Photos of the Folio, CD Re-Release, and Flashdrive Re-Release and Their Contents for Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl
This section of Pathfinders contains 23 images of Shelley Jackson's folio, CD, and flash drive of Patchwork Girl. The photos detail the material aspect of the work and show the information that readers glean from its presentation.
Folio Contents
1. Floppy disk, 3 1/2," both original folio and re-release version2. Booklet3. CD, .047" thick and 3.150" in diameter4. Flash Drive, 2014 re-release5. Registration card
General Comments about the Packaging of Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl
Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl, by Mary/Shelley and Herself was published in 1995 by Eastgate Systems as a 9" x 6" folio made of heavy card stock. When opened, the folio reveals a pocket on each side. The pocket on the left contains the 3.5" diskette of the work, along with a registration card. Diskettes were of 800 kilobyte "HD" capacity, formatted either for Macintosh or Windows (MS-DOS), since at this point the two operating systems used exclusive data systems. A notation on the reverse of the folio (see image of Folio Back, below) indicates the operating system. There is no indication on the diskette itself.
The pocket on the right side of the folio holds the back page of a 16-page booklet that gives directions for "Getting Started." The look of the folio with its front and back cover and interior paper contents resembles a book environment and, thus provided a breadcrumb leading readers from the world of print to the world of the digital where they were headed with electronic literature. Note that the folio has a minimal spine of about 0.25", sufficient for main title of the work, author's name, and publisher's name, and so may be shelved like a book.
A note on the verso of the folio credits Eric Cohen with "jacket design.
Folio, Front
Below the main title is a collaged monochrome graphic, presumably created by Eric Cohen, assembled from four images of women in portrait pose, modified by various digital processes that evoke the allotropic "patchwork" process by which Jackson's title character (and indeed her text itself) comes together.
The cover is rendered in black ink over a sepia background that resembles a photographically magnified page from an old book. The text, which may come from Frankenstein, appears in a font that mimics antique handwriting.
Folio, Back
The back of the folio continues the book-like design motif, offering contents similar to the back of a traditional print publication. Text on the back of the folio is divided into two parts, upper and lower. The upper part is set off with decorative borders.
The upper part begins with an endorsement by Michael Joyce, the first two lines set as headlines, the remainder as centered body text. Joyce's remarks read:
"Hypertext's next step...
PATCHWORK GIRL
is spectacular in every sense (from Rayban to Debordian to Cirque du Soleil). It is embodied writing in the company of Helene Cixous, Carolyn Guyer, Jeannette Winterson, and its progenitor and co-author (the other Shelley) Mary.
Jackson weaves aspects of the Frankenstein tale, graphic novels, feminist meditation, and pure storytelling into a riveting work of multiple fiction with a fugue-like poetry and an artist's eye distinctly its (and her) own. This is a work of dream and desire and defying boundaries, an electronic collage, a theatre of windows, and a cyborg song of communion and reunion."
--MICHAEL JOYCE --
Following Joyce's endorsement is an image of (a young, gamine) Jackson at left, with a thumbnail biography of the author at right. The text reads:
Shelley Jackson
A self-described "student of the art of digression," Shelley Jackson holds an AB in studio art from Stanford University and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. Her work has appeared in Degenerative Prose and various journals, including Conjunctions. She has written and illustrated a children's book, The Old Woman and the Wave, to be published by Orchard Books.
The lower part of the folio back, below the decorative border, begins with a line specifying the disk format (Windows or Macintosh) and advising that either configuration "Requires 2 MB RAM and a hard disk drive." The format selection is indicated with a circular white appliquée.
Publisher's information follows:
Published by
Eastgate Systems, Inc.
134 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02172
(800) 562-1638
(617) 924-9044
Adjacent to this information, on the right, is the ISBN-10 code for the work, running vertically: 1-884511-23-6. Immediately to the right of the ISBN-10 is a barcode inset.
Folio, Opened
The opened folio reveals a slot, or pocket, on the left hand side where the diskette is kept. The inside, left-hand side of the folio's cover advertises Diane Greoco's Cyborg: Engineering the Body Electric and provides copyright information for Patchwork Girl. The work is copyrighted 1995 by Shelley Jackson, with all rights reserved. Cover art and documentation are copyrighted by Eric Cohen. Trademark recognition is given for Macintosh and Windows. Publisher information is given here also.
On the right hand side is the 16-page booklet that contains directions for reading Patchwork Girl on both Windows and Macintosh. Also included in the booklet is a biogrpahical sketch of Shelley Jackson and information about where to get answers to technical problems one may have with the work.
At right is a page advertising the Storyspace Hypertext Writing Environment, the system used to produce Patchwork Girl and other Eastgate titles, some of which are listed in a box at right (Patchwork Girl, A Dream with Demons, afternoon, Victory Garden, Socrates in the Labyrinth, and Cyborg: Engineering the Body Electric).
The covers of the included booklet are printed on thin card stock, with the interior pages on letter stock. Ink is black throughout.
The cover of the booklet repeats the folio cover, minus the sepia-toned background and faux-antique text.
At the top of the first page is a list of Contents: Getting Started with Patchwork Girl (one section each for Macintosh and Windows), About the Author, and Questions?
Immediately following are Acknowledgements: "The author would like to thank George P. Landow, Dan Russell, and Robert Coover for their help in the composition of Patchwork Girl."
The back cover of the booklet repeats publisher information. It also includes a second indicator of operating-system format, this one including an option for "Both" Windows and Macintosh.
The 3 1/2" diskette containing Patchwork Girl is an 800-kilobyte, high density unit marked with an embossed "HD" in the beige plastic casing.
The front of the disk has a white label overlapping onto the reverse, 2 1/4" of the front and 1/2" of the back. The front part of the label shows the title, printed in two lines centered, with author's name directly below it in italic capitals. Underneath is a red containing the text "SERIOUS HYPERTEXT from." Beneath this line and words is the Eastgate logo (a drawing of a stone arch) and contact information for the company. All lettering on the label is in a dark red ink.
The label on the reverse of the floppy disk reads, "Copyright © 1995 by Shelley Jackson © 1992-95 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or sale of this material is expressly prohibited."
Rerelease, Front
Rerelease, Back
This page has paths:
This page references:
- Rerelease Booklet, Back
- Rerelease Booklet, Front
- Folio, Front
- CD Rerelease, Back
- CD Rerelease Case, Front
- Nodes and Paths of Patchwork Girl
- Folio, Back
- CD Rerelease Case, Back
- Folio, Open With Booklet
- CD Rerelease Case, Open
- Folio, Open Without Booklet
- Rerelease Booklet, Table of Contents
- Floppy, Front
- Booklet, Front
- Rerelease Floppy, Front
- Floppy, Back
- Booklet, Back
- Rerelease Floppy, Back
- Rerelease Flashdrive, Front
- Booklet, Table of Contents
- CD Rerelease Liner, Back
- Rerelease Flashdrive, Back
- CD Rerelease, Front
- CD Rerelease Liner, Front
- Rerelease Flashdrive, Open