From: Bob Skinner <bskinner@ucsd.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: How to get NPR Agrippa broadcast
Date: 16 Dec 1992 18:50:54 GMT
Organization: UC San Diego
Distribution: world
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In article <1992Dec10.194324.27798@u.washington.edu> Tim,
space2@hardy.u.washington.edu writes:
>It is possible to get a tape of the show for $12.5 or transcripts for
$10.
>directly from NPR. Take 3-4 weeks to get them so they said.  
>(202.822.2323 -- you need to know what show it was on tho -- I believe it
>was the 'morning program' but I don't know and a live body isn't on the
phone).

It is also possible to get a transcript online for a fee from any library
which has access to the commerical online service called Lexis/Nexis (a
competitor of Dialog, BRS, et al).   In the News section of Lexis/Nexis
are fulltext transcripts of National Public Radio broadcasts: the
searcher should type NPR to get into the appropriate section and then
search by typing the word: agrippa.   Searching, downloading, and
printing time (1293 words, 3 pages) should be about 5 minutes.

For the record, the broadcast was on the Morning Edition, Wednesday,
December 9, 1992: Anne Garrels, host; Tom Vitale reporting.  Other
participants include Pen Gillette (the reader), William Gibson (the
author), and Keven Begoes (New York publisher). 

As the transcript is copyrighted, I can't post it to the net, but here is
a summary:

The work is to be premiered tonight [December 9] in museums and
performance spaces around the country.  "The story is William Gibson's
'Agrippa: The Book of the Dead,' about the memories prompted by finding
an old photo album on a visit to his father's home in West Virginia." 
The narrator, Pen Gillette, will read the words off of a laptop computer,
scrolling at a fixed rate.  Total time to reach the end: 20 minutes, and
then a "built-in computer virus destroys it."   Gibson is the father of
cyberpunk and the author says he was partly inspired to do "Agrippa" by
the publication of his first three books in computer format.  Gibson
likes the idea of digitized books which can save the trees and keep the
world from being overrun with libraries. 

 [I can't resist adding the aside that the first important library was
that of Alexandria in Egypt which was burned during Caesar's time.  It
has been estimated that if the Library had not been destroyed and had
collected everything written/published since its establishment, it would
be as large as the city itself is now.]  

Publisher Begoes says that the work has never been printed out. 
"...Gibson says that the story is...simply transferred from the
computer's memory to the reader's memory."  Bergoes is publishing 455
copies in editions ranging between $500 and $7500.  Begoes says this is
not out-of-line with other limited edition fine press books, but "the
publisher will be interested to see how many will buy an object they'll
never look at and how many will read it knowing that their hundreds of
dollars will evaporate into cyberspace."

[Another aside:  there is a precedent.  Some collectors feel that the
value of a first edition, say, is reduced if it is read, even if the
binding is not broken, and will store books without ever opening them.]

The "Agrippa" disk is placed in the back of a book which includes Dennis
Ashbo's etchings overlaid with early 20th century ads.  The printing was
with a type of graphite dust that it will eventually disappear.  Begoes
says that "the format has everything to do with the story...," the power
of fleeting memories and images.

During the evening performance tonight at the America's Society in New
York, Pen GIllette's (part of the comedy team of Pen and Teller) reading
will be accompanied by the text scrolling on a projection screen. 
Gillette volunteered to participate when he read about the project on a
BBS.

Gibson and Begoes both think that someone will be able to copy the disk
or make a transcript of tonight's performance which will makes its way
onto computer networks.  "And Gibson hopes someday someone will stumble
across 'Agrippa' the way he found his father's photo album," and take it
to read on the "antique computer down in the pantry."

Libraries and museums have been purchasing "Agrippa" and Gibson takes "a
perverse delight in wondering just what they're going to do with them."