This are the e-mails
I wrote to Judy Malloy and her answers:
TO JUDY MALLOY
Ms Malloy
Hello, my name is Miguel Seguí Peláez. I'm a student of English
philology. I study at the university of Valencia (Spain). One of my subjects
for this year is hypertexts. Our work is about a hypertext author. I've chosen
your work, specially the hypertext Afterwards. This is a hard work because
I must study your whole hypertext work, and create an URL about it.
I would be really thankfull if you could help me with this sending me any
information about yourself and your hypertext books.
Sincerelly
Miguel Seguí Peláez.
FROM
JUDY MALLOY:
Hi Miguel,
Thank you so much for your interest in my work. I will send you some information soon.
Best, Judy
Hi Miguel Afterwards chronicles a series of conversations and parallel
thoughts between three couples. It is set immediately after A Party at Silver
Beach --
http://www.judymalloy.net/party/begin.html
so if you want too know more about the characters, you might look at that
work. The three couples are _a young couple Tina and Jerry (they are both
studying at Universities) who are unsure whether to begin a serious relationship
_Gunter and Gwen, who in their lives have at times between unable to separate
reality from virtual reality. He is a hacker and an artist; she is an
online writer. Dorothy and Sid -- they are an older couple in their
80's, who just got married after living along for many years. She is
an artist and he used to run a gallery. In a time of global turmoil, Afterwards
is a "musical comedy" encore to the cyber-epic Dorothy and Sid that began
with the hypernarrative Dorothy Abrona McCrae --
http://www.judymalloy.net/dorothy
The story is read by clicking on the squares in the interface frame on
the right of the story. You can read the work any way you want. You
can either click on squares at random, click on them in the order they are
presented, or to follow one couple, click on one color of squares in the
interface, The structure is somewhat similar to the narrative data structure
I used in Wasting Time (1992) -- which used slowly appearing text to
simulate conversation and connected columns of words to simulate parallel
thought patterns. (and was published in After the Book (Perforations 3) Summer,
1992.) In a time of global turmoil, Afterwards is
a "musical comedy" encore to the cyber-epic Dorothy and Sid. For more information,
visit:
http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/about.html
Best, Judy
TO JUDY MALLOY
Hello Judy, do you remember me?
I'm Miguel Seguí I wrote an e-mail to you some moths ago asking for
some help.
If you don't wonder I need it again.
I'm finishing my page about your work (http://mural.uv.es/miansepe/firstpaper)
and I would be really gratefull if you could reply the questions of this 'interview'.
If you have no time for it don't worry, this is only for bring more information
to my page, or your page... whatever.
My page must be finished 31st May, if you can't reply me it's ok.
1.- First of all, where do you take the inspiration to write hypertext?
2.- Why did you decided to write 'Afterwards' following the story of 'Party
atSilver beach' ?
3.- Which is the program you use to create your stories?
4.- Do you think 'Afterwards' is different from your other works?
5.- Which is your vision of the hypertext world nowadays?
That's all, thank you very much.
Sincerelly Miguel Seguí.
FROM JUDY MALLOY
Hi Miguel,
I will think about your questions and answer them in a few days.
Best,
Judy
Hi Miguel,
Here are some answers.
Best of luck with your paper and thanks so much for your interest in my
work.
Best,
Judy Malloy
1.- First of all, where do you take the inspiration
to write hypertext?
From the many stories of life, from observation and from a vision I
have had
since the late 1970's
of creating a literature that is experienced differently from the traditional
front to back book.
>2.- Why did you decided to write 'Afterwards' following the story of
'Party at
Silver beach' ?
I was feeling depressed, and I wanted to create a story that suggested
many happy endings. Afterwards is kind of an "encore" in the spirit of musical
comedy.
>3.- Which is the program you use to create your stories?
My stories are all created using structures I created myself using HTML .
The structure for Afterwards is a version of a Narrative Data Structure which
I
originally created in 1992 for
Wasting Time. (originally in MS BASIC) It uses both parallel columns of text
and
slowly appearing text
to simulate thought patterns and conversation.
>4.- Do you think 'Afterwards' is different from your other works?
Most of my works are longer works which evolve in a series of connected parts.
Afterwards is one of my few
short works. Another is Interlude - Dorothy and Sid --
http://www.judymalloy.net/dorothy/intertop.html
These short works are enjoyable to compose and provide a relaxing interlude
for
both the writer and the
reader.
>5.- Which is your vision of the hypertext world nowadays?
>
This is from a talk I gave at the ELO (Electronic Literature Organization)
Conference in 2003:
As we look to the future -- expanding the boundaries of
literature, exploring new narrative structures, combining words
(as well as for instance, words and images, words and sound) in
new ways -- there is one thing I particularly want to emphasize
and that is that issues of definition, of what kind of literature
we are creating, are not as important as encouraging an openness
to many approaches; as validating the many diverse individual and
collaborative approaches which expand the body of electronic
literature which we in this field are shaping.
>That's all, thank you very much.
>Sincerelly Miguel Seguí.