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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Books / Teh Internets If You Like Your Fiction Mixed with Your Reality

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 4:29 PM

Jacket Copy points out a new Firefox extension called Tumbarumba, that will slowly embed stories into your internet browsing experience:

The emergence is subtle and gradual, and you'll need to interact with the story text to get it to open up and expand. How can you tell the story text from the text of the website you're on? Tumbarumba's developers say it'll show up "as textual absurdity." And one of the 12 stories has the word "mermaid" in its title, which will probably look kind of absurd in the middle of your bank statement.

Here is what the Tumbarumba website says about itself:

Tumbarumba is a frolic of intrusions—a conceptual artwork in the form of a Firefox extension. Tumbarumba hides stories—twelve new stories by outstanding authors—where you least expect to find them, turning your everyday web browsing into a strange journey.

You know, this is one of those things I categorize as an interesting idea that I have no interest in trying. I haven't heard of any of the "outstanding authors," but if you hate your job, this could at least make things a little more interesting.

Comments (5) RSS

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A "frolic of intrusions" sounds simply nasty. No thanks.

Posted by Fnarf on December 3, 2008 at 4:54 PM

Sounds like a fun thing to try. Obviously it's not something you'd want enabled normally, but if you're bored and just surfing it's a little absurd thing to try out.

Posted by N on December 3, 2008 at 5:06 PM

I have heard of one of the writers. We've rejected his submissions... I've lost count... several dozen times, though.

Posted by Dave Clapper on December 3, 2008 at 6:36 PM

regardless, this is a fucking brilliant idea.

Posted by jen zwick on December 3, 2008 at 7:05 PM

Adding related-but-foreign content to create a "strange journey" is a growing trend, not only in print, but also in music and other art forms. Check out this app for iPhone, in which your environment alters the music you're listening to:

http://rjdj.me/what/

Posted by dc.al.coda on December 4, 2008 at 8:56 AM