THE CD-ROM NOVEL MYST AND MCLUHAN 4TH LAW OF MEDIA - MYST AND ITS RETRIEVALS

Myst, the first CD-ROM multimedia novel to sell over one million copie s, signals both the breakthrough of a new art form, and, in accordance with McLuhan's fourth law of media, the retrieval of art forms long t hought to be obsolete. Myst, in fact, resurrects forms ranging from th e Homeric epic to medieval allegory, from Tristram Shandy to Jorge Lui s Borges, from silent cinema to surrealist painting. In shaping these older art forms into a new genre of miniature theater, complete with m ultiple interactive pathways, Myst is less a herald of the Gutenberg G alaxy's demise than it is of its reinvention into something rich and s trange-a new media form in which the ''reader'' becomes not only coaut hor, but also theater goer, movie goer, museum visitor, and player, al l at the same time. With one stroke, Myst has shifted forever the hori zon of our communications expectations.