Novelist, cyber-theorist, and widely acclaimed hypertext fiction writer Michael Joyce weaves an evocative and provocative set of brief essays and short parable-like fictions into a compelling collection of meditations on how technology and new media affect our culture and everyday lives. Taken together, these pieces present a writer's reflections on a life of sudden changes at the edge of an uncertain future. They continue Joyce's effort to construct what in previous collections he has called "theoretical narratives." Here, however, Joyce turns from reflections to what he terms "refractions," alluding to the turning or bending a wave undergoes when it passes from one medium into another of different density. Through these refractions, he formulates an understanding of the wave of change we face as human beings in a multimediated age.About the Author: Michael Joyce is Associate Professor of English at Vassar College. He is the author of several books, including Othermindedness: The Emergence of Network Culture; Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics; and The War Outside Ireland. He has also written many hypertexts, including Twilight, A Symphony and afternoon, a story.