It's become increasingly clear that what we are doing here is not a new essay in the same sense as the works of Vielstimmig. Over the course of the development of this project we've butted heads over metaphors that might characterize our work here. We've settled on the "some assembly required" motif. Consider the Web text a gift that you must put together yourself.

Here are several other of the various metaphors we've gone through...

A Choose Your Own Adventure: This is one of Paul's favorite metaphors. He grew up reading these books and considers their structure to be a precursor to hypertext. They lead forward, as does our Web text, but offer a number of different transitions between point A to B. One major difference is that you won't virtually die from making the wrong choice in our Web text. Paul considers that to be a failing on their part. He looks forward to an academic text in which reader choices really do have an impact on their experience within the text.

A view master: John sort of saw the snippets from the essays as a sort of slide show with the transitions acting as a sort of director's commentary.

A train ride: We initially used this metaphor most of the time when we discussed the text we were going to create. In fact, it's part of the title of the original abstract/proposal. We liked the metaphor because a train has a certain number of set stops on the way to a destination...but a passenger is free to do what they wish between at each stop while they wait for the train to begin the trip to the next point. But, the metaphor felt a little hokey. Clang, clang, clang, here comes our choo-choo! All Aboard!

A DVD launch menu: Perhaps the snippets were like scenes from a movie.

A kaleidoscope: This was another of Paul's favorites because he is fascinated by kaleidoscopes, really expensive ones that use gemstones to refract the light. Like a kaleidoscope, our project has a circumscribed amount of material that it begins with. As you twist the cylinder, different perspectives begin to come into focus.

An exploded diagram: This metaphor highlights the space in between the finished essays. From this point of view the transitions are like directions that allow a reader to see where all the screws fit into the final table.

A pointillist portrait: Each of the various parts of the piece fits together to form a whole picture. If a viewer seeks something concrete they miss the individual points of color that create the whole.

A star: We discussed the idea of the roles in the title colliding to produce a new star.

An iceberg: Given the mass of material here, most of which is submerged via the Web text form (hidden behind hyperlinks), we talked about the text as an iceberg. Mind yourself, the hidden mass could destroy you.