On his author's desktop, Mike Heppner has provided some fragments from the text of the early version of THE EGG CODE, ones that didn't necessarily make it into the final version of the book, along with a conversation via email that he had with the book's interior designer, Knopf's own Virginia Tan.
You can thus here both get a taste of the content of the book and some of its characters along with getting a sense of the physical object that contains the story -- its design and creation, what fonts and why, and how that design may affect a reader's experience of the novel itself.
Two school papers written by the character Lydia Tree in the spring of 1979 -- one for a class called "The World of Chemistry," the other for "Intro to Poly sci."
Lydia Tree
The World Of Chemistry
Winter Term
5 - 8 - 79
For this final paper, I have decided to write about the element copper, because when I first presented my topic choice to my professor way back in February, he said to me "sure Lydia, you can write about oxygen," and so after spending eight weeks (including Sundays) in the library researching my topic, I was a bit distressed to learn that the professor I'd talked to back in February had in fact lied to me, and that this same professor--the man who once said to everyone in class, and I quote: "If you have any special needs, please come up and see me..." (remember???)--that this same professor had given my topic away to another student, a woman whose only claim to fame is that she happens to be stuck in a wheelchair, a fact that she uses to manipulate people and to gain sympathy from her professors, even though when you actually get to know her, she's one of the meanest people in this program, and she's a racist, she called Darryl Flakes a monkey while his mother was sitting right there, and she stole one of my pens, and if you ask her about it she acts like oh I'm such a crip, poor me, lookit, it's so painful. So that is why I have decided to write about the element copper for my final paper this term.
Unlike oxygen, copper is not one of the major elements found in our earth's atmosphere, nor is it essential to the respiration process, without which human life as we know it would simply not exist. Basically it wouldn't exist at all. Not one bit. Without oxygen. What I'm saying is that oxygen is important. More important than copper? Well, that's hard to say. Some folks would say yes, but then again, other folks might say no, and then where are you? Where does that leave you, Herr Professor? Sitting behind your desk, mulling over another unanswerable question. Many questions simply cannot be answered. For example: does God exist? I say he does, but how can I be sure? I can't, that's the answer. Another example would be: is that a car? The answer might seem obvious at first, but then when you really think about it, you'll see that it's not so obvious after all. It's just not. Other questions may seem obvious when you first look at them, questions like "Are you sure I can write about oxygen for my final paper this term?" But as we've seen, even a simple question like this is subject to a variety of interpretations, particularly when the party in question is biased against women.
When examining the properties of copper, one is struck by how boring the subject is, and by how unfair it is that we should have to write a paper this late in the semester. But there's more. It's also interesting to note just how dissimilar copper is from oxygen. It's like they're two completely different things. For one thing, oxygen reaches its solid state at about negative 218 degrees Celsius. If only the same thing could be said about copper. Copper also does not consist of three separate isotopes: oxygen-16, oxygen-17, and oxygen-18. Another way of saying this would be: oxygens-16 thru 18. Isotopes are interesting things. They're very complicated. Another thing about copper versus oxygen, not that it's a competition: I know what copper looks like because I can hold it in my hands; but with oxygen, you can't touch it. You can in the sense that you can move your hand around in the air. That's like touching oxygen. But you can't really feel anything. Unlike with copper, where you definitely know that there's something in your hands. Not the case with oxygen. I have now proven that oxygen and copper are two different things.
Copper is an important part of our everyday lives. This has been the case since the dawn of time, or at least since circa 8000 BC, when it was first used to form crude weapons. Circa means "around and about." It means that something did not necessarily take place on an exact date. To take a modern example, one might say that I, Lydia Tyler-Tree, had a conversation with my professor, Dr. Daniel Kind, about the contents of my final paper on circa February 6, 1979 at circa 2:48 in the afternoon in circa Room 212 of the Arts and Sciences building. This does not mean that the conversation took place at exactly this time. It may have taken place at 2:45. Or even 2:51. 2:48 by my watch. What is not in question, however, is that the conversation did take place.
I plagiarized part of this part, but I have the right to do so because you didn't give me enough time to complete the assignment.
Around circa 4000 BC, the ancient Egyptians began pouring copper into crude molds. I don't know what good this did, but. Then nearly 500 years later, the first copper alloys began to appear. Alloys, like isotopes, are complicated things. One of these alloys was bronze, a combination of tin and copper. This new metal was more durable than copper, and so the men of the time decided to forge their crude weapons with bronze instead of copper. The period that followed was known as the Bronze Age, but not by the people who were actually alive at the time. No one even knew what year it was. That would be strange. They must have had some way of telling how old people were. According to the Bible, people used to live for hundreds of years. How would they know that? Maybe they made it up. If I was going to lie about my age, I wouldn't say that I was 847 years old!
Anyway, during the Bronze Age, a bunch of stuff happened, but I'm not going to get into it. Over time, copper came to be considered an inferior substance, suitable only for making fine decorations, jewelry, a third thing, and then a fourth thing. By the Sixteenth Century, the art of copper work had reached its zenith, which is also the name of a television set. This brings us to the end of our fascinating essay.
All right--I did it, give me an A.
Professor's Comments: A-. Fine. Take it. Whatever. My life will go on. Dan Kind, PhD.
Lydia Tree
Intro to Poly Sci
Winter Term
4 - 18 - 79
The topic of this stupid and unfairly assigned term paper is money, or--more specifically--what money represents, which is a heck of a lot more than paper and ink. But before I begin, I just want to say that when a teacher makes a student a promise, and then goes back on his (or her, but in this case his) word, then that teacher should apologize for lying to the student, and offer to take back the assignment. I shall now resume my discussion of the American monetary system.
Examining the contents of my purse, I find many items, some of which fall under the general category of money. I say the word 'general' both as a way of prolonging this introduction, but also because it's true--money can be anything, so long as both the buying and the selling parties recognize its value. In Germany during World War Two, the citizens traded cigarettes as a means of exchange. I'm real sorry, I don't have a source for this, but I'm sure it's in every encyclopedia on the planet. Money performs two important functions. First, it separates the act of selling from the act of buying; second, it allows a person to accumulate purchasing power in the form of 'assets'. Economists distinguish between real and nominal values, defining nominal value in denominational terms and real value in terms of goods and services. What's truly important about money is what it is, not what it says it is. It's kind of like when a teacher says to his student "oh, no you don't have to write a second term paper because you went on the extra credit field trip to the Science Center in March" and then two weeks later he says "what are you talking about, I never said that, your papers are due in three days and no you can't have an extension." Money, like persons in positions of presumed authority, can be deceptive.
So as I have shown, money is an important part of our day to day lives. The definition of money has changed many times over the course of this nation's history. The subject of money standards is a long and annoying one, but I will try to explain at least the major principles without boring you to death. I will then go on to prove that, through the brave and generally unheralded efforts of the previous two Republican administrations, the United States is well on the way toward securing a preeminent position in international trade and politics, thanks to the recent dissolution of the gold standard and its subsequent replacement by the American dollar. The next paragraph will be very tedious.
As one considers the evolution of money, one notices a trend toward the abstract. In the beginning, money was gold--or, more properly, electrum, an alloy of gold and silver common in the days of the Roman Empire. This system led to all sorts of abuses--weight shaving, hoarding of precious metals, deliberate devaluation of the economy to finance foreign wars, etceteras (actually, no, that's it). The weight shaving problem was largely solved in the Seventeenth Century, when some European mints began milling the edges of their coins with score marks to detect evidence of deliberate tampering. In time, paper money arose in the form of fiduciary notes. These notes were considered assets, meaning they could be traded for goods, stored as potential wealth, or redeemed for gold at the expense of the debtor's own account. When we speak of a gold standard, we refer to a system of freely circulated currency supported by the integrity of the sovereign's gold. By the late 1800s, the value of the dollar-and therefore the stability of the country itself--was directly tied into how much gold the sovereign possessed. Because all of the Westernized economic powers operated under the same standard, this system preserved the balance of power between Europe and the New World during a time of intense nationalism and rapid technological change.
At this point, our focus shifts to the United States, a subject which I know something about. My mother, as I believe I've mentioned in class, works for the Department of Defense, and therefore has access to information that you--a Political Science professor at a rather non-spectacular college in the Midwest--would probably trade your tenure for. I realize these credentials don't count for much anymore, now that the libs have taken over the town and every teacher from every university is counting on free shots at the coeds and cocaine on demand, but believe you me, sir hedonist, there was a time when people behaved themselves, and the guards at the White House wore feathered plumes instead of Levis, and if the President occasionally committed a little indiscretion, at least it was in the name of national security. My eight years in Washington are pertinent to our discussion, for it was during this time that the country finally severed all allegiance to the gold standard. This apparently small act led to the emergence of the United States as the one Western power whose own economic stability determined the course of the rest of the world.
During the First World War, several European countries suspended the convertibility of currency into gold. Economists reassured each other with uncertain winks and nods, telling themselves that this was just a temporary measure as they kept a nervous eye fixed upon the future and the end of hostilities. When that end finally came, the United States greeted the return of free convertibility with its own solution to the gold standard problem: the Federal Reserve System. This new agency, created just before the outbreak of war, greatly impacted the flow of wealth between nations by restricting the United States' willingness to accept unwanted gold from foreign countries. Instead, the Federal Reserve System strengthened its own dollar, building a new economy based not on a metallic standard, but on the worth of the currency itself. Helpless, our allies could only sit and stare as the American Dollar gradually became the new standard, the new definition of worldwide wealth. This shift culminated in 1971, when President Nixon dropped the gold standard once and for all, declaring a fiscal revolution, an American Dollar ratified by nothing more tangible than an overriding faith in our democracy. A strong currency demands faith, a belief in something beyond what we taste, smell and see. It's so hard to believe in anything these days, particularly when your Poly Sci professor lies to you, and then acts like he doesn't know what you're talking about.
Professor's comments: B+. Your analysis of the country's current economic situation is perceptive and well-put. It is unfortunate, however, that your writing style so perfectly reflects your own acerbic contributions to our in-class discussions. One would have hoped that the need for reflection would have honed your written argument into something more objective. Sincerely yours, Howard LeMar, PhD, MA, MBA.
