1997 - 05/1997 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/26/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 03/08/08.

KATHRYN CRAMER

Her website is: http://www.kathryncramer.com/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: May 10, 1997.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 34.

Meeting Program: Talk by Critic / Author / Editor.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

Kathryn Cramer was the featured speaker at the meeting of the S F A B C on Saturday, May 10, 1997. Ms Cramer is the author of IN SMALL AND LARGE PIECES, a hypertext book. She has worked as an editor at East Gate Press, a hypertext publisher. She has co-edited a number of horror and science fiction anthologies, and is the editor of WONDER BOOK, an online children's magazine. She is on the board of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, a critic and essayist, and a past judge for the World Fantasy Award.

Although she touched on many different subjects, the bulk of her talk and questions and answers concerned the new technologies of the computer and their interactions with publishing.

One aspect of these technologies is the publication of on-line magazines. As the editor of WONDER BOOK, she has unearthed and reprinted long neglected children's short stories and illustrations. Since it is nearly impossible to make money off the internet, she relies on material old enough to be in public domain.

Most of her talk concerned the subject of hypertext books. A hypertext book is one which is read on a computer and uses the abilities of that medium to present a story in a manner different than traditional text. The closest print relative to hypertext is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, but it also shares aspects of computer games, too.

Imagine, if you will, a hypertext book set in a haunted house. As you read this hypothetical book, the text tells you that you come to a door halfway down a corridor. You can click on either the word "door" or "corridor" to continue down the passageway. You click "door." A sound chip gives the sound of a door creaking open as the text informs you that you have entered the room. There is a table in the room with a paper on it. You go to the table and look at the paper. It is a letter written in blood, with the computer supplying a facsimile of the letter with red ink. There are two other doors in this room. You click if you want to open the door on the right or the door on the left.

Ms Cramer likened a hypertext book to investigating a crime whose seeming disconnectedness comes together as the reader establishes relationships between the elements. Her novel, IN SMALL AND LARGE PIECES, has 500 nodes and 2600 links. Because everyone will select different options when they read, no two people will experience the story the same way. As an author, she expects the reader to read about 300 pages in order to understand what is happening, but there is no way of knowing how far into the book the reader goes.

IN SMALL AND LARGE PLACES was published by East Gate Press and represents one of the two types of hypertext books. It is bought in a box in the computer section of a store and loaded onto the reader's PC. The other style of hypertext book is one that is posted on the web. Each has its own limitations.

There are two problems with hypertext books on the Web. The first is that, with the exception of websites dealing with pornography and similar matters, almost no one has figured out how to make money off it. At this point in time, publishing a hypertext book on the web is like printing a book and giving away all the copies of it free. Since writing a hypertext novel requires a considerable amount of time, only someone well off could afford to do it, and few writers are that financially comfortable. The other drawback is the culture of the internet. It takes a fair amount of time to read a hypertext novel, and the traditional surfing approach does not encourage this discipline. Also, on a purely technical level, the internal hypertext links take a long time to operate.

When a hypertext novel is on CD-ROM, like an East Gate Press book, some of these problems disappear. Links operate quickly and smoothly, and the mindset of the reader encourages him to take his time and explore the text. The difficulty is that there is a very limited market for published hypertext books which means that neither the writer nor the publisher make enough money to justify the investment of time and resources.

The more she studied the economics of hypertext and publishing, the more pessimistic she became of its financial viability. Although there have been a couple of products which worked, most publishers have lost skads and skads of money and have withdrawn from the field.

At the conclusion of her talk, Ms Cramer set up a laptop and demonstrated how to read a hypertext novel. There was a small crowd of very interested onlookers.

The gathering was a little smaller than usual, not surprising since the newsletter was not completed until the day before and not printed until that morning. There were a lot of late arrivals, as people continued to drift in over the course of the evening.

Ben Ellison, Roy Greenberg, Sharon Roberg and William Wagner won free books. Mr Wagner entertained the group with his tales of book bobbing and dumpster diving at last month's Special Activity trip to the book sale in Ridgewood. Those of us who went to Nellie's Place in Waldwick, New Jersey afterwards had a pleasant time.