The Tricky Art of the Self-Destructing Poem
In 1992, speculative fiction novelist William Gibson wrote a poem that could only be read once. Thanks to the magic of web video, 21st Century readers can also experience this publishing milestone.
Saved on floppy disk, “Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)” slowly scrolled within a white box. After 20 minutes of reading, the box was empty, and the disk automatically erased itself. Today BoingBoing posted a video that shows the poem being read on a Mac classic emulator.
A NY Times article from 1993 describes the disappearing poem’s evocative packaging. The author only produced 95 copies of this edition:
“The deluxe edition of ‘Agrippa’ comes in a 16-by-21 1/2-inch metal mesh case sheathed in Kevlar, the polymer that bulletproof vests are made of. Sheltered inside the case is a book of 93 rag-paper pages bound in singed and stained linen that appears to have survived a fire. The last 60 pages have been fused together to form a block; cut into the block is a four-inch square niche that holds a computer disk; encrypted on this disk is the text of “Agrippa (A Book of the Dead),” a short story by Mr. Gibson.”
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