Preface [pt 1, w/ notes]

This chapbook is comprised of three lobes:

• Golden Anniversary: A family album, containing stories of the poet's parents.
  
  
• Say Goodbye: Poems on the death of the poet's parents.
  
  
• He Still Thinks: The poet meditates generally upon death and necessity, adopting different "poses" as he looks at his subject from different angles.

[Pref1 notes]

three lobes...
Aesthetic specs: [ahem, these specs will have to be how-you-say updated once you figure out the navigation, Billbo...]

Each lobe is designated by a different color (for titles and writing spaces) and font (for text).

• Writing spaces and TOC titles in Golden Anniversary are green; text font is Times 14.
  
  
• Writing spaces and TOC titles in Say Goodbye are black;
  text font is New York 12.
  
  
• Writing spaces and TOC titles in He Still Thinks are blue;
  text font is Book Antiqua 14.
  
  
• Writing spaces and TOC titles for ancillary writings such as the Preface, Bio, and Epigraph are cyan;
  text font is Palatino 14.
  
  
• The title font is BlackChancery 24.
  
  
• Writing spaces containing photographs are magenta;
  text font for captions is Palatino 12.
  

A family album... Many of the poems in this hypertext describe photographs or drawings that actually exist. In a future version, some of these pictures will be included, in order that the reader may, among other things, judge the accuracy of the author's descriptions.

the poet's parents...

William James Bly Jr.
February 19, 1912 - May 24, 1991.

Mary Jane Rex Bly
September 26, 1914 - April 15, 1992.

Married February 15, 1941.

adopting different "poses"... There are two voices in He Still Thinks, the poet and a narrator. This narrator is by turns a dubious critic and a helpless "parent" watching the poet struggle with his task, i.e., to make sense. The poet and narrator never speak directly to each other, only to the reader, and it's unclear whether or not the poet "hears" any of the narrator's commentary.

It is of course possible that this narrator is simply another of the poet's "poses."

[Preface pt. 2, w/ notes]

A default path through the writings has been provided; to follow it, click on the navigate tool or hit the return key repeatedly.

Within each lobe, the default path will take you through a sequence of most (but not always all) of the writings in that lobe. When this sequence is complete, the path feeds into a "basin of attraction."



One poem acts as this basin of attraction (or sink): "Say Goodbye ," where all the paths eventually run out. The last stanza of this poem is a dead end, the only intentional one in the hypertext. Once this space is entered, the reader must either back out or climb out to go elsewhere.

[Pref2 notes]

default path... Actually, once inside the piece, there are three, one in each lobe: the Golden Path, the Goodbye Path, and the Thinks Path. However, every space in the hypertext (all but one, as explained on the next "page") leads to another by default, so you can always go someplace from anyplace.

hit the return key repeatedly... In the Macintosh version it will be necessary to hit the Return key twice to move from one space to another. The first time you hit Return, a box with a blinking cursor will appear; hitting Return again dismisses the box and takes you to the next space on the path.

box with blinking... This feature is used in some hypertexts (but not in this one) to permit the reader to answer questions or type in key words which will determine what happens next in the reading.

back out... This can be done by holding down the Shift key while clicking on the navigate tool (<=>) on the tool bar.

climb out... Clicking on the up arrow of the compass tool on the toolbar will take you up through the hierarchy of spaces to the one named TOC (table of contents); from there you can go of in a different direction or revisit writings you have seen before. If you overshoot the TOC (and reach the Title Page), simply click once on the down arrow of the compass tool.

• TOC