Reviewed by Douglas Eyman CFCC

An Evening at Roy's Roy Perlis       Perlis's "Evening at Roy's" reminded me of visiting a MUD or a MOO--I was presented with people (with whom I could "chat") and objects (that I had the opportunity to use), but there was a sense of emptiness in a sense--the characters were not real people, and so one cannot engage in a real conversation. Perlis, however, strives to break the barrier between hypertext and interactive text-spaces: he provides empty spaces (in a node titled "your replies") and nearly empty spaces in "an attempt to 'guilt' the user into interacting with [his] cast of characters." There is no dearth of choices, however--in the living room, for example, the user can peruse a scientific journal, or "speak" to Dr. Haraway, Chuang Tze, Lao Tzu, Umberto Eco, Baudrillard, A.R. Luria, or "a crowd of AI types down from M.I.T," or listen to William Gibson read from Neuromancer . Quite a collection of guests. . . not surprisingly, the conversation mostly revolves around mind/body and human/machine connections and interactions. This is one party I would love to actually attend! Contents: The Optics Carlos D. Aizenmann-Stern Simulations: Baudrillard through Hypertext Ethan Fiks Circular Voice(s) John P. Garland Electronic Zen Taro Ikai Ultramundane Tom McHarg Breath of Sighs and Falling Forever Nathan Marsh The Dead Letter Office David Mayer Plateaus Tom Meyer Food for Thought Jane Park An Evening at Roy's Roy Perlis Bodily Writing Anne Pycha The Hero's Face Joshua Rappaport Rhizome Maggie Skodon Freud Web David B. Stevenson LBJ Timothy Taylor Adam's Bookstore Adam Wenger Contact the Reviewer!