From the Archives: July 2007 Archives

Today I found my folder of earliest Notes For a Future Novel drafts. The earliest print-out I have is dated March 14, 1991 and contains only four pages. It contains the following scenes:

• Michael working on his novel for Helen late at night.
• Helen arriving him after hanging out with Roxy, falling asleep on her couch since room-mate Jennifer is having sex in their room (Jennifer is hand-corrected to Gretchen.)
• Michael in Helen’s section, discussing Bartleby the Scrivener and getting criticized by an ultra-liberal classmate.
• Helen meeting Roxy at the coffee shop and discussing their love lives.

On the back are some hand-written notes, including this, which sums up one of the important themes that was there from the beginning:

UCSC is the deluded Eden-the City On the Hill, the new Jerusalem.

 As I recall, this is what I typed from memory after coming home from the real-life Claimstake. I had originally written the first few pages on my friend Matt’s Mac Plus while hanging out with my friends, almost transcribing directly what they were doing, but sadly that file has long since been lost.