wenn@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (John Wenn) (03/16/88)
The following quote is from the science fiction book "Chronocules" by D. G. Compton (1970) reproduced without permission: "I have decided to include also a short section of the original, multi-choiced narrative - just so that the reader may understand what this imaginative reconstrction is sparing him. Evidently, at the time of wiring [sic] the original book, means of feedback between communications and response will exist, so that the former is continually being modified to suit the later - presumably by means of variable-track tape and sophisticated encephalographic interpretation. Obviously this technique is not possible in an ordinary book with ordinary pages. Nevertheless, summoning great typographical ingenuity, the author (authors?) of the original book attemted it. "I do not feel that the experiment works. The reader may well feel it doesn't work even more than I do. And if he is a person likely to be made angry by things that do not work, he will be well-advised to skip the whole section. <<What follows is nine paragraphs with several links between them, allowing several different narrative flows>> "And so on, page after page, ramifying almost to infinity. If a justification of my imaginative reconstruction were needed, this is it. Life is full enough of unavoidable decisions without - in addition to paintings that are blank canvases and music that consists of silence - the creation of multi-choice books. A story benefits from a definite viewpoint, from passages that annoy as well as those that please. It's easier to read. And I hope it's more fun." <<the above is reproduced without permission, and all typos are mine>> /John