(A click as an unopened email is opened. A virtual curtain rises. The Barker stands alone at center stage, but we are aware of a larger editorial team working in the wings.)
BARKER: Another month. Another issue. Another mailshot.
(Darkness, before a hard, white spotlight pierces the gloom. The Barker stands in sharp relief.)
BARKER: Data is power! Stephan Paur illuminates the issues surrounding the (in)formation of identities in Infopower and the Ideology of Extraction!
(The lighting shifts, whites becoming a mix of greens and turquoises reminiscent of an affiliate’s branding. The Barker waits, arms crossed.)
BARKER: HYPER. LITERARY. CULTURE.
(Off stage, someone begins to box a beat. It’s as off-rhythm as The Barker.)
BARKER: MY NAME IS TEGAN AND I’M HEAR TO SAY
AN OFF CENTER TRANSCRIPT IS COMING YOUR WAY
SCOTT AND NICK TRY TO RAP IN A PODCAST
TALKING ABOUT COMPU-LITERARY PAST
TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES TO COMPUTATIONAL NARRATIVE SYSTEMS
YOU BETTER CHECK IT OUT, OR YOU’LL BE SAD THAT YOU MISSED ‘EM
(The Barker looks as though she regrets this choice in delivery, but it’s too late. She sent the email hours ago… and the scene is already changing. The colors surrounding her fade, yellowing as she sits at a desk, dons a blazer, and collects of a sheaf of papers. Her face hardens as she faces the readers.)
BARKER: Get the down low on Don DeLillo in Joseph Conte’s review of Thomas Travers’ Peripheralizing DeLillo—The Specter of Capitalism!
(The Barker rises to jump on top of the desk, scattering papers as she throws her head back and her arms.)
BARKER: (Screaming.) MORE GADDIS, GADDIS, GADDIS! (Quieter.) Read Vaihinger’s Not So Fleeting Presence: Gaddis, Ballard, and DeLillo and join John Soutter as he locates the phantom of German philosopher Hans Vaihinger in Gaddis’ corpus!
(The Barker inhales loudly.)
BARKER: And Benjamin Bergholtz considers the ways that Gaddis’ J R can help contemporary readers reflect on the hellscape of late capitalist existence in Trouble with the Connections”: J R and the “End of History!
(The Barker looks through the screens to her audience, her voice cracking.)
BARKER: electronic book review will return with more digital delights next month!
(She makes a hasty exit, stage right, as the curtain falls.)