The Real Treasure of Califia in M. D. Coverley’s Novel "Califia"

Critical Writing
Author: 
Publication Type: 
Language: 
Year: 
2020
Platform/Software: 
License: 
CC Attribution Share Alike
Record Status: 
Tags: 
Abstract (in English): 

M. D. Coverley’s Califia is an interactive, hypertext novel that experiments with multi-vocal storytelling. The first of two major novels by the artist, it was produced in 2000 on the Toolbook 2.0 platform and published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. for the Windows operating system on CD-ROM. It tells the story of three people whose lives, intertwined by various family connections and location, search for the fabled Treasure of Califia. A major theme driving the narrative is The American Dream, or rather the stuff such dreams the three main characters––Augusta Summerville, Kaye Beveridge, and Cal (Calvino) Lugo–think it should be made of rather than what it really ends up to be.

Pull Quotes: 

The treasure she found was not the Califia gold her father had sought so hard to find but the riches found in her family stories, the friends she had made in Kaye and Cal, and comfort of living in the present with acceptance of its past, and willingness to front its future.

Images: 
Solar Table from Califia

Works referenced:

Platforms referenced:

Title Developers Year initiated
ToolBook 2015

Publishers referenced:

Title Location
Eastgate Systems, Inc.
Eastgate Systems, Inc.
134 Main Street
02472 Watertown , MA
United States
Massachusetts US
The permanent URL of this page: 
Record posted by: 
Dene Grigar