Selections
From
My Tiny Life
Table of Contents
Palo Alto, October 1994
In which the Author sees for the first time a machine he
has long believed to be the site of his second home, the
virtual world of LambdaMOO, and finds that he has been
somewhat deluded in this belief. (An RL -- or "real
life" -- interlude, rendered as it might appear on
the screen of a computer logged in to LambdaMOO.) (900
words)
Chapter
One: A Rape in Cyberspace
(Or TINYSOCIETY, and How to Make One)
How an evil clown, a Brazilian trickster spirit, two
wizards, and a cast of thousands turned a database into a
society. The classic tale, updated with shocking
revelations about the true identity of Mr. Bungle. (9500
words)
A Genealogy of Virtual Worlds
From
Chapter Two: The Scarlet Balloon
(Or TINYGEOGRAPHY, a Long View and an Overview)
The history and meaning of tiny, simulated worlds, traced
from the earliest maps and board games through the
invention of computers and, at last, of LambdaMOO.
Warning: Contains explicit philosophizing. (5500 words)
I Feel Pretty
From
Chapter Four: Samantha, Among Others
(Or TINYGENDER, a Love Story)
The Author takes a walk wearing the
virtual skin of a sitcom mom, and learns that he is not
as invulnerable to the cultural fictions of gender as he
thought. (1500 words)
New York City, August 1994
RL again. The Author and his beloved in a public
disquisition upon the emotional and ontological status of
nonmonogamous netsex, particularly as regarding the state
of their own relations. It ain't pretty. (550 words)
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