The Puzzle Box, Chapter 6

“Tired as they were, they almost ran up the last part of the stair, and found themselves in another cave; but it was completely different to the one with the snake in it. As far as they could see by the light of the box, it was crammed with old bric-a-brac: bits and pieces of every possible description, some of them valuable but most of them not, thrown together in a horrendous jumble, stacked up high above their heads, and covered in dust and cobwebs. There were walking-sticks, pith helmets, books, dolls, carpets, bottles, pens, games of Monopoly, stuffed animals, false teeth, family photographs, toy trucks, maps, birthday cards, pram wheels, diaries, screwdrivers, umbrellas, plugs, pianos, old coins, kettles, picture frames, odd shoes, Gladstone bags, wooden legs, rocking chairs, someone's PE kit, and so on and so on and so forth and so forth – like the contents of the biggest, dirtiest and most badly-organised second-hand shop in the world.”

The children encounter a shape-shifter called Ratatosk, who tells them about the snake they have seen, a tree called Yggdrasil, some owls, and the Queen of the Night. Dora rediscovers one of her old dolls, and Ratatosk explains how possessions get lost so easily, and why things don't always work when they ought to.

The sixth chapter of twelve.

"We are enjoying The Puzzle Box very much!" - William, www.artselector.com

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 5

"The mouse did seem to be waiting: instead of scampering into the darkness it held itself almost completely still, except for small attentive movements of its ears and the constant trembling of its whiskers."

On the run from Urizen's henchmen, the children undertake a hazardous underground journey. At the bottom of a frozen cavern, they find out more about one of the clue cards.

This chapter is dedicated to David Daniels (http://www.thegatesofparadise.com/), the great American shape-poet, who died in May. Two of his last e-mails to the WebArtery group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webartery/) were about The Puzzle Box: "I want to buy this yellow cards. This is gripping... truly healthy and mysterious in an elegant way!" It makes me very sad that he won't be around to read the end.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Reproof Reading - The Hyperliterature Exchange, May 2008

New on The Hyperliterature Exchange for May 2008: a review of 'Le Reprobateur/The Reprover' by Francois Coulon.

"Le Reprobateur... exudes selfconfidence, playfulness and humour; it attempts to do a lot of things at once, and by and large it succeeds in everything it attempts..."

To read the whole review, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewreprobateur.php .

The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk .
 
- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 4

"Urizen separated out a region from the rest of eternity, shrank it into solid matter, weighed it in his scales, measured it with his rods and plumblines, circumscribed it with his compasses, and wrote laws for it in his great brass-bound books. This sorry region, the region over which Urizen rules, is the universe in which we live..."

The children are kidnapped, then meet a visionary in a field of skylarks, and hear a new story about the creation of the world. They are pursued by baddies in black cars, who seem to be after the box.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 3

"There are lots of faces like this in old churches – faces made out of leaves. Some of them are in wood and some in stone. They're always called Green Men.”

“Why does this one look so horrible?”

“I believe they're supposed to represent the plight of an immortal soul when it's forced to live in a mortal body..."

Dora starts to find out about the first clue. She converses with a vicar. One of the cards is stolen. The black beetle reappears.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

New on The Hyperliterature Exchange for March 2008: a review of 'The Way North' Joel Weishaus.

"The page as a whole... is giving off all sorts of different signals about its content, and the experience of reading it is dominated by moments of transition, from one voice to another, one type of discourse to another, and one text-style to another. The overall impression is that this is not the kind of smooth, homogenous discourse we are used to reading in print, but the text equivalent of a collage."

To read the whole review, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewthewaynorth.php .

The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk .
 
- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

"The Puzzle Box", a story for children, by Edward Picot

"She went up the stairs to her Dad's room, just in time to see something terrible happen. Her Dad was sitting at his desk. To his left was the wall, and there was something black on it. At first Dora thought it must be a big spider; then that her Dad must have somehow splashed ink or black paint onto the wallpaper; but then she saw that it was moving and growing bigger..."

A mysterious boy, a mysterious box, and a mysterious black beetle. The first of 12 chapters.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

"Bluedolph the blue-nosed reindeer
Didn't have a shiny nose..."

A mildly anti-festive animated parable about one of the less successful reindeers. In Flash, with sound (and sprigs of holly). Happy Christmas!

http://www.edwardpicot.com/bluedolph/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Thirteen ways of Looking at a Blackbird - complete!

"It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow."

I have now finished recreating all thirteen sections of Wallace Stevens' famous poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" as short Flash animations; and I've also built a crab-apple-tree interface for the whole thing.

For readers who have been following this project since February, when it started, the new sections are numbers 3 ("Autumn winds"), 5 ("Inflections and innuendos"), 8 ("Noble accents") and 13 ("It was evening all afternoon").

http://www.edwardpicot.com/thirteenways/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Yet another 3 ways of Looking at a Blackbird

"A man and a woman
Are one.
A man a woman and a blackbird
Are one."

From a work in progress: three more short animations, based on sections of Wallace Stevens' famous poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", are now online. The first three were completed in February, the second batch in April, and there should be more to come a bit later in the year.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/blackbird/

Also available, if you visit my home page, is a one-off song/video entitled "Train Coming".

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Twice-told Tales - The Hyperliterature Exchange, May 2007
 
New on The Hyperliterature Exchange for May 2007: a review of 'Croatian Tales of Long Ago, Part Two', edited by Helena Bulaja; written by Ivana Brlie Mazuranic; and animated by Edgar Beals, Mirek Nisenbaum, Laurence Arcadia and Helena Bulaja.

"Every animation on this CD is worth seeing for its own sake; but when they are viewed in conjunction with the original Tales, and the background information about Mazuranic herself, then a much more rich and complex picture emerges..."

To read the whole review, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewcrotales2.php .

The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk .
 
- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

"I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds."

From a work in progress: three more short animations, based on sections of Wallace Stevens' famous poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", are now online. The first three were completed in February, and there should be more to come a bit later in the year.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/blackbird/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

The Curator's Egg - The Hyperliterature Exchange, March 2007

New on The Hyperliterature Exchange for March 2007: a review of 'The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume One', edited by N Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg and Stephanie Strickland.

"The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1 (ELC1 for short) contains some extremely powerful, beautiful, clever, amusing and moving pieces of work, but it isn't entirely without flaws..."

To read the whole review, go to http://hyperex.co.uk/reviewelc1.php .

The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk .
 
- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

"Three Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Edward Picot

"O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?"

Three short animations, based on three sections of Wallace Stevens' famous poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird". Part of a work in progress.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/blackbird/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website