vr
a novel
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
October 1996
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 1 October 1996
Subject: The Land of Gor
On IRC there are these channels called Gorean Tavern or whatever which
promise strict rules and whatnot. I got on one yesterday. The !help thing
told me that this is some dumbass science fiction ersatz medieval S&M
game. It included this phrase: "Whomever rules Gor..." After I had read
the stupid fucking thing, I go back to the room and write I guess you don't
need good grammar to write science fiction. As I'm making fun of this shit,
this bitch comes on and starts saying shit like: "tis be an Earthling Master"
and "tis i the one of red silk". I say: "tis be" is that s'posed to be medieval
English? Anyway she asks to be my slave, so I say: "OK, you can be my sex
slave. Take off all of your clothes, silk or not." She obeys and I tell
her to lie down on her back, using the red silk as a matress. She does.
I say: "Now you can masturbate until I'm ready." She types: "puts two fingers
in her pussy and moves them in and out." A couple of people arrive now and
she asks to be released of her bonds. (I guess she got scared doing this
in public.) I say no way, you do as I say or I'll sell you to the Vandals.
I'm just laughing at this bullshit and figure allright you want medieval...
So now the girl posts the shit and the people start getting a little defensive,
even hostile: "We're here to have fun, not to have someone criticize our
grammar." Anyway I got booted as usual.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 2 October 1996
Subject: Wagontrain
Move out the way, motherfuckers. If they thought I was mean before, just
wait till they see me in the throes of severe detox withdrawl. By tomorrow
I shall be sober. Unless, of course I get the DTs. Melon better stay the
fuck out of the living room 'cause I'm going to pick some serious brawls.
Yes, boys and girls, I'm quitting drinking, at least for a while, the time
to let my head clear, to become sane again. I hate to quit drinking, but
it needs to be done. I can't make Nichelle live this crazy, drunken lifestyle.
Hell, maybe we'll even save up a little cash. It's gotten to the point where
I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore and can't remember the next
day anyway... You don't see it. I can still write beautiful e-mail or be
charming or funny onna MOO, but there's nothing funny about alcoholism. Not
most of the time anyway. Yes, I need to clean out my body for twenty-one
days (the length of detox in France where they understand these things and
where I went through it, twice) and then maybe I can go back to a harmless
kind of social alcoholism, the easy, God-given, slightly-more-than-moderate
drinking, not the wild, compulsive, boulimic kind. It shouldn't affect things
much for any of you. I can still write sober, still think sharply sober.
Who knows? I may even find my forgotten sex drive. The main thing that worries
me is I can't remember what sober people do with their time. I haven't got
a TV. Nichelle still hasn't got her 'puter, nor even the money to pay for
it. I guess I'll take up reading again. I bought three books from the used
bookshop today: Absalom, Absalom! and The Reivers by Faulkner and Le Meurtre
d'un etudiant by Simenon. I can't remember if I've already read the first,
have not read the second and only bought the third so I'd have something
to read in French. I think I'll begin with Simenon. I've never read his work
and don't usually care for mysteries, but the way Henry Miller describes
him and his house in J'suis pas plus con qu'un autre is enough to convince
me that this man is a serious writer. He's a professional, no question.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: Laurent
Date: 2 October 1996
Subject: Re: Wagontrain
> something to read in French. I think I'll begin with Simenon. I've
never
> read his work and don't usually care for mysteries, but the way Henry
Miller
> describes him and his house in J'suis pas plus con qu'un autre is
enough to
> convince me that this man is a serious writer. He's a professional,
no question.
well when you have read his work you can easily understood that he had
time to take care of his house.
compared to simenon Anne Rice and Stephen King are God the son and god
the Father
laurent,
hoping the emails from the sober gabe keep on being nice shit
PS:have you read Queneau, Gabe? I would be curious to see what a big mean
boy like you says about ole' Raymond's subtle sweet and sour nastiness
From: SAGReiss
Date: 2 October 1996
Subject: Re: Wagontrain
Laurent, comment va ton anglais? "you can easily understood", "God the
son and god the Father". Que veut dire: "hoping the emails from the sober
gabe keep on being nice shit"? Pourquoi tu n'a pas envoye la lettre a tout
le monde? Oui, bien sur j'ai lu Queneau, beaucoup. Je me souviens pas de
tous les titres. Zazy est magnifique, bien sur.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 3 October 1996
Subject: SAGReiss pere
Not for long, unless there's some radical change of heart. I'm just trying
out paternity to see how it feels. It's just a trial run, a scientific experiment,
a temporary condition. Nichelle is expecting. I don't know what she's expecting,
except to go out for chow mein, since I understand these things deeply and
so am indulging her whims. Shit she's even had morning sickness for the
past week, actually all day long sickness. She even threw up the delicious
sodomy chicken I cooked for her. I'm not sure what to think. In a way I'm
pleased that at least I'm not sterile, which I've often wondered about given
how little care I've given to birth control in my life. And I guess the wild
violence which has surrounded her womb has not managed to make her barren.
It just seems like the wrong time to be having babies. Technically it might
be feasible, what with welfare, scamming all of our known relatives, student
loans and scholarships, but she's young and in the middle (I hope) of her
academic career and at the beginning (I hope) of a musical career. I am not
so much young as at the end of my rope. I have done my best and my best wasn't
good enough. I am condemned to be a white trash working stiff, unless lightening
strikes twice in our humble household, and someone is actually irresponsible
enough to publish one or both of those e-novels we finally sent out this
week. I have no reason to feel optimistic. That cybergrrrl who wrote about
the Thai brothels sent it to thirty publishers before finding one and she
hasn't made any money out of it yet. Sobriety is weird. I never seem to know
what time of day it is. My life was orgasmized around a careful arrangement
of dinking or, as Malcolm Lowry so eloquently put it, the serious business
of drinking: beer after work, Ricard at cocktail hour, meals generously punctuated
by Valpolicella, whisky after supper...
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: John
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: (no subject)
I sent the old listmail to msn
From: Patricia
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: Mail, perhaps junk mail
From: du@du.org
To: Patricia
Subj: Diversity University MOO Message(s) 1
Message 1:
Date: 7 April 1994
From: Pippi
To: Pete_K and Pippi
Subject: Shakespearean Insults
Create Your Own Shakespearean Insults by Jerry Maguire, who teaches English
at Grove Center High School in Greenwood, Indiana.
Combine one word from each of the three columns, prefaced with "Thou"
Column 1
Column 2
Column #3@
artless
base-court
apple-john
bawdy
bat-fowling
baggage
beslubbering
beef-witted
barnacle
bootless
beetle-headed
bladder
churlish
boil-brained
boar-pig
cockered
clapper-clawed
bugbear
clouted
clay-brained
bum-bailey
craven
common-kissing
canker-blossom
currish
crook-pated
clack-di
ish a
dankish
dismal-dreaming
clotpole
dissembling dizzy-eyed
coxcomb
droning
doghearted
codpiece
errant
dread-bolted
death-token
fawning
earth-vexing
dewberry
fobbing
elf-skinned
flap-dragon
froward
fat kidneyed
flax-wench
frothy
fen-sucked
flirtgill
gleeking
flap-mouthed
footlicker
goatish
flybitten
fustilarian
gorbellied
folly-fallen
giglet
impertinent
fool-born
gudgeon
infectious
full-gorged
haggard s
jarring
guts-griping
harpy
loggerheaded half-faced
hedge- pig j
lumpish
hasty-witted
horn-beast
mammering
hedge-born
hugger-mugger
mangled
hell-hated
jolt-head
mewling
idle-headed
lewdster
paunchy
ill-breeding
lout
pribbling
ill-nurtured
maggot-pie
puking
knotty-pated
malt-worm
puny
milk-livered
mammet
quailing
motley-minded
measle
rank
onion-eyed
minnow
reeky
plume-plucked
miscreant
roguish
pottle-deep
moldwarp
ruttish
pox-marked
mumble-news
saucy
reeling-ripe
nut-hook
spleeny
rough-hewn
pigeon egg
spongy
rude-growing
pignut
tottering
sharde-borne
ratsbane
surly
rump-fed
puttock
unmuzzled
sheep-biting
pumpion
vain
spur-galled
scut
venomed
swag-bellied
skainsmate
villainous
tardty-gaited
strumpet
warped
tickle-brained
varlot b
wayward
toad-spotted
vassal
weedy
unchin-snouted
whey-face
yeasty
weather-beaten
wagtail
Pete, I hope you enjoy these new words, and that this prints out in columns.
Remember, if you call me any of these words, I'll reply in kind.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: (no subject)
Gabe, I looked into MSN a bit and I really doubt you'll be able to get
that file because they use their own proprietary mail software, not the
internet standard POP3 protocol. Let me know what you want me to do.
From: Nichelle
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: Re: (no subject)
Yo, John... I forwarded the message to Dreamscape, we've got it in Eudora
and can't read it. It's encoded or something, I guess. Do you know what
we can do to read the thing??
Nichelle
From: SAGReiss
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: Re: (no subject)
John, we got it (I got lucky.) and even managed to forward it to dreamscape,
but it was just gibberish. Could you try to send it to this account. Perhaps
we'll have more luck. Dreamscape uses POP3 and we use Eudora, so everything
should be compatible. Sorry about the mixup. Oh and you told me to bug you
about downloading RL MOO. This is quite important. He won't answer me, so
I'll have to provoke a confrontation. If you can download a lot of shit,
I can negotiate from a position of relative power, while he thinks I'm in
a position of absolute weakness. That is a very good poker hand indeed...
I'll wait until you tell me you're happy with what you've been able to download,
then I'll go find him on one of the other MOOs.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: Re: Mail, perhaps junk mail
This one you'll find in "The Old Law" attributed solely or in collaboration
to Thomas Middleton, William Rowley and Philip Massinger: "Dar'st thou call
my wife strumpet, thou preterpluperfect tense of a woman!"
From: SAGReiss
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: Re: (no subject)
I'm sorry, John. We've tried to find it but can't. Could you please send
it to Dreamscape? Thanks. Sorry for all the bother...
From: John
Date: 4 October 1996
Subject: (no subject)
Attached: listmail.mbx
Okay hopefully it work this time. The file is called listmail.mbx. If you
put it in the directory that Eudora runs from, it should show up when you
pull down the Mailbox menu.
From: Nichelle
Date: 5 October 1996
Subject: Re: (no subject)
OK, I got it to work. Thanks a million, John.
Nichelle
From: SAGReiss
Date: 5 October 1996
Subject: Wizzen and whatnot
Two things, bro. As we were on with Terry, she paged me the Archfuhrer's
e-mail address, so I'm ready to e-mail him as soon as you give me the green
light (once you've got the shit downloaded). Terry also made a weird and
twisted offer to remain a wiz without a voice, as she put it. I said everything's
a little up in the air right now, so I couldn't say. I don't think it matters,
but now is not the time to ruffle her feathers or piss her off. She may
be having second thoughts or I don't fucking know. Anyway we'll see once
we have the moral high ground, in other words once we possess brute physical
force in the form of the fucking MOO downloaded to your 'puter...
From: Brian
Date: 5 October 1996
Subject: Re: vr
Please in the future observe our request that an SASE big enough for return
of all materials be included with your submission. Not only are we not your
recycling center, but our recycling sits out on the street for a day until
picked up. I've noticed street people picking through the material. If your
novel is published by a homeless person you'll know why
------------------------------------------
Brian, Permeable Press
From: John
Date: 5 October 1996
Subject: Re: Wizzen and whatnot
I've got most of the MOO now, all of the players, rooms, etc. Just missing
a few verbs, but I've got enough that you can do whatever the fuck you want
about the Fuehrer.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: Re: vr
Brian,
While I am pleased to learn that my work is enlightening or entertaining
your homeless friends who might, after all, have rather limited access to
the internet, this was not quite my goal in sending you manuscripts. I was
not aware that you were in the recycling business. I thought you might actually
read the texts. My only experience with SASEs cost me six dollars, and for
my trouble I got a catalogue of Permeable's latest offerings without recovering
my book. The reason I submitted vr was that we (Nichelle and I) could
not understand the overtly hostile reaction BABEL received from a publisher
seemingly so suited to the material. I quote, if I may, from The Writer's
Market '96: "Erotica. experimental [...] Looking for 'cyberpunk; conspiracy.
Should be challenging to read.' No romance." Never mind. I won't send anything
more to clutter up your recycling bin.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: Archfuhrer
I've just e-mailed the Arch saying only that we need to talk about the
future of the MOO. When you say you've got the characters, does this include
their e-mail addresses, so we could tell them about an eventual move? I
just want to be sure I understand your position. You could simply fix a
couple of things and move the MOO to Eskimo if he says Fuck off? This is
not in my plans, but I just want to be sure what our position really is.
Nichelle and you seem to think we should just move it anyway. I'm not sure
I agree, but I could be convinced. I too was not pleased with five days downtime
without even the courtesy of an explanation. Did something happen between
Terry and you? It seems she is on even worse terms with you than with me.
Whatever. Let's proceed.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: Patpong Sisters
My gf has told me not to tell you that she bought your book used for $3.99.
She is reading it now. Her reaction is mixed. As I said: "[I have not yet
read the book and will give more serious comments when I have.] She's in
a difficult position. She's trying to be non-judgemental, but at the same
time it's not her pussy which is being bought and sold. Like any journalist
or ethnologist, she has to gain their trust without putting her own ass on
the line." For myself, I am stunned, awed by the very sight of the dust jacket.
It's so professional. It's a real fucking book with your name on it. The
only things in the world with my name on them are bounced checks, an article
in some posh Parisian literary review that no one ever reads, a low-tech
web page and a MOO approaching population zero. Shiiit, the first reaction
to vr, a four-hundred-page selection from four months of our list's e-mail,
was a nasty, sarcastic little message about the neighborhood homeless picking
through the publisher's recycling bin...
From: SAGReiss
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: The Petersons
At first we weren't sure if Mr and Mrs Peterson were throwing a dinner
party and playing a friendly game of tag with their guests before the festivities
begin or if Mr Peterson was fighting with some neighborhood punk for squatters
rights to the gable of the house next door and, thereby, to Mrs Peterson.
They hissed and scratched and clawed at eachother for a while and eventually,
as Nichelle, Matilda and I watched from either the kitchen or living room
window, the youngster committed some act of rudeness which made him personna
non grata on the roof of the house. As a jest of triumph Mr and Mrs Peterson
continued their little game of tag, which slowly took on more intimate allures.
Mr Peterson's advances were stubbornly fought off by the coy Mrs Peterson.
They chased one another, he cornered her, hopped on her back, she escaped
over and over again. Suddenly Mr Peterson got the upper hand, pinned her
and straddled her for good and prepared for the traditional, matrimonial
rite of the old in-out. He began to thrust in earnest when both fell, still
in eachother's grasp, right off the roof and below the sight lines of our
window. Nichelle screamed and we both ran to the window to witness the awful
sight below: two bloodied, mangled bodies still clutching eachother dead
on the sidewalk. Some days everyone gets lucky. Though they took a good spill
of about ten feet, they landed on the fire-escape, which broke their fall.
Stunned, they rolled down the steps another five feet or so before getting
up, licking their wounds (more bruises than anything else) and going back
to the safe confines of their home under the gable.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: John
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: Re: Archfuhrer
Gabe, I'm not suggesting we just say fuck you to the Fuehrer and move the
MOO, I just want some assurance that the MOO won't go down again for 5 or
6 days with no way to get it running again and no explanation for the reason
why. That's about it. I don't know about being on bad terms with Terry,
I just don't talk to her any more. I have a hard time being friendly when
I am suspicious about a person's motives. Anyways, yes, I have all the players
and most of the rest of the MOO, including email addresses.
From: Nichelle
Date: 6 October 1996
Subject: fuck everyone.
I'm not in a good mood. I spent over an hour on the phone with my dad who
can't get his internet connection to work. The problem seems to be that
he doesn't have the attention span to follow the directions they sent. He
wouldn't talk about things in a reasonable manner. I told him either to
read the entire fucking instructions as we went along, or I couldn't help.
He kept blabbering at me. What can I do? He's supposed to buy me a computer,
and I think I'm getting close here...
I've just gagged 'hate' on Lambda. negatron, is he a friend of yours? What
an asshole. He's been going around telling the whole MOO that I'm a dirty,
dirty whore who offered him a blowjob, and that since he turned me down
I'm now denying it. What the fuck is with these people? We did have a conversation
once about how he doesn't like oral sex, or his gf is no good at it, or
something like that. Can somebody please MOOmurder him?
From: Brian
Date: 7 October 1996
Subject: Re: vr
thank you, and your rectum too!
------------------------------------------
Brian, Permeable Press
From: SAGReiss
Date: 12 October 1996
Subject: The Palace
Having just been kicked off the Palace for the first time, I thought it
might be a good time to collect my thoughts and pass them along. I've been
on now for three or four afternoons and evenings. Today I was for the first
time able to carry on a conversation. The graphical wealth of the Palace seems
to come at the cost of textual depth. One can only type two or three sentences
at once, so I can't even speak in paragraphs, which is my wont. Funny that
the girl I talked to today is a seventeen-year-old guest from Quebec. I have
come upon the following strategy: instead of roaming about looking for trouble,
I simply squat the Study waiting for trouble to find me. It's much more effective
when some unsuspecting asshole from the Playboy/Calvin Klein school of avatars
walks into a friendly room and someone says: "Why would anyone choose to
represent himself by a mass-produced, consumer image?" Some dumb bitch actually
told me that the Playmate represented her "inner self". I refrained from
asking if there was just an extra hundred pounds separating that from her
outer self. I feel bad about causing trouble on your MOO, but I can't really
help it. I just can't believe that these people will tell me they are being
creative by using the same cut-out of Garfield that seventeen other characters
use. Besides, as negatron (RL's resident geek) once said, my function on
the internet seems to be "troubling the social order". It's not that I'm
picking on those poor fools. I've done the same thing for almost two years,
since I came back from France, was delighted to discover the internet and
was horrified to see what people used it for. DU, the first MOO I discovered,
got me kicked off of two servers. Lambda is more tolerant of, let's say,
subversive behavior, but I've been fighting and swearing my way through that
dumbass MOO ever since I first came on as a guest and people used to groan
when they heard those fateful words: "Hello, my name is Gabriel." Anyway,
of course the Palace has great potential, though it's still pearls before
swine at the moment. I like the guests more than the members, perhaps because
they have less emotionally invested in the status quo, the brain-dead, MTV
culture. It's nice that there are so many Quebecois. I hope you won't think
I'm a cad for throwing Molotov cocktails on your MOO. I'm careful not to
mention your name, should you wish to deny my acquaintance. I've missed you
these last few days. Perhaps you'll drop by and see me some time on RL, Lambda
or the Study... Clean.
From: Nichelle
Date: 13 October 1996
Subject: e-mail...
I felt sorry for you because you never get e-mail. I *always* get *all*
the e-mail. Poor Gaby.
Kiss kiss,
Nichelle
From: Nichelle
Date: 14 October 1996
Subject: (no subject)
I woke up this morning as Gaby left. I guess I'm so horrible in the morning
that he has decided not to wake me up or say goodbye before work. I couldn't
get back to sleep, either. It seemed like daylight would never come, so
I listened to the crows outside, opened up the window for a little fresh
air, got a glass of water. I managed to go back to sleep, but that's probably
because I'd only slept a few hours anyway. When I woke up the second time,
I felt like there was a gigantic hole in my stomach, and I needed to fill
it up fast. I still managed to feed the cat first, then poured myself a glass
of juice and a bowl of cereal, which I devoured in about nine seconds. And
about nine seconds after that, I was kneeling in front of the great white
potty yacking it all up. The cat was drinking my juice when I finished. Cereal
is no fun to throw up if it's the only thing in your stomach, especially
if you eat it relatively dry as I do. Though for all the work of throwing
it up, because it is sort of a thick paste, it is the tastiest thing I've
vomited in the last few weeks (and I've had a few real whoppers). It must
be all of those whole grains.
On a weirder note, my best friend from high school has been doing time
in a Denver jail. Talk about News of the Weird:
Four activists from Rocky Mountain Animal Defense (RMAD) were arrested
a short time ago after they locked themselves to the doors of the Denver
Coliseum where the circus was about to begin. Spectators were routed around
the main entrance for about a half hour before the activists were cut away
from the doors with a giant bolt cutter.
They are in jail, refusing bail (if it is set) and on a HUNGER STRIKE!!
Denver jail officials said Scott, Jen and Ken of Boulder and Greg of Evergreen
were being held on $100 bail each with a court date set for Oct 28. Jail
officials confirmed that four were refusing food.
We now return you to Nichelle's Letter. Damn! What the fuck? I guess that's
what happens when you send your kids to Boulder to go to college, but I
have to say this girl has balls. And to prove it, she chained her mighty
cojones to the Denver Coliseum. My mind is spinning, and it isn't just from
losing a giant bowl of bran flakes and puffed rice. My stomach is spinning
too, and I'm going to have to do something about that soon. Oh well, what
can I say. Welcome to the World According To Nichelle's Stomach...
From: Murder
Date: 15 October 1996
Subject: Another FWB
"Can I help you?" I ask the 5'11" 215-pound woman blocking the doorway
to the music education room in the music library. Her breath reeks of that
stale combination of cigarettes and coffee. One wrong exhalation could wipe
out half the population of Burma. "I was wondering if you had any material
on how to make a creative bulletin board for, say, second grade." "Music
related?" You can never assume anything on this job. "Not necessarily."
"Well, then why the hell are you up here? Can't you see this is the MUSIC
library? Take about a half-carton of Certs and come back when I've had more
than an hour-and-a-half of sleep." I felt like that clerk at Dairy Queen--"Sorry,
we don't do that here." Actually, what I did say was only a trifle less
cutting. This list has been quiet lately; no thanks to me, I know. Went
three weeks without even checking my e-mail. Other than school, a new gf,
3 performance groups, practicing, conducting, teaching a full studio, finishing
up the sonata, writing a paper for my scholarship, fighting the financial
aid office/cashier's/music department/pissed-offex-roommate/parents, and
applying for grad-schools, I have nothing to do. I finally have the motivation
to finish Nichelle's clarinet sonata (the one I began writing 5 years ago),
but probably not 'til winter quarter after I complete my flute choir piece.
Composing teaches one a lot about performing. Every performer should write
something at least once, just to sneak a peek at what life is like on the
other side of the page. My new gf plays oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Practices
a combined 5 hours a day and runs cross-country. That's intensity. She even
has enough energy left at night to make love 2 or 3 times. Even sleeps with
intensity. Good Christian girl. After we finished one night she whispered
in my ear: "I've always known that musicians make the best lovers." 'Nuff
said.
Murder
From: Nichelle
Date: 15 October 1996
Subject: Bronze Lullaby
I know all about the perils of working at the music library, Murder. I
did it for four and a half years at EWU, and it can be a fucking nightmare.
One lady from the Elementary Ed. class came in to work on a lesson plan
for her Music in the Classroom project or some shit like that. She even
brought in her fucking yappy little dog. (Dogs were a big favorite at EWU.
Four of the profs had their dogs constantly in their offices.) She didn't
even know what the fuck a *piano* was. No shit. Who doesn't know what a
piano is? I gave her directions to one of the practice rooms to go look
at one, but decided instead to show her myself , figuring a lady that fucking
dumb might get lost on the way. Oh yes, after the zillions of requests for
the music of Mendersen's Summer Night Dreams, or the cello concert of Raro,
the numerous requests for the Phantom of the Opera collection (we had three
copies), not to mention the humanities students who crammed into the group
listening room by the dozens the hour before the exam. And all so they could
recognize the beginning of Beethoven's 5th Simfuny, or Haydn's Hallelujah
Messiah, or that piece, hell I can't remember the title, but the composer's
name was Opus, I think. Do you get to answer the phone and answer people
who want to know what the name of the piece on the Olive Garden commercial
is, or the ones who sing to you (off key, of course) through the receiver?
There is no end to the weird ass shit you've got to endure when you work
in a place like that, but what the hell. You've got the keys to the whole
palace, thousands of beautiful recordings and scores at your fingertips,
you write notes to your profs telling them to return their 127 overdue items...
Life ain't so bad, really.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 19 October 1996
Subject: Janet the Planet
As usual you can see my pristine innocence in this latest affaire. I simply
walked into the study and as I uttered the dread: "Hello, my name is Gabriel,"
someone wrote the URL of his web site, so I appended my own in reply. Suddenly
I found myself in the middle of a brawl between Janet and CyberBob. She
said something about not advertising porn sites on the Palace and I asked
why, given the omnipresent half-clad ladies and given that my page contains
only text-porn, nothing likely to interest underage hackers. At this point
Bob begins whispering to me not to fuck with Janet, that she's the wife
of the Man, so I mumble something about what do I care whom she's married
to, she's an ignorant Nazi as far as I'm concerned. You see? always courteous,
yet germane to the matter at hand. She didn't seem to get very offended,
even when I suggested that it takes a little more to make me cower in my
shoes than someone whose sole claim to fame is being married to some code-writing
geek. I invited her to kick me off, if that would make her feel powerful.
She did not. That's about when you, as unsuspecting as I earlier, walked
in. In deference to you, not knowing much about your position on the Palace,
I tried not to provoke things any further. That's about it. You were right
about TRcunt, PHprick's sister. She is small and low and smells bad. The
only person I have met I like so far is Columbine, but I haven't seen her
around since we met. I turn the sound off now and use the log window, basically
turning the Palace into a text-based MOO, which is what I like anyway. I
have such a completely foul reputation on Lambda that it's nice to get away
from time to time. Even Nichelle gets hate pages from total strangers just
for being known as my gf. I love all these New-Age, PC feminist types...
From: SAGReiss
Date: 19 October 1996
Subject: Shakes 106
John, would you mind sending out a MOOmail to all members of RL that tomorrow,
Sunday 20 October, at 8:00 PM Eastern time a discussion of Shakespeare's
106th sonnet will take place in Shakespeare (Paradiso North)? Thank you very
much. RSVP.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 20 October 1996
Subject: Dr Spock
I fear my visits to the Palace won't last much longer. Last night I got
into it with Dr Spock. Although you had warned me about her, I could not avoid
the confrontation. Please feel free to ask for the log (I foolishly forgot
to log it.) and confirm or infirm this report. I was in the study and used
the adjective "God-damned" about something or other. Some guest told me to
watch my language, so I said: "Eat me." At about the same time some other
guest became rather obscene and abusive of a couple of members. Two of them,
hipguy (a real toad) and Shareef, began harassing both of us. As I saw I
was getting into trouble, I quickly stopped using any profanity. I called
them idiots. They called a wizard and Dr Spock promptly teleported in. The
obscene abuser left at this point. Dr Spock left too, as I said nothing too
harsh. For some reason she came back and that's when things got out of hand.
I didn't catch everything that happened 'cause I was occupied elsemoo. I
said something like: "I'm not really afraid of some power-hungry geek." She
gagged me and kept whispering to me, taunting me with: "How does it feel
not to be able to talk?" etc. I may have insulted her, but I did not use
any of the seven words one can't say on TV. I'm not even sure she could hear
me after I was gagged. Anyway I don't care much. I prefer to be on Lambda
than to be somewhere where concepts so elusive as "rudeness" are enough to
give people the right to curb such a basic right as speaking in a text-based
forum. At least on Lambda no one tells you to watch your tongue. I'll keep
going to the Palace until they fuck with me severely. Please e-mail me if
they decide to fuck with my server. I don't want to go through that again.
I didn't understand your letter about tracking and whatnot. Just warn me
if they're going to contact my server and I'll never log on again. It's like
DU. There's not much going on of interest, just a potential pool of people
among whom I might find a few who are interested in using the internet for
something other than fun, people who might like what we're doing and might
have something to offer. Other than that I have no wish to be on some Nazi-Boy-Scout
MOO where swearing or writing pornography in one's web page are considered
crimes.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 21 October 1996
Subject: Shakes 106
Wilkommen. Bienvenu. Welcome.
RL MOO (The Real Life MOO)
“In the twenty-first century e-novels will be written online.”
For more information, please see the RL MOO web site.
Valid commands are: WELcome, who, COnnect, quit, UPtime, version, or REQuest.
You must be twenty-one or older to connect. Please use your real name.
Type: co name password
Or: co guest
********* Please read “help disclaimer” after logging on. *********
*** Connected ***
Limbo
Woe unto you, unbaptized child. You are tottering on the brink of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Silence prevails within these dark confines; only paging and
remote emoting are allowed in this room.
For spiritual guidance (RL-MOO help), type ‘help’. To get away from the
heat (Enter RL-MOO), go to Purgatorio. Type ‘Pur’.
Last connected Sun Oct 20 14:00:04 1996 AKDT.
There is new news. Type `news’ to read all news or `news new’ to read just
new news.
new news
It’s the current issue of the News, dated Sunday Oct 20, 1996.
Sunday, October 20, 1996:
Shakes 106
Today, Sunday 20 October at 8:00 PM EST, there will be a discussion of
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 106 in the Shakespeare room (Paradiso North). Be there
or be a subliterate MTV baby.
When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have expressed
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
And, for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
pur
Purgatorio
“Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”
“Pure and ready to rise to the stars.”
Exits: Up (to Paradiso), Limbo (to Limbo), and Down (to Inferno). To private
rooms: North (free), South (free), East (free), and West (free).
up
Paradiso
“E’n la sua volontade e nostra pace.”
“In His will is our peace.”
Exits: Down (to Purgatorio). To private rooms: North (free), South (free),
East (free), and West (free).
north
Shakespeare
“When thou didst not, Savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble, like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known.”
Type <out> to return to Paradiso.
You are now the temporary owner of this room, which is currently unlocked.
For a list of available commands type “help here”.
Goldie has arrived.
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: If I let you do all the talking, will you be annoyed?
You ask, “How about if I ask questions and you try to answer?”
Goldie says, “Uh-oh. Up in front of the classroom with teacher glaring
at me. I guess we can do that.”
You say, “I suggest we begin with the phoneme, which is the smallest unit
of language. I could justify that claim, but it would take us on an unnecessary
detour.”
You say, “I won’t bother you with a definition of the phoneme. What I mean
by that word are the ‘sounds’ of language. Let us look and listen. What
interests us is what is repeated.”
Goldie stops passing notes and pays attention.
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: Okay. Repetition. What struck you?
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: What sounds are repeated?
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: Sounds, or words?
You say, “Sounds (phonemes). Words (morphemes) are bigger units of language
composed of phonemes.”
Goldie dropped that class. :)
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: Give us a hint.
You say, “For example, we see the repetition of sounds at the end of the
lines.”
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: Well, obviously.
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: Nothing is obvious.
You ask, “What can we say about the repetition of sounds at the end of
the lines?”
Goldie [to SAGReiss]: All right. I retract. Why don’t we look on this as
an orientation session where you acquaint us with the finer details of examination?
You ask, “Let me suggest a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Any arguments?”
You ask, “Can we say something more about the rhyme of the first quatrain?”
Goldie says dutifully, “I sounds.”
You say, “Good. The vowel sound is the same in the A and B rhyme. Thus
the rhyme is strengthened by assonance.”
You say, “What other phonological repetitions do we see in the poem? I
can’t really give a hint without giving the answer...”
You ask, “Where do we see letters conspicuously repeated, to put it simply?”
Goldie says, “You might as well tell us.”
You say, “I see no reason why I should. If you look at the lines and count
the occurrences of different letters, you will see it. It’s not a question
of opinion. It’s a matter of fact.”
Goldie fidgets.
You say, “OK. Let’s look at line five.”
Goldie says, “B’s.”
You ask, “I don’t see why that was so hard. What is the pattern of repetition
of Bs?”
Goldie says, “Because I’m Blond.”
Goldie asks, “What do you mean?”
You ask, “Where/how do the Bs recur?”
Goldie says, “He uses beauty/beautiful a few times.”
You ask, “That’s kind of vague, true, but vague. In line five (and six)
where do the Bs occur?”
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: Do you know what metre we are dealing with (iambic
pentametre)?
Goldie says, “Yes....”
You ask, “The pattern is u-/u-/u-/u-/u- Using that as a yardstick, where
do the Bs occur?”
Goldie says dutifully, “The B’s are always on the stressed syllables?’
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: Good, which stressed syllables?
You ask, “The second, fourth and fifth beats of line five and the fifth
beat of line six, n’est-ce pas?”
You ask, “Do we see a similar pattern with another consonant in a similar
place?”
Goldie asks, “Pre sounds?”
You say, “Yes, where? Be more specific.”
Goldie says, “9, 10, 13, 14....”
Goldie says, “4.”
Goldie says, “7.”
You say, “Good. Let’s look at lines nine and ten. They are in a very similar
position, first lines of a quatrain...”
Goldie asks, “?”
You say, “We’ve got P in the second and fourth beats of line nine and at
the beginning of the last word of line ten.”
Goldie says, “Of course, in ten it falls off the beat.”
You ask, “Yes. I’m not sure if that’s structurally important or a variation.
What word, given the overall meaning of the poem, seems to stand out as
the B-word and the P-word?”
Goldie says, “I don’t know.”
You ask, “If you had to use two words, one beginning with the letter B
and the other beginning with the letter P, to explain the meaning of the
poem, which two words would you use?”
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: Hint: which two words occur most frequently in the
poem?
Goldie shrugs. “Beauty and prophecy.”
You ask, “One out of two? How often does the word prophecy occur?”
Goldie says, “Would you rather I said praise? I was going for meaning more
than frequency.”
SAGReiss [to Goldie]: Go where the data lead you. ‘praise’ occurs three
times, including the last word of the poem.
Goldie asks, “But what actuates the praise?”
You say, “Actuates? So far we have established that B-sounds and P-sounds
dominate quantitatively. We have further associated those initial consonants
(alliteration) with the two most frequent words in the poem, beauty (four
times) and praise (three times).”
Goldie says, “Those concepts need something to animate them, though.”
You say, “There are no fucking concepts. This is a God-damned poem. It’s
made up of words (morphemes) which are in turn made up of sounds (phonemes).”
Goldie says, “‘There are no good books or bad books, only badly-written
ones.’ You’re applying that to poetry, you know.”
Goldie says, “Most works, I think, are more than the sums of their parts.”
Goldie says, “The concepts of poems can be part of their structures. Not
necessarily, but they can be. You don’t have to discount them.”
You say, “Well, as banalities and cliches go, those utterances are as true
or false as you like. They are not matters of fact. Everything I have said
so far about sonnet 106 is a verifiable fact based on careful analysis of
the data. If you had the patience to continue, you might see that we have
just uncovered the internal structure of the poem.”
Goldie says, “I agree that everything you have said is a verifiable fact.
It was the denial of concepts that got me -- in the way you phrased
it.”
Goldie says, “I suppose, however, that you were merely pointing out to
me the separate nature of different interpretive tools.”
Goldie says, “Reminding me to leave that to its own time.”
Goldie allows you to continue, assuming a cowlike docility.
You say, “I think you will see that if you bear with me for a few more
minutes with phonology and then syntax, you will understand and be able
to explain how this poem works, without resorting to either concepts or
interpretations. So far I have done nothing but make statements of fact.”
You ask, “Assuming silence to mean consent (which we all know is a very
dangerous assumption) I shall continue. What can we say about the graphical
relationship between the (written) letters B and P (lower case)?”
Goldie asks, “They are the same if you flip one vertically?”
You say, “Precisely.”
Goldie chews her California cud -- gum.
You ask, “Do you think we can now draw a tentative conclusion from our
phonological analysis?”
Goldie says, “Instruct me, Obi-Wan.”
You ask, “You don’t want to try, Blond-Bimbo?”
Goldie isn’t being entirely facetious. You know those Jedi-students, leaping
to conclusions about their abilities.
Goldie says, “I am uncertain about the sort of conclusion you wish to draw.
I don’t know what form it should take.”
Goldie asks, “Would you prefer I throw things at you until one fits the
mold?”
You say, “The poem establishes a tension between two words, beauty and
praise. The words occur in strikingly similar patterns at the beginning
of the second and third quatrains. This tension is underscored both phonologically
and graphically. The subject of the poem might read: ‘Beauty and its praise.’”
Goldie mutters, “It’s a general category, anyway.”
You say, “Who cares? It’s here, in black and white. I’m not making this
up. This is what Shakes wrote.”
Goldie says, “I know you aren’t making it up.”
You ask, “With that conclusion in mind (Let’s think of it as a working
hypothesis.) can you analyse the syntax (grammar, if you prefer) of the
poem?”
Goldie asks, “Analyse to what end?”
You say, “Tell me what the sentence structure is, subject-verb-object,
to no end in particular, if not to understand the poem.”
Goldie says, “I’m sorry. I’m not used to looking at the structure of anything
so closely.”
You say, “OK, how about this: When I see descriptions, then I see their
antique pen... So all their praises are but prophecies, and they had not skill
enough... For we have eyes...”
You ask, “Is that more or less the syntactical (and meaningful) structure
of the poem?”
Goldie says, “You have confused me.”
Goldie says, “I thought it was rather, when I see descriptions, they seem
to describe you, as I can’t.”
You say, “I’m trying to use syntax to isolate the meaningful skeleton of
the poem.”
You say, “Oooh, I really don’t think so.”
Goldie says, “All right.”
Goldie is getting cross.
You say, “I think a simple statement of the poem is that the ancients had
tongues to praise, but not ‘your’ beauty to praise. The narrator has ‘you’
to praise, but no tongue.”
Goldie says, “Of course.”
You say, “To return to our two words, beauty is associated with the present,
the narratee, praise with the ancient poets.”
Goldie nods.
You say, “So I think the syntax and general meaning of the poem confirm
the hypothesis which we drew through simple, scientific analysis of the linguistic
(phonological) data.”
Goldie says, “Ah.”
Goldie says, “That all may be very well, but dash it all, sir, I think
that if I had to take a class with you, I’d fall asleep. G’night.”
Goldie goes home.
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 23 October 1996
Subject: Literaturwissenschaft
Whatever you may have thought about our little log of Sunday evening (I
have received a resounding: "No comment," as an answer.) I deemed it a qualified
success. While Goldie got bored or pissed and left in medias res, she did
so after two hours looking carefully at fourteen lines of text, a miracle
for the MTV, attention-deficiency-syndrome generation. I therefore decided
last night, while making love, to continue the experiment with a couple
of structural changes intended to increase participation. There has been
some increased activity on RL MOO which encourages me, even more than the
decreased activity of the listserv discourages me. The latter is my fault
and I have no excuses. I'll do better. I shall thus make it a weekly meeting
in Shakespeare (Paradiso North) Sundays at four in the afternoon Eastern
time (to allow our European friends to participate at a reasonable hour).
The logs will appear on a button under the title "Literaturwissenschaft"
on the World's web page. (To insure privacy I make up nicknames for all participants
except Nichelle, negatron and myself.) Texts for consideration should be
submitted to me by e-mail (sagreiss@dreamscape.com) by midnight Wednesday
to give me time to prepare. I ask that they be no longer than fifteen-hundred
characters (A sonnet is about five-hundred.) and be structurally a unit (paragraph[s],
stanza[s], monologue[s]) in English, French or German. No texts in translation
will be considered. They may be any genre of fiction or non-fiction. Original
texts will be considered. Once I have selected a text for the week, it will
appear on RL's new news and be sent to the listserv. I will not suggest texts
myself, for this would make me feel too much like judge, jury and executioner.
If you want to use this forum to cheat on your homework or whatever, so be
it. Please let me know what you think, or send proposed texts. John, would
you please put this note on new news? Thank you all for your participation
and we'll see you on RL MOO...
RECTVM VINVM
Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: Columbine
Date: 24 October 1996
Subject: Your Web pages
I finally got a chance to look at your web site this evening. I'm still
processing the ideas, like a blood clot in my brain.
Given the ideological differences you've learned about in a few brief conversations
(and others that you don't know about), it's inevitable that I will find
many things to hate in that package. There are also many things to like.
Perhaps I will draw further conclusions at some future time.
Interesting that you make a virtue of the very type of content which caused
me to dismantle my website because that was all it contained - the poems
and the random fragments of floating ideas like debris. One of us is more
cynical than the other about the people on the far side of the screen. Unfortunately,
I am starting to fear it is me.
The Schiller quote is my normal signature; I didn't put it in just for
you. But I could have; I find it oddly appropriate here.
- Columbine
Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk - mach
es wenigen recht. Vielen gefallen ist schlimm. -Schiller
From: SAGReiss
Date: 25 October 1996
Subject: Meine That
I'm sorry to hear that your brain aneurysm is feeling under the weather.
If it keeps bothering you I'd suggest a diet of whisky and aspirine. The
former strips the arteries and the latter thins the blood. I know nothing
about our so-called ideological differences, except that I've got a washer-dryer
in the basement and probably spend a lot more time cooking and baking than
you do. (Last night I baked bread and roasted a leg of lamb with cranberry
sauce [Mint jelly is a pain in the ass to make.] string beans and sweet
potatoes and home-made brownies for desert.) I don't know anyone who disagrees
with freedom of speech as endorsed by the first ammendment and the Declaration
universelle des droits de l'homme nor that they are intended to protect
offensive speech, the only kind of speech in need of such protection. We
may differ on the price we're willing to pay for such a principle of governance.
Rudeness is not high on my list of things which make life wretched. I'm
also not silly enough to think that the Constitution or United Nations Charter
covers the Palace or RL MOO for that matter, but I question whether the
people in charge really want to create a socio-political organism where
such basic rights are not defended. That they can is clear to me. I have
no idea what you found hateful in our web pages. Many have not understood
that the texts are exactly what they appear to be, e-mail written by me
and my friends, all signed and dated. I bristle at the word "random" in
your comments. Nothing is random on that page. Everything on it was carefully
planned long before I found the geeks who made its realization technically
possible for me, one of the cybernetically challenged. What I have made is
a three-tiered network of research and creation including a listserv, a web
site and a MOO. The three are inextricably linked, as you can see if you
follow the RL MOO icon on the bottom right-hand corner of the Welcome page.
Ideas are not important to me. They are a perhaps-necessary by-product or
feedback of our search for style, each writer's struggle to find his voice,
to force the empty word "I" to mean something. I know not what you mean by
cynicism, except to point out that the word comes from the ancient Greek
term for "dog". I cannot guess what the twelve-hundred people who have seen
our site in six months think. Few have written any remarks. What I have tried
to do is collect texts I like and present them to the general public in the
only forum currently available to me. I've also got two e-novels making the
rounds of publishing houses. As you can see in my commentary entitled "Shakes
106", I take a very technical view of literature, in which the phoneme takes
precedence. Last (Work beckons.) I wonder about Schiller's use of "wenigen".
I would have said something like "am wenigsten" or "mindestens"...
From: Columbine
Date: 25 October 1996
Subject: Re: Meine That
You're right, we may not have too many fundamental ideological differences
- hard to tell, really. Is it possible to agree on the larger things and
disagree on the details?
I did not mean to impugn the veracity of your site. I am quite aware that
all of these articles are real texts written by real people. Indeed, I hardly
think that anyone could read your site and be UNaware of that. My use of
"random" simply meant this: if there is a connecting thread between those
varied documents, then I am not seeing it.
HOWEVER I would also like to point out that I don't consider that a fault
and that I didn't really expect one to be there.
I'd like to see your MOO at some point. Perhaps I will.
My German is not sound enough to comment on Schiller's grammar. I learned
German so I could read Grimm in the original ... I speak it only passably
enough to make my wishes known to my employer's Munich office on occasion.
My French is sufficient to be able to appreciate your translation, which
is rather lovely.
I am one of the people in the universe who find certain types of content
disturbing. That's my personal taste and no one else's, and I don't try
to restrict other people from content. But I have been known to try to prejudice
the reader on occasion. Which some would say is just as bad.
-columbine
Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk - mach
es wenigen recht. Vielen gefallen ist schlimm. -Schiller
From: SAGReiss
Date: 26 October 1996
Subject: Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind...
Funny how that line translates into: "Et ils vecurent longtemps et eurent
beaucoup d'enfants." and "And they lived happily ever after." Kind of takes
the edge off, n'est-ce pas? You would be quite amazed to know how many people
have accused me of writing the texts grouped under the generic title "There's
no such thing as paranoia" to glorify rape. There is, I believe, a "connecting
thread", le fil d'Ariane, running through those texts. It's a theme brought
up yesterday evening in the living room on Lambda by someone who asked me
a seemingly innocent question (There's no such thing as innocent questions.)
whether I knew negatron offline. I have never seen his face, though he has
seen mine on our web page. I have spoken to him on the phone several times,
but that uses the same "line" as the 'puter. We once sent him a book by
snail mail. We are fellow contributors to the rent of RL MOO, which he built
according to my plans. Do we know eachother offline? What is offline? Did
I meet Nichelle offline when she stepped out of an airplane on 17 March
or had I met her on 27 February in the sex room on Lambda? I'm afraid I can
no longer make a clean break between on- and offline. The texts you have
read are part of one or the other of my e-novels. When edited and put in
sequence, I think they make up a coherent whole. The theme of BABEL is my
passage from, in Jeff's words, "an ugly smelly ape with a typer" to a man
with a modem. The theme of vr is something like Nichelle teleports in. vr,
the listserv, the web site and RL MOO (I'd gladly give you a character if
you'd tell me your name.) are the result of one hopeless creative outburst
which began on 22 February. The geek who made our page wrote: "Let us enter,"
and the word "enter" brought up in my mind: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter
here," which translated into the three-tiered structure of RL MOO (Inferno,
Purgatorio, Paradiso). negatron made me create Limbo to keep down the tics,
something whose mysteries I have never understood. I'm not sure what you
mean by "disturbing content". Are Nichelle's texts disturbing? I think the
fear of people saying: "SUK MI DIK" on the Palace is that the level of discourse
is already so pitifully low that such meaningless gibberish exposes the vacuum.
Is it any dumber than someone offering a beer to everyone in the study? Is
this a crime if a minor is present? I don't know. I'm not in a good writing
mood. I haven't had a drink in far too long. I'm beginning to get used to
sobriety. I fucking hate it.
From: Martine
Date: 26 October 1996
Subject: (no subject)
Cet extrait-la, c'est quoi?
"When thou didst not, Savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble, like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known."
J'ai cru que c'etait le sonnet 106, a tort.
Peut-etre Prospero a Caliban, non?
C'est drole, en lisant cet extrait, je m'indentifiais immediatement a l'adresse,
et j'identifiais l'auteur dans le "I". Un texte generique, s'il en fut ...
D'ailleurs, je m'identifie volontiers a Caliban ...
Ciao ...
Martine
From: SAGReiss
Date: 26 October 1996
Subject: I, ii
There is some dispute as to whether Prospero or Miranda speak these lines.
I think the latter makes more sense.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 26 Octobre 1996
Subject: Toi
Je ne voulais pas t'embeter, mais rien n'est simple. La derniere fois (plus
ou moins) qu'on s'est cause, tu etais invitee avec une sorte de couronne
olympique a la tete. Ensuite je te vois rien. Puis je me souviens que tu
as demande d'abord le personnage Mouchette a RL MOO. Je suis franc comme
garcon. Je ne mens pas. Je crois les autres sur parole. Parfois je suis dupe.
Je n'ai aucune raison de me mefier de toi. Les choses ne sont guere simple.
Comme je t'ai dit, le garcon qui a viole Nichelle a plusieurs personnages
dans plusieurs MOOs, qu'on sache. Il en surement d'autres qu'on ignore. Il
a aussi une histoire assez alembiquee comme quoi il ne l'a pas vraiment violee.
Certains le croient. Il n'y a pas de temoin apres tout. Je ne le crois pas.
J'essaie de simplifier ma vie MOOistique. Si jamais j'ai un personnage au
Palace, ce sera comme mes personnages dans tous les autres MOOs SAGReiss.
C'est mon nom. Le visage que tu as vu c'est le mien. Je suis un homme. Je
n'ai pas besoin d'avatars.
From: SAGReiss
Date: 26 October 1996
Subject: LCD
Far be it from me to suggest that Nichelle's texts do not disturb. If she
had made them up, or certainly if I had, one might argue about their propriety.
As this is not the case, so far as I know, it seems indecent to me for anyone
to suggest that she is showing poor taste to talk in public about the evil
things men have done to her. While one might claim that the 120 Days of
Sodom should never have been written, let alone published, surely no one
thinks that women who have been raped should shut their mouths because they
might offend timid souls. As to searching for a higher level of discourse,
why do you think I continue to haunt Lambda and the Palace. While I no longer
seriously believe I can effect any change there, I can encourage fellow searchers
to join our efforts and help us create something different on RL MOO. When
there are people on RL, which is seldom enough, the talk is not cheap. I'm
working on setting up weekly discussions of very short works of literature
(or extracts) on Sunday afternoons at four Eastern time. No one has proposed
a text this week, so I'm not sure what we'll do. I could send you a log of
the first one. You are of course welcome as a guest on RL. The Palace and
Lambda may simply be too big for there to be much of interest. Public discourse
inevitably tends towards the lowest common denominator. The people who come
to RL are looking for something else, so there is a natural selection process.
Nevertheless, I thought long and hard about how to encourage intelligent
behavior in a non-coercive way. (I'm mostly summing up things you could read
on the web site.) Real names, I believe, help to make people feel more responsible
for what they are doing. Anonymity leads to recklessness, even the relative
anonymity of a character/morph/avatar. On the other hand I have always used
my real name on every MOO, even when I came on as a guest, simply because
I saw no reason to make up some dumbstupid nickname. We also decided not
to let people program, which takes away most of the opportunities for spam
and spoof. I think having serious literary models and themes tends to make
people think about what they are saying. I have fought and struggled and
sworn and screamed my way through dozens of MOOs, commercial servers, IRC
and the Palace trying to wake people up to the vast, wasted potential, pearls
before swine. I have got the ear of one wizard on the Palace. She tells me:
"Don't get too pissed off. Keep trying. Stay away from PHprick and Dr Spock."
(No, she didn't make up those nicknames. I did, but she thought they were
funny.) No one can be happy with the present state of things. It breaks my
heart every time I log on anywhere. I have wept and thrown things across
the room, hating those sons of bitches for using such a powerful, beautiful
new medium to waste time while not doing their home work. Since I discovered
the 'puter revolution in January 1995 I have been online at least ten hours
a day (except when I haven't had access to a 'puter or an account) in a desperate,
wild, crazy hunt for someone, anyone who understood what we could do, had
we only the courage. No one has fought, bled and worked harder than I to
make something happen. I don't know shit about 'puters. I can't write code,
not even in basic. I have to find someone to do everything for me. That hasn't
stopped me. And if ultimately I fail, I will have done my best.
From: Columbine
Date: 26 October 1996
Subject: Re: Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind...
>I'm not sure what you mean by "disturbing content". Are
>Nichelle's texts disturbing?
Yes. I don't think I can defend that or explain why, though.
>I think the fear of people saying: "SUK MI DIK"
>on the Palace is that the level of discourse is already so pitifully
low
>that such meaningless gibberish exposes the vacuum.
This is by far the most succinct way I've heard anyone express it. I had
a conversation on there last night about this very subject (rather disgustingly
self-referential, but never mind that) and this is the same conclusion we
reached.
Nonetheless, even though I admit that the Palace is not providing a very
high level of discourse, as you put it, I continue to search there. I think
this may reveal some sort of stain on my character, but I don't care. I
HAVE almost completely given up using the Web - yours are the first pages
I have perused, with the exceptions of some specific software downloads
I needed, in at least six months. The signal obtained is just not worth
the time spent.
Oddly enough, judging from the few samples I've seen on your site, your
MOO *does* achieve that higher level of discourse, or at least a higher percentage
of the time. Which brings up the interesting question: what is the Palace
doing wrong? Or, flip side: what are you doing right? I look at the Palace
and I see potential wasted and I want to do something about it.
I don't give out my real name. This isn't paranoia; I hardly think you're
going to leap through my monitor and attack me. Call it a personality twitch.
Or maybe I just like "Columbine" better.
Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk - mach
es wenigen recht. Vielen gefallen ist schlimm. -Schiller
From: Columbine
Date: 27 October 1996
Subject: Voi ch'intrate
I entered RL MOO at about midnight tonight. I didn't really expect to find
anyone there at midnight, but it was worth a try. Nichelle saw me but didn't
say anything to me, left shortly afterwards. I'll try again at some future
point.
Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk - mach
es wenigen recht. Vielen gefallen ist schlimm. -Schiller
From: SAGReiss
Date: 27 October 1996
Subject: Le je et le tu
En te remerciant d'avoir mis les choses au point, je tiens a nuancer quelque
peu ton propos, bien qu'on soit d'accord sur l'essentiel. La fiction de
l'autobiographie consiste en la difference entre un monde en trois dimensions
et cinq sens et un monde purement linguistique, voire graphique, mais aussi
entre une personne (qui n'est pas seulement "soi-meme", car j'existe aussi
pour les autres) et une fonction narrative, celle du narrateur (qui n'est
pas un personnage comme les autres). Les textes que tu as lus ("ou plutot
survoles") sont en fait triples. Pour commencer il s'est agi d'e-mail, genre
epistolaire ou la fonction du narrataire est beaucoup plus importante que
d'habitude. Ces textes ont ete ensuite transposes au web avec un certain
nombre de modifications qu'on a jugees necessaires ou souhaitables (n.b.
l'ordre anachronique des lettres). Enfin l'ensemble de mon e-mail entre
le 22 fevrier et le 4 juillet (quelque mille pages) a ete edite et propose
a des maisons d'edition sous la rubrique roman avec le desaveu suivant:
"Ceci est une oeuvre de fiction. Toute ressemblance a des personnes vivantes
ou mortes est pure coincidence." J'utilise le terme desaveu en toute connaissance
de cause, car c'est toi qui emploies, si injustement a mon sens, le terme
aveu pour qualifier certains textes qu'on a proposes au grand public, soit
au web, soit (On le souhaite.) a la librairie ou a la bibliotheque. Je ne
vois pas, pour ma part, ce que Nichelle a bien pu avouer. Elle a ecrit,
comme n'importe quel auteur, des textes sur des choses qu'elle connait.
Il est difficile, meme inutile, de chercher a ecrire sur ce qu'on ne connait
pas. Je suis un lecteur/ecrivain assez desabuse pour ne plus me repaitre
d'illusions sur le bien ou le mal qu'on puisse faire avec des textes. Les
livres ne font rien. A ma connaissance Nichelle n'a pris aucune satisfaction
a avoir ecrit ces lettres, sauf celle de n'importe qui qui raconte une belle
histoire bien ecrite. Neanmoins je trouve bien naive l'idee que tu te fais
de la presence (virtuelle si tu veux) de ce criminel au MOO. Nous avons
plusieurs temoignages d'autres personnes de sexe, comme dirait Flaubert,
qu'il a invitees, avec insistance meme, chez lui. On a cherche a avertir
deux de ces personnes, ce qui nous a valu un certain nombre d'ennuis. Bref,
elles croient leur ami. J'ai fini par leur dire: "Soyez philosophiques a
vos risques et perils." Tout ce qui regarde la police et la justice ne te
regarde pas. Nichelle ne te doit rien du tout. Je ne lui ai jamais demande
pourquoi elle n'est pas allee se plaindre. C'est malheureux que ces crimes
ne soient que si peu punis, mais c'est ainsi. De toute facon il y a rarement
de temoins et il n'y a guere de condamnations. En ce qui concerne Mouchette
(Je ne parle pas de celle de Bresson que j'ignore.) et rien, je n'ai pas
grand'chose a dire, car je ne sais pas vraiment ou tu voulais en venir. J'aimerais,
si possible, savoir quand j'ai affaire a Martine (qui n'est qu'un autre personnage
apres tout) et quand j'ai affaire a Jean-Christophe ou William. Comment
tu te fasses appeler m'interesse tres peu. On a beau etre d'accord sur l'essentiel
(comme je l'ai dit ci-dessus), je travaille precisement au cheveauchement
entre le reel et le litteraire. Nichelle va bientot avoir son propre ordinateur.
Nos scenes de menage ont lieu deja dans une espace mi-publique qui est le
listserv ou les lettres que tu as lues ont paru pour la premiere fois. Ca
confine a l'absurde d'imaginer que deux personnes assises devant deux claviers
dans la meme piece n'auraient aucun rapport avec les deux personnages du
meme nom qui apparaissent sur les ecrans.
From: Martine
Date: 27 October 1996
Subject: Re: Toi ....oui, justement, Moi
Cher Gabriel,
Voici quelques elements de reponse, en vrac:
-l'autobiographie est une fiction comme une autre, qui consiste a se prendre
soi-meme pour personnage.
-le MOO est un univers de texte (et moins que cela, un univers de texte
ASCII). Il ne s'y commet de viols que textuellement, ce qui est moins dangereux
que de lire Sade (et je ne crois pas du tout que lire Sade soit dangereux)
-Ta copine n'a pas ete violee par un personnage de MOO, mais bien par quelqu'un
qu'elle a rencontre, dans la vie reelle. Si c'est bien de cela qu'il s'agit,
son agression releve de la police et de la justice, et non pas du MOO. Il
s'agirait de faire identifier le coupable par la POLICE, et de le faire
condamner par la JUSTICE. Toutes les denonciations et aveux sur le web,
et toutes les paranoias MOOesques relevent de l'autobiographie, c'est-a-dire
de la fiction.
-J'ai trop de respect pour la victime d'un viol pour lui laisser croire
que le fait que je lise ses aveux la reparera de quoi que ce soit. Les aveux
publics d'un viol peuvent rien de mieux que satisfaire les instincts sadiques
de quelques lecteurs pervers. La victime d'un viol ne doit pas se satisfaire
d'aveux publics. Elle doit, elle SE doit, elle NOUS doit, de faire punir
le coupable et de ne pas se laisse pas refiler des aveux publics en guise
de consolation!
-Tout le reste est fiction, que je traite par ailleurs avec toute la consideration
d'une lectrice pour un texte.
(J'ai lu, ou plutot survole, les textes d'aveux de ta copine,d'ou les remarques
ci-dessus. Est-ce que vraiment cela lui fait du bien de savoir que ses aveux
autobiographiques sont lus par des inconnus ? Est-ce que cela ne la detourne
pas du recours en justice necessaire en pareil cas ?)
-Mouchette est un personnage de fiction (online, partiellement tout du
moins), et c'est mon oeuvre. J'ai, en ce qui concerne Mouchette, la timidite
et l'embarras d'un auteur qui n'a pas encore decide de rendre son oeuvre
publique, mais qui neanmoins en brule d'envie, ce qui explique mes hesitations.
-Mouchette est le titre d'un film d'Andre Bresson ou une petite fille se
fait violer par la seule personne qui reussit un instant a gagner sa confiance.
Le lendemain, la petite fille se suicide.
-Mouchette emprunte son nom au personnage du film d'Andre Bresson (1961),
le nom seulement, car cette Mouchette la, c'est moi qui l'ecrit.
-A part cela, l'amalgame que tu fais entre la revelation de son identite
online et la personnalite d'un violeur ne merite aucune generalisation.
Cher Gabriel, je souhaite que ni toi, ni ta copine ne fassiez d'amalgames
nocifs entre le viol dans la vie reelle et la fiction online.
Amicalement,
Martine
From: Martine
Date: 30 October 1996
Subject: la parole, l'aveu, la fiction
Je ne saurais juger de la qualite du recit puisque je n'ai fait que le
survoler. Tout ce que je peux en dire, c'est qu'il me parait mal adapte
a la lecture online, fugitive, fragmentaire. Mon survol resulte de mes habitudes
(tres largement partagees) de lectrice online.
>Neanmoins je trouve bien
>naive l'idee que tu te fais de la presence (virtuelle si tu veux) de
ce
>criminel au MOO. Nous avons plusieurs temoignages d'autres personnes
de
>sexe, comme dirait Flaubert, qu'il a invitees, avec insistance meme,
chez
>lui. On a cherche a avertir deux de ces personnes, ce qui nous a valu
un
>certain nombre d'ennuis. Bref, elles croient leur ami. J'ai fini par
leur
>dire: "Soyez philosophiques a vos risques et perils."
Quelle curieuse salade tu fais entre la vie et le MOO! On ne rencontre
les gens du MOO IRL que de son plein gre, que je sache! Et si vous laissez
courir de (veritables) violeurs impunis, vous en etes responsables. Ca ne
servirait a rien d'avertir les gens du MOO.
>Tout ce qui regarde la
>police et la justice ne te regarde pas. Nichelle ne te doit rien du
tout.
En effet, je n'ai rien fait pour elle. Je n'ai pas pris plaisir a son recit:
donc elle n'a rien fait pour moi non plus. Mes reactions (toute ecrites
qu'elles furent) etaient celle de la personne reelle que je suis, impliquee
dans un aveu reel. Tandis que je lisais, l'effet de "temoignage" s'est impose
et j'en ai ete la dupe.
>Je ne lui ai jamais demande pourquoi elle n'est pas allee se plaindre.
C'est
>malheureux que ces crimes ne soient que si peu punis, mais c'est ainsi.
De
>toute facon il y a rarement de temoins et il n'y a guere de condamnations.
Allons, bon! Nous voila en plein romantisme de la victime. La condamnation
pour viol ne necessite pas la presence de temoins. Meme dans le cadre d'une
fiction sur le viol, il faut savoir un peu mieux de quoi on parle!
>En ce qui concerne Mouchette (Je ne parle pas de celle de Bresson que
>j'ignore.) et rien, je n'ai pas grand'chose a dire, car je ne sais
pas
>vraiment ou tu voulais en venir. J'aimerais, si possible, savoir quand
j'ai
>affaire a Martine (qui n'est qu'un autre personnage apres tout) et
quand
>j'ai affaire a Jean-Christophe ou William.
Est-ce le sexe du personnage qui t'importe? Sur le MOO, il se reduit a
une serie de pronoms que le serveur sait traiter automatiquement. Autrement,
je pense avoir ete assez claire, (et l'etre encore). Est-ce la quantite?
Il n'a ete question, envers toi, que d'une Martine pour l'instant. De Mouchette,
seul le nom est apparu, presque par hasard. Mais tu semble avide d'un danger,
que mon personnage n'a malheureusement pas a t'offrir.
>Comment tu te fasses appeler
>m'interesse tres peu. On a beau etre d'accord sur l'essentiel (comme
je l'ai
>dit ci-dessus), je travaille precisement au cheveauchement entre le
reel et
>le litteraire.
L'aveu d'un viol (reel) est une chose tres difficile et tres delicate pour
qui l'enonce, et qui met celui qui entend l'aveu en etat de responsabilite
humaine. Ca ne se galvaude pas sur le web en fiction autobiographique, chevauchant
le reel et le litteraire. Cela porte atteinte au VRAI temoignage de personnes
violees. (Autant du faire du temoignage des survivants la shoah une comedie
musicale, histoire de tester le passage de la realite a la fiction !....)
>Nichelle va bientot avoir son propre ordinateur. Nos scenes
>de menage ont lieu deja dans une espace mi-publique qui est le listserv
ou
>les lettres que tu as lues ont paru pour la premiere fois. Ca confine
a
>l'absurde d'imaginer que deux personnes assises devant deux claviers
dans la
>meme piece n'auraient aucun rapport avec les deux personnages du meme
nom
>qui apparaissent sur les ecrans.
Si vous avez besoin de public pour vos scenes de menage pimentees de recits
de viol, vous le trouverez probablement sur le web et sur les listserv,
faute de pouvoir passer chez Oprah Winfrey. Est-ce que cela fera de la bonne
litterature, online ou pas? C'est une autre affaire.
Cher Gabriel, encore une fois, je souhaite que ni toi, ni ta copine ne
fassiez d'amalgames nocifs entre le viol dans la vie reelle et la fiction
online.
Amicalement,
Martine
mes references litteraires, artistiques
"On est toujours trop bon avec les femmes" (Sally Mara/Raymond Queneau)
"Mouchette" (Bresson/Bernanos)
From: SAGReiss
Date: 30 October 1996
Subject: E-litterature
Les mauvaises habitudes des lecteurs en mal de concentration ne m'appartiennent
pas. Je ne lis jamais un e-mail a l'ecran. Je le fais imprimer et le lis
comme n'importe quel texte. Je fais de meme pour un texte que je rencontre
au Web. Le Web est, pour l'instant, le seul moyen que j'ai pour atteindre
au grand public. Si j'avais les moyens de faire imprimer BABEL et vr a compte
d'auteur, crois-moi je le ferais. Je ne laisse courir personne. Nichelle
a pris une decision de ne pas porter plainte il y a un an. En cas semblables
beaucoup de femmes prennent la meme decision. Je n'ai pas a leur en juger.
Je suis peut-etre responsable de mes actes. Je ne suis guere responsable
de ce qu'a fait Nichelle avant que je ne la connaisse et surement pas de
ce que pourrait faire un homme que je n'ai jamais rencontre ni irl ni vr.
La ou je ne te suis plus c'est quand tu ecris: "Mes reactions (toute ecrites
qu'elles furent) etaient celle de la personne reelle que je suis, impliquee
dans un aveu reel." Je pensais qu'on etait d'accord la-dessus: que tu te
fasses appeler Martine, Mouchette ou rien ne change rien au probleme fondamental
de l'ecrit. C'est justement pour cela que j'utilise mon vrai nom. Martine
(non pas celle qui tape sur le clavier, mais celle qui dis: "Je" dans les
lettres) est un personnage, un narrateur. Quand Rimbaud dit: "Je est un autre,"
il connait tres bien l'etymologie commune des mots 'autre' et 'auteur'. En
ce qui concerne la justice, il ne serait plus possible de porter plainte
contre ce monsieur, meme si cela aurait ete possible a l'epoque. Meme les
MOOeurs de Lambda, si enclins a punir qulqu'un pour un MOOrape absurde, croient
l'un ou l'autre selon leur sensibilite. Ce qui me fatigue des personnages
MOOistique, c'est primo je n'aime pas a me souvenir de trente-six noms. C'est
bien plus simple pour les autres de savoir que sur Lambda, RL MOO, IRC, le
Web, le e-mail etc. je m'appelle toujours SAGReiss. De toute facon ces morphs
et ces avatars ne relevent que de l'incomprehension du medium ecrit. La photo
que tu as vue a la homepage n'est pas moi. La figure que tu as vue n'existe
plus. Je n'ai pas de cicatrices sur le front. J'ai six ans de plus que l'image
figee a un moment precis. De meme celui qui prononce les paroles fatidiques:
"Hello, my name is Gabriel," n'est pas moi. C'est moi qui tappe, bien sur,
mais tu ne vois pas un homme en trois dimensions multicouleurs. Tu n'entends
pas ma voix, mon accent alsacien. Tu ne sens pas mon odeur. Les gens sont
dupes de leurs propres personnages, car ils croient qu'ils entrent et sortent
de la realite comme d'une porte. Si toi tu te crois plus reelle a me dire
que c'est Martine, tu en es dupe aussi. Ce qui est interessant n'est pas
de construire toutes sortes de mensonges debiles et se rappeler ou je suis
un homme et ou je suis une femme. Ils savent tous lequel ils sont. La preuve,
c'est qu'ils disent la verite a certains. La question, c'est qu'est-ce que
c'est que d'etre un homme la ou etre un homme ne consiste qu'en une serie
de pronoms? Qu'est-ce que c'est que faire l'amour la ou on ne se touche pas?
Je ne suis avaide d'aucun danger. Je ne suis avide que de la verite. Non
pas la verite de quelqu'un qui porte le nom Martine Neddam. Je m'en fous
pas mal. C'est comment la verite se fait entendre dans un monde textuel,
litteraire, linguistique. Si j'ai cree un listserv, un site au Web et un
MOO, c'est pour trouver des elements de reponse a ces questions. Je ne suis
pas curieux comme garcon. Je ne comprends toujours pas (C'est lettre est
mal construite parce que je reponds a tes arguments au fur et a mesure.)
la difference que tu vois entre tel texte et tel autre du fait qu'il traite
de viol ou de genicide. Celui qui veut ecrire sur la guerre 39-45 est en
proie aux memes problemes de fiction que moi qui ecris mon e-mail. Qu'il
choisisse l'ironie, la gravitas ou le burlesque est un choix stylistique.
N'importe qui qui represente la realite a l'ecrit fait face a ce dilemme.
Ou est le vrai temoignage, celui de la victime ou celui du bourreau? Quelqu'un
nous a envoye un log ou celui qu'on croit culpable se defend de l'accusation.
Je crois Nichelle parce que je la connais. D'autres ne la croient pas parce
qu'ils connaissent l'autre. De toute facon aucun des textes ne decrit en
toute leur complexite des evenements reels. Chacun est une representation
ecrite de quelque chose qui s'est passe en dehors de l'ecriture. Nous sommes
face a l'inconnu. Je n'ai pas besoin du public pour vivre comme un homme.
J'ai besoin du public parce que je suis un homme de lettres. J'ecris pour
etre lu. La television ne m'interesse pas. Ce qui m'interesse, c'est comment
on peut raconter l'histoire d'une vie (avec, pourquoi pas, ses scenes de
menage) a l'ecrit. Est-ce de la bonne litterature? A d'autres d'en juger.
Ma bibliographie se trouve en bas de notre page.
From: Terry
Date: 31 October 1996
Subject: Re: Names
I'd really appreciate it. :) I got knocked off of RLMOO earlier and couldn't
get back. I've met someone and he seems great. But, I've had a couple of
anonymous pages from guest on my answering machine warning me that he's a
nut and dangerous. So, I got spooked. Thanks.
On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss wrote:
> If it's important and you're worried, I could tell you his names on
Lambda.
> A few people know already, so it wouldn't really matter.
>
> RECTVM VINVM
> Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss
From: SAGReiss
Date: 31 October 1996
Subject: @gaglist
You are currently gagging Inverness (#87929), Zyre (#59560), Momerath (#106452),
Cockatoo (#1479), and a cuckoo clock (#20259).
From: Terry
Date: 31 October 1996
Subject: Re: @gaglist
What's this from???
:)
Terry
On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, Scott Alexander Gabriel Reiss wrote:
> You are currently gagging Inverness (#87929), Zyre (#59560), Momerath
> (#106452), Cockatoo (#1479), and a cuckoo clock (#20259).
September 1996
November 1996
vr: 1996
