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• 1 2021-05-31T11:02:57-07:00 Photos of Carolyn Guyer's "Quibbling" 30 Photos of the packaging of Carolyn Guyer's "Quibbling" plain 2021-08-22T16:08:58-07:00
  The photos of Carolyn Guyer's Quibbling found in this chapter are of copies Dene Grigar owns and holds in her library in the Electronic Literature Lab, at Washington State University at Vancouver.
  
   

  Quibbling  Folio, Front

  
  The front of the folio for Quibbling displays a variety of teal and green colors. The base color of the folio is light teal. A wide, dark teal, vertical stripe goes down its center. “CAROLYN GUYER” is printed in a white sans-serif font with a dark teal outline in the upper left corner, nearly spanning half the folio’s horizontal width. Below and center reads “Quibbling” one third of the way from the top of the folio. It is printed in dark green ink in the same sans-serif font as the author’s name. “Quibbling” is printed again underneath it, in medium teal, slightly offset to the right. “Quibbling” is printed once more below this layer, in a darker shade of teal than the main vertical stripe, offset to the left. A white silhouette of a tree rests inside the dark teal vertical stripe. Its branches are thin and graceful, while the leaves are geometric in shape. The tree comprises the middle and part of the lower third of the folio. The base of the tree is obscured by line-drawn waves at the bottom of the folio. There are four rows of these waves, each overlapping the preceding one. Within each of these rows are four waves, rising and falling in a smooth curving fashion, with three stripes (two of which are consistently white, and one of which is a teal or green color).

  
  Quibbling  Folio, Back

  The back of the folio for Quibbling has the same base light teal color as the front, in addition to a vertical stripe down its center (which is a slightly lighter teal than on the front). A column of text spans the folio’s left side; the first paragraph is separated from the rest by the work’s title, which looks identical to the one on the folio’s front except it is in a slightly lighter green. “Carolyn Guyer” is printed near the top right corner of the folio, in the same color and font as it is on the folio's front. The column of text (which is printed in a dark green, serif font) reads as follows:
  
  “a highly personal, erotic, old-fashi-
  ioned love story . . . what’s most
  intriguing about [Quibbling] is its
  hypertextual design.”
                        —Robert Coover
  New York Times Book Review
  
  “…a stunning achievement of écriture
  féminine in both form and aesthetic.
  The rhythm of the ‘buzz-daze’ in
  Guyer’s Quibbling is nothing less than
  Claudine Herrmann’s ‘vision of a lan-
  guage released from the coordinates
  of space/time.’”
                  —Alizon Sainsbury
  Illinois Wesleyan University
  
  “…a great answer for those who ask
  what hyperfiction’s got that fiction on
  paper doesn’t.”
             
                   —Richard Gess
  author, Mahasukha Halo
  
  Quibbling is several love stories, sev-
  eral intellectual adventures, several
  lives interconnected and overlaid.
  
  A thin, dark green line separates the column of text from the lower fourth of the folio. A pink rectangular sticker is positioned on the left hand side, which reads “PLEASE NOTE” with “This title is now on CD” underneath in black ink. Two black triangles on either side of “PLEASE NOTE” point inward to call attention to this notice. To the right of the sticker is small sans-serif text that reads “Requires 2MB RAM and a hard disk drive.” Below this sticker is the logo of Eastsgate Systems, Inc., which is a hand-drawn brick wall with an ornate arch in its center. Content to the right of the logo reads “Eastgate Systems” in a serif font. “I N C” is printed directly to the right of it, with each letter cascading downward towards the right in a staircase effect. Below in smaller text reads the physical address of Eastgate Systems, Inc. (not wrapped in quotes):
  “134 Main Street
  Watertown, MA 02172
  (800) 562-1638
  (617) 924-9044”
  A label in the bottom-right of the folio displays two barcodes and several strings of numbers. The first is an ISBN code, which is printed vertically along the label’s left side. It reads “ISBN 1-884511-08-2”. This string is repeated across the top of a bar code on the right, which has another series of numbers underneath it: “9 781184 511080”. A second bar code to the right of the first has “90000>” printed above it.

  
  Quibbling  Folio, Front and Back

  This photo of Quibbling displays the folio’s front and back cover. The spine is visible and has vertical dark green text that reads “QUIBBLING” at the top in the same sans-serif font used on the cover, in all caps; “Carolyn Guyer” in the center using the same font, and “Eastgate Systems, Inc.” at the bottom in a serif font.

  
  Quibbling  Folio, Open

  The folio’s interior is cream in color and contains a sleeve on either side of the booklet. The left sleeve displays an advertisement for a subscription to Eastgate Systems, Inc. The right sleeve contains the instructional booklet for Quibbling, the cover of which mirrors the folio’s. The booklet is printed in black and grey checkered ink on white paper.

  
  Quibbling  CD-ROM

  The CD-ROM for Quibbling is maroon in color, with a series of white rings that progress from its center to the lower right side. Curving along one of the lower rings is small white text that reads “commodity-firmness-delight” in a sans-serif font; in an upper ring, “www.eastgate.com”. “Eastgate” is printed in white on the left side of the disk, barely above the center, in a serif font. A string of black numbers is printed partway around the disk’s center.

  
  Quibbling  CD-ROM and Sleeve

  This photo displays the CD-ROM for Quibbling within the sleeve. The front of the sleeve has a circle cut out of it, shielded in transparent plastic so as to showcase the CD-ROM inside. Visible at the top of the sleeve is the sticker from the back folded over onto the front with a maroon sans-serif font that reads “Copyright ©1992 by Carolyn Guyer. Software copyright ©1992-96 by Eastgate Systems. Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or sale of this material is expressly prohibited.

  
  Quibbling  CD-ROM Sleeve, Back

  The CD-ROM for Quibbling comes in a square white paper sleeve. The back is sealed with a white sticker printed in maroon ink. “CAROLYN GUYER” is displayed in the upper left corner in a sans-serif font. “Quibbling” is printed in the center of the label; the word is repeated behind it in light pink offset to the right and light maroon offset to the left behind that. A horizontal maroon line separates the lower third of the label’s content. Inside this maroon line reads “SERIOUS HYPERTEXT from” in a white serif font, aligned center, with the first two words in all caps. Below the maroon line displays the logo of Eastgate Systems, Inc. on the left side, and contact information on the right. The logo comprises about one fourth of the sticker’s horizontal space. It is a hand-drawn brick wall with a decorative arch in its center. The contact information on the right side reads “Eastgate Systems” in a serif font. “I N C” is printed directly to the right of it, with each letter cascading downward towards the right in a staircase effect. Below in smaller text reads the physical address of Eastgate Systems, Inc.: “134 Main St., Watertown, MA 02172” followed by two phone numbers underneath: “(800) 562-1638” and (617) 924-9044”.