The AsherNet, besides being obviously structures for expression, information, interaction, is also a collection of stories. The Arena is, in part, a story as well as a construct or metaphor. The Haunt is a story, as well as a homely house. And the Office is a story, though a more private one. There are other stories at the AsherNet, and even other people telling stories.

I’ve been asked to justify all this, to explain why the site should be of interest, or how it fits conventional notions of what a web site should be. I can only respond that nowhere did I ever claim that the AsherNet is what these questions presume it to be. In fact, most of the responses I’ve received have indicated that the depth (by which I mean, the layers of meaning and activity) and character of the construct (I do not refer to it as merely a “site” of which there are many) are too discreet to be readily perceived. Some symbols are part of a language that only a few who are “in the loop”, so to speak, may easily read. When I have replied that this is so, just as when I originally spoke aloud about alienation, the critics have become detractors even more disenchanted with the so-called “obscure” or “meaninglness” symbology. So be it.

Again, I never offered to explain or to justify what I’m doing. I never invited anyone to understand. And those who do, who speak the same language, those residents of the Haunt, the Arena, the Office, the OverState, and the other places, are more than a sufficient community; they are those to whom I need offer no explanation or justification.