In the Beginning
Mary Daly and Jane Caputi, in their Websters'First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, use this quote by Eudora Welty to explain the definition of Moon-Wise: the act of being in "tune with lunar rhythms;" or being "touched by the moon." We've all had this same sort of emphinitic (that's a cross between epiphany and emphatic) moment when we became Word-Wise; this sudden realizationof a "word" when the representation of a word, whether 3-dimensional object or 2-dimensional text, appeared before us in a new sort of dimension, an internal object-ness which converged with our own internal biochemistry.
I'd like to suggest that we should again access our own electronic biorhythms; that we should all become touched by the MOO.
Dene and I were prepared to discuss MOOspace and technology to a wide audience; we didn't know what kind of experience our listeners would have with MOOs (or even with technology), although we did expect some interest in learning how we were designing the Lyceum, our MOO at Texas Woman's University, a MOO designed by women for women. We were stunned, though, at the absolute horror in which technology was held by many members of the conference. At a succession of plenary addresses, we sat amazed (along with a small minority of the participants) as repeated calls to "hold on to paper and pen until death" were applauded. Needless to say, few came to our session. But Dene and I did leave the conference, not only with good Oregon wine, but with a renewed determination to employ technology in all we do. Somehow at that "feminist" conference we became radicalized, undergoing a process which, although somewhat stressful, could not be called bad. We truly became Word-Wise Wild Women.
At that time of the conference, I sectioned my presentation into five parts, each with an introductory MOOscreen which used words coined by Mary Daly to illustrate (I hoped) the nature of my text. I have kept that basic format here. Each section is entered through a MOOscreen "door." Each section can stand alone. The"bibliography" can be found at the end of the exit tunnel.
I wanted to try to illustrate the play and joy found in MOOspace by emphasizing the importance of each word and how each word can mean so much. I also tried to demonstrate the structured randomness of MOOspace with its stops and loops. But most of all, I tried to have fun .. . because that is what we cyborgrrrls like the very most.
Enjoy,