[Adrienne Eisen, the only hypertext winner of the prestigious
New Media Invision Award, has just launched her new set of
online hypertexts. The former Editor of artcommotion.com, Eisen
is a frequent speaker and panelist at events such as PEN West
and the Dartmouth Institute for Advanced Graduate Studies. Her
first major work of online hypertext, "Six Sex Scenes," was a
featured exhibition at the Alt-X Online Network back in early
1996 and has received international attention from both the
academic and underground literary art worlds. Eisen, who just
released a batch of new work at www.apc.net/adrienne, agreed to
participate in the following email dialogue with me.]

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Nile Southern: When did you start writing in hypertext?

Adrienne Eisen: I started writing hypertext in 1992 when I first found
out about CD-Roms. They were actually called CD-i back then, and no one
could think of something to put on them. I had all this writing that
didn't work as a linear novel, so I went to Philips Media–they invented
CD-i–and I said, "Look, I wrote stuff for CD-i."

NS: Are you active in hypertext scenes?

AE: As far as I know, the hypertext scene in Los Angeles is me, alone in
my bedroom.

NS: What is the advantage for you, in terms of communicating with an
audience creatively, of writing in hypertext and distributing it over
the web?

AE: The reason I put my writing on the Web is because my writing is
nonlinear, so it makes more sense as hypertext than as a linear novel.
Distribution over the Web reaches a different audience than distribution
in print. That's why I think it's important for me to do both.

NS: Your stories have a wonderful blend of deadpan narrative
description, and outrageous, often very funny behavior on the part of
the narrator. There is a kind of deviance at play in these stories,
oftentimes within a formal or very credible setting–what is this
impulse?!

AE: I think my writing comes off as deadpan because I don't always know
what people will think is funny, deviant, etc. My frame of reference is
fairly mainstream, so I would sound like a lunatic trying to write
anything else.

NS: Were you funny as a kid? Or did your sense of humor kind of come
late in life?

AE: My parents would not say I was funny. My mother would say that she
was funny. My father would say I ruined their marriage.

NS: Given the powerful mix of eroticism and dark humor that permeates
your stories, I imagine you must have received some pretty strange email
replies. Care to share one with us?

AE: I think people search using sex as a keyword, and after they've gone
through all the top-tier porn, they search for something off the
beaten-path and they come to me. So I get emails like, "Great stories,
please call, I'd like to tell you some of mine." I got one that said,
"Do you take requests?"

NS: When I first read your work, it was on Mark Amerika's popular Alt-X
site, just a few links away from interviews with Martin Amis, Nicholson
Baker, Mark Leyner, and the like. Do you see these authors as
contemporaries who you share satirical writing interests with? Are there
other writers or satirists that have heavily influenced you over the
years? What about Kathy Acker?

AE: I like all those writers, and of all of them, I think I've been most
influenced by Baker and Acker. Baker writes pages and pages where
everything is interesting but nothing happens. To me, this sort of
writing falls outside of the arc of the novel. And when I think about
what works as hypertext I think that first, the writing style has to
fall outside the arc of the novel. I found Kathy Acker when I was young
and desperate and having bad sex, so she really spoke to me.

NS: In your story "Winter Break" you have three possible links at the end
of each story, and no 'back' button. A similar structure is explored in
Six Sex Scenes. I think I once read that your work was intentionally
exploring the potential of "narrative arc." What about that? Do you see
your writing as 'modular'? How would you describe it's overall
structure?

AE: The overall structure is all about how can I present my writing in a
way that will not make people sick of me. You know how when you go to
therapy, and you take two steps forward and one step back? Well, I think
that's what life is aobut, but no one wants to hear the step back part,
because they've already heard it. That's why we pay therapists. I write
about the same thing a lot, so I had to find a way to include redundant
stories without boring the reader.

NS: Do you think the mediocrity and narcissism that dominates the lit
mag world has spread to the net–or is the net more happening?

AE: I don't think I've experienced this mediocrity and narcissim; I have
a good eye for shitty writing and I stay away.

NS: Of course the idea of a writer locating an agent and trying to
publish their 'quality lit' via the old publishing system is rapidly
becoming outmoded by the likes of on-demand technology, web publishing
and e-books. To paraphrase the rapper Chuck D., "the days of the lazy
artist are over."–One can simply do-it-themselves and, given the new
media technology, probably should. You are already doing the web
publishing; have you thought of pursuing other alternative strategies
that would allow you to publish an on-demand or e-book? Why or why not?

AE: My print novel, "Making Scenes", is coming out in August 2000. I'm
trying to think of something catchy to say about Chuck D. so that he
mentions "Making Scenes" on the next song that everyone puts on Napster,
but nothing comes to mind.

NS: What fiction are you working on next?

AE: I'm working on another hypertext. I have the pages spread all over
my bedroom.

NS: Technical question; do you use special software to construct your
hyperlink structure–like Storyspace? Give us a run-through explaining
how Adrienne goes from story idea to online publication.

AE: I write about 300 stories. Then I throw out the bad ones. Then I put
the stories all over my bedroom floor until I find an order that makes
sense. Then I do the html. I am very loyal to html – it's the only
reason I got a job after going to grad school for writing.

NS: Your stories are like mini-narrative explosions. I could easily see
a Fox or HBO situation comedy being developed around your characters –
have you thought of writing for the TV screen? What would you call it?
Any scenes come to mind?

AE: Yeah, lots of scenes come to mind. Can you put me in touch with HBO?
Thanks for the interview.

NS: What are you going to do now?

AE: I'm going to Disneyland.