I am answering a reference question for the ifc

[Peter Giordano]

Since I'm on the reference desk and have to work this Sunday night I've
decided to answer a reference question posed by the ifc - It is virtually
the same answer I gave when I first dared to argue that anybody who
claims to have published in 1997 the first book on internet dialogue is
a fraud, that anybody who claims in 1997 to be creating "a new kind of
book that's changing the way people think about literature..." by merely
presenting (with commentary) messages from a list is a fraud - It's
all been done before, by mainstream publishers - Anybody who
claims to be innovating must by definition be responsible for what
is going on in the area where he or she claims to be innovating -
One would assume that if somebody were going to write about
the "future of the book" in light of internet communication that
thist person would make an effort to be informed on the subject - So
below I am listing three books that test whether or not the ifc is
breaking new ground in literature  - I did not search for
these books - I either own them or know the authors or both - Now
think of the odds - If I happen to be able to cite  three books off
the top of my head how many more books on the same subject do you
think are out there - (Actually you can search the Library of
Congress catalog yourself and find out the answer [I'll give you
a clue: it's lots])


 How to mutate and take over the world /  R.U. Sirius & St. Jude.
 New York :  Ballantine Books,  1996.   - Of course, R.U. Sirius and
St. Jude are well known to anybody involved with what's current on
the internet (they are editors of MONDO 2000 [another publication
which has already done what the ifc has claimed to be the first to do])
- This is a novel and 90% is email dialogue (come to think of
it, the novel F2F is the same thing)


Imagologies : media philosophy / Mark C. Taylor, Esa Saarinen. 
London ;  New York, NY : Routledge,  1994.  If you are interested in 
internet as a medium of academic discourse you must see this (non-fiction) 
book - It has great graphics and much of the text is drawn from, or is 
comentary 
on, a list on Kierkegaard

Then there is the book about George Bush: White House e-mail : the top
secret computer messages the Reagan / Bush White House tried to destroy -
It is the email published in book form (and look kids, there's commentary!)
- And includes a CD-ROM 

Then there is the claim that the book by the ifc is innovative because
it is the first book completely designed by the author - Again, I just
happen to have on my shelf:

J.R.R. Tolkien : artist & illustrator /  Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull.
Boston :  Houghton Mifflin Co., 1995. - Not only is this a stunning and 
beautiful book but it was designed, from dust jacket, to text, to format,
in fact everything, by the two authors - When I asked Wayne about
book design he said that authors (Wayne is a rare book librarian and
a professional book designer) have always been known to design their
own books and that with the advent of computer technology it is a
common, a very, very common practice

All these books are available in hundreds of libraries - They've been 
reviewed and discussed in plenty of places - And the ifc could
buy them through Amazon.com (although the concept of paying
for a book might be alien

Anyway - I hope this answers the ifc's questions - If this person needs
a full bibliography of the many books that have come before that
person's own "ground breaking work" I'll be glad to supply one -
For a fee

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA