. Three Complete Novels: Children of the Thunder, The Tides of Time, and The Crucible of Time. Wings, 1995.

---. The Tides of Time. Ballantine Del Rey, 1984; SFBC, 1985; Penguin, 1986.

---. Timescoop. Dell, 1969. Other Editions: DAW, 1984.

---. Total Eclipse. Doubleday, 1974. Other Editions: DAW, 1984.

---. Victims of the Nova. Omnibus of the Zarathustra Planet Series: Polymath, The Avengers of Carrig, and The Repairmen of Cyclops. Legend, 1989.

---. The Whole Man. Ballantine, 1964. Other Editions: Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1990.

 

Bukatman, Scott. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Duke U P, 1993.

 

Bull, Emma. Bone Dance. Ace, 1991. Other Editions: SFBC, 1991.

--- [With Will Shetterly.] Double Feature. NESFA, 1994.

---. Falcon. Ace, 1989.

---. Finder. Tor, 1994.

--- [With Stephen Brust]. Freedom and Necessity.

---. The Princess and the Lord of Night. Harcourt Brace, 1994.

---. War for the Oaks. Ace, 1987.

 

Bury, Stephen. The Cobweb. Bantam, 1996.

---. Interface. Bantam, 1994. Other Editions: Signet UK, 1997.

 

Cadigan, Pat. Dirty Work. Mark V. Ziesing, 1993.

---. Fools. Bantam Spectra, 1992. Other Editions: HarperCollins UK, 1994.

---. Home By the Sea. WSFA, 1992.

--- [With Karen Joy Fowler and Pat Murphy]. Letters from Home. Women's, 1991.

---. Mindplayers. Bantam Spectra, 1987. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988.

---. My Brother's Keeper. Pulphouse, 1992.

---. Patterns. Ursus, 1989. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991.

---. Synners. Bantam Spectra, 1991. Other Editions: HarperCollins UK, 1991; Grafton, 1991.

 

Cain, Robert. Cybernarc. Harper Paperbacks, 1991.

---. Cybernarc #3: Island Kill. Harper Paperbacks, 1992.

---. Cybernarc #4: Capo's Revenge. Harper Paperbacks, 1992.

---. Cybernarc #5: Shark Bait. Harper, 1992.

---. Cybernarc: Gold Dragon. Harper Paperbacks, 1991.

 

Calder, Richard. Dead Boys. HarperCollins UK, 1994. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1996.

---. Dead Girls. HarperCollins UK, 1993. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1995.

---. Dead Things. Voyager, 1996. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1997.

 

Card, Orson Scott. The Abyss. Pocket, 1989. Other Editions: Legend, 1989; SFBC, 1989.

---. Alvin Journeyman. Tor, 1995.

---, ed. [With Keith Ferrell]. Black Mist and Other Japanese Futures. DAW, 1997.

---. The Call of Earth. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: Legend, 1993.

---. Cardography. Hypatia, 1987.

---. The Changed Man. Tor, 1992.

---. Characters and Viewpoint. Writer's Digest, 1988. Other Editions: Robinson, 1990.

---. Children of the Mind. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997.

---. Cruel Miracles. Tor, 1992.

---, ed. Dragons of Darkness. Bart, 1988.

---, ed. Dragons of Light. Ace, 1980. Other Editions: Bart, 1988.

---. Earthborn. Tor, 1995.

---. Earthfall. Tor, 1995.

---. Ender's Game. Tor, 1986. Other Editions: Arrow, 1997; Legend, 1990; Easton, 1993; SFBC, 1993.

---. Ender's War. Omnibus Edition of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. SFBC, 1997.

---. Flux. Tor, 1992.

---. The Folk of the Fringe. Phantasia, 1989. Other Editions: Legend, 1990; Tor, 1990; SFBC, 1991

---, ed. Future on Fire. Tor, 1991.

---. Hart's Hope. Ace, 1983. Other Editions: Allen and Unwin/Unicorn, 1986; Tor, 1988; Severn House, 1993.

---. Hatrack River. Omnibus of Seventh Son, Red Prophet, and Prentice Alvin. SFBC, 1989.

---. Homecoming: Earth. Omnibus of Earthfall and Earthborn. SFBC, 1995.

---. Homecoming: Harmony. Omnibus of the First Three Books in the "Homecoming" Series: The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, and The Ships of Earth. SFBC, 1994.

---. Hot Sleep. Baronet, 1979.

---. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Writer's Digest, 1990.

---. Lost Boys. HarperCollins, 1992. Other Editions: SFBC, 1993; HarperPaperbacks, 1993.

--- [With Kathryn H. Kidd]. Lovelock. Tor, 1994.

---. Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card. Tor, 1990. Other Editions: BOMC, 1990; Easton, 1990; Legend, 1991

---. Maps in a Mirror: Volume One: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card. Legend, 1992.

---. Maps in a Mirror: Volume Two: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card. Legend, 1992.

---. The Memory of Earth. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: Legend, 1992.

---. Monkey Sonatas. Tor, 1990.

---. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996.

---. Prentice Alvin. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Legend, 1989.

---. Red Prophet. Tor, 1988. Other Editions: Legend, 1989.

---. Saints. Reprint of A Woman of Destiny. Tor, 1988.

---. Seventh Son. Tor, 1987. Other Editions: Legend, 1988.

---. The Ships of Earth. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: Legend, 1994

---. Songmaster. Dial, 1983. Other Editions: Tor, 1987; Legend, 1990; Severn House, 1994.

---. Speaker for the Dead. Tor, 1986. Other Editions: Arrow, 1987; Century, 1987; Legend, 1990.

---. Treason. St. Martin's, 1988.

---. Treasure Box. HarperCollins, 1996. Other Editions: HarperChoice, 1997.

---. Unaccompanied Sonata. Eugene, OR: Pulphouse, 1992.

---. Woman of Destiny. Berkley, 1984.

---. The Worthing Chronicle. Ace, 1983.

---. The Worthing Saga. Tor, 1990. Other Editions: Legend, 1991.

---. Wyrms. Arbor House, 1987. Other Editions: SFBC, 1987; Legend, 1988; Tor, 1988

---. Xenocide. Tor, 1991. Other Editions: Legend, 1991; SFBC, 1992.

 

Collins, Warwick. Challenge. Pan, 1990.

---. Computer One. No Exit, 1993. Other Editions: No Fault, 1993; Boyars, Marion, 1997.

---. Death of an Angel. Pan, 1992.

---. New World. Pan, 1991.

 

Coupland, Douglas. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. St. Martin’s, 1991.

---. Girlfriend in a Coma. HarperCollins/ Regan, 1998.

---. Life after God. Pocket, 1994.

---. Microserfs. HarperCollins, 1995.

---. Polaroids from the Dead. HarperCollins, 1996.

---. Shampoo Planet. Pocket, 1992.

 

Daley, Brian. Classic Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures. Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. The Doomfarers of Coramonde. Ballantine Del Rey, 1985.

---. Fall of the White Ship Avatar. Ballantine Del Rey, 1987. Other Editions: Grafton, 1990.

---. Gammalaw: Smoke on the Water. Ballantine Del Rey, 1998.

---. Jinx on a Terran Inheritance. Ballantine Del Rey, 1985. Grafton, 1990.

---. Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds. Ballantine Del Rey, 1985. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989.

---. Star Wars: Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. Ballantine Del Rey, 1997.

---. Star Wars: Han Solo's Revenge. Ballantine Del Rey, 1997.

---. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back NPR Radio Dramatization. Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Radio Drama. Titan, 1995.

---. Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures. Omnibus of Han Solo at Stars' End, Han Solo's Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. Ballantine Del Rey, 1992.

---. Star Wars: The NPR Radio Dramatization. Ballantine Del Rey, 1994.

---. Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama. Titan, 1995.

---. The Starfollowers of Coramonde. Ballantine Del Rey, 1979.

 

Danks, Denise. Wink a Hopeful Eye. St. Martin’s, 1994.

 

Delany, Samuel R. Atlantis: Three Tales. Incunabula, 1995. Wesleyan U P, 1995.

---. Babel 17. Ace, 1966. Other Editions: Sphere, 1969; Gollancz, 1987; Easton, 1992.

---. The Bridge of Lost Desire. Arbor House, 1987. Other Editions: St. Martin's, 1988.

---. City of a Thousand Suns. Ace, 1965.

---. The Complete Nebula Award-Winning Fiction. Bantam Spectra, 1986.

---. Dhalgren. Bantam, 1975. Other Editions: Grafton, 1992; U P of New England/Wesleyan, 1996.

---. Driftglass. NAL/Signet, 1971. Other Editions: Grafton, 1993.

---. The Einstein Intersection. Ace, 1967. Other Editions: Easton, 1991; Grafton, 1992.

---. Equinox. Originally published as Tides of Lust. Masquerade/Rhinoceros, 1994.

---. The Fall of the Towers. Omnibus Edition of the Trilogy: City of a Thousand Suns, Out of the Dead City, and The Towers of Toron. Ace, 1970. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1986.

---. Flight from Neveryon. Bantam, 1985. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989; Wesleyan/U P of New England, 1994.

---. Hogg. Black Ice, 1995.

---. The Jewels of Aptor. Ace, 1962. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1989.

---. Longer Views. U P of New England/Wesleyan, 1996.

---. The Mad Man. Masquerade/Richard Kasak UK, 1994. Other Editions: Masquerade/Rhinoceros, 1996.

---. The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village 1957-1965. Morrow/Arbor House, 1988. Other Editions: Paladin, 1990; Masquerade/Richard Kasak, 1993; NAL/Plume, 1989.

---. Neveryona. Bantam, 1983. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989; Wesleyan/New England U P, 1993; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Nova. Doubleday, 1968. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1986; Gollancz, 1986.

---. Out of the Dead City. Ace, 1963.

---. Return to Neveryon. Originally Published as The Bridge of Lost Desire. Grafton, 1989. Other Editions: Wesleyan/U P of New England, 1994.

---. Silent Interviews: On Language, Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics. U P of New England/Wesleyan, 1994.

---. Starboard Wine. Dragon, 1984.

---. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. Bantam, 1984. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1985; QPB/Bantam, 1985; Grafton/Panther, 1986.

---. The Straits of Messina. Serconia, 1989.

---. Tales of Neveryon. Bantam, 1979. Other Editions: Grafton, 1988; Wesleyan/New England U P, 1993; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. They Fly at Çiron. Incunabula, 1993. Other Editions: Tor, 1995.

---. Tides of Lust. Lancer, 1973.

---. The Towers of Toron. Ace, 1964.

---. Triton. Bantam, 1976. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1986; Grafton, 1992.

---. Trouble on Triton. U P of New England/ Wesleyan, 1996.

---. Wagner/Artaud: A Play of 19th and 20th Century Critical Fictions. Ansatz, 1988.

 

DeLillo, Don. Americana. Houghton, 1971. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1989.

—. The Day Room. Knopf, 1987. Other Editions: Dramatists Play, 1988; Viking Penguin, 1989.

—. End Zone. Houghton, 1972. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1986.

—. Great Jones Street. Houghton, 1973. Other Editions: Random, 1989.

—. Libra. Viking, 1988. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1991.

—. Mao II. Viking, 1991. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1992.

—. The Names. Knopf, 1982. Other Editions: Random, 1991.

—. Players. Knopf, 1977. Other Editions: Random, 1989.

—. Ratner’s Star. Knopf, 1976. Other Editions: Random, 1989.

—. Running Dog. Knopf, 1978. Other Editions: Random, 1989.

—. Underworld. Scribner, 1997.

—. White Noise. Viking, 1985. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1986.

 

Del Piombo, Akbar. Skirts. Masquerade, 1993.

 

Dery, Mark. Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. Grove-Atlantic, 1996.

—, ed. Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture. Duke UP, 1994.

 

Dick, Philip K. Beyond Lies the Wub. Underwood-Miller, 1987. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988; Grafton, 1990;

---. Blade Runner. Originally Published as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. The Broken Bubble. Morrow/Arbor House, 1988. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1989; Paladin, 1991.

---. Clans of the Alphane Moon. Ace, 1964. Other Editions: Bluejay, 1984; Carroll and Graf, 1988; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. One: Beyond Lies the Wub. Underwood-Miller, 1987.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. Two: Second Variety. Underwood-Miller, 1987. Other Editions: as Second Variety: Gollancz, 1989; Grafton, 1990.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. Three: The Father Thing. Underwood-Miller, 1987. Other Editions: as The Father-Thing: Gollancz, 1989; Grafton, 1990.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. Four: The Days of Perky Pat. Underwood-Miller, 1987. Other Editions: as The Days of Perky Pat: Gollancz, 1990; Grafton, 1991.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. Five: The Little Black Box. Underwood-Miller, 1987. Other Editions: as The Little Black Box: Gollancz, 1990.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 1: The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford. Carol/Citadel Twilight, 1990.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 2: We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. Carol/Citadel Twilight, 1990.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 3: Second Variety. Carol/Citadel Twilight, 1991.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 4: The Minority Report. Carol/Citadel Twilight, 1991.

---. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5: The Eye of the Sibyl. Citadel Twilight, 1992.

---. Confessions of a Crap Artist. Entwhistle, 1975. Other Editions: Paladin, 1989; Random/Vintage, 1992.

---. The Cosmic Puppets. Ace, 1957. Other Editions: Severn House, 1986; Graffton, 1987.

---. Cosmogony and Cosmology. Kerosina, 1987.

---. Counter-Clock World. Berkley, 1967. Other Editions: Grafton, 1990.

---. The Dark-Haired Girl. Mark V. Ziesing, 1988.

--- [With Roger Zelazny]. Deus Irae. Doubleday, 1976. Other Editions: Sphere, 1988; Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1993.

---. The Divine Invasion. Timescape, 1981. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989; Random/Vintage, 1991; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep• Doubleday, 1968. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1996; Voyager, 1997.

---. Dr. Bloodmoney. Ace, 1965. Other Editions: Chappaqua, NY: Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: Arrow, 1987; Carroll and Graf, 1988; Legend, 1990.

---. Dr. Futurity. Ace, 1960. Other Editions: Berkley, 1984.

---. Eye in the Sky. Ace, 1957. Other Editions: Arrow, 1987; Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1989; Legend, 1991.

---. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Doubleday, 1974. Other Editions: Random/Vintage, 1993; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Galactic Pot-Healer. Berkley, 1969. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987; Random/Vintage, 1994.

---. The Game-Players of Titan. Ace, 1963. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991; Random/Vintage, 1992; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

--- [With Ray Faraday Nelson]. The Ganymede Takeover. Ace, 1967. Other Editions: Arrow, 1987; Severn House, 1988; Legend, 1991.

---. Gather Yourselves Together. Herndon, VA: WCS, 1994.

---. A Handful of Darkness. Rich and Cowan, 1955. Other Editions: Grafton, 1988.

---. Humpty Dumpty in Oakland. Gollancz, 1986. Other Editions: Paladin, 1988.

---. I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon. Doubleday, 1985. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1986; St. Martin's, 1987; Grafton, 1988.

---. In Milton Lumky Territory. Dragon, 1985. Other Editions: Paladin, 1987.

---. In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis. Underwood-Miller, 1991.

---. Lies, Inc. Revision of The Unteleported Man. Gollancz, 1984.

---. The Man in the High Castle. Putnam, 1962. Other Editions: Penguin, 1987; Easton, 1988; Random/Vintage, 1992; Roc UK, 1993.

---. The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike. Mark V. Ziesing, 1984. Other Editions: Grafton/Paladin, 1986.

---. Martian Time Slip. Ballantine, 1964. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1990; Random/Vintage, 1995.

---. Mary and the Giant. Arbor House, 1987. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988; Paladin, 1989; St. Martin's, 1989.

---. A Maze of Death. Doubleday, 1970. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987; Random/Vintage, 1994.

---. Nick and the Glimmung. Gollancz, 1988. Other Editions: Piper, 1990.

---. Now Wait for Last Year. Doubleday, 1966. Other Editions: Random/Vintage, 1993; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Our Friends from Frolix 8. Ace, 1970. Other Editions: Kinnell, 1989.

---. The Penultimate Truth. Belmont, 1964. Other Editions: Bluejay, 1984; Carroll and Graf, 1989; Grafton, 1992.

---. The Philip K. Dick Reader. Carol/Citadel Twilight, 1997.

---. The Preserving Machine. Ace, 1969. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987.

---. Puttering About in a Small Land. Academy Chicago, 1985. Other Editions: Paladin, 1987.

---. Radio Free Albemuth. Arbor House, 1985. Other Editions: SFBC, 1986; Grafton, 1987; Avon, 1987; Severn House, 1987.

---. Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Southern Illinois U P, 1984.

---. A Scanner Darkly. Doubleday, 1977. Other Editions: DAW, 1984; Random/Vintage, 1991; Voyager, 1996.

---. The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick 1938-1971. Underwood, 1997.

---. The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick: 1972-1973. Underwood-Miller, 1994.

---. The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick 1975-1976. Underwood-Miller, 1992.

---. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick. Pantheon, 1995. Other Editions: Vintage, 1996.

---. Solar Lottery. Ace, 1955. Other Editions: Arrow, 1987; Macmillan Collier Nucleus, 1990; Legend, 1990.

---. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Doubleday, 1965. Other Editions: Random/Vintage, 1991; Grafton, 1992; SFBC, 1992; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Time Out of Joint. Lippincott, 1959. Other Editions: Bluejay, 1984; Carroll and Graf, 1987; Penguin, 1988; Roc UK, 1994.

---. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Timescape, 1982. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987; Random/Vintage, 1991.

---. Ubik. Doubleday, 1969. Other Editions: Grafton, 1988; Random/Vintage, 1991; Corroboree, 1985.

---. Valis. Bantam, 1981. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1985; Kerosina, 1987; Random/Vintage, 1991; Grafton, 1992.

---. The VALIS Trilogy. Omnibus edition of Valis, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. QPBC, 1989. Other Editions: BOMC, 1990; TSP, 1993.

---. We Can Build You. DAW, 1972. Other Editions: Grafton, 1986; Severn House, 1988; Random/Vintage, 1994; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. Dark Carnival, 1990. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991.

---. The World Jones Made. Ace, 1956. Other Editions: Bart, 1988; Random/Vintage, 1993; HarperCollins UK, 1994.

---. The Zap Gun. Pyramid, 1967. Other Editions: Bluejay, 1985; Carroll and Graf, 1989.

 

Dietz, William C. Alien Bounty. Ace, 1990.

---. Bodyguard. Ace, 1994.

--- [With David A. Drake]. Crisis of Empire II: Cluster Command. Baen, 1989.

---. Drifter. Ace, 1991.

---. Drifter's Run. Ace, 1992.

---. Drifter's War. Ace, 1992.

---. The Final Battle. Ace, 1995.

---. Freehold. Ace, 1987.

---. Galactic Bounty. Ace, 1986.

---. Imperial Bounty. Ace, 1988. Other Editions: NEL, 1988

---. Matrix Man. Penguin/Roc, 1990.

---. McCade's Bounty. Ace, 1990.

---. Prison Planet. Ace, 1989.

---. Star Wars: Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire. Dark Horse Comics/Boulevard Putnam, 1997.

---. War World. Ace, 1986. Other Editions: NEL, 1988.

---. Where the Ships Die. Ace, 1996.

 

Dunn, J.R. Days of Cain. Avon, 1997.

---. This Side of Judgement. Harcourt Brace, 1994. Other Editions: NEL, 1995; Penguin/Roc, 1995.

 

Effinger, George Alec. Author's Choice Monthly Issue 1: The Old Funny Stuff. Pulphouse, 1989.

---. The Bird of Time. Doubleday, 1986. Other Editions: NEL, 1988.

---. The Exile Kiss. Doubleday Foundation, 1991. Other Editions: Easton, 1991; Bantam Spectra, 1992.

---. A Fire in the Sun. Doubleday Foundation, 1989. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1990.

---. Look Away. Pulphouse/Axolotl, 1990.

---. Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson: The Complete Stories. Austin, TX: Swan, 1993. Other Editions: SFBC, 1994.

---. The Nick of Time. Doubleday, 1985. Other Editions: NEL, 1987.

---. Schrödinger's Kitten. Pulphouse, 1992.

---. Shadow Money. Tor, 1988.

---. What Entropy Means to Me. Doubleday, 1972. Other Editions: Bart, 1989.

---. When Gravity Fails. Arbor House, 1987. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1988; Bantam UK, 1991; Easton, 1993.

---. The Zork Chronicles. Avon, 1990.

 

Egan, Greg. Axiomatic. Millennium, 1995. Other Editions: HarperPrism, 1997.

---. Diaspora. Orion/Millennium, 1997.

---. Distress. Millennium, 1995. Other Editions: Orion/Phoenix, 1996; HarperPrism, 1997; SFBC, 1997.

---. Our Lady of Chernobyl. MirrorDanse, 1995.

---. Permutation City. Millennium, 1994. Other Editions: HarperPrism, 1995; SFBC, 1995.

---. Quarantine. Legend, 1992. Other Editions: HarperPrism, 1995; SFBC, 1995.

 

Emshwiller, Peter R. The Host. Bantam Spectra, 1991.

---. Short Blade. Bantam Spectra, 1992.

 

Engling, Richard. Body Mortgage. NAL/Onyx, 1989. Other Editions: Headline, 1990.

 

Faust, Joe Clifford. Boddekker's Demons. Bantam Spectra, 1997.

---. The Company Man. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988.

---. A Death of Honor. Ballantine Del Rey, 1987. Other Editions: SFBC, 1987.

---. Desperate Measures. Ballantine Del Rey, 1989. Other Editions: SFBC, 1990.

---. The Essence of Evil. Ballantine Del Rey, 1990. Other Editions: SFBC, 1990.

---. Ferman's Devils. Bantam Spectra, 1996.

---. Precious Cargo. Ballantine Del Rey, 1990. Other Editions: SFBC, 1990.

 

Finch, Phillip. F2F. Bantam, 1996.

—. Paradise Junction. St. Martin’s, 1994. Other Editions: Thorndike, 1993.

—. Murder in Winter Garden: The Frame-up of an Innocent Man. Random, 1992.

 

Flynn, Michael. Firestar. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996.

---. In the Country of the Blind. Baen, 1990. Other Editions: Pan, 1993.

---. The Nanotech Chronicles. Baen, 1991.

 

Foster, Alan Dean. Alien 3. Warner, 1992. Other Editions: Warner UK, 1992; Little UK, 1992.

---. Alien Nation. Warner, 1988. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989; Severn House, 1989.

---. Aliens. Warner, 1986. Other Editions: Futura, 1986; Severn House, 1987.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg], ed. Betcha Can't Read Just One. Ace, 1993.

---. Bloodhype. Ballantine, 1973. Other Editions: NEL, 1987; Ballantine Del Rey, 1988.

---. Cachalot. Ballantine, 1980. Other Editions: NEL, 1987; Severn House, 1994.

---. A Call to Arms. Ballantine Del Rey, 1991. Other Editions: Easton, 1991; Legend, 1996.

---. Cat-A-Lyst. Ace, 1991. Other Editions: SFBC, 1991; Orbit, 1992; Severn House, 1993.

---. Chorus Skating. Warner Aspect, 1994. Other Editions: Orbit, 1995; Severn House, 1995.

---. Codgerspace. Ace, 1992. Other Editions: SFBC, 1992; Orbit, 1993; Severn House, 1994.

---. The Complete Alien Omnibus. Warner UK, 1993.

---. Cyber Way. Ace, 1990. Other Editions: SFBC, 1990; Orbit, 1992.

---. The Day of the Dissonance. Phantasia, 1984. Other Editions: Warner, 1984; Macdonald, 1986.

---. The Deluge Drivers. Ballantine Del Rey, 1987. Other Editions: NEL, 1988; Severn House, 1989.

--- [With Eric Frank Russell]. Design for Great-Day. Tor, 1995.

---. The Dig. Warner Aspect, 1996. Other Editions: Corgi, 1996; Severn House, 1997.

---. Dinotopia Lost. Turner, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996; Bantam UK, 1996; Ace, 1997.

---. The End of the Matter. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988. Other Editions: Severn House, 1991.

---. The False Mirror. Ballantine Del Rey, 1992. Other Editions: Legend, 1996.

---. Flinx in Flux. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988. Other Editions: Severn House, 1989; NEL, 1989.

---. For Love of Mother-Not. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988. Other Editions: Severn House, 1992.

---. Glory Lane. Ace, 1987. Other Editions: NEL, 1989; Severn House, 1990.

---. Greenthieves. Ace, 1994. Other Editions: Orbit, 1994; SFBC, 1995; Severn House, 1996.

---. The Hour of the Gate. Warner, 1984.

---. The Howling Stones. Ballantine Del Rey, 1997. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997; Orbit, 1997.

---. The I Inside. Warner, 1984. Other Editions: Orbit, 1985; Severn House, 1988; Warner Aspect, 1997.

---. Icerigger. Ballantine Del Rey, 1987. Other Editions: NEL, 1987.

---. Into the Out Of. Warner, 1986. Other Editions: SFBC, 1986; NEL, 1987.

---. Jed the Dead. Ace, 1997.

---. The Last Starfighter. Berkley, 1984. Other Editions: Ace, 1991.

---. Life Form. Ace, 1995. Other Editions: Orbit, 1995; Severn House, 1997.

---. Mad Amos. Ballantine Del Rey, 1996.

---. The Man Who Used the Universe. Warner, 1985. Other Editions: Severn House, 1987.

---. The Metrognome and Other Stories. Ballantine Del Rey, 1990.

---. Mid-Flinx. Ballantine Del Rey, 1995. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996; Orbit, 1996.

---. Midworld. SFBC, 1975. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. Mission to Moulokin. Ballantine Del Rey, 1987.

---. The Moment of the Magician. Phantasia, 1984. Other Editions: Warner, 1985; Macdonald, 1986.

---. Montezuma Strip. Warner Aspect, 1995.

---. Nor Crystal Tears. Ballantine, 1982. Other Editions: NEL, 1986; Severn House, 1993.

---. Orphan Star. Ballantine Del Rey, 1988.

---. Pale Rider. Ulverscroft Large Print, 1987.

---. The Paths of the Perambulator. Phantasia, 1985. Other Editions: Warner, 1986; Futura/Orbit, 1986; Macdonald, 1986; Orbit, 1992.

---. Quozl. Ace, 1989. Other Editions: SFBC, 1989; NEL, 1991; Severn House, 1991.

---. Season of the Spellsong. Omnibus Edition of the First Books in the "Spellsinger" Series. SFBC, 1985.

---. Sentenced to Prism. Ballantine Del Rey, 1985. Other Editions: NEL, 1988; Severn House, 1988.

---. Shadowkeep. Warner, 1984.

---. Slipt. Berkley, 1984. Other Editions: Ace, 1991.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg], ed. Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves. Ace, 1991. Other Editions: SFBC, 1991.

---. Son of Spellsinger. Warner, 1983. Other Editions: Orbit, 1993; Severn House, 1995; Warner Questar, 1993.

---. Spellsinger's Scherzo. Second Omnibus of Three Novels in the "Spellsinger" Fantasy Series. SFBC, 1987.

---. The Spoils of War. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993; Legend, 1997.

---. Star Trek Log One. Ballantine, 1974. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek: Log One/Log Two. Ballantine, 1974. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1996.

---. Star Trek: Log One, Log Two, Log Three. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993. Other Editions: Pocket UK, 1995.

---. Star Trek Log Two. Ballantine, 1974. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek Log Three. Ballantine, 1975. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek Log Four. Ballantine, 1975. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek Log Four/Log Five/Log Six. Ballantine, 1976. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1993; Pocket UK, 1995.

---. Star Trek Log Five. Ballantine, 1975. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek: Log Five/Log Six. Ballantine, 1993. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1996.

---. Star Trek Log Six. Ballantine, 1976. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek Log Seven. Ballantine, 1976. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek: Log Seven/Log Eight. Ballantine, 1993. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1996.

---. Star Trek Log Seven/Log Eight/Log Nine. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993. Other Editions: Pocket UK, 1995.

---. Star Trek Log Eight. Ballantine, 1976. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Trek: Log Nine/Log Ten. Ballantine, 1977. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1996.

---. Star Trek Log Ten. Del Rey, 1978. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1991.

---. Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Ballantine Del Rey, 1994. Other Editions: Warner UK, 1996.

---. Starman. Warner, 1984. Other Editions: Corgi, 1985.

---. The Tar Aiym Krang. Del Rey, 1972. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1995; NEL, 1986.

---. The Time of the Transference. Phantasia, 1986. Other Editions: Warner, 1987; Orbit, 1987; Macdonald, 1988.

---. To the Vanishing Point. Warner, 1988. Other Editions: SFBC, 1989; Popular Library/Questar, 1989; Sphere, 1989; Severn House, 1990.

---. Voyage to the City of the Dead. Ballantine Del Rey, 1984. Other Editions: NEL, 1986.

---. . . . Who Needs Enemies? Ballantine Del Rey, 1984. Other Editions: Futura/Orbit, 1986.

 

Foy, George. Contraband. Bantam Spectra, 1997.

---. The Shift. Bantam Spectra, 1996. Other Editions: Bantam UK, 1997.

 

Gibson, William. Burning Chrome, and Other Stories. Arbor House, 1986. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1986; Ace, 1987; Graffton, 1988; HarperCollins Voyager, 1995.

---. Count Zero. Gollancz, 1986. Other Editions: Arbor House, 1986; SFBC, 1986; Ace, 1987; Grafton, 1987; Voyager, 1995.

--- [With Bruce Sterling]. The Difference Engine. Gollancz, 1990. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1991; BOMC, 1991; Vista, 1996.

---. Idoru. Putnam, 1996. Other Editions: Viking UK, 1996; Berkley, 1997.

---. Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay and the Story. Ace, 1995. Other Editions: HarperCollins, 1996.

---. Mona Lisa Overdrive. Gollancz, 1988. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1988; QPBC, 1989; Grafton, 1989; Voyager, 1995.

---. Neuromancer. Gollancz, 1984. Ace, 1984; Grafton/Panther, 1986; Phantasia, 1986; Grafton, 1989; Easton, 1990; SFBC, 1994; HarperCollins UK, 1994; HarperCollins/ Voyager, 1995.

---. Virtual Light. Bantam Spectra, 1993. Other Editions: Viking UK, 1993; TSP, 1993; BOMC/QPBC, 1994; Penguin, 1994.

 

Gilden, Mel. Born to Howl. Avon Camelot, 1987.

--- [With Ted Pedersen]. Cybersurfers: Cyberspace Cowboys. Putnam/Price Stern Sloan, 1995.

---. Hawaiian U.F.O. Aliens. Fantail, 1990. Other Editions: Penguin/Roc, 1991.

---. How to Be a Vampire in One Easy Lesson. Avon Camelot, 1990.

---. Island of the Weird. Avon Camelot, 1990.

---. M. Is for Monster. Avon Camelot, 1987.

---. Monster Boy. Avon Camelot, 1991.

---. The Monster in Creeps Head Bay. Avon Camelot, 1990.

---. Monster Mashers. Avon Camelot, 1989.

---. Outer Space and All That Junk. Harper/Lippincott, 1989.

---. The Pet of Frankenstein. Avon Camelot, 1988.

---. The Planetoid of Amazement. HarperCollins, 1991.

---. The Pumpkins of Time. San Diego: Harcourt/Browndeer, 1994.

---. The Return of Captain Conquer. Houghton, 1986.

---. The Secret of Dinosaur Bog. Avon Camelot, 1991.

---. Star Trek #64: The Starship Trap. Pocket, 1993.

---. Star Trek, the Next Generation: Boogeyman. Pocket, 1991. Other Editions: Titan, 1991.

--- [With Ted Pedersen]. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #4: The Pet. Pocket Minstrel, 1994.

---. Star Trek: The Starship Trap. Titan, 1993. Other Editions: Pocket, 1993.

---. Surfing Samurai Robots. Lynx, 1988. Other Editions: Fantail, 1990; Penguin/Roc, 1991.

---. Things That Go Bark in the Park. Avon Camelot, 1989.

---. Troll Patrol. Avon Camelot, 1991.

---. Tubular Android Superheroes. Penguin/Roc, 1991.

---. Werewolf, Come Home. Avon Camelot, 1990.

---. Yuckers! Avon Camelot, 1989.

---. Z is For Zombie. Avon Camelot, 1988.

 

Glyn Jones, Richard, ed. Cybersex. Raven, 1996. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1996.

 

Goonan, Kathleen Ann. The Bones of Time. Tor, 1996.

---. Mississippi Blues. Tor, 1997.

---. Queen City Jazz. Tor, 1994.

 

Graziunas, Daina [With Jim Starlin]. Predators. Warners, 1997.

 

Hamilton, Peter F. Mindstar Rising. Pan, 1993. Other Editions: Tor, 1996.

---. The Nano Flower. Pan, 1995.

---. The Neutronium Alchemist. Macmillan UK, 1997.

---. A Quantum Murder. Pan, 1994. Other Editions: Tor, 1997.

---. The Reality Dysfunction. Macmillan UK, 1996. Other Editions: Pan, 1996.

---. The Reality Dysfunction, Part One: Emergence. Macmillan UK, 1996. Other Editions: Warner Aspect, 1997.

---. The Reality Dysfunction, Part Two: Expansion. Macmillan UK, 1996. Other Editions: Warner Aspect, 1997.

 

Harrison, Harry. The Best of Harry Harrison. Pocket, 1976. Other Editions: Orbit, 1991.

---. Bill the Galactic Hero. Doubleday, 1965. Other Editions: Avon, 1986; Gollancz, 1990.

---. Bill the Galactic Hero: Volume 1: The Planet of the Robot Slaves. Avon, 1989.

--- [With Robert Sheckley]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains. Avon, 1990. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1990.

---. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Robot Slaves. Avon, 1989. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1989.

--- [With David F. Bischoff]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure. Avon, 1991. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1991.

--- [With Davis Bischoff]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars. Avon, 1991.

--- [With Robert Sheckley]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Bottled Brains. Avon, 1990.

--- [With David F. Bischoff]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Hippies from Hell. Avon, 1991. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1992.

--- [With Jack C. Haldeman]. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Zombie Vampires. Avon, 1991. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1992.

--- [With David Harris]. Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Final Incoherent Adventure. AvoNova, 1992. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1993.

---. The California Iceberg. Faber and Faber, 1975. Other Editions: Dragon, 1987.

---. Captive Universe. Putnam, 1969. Other Editions: Ace, 1984; Grafton, 1987.

---. Deathworld. Bantam, 1960. Other Editions: Ace, 1987.

---. Deathworld 1. Bantam, 1960. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987; Orbit, 1991.

---. Deathworld 2. Bantam, 1964. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987; Ace, 1987; Orbit, 1991.

---. Deathworld 3. Dell, 1968. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987; Orbit, 1991.

---. Galactic Dreams. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: Legend, 1994.

--- [With John Holm]. The Hammer and the Cross. Legend, 1993. Other Editions: Tor, 1993.

---. Homeworld. Bantam, 1984. Other Editions: Severn House, 1986.

---. In Our Hands the Stars. Revision of The Daleth Effect. Arrow, 1986. Other Editions: Legend, 1991.

---. Invasion: Earth. Ace, 1982. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987.

---. The Jupiter Plague. Revision of The Plague from Space. Tor, 1982.

--- [With John Holm]. King and Emperor. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: Legend, 1996.

--- [With John Holm]. King and Emperor. Legend, 1996. Other Editions: Tor, 1996; SFBC, 1996.

--- [With Gordon R. Dickson]. Lifeboat. Harper, 1976. Other Editions: Orbit, 1991; Severn House, 1997.

---. Make Room! Make Room! Doubleday, 1966. Other Editions: Ace, 1984; Penguin, 1986; Bantam Spectra, 1994.

---. Montezuma's Revenge. Doubleday, 1972. Other Editions: Tor, 1987; Legend, 1995.

--- [With John Holm]. One King's Way. Tor, 1995. Other Editions: Legend, 1995.

---. One Step from Earth. Macmillan, 1970. Other Editions: Tor, 1985; Legend, 1991.

---. Plague From Space. Doubleday, 1965. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987.

---. Planet of No Return. Simon, 1981. Other Editions: Wallaby, 1981; Sphere, 1987; Tor, 1987.

---. Planet of the Damned. Bantam, 1962. Other Editions: Tor, 1987; Orbit, 1991.

---. Prime Number. Berkley, 1970. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987.

---. The QE2 Is Missing. Futura, 1980. Other Editions: Tor, 1993.

---. Queen Victorica's Revenge. Doubleday, 1974. Other Editions: Tor, 1987.

---. A Rebel in Time. Tor, 1989.

---. Return to Eden. Bantam Spectra, 1988. Other Editions: SFBC, 1988; Grafton, 1988.

---. Skyfall. Faber and Faber, 1976. Other Editions: Ace, 1985; Tor, 1990.

---. Spaceship Medic. Faber, 1970. Other Editions: Puffin, 1986.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat. Pyramid, 1961. Other Editions: SFBC, 1982; Ace, 1986; Orion, 1997.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat for President. SFBC, 1982. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1988.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted. Bantam UK, 1987. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1987; SFBC, 1987.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996; Orion/Millennium, 1997.

---. A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born. Bantam, 1985. Other Editions: Titan, 1985; Bantam Spectra, 1985; SFBC, 1986.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World. Putnam, 1972. Other Editions: Ace, 1987; Bantam UK, 1989; Severn House, 1993.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues. Bantam UK, 1994. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1994; SFBC, 1994.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! SFBC, 1979. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1988.

---. The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge. Walker, 1970. Other Editions: Ace, 1986; Bantam UK, 1988; Severn House, 1993; Orion, 1997.

---. Stainless Steel Visions. Tor, 1993. Other Editions: Legend, 1993.

---. Starworld. Bantam, 1981. Other Editions: Severn House, 1988.

--- [With Leon E. Stover]. Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died. Tor, 1992.

---. The Technicolor Time Machine. Doubleday, 1967. Other Editions: Tor, 1985.

--- [With Bruce McAllister], ed. There Won't Be War. Tor, 1991.

---. To the Stars. Omnibus Edition of Homeworld, Wheelworld, and Starworld. SFBC, 1981. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1987.

---. Tunnel through the Deeps. Putnam, 1972. Other Editions: as A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah, Tor, 1991.

--- [With Marvin Minsky]. The Turing Option. Warner, 1992. Other Editions: Viking UK, 1992; SFBC, 1993; Warner Questar, 1993; Roc UK, 1993.

---. Two Tales and Eight Tomorrows. Gollancz, 1965. Other Editions: Sphere, 1987.

---. War with the Robots. Pyramid, 1962. Other Editions: Grafton, 1986.

--- [With John Holm]. Warriors of the Way. Omnibus of The Hammer and the Cross and One King's Way. SFBC, 1995.

---. West of Eden. Bantam, 1984. Other Editions: SFBC, 1985; Bantam Spectra, 1985.

---. Wheelworld. Bantam, 1981. Other Editions: Severn House, 1988.

---. Winter in Eden. Grafton, 1986. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1986; SFBC, 1987.

 

Heisserer, Eric. The Bonin Morse. Atlas, 1993.

---. Cabin Fever. Atlas, 1994.

 

Hogan, James P. Bug Park. Baen, 1997.

---. Code of the Lifemaker. Del Rey, 1983. Other Editions: SFBC, 1984; Ballantine Del Rey, 1984.

---. Endgame Enigma. Bantam Spectra, 1987. Other Editions: Century, 1988; Legend, 1989; Baen, 1997.

---. Entoverse. Ballantine Del Rey, 1991. Other Editions: SFBC, 1992; Orbit, 1992.

---. The Gentle Giants of Ganymede. Del Rey, 1978. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989.

---. The Giants Novels. Omnibus of the First Three Books in the "Giants" Series, Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, and Giants' Star. Ballantine Del Rey, 1991. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989.

---. The Immortality Option. Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. The Infinity Gambit. Bantam Falcon, 1991.

---. Inherit the Stars. Del Rey, 1977. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989.

---. Minds, Machines and Evolution. Bantam Spectra, 1988.

---. The Mirror Maze. Bantam Spectra, 1989. Other Editions: Bantam Falcon, 1992.

---. The Multiplex Man. Bantam Spectra, 1992.

---. Out of Time. Bantam Spectra, 1993.

---. Paths to Otherwhere. Baen, 1996.

---. The Proteus Operation. Bantam Spectra, 1985. Other Editions: SFBC, 1986; Bantam, 1986; Century, 1986; Arrow, 1987; Baen, 1996.

---. Realtime Interrupt. Bantam Spectra, 1995.

---. Thrice Upon a Time. Del Rey, 1980. Other Editions: Ballantine Del Rey, 1989.

---. The Two Faces of Tomorrow. Del Rey, 1979. Other Editions: Baen, 1997.

 

Ings, Simon D. City of the Iron Fish. HarperCollins UK, 1994.

---. Hot Head. Grafton, 1992.

---. Hotwire. HarperCollins UK, 1995.

 

Jablokov, Alexander. The Breath of Suspension. Arkham House, 1994. Other Editions: AvoNova, 1996.

---. Carve the Sky. Morrow, 1991. Other Editions: BOMC, 1991; AvoNova, 1992; BOMC/QPBC, 1992.

---. A Deeper Sea. Morrow/AvoNova, 1992.

---. Nimbus. Morrow AvoNova, 1993. Other Editions: SFBC, 1993.

---. River of Dust. Morrow/AvoNova, 1996.

 

Jacobson, Karie, ed. Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality. Citadel Twilight, 1993.

 

Jeschke, Wolfgang. The Last Day of Creation. St. Martin's, 1984.

---. Midas. NEL, 1990.

 

Jeter, K(evin) W. Alien Nation #2: Dark Horizon. Pocket, 1993.

---. Alien Nation #8: Cross of Blood. Pocket, 1995.

---. Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human. Millennium, 1995. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1995; Easton, 1996; Orion, 1996.

---. Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night. Orion, 1996. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1996; Millennium, 1996.

---. Dark Seeker. Tor, 1987. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. Death Arms. Morrigan, 1987. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989; St. Martin's, 1989.

---. Dr. Adder. Bluejay, 1984. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987; NAL/Signet, 1988.

---. Farewell Horizontal. St. Martin's, 1989. Other Editions: SFBC, 1989; NAL/Signet, 1989; Grafton, 1990.

---. The Glass Hammer. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: NAL/Signet, 1987; Grafton, 1987.

---. In the Land of the Dead. Morrigan, 1989. Other Editions: NAL/Onyx, 1989.

---. Infernal Devices. St. Martin's, 1987. Other Editions: NAL/Signet, 1987; Grafton, 1988.

---. Madlands. St. Martin's, 1991.

---. Mantis. Tor, 1987. Other Editions: Pan, 1992.

---. Morlock Night. DAW, 1979. Other Editions: Grafton, 1989.

---. The Night Man. NAL/Onyx, 1990. Other Editions: Pan, 1991.

---. Soul Eater. Tor, 1983. Other Editions: Pan, 1990.

---. Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Bloodletter. Pocket UK, 1993.

---. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #3: Bloodletter. Pocket, 1993.

---. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Warped. Pocket, 1995. Other Editions: SFBC, 1995.

---. Wolf Flow. St. Martin's, 1992.

 

Jones, Stephen [with David A. Sutton], ed. The Anthology of Fantasy and The Supernatural. Tiger, 1994.

---. The Anthology of Horror Stories. Carol and Graf, 1991. Other Editions: Tiger, 1994.

--- [With David A. Sutton]. The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales. Robinson, 1988. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1990.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. Best New Horror. Carroll and Graf, 1990. Other Editions: Robinson, 1990.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. Best New Horror 2. Robinson, 1991. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1991.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. Best New Horror 3. Carroll and Graf, 1992. Other Editions: Robinson, 1992.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. Best New Horror 4. Robinson, 1993. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1993.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. Best New Horror 5. Robinson, 1994. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1995; Raven, 1994.

---. Best New Horror 6. Robinson, 1995. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1995; Raven, 1995.

---. The Best New Horror 8. Robinson, 1997.

---. Book of Vampires. Reprint of The Mammoth Book of Vampires. Barnes, 1997.

---. Clive Barker's A-Z of Horror. HarperPrism, 1997. Other Editions: BBC, 1997.

---. Clive Barker's Shadows in Eden. Underwood-Miller, 1991.

---. Dancing with the Dark. Vista, 1997.

---. Dark of the Night. Nottingham, UK: Pumpkin, 1997.

--- [With David A. Sutton]. Dark Terrors. Gollancz, 1995.

--- [With David A. Sutton]. Dark Terrors 2. Gollancz, 1996. Other Editions: Gollancz/Vista, 1997.

--- [With David A. Sutton]. Dark Terrors 3. Gollancz, 1997.

--- [With David A. Sutton]. Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror. Gollancz, 1995.

--- [With Clarence Paget]. Dark Voices: The Best from the Pan Book of Horror Stories. Pan, 1990.

--- [With Jo Fletcher]. Gaslight and Ghosts. Robinson/World Fantasy Convention, 1988.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. The Giant Book of Best New Horror. Magpie, 1993.

---. Giant Book of Fantasy and the Supernatural. Tiger, 1994. Other Editions: Magpie, 1996; Parragon, 1996.

--- [With David A. Sutton. The Giant Book of Fantasy Tales. The Book Company, 1996.

---. Giant Book of Horror. Magpie, 1996. Other Editions: Parragon, 1996.

--- [With Ramsey Campbell]. The Giant Book of Terror. Maple, 1994. Other Editions: Parragon, 1994.

---. The Giant Book of Vampires. Magpie, 1994. Other Editions: Parragon, 1994.

--- [With David Carson]. H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror. Barnes, 1993. Other Editions: BCA/Robinson, 1993.

--- [With Kim Newman]. Horror: 100 Best Books. Xanadu, 1988. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1989; NEL, 1992.

---. James Herbert: By Horror Haunted. NEL, 1992.

---. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Eight. Carroll and Graf, 1997. Other Editions: Robinson/Raven, 1997.

---. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Seven. Raven, 1996. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1996.

---. The Mammoth Book of Dracula. Carroll and Graf, 1997. Other Editions: Robinson/Raven 1997).

---. The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein. Robinson, 1994. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1994.

---. The Mammoth Book of Terror. Carroll and Graf, 1991. Other Editions: Robinson, 1991.

---. The Mammoth Book of Vampires. Robinson, 1992. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1992.

---. The Mammoth Book of Werewolves. Carroll and Graf, 1994. Other Editions: Robinson, 1994.

---. The Mammoth Book of Zombies. Robinson, 1993. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1993.

---. Shadows over Innsmouth. Fedogan and Bremer, 1994. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1997.

 

Kadrey, Richard. Covert Culture Sourcebook. St. Martin's, 1993.

---. Kamikaze L'Amour. St. Martin's, 1995.

---. Metrophage. Ace, 1988. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988.

 

Kane, Thomas M. The Arasaka Brainworm. Atlas, 1991.

---. The Chrome Berets. Atlas, 1993.

---. Green War. Atlas, 1994.

 

Kelly, James Patrick. Author's Choice Monthly Issue 9: Heroines. Pulphouse, 1990.

--- [With John Kessel]. Freedom Beach. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: Unwin, 1987.

---. Look into the Sun. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1990.

---. Planet of Whispers. Bluejay, 1984. Other Editions: Tor, 1985.

---. Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories. Collinsville, IL: Golden Gryphon, 1997.

---. Wildlife. Tor, 1995.

 

Kerr, Katharine. The Bristling Wood. Doubleday Foundation, 1989. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1990; as Dawnspell, 1989; as Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood, Grafton, 1990.

---. Daggerspell. Doubleday, 1986. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987; Ballantine Del Rey, 1987; Bantam Spectra, 1993; Voyager, 1996.

---. Darkspell. Doubleday, 1987. Other Editions: Grafton, 1988; Ballantine Del Rey, 1989; Bantam Spectra, 1994; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Days of Air and Darkness. Bantam Spectra, 1994. Other Editions: HarperCollins, UK, 1994.

---. Days of Blood and Fire. Bantam Spectra, 1993. Other Editions: as A Time of War: Days of Blood and Fire, HarperCollins UK, 1993

---. The Dragon Revenant. Doubleday Foundation, 1990. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1991; as Dragonspell: The Southern Sea, Grafton, 1990.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg], ed. Enchanted Forests. DAW, 1995.

---. Freeze Frames. Axolotl, 1992. Other Editions: HarperCollins UK, 1995; Tor, 1995.

--- [With Mark A. Kreighbaum]. Palace. Bantam Spectra, 1996. Other Editions: HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. Polar City Blues. Bantam Spectra, 1990. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1996.

---. The Red Wyvern. HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1997.

---. Resurrection. Pulphouse/Axolotl, 1992. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1992.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg]. The Shimmering Door. HarperPrism, 1996.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg]. Sorceries. HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. A Time of Exile. Doubleday Foundation, 1991. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991; Bantam Spectra, 1992.

---. A Time of Justice. HarperCollins UK, 1994.

---. A Time of Omens. HarperCollins UK, 1992. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1992; Grafton, 1993.

--- [With Martin H. Greenberg]. Weird Tales from Shakespeare. DAW, 1994.

 

Kilworth, Garry. Abandonati. Unwin Hyman, 1988. Other Editions: Unwin, 1989.

---. Angel. Gollancz, 1993. Other Editions: Tor/Forge, 1996.

---. Archangel. Gollancz, 1994.

---. Billy Pink's Private Detective Agency. Methuen, 1993.

---. The Bronte Girls. Mammoth, 1995.

---. Cloudrock. Unwin Hyman, 1988. Other Editions: Unwin, 1989.

---. Cybercats. Bantam UK, 1996.

---. Dark Hills, Hollow Clocks: Stories from the Otherworld. Mammoth, 1993. Other Editions: Methuen, 1990.

---. The Drowners. Methuen, 1991. Other Editions: Mammoth, 1992.

---. The Electric Kid. Bantam UK, 1994. Other Editions: Orchard US, 1995; Avon Flare, 1997.

---. The Foxes of First Dark. Revision of Hunter's Moon. Doubleday, 1990.

---. Frost Dancers. HarperCollins UK, 1992.

---. Hogfoot Right and Bird-Hands. Edgewood, 1993.

---. House of Tribes. Bantam UK, 1995. Other Editions: Corgi, 1996.

---. Hunter's Moon. Unwin Hyman, 1989. Other Editions: Unwin, 1990.

---. In the Country of Tattooed Men. Grafton, 1993.

---. In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave. Bodley Head, 1989. Other Editions: Unwin, 1989.

---. Midnight's Sun. Unwin Hyman, 1990. Other Editions: Grafton, 1992.

---. A Midsummer's Nightmare. Bantam UK, 1996. Other Editions: Corgi, 1997.

---. The Phantom Piper. Methuen, 1994. Other Editions: Mammoth, 1995.

---. The Princely Flower. Orbit, 1997.

---. The Raiders. Mammoth, 1996.

---. The Rain Ghost. Hippo, 1989. Other Editions: Scholastic, 1990.

---. The Roof of Voyaging. Orbit, 1996.

---. The Songbirds of Pain. Gollancz, 1984. Other Editions: Unwin, 1988.

---. Spiral Winds. Bodley Head, 1987. Other Editions: Grafton, 1988.

---. Split Second. Faber, 1979. Other Editions: Popular Library/Questar, 1985.

---. Standing on Shamsan. HarperCollins UK, 1992.

---. Theater of Timesmiths. Gollancz, 1984. Other Editions: Popular Library/Questar, 1986; Unwin, 1987.

---. The Third Dragon. Hippo, 1991.

---. Trivial Tales. Birmingham Science Fiction Group, 1988.

---. The Voyage of the Vigilance. Armada, 1988.

---. The Welkin Weasels: Thunder Oak. Corgi, 1997.

---. Witchwater Country. Bodley Head, 1986. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987.

---. The Wizard of Woodworld. Dragon, 1987.

 

Kirby, William S. Iapetus. Ace, 1993.

 

Kress, Nancy. An Alien Light. Arbor House, 1988. Other Editions: SFBC, 1988; Legend, 1988; Avon, 1989.

---. The Aliens of Earth. Arkham House, 1993.

---. Beggars and Choosers. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: SFBC, 1994; Roc UK, 1996.

---. Beggars in Spain. Pulphouse/Axolotl, 1991. Other Editions: Morrow AvoNova, 1993; SFBC, 1993; Easton, 1993; AvoNova, 1994; Roc UK, 1995.

---. Beggars Ride. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997.

---. Beginnings, Middles and Ends. Writer's Digest, 1993.

---. Brain Rose. Morrow, 1990. Other Editions: BOMC, 1990; Avon, 1991.

---. Dancing on Air. Tachyon, 1997.

---. The Golden Grove. Bluejay, 1984. Other Editions: Berkley, 1986.

---. Maximum Light. Tor, 1998.

---. Oaths and Miracles. Tor/Forge, 1996. Other Editions: Penguin/Roc UK, 1996.

---. The Price of Oranges. Pulphouse, 1992.

---. Trinity and Other Stories. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: as Trinity, Ace, 1988.

---. The White Pipes. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: Berkley, 1986.

 

Laidlaw, Marc. The 37th Mandala. St. Martin's, 1996.

---. Dad's Nuke. Donald I. Fine, 1985. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1986; Critic's Choice, 1987; Grafton, 1988.

---. Kalifornia. St. Martin's, 1993.

---. Neon Lotus. Bantam Spectra, 1988.

---. The Orchid Eater. St. Martin's, 1994.

---. The Third Force. Simon/Scribner, 1996.

 

Lem, Stanislaw. The Chain of Chance. Harcourt, 1984. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1990.

---. The Cyberiad. Seabury/Continuum, 1974. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1985; Mandarin, 1990; Easton, 1991.

---. Eden. Harcourt, 1989. Other Editions: Andre Deutsch, 1990; BOMC/QPBC, 1990

---. Fiasco. Harcourt, 1987. Other Editions: Andre Deutsch, 1987; Harcourt/Harvest, 1988; Orbit, 1989

---. The Futurological Congress. Continuum, 1974. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1985; Mandarin, 1991.

---. Highcastle. Harcourt, 1995.

---. His Master's Voice. Harcourt, 1983. Other Editions: Harvest, 1984.

---. Hospital of the Transfiguration. Harcourt, 1988. Other Editions: Andre Deutsch, 1989.

---. Imaginary Magnitude. Harcourt, 1984. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1985; Mandarin, 1991.

---. The Investigation. Seabury, 1974. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1986; Andre Deutsch, 1992.

---. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. Harcourt/ Harvest, 1986.

---. Memoirs of a Space Traveller. Harcourt, 1982. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1991.

---. Microworlds. Harcourt, 1985. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1991.

---. Microworlds Criticism. Harcourt/Harvest, 1986.

---. Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction. Harcourt, 1985.

---. More Tales of Pirx the Pilot. Harcourt, 1982. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1990.

---. Mortal Engines. Seabury, 1977. Other Editions: Harcourt, 1992; Andre Deutsch, 1993.

---. One Human Minute. Harcourt, 1986. Other Editions: Deutsch, 1986; Harcourt/Harvest, 1986; Mandarin, 1991.

---. Peace on Earth. Harcourt, 1994. Other Editions: Andre Deutsch, 1995; Harcourt/Harvest, 1996

---. A Perfect Vacuum. Harcourt, 1979. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1991.

---. Return from the Stars. Harcourt, 1980. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1989; Mandarin, 1990.

---. Solaris. Walker, 1970. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1987; Faber and Faber, 1991

---. The Star Diaries. Seabury/Continuum, 1976. Other Editions: Harcourt/Harvest, 1985; Mandarin, 1990.

---. Tales of Pirx the Pilot. Harcort, 1990. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1990.

 

Lewitt, S.N. (Shariann). Angel at Apogee. Berkley, 1987. Other Editions: Ace, 1991.

---. Blind Justice. Ace, 1991.

---. Cybernetic Jungle. Ace, 1992.

---. Cyberstealth. Ace, 1989.

---. Dancing Vac. Ace, 1990.

---. Songs of Chaos. Ace, 1993.

---. Star Trek Voyager: Cybersong. Pocket, 1996.

---. U.S.S.A. Book 2. Avon, 1987.

---. First and Final Rites. Ace, 1984.

---. Interface Masque. Tor, 1997.

---. Memento Mori. Tor, 1995.

 

Leyner, Mark. Et Tu, Babe. Crown Harmony, 1992. Other Editions: Flamingo, 1993.

---. My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. Crown Harmony, 1990. Other Editions: Flamingo, 1991.

 

Littell, Jonathan. Bad Voltage. NAL/Signet, 1989. Other Editions: Orbit, 1990.

 

Luceno, James. The Big Empty. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993.

---. A Fearful Symmetry. Ballantine Del Rey, 1989.

---. Illegal Alien. Ballantine Del Rey, 1990.

---. The Shadow. Ballantine Ivy, 1994.

 

MacKay, Scott. Night City Stories: Atlas Games 1992: Charting New Realms of Imagination. Atlas, 1992.

 

MacLeod, Ken. The Star Fraction. Legend, 1995.

---. The Stone Canal. Legend, 1996.

 

Maddox, Tom. Halo. Tor, 1991. Other Editions: Legend, 1991; BOMC, 1992.

 

Mason, Lisa. Arachne. Morrow, 1990. Other Editions: AvoNova, 1992; Morrow AvoNova, 1995; Avon, 1997.

---. The Golden Nineties. Bantam Spectra, 1995.

---. Summer of Love. Bantam Spectra, 1994.

 

McCaffery, Larry. Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews With Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers. U of Illinois P, 1990.

---, ed. After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology. Penguin, 1995.

---. Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation. Boulder, CO: Black Ice, 1993.

---. Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction. Duke UP, 1992.

 

McCarthy, Nan, and Nancy McCarthy. Chat: A Cybernovel. Peachtree, 1996. Other Editions: Rainwater, 1996.

 

McDonald, Ian. The Broken Land. Bantam Spectra, 1992. Other Editions: as Hearts, Hands, and Voices, Gollancz, 1992.

---. Chaga. Gollancz, 1995. Other Editions: as Evolution's Shore, Vista, 1996; Easton, 1996; SFBC, 1996.

---. Desolation Road. Bantam Spectra, 1988. Other Editions: Bantam UK: 1989; Drunken Dragon, 1990.

---. Empire Dreams. Bantam Spectra, 1988.

---. King of Morning, Queen of Day. Bantam Spectra, 1991. Other Editions: Bantam UK, 1992.

--- [With David Lyttleton]. Kling Klang Klatch. Gollancz, 1992.

---. Necroville. Gollancz, 1994. Other Editions: as Terminal Cafe, Bantam Spectra, 1994; Easton, 1995; SFBC, 1995.

---. Out on Blue Six. Bantam Spectra, 1989. Other Editions: Bantam UK, 1990.

---. Sacrifice of Fools. Gollancz, 1996. Other Editions: Gollancz/Vista, 1997.

---. Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone. Bantam Spectra, 1994.

---. Speaking in Tongues. Gollancz, 1992. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1992.

 

McElroy, Joseph. Plus. Knopf, 1976. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1987.

—. Women and Men. Knopf, 1987. Other Editions: Dalkey, 1993.

 

McHugh, Maureen F. China Mountain Zhang. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: Orbit, 1995; Tor/Orb, 1997.

---. Half the Day Is Night. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: Orbit, 1996.

 

Mil'n, Victor. Battletech 29: Black Dragon. Penguin/Roc, 1996.

---. Battletech: Close Quarters. Penguin/Roc, 1994.

---. Battletech: Hearts of Chaos. Penguin/Roc, 1996.

---. CLD (Collective Landing Detachment). AvoNova, 1995.

---. The Cybernetic Samurai. Arbor House, 1985. Other Editions: Severn House, 1985; Ace, 1986; NEL, 1987.

---. The Cybernetic Shogun. Morrow, 1990.

---. Forgotten Realms: War in Tethyr. TSR, 1995.

---. Red Sands. Warner, 1993.

--- [With Melinda M. Snodgrass]. Runespear. Popular Library/Questar, 1987. Other Editions: NEL, 1989.

---. Star Trek #66: From the Depths. Pocket, 1993. Other Editions: Titan, 1993.

---. Wild Cards XII: Turn of the Cards. Bantam Spectra, 1993.

 

Misha. Ke-Qua-Hawk-As. Wordcraft of Oregon, 1994.

---. Prayers of Steel. Wordcraft, 1988.

---. Red Spider, White Web. Morrigan, 1990.

 

Mole, Mink [With Dr. Adder]. Alligator Alley. Morrigan, 1989.

 

Mooney, Ted. Easy Travel to Other Planets. Farrar, 1981. Other Editions: Ballantine, 1988.

---. Traffic and Laughter. Knopf, 1990.

 

Murphy, Pat. The City, Not Long After. Doubleday Foundation, 1989. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1990; Pan, 1990.

---. The Falling Woman. Tor, 1986. Other Editions: Headline, 1988; Tor/Orb, 1993.

---. Nadya. Tor, 1996.

---. Points of Departure. Bantam Spectra, 1990.

---. Rachel in Love. Pulphouse, 1992.

---. The Shadow Hunter. Headline, 1988.

 

Nagata, Linda. The Bohr Maker. Bantam Spectra, 1995. Other Editions: SFBC, 1995.

---. Deception Well. Bantam Spectra, 1997. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997.

---. Tech-Heaven. Bantam Spectra, 1995.

 

Nasir, Jamil. The Higher Space. Bantam Spectra, 1996.

---. Quasar. Bantam Spectra, 1995.

 

Nephew, John. Streetfighting. Atlas, 1993.

 

Noon, Jeff. Automated Alice. Crown, 1996. Other Editions: Doubleday UK, 1996; Corgi, 1997.

---. Nymphomation. Doubleday UK, 1997.

---. Pollen. Ringpull, 1995. Other Editions: Crown, 1996; Pan, 1996.

---. Vurt. Ringpull, 1993. Other Editions: Pan, 1994; Crown, 1995; BOMC, 1995; QPBC, 1995; St. Martin's/Griffin, 1996.

 

Odom, Mel. F.R.E.E. Fall. TSR, 1996.

---. Lethal Interference. Penguin/Roc, 1992.

---. Omega Blue. HarperPaperbacks, 1993.

---. Omega Score. HarperPaperbacks, 1994.

---. o(rphan) d(rift). Cabinet, 1995.

---. Shadowrun: Headhunters. Penguin/Roc, 1997.

---. Shadowrun: Preying for Keeps. Penguin/Roc, 1996.

---. Stalker Analog. Penguin/Roc, 1993.

 

Ouellette, Pierre. The Deus Machine. Villard, 1994. Other Editions: NEL, 1994; Pocket, 1996.

---. The Third Pandemic. Pocket, 1996. Other Editions: NEL, 1997.

 

Pedersen, Ted [With Mel Gilden]. Cybersurfers 3: Ghost on the Net. Putnam/Price Stern Sloan, 1996.

--- [With Mel Gilden]. Cybersurfers 4: Cybercops and Flame Wars. Putnam/Price Stern Sloan, 1996.

--- [With Mel Gilden]. Cybersurfers: Pirates on the Internet. Putnam/Price Stern Sloan, 1995.

 

Perriman, Cole. Terminal Games. Bantam, 1994.

 

Piercy, Marge. He, She, and It. Knopf, 1991. Other Editions: as Body of Glass, Michael Joseph, 1992; Fawcett Crest, 1993.

---. Woman on the Edge of Time. Knopf, 1976. Other Editions: Women's P, 1987.

 

Platt, Charles. Who Writes Science Fiction? Savoy, 1980. Other Editions: as The Dream Makers, Berkley, 1980; Xanadu, 1986; in part as Dream Makers: SF and Fantasy Writers at Work, Ungar/ Crossroad/Continuum, 1987, and Dream Makers, Volume II, Berkley, 1983.

---. Free Zone. Avon, 1989.

--- [With Gray Joliffe]. How to Be a Happy Cat. Gollancz, 1986. Other Editions: Main Street, 1987.

---. Less Than Human. Avon, 1986. Other Editions: Grafton, 1987.

---. Piers Anthony's Worlds of Chthon: Plasm. NAL/Signet, 1987.

---. Piers Anthony's Worlds of Chthon: Soma. NAL/Signet, 1989. Other Editions: Grafton, 1990.

---. Protektor. AvoNova, 1996.

---. The Silicon Man. Bantam Spectra, 1991. Other Editions: Tafford, 1993; Wired Books, 1997.

 

Pondsmith, Mike. Solo of Fortune. R. Talsorian, 1989.

 

Porush, David. Rope Dances. Fiction Collective, 1979.

 

Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Lippincott, 1966. Other Editions: Harper/Perennial Library, 1986; Borgo, 1991; Buccaneer, 1994; Vintage UK, 1996.

---. Gravity's Rainbow. Viking, 1973. Other Editions: Viking Penguin, 1987; Random, 1995; Vintage UK, 1995.

—. Mason and Dixon. Viking Penguin, 1998.

—. Slow Learner: Early Stories. Little, 1985.

---. V. Lippincott, 1963. Harper/Perennial Library, 1986; Borgo, 1991; Buccaneer, 1994; Vintage UK, 1995.

—. Vineland. Viking Penguin, 1991.

 

Quick, W. T. American Gothic: Family. Corgi, 1996.

---. Dreams of Flesh and Sand. NAL/Signet, 1988. Other Editions: Orbit, 1988.

---. Dreams of Gods and Men. NAL/Signet, 1989. Other Editions: Orbit, 1990.

---. Singularities. Penguin/Roc, 1990.

---. Star Control: Interbellum. Prima/Proteus, 1996.

---. Systems. NAL/Signet, 1989.

---. Yesterday's Pawn. NAL/Signet, 1989.

 

Robinson, Kim Stanley. Antarctica. HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. Author's Choice Monthly Issue 20: A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions. Pulphouse, 1991.

---. Black Air. Pulphouse, 1991.

---. Blue Mars. HarperCollins UK, 1996. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1996; Easton, 1996; SFBC, 1996; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. Down and Out in the Year 2000. Grafton, 1992.

---. Escape from Kathmandu. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Unwin Hyman, 1990; Easton, 1990; Tor, 1990; Unwin, 1990; Tor/Orb, 1994.

---, ed. Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias. Tor, 1994.

---. The Gold Coast. Tor, 1988. Other Editions: Orbit, 1989; HarperCollins UK, 1995; Tor/Orb, 1995.

---. Green Mars. HarperCollins UK, 1993. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1994; SFBC, 1994.

---. Icehenge. Ace, 1984. Other Editions: Macdonald, 1986; HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. The Memory of Whiteness. Tor, 1985. Other Editions: Macdonald, 1986; Orbit, 1987; Tor/Orb, 1996.

---. Pacific Edge. Unwin Hyman, 1990. Other Editions: Tor, 1990; Easton, 1990; Grafton, 1992; Tor/Orb, 1995; HarperCollins UK, 1995.

---. The Planet on the Table. Tor, 1986. Other Editions: Orbit, 1987.

---. Red Mars. HarperCollins UK, 1992. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1993; SFBC, 1993; Easton, 1993; TSP, 1993; Bantam, 1993.

---. Remaking History. An Omnibus of The Planet on the Table and Remaking History. Tor, 1991. Other Editions: as Remaking History and Other Stories, Tor/Orb, 1994.

---. A Short, Sharp Shock. Mark V. Ziesing, 1990. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1996.

---. The Wild Shore. Ace, 1984. Other Editions: Macdonald, 1986; HarperCollins UK, 1995; Tor/Orb, 1995.

 

Robinson, Spider. Author's Choice Monthly Issue 12: True Minds. Pulphouse, 1990.

---. Callahan and Company. Omnibus collection of stories from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan's Secret. Phantasia, 1988. Other Editions: as Callahan's Crazy Crosstime Bar, Legend, 1989.

---. The Callahan Chronicles. Omnibus collection of stories from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan's Secret. Tor, 1997.

---. The Callahan Touch. Ace, 1993.

---. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. Ace, 1977. Other Editions: Berkley, 1987.

---. Callahan's Lady. Ace, 1989.

---. Callahan's Legacy. Tor, 1996.

---. Callahan's Secret. Berkley, 1986.

---. Copyright Violation. Pulphouse, 1990.

---. Deathkiller. An Omnibus of Mindkiller and Time Pressure. Baen, 1996.

---. Kill the Editor. Pulphouse/Axolotl, 1991.

---. Lady Slings the Booze. Ace, 1992.

---. Lifehouse. Baen, 1997.

---. Melancholy Elephants. Penguin Canada, 1984. Other Editions: Tor, 1985.

---. Mindkiller. Holt, 1982. Other Editions: Ace, 1989.

---. Night of Power. Baen, 1985. Other Editions: Berkley, 1986.

---. Off the Wall at Callahan's. Tor, 1994.

--- [With Jeanne Robinson]. The Star Dancers. Omnibus of Stardance and Starseed. Baen, 1997.

--- [With Jeanne Robinson]. Stardance. Dial, 1979. Other Editions: Baen, 1991; Easton, 1991; SFBC, 1997.

--- [With Jeanne Robinson]. Starmind. Ace, 1995. Other Editions: Easton, 1995.

--- [With Jeanne Robinson]. Starseed. Ace, 1991. Other Editions: Easton, 1992.

---. Telempath. Berkley/Putnam, 1976. Other Editions: Futura/Orbit, 1986; Tor, 1988.

---. Time Pressure. Ace, 1987.

---. Time Travelers Strictly Cash. Ace, 1981. Other Editions: Berkley, 1987.

 

Rosenblum, Mary. Chimera. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993.

---. The Drylands. Ballantine Del Rey, 1993.

---. The Stone Garden. Ballantine Del Rey, 1995.

---. Synthesis and Other Virtual Realities. Arkham House, 1996.

 

Rucker, Rudy [With Anselm Hollo]. All the Visions: A Novel of the Sixties/Space Baltic. Ocean View, 1991.

---. The 4th Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality. Houghton, 1984. Other Editions: Penguin, 1986.

---. The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of Higher Universes. Houghton, 1984.

---. Freeware. Avon, 1997.

---. The Hacker and the Ants. Morrow/AvoNova, 1994. Other Editions: AvoNova, 1995.

---. The Hollow Earth. Morrow, 1990. Other Editions: BOMC, 1991; AvoNova, 1992.

---. Live Robots. Omnibus of Software and Wetware. AvoNova, 1994.

---. Master of Space and Time. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: Baen, 1985.

---, ed. Mathenauts: Tales of Mathematical Wonder. Arbor House, 1987. Other Editions: NEL, 1989.

---. Mind Tools. Houghton, 1987.

---. Moldies & Meatbops. Omnibus of Software, Wetware, and Freeware. SFBC, 1997.

---. The Secret of Life. Bluejay, 1985.

--- [With Peter Lamborn Wilson and Robert Anton Wilson], ed. Semiotext(e) SF. Autonomedia, 1989.

---. Software. Avon, 1987. Other Editions: Roc UK, 1994; AvoNova, 1997.

---. Transreal! WCS, 1991.

---. Wetware. Avon, 1988. Other Editions: NEL, 1989; AvoNova, 1997.

---. White Light. Virgin, 1980. Other Editions: Wired Books, 1997.

 

Russo, Richard Paul. Carlucci's Edge. Ace, 1995.

---. Carlucci's Heart. Ace, 1997.

---. Destroying Angel. Headline, 1992. Other Editions: Ace, 1992.

---. Inner Eclipse. Tor, 1988. Other Editions: Grafton, 1990.

---. Subterranean Gallery. Tor, 1989. Other Editions: Grafton, 1991.

 

Scott, Melissa [With Lisa A. Barnett]. The Armor of Light. Baen, 1988. Other Editions: NESFA, 1998.

---. Burning Bright. Tor, 1993. Other Editions: SFBC, 1993.

---. A Choice of Destinies. Baen, 1986.

---. Conceiving the Heavens: Creating the Science Fiction Novel. Heinemann, 1997.

---. Dreaming Metal. Tor, 1997. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997.

---. Dreamships. Tor, 1992. Other Editions: SFBC, 1992.

---. The Empress of Earth. Baen, 1987. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1989.

---. Five Twelfths of Heaven. Baen, 1985. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1988.

---. The Game Beyond. Baen, 1984.

---. The Kindly Ones. Baen, 1987. Other Editions: SFBC, 1987; Gollancz, 1990.

---. Mighty Good Road. Baen, 1990. Other Editions: SFBC, 1990.

---. Night Sky Mine. Tor, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996.

--- [With Lisa A. Barnett]. Point of Hopes. Tor, 1995.

---. The Roads of Heaven. Omnibus of Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Silence in Solitude, and The Empress of Earth. SFBC, 1988.

---. Shadow Man. Tor, 1995. Other Editions: SFBC, 1995.

---. Silence in Solitude. Baen, 1986. Other Editions: Gollancz, 1989.

---. Star Trek Voyager: The Garden. Pocket, 1997.

---. Star Trek, Deep Space Nine #9: Proud Helios. Pocket, 1995.

---. Trouble and Her Friends. Tor, 1994. Other Editions: SFBC, 1994.

 

Sechi, Stephan Michael. Chasing the Dragon. Atlas, 1992.

---, ed. Tales of Talislanta. Wizards of the Coast, 1992.

 

Shepard, Lucius. Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories. Orion/Millennium, 1997.

---. The Ends of the Earth. Arkham House, 1991. Other Editions: Millennium, 1991.

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---. Green Eyes. Ace, 1984. Other Editions: Chatto and Windus, 1986; Grafton, 1987.

---. The Jaguar Hunter. Arkham House, 1987. Other Editions: Paladin, 1988; Kerosina, 1988; Bantam, 1989.

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--- [With Robert Frazier]. Nantucket Slayrides. Eel Grass, 1989.

---. The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter. Mark V. Ziesing, 1988.

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Shiner, Lewis. Author's Choice Monthly Issue 4: Nine Hard Questions About the Nature of the Universe. Pulphouse, 1990.

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---. Kamus of Kadizhar: The Black Hole of Carcosa. St. Martin's, 1988.

---. New Noir. Black Ice, 1993.

---. Silicon Embrace. Mark V. Ziesing, 1996.

---. A Splendid Chaos. Franklin Watts, 1988. Other Editions: Mandarin, 1989.

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---. Endymion. Bantam Spectra, 1996. Other Editions: SFBC, 1996; Headline, 1996.

---. Entropy's Bed at Midnight. Lord John, 1990.

---. The Fall of Hyperion. Doubleday Foundation, 1990. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1991; Headline Overseas, 1991.

---. Fires of Eden. Putnam, 1994. Other Editions: Headline, 1994; SFBC, 1995; HarperPrism, 1995.

---. Going After the Rubber Chicken. Roadkill, 1991.

---. The Hollow Man. Bantam Spectra, 1992. Other Editions: Headline, 1992; Bantam, 1993.

---. Hyperion. Doubleday Foundation, 1989. Other Editions: Headline Overseas, 1990; Bantam Spectra, 1990; Headline, 1991.

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---. Phases of Gravity. Bantam Spectra, 1989. Other Editions: Headline, 1990.

---. Prayers to Broken Stones. Dark Harvest, 1991. Other Editions: Headline, 1992; Bantam Spectra, 1992.

---. The Rise of Endymion. Bantam Spectra, 1997. Other Editions: SFBC, 1997; Headline, 1997.

---. Song of Kali. Bluejay, 1985. Other Editions: Tor, 1986; Headline, 1987.

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Skal, David J. Antibodies. Congdon and Weed, 1988. Other Editions: Worldwide Library, 1989.

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Sladek, John. Black Aura. Jonathan Cape, 1974. Other Editions: Walker, 1984.

---. Bugs. Macmillan, 1989. Other Editions: Paladin, 1991.

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---. The Muller-Fokker Effect. Hutchinson, 1970. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1990.

---. The Reproductive System. Gollancz, 1968.

---. Roderick. Granada, 1980. Other Editions: Pocket Timescape, 1982; Carroll and Graf, 1987.

---. Roderick at Random. Granada, 1983. Other Editions: Carroll and Graf, 1988; Kerosina, 1990.

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Starbuck, Kathlyn S. The House at the Top of the Hill. HarperCollins/Voyager, 1997.

---. India's Story. HarperCollins UK, 1993. Other Editions: HarperPrism, 1995.

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Starlin, Jim [With Daina Graziunas]. Among Madmen. NAL/Roc, 1990.

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Stephenson, Neal. The Diamond Age. Bantam Spectra, 1995. Other Editions: SFBC, 1995; Viking UK, 1995; Roc UK, 1996.

---. Snow Crash. Bantam Spectra, 1992. Other Editions: Roc UK, 1993.

---. Zodiac. Atlantic Monthly, 1988. Other Editions: Bloomsbury, 1988; Bantam Spectra, 1995; Signet UK, 1997.

 

Sterling, Bruce. The Artificial Kid. Harper, 1980. Other Editions: Ace, 1987; Roc UK, 1993; HardWired, 1997.

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---. Heavy Weather. Bantam Spectra, 1994. Other Editions: Millennium, 1994; Easton, 1994; Phoenix, 1995.

---. Holy Fire. Orion, 1996. Other Editions: Bantam Spectra, 1996; Easton, 1996; SFBC, 1996; Phoenix, 1997.

---. Involution Ocean. Jove, 1977. Other Editions: Ace, 1988; Legend, 1988.

---. Islands in the Net. Morrow/Arbor House, 1988. Other Editions: Legend, 1988; Ace, 1989; Easton, 1994.

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Tan, Cecilia, ed. The Beast Within. Circlet, 1994.

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Thomas, Quentin. Chains of Light. Penguin/Roc, 1992.

 

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Tiptree, James, Jr. Brightness Falls from the Air. Tor, 1985. Other Editions: SFBC, 1985; Sphere, 1986; Tor/Orb, 1993.

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---. Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree, Jr. Tachyon, 1996.

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Vinge, Vernor. Across Realtime. Omnibus of The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. SFBC, 1986. Other Editions: Baen, 1991; Millennium, 1993.

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Vonarburg, Lisabeth. In the Mothers' Land. Bantam Spectra, 1992.

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Young, Jim. Armed Memory. Tor, 1995.

 

 

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NETexts

 

 

 

Review of The Computer and the Page: Publish-ing, Technology, and the Classroom. By James R. Kalmbach. Ablex.

James Kalmbach’s book delivers on all that its title promises and more. It covers the history of publishing and technology over the last 3,000 years and connects both to classroom practice. It will make an excellent read for those preparing to teach technical and creative writing. But this book will appeal as well to those who teach college English. Its primary goal seems not to provide technical writing students with historical background, nor to offer classroom activities to their instructors, although it does that, but rather to reframe "publishing" in terms that every language teacher could approve: publishing as social action.

In the "Introduction," Kalmbach anticipates the question: why should English teachers read this book? He answers that while composition theory focuses on writer-reader interactions, much that appears in print outside the classroom is also outside that interaction. He points to documents produced collaboratively, those received by a team rather than an individual reader, and those that don't require readers at all, like junk mail, and concludes: "to ignore publishing is to ignore significant segments of our discipline . . . subdisciplines such as technical writing and creative writing are concerned with issues of publishing, whether that publishing involves user manuals or literary quarterlies" (9).

These reasons may or may not be compelling for Kalmbach’s larger audience. A rebuttal might admonish that technical and creative writing have never been the focus of college composition, at least, for well-considered reasons. Those objections aside, I think Kalmbach misses an opportunity to assert the most persuasive reason for college writing instructors to read this book. For they do seem to be the "others" he hopes to reach. As he points out, publishing is common at the elementary level in whole language curriculums, and high schools have long included publishing in the form of student newspapers and individual classroom projects. But college English traditionally has eschewed a focus on the technical and mechanistic aspects of "publishing," relegating such considerations to separate technical classes where the concrete products generated by students seem a natural and logical course outcome. In framing publishing as "social action," Kalmbach asks us to reconsider this activity as "language use," thereby opening up pedagogy to a variety of new and innovative approaches. And that is the reason that college writing instructors ought to read this book; it encourages readers to rethink what they do while offering them new ways to envision writing instruction that are responsive to a changing culture.

In Part I Kalmbach frames publishing as "speech act," diverting readers away from discussions of ink and paper to consider both its social role and the players who engage in its technical activities. He destabilizes old preconceptions by employing familiar terms in unfamiliar ways. "Readers" become "users"; "texts" become "documents, and "publisher" becomes a long list of collaborators, of which "author" is only one. Furthermore, in discussing the component "action," Kalmbach points out a critical element of language use that often gets lost in traditional writing courses. Veteran teachers won’t miss the contrast he sets up between the "action" taken by the readers of documents "published" in the world outside academia and the "audience" in a first year English class. Professional documents attempt to provoke their audience to action. Too often in English classes, students work only to "provoke" a good grade. They could care less about the form or mode of their texts. The solution that Kalmbach offers to this lack of desire is project-based course work, which student publication facilitates nicely. It allows for much that composition instructors value: critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and a real audience. The process of becoming an editor/publisher forces writers to consider issues that normally they would not in an essay assignment--Who is my audience? What strategies shall I use to reach that audience? In the traditional classroom "the teacher," and "what he/she wants," usually answer these questions. The abstract narrowness of this context creates a false notion that good writing is capriciously achieved. The student gets an "A" because he/she can imagine "what the teacher wants" and can produce that writing on demand. The beginning writer's perception of "Good Writing," then, contracts to a personal tug of wills between two people--one with power and the other without. Publishing as social action, practiced in writing classrooms, demands that writers take control of their documents and wield language for their own purposes.

Part II provides a quick but valuable review of the history of publishing technologies, focusing on the transitions from one evolution to the next. Throughout the book, Kalmbach has interwoven the notion that technology is a change agent rather than a value-neutral tool, ultimately shaping both behavior and values. He notes, for instance, that newsletters, brochures, fliers, and booklets are brand new genres spawned by the invention of offset printing. A more startling example is the creative genius of the small company Haloid who, in the early 1960s, developed a financially viable way to make copies of documents. An unexpected consequence was that "the need to make copies seemed to feed itself. Unlimited copies of documents was one of those things people did not know they needed until they had a copier in their office" (emphasis mine 68). The windfall profit from this behavioral change grew the corporate giant Xerox. But the real value of Kalmbach’s long view is that it puts cutting edge technology into perspective. He demonstrates that computerized publishing is composed of the same fundamental elements as earlier technologies, and he seems to be setting up readers by demystifying the computer and then establishing its pedigree as directly linked to The Book, touchstone for the humanities.

The last section, titled "Publishing, Technology, and the Classroom," develops that argument. Kalmbach describes the advances made possible first by typewriters, then the laser printer, and finally the World Wide Web, narrating the changes in publishing and classroom practice caused by each progression. Of his cited examples, my favorite comes from S. Freedman who, in Small Voices, notes that the one commonality among urban high school students is not family background, dress, or interests, but rather their use of Liquid Paper to eradicate errors. Many will recognize the truth in Kalmbach’s insight that students have learned not to be good students but to look like them: "These students are trying to imitate in their visible texts what they perceive to be the values of literate society. They believe that if they look like they belong in the literacy club, teachers will grade them accordingly" (103). And here is his point—while technology has changed over the centuries, pedagogy has not; therefore, we must alter our teaching practices if the technology is to work for good. We will maximize the potential that computers in the classroom offer only if we allow them to transform our practice rather than merely enhance it.

This is a book of parts, not wholes. Those wishing for the large picture will find one difficult to construct quickly. Some readers, bored by the particulars of print technology, may tire of the detail with which Kalmbach describes the process. And on the technical side, I find it ironic that a book about publishing should have so many typographic errors. By page twenty-eight in a 139 page book, I had already noticed a half dozen. Nevertheless, a reader’s perseverance will pay off. Kalmbach asks his audience to make a paradigm shift in thinking. In dwelling on seemingly commonplace particulars and renaming them, he makes their value for college composition classrooms visible. He shows that the movement in publishing over the centuries has been from the "conservation" of established, revered knowledge to "social transactions" that create knowledge. He underscores this crucial pattern to support the use of computerized publishing because it has the potential to transform student learning into knowledge construction. He cites 1930’s studies of typewriter use in the classroom that eerily echo similar recent studies of classroom computer use. Both clearly showed that students wrote more and were more engaged in activities when technology was used for project-based learning. This transformation occurs because students have a real audience and a real purpose for their texts. Now that electronic distribution of texts via the World Wide Web has become so easy, student work published for an international audience can become a part of every writing course.

Like a good spring cleaning, this read can refresh good teaching. But it has the added benefit of fostering discussion about writing instruction itself. The discipline of "English" is currently under debate. Consensus as to what we ought to be doing and what our place in academia ought to be is unattainable in many departments. Kalmbach’s reframing of practice can allow us to rethink our founding assumptions and develop new hybrid approaches to reading/writing instruction that not only employ technology, but that turn our teaching spaces into what Kalmbach styles "literacy classrooms," a clear benefit to both students and teachers alike.

Janet Wright Starner

East Stroudsburg University

 

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Review of Electronic Design and Publishing--Business Practices. 2nd ed. By Liane Sebastian. Allworth.

The graphic arts (the process of reproducing information on a page) are in an advanced stage of dramatic transition. Electronic Design and Publishing promises to help guide practitioners at all levels through the maze of new procedures and changing responsibilities.

Ms Sebastian’s subject is the latest of the graphics developments which started with Gutenberg’s invention of movable type in the 15th Century. Since then the printing and graphics industries have adopted such advances as high-speed rotary presses, linotype machines, photoengraving, photography (black and white and color), four-color printing, lithography, photo typesetting, scanners, and computer-assisted design. Each of these processes required those involved in the graphic arts and publishing to master new skills. Desktop publishing and today’s electronic tools are just other extensions of the process Gutenberg launched in 1438.

The book’s cover states that the book is for desktop publishers, graphic designers, multimedia producers, printers, art directors, prepress houses, color separators, photographers, illustrators, and writers. The list certainly covers the whole spectrum of talents involved in producing printed materials.

How well does Electronic Design and Publishing fulfill its promise? Pretty well for those who are relatively new to the field, but the book is not nearly as informative or useful for experienced professionals (writers, editors, commercial printers, artists and designers from book, magazine and newspaper publishers, art studios, company advertising departments, and advertising agencies). The essential steps in preparing material for the press remain. Only the means have changed and are changing. The shift from established methods to new electronic processes was gradual as each new generation of technology appeared to be tested and adopted. This writer’s staff was producing computer-generated 35mm color slides for presentations in 1983, and successive advancements in computer graphic capabilities were simply put to use.

On the other hand, Electronic Design and Publishing provides valuable guidelines for latecomers to the graphics field. And there lots of them in American offices. With desktop computers loaded with type faces and page design software and thousands of clip art illustrations available, people with little background in the graphic arts are turning out flyers, newsletters, brochures, and other documents. For these people, Electronic Design and Publishing will be helpful.

The text is divided into six major sections: Planning, Visual Images, Development, Production, Completion, and Ownership. Within each section, the roles and responsibilities of all contributors to a project are defined from the time the project is authorized until the finished work comes off the press and is delivered. These roles will not surprise anyone who has worked in the field for any length of time.

Each section outlines who does what, what approvals are needed, who gets paid, and who owns what at each stage of the production process. The language is clear, and terms are defined when first they appear. Sidebars contributed by art directors, designers, printers, writers, ad agency executives, and photographers provide commentary throughout the text. It’s in these comments that professional practices and attitudes are illustrated. For instance (to paraphrase)--Just because everyone with a desktop computer and TrueType fonts can set text in type, it doesn’t follow that everyone should set type. There’s continuing emphasis on careful proofreading at every step during production. The author makes clear that changes made late in the process can result in surprising increases in cost of a project. Ironically, there are some spelling and usage errors in the book which should have been caught by proofreading. Use of the contraction it’s where the possessive its is correct turns up periodically.

Electronic Design and Publishing devotes considerable space to the legal issues and accepted trade practices surrounding various aspects of the graphic arts, including paying attention to copyrights, something I suspect beginners frequently ignore. Even graphic veterans should heed the book’s warning that supplying text or graphics on disk or by electronic transfer to a printing firm or imaging center has dangers. All too often a system isn’t compatible with the computer system at the production house. Sometimes type sizes and formatting change, strange things happen to page design, or the printer’s staff can’t even open the file. My experience has been that when these problems occur everyone becomes frustrated. While the cover promises information about mutimedia , the subject receives only seven pages, not much for such a complex endeavor.

The book has one annoying aspect for this reviewer, who has spent much of his working life in advertising, broadcasting, marketing, and public relations. It seems redundant. In each section the same points are repeated. Granted, for students or those just starting work in the graphic arts, the repeated emphasis on critical subjects is probably justified because they’re easy to overlook. The end-of-the-book glossary of terms is handy in coping with trade jargon.

Taken in total, Electronic Design and Publishing supplies a check list that will help everyone facing a blank screen, dealing with designers, or negotiating with printers.

E. Ted Bunn

Wright State University - Lake Campus

 

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Review of Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing. By Johndan Johnson-Eiola. Ablex.

Computers are changing things, right? We composition teachers are in a computer revolution, right? Computers are freeing us from the tyranny of print, right? There is a computer utopia in our future, right? Whoa! We composition teachers may be angels who have strapped on new wings, says Johnson-Eiola, but we do not always have new maps. Change encourages nostalgia, and "we allow our nostalgia to channel new possibilities into old pathways" (13). Focusing on one specific literacy technology, Johnson-Eiola shows that "Hypertext can be (and often is) articulated as a powerfully, conservative technology, a way to introduce wider groups of people more quickly and effectively into traditional structures of power" (22). Traditional computer literacy is functional literacy--skills training--but Johnson-Eiola wants critical literacy: the ability to question hegemony, to critique and reform technology, and thereby to empower individuals.

Johnson-Eiola begins his discussion of the theoretical approaches informing his study with Vannevar Bush and Theodor H. Nelson and then moves from Jean-Francois Lyotard through Henry A. Giroux, Mary Louise Pratt, and Stuart Hall. Both Bush, whose 1940s idea of the Memex was a prototypical hypertext, and Nelson, whose Project Xanadu linked hypertext to computing, repudiated "simple hierarchies and specialized (and exclusionary) disciplines" (31). Lyotard roots such "antiauthoritarian gestures" (31) in the "loss of the legitimating power of grand narratives" (32)--a prime marker of the postmodern condition--and calls for open public access to all data-banks as one step toward social justice. But "informational anarchy"(35) cannot in itself construct political practice, so in order to sketch out possibilities "for social reform" (36), Johnson-Eiola includes the perspectives of Giroux, Pratt, and Hall.

Giroux's "border pedagogy"--which seeks human emancipation, celebrates multiplicity, posits split identity and the death of authority, and assumes the voice of the Other--encourages students to cross borders, map new boundaries, and create new spaces. Pratt highlights the dynamics of culture clash in the border "contact zones," especially the possibility of resisting a culture bent on appropriation. "Resistance is only rarely successful" (42), though, and articulation theory, especially as articulated by Hall, "offers a practical approach to remaking borders" (43), as well as a way of avoiding the fatalism of much postmodern thought. Aided by these theorists, then, "Hypertext can be rearticulated as neither a completely conservative replication and automation nor a postmodern dispersal of order and agency, but instead as a conscious struggle to appropriate, reinvent, and criticize structures of meaning and power" (48).

The first form of hypertext that Johnson- Eiola discusses is functional hypertext, the online instructions that so successfully escape our critical attention that they induce a "politics of amnesia" (50) and are never considered by composition teachers. Who would want to subject Help functions to social scrutiny? Why would we want our guides qualitatively different? The problem that Johnson-Eiola sees with this hypertext is that it prioritizes automation, is articulated only to efficiency. These "little machines" (49) work on the one-way "transmission model" of communication (65), carrying information from writer to reader like a "vending machine" (64). Far from being innovative or revolutionary, this form of hypertext is very conservative, constructing readers taking their places in passive mechanical activity, becoming part of the little machine, ever more susceptible to external control.

How rethink functional hypertext to empower readers? Collaboration offers "a potentially rearticulatory force" (57). Encourage "contagion rather than equilibrium" (225). Link users to each other through internal paths (233). "An online help text such as the HyperCard Help Stack," for instance, says Johnson-Eiola, "can begin to contain not only functional operating instructions but also corrections, additions, interpretations, and questions added by other users," weakening without removing the technical efficiency, while adding "forums for collective construction, appropriation, and critical resistance" (230). Such collaboration, whether as complex as a messaging system or as simple as the ability to append notes, would weaken the little machine.

The second form of hypertext that Johnson- Eiola discusses is online information systems. The way to look at this form is not as a little machine but as space, and a special kind of space: commodified space. Online information systems are not living up to egalitarian hopes. This space is not a community but a "free-trade zone," a "common market" (96), an "industrial park" (122), the Old West (133), and the images evoke the rhetoric of colonialism--conquest, exploitation, patriarchy, capitalism. The problems with this commodified space are legion: access, cost, completeness of covered terrains, the invisibility of uncovered terrains, the self-image of conquering warrior on the one hand, the need to yield one's self to specialists on the other, government support of business use over educational, conflict with the ideology of public libraries, the difference between information and knowledge, and such unquestioned goals as the drive for bigger space.

Teachers try to empower students to resist the tenacity of commodified space, but, unfortunately, they often simply end up "training students to be consumers" (129). The answer once again lies in the direction of community and collaboration. Though there are significant impediments to its realization, Johnson-Eiola admits, Theodor Nelson's "docuverse"--"the public space containing all the world's text, open to any person for writing and reading" (213)--can provide a basis for constructing a more social and political research space. We might move toward intertextual libraries instead of the traditional card catalogs writ large we now have on the web, that is, "spaces encouraging the construction of associative connections between source materials on the net itself" (216), spaces of "seeing rather than taking" (221).

The third form of hypertext that Johnson- Eiola discusses is writing and reading space commonly found in literature and composition classes. Here, too, he finds a gap between rhetoric and reality. He claims, for instance, that hypertext is the literal embodiment of such things as "Derridean de-centering" (136) and the subversion of print technology are countered by conservative forces found in much touted revolutionary examples like George Landow's In Memoriam Web in Storyspace. The In Memoriam Web centers a canonical literary masterpiece, and Johnson-Eiola can argue that it encourages traditional scholarly activity and is "a conservative medium for teaching institutionally sanctioned discourses" (157)--a way in which the literary tradition absorbs a potentially disruptive power, a way in which preexisting forces neutralize deconstructive potential.

One practical way to move toward the revolutionary power of hypertext, Johnson-Eiola suggests, is to have students construct a hypertext web from a synchronous conference or a second- stage In Memoriam project. In the first case a linear text is deconstructed. "There is no center object (the father text) to which either individual readers or the group as a whole must continually position themselves" (202), says Johnson-Eiola, yet individuals still have a sense of identity. In a second-stage In Memoriam, a father text is decentered. For example, students would discuss their own commentaries and be "encouraged to work out the social and political relations being constructed within their own work" (205). The students would construct not new texts (though they could) but new connections between preexisting texts; they would be encouraged, for instance, "to comment not only on source material but also on their own work and the work of others" (213).

Johnson-Eiola wants change, wants revolution--the last word in his text is "transformed" (242). Though success is never guaranteed, "new potentials do exist" (176). He does not want Composition teachers to "perpetuate old ways of living in the world" (241). He wants to take advantage of the potential openness in hypertext as an opportunity "to help our students open structure to change" (179). "Pedagogy should engage students in activities that help them work within existing systems for positive social political change" (181). Writing teachers must cross borders to avoid their own marginalization--come out of their graduate seminars, reject hierarchical structures that exclude some forms of hypertext, realize that all teaching is political, and use their influence in first-year composition courses, technical communication, and business writing courses.

Nostalgic Angels is written mainly to the already conversant and the already converted– composition teachers at a fairly sophisticated level of theory and computer praxis who see themselves as change agents. Others will find that Johnson- Eiola builds on theory rather than elaborately explaining it, assumes the need for change rather than describing present ills, alludes to hypertexts like Forking Paths pretty much as if everyone has been there and done that, and speaks a language in which words like "problematize," "map" (as a verb), "resistance," "empower," and "rearticulation" are musical. Those teachers aligned with him professionally and politically, though, will find "tactical approaches" which "must be then rewritten" into particular situations (180), not a master plan but the "rough outlines of a pedagogy . . . for teaching ways of articulating hypertext as a more explicitly social and political technology" (181). The angels may find they are just people, but it is still possible to map a better future.

Edward J. Gallagher

Lehigh University

 

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Review of Opening Spaces: Writing Technologies and Critical Research Practices. By Patricia Sullivan and James E. Porter. Ablex.

The authors of Opening Spaces "advocate a postmodern view of research as a critical practice" (ix). Additionally, they are attempting to describe a new position that exists somewhere between the two entrenched inquiry paradigms of (1) traditional empirical research and (2) what Sullivan and Porter call "critical theory." A "third place" is sought by the authors, one that magnifies the intersection between research, computers, and composition and also seeks to both affirm and subvert the extant inquiry paradigms. A sampling of just about any portion of this scholarly text reveals that what Sullivan and Porter are most concerned with is "how to build a better researcher" and that primary mission is specifically directed towards the discipline of rhetoric and composition.

Seven chapters comprise Opening Spaces, all of moderate length, and all broadly detailing the authors’ stated mission. The opening section eschews the traditional approach of wallowing in the jargon-filled esoterica that often characterizes methodology, and greets the reader, instead, with a qualitative analysis of a women’s college basketball game. An interesting choice on the part of Sullivan and Porter, this anecdotal reportage on a sporting event, seen through the eyes of nine different people, is very "reader friendly" and serves well to set up a discussion of methodological reflexivity. The key concept stressed in this segment is the need for maintaining a critical perspective toward one’s research practices. As Sullivan and Porter observe, "Methodology is not merely a means to something else, it is an intervening social action and a participation in human events. It is itself an act of rhetoric, both with our participants in research studies and with our colleagues in a given research field" (13). The idea that, to paraphrase Marshall McCluhan, "The method is the message," or a least a significant part of the message, is a mantra that courses through the text.

Chapter 2, "Positions and Perimeters," delineates the authors’ belief that research and teaching should be considered a praxis, "that is, a reflective thoughtful practice that has critique and questioning built into its operation, an activity that merges theory and practice" (22). Their notion of praxis is further defined as a triangulated process whereby research and teaching perspectives are capable of critiquing both theory and practice by placing both in dialectical tension--a tension that allows for adjustment and change to occur.

Chapter 6 of Opening Spaces, "The Emergence of Research: A Convergence of Personal, Political, Professional," discusses three interrelated projects conducted by Sullivan, Porter, their colleagues, and their students between 1992 and 1996 at Purdue University. The projects all share an interest in electronic print and pages; the first project develops a case study of Purdue’s English department’s struggle to create and maintain a homepage on the World Wide Web; the second project involves investigating attempts to include the Internet and the Web in advanced writing courses at Purdue; and the third project explores the relation between gender and online communities as they are portrayed in web pages. It is curious that Sullivan and Porter’s struggle to resist the traditional temptations of linear construction and analysis, a struggle they wage successfully through most of their book, falls down a bit in this section. In what they call the "description of the fabric," a metaphor for depicting the complexity of the interface between technology and the composition process, the authors unconsciously slip into the traditional linear paradigm by starting the second paragraph of this description with the sentence, "Let’s begin with the pressures to inhabit the Internet as our starting point for our discussion . . ." (146). But a study this ambitious and self-reflexive is bound to be occasionally inconsistent and subject to the vagaries and inescapable strictures of traditional rhetoric. It’s the only difficulty I encountered in the book.

Other chapters in Opening Spaces are devoted to "Articulating Methodology as Praxis" and "The Politics and Ethics of Studying Writing with Computers." The authors cast a wide net, but the book is a comprehensive analysis that doesn’t deteriorate into the cursory, despite its prodigious and ambitious intentions. The issues of the ethical and political ramifications of research and teaching practices, as well as the contributions of postmodern rhetorical theory and feminist methodology, are all addressed in a non-didactic and unpretentious style. This reviewer felt more educated about the field of composition and computers, and the role critical research practices can/should play in the betterment of instructors and investigators after completing Opening Spaces. A second read was warranted and yielded even more and clearer disclosures.

Sullivan and Porter’s text will prove highly beneficial to anyone working in the disciplines of computers, research, and composition. It should, in this reviewer’s mind, be required reading for all graduate students contemplating a career in composition and rhetoric. One of the most attractive and appealing features of Opening Spaces is its postmodern approach to the conceptual bastions of linearity and closure. The author’s emphasis on the necessity of self-reflexivity for researchers and teachers, coupled with their desire to elevate and valorize the notion of praxis as a mode of generating knowledge and awareness in and of itself, seems a worthy enterprise. When it comes to research and epistemology, the journey taken is just as important, if not more important than the destination. Furthermore, the privileging of diversity, heteroglossia, and "multivocality" that Sullivan and Porter encourage in current and future research and educational practices seems ethical and pragmatic.

Stephen A. Tompkins

Lehigh University

 

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Review of A Rhetoric of Electronic Communities. By Tharon Howard. Ablex.

Tharon Howard’s A Rhetoric of Electronic Communities sets out to analyze the role of "networked text," text conceived for and disseminated through electronic networks, in the construction of electronic communities. The book is written for and is primarily of interest to those teaching composition in networked classrooms. Although the book is primarily for the teacher of writing, it should be noted that a teacher can expect no "practical" advice from this book. This book’s intentions are theoretical, perhaps even, as the author would say Theoretical. The book does not propose some way to teach composition so much as it proposes to look at the way composition in networked environments may or may not lead to the creation of "resisting subjectivities."

Howard’s aim, then, is to test the claim that computers and computer networks and the kinds of writing they allow and encourage lead to a more democratic, more multivocal, multitcultural classroom. Howard’s method is primarily "poststructural," perhaps even "deconstructive." The book’s organizing metaphor is of a "Janusian perspective, a perspective which looks both backwards and forwards, inside and out.

The book begins by defining networked text as that which is written for and disseminated through networks, excluding by this definition text produced by computers for "traditional" media such as magazines and other forms of print transmission. The book moves from this definition to a discussion of the significance of networked text, which it finds largely in the ability of networked text to operate below, or beyond, the horizon of conventional (and undemocratic) media. The examples Howard chooses are by now familiar. He cites the use of computers to inform the west of the events at Tianamen Square, notes the use of usenet groups to discuss political events not covered by traditional media, and he suggests, as have many others, the far-reaching political, social, and educational possibilities of such uses of computers.

Howard notes that networked writing is on the increase. He writes that "WANS (wide area networks) like FreeNET, FidoNet, Comserve, Internet, and Bitnet expose citizens to voices traditionally silenced by homophobic, phallocentric media" (21). Although I often cringed at such rhetoric, Howard’s unwillingness to simply accept the revolutionary claims that have been made for the freedom-inspiring possibilities of networked classrooms is one of the books real strengths. To his credit, he attempts to move beyond the claims that computers and networks will somehow miraculously democratize society to ask how that could happen.

In order to examine the way networked text may, or may not, create resisting subjectivities, Howard moves from an examination of the ways networked text differs from more familiar media products. He asks how the kinds of texts created in and for networks shape the communities they derive from and help to constitute. Howard’s discussion of "community" draws on the work of Atlthusser and the work of Kant in his Critique of Judgment. I would count Howard’s discussion of community as simultaneously his book’s biggest weakness and its most interesting strength. Howard’s suggestion that networked writing will derive from, and even create new kinds of communities, is no longer a particularly novel claim, though I suspect that when he began making the claim it was much less common than it has since become. In any case, his analysis of the ways networked writing will be shaped by and shape community is intriguing. His application of that insight to an on-line discussion group called PURTOPOI (Purdue Topoi) is the most original and interesting section of his book.

In his discussion of community, he borrows the Althusserian notion of interpellation, and notes that all members of a community are constructed by the community. Howard asserts that all subjects derive their position and point of view from their position within a community. Although he discovers some predictable problems with this view— ideological determinism—Althusser’s view of community serves as representative of a constitutive communitarian view. In other words, Howard adopts Althusser’s view of community as the social constructivist pole of his Janusian synthesis. Having spelled out the way in which community and subjectivity are constructs, Howard appropriates Kant’s Critique of Judgment and demonstrates that Kant is an "individualistic communitarian theorist" (76), or that individuals may step outside of their community and make judgments that do not derive from it. This discussion of community often reads like a grab bag of post-modern theory. All the usual suspects are aligned, mentioned, cited. Derrida, Foucault, Laclau, Mouffe, Miller, etc. are all recited. But Howard is generally content to borrow a citation, or to note a flaw and use that flaw to proceed to his larger point. Though he often claims to have engaged in "critique," his encounter with Theory seldom lasts long enough to provide even an adequate summary of the ideas he appropriates.

Howard notes in the introduction that this book is his revised dissertation, and I think its relation to the dissertation is the primary problem in Howard’s presentation of post-modern theory. Although this presentation may have been required of his dissertation, the book he has made of it would have been far better served to simply outline some position that he was willing to affirm, however "Janusian" that position might ultimately have been. Instead, Howard spends two chapters laboriously covering theories of community and the discourse of "social construction," in the end offering a kind of layman’s handbook of postmodern theory. Although I found Howard’s interest in community and its electronic manifestations interesting, I wish he had simply spelled out the ways in which he saw on-line communication as communal in both positive and negative senses. Then he might have gone on to a more complete and systematic analysis of the on-line world.

Howard’s discussion of Purtopoi—the on-line discussion group--is the book’s strength. Howard notes that the discussion was first set up as a place where students and teachers in the Purdue Composition program could meet to discuss ideas, to exchange necessary information about texts, meetings, and so on. The group’s purpose was to be both informational and educational. As such, it was thought the environment would and should be a safe one in which one’s earliest and most unformed ideas might be freely expressed. This discussion was expected to promote a free and open community—one in-line with the revolutionary rhetoric of the on-line worlds that Howard begins his book by noticing. However, as the group developed problems also developed in this free and open society. Graduate students in particular began to feel not so much free as threatened by the group’s professional audience. The discussion had been meant to serve graduate and faculty needs, but it soon began to seem, at least from the point of view of some graduate students, that free and open discussion came with a price. Participation became too risky. Judgments were being made. As Howard notes, this realization was powerful. To the extent that graduate students were subject to the communities’ claims, that is invested in the view of the discussion as free and open, they were unable to understand their peril. Thus, he claims that the double perspective afforded by thinking of communities as groups outside of which individuals may make accurate judgments, as in Kant and as groups which constitute individual subjectivities, as in Althusser, is both demonstrated in the on-line discussion and validates the Janusian position he has taken.

Howard’s conclusion is finally a predictable one. Although we cannot expect the networked text Howard has studied to simply step beyond other forms of media to create the "radical subjectivities" he seems to think are the goal of all composition classes, neither can we discount the possibility of networked text to create, or constitute such subjectivities. I suppose we can wonder about Howard’s goal. Perhaps some of us will not think it is our business to constitute or to preside at the constitution of radical subjectivities. Some of us may even doubt the possibility of such deliberate choices in the discursive sphere as spelled out in Howard’s post-modern primer. But regardless of our willingness to concede Howard’s goal, his effort to question the radical and liberatory claims composition advocates is to be applauded.

Russel Wiebe

Felician College

 

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Review of Safeguarding Electronic Information: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Symposium of the Graduate Alumni and Faculty of the Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, 21 April 1995Safeguarding Electronic Information: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Symposium of the Graduate Alumni and Faculty of the Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, 21 April 1995. Ed. Jana Varlejs. McFarland.

This book is a description of the three papers presented at the April 1995 symposium. It also contains an introduction by the editor Varlejs. The theme of the 32nd annual symposium was computer security, with a particular focus on privacy, property, and communication. This is not a security cookbook or how-to manual. Rather, it is a fairly intellectual collection of thoughts on computer security ethics and policy with a slant toward academics. A reasonably good account of net security terminology and history is delivered along the way.

The first paper was presented by Marlyn Kemper Littman, a professor at the School of Computer and Information Sciences, Nova Southeastern University. Ms. Littman attempts to portray computer security breaches as invasions of privacy, either personal or institutional. Numerous anecdotal stories are used to present the fact that cyberhackers can and do invade network systems with increasing frequency. Costs related to these damaging encounters are similarly escalating. Spoofing is a popular technique used by some hackers. It involves convincing a target system that you are a trusted friend who should be allowed full access to the system. Once this access is achieved, the target system can have data or software stolen, corrupted, or destroyed by the hacker. Educational systems, which typically operate in a widely distributed computing environment, are particularly vulnerable to this type of attack. Viruses and worms, two types of insidious computer program code are discussed. In their most benign form, these codes are largely annoying, but they can be designed to destroy data or bring entire systems down. Several approaches to safeguarding information are lightly explored. Selection of passwords, the most common safeguard, is gone over with emphasis on selecting non-dictionary words. A number of programs are readily available to guess passwords that might appear in common dictionaries. A few more advanced measures such as the use of authentication, firewalls, encryption, and biometric techniques are briefly touched upon.

The second paper was presented by Laura G. Lape, an associate professor at Syracuse University's College of Law. Her talk to the symposium largely explored copyright laws as they might be applied to the network environment. The issue here is the balance between the general public's desire to access information and the individual author or publishers desire to protect their personal property. Numerous examples are given, but some interpretation of the 1976 Copyright Act is inevitably at the core of this dilemma. It is this reviewer's opinion that the sheer quantity of material that has been produced on this matter attests to the probability that it is indeed an unresolvable issue. I would recommend interested parties to direct their favorite web browser search engine to search on the word copyright or infringement, and peruse the many, many articles that will appear. As Ms. Lape points out, those people who are charged with the responsibility of creating or applying copyright laws will be facing considerable challenges.

The third and final paper was presented by Mike Godwin, who is the on-line counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF, as it is often referred to, is by their web site definition "a civil liberties organization working in the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to public resources and information online." As such, Mr. Godwin presented somewhat of a counterpoint to Ms. Lape's previous paper. While at times anecdotal, his rather candid approach to First Amendment freedom of speech interpretation is really quite engaging and often amusing. Mr. Godwin's paper hinges on the question of whether the First Amendment can and should be applied to cyberspace. Through various examples of real legal challenges, he arrives at the conclusion that although networking is actually a fairly new communication medium, it should fall within the boundaries of the First Amendment. A number of thought provoking questions, buried within the real-life examples, should make most readers question the role of government in the global realm of cyberspace. Since this is an as yet unresolved issue, it is merely food for thought.

I would be surprised if anyone other than academic librarians or the other specialists represented at the conference would find this book interesting enough to purchase. I would recommend taking it out from a library if you are interested in an introduction to network security. As an introduction, the basic concepts of security problems and solution approaches are well presented for the uninitiated reader. Furthermore, readers who are searching for legal examples of copyright laws and First Amendment cases as relates to cyberspace, would also find this publication useful.

Eric Sharkazy

Columbia, MD

 

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