July 29, 2004Squipping ItGuardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Blurring the boundaries From a Guardian article about the ways a few authors are using the internet creatively: Ned Vizzini, 24, whose teen novel Be More Chill has just been published in the UK. Faust re-mixed for the age of invasive teen marketing, it casts Mephistopheles as a sentient quantum computer, known as a "squip", which takes up residence in the mind of a dorky teenage boy and advises him how to be cool. To publicise his novel, Vizzini worked with a friend to create websites that pretend squips are real. Google the word squip and you will see links to 15 or so sites with names such as SquipNews and Mothers Against Squips, which was created by a fan. In other words, Vizzini hasn't just extended his novel online, he's opened it up, so readers can add to the story. "It's a little world we've created - the squipiverse," says Vizzini. Squip News Comments
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