tube theatre (10. 540)

Web Curios directs our attention and appreciation to the hypertext novel “for the Internet in seven cars and a crash” by Geoff Ryman that has recently been resurrected in its original 1996 form coinciding with the anniversary of its inception and a mention in an culture piece on the novelty of interactive television from The Guardian. Recounting the narratives in a manner of constrained writing—which is truly good prose with its strictures and privileging numbers over the vagaries of language—of the passengers (the capacity of seven carriages plus conductor) riding the Bakerloo line from Embankment Station to Elephant & Castle. Each rider is limned for the reader in the same amount of words and linked to their travelling companions by an associative index of vignettes, which one can read in any order. Also published as a book—earning a Philip K Dick Award—differences are highlighted in print form whereas intrinsic similarities come through on the web.