Subject: REVIEW: "E-mail: A Love Story" by Stephanie D. Fletcher

From: "Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan and Trevor" <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Jun 1998 15:46:48 -0400

E-mail: A Love Story by Stephanie D. Fletcher
	Review Copyright 1998 Robert M. Slade

The "stream of messages" style of story is gaining in popularity all the
time.  This particular collection details a number of stories of true
limerence, that ephemeral infatuation that doesn't even make it as high on
the romantic scale as real lust.

As regards the technical details of computer mediated communications (CMC:
and the proposed term "telelogue" is looking better every time I have to
type that phrase), there really is not all that much to say.  We are told
almost nothing about the LuxNet system itself, although one can infer that
it is a commercial system, rather than an ISP.  One can also infer that it
is extremely small, given the fairly minimal cast of characters, but I
suppose we must allow the author some license in order to allow for
reasonable plot and character development in a short space of time.
Still, the lack of extraneous noise is one aspect of online life that is
not accurately reflected in the book.  There are others.

The plot is developed entirely by email and bulletin board postings.  The
third major form, and the primary recreational form, of electronic
interpersonal communications, real time chat, is not used.  There is
nothing analogous to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) nor the more structured
multi-user dungeons (MUDs).  This may be a good thing, since only a
separator line distinguishes the email from the bulletin board entries,
and it is hard enough to keep track of which is which.  The different
separator lines are visually almost identical.  The lack of consistency in
message headers doesn't make the task any easier.  The three possible
header lines are "To," "From," and a date/time stamp, but any of these may
be missing from a given message.  Obviously it is important to determine
what is said publicly (on bulletin boards) as opposed to what is said
privately (in email), but such a judgment is not always automatic in the
text.

Graphics are sent by Kodak papers in the snail mail.  Messages that one
wants to keep are printed out, rather than saved on disk.  Data security
seems to be absolutely watertight: nobody sends messages to the wrong
person, nobody makes the mistake of publicly posting what should have been
private email, nobody notices online charges mounting up, and nobody, on
wide open home computers, finds any incriminating evidence.

Some of the anarchy of online discussions comes through.  Some of the
panic of not being able to find an online friend who may simply have had
better things to do than turn on the computer is also present.  There are
almost no misunderstandings, no flamewars, only one pest, and only a
single instance of the ubiquitous horny teenage boys that clog online
parties.  The proposition that pretty much all the males in the book act
like adolescents will be accepted, but I am talking about the genuine,
sex-fixated, semi-literate young nerds.  Unless you count the resident
Bible basher the system is singularly free of the truly dangerous forms of
online life.

The breadth of online life is missing.  Nobody is here for purposes of
work, interest, or even recreation other than virtual groping.  OK, the
chaplain *does* manage to get off a few good cybersermons and a bit of
computer counselling.  We are limited to a select band of electro-erotic
explorers with no interconnections to a wider world.

Our select band is not exactly simpatico.  Not that the characters are not
attractive, although I never liked Cliff.  Aside from being prime
candidates for the Darwin awards -- that is, they are all terminally
stupid -- the characters are all nice, normal, mostly suburban human
beings.  Their obsessions are all terribly mild.  A little dirty typing, a
few pieces of amateur pornography sent back and forth, no grand passions.
A sort of white bread and American cheese neurosis.  Ultimately there are
no repercussions, either.  I've cheated on you virtually, you've cheated
on me in RL, well we'll just chalk it up to experience and take off for
the summer place for a nice family vacation.  Thanks for the advice,
Padre.  (Actually, I find him the most sinister one of the whole bunch.
I've met others of his ilk who get to like the status as head of an online
flock and rule over them as a kind of cherubic Svengali.)

The exploration of virtual infidelity is pretty weak.  Although there are
intimations that online romances detract from real live intimacy, the
proposal is not made forcefully.  The thesis is two dimensional at best,
and not examined in interesting ways or any depth.

Real online devotees might get a bit of a giggle: newcomers will get a
fairly unrealistic picture of life online.

%A   Stephanie D. Fletcher
%C   10 Alcorn Ave, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario, M4V 3B2
%D   1996
%G   1-55611-477-X
%I   Penguin/Signet/Roc/...
%O   U$21.95/C$28.99 416-925-2249 Fax: 416-925-0068 [email-masked]
%P   246 p.
%T   E-mail: A Love Story