wikipedia entry

900stories (Zigzag)

900stories (2007) is collection of plots (seeds) which interact to tell a story. 900stories exemplifies the growing wiki-fiction genre. It is structured in such a way as to allow infinite expansion much like Wikipedia. Unlike Wikipedia, 900stories is overlaid with a sequential structure which provides the option of a more traditional reading experience. 900stories is a book of books.

Overall plot structure

In general each seed is a wiki-page. Seeds fall into six categories:

Plot synopses -- For example: "Mantra Books".
Artifice - descriptions of non-existent books and fictional events. For example: "The Upside Book" and "Animal Suit Matching".
Fictional characters -- For example: "The Revenge of Almondo"
Real events -- For example: "The concert of July 1988"
Real characters, living and historical. -- For example, "Condoleezza Rice" and "Franklin and the Freedom of The Seas".
Socratic conversations in the style of "Ishmael" -- For example: "Dinner With Paramecium and Human"

The later chapters of 900stories were generated by running seeds through a random linking algorithm (RLA) to create new events (growth) and new seeds (mutations). These in turn were recombined with current events in an infinite feedback loop (vines).

Themes

900stories is a self referential work of fiction. There are several recurring themes:

Evolution verses devolution
Discourse and conflict between humans and microbes
Music and dance
Oxford County Maine.

Historical background

900stories draws upon the works of J.L. Borges, in particular "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (TUOT). In TUOT the discovery of a single counterfeit encyclopedia volume leads to the real world adoption of the artifice contained within that volume.

There is no connection to either the Salinger or Nabokov works entitled "Nine Stories".

About the author

Little is known about Zigzag. It is most likely a pseudonym. There are no clues as to gender, age, or previous literary works.

Critical reception

900stories refutes the dystopian world view expressed in Nine Inch Nails' "Year Zero". Since its release in January 2008, 900stories has gone virtually unnoticed.