Anodyne
Friday, July 08, 2005
 
Agrippa: A Book of the Dead

An autobiographical prose-poem by William Gibson, originally published as an outrageously expensive "artist's book" with light-sensitive illustrations by Dennis Ashbaugh. The text was contained on a "computer diskette" -- remember those? -- and destroyed by a built-in "virus" as you read it for the first and only time.

WG read some years back at the Vogue Theatre, as a benefit for a Vancouver dance company. Agrippa was the last piece on the program. It took about twenty minutes to perform, and I don't think I've ever listened to anything more attentively.

The line breaks in the online version seem a little suspect to me. Try to approximate a slow West Virginia drawl and you'll be close enough.


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