E-MAILS CON ADRIENNE EISEN
En esta página he colocado los e-mails que me he escrito con Adrienne Eisen. Para facilitar la comprensión de estos e-mails he puesto con letra negra lo que yo he escrito y con letra azul lo que Adrienne me ha contestado. Desde aquí muchas gracias a Adrienne por su colaboración e información que me ha facilitado. ¡Gracias!
PRIMER EMAIL:
My name is Eduardo Cantero. I am a Spanish student of English language in the university of Valencia (Spain). One of my subjects at the university is "Hypertext" and that is why I am writting to you.
I have chosen your work to make my project for this subject byt I have some doubts and questions that I would like you to answer if you can (pleaseeee!).
I would like to analise all your on-line books and, the most important, the way your literary work has advanced along the time.
I beg your opinion and some help or ideas if you don´t mind.
Thank you
Eduardo Cantero Laserna
CONTESTACIÓN DE ADRIENNE EISEN:
Hi Eduardo,
I would be happy to answer questions for you. If you want to send the questions via email I can answer them right away. Or, if you want to call me on the phone, I can give you my phone number and we can decide on a time for you to call.
Adrienne
SEGUNDO E-MAIL:
Hello Adrienne!
I'm Edu again, do you remember me?. First I want to give you thanks for answer my e-mail and let me know more about your work and for help me by answering my questions.
I have been reading more about you and all your literary work and now I have some doubts and questions that I haven't found answers in the Internet and I'd like you to answer, please.
- Your hypertexts have been written in different years (different date of publication) but the html presentation is basically the same. Why is that? Is that your original idea of making hypertext or have you re-edit the presentaion of your texts at the same time?
I have a way of writing that is pretty consistent, and the interface/link structure/ whatever you want to call it that I used in the first hypertext, Six Sex Scenes, has served me well for most of my writing. I do not re-edit to make them all look the same. I have always felt that The Interview has a different structure than the others, but maybe to everyone else, it's a variation on the same structure.
- I have readed in an interview that you use a self-method of writting hypertext using the floor of your bedroom. Is it true that you don't use any programme for you creative writting? Is it is true, can you explain me what do you use to put your hypertext on the web?
When I started writing hypertext there were no programs. Everyone wrote html themselves, by hand. So it is logical that I would develop a way to write that does not involve any software. Yes, I have laid out all my writing on my floor to figure out how to structure a hypertext. When I put my hypertext on the web I hand code each page of html. (This is not saying much - it's not complicated html that I'm using.)
- One of your sentences is "I think in a non-linear way, so I am grateful for hypertext". This question may sound a little rude, that is not my intention, so if you don't want to answer It doesn't matter. The question is that I don't know if making a hypertext have some economical benefits because to read your hypertext you doesn't need to pay. Is that right?
Hypertext does not have many economic benefits, but neither does any other form of fiction, really. I mean, if you think about it, most people spend three or four years wrtiing a novel and then get about $10,000 from their publisher. That's a horrible hourly rate - probably less than a dollar an hour. Very very very few people can live off the money they make from writing fiction. I don't think one can start writing fiction, in any format, if they are concerned about the money.
- To finish with, I would like to know what is the influence that under your point of view has Baker and Kathy Acker have has on your writting?
Kathy Acker is not constrained by established linear formats, although she does write novels, they are surprising (to me, at least) in their structure. Also, she tells it like it is. Tells how she/characters really feel. Has characters who do not shy away from difficutl topics.
Nicholson Baker influenced me because he goes on and on for pages and pages about very small, mostly boring things, which he makes interesting with wonderful writing. Sometimes I feel like hypertext works well for me because it lets me go on and on for pages and pages about a single, obsessive topic - hypertext allows me to write endlessly without requiring the reader to read it all.
Please, answer my e-mail as soon as posible. I need it urgent.
Thank you Adrienne for all and when my work will be finished I'll write you to let you know the result of this work.
Congratulations for the New Media Invision Award!!!
Mi compañera Lourdes García Gimeno también ha mantenido correspondencia vía e-mail con Adrienne Eisen. Para ver estos e-mails entra en mural.uv.es/lourgar5/emails