Quibbling: A Hyperfiction

Abstract

To write about Quibbling [1] seems almost contrary to its conceptual warp. It's hardly about anything itself, being more like the gossip, family discussions, letters, passing fancies and daydreams that we tell ourselves every day in order to make sense of things. These are not exactly like myths or fairy tales or literary fiction. They are instead the quotidian stream. In this sense, then, Quibbling is a work that tries not to be literary. It's somewhat unsuccessful in that, but then, it's art. As ever, we're in a transitional age, and given that as the pan-generational condition, we're forever seeking ways to understand our own unique to and fro. We can't, however, claim ours has specifically to do with technology. It always has to do with technology, whether it's inventing a way to hold fire, write speech, or send e-mail. We're always changing according to the changes we make, and artists concern themselves more with that flux than with any kind of conclusions. It is in that rhythmic sense of ebb and flow, of multi-directional change, of events that disappear before they're quite intelligible but somehow come to mean something, that Quibblingwas made. In hindsight, I can see why water and its properties became one of the pervasive, propelling metaphors in the work. A lake with many coves is how I saw it. The coves being where we focus, where individuals exist, where things are at least partly comprehensible; the lake being none of that, but, naturally, more than the sum of the coves, or more than what connects them. As a metaphor, the lake and coves stand not just for the form of this hyperfiction, isk su plement to Perf rations 1, No 2. A 2.0 verion of the Halo is slated for publication in Eastgate e s's forthcoming hypertext quarterly.