| [DNA Main] [Last Sliver of Moon] |
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| 1 | DNAis a short experimental work, somewhere between poetry and narrative fiction, that weaves together a set of tales taking the reader through a night of dark dreams. I am told by generous readers that the result is a thought-provoking journey through unique, phantasmagoric worlds that truly conveys a sense of dreaming. The style and sensorium have been likened to the works of Donald Barthelme, H.P. Lovecraft, Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino, and the Joyce of Finnegans Wake. |
| It consists of seven sections. The first sets the scene in a mock-fairytale manner, ending with its central character falling asleep. The succeeding sections draw the reader into an alternate cosmos. As we move through dream-worlds devoted to romance, children, demons of motive and loss, and not-quite-carefree angelic beings, the characters' hypnagogic speech becomes more comprehensible, the outlines of this cosmos become more coherent, the correlations between the various narratives more evident. Finally, the apocalyptic seventh section bridges the gap to the waking world and offers a supposed summation of theme from the mouth of a demonic demagogue. | 2 |
| 3 | The stories posted on this page differ slightly from those in the final manuscript. |
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| In addition to being an acronym for Dreams And Nightmares,DNA is also the scientific term for deoxyribonucleic acid, an immensely long molecule built in stairstepped pairs of smaller molecules known as nucleotides. The proper names of these are adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. (The title of the recent film Gattacais spelled with their initials.) In shape a DNA molecule is like a twisted ladder, or "double helix": think of two Slinkys pushed together so that the coils overlap. This pattern, which is unique in every multicellular organism except perhaps identical twins and clones, contains instructions for the production of proteins and other molecules essential to life. The Human Genome Project promises to delineate how this takes place. Our "Genes" are basically bundles of DNA molecules. | 4 |
| 5 | If you say it fast, "DNA" sounds a bit like "Diana," the Greek goddess of the moon. The moon is a big rock covered with dust and a quite inhospitable place to be, by all accounts. Nevertheless, over the ages it has become very big in poetic circles, perhaps because it reminds us that the universe is a cold and unforgiving place. |
| Alert visitors to the main DNAscreen may have noticed that the molecule pictured is not, in fact, a DNA molecule at all, but is instead a model of an LSD-25 (lysergic acid diethylamide) molecule, which when introduced into the bloodstream of many mammals, including humans, causes a physiological reaction in the brain resulting in distorted experiential perceptions of space and time as well as visual hallucinations, leading to temporary, or sometimes permanent, psychosis. This book, read as a whole, has had the same effect on some readers. |
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| 7 | Kind of like this layout must be doing by now. |
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Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moon light? |
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| 9 | Didn't think so. |
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| DNA is also the moniker for a "new" technology from our redoubtable friends at Microsoft, short for Distributed interNet Applications architecture, which synthesizes Client/Server and Web protocols they have previously developed. It is being touted to software developers as an alternative to Java for integration of individual PCs with the Internet, and will apparently be included in Windows NT 5.0. Time will tell whether it is as successful as the biological version in achieving ubiquity, but give 'em a chance -- it's only been out for a couple of years, not billions. | 10 |
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DNA is sort of what we have instead of God.
We should all be glad that we are sentient beings. |
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If you know anything juicy about DNA, please feel free to drop me a line. |
Last update: 11/1/97. |
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