Kathryn Cramer’s
In Small & Large Pieces was published by Eastgate Systems in the summer of 1994. This section is intended to supplement the reader with the material aspects of the work by providing images and detailed descriptions of the folio, booklet, and floppy disks.
Both
In Small & Large Pieces and Kathy Mac’s
Unnatural Habitats share a 9 x 6 inch folio. The folio is in fairly good condition, as it is still clearly readable despite the softening of the edges and slight cracks in the heavy card stock. Both the Macintosh and Windows floppy disks are contained inside. The booklet contains a large tear in the back, but the rest of the booklet is in good condition.
Folio, FrontThe folio cover displays the titles for
In Small & Large Pieces and
Unnatural Habitats in red at the top and bottom respectively. Above each of these titles are the authors’ names in white. The black folio with bold, red and white lettering sets an ominous tone for Cramer’s dark fantasy, which is aided by visuals of splayed hands desperately reaching for each other. It should be noted that one of the sixteen hands is red, possibly signifying how the user must choose which links (or “hands”) to grasp. Each of these hands are contained within alternating black and white cells, which are irregular square-like polygons with two edges pointed up and down on opposite corners, one normal corner at a right angle, and one chopped off corner. The hands are always the opposite of their cell color (excluding the red hand, which is placed on a black cell.) The total size of this graphic measures approximately 4 inches on each side, with each cell approximately 1 inch in length and width. The words “Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext” stretches along the top of the front cover in red with a thin white underline. Smaller white text underneath and aligned to the left reads “Volume 1, Number 3,” while text on the right reads “for Macintosh & Windows.” Additionally, text beneath each of these are present with a thin white line stretching across the folio between them: “Summer, 1994” on the left and “$19.95” on the right. The very bottom of the cover provides a review from
The Wall Street Journal: “‘Eastgate [is] the pre-eminent hyperfiction publisher.’ —
The Wall Street Journal.” A thin white line separates this review from the rest of the content above it. A sticker placed near the bottom left reads “Property of Katherine Hayles.”
Folio, BackThe back of the folio uses the same color scheme as the cover, using white and red text over a solid black background. The two titles with author’s names are displayed near the top (
In Small & Large Pieces) and the bottom (
Unnatural Habitats) of the folio with summaries underneath. The summaries for each are as follows:
Kathryn Cramer [Written in white]
In Small and Large Pieces [Written in red]
Paragraph 1 [The following paragraphs are printed in white]
In Small & Large Pieces is a postmodern
Through the Looking Glass. This dark fantasy starts and ends at the same horrific moment. Obsessive fragmentation returns the reader to phrases, poems, hand written notes, and strange images that merge with text to illuminate this moment of shattered self.
Paragraph 2 [Paragraphs 2 through 6 are reviews written in smaller text than paragraphs 1 and 7]
“Dazzling, knife-edged fragments that are quick-witted, arresting, and deeply felt. Reflected in these shards we find desire, fear, sex, delusion, sibling terrorism, some lovely bad poems, and the awesome Grand Unified Parent. Cramer enacts Alice for the real world, where trying to pass through the mirror tends to leave one cut up or cut apart. Somehow, the traumatized bits will re-unite, however — that is the enchanter’s trick called hypertext, or maybe we should just call it surviving. Whatever the name, Kathryn Cramer clearly has a fine grasp of the art.” — Stuart Moulthrop, author of
Victory GardenParagraph 3
“Between exhilarating perversity and its canny exploitation of the hypertext medium,
In Small & Large Pieces offers a reading experience quite unlike any currently available on the planet.” — James Morrow, author of
Towing JehovahParagraph 4
“[Kathryn Cramer writes] things no sane human being can understand.” — Bruce Sterling,
Short FormParagraph 5
“Kathryn Cramer’s bizarre short story
In Small and Large Pieces… is a tale of a psychotic sister and her suicidal brother that is ably served by e-fiction’s use of hypertext.” — James Daly,
San Francisco ChronicleParagraph 6
“Cramer has deconstructed the novel (shards of Caroll, Joyce and the Splatterpunks) most originally and invites us to look over pieces, small and large. There’s everything the modern reader could want, including an erotic unicorn ride, a messy divorce, a quarrel, a bubble bath ad a murder. And for the medically inclined, there is the most gruesome reconciliation sequence since Reanimator. Highly recommended!” — Terry Bisson, author of
Bears Discover FireParagraph 7
Kathryn Cramer grew up in Seattle and lives in New York and Boston. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, and has edited numerous anthologies.
Kathy Mac [Written in white]
Unnatural Habitats [Written in red]
Paragraph 1 [Aligned on the right side of the title and author’s name]
Just a blanket made out of pieces
From an army uniform
Khaki shirt fronts and sleeves, cuffs and collars
Painstakingly and obsessively
Picked apart at the seams
Reduced to random shapes
And reassembled.
Paragraph 2
Composed of linked poems and paths of reading that trace through the work as a whole,
Unnatural Habitats weaves together the poetry of twelve unnatural habitats -- primitive submarines, crippled spaceships, basement apartments -- and the women and men who live in them.
Paragraph 3
Kathy Mac’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in
CV2,
The Antigonish Review,
The New Quarterly,
Fireweed,
Poets ‘88,
Germination,
PRISM International,
The Pottersfield Portfolio,
The Northern Red Oak,
Atlantis, and
Acta Victoria. She lives in Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia.
The top of the back of the folio reads “The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext” in red with a thin white underline, occupying three quarters of the uppermost portion on the left side. The fourth quarter contains a smaller version of the image of hands that is displayed on the front cover (1 inch and 11 centimeters on each side.) Small text in white beneath the Eastgate title read “Volume 1, Number 3” on the left and “Summer, 1994” on the right. The bottom portion of the back folio reads “For Windows™ and Macintosh.™ Requires 2 MB RAM and a hard disk drive. Underneath this on the left side is Eastgate’s logo, which is a brick wall with an ornate passageway in white outlines. To the right of the logo reads the following:
Published by
Eastgate Systems INC [Each letter in INC are arranged like a staircase, with I in the top left, N underneath it in the center, and C in the bottom right.]
134 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02172
(800) 562-1638
(617) 924-9044
To the right of the logo and corporation information is the ISBN number, printed in a white box and displayed as bar code. The ISBN number is recorded on the left side of the box as “ISBN 1-884511-15-5.” The main sections of the back folio are separated with thin white lines, with a white line above and below the Unnatural Habitats summary.
Folio, SpineThe spine contains white text with a black background. The far left of the spine reads “The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext”, though the first word is difficult to read due to the softening and splitting of the folio’s upper-left corner. The center-left says “Kathryn Cramer” and the center-right says “Kathy Mac.” The far right reads “Eastgate Systems, Inc.”, but the bottom left corner of the folio is softened.
Folio, Inside, OpenedThe Folio’s interior contains black text with a creamy white background. A pocket on the left-hand side is used to contain floppy disks, while the right pocket contains the booklet. The left-hand side provides the copyright information for
In Small and Large Pieces and
Unnatural Habitats, and an advertisement for the Eastgate Quarterly Review. The right side displays an advertisement for the
Storyspace hypertext authoring system.
Floppy Disk #1, Macintosh, FrontThe Macintosh 3 ½” floppy disk has a black casing and contains both
In Small & Large Pieces and
Unnatural Habitats. A white label lays over the front of the disk and partially wraps around the back. On the label in burgundy text is written “The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext” with a burgundy underline. Beneath this underline on the left and right sides read “Volume 1, Number 3” and “Summer, 1994” respectively. Near the center of the label are the titles and authors’ names side-by-side, with “for Macintosh” placed underneath and center. A thick red band separates the bottom portion of the label with “SERIOUS HYPERTEXT from” written on top. Eastgate’s logo lies on the left-hand side after the band, outlined in burgundy, with the corporation information on the right.
Floppy Disk #1, Macintosh, BackThe label on the back of the Macintosh floppy disk reads in burgundy “Copyright © 1993-94 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or sale of this material is expressly prohibited.
Floppy Disk #2, Windows, FrontThe Windows 3 ½” floppy disk has a white casing, and the label is the same as the first floppy except that “for Macintosh” has been replaced with “for Windows.” As before, a white label lays over the front of the disk and partially wraps around the back. On the label in burgundy text is written “The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext” with a burgundy underline. Beneath this underline on the left and right sides read “Volume 1, Number 3” and “Summer, 1994” respectively. Near the center of the label are the titles and authors’ names side-by-side. A thick red band separates the bottom portion of the label with “SERIOUS HYPERTEXT from” written on top. Eastgate’s logo lies on the left-hand side after the band, outlined in burgundy, with the corporation information on the right.
Floppy Disk #2, Windows, BackAs with the Macintosh floppy, the label on the back of the Windows floppy disk reads in burgundy “Copyright © 1993-94 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or sale of this material is expressly prohibited.”
Booklet, Front CoverThe front cover of the booklet has the same design as the front of the folio, though it is black and white and smaller in size due to the booklet being 5 ½” by 8 ½”. The booklet is printed on paper stock, which is slightly shredded in places.
Booklet, License Agreement, Warranty and Disclaimer, and Copyright & Page 1Within the booklet on the left side, the software license agreement, limited warranty and disclaimer, and copyright information can be found.
Quarterly installation instructions for the Macintosh are placed on page one.
Booklet, Pages 2 & 3Page 2 provides installation instructions for
Quarterly in Windows. Page 3 contains the dedication and acknowledgements for Kathryn Cramer’s
In Small & Large Pieces.
Booklet, Pages 4 & 5Pages four and five cover the reading instructions for
In Small & Large Pieces, teaching users keyboard shortcuts (such as using the RETURN key to progress through sections, or hitting both the Command and Option keys simultaneously to reveal hyperlinked texts.) It is explained that though the instructions are meant for the Macintosh, the Windows version will follow the same principals. Page 5 also includes pictures of the icons for various tools, such as the “back up” and “browse” tools, while Page 4 provides an image of the
In Small and Large Pieces icon.
Booklet, Pages 6 & 7Page 6 describes the links within
In Small & Large Pieces, recommending that the reader “explore the text as you would a swimming pool: dive in and swim around.” It also reiterates the use of the RETURN key and links as different ways of navigating the text. Page 7 reads “Kathy Mac” with “Unnatural Habitats” underneath, introducing the reader to the second work.
Booklet, BackThe back of the booklet is blank, with a large tear along the bottom where a strip of tape holds it together.
