A few past InterText writers contribute their thoughts on the occasion of our fifth anniversary.
InterText, he was going to call it, because it would only be distributed over the Internet. This was actually a fairly radical idea at the time, as the Internet in 1990 wasn't much more than a way for college nerds to play elaborate pranks on each other. The idea of writing stories -- original, unique stories -- for such a medium was something only a lonely Communication major could conceive. At the time, I was editing a small pamphlet of short stories called The Erratically, and it was from back issues that I gathered up some stories that packed -- packed, I tell you! -- two or three pages in the first InterText.
Truthfully, I didn't think InterText would go anywhere, or much of anywhere. I was having a hell of a time keeping The Erratically coming out on any sort of schedule and it was only two eight-and-a-half by eleven pages, folded over. A full thirty pages or so of fiction, every other month? I certainly couldn't do it.
But Jason could, and the Internet could. And still are. Amazing.
InterText, near as I can tell, is the best, most consistent source for fiction available online. Five years is a lifetime on the Internet and a lot has happened. Now deep pockets are being emptied in countless attempts to recreate what really only takes a mailing list and a good idea. InterText may have more competition now, but the quality, the originality, and the simple fortitude of the magazine is as strong as it ever was. I, as a reader, owe Jason, Geoff, and Susan a huge debt.
Oh, and just for the record, that goofy line in a teensy-tiny font at the end of every issue? Jason stole that from The Erratically.
Greg Knauss (knauss@netcom.com) wrote "The Talisman" and "Schrödinger's Monkey" (Vol. 1, No. 1), "New Orleans Wins the War" and "The Explosion that Killed Ben Lippencott" (Vol. 1, No. 2), "The Damnation of Richard Gillman" (Vol. 1, No. 3), and "Novalight" (Vol. 4, No. 3). His collection of observations, An Entirely Other Day, is available on the Web. After five years, he's still loopy as a loon.
The book was Ed Krol's The Whole Internet Catalog (published by O'Reilly
& Associates). I bought it in late 1993 after becoming an early victim of
what would soon become a common malady: total senseless addiction to email
and newsgroups. I figured I'd try to learn more about the Internet to lessen my
devotion to the newsgroups I was spending all my time in (at the time,
rec.music.gdead, rec.music.dylan, alt.tv.twin-peaks and
alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die).
The book listed a few notable sites in an appendix, and I noticed it had exactly one entry for literary fiction: a magazine called InterText. An FTP address was listed, and I proceeded to spend the next several weeks trying to retrieve an issue of InterText. Things were not so easy in late '93. The major problem was that I had no FTP access at my job, but it took me a while to realize that. I finally found a friend who knew how these things worked, and he snuck an ASCII copy of InterText into my directory. I then lurked in the vicinity of the company printer for a few hours waiting for a moment when I could print 30 pages of text without being noticed. I thought I found a time, ran back to my cube to print, and two minutes later received an angry phone call from an assistant vice-president: "What is this crap you're printing?"
The moral of this part of the story is: the World Wide Web really did need to be invented. But the reason I'm writing this is to thank Jason Snell, Geoff Duncan and the other folks at InterText for pioneering the medium of contemporary online fiction. The important fact is not so much that they did it, but that they did it with such a sense of quality. The work published in InterText is good -- very good. There's a quirky intelligence behind almost every piece, and a pleasant focus on down-to-earth human experience and "regular folks" that's a nice break from the dark, nasty, cyber-heavy stuff that is often thought of as the only kind of writing "computer people" like.
Most of all, there's solid editorial attention behind InterText. It takes nerve, sometimes, to do a good job at something, and I bet there were moments, back in the early days of InterText, when Jason and Geoff wondered why they was working so hard at a project this uncertain, this time-intensive, this devoid of profit motive. By forging ahead and producing a high-quality online magazine, Jason and company set a standard that is still being followed. Now there are countless venues offering fiction, poetry and literary experimentation on the Internet and the Web, and if all the purveyors of these venues were not directly inspired by InterText (as I was), they were probably inspired by somebody who was.
A final note: by the time InterText published my first story, I had my own FTP access and endeavored to retrieve the PostScript edition instead of plain vanilla ASCII. Only then did I discover what InterText was supposed to look like, and only then did I realize how much work obviously went into producing it. I wrote to Jason that if I'd known how serious this thing was I wouldn't have had the nerve to submit anything to it. Luckily for me, I didn't know.
Jason, Susan and Geoff: Keep up the great work! Happy anniversary, and let there be many more.
Levi Asher (brooklyn@netcom.com) wrote "Jeannie Might Know" (Vol. 4, No. 2) and "The Thieves" (Vol. 4, No. 5). He is the creator of Literary Kicks, the Beat literature web site; and Queensboro Ballads, a fantasy folk-rock album in text form. He lives in New York City.
In a familiar tone, the editors thanked me for contributing to their anthology, explained that they had received an overabundance of good work, far more than they had room to print, apologized for holding my story so long before returning it, and encouraged me to send something new for their next annual volume.
The only thing extraordinary about this latest rejection letter was that I sent them the manuscript two years ago. More than a year ago, after giving those tardy editors up for dead, I decided to send the story to InterText, where it appeared a month or two later.
No doubt many writers can tell similar stories. As publishing in print becomes a more expensive and more perilous enterprise, both writers and readers are rapidly discovering in cyberspace a wide open frontier for exploration and innovation.
"Crown Jewels," a science fiction story, was a bit of a departure for me. I usually write mainstream and literary fiction and poetry. But in those fields, too, the Internet has both expanded the shelves of my personal library and put my work within reach of many more potential readers.
My mainstream novel Oceans Apart was published last May by Quarry Press, a small literary publisher that doesn't have the profile to get its books stocked by Barnes and Noble. Most of the bookstores that did order Oceans Apart have already taken it off the shelves to make room for the new season's titles.
But for as long as the Internet lasts, readers and browsers will be able to sample the excerpts from my book that appeared last summer in the e-zine Gruene Street. Or the poems included in Tender is the Net, an anthology put together by CREWRT-L, the creative writing mailing list I belong to. Or any of the other works I've collected on my home page.
The Internet has changed the way I look at my computer and the way I look at my world. For that reason it has probably changed my writing too -- not that I've yet tried to create in hypertext.
The stimulating friends I've made here have changed my life in ways even more profound than the fact that one of them offered me my current job. And I know those changes are permanent and accelerating. Thanks to the Net, I travel more, meet more people face-to-face, and see into the lives of a greater range of my fellow humans than ever before.
InterText has been a part of those changes. Congratulations on being one of the first settlements on this limitless frontier.
Colin Morton (morton@gloria.cord.edu) wrote "Crown Jewels" (Vol. 5, No. 1). He is a Canadian writer and poet currently teaching at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He co-produced the animated film Primiti Too Taa. His home on the Web is at <http://www.cord.edu/faculty/morton/>.
Just over a year ago, I started a Web site called "Carolyn's Diary" and have been writing an electronic diary since then. This is not a simple travelogue of my life, but rather the philosophical and psychological reflections on life as seen and experienced by me.
"Carolyn's Diary" has been quite well received, leading to positive reviews from Web site-rating services, mentions in Internet books, and even mentions on television programs about the Internet.
My experience with InterText was crucial in making this project happen. Thanks, all of you!
Carolyn Burke (clburke@passport.ca) wrote "Timebugs" (Vol. 4, No. 1).