editorial statement

Electronic writing has yet to be invented.

Whatever claims have been made for and against the medium are premature. In its present state, electronic writing represents only the possibility of a new kind of writing suited to virtual space, one that is distinct (to whatever extent that is possible) from print-based writing. lume is devoted to the exploration of possibilities for electronic writing -- the possibility of form, the possibility of meaning, the possibility of a writing that is more (or less) than it was in print.

Each issue will focus on works that either cannot be published in print or would place an excessive burden of expense upon the publisher to do so.  This does not mean that everything we publish must be dependent on the medium.  Essays, reviews, and special sections will feature writing that is decidedly expository, theoretical, and print-based. However, these will be devoted exclusively to exploring the state of the art and the critical and theoretical issues which attend it.

Our hope is that by creating a site focused entirely on electronic writing and art we can avoid the failures of imagination that have thus far attended the debates over the value of a medium that is still very much in the process of coming into being, and to suggest new possibilities for writing that are not dependent upon the authority of the printed word for their validation.

mike kelleher
buffalo, may 2000