Jeanette Winterson : : The.PowerBook
LambdaMOO

This week we will focus on Winterson's print novel The.PowerBook, a tale of love and identity online and offline. In order to help us think about the decisions Winterson has made about imagining and and also writing online communication, we shall also look at the non-fictional virtual community of LamdaMOO.

Reading around Winterson:

There is a great deal of material available about Jeanette Winterson's oevre. You can find reference to much of it on Winterson's official web site and on the reader's web site (both these sites open in new browsers).

Reading about MOOs:

As a start, see my articles:
 
'Bisexuals Making out with Cyborgs' in Merl Storr, Bisexuality: A Critical Reader (Routledge, 1999) (read especially the section where I offer a view of a 'first trip to Lambda') (available JBM and CWS)
 
and
 
'"She Says She's a Woman": Feminine Friendships in Virtual Reality' (with Sue Thomas and Francesca da Rimini) in Ruth Symes et al, Celebrating Women's Friendship (Raw Nerve, 1999), especially the section about translating MOO communication into something more coherent, and the end section which tells you how to make the journey to Lambda. (available JBM & CWS)

Visiting LambdaMOO

• Use the instructions in Celebrating Women's Friendship, details above
• OR
  telnet directly to Lambda MOO at telnet://lambda.moo.mud.org:8888
• OR
  use this link

Introductory tutorials in Celebrating Women's Friendship or online at LinguaMOO

Whether or not you visit Lambda before next week, you will gain a flavour from the reading.

Some questions to think about:

• Where do you imagine scenes in the novel as being set? Can you always be sure of the location?
• What do you think Winterson is saying about subjectivity and identity? Do you find her arguments convincing? Why? Why not?
• What kinds of connections does the book make between desire and identity? Between desire and online personas?
• What metaphors and phrases does Winterson use to explore the concept of 'freedom'? What kind of freedom does the book seem to extol?
• What do you make of the ways that Winterson changes her language from that of chat rooms or MOOS to a more conventional print form? What are the effects of the shifts?
• Is the narrative convincing as a love story? Why/ why not?